Habits and Hustle - Episode 508: Those Fitness Trends Are Failing You with Liron Kayvan

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Are viral fitness trends actually helping you get fitter, or are they just a distraction from what really works? In this Fitness Friday episode, I am joined again by my friend, Liron, to dig into the latest social media workout crazes and why so many people overlook the basics that truly get results. We’re covering everything from how to avoid common plateaus to the actual workouts that build lasting strength and why heavy weights and structured cardio can’t be ignored. Liron Kayvan founded BFLA in 2019. He’s a NASM Certified Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, and Transformative Life Coach. Liron has competed in Amateur MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Rugby and has been a Fitness Coach for over 10 years. What we discuss: Are Viral Fitness Hacks Worth Your Time? We Fall for Crazy Fitness Trends The Only Fitness Advice You’ll Ever Need Is Food Obsession Hurting Your Fitness Goals? Why You Can’t Out-Exercise a Bad Diet Thank you to our sponsor: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off  Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE40 for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off  Manna Vitality: Visit mannavitality.com and use code JENNIFER20 for 20% off your order  Prolon: Get 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit https://prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift. Amp fit is the perfect balance of tech and training, designed for people who do it all and still want to feel strong doing it. Check it out at joinamp.com/jen  Find more from Jen: Website: www.jennifercohen.com Instagram: @therealjencohen   Books: www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements Find more about Liron Kayvan:  Website: www.beyondfitnessla.com  Instagram: @beyondfitnessla

Hi, guys. It's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. Hey, friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank our sponsor, Momentus. When your goal is health span, living better, and longer, there are very few non-negotiables. One of them, quality. And when it comes to supplements designed for high performers, nobody does it better than Momentus. Momentus goes all in on NSF certification, which means every single batch is tested for heavy metals, harmful additives and label accuracy. And that's why they're trusted by all 32 NFL teams and top

collegiate sports dietitians across the country. Here's the thing. They don't sell every supplement under the sun because they believe in nailing the basics with rock solid consistency. And those basics are protein and creatine. Momentous sources creopure. The purest form of creatine monohydrate available, an absolute must for both men and women who want peak physical and cognitive performance. So if you're serious about leveling up, go to live momentous.com and use code Jen for 20% off. Just act now. Start today. Gen for 20% off. Live momentous.com. We're here again with Fitness Friday with my friend Lerun. He does a lot of these things with me because I just like yapping and yapping with you.

Two yappers. You're a yapper and I'm a yapper. And I want to say this because I always forget, guys, please do me a solid. If you guys can like this podcast, subscribe if you haven't subscribed, leave a review, leave some comments. It really helps the podcast. And I would really appreciate it. I always, I always forget to say something and share it. Please share the podcast.

If there's something that you heard that is interesting that you think can be helpful to someone else, please share it. Or you want to talk shit about your friend? What? Or you want to talk shit about your friend. Why would you want to talk shit about your friend? You know, like plant-based, meat-based, you know, that type of thing. If you just want to send something as a fire starter.

Don't listen to him. He's talking about a different episode. Just do me a favor. Like, subscribe, share. It makes a big difference. Okay. With that all being said, let's talk today about viral fitness trends. I love this topic. Okay, I want to start by saying the funniest thing. Someone sent me, speaking of sharing, someone sent me the funniest, funniest real I've seen in a long time. It was literally a real of a guy making fun of middle-aged women who basically will do everything, every type of workout, quote unquote, except an actual workout. right like you know so instead of just doing like weights and some cardio they're doing all sorts of crazy wackado things like trying to run up a tree and then run down it's a hundred percent

true well that's why it was so funny it was because it was so true like everybody and like all my friends we basically middle-aged women they're going by the droves to try all these wacadoo classes and just to do anything other than the things that will be the most effective Like, nobody wants to listen to what actually works, which is heavy weights and some cardio. Instead, they literally will go and, like, will, like, go on a swing set and, like, just, you know, basically with your stomach and, like, up and down. There's always a swing set in there. There's always a trampoline, a swing.

And by the way, I'm a victim of this too. I have my trampolines and da-da-and, and there's a place for all of it. You're talking about, like, trendiness and stuff. Yeah, I'm talking about trends. Like, they'll see something on TikTok or they'll see something on. Instagram that looks like the new workout of the month or the day, and then they'll go and do it versus doing what's actually the most effective, which is weights, let's say. And I also think running, if they're going to do a cardio workout, I think running is really effective. I also

think inclined walking with a vest, like a weighted vest or with hand weights, the most effective. And besides those two things for cardio, obviously I love walking. Walking is like an inclined walk. you know those are to me the most effective and the most the most easy to do but people are like will do anything but the things that work rocking you know what rucking you know of course rucking is wearing a weighted vest yeah or you're a baby like i do you wear a baby that's basically a weighted vest yeah so that's what i find really funny so let's talk about these viral fitness trends so the one that's really popular right now is this 12% incline with 3% you're going you're going 12% on an incline at a 3.0 speed for 30 minutes.

Because some girl on TikTok... Bodybuilders have been doing that since the 60s. 100%. But some chick on TikTok did it. And now it's called the 1233 workout. It's got a name. Yeah. And everybody's doing it.

It's like the thing to do. It's fantastic. And no, the 12330, I think it's called it. The 1233. I don't know what it's called, but it's basically 30 minutes at three miles an hour, at 12% incline. and it's all the rage, which is, by the way, what I've been doing since I was, like, 17 years old.

Yeah, this is not new stuff, yeah. It's not new, but this is what everything kind of recycles itself. There's like, everything is cyclical, right? Like, people are acting like they've never heard of such a crazy thing before, which was like, it was like old school. And I bet most of them are holding on the whole time, so it's basically just. They probably are. I don't know. I haven't seen it.

But I will say that, you know, with anything, let me just say this. I want to make sure this is a caveat that I'm saying. that no matter what workout you do, if you're doing an incline walk, not an incline walk, whatever, any movement is better than zero movement. Okay, but I want this caveat to be very, very important right now is the fact that no matter what you do,

no matter how effective it is, you will plateau if you don't change it up. So don't always do 12% at a three mile at 30 minutes. Maybe do 15 at like 2.6, or maybe do a 10 at 4.0, the more you change it up, the less your muscles will get kind of acclimated and you'll constantly see or limit your plateau basically. Limit the plateauing situation. I think in general, aside from just changing it, you want to constantly kind of progress. You want to make it slightly harder every time.

That's so true. Not every time. Like what I would say is I wouldn't do it every time. Over time, though. Over time. In the long term, you should be seeing at least some gradual increase. But a lot of times, like, for me, walking is my gateway drug to doing a more intense exercise. To use it as a warm up? I use it more than just a warm up. So, like, I'm much more of a cardio junkie than I am of a weight junkie.

So for me to actually get the pump and the energy to actually do weightlifting, I have to do my cardio first because then it's like the gateway. Like I'm sweaty already. I'm already like in the workout mode. How long do you do you do it for? Well, let me tell you. I'm already in the workout mode. So then for me to go into like to wait is much more of an easy place to go versus

me having to like just go right into like a heavy weighted extra like heavy weights because I will procrastinate and I will think of everything that I have to do besides that. But just starting to walk is so much easier than thinking to yourself, oh yeah, I got to go doing like really heavy squats yeah so if i just do some cardio it could be like 20 minutes it like really really helps me go into the next thing so did i answer your question you're using how long do you it's it sounds like it's um kind of ritualistic for you it's a ritual it's now associative it's now like okay your body is basically getting the message okay now we're working out it's a habit leave all your other stresses and concerns at the door it's a workout it's a habit and by the way

I don't care how many people tell me that cardio sucks. I shouldn't be doing cardio. I should only be doing weight. Because for me, if I don't do that cardio, my brain will be a mess. I'll have higher anxiety. I will start to get depressed. I will not be as happy. My mood will really, really be down the tubes.

So for me, my cardio and a lot of people's cardio is more for their brain health and their mental health than it is for their physical health. Yeah, definitely. And like I said, it's a gateway drug. for me to actually now feel energized and feel like I can, like, conquer the world to go and, like, crush those weights, which is really what I know, what we should be doing as we age. Because as you get into middle age, that to me is fundamental. You need to do heavy weights. So no matter what the fitness trend is, no matter what your friend Molly is telling you to do,

you must, must, must do heavy weights. A lot of that I think is also social conditioning. I think it's that we think of weight. lifting as a young man's game. So elderly shouldn't be doing it, which is the complete opposite of the truth, and women shouldn't be doing it. And I think even though logically, I think we're starting to understand that that's not true, that women should be lifting weights, that all of people should be lifting weights. There's so much social conditioning that I think women feel like it's not feminine. So they do the feminine thing. And those things are in our society, these silly, yeah, these silly. Not to say they're silly. I actually, again, I have a whole podcast on this,

But like, you should be doing fun, dynamic, novel things because your body loves that. It's play. What you're doing is you're playing. And you're mixing workout with play. I think not only you're mixing workout with play, you're also, it's great for your brain to be doing things that you alter, you wouldn't be doing regularly.

Like, it's good for your mental conditioning. Right. You know, so to me, that's why any movement is good movement. I don't care how kooky or wacky it is. But this is the caveat I was trying to say earlier. But if you're trying to change your body composition and if you're trying to build lean muscle mass, you must do weights.

You're not going to get that by jumping on a trampoline and doing wakadoo exercise classes that are basically you moving in weird ways or just doing whatever's trendy. Like it does come down to old school, foundational, fundamental shit that actually moves the needle. I don't care what anybody says. If you want to have fun and you just want to move your body because it's great for your overall well-being, marvelous. If you want to change your body composition and you want to actually

change how your genes fit, there's nothing that beats heavyweight and cardio for me anyway. I want to take a quick break from this episode to thank our sponsor Therisage. Their trite panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go. And I personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations and places in my body where, honestly, I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle.

Red light therapy is my go-to. Plus, it also has amazing anti-aging benefits, including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face, which I also use it for. I personally use Therisage trilight everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to Therisage.com right now and use code Be Bold for 15,000. percent off. This code will work sitewide. Again, head over to Therisage, T-H-E-R-A-S-A-G-E.com, and use code B-B-B-B-Bold for 15% off any of their products. Do you have an R-X? Do you have a prescription for people? Yeah, my prescription is cardio and heavy weights.

But how many times a week comes? My prescription for people to get a kick-ass body in middle age especially is I would do heavy weights three times a week. I would do one day a week of like light to moderate. So then you're doing four days at minimum weights. I would also do some form of cardio every day for at least 30 minutes. That could be walking. That could be what I prefer, though, is incline walking or jogging.

I wouldn't do too much of the running because it's bad for your knees. It can be bad for your joints. And too much running, quite frankly, can make you look flabby. I'm just being honest. That's why bodybuilders are always doing those incline walks. Inclined walks, yeah. Right. And people who are like in competitions, they're not running because you look skinny fat, right, if you do too much of it.

Endurance runners look skinny fat or they just look like they don't look like the body, the ideal body that people are trying to go for. Do you want to have that body that everybody is, ideally trying to get, which is like really tone looking athletic. I would say those incline walks with the weighted vest or the hand weights every single day for a minimum of 30 minutes plus four days a week of weightlifting and eating enough protein. Because a lot of your body is made in the kitchen. It's not made at the gym. It's not. I can work out all fucking day. And if I'm not eating like on point or eating enough protein and I'm not like keeping my eye on the prize. For some reason people really seem to, I think most people that I know seem to be able to do

the workout part. There's rare people where there's opposite, but most people seem to be able to do the workout part, but they just cannot get the nutrition part together. And I don't know why. I totally agree. I think that's my problem. I think I'm already disciplined enough to work out like I work out like a fiend because I'm so now conditioned to work out like a fiend. Like I was saying earlier, it's become habitual. It's becomes my ritual. So my brain is intact because working out for me really helps me mentally. However, where I always slip up and just because I'm a fitness person, blah, blah, blah, people don't think it's true is my nutrition. Because I'm going to tell you right now. What does a slip up to you is going to be different than a lot of other food. No, but I'll tell you to me,

I'm obsessed with food. I love food. I love talking about food. I love talking about food. I I love eating food. I love going to the grocery store so I can look at food. I just love food. Like an outing for me is to go to Costco and look around for an hour and I'm in heaven. It's crazy. I mean, think about it though. It is literally your primary drive in life. Like a child's first drive, half a day they breathe is to eat. That's what they want more than anything else. So it's so deep in our DNA that drive for food that if you don't, if you're not a foodie on some level, if you don't love food, something wrong with you. Okay, I totally agree, but there are those people out there, and I don't know, God bless them, where they don't live to eat, they eat to live, and they just don't care about

food. Like, my daughter, she could care less about food. She'll be, ah, leave alone, she doesn't care. My son loves food like me. You know what I mean? Like, I, there are people out there who just don't really care that much, and I just don't know, like, my brain is so wired to, like, think about food. Like when I'm eating breakfast, I swear, I'm like, I can't wait for lunch. What can I have for lunch today? And then while I'm having lunch, I'm like, oh my God, like for dinner, if I have this, then I can have that. Maybe tomorrow I can eat this. Like, it's a bad thing and a good thing. Because for someone like me who's so preoccupied with, like, fitness and all that stuff, like it's a real brain. It's like a mind fuck, right? Because I know all the stuff I want to

eat. I really have to be careful. So you want to hit my theory on this. Yes, but I wanted to say one more thing. So that's where discipline is really required. And I can't rely on willpower in that way because willpower will only last me so long. And then I just like collapse and I'll eat. And I kid you not, I'll eat like nine pizzas. So do you want to hear my theory on this? Yes.

And I've done this on the podcast too. But my theory is that we're all like that. And that's not an individual. I think people often personalize eating problems. They think it's a personal issue. And I think to some extent, almost all of Western, particularly American society, has the same problem you have. And so they feel like they're obsessed with food and they're always craving things and they're always going to have to fight their desires. But my theory on it, and it's been tested, this isn't just me pulling it out of the sky, is that you're not obsessed with food.

And I'm not talking about you specifically. People aren't so much that they're obsessed with food. have an unhealthy obsession, is that their body is asking for nutrients. And so the cravings are actually adaptive and they're telling you, I want something. And the less you give it into it, the longer that goes. And the more sort of extreme. So that's where binging comes from. Binging comes from this suppression, this artificial suppression from the head down, telling the body, no, no, no, no, we're not having this thing, XYZ. And then eventually the body, because it has to, rebels and forces the brain, the person, to binge because it's been

suppressed for so long. So it actually makes sense. The body is saying, I don't know when I'm going to be able to have these nutrients and this pizza. You said nine pizzas, right? I don't know when you're going to let me have pizza, so I'm going to stuff away nine of them. So you get this extreme swing to swing. And the way to combat that, the actual solution to that problem is to find the middle ground where you actually just eat what you want and you start to eat intuitively. And I think the biggest specific nutrient that people are missing is saturated fat. So the things we seem to love are the things that we're told we don't like. So we're told we're not supposed to eat. So we're told no salt. Maybe maybe that was more when we were younger. Yeah. No more. But people used to

say no sugar. No sugar and no saturated fat. Those are the three things that people need to eat more of. They need salt. That's why I have people supplement with salt in my gym. They need sugar. That's why I tell people to eat fruit. I'm sorry, I'm flipping everyone off. This is to the people who say don't eat fat and sugar and salt. And then the last thing is saturated fat. What saturated fat, meat, eggs. If you are plant-based, then you can get it from coconut and even cocoa butter. But those rich fats that we fucking love, cheese, yeah, eggs, butter, meat. I, okay, I'm going to interrupt you. I, okay, only because I agree with you 100%. I think that, I know you're really worried, but I'm going to throw a monkey wrench into your thing, right? I love monkey wrench.

I think intuitive eating is a really great way to be. I'm much more of a realist and I'm a very practical gal. And I think that a lot of times people know that that's what they need to do and what they should be doing. However, it's much harder said than done. Agreed. And I think people are already programmed to be a certain way and they've done things for so long. It's very hard for them to unwind that and unravel that. So I don't believe that, you know, there was this whole theory that, oh, you know, everyone should have a cheat meal, a cheat day, right? I don't believe everybody should have a cheat meal and a cheat day. I think that it can really counteract a lot of people, right? Like, if you have a cheat day, right, you could end up having like so many calories

in that day that it just kind of just like counteracts all the good stuff that you did that whole that whole week right and it's like for your psyche it doesn't work for some people yeah so that can go wrong yeah a cheap day a cheat meal can go horribly wrong it could also be wisdom in it too like it really depends like talking about it is hard because it depends how it's done it depends what the quality is behind that it depends what what the meaning is to the person for that cheat day or that cheat meal, especially psychologically but also physically. If you feel like you're miserable six days a week, then your cheat meal isn't going to work. Your cheat day isn't going to work. I mean, listen, I've tried this whole idea of like, oh, just eat what you want when you want and see how it works.

Well, you know what happens? That's not enough framework. That framework doesn't work. You know what happens? You eat way more calories. And so people over index how many calories they're actually burning in their workouts. And then because they over index the amount of calories that they're actually working out. They end up eating a lot of calories and they're not, there's no, they're not getting a deficit. You need that deficit in your calories to lose weight, right? Even for maintenance of something. You need to know, it is, it is, it is kind of a calculation. Like, this is the amount of calories I need a day. No one loses weight on 8,000 calories a day. Nobody loses weight. But from Michael Felt, maybe. Unless you're swimming 12 hours a day. Right. But I think that's why people have to

have a come to Jesus and have a realistic expectations. If you are working out, like a regular human being in the gym for an hour, 45 minutes, you're only burning like 300 to 500 calories, maybe six if you're someone who's like going at it really hard, okay? People think that's like a thousand calories because their watch says so. Their watches are almost always wrong, okay? These trackers are not accurate. Also, what often happens is if you burn 500 calories, sometimes what will happen is for the rest of the day, your body will just shut down 499 calories of your metabolism. So you will stand less, you'll move less, you'll breathe shallower, like your body, your digestive system will shut down. Like, your body will counteract

that. So that's not necessarily like, trying to exercise your calories off is not necessarily the best way to do it. No, you shouldn't be exercising your calories off. But what I'm saying is what you do is you think, okay, I burned this amount of calories. So now I can eat this much. And now I can eat this much more when your numbers are not even like realistic. And so you end up gaining weight. And like the number one way for me to control what, I'm eating and to know what I'm eating is to have food that is single ingredient or exactly, I know exactly the ingredients in. So I don't eat any processed food as much as I can help it. I'll eat only things that are that are grown that I know. So I'll eat like a pure protein.

I'll eat like a vegetable and I'll eat fruit. I'll eat things that I know are like as single or minimal ingredient as possible versus like going out to a restaurant where they automatically a meal that you go and eat at a restaurant, you should just add another 500 calories. And it's also not just the calories. It's like what you said about the minimally processed foods, the reason it works is because that's natural foods, that your body can understand that. When you're eating these hyper-pallatable foods that are processed that basically hijack your brain and your taste system, that's when things go right.

Oh, I agree with you. We could do a whole podcast on that. But I'm talking about like, if I'm going to have a chicken breast, right? I just want to have a grill, like it's with some all-of-all. of oil and some very, very simple seasonings versus if I go to a restaurant and think I'm just ordering a chicken breast, a lot of times they're putting a lot of other stuff on it or in it with putting extra butter. They're putting more oil than I would like. They're cooking it on a surface that probably had lard on it. So you're at the calories get exponentially higher with

shit and fat that you don't even want on it or need. Right. So like a good way to kind of, you know, offset that is a, make your own food, right? And be cognizant of the those things. So when you go to a place and you're like, you are tracking your calories and you are tracking what you're eating, always add in an extra three to 500 calories. So you have that like bumper. It's very hard to be in perfect shape or the best shape you can be in without cooking your own food. Yeah. If you're eating out three times a day, it's very hard. No, it's, it's really hard. It can be done, but it's hard. It's super hard. Yeah. So I think that's basically what we are talking about on this podcast. Guys, just watch what you eat. I think at the end of the day,

these are the takeaways. The takeaway is try to cook your own food if you are trying to manage and monitor your weight loss or fat loss or overall your body, what you're eating and what you're doing for your body. Add some calories that you're going to be taken in if you're eating out, but try to minimize that. Do heavy weights for body composition and some cardio. And do movement, any movement is better than no movement. So do your wacky exercises and your wacky classes and enjoy yourself.

Get the swings out. Yeah, and the trampolines. All right, thank you. Bye. Bye.