The guest
Dr. Kelly Starrett: Doctor of physical therapy and one of the world's leading movement and mobility experts. Author of best-sellers like 'Becoming a Supple Leopard,' he co-owns The Ready State with his wife Juliet and coaches elite college and pro athletes and teams.
What this episode covers
Huberman and Starrett cover how to improve mobility, posture, and flexibility with minimal time investment. They discuss the value of spending time on the ground daily, smarter warm-ups built around play and speed, correcting asymmetries, and using the gym as a diagnostic tool for range of motion. The conversation digs into foam rolling done right, pelvic floor health, hip extension, fascia, heat and cold protocols, training intensity distribution, nutrition, and supplements. A recurring theme: train so you can go enjoy life, keep it consistent rather than heroic, and don't let fitness or nutrition become an unhealthy obsession.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommended
Movement, Muscles and Meridians
Philip Beach
“which I highly recommend”
“he wrote this book on functional embryology which I highly recommend called movement uh muscles and meridians”— Kelly Starrett
BookRecommended
Deep Survival
Laurence Gonzalez
“this great book”
“I read this great book called Deep survival which is Lawrence Gonzalez which is about why people end up in survival situations”— Kelly Starrett
ProductRecommended
Rogue Under-Desk Fidget Stand
Rogue Fitness
“I love that thing”
“I bought one of those little um kickstands that goes underneath the desk from Rogue I don't have any Financial relationship to Rogue”— Andrew Huberman
ProductRecommended
Assault Bike (AirBike)
Assault Fitness
“I love the assault bike”
“I don't like the elliptical or stationary bike but loves the assault bike I love the assault bike”— Andrew Huberman
The guest's own work
BookBy the guestISBN verified
Becoming a Supple Leopard
Kelly Starrett
“Dr Kelly starett has authored several best-selling books some of which you may have heard of such as Supple Leopard”— Andrew Huberman
BookBy the guestISBN verified
Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body
Andrew Huberman
“I have a new book coming out it's my very first book it's entitled protocols an operating manual for the human body”— Andrew Huberman
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferencedISBN verified
Normal Accidents
Charles Perrow
“there was a footnote in there from a book called normal accidents by Charles pero who's recently passed on”— Kelly Starrett
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Spinal Engine
Serge Gracovetsky
“a book that makes the rounds from time to time is a book called the spinal engine by Serge grovy”— Kelly Starrett
BookReferencedISBN verified
Anatomy Trains
Thomas Myers
“if we look at Thomas Meyer's Anatomy trains of seeing the system as a system of system”— Kelly Starrett
ProductReferenced
Iron Neck
Iron Neck
“we keep the iron neck by the door and she walks in and there's a we have a video in our family where she's doing her iron neck train”— Kelly Starrett
ProductReferenced
Rogue Echo Bike
Rogue Fitness
“the Rogue Echo Bike is even worse than the assault bike uh the assault Bike by the way folks is the one with the fan”— Andrew Huberman
ProductReferenced
H-Wave (NMES device)
H-Wave
“when we get people on non- fatiguing muscle contraction nmes devices like the h-wave or something like that we find that we can actually decongest”— Kelly Starrett
Big reveals from this episode
- Starrett's core prescription: just sit on the ground 20-30 minutes each evening to restore native range of motion with zero equipment.
- 'Do not lay on the ground and foam roll' as a warm-up - he calls it the worst way to prep for a workout; warm up with play and speed instead.
- Huberman reveals he had prostate-area pain in his 30s with normal PSA, traced it to a tight pelvic floor, and fixed it via Starrett's course without medication.
- Kenny Kane's intensity rule that changed Huberman's training: 80% of workouts at 80%, 10% at 90%, 5% at 95%, only 5% all-year at 100%.
- Starrett argues against icing injuries and post-workout cold plunges - ice/ibuprofen suppress the prostaglandin signaling needed to fully heal.
- He pushes back hard on extreme cuts and 90-day fasts: 'When you took your shirt off, did you win Instagram?'
- Starrett openly admits he's a natural endurance athlete, not strong: 'I've been training 30 years and this is all I can deadlift, that's pathetic.'
Worth remembering
- The cross-legged sit-to-stand without using hands is a decent predictor of all-cause mortality and reveals how your body interacts with its environment.
- 'Muscles and tissues are like obedient dogs' - at no age do you stop adapting or healing, it just slows down.
- Healthy tissue should feel like 'layers of warm silk sliding over steel springs'; if a roller hurts, the brain is reading stiffness as a threat.
- For every pound stronger your neck is, concussion risk drops significantly - Starrett urges everyone, including women, to train their neck.
- Olympic lifting gyms keep towels on platforms because peeing during heavy lifts is common - but it's a sign of pelvic floor dysregulation, not normal.
- The '800-gram challenge' (800g of fruits and vegetables daily, by weight) is culturally agnostic and crowds out junk while boosting fiber and micronutrients.
- Cold water immersion within 6-8 hours after strength/hypertrophy training can blunt the adaptation by reducing inflammation.
- Starrett's daughter takes creatine, omegas, and vitamin D daily - partly for early-research brain/concussion support.
- Heat, cold, and CO2/breath-hold tolerance all drop when you're under-recovered, serving as a third-party readiness gauge for how hard to train that day.
- Starrett uses the 'couch stretch' (a tool he invented on his couch) to expose and improve lost hip extension.
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