What are the most important biomarkers to consider when getting your labs done?

Understanding your internal health is key to optimizing your energy, performance, longevity, and body composition. @Dr.Kuo highlights a few core areas to focus on during routine lab work:

🔘 Metabolic Health | These markers give insight into how well your body handles blood sugar and insulin, which can impact fat loss, energy levels, and disease risk.
• Hemoglobin A1C – Reflects your average blood sugar levels over the past 3 months
• Fasting Insulin – Early indicator of insulin resistance
• HOMA-IR – Measures insulin resistance by combining fasting insulin + glucose

🔘 Inflammation | Chronic inflammation is a silent contributor to many health issues, including heart disease, fatigue, and weight gain.
• hs-CRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) – One of the most sensitive markers for systemic inflammation
• Homocysteine – Can indicate inflammation and cardiovascular risk
• Ferritin – Elevated levels may signal inflammation or iron overload

🔘 Hormones | Hormones regulate everything from mood and metabolism to muscle growth and recovery. Keeping them in balance is key.
• Thyroid Panel – TSH, Free T3, Free T4 to assess metabolic health
• Testosterone / Estrogen – Vital for body composition, strength, and mood.

This is not a comprehensive list. Apolipoprotein and LDL are very important to track as well.

🚨Remember: it is imperative to get your labs done regularly. These reels are to educate and empower you to have these conversations.

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To mark my 42nd birthday earlier this year, I retested my VO2 max—a key marker of cardiovascular fitness and a powerful predictor of long-term health and performance.

My result: 55.6.

This reflects meaningful progress from my previous scores—51 two years ago and 53.7 last year. I’m proud of the improvement, but I’m not done yet.

My goal is clear: to reach a VO2 max of 60 by the time I turn 43.

In this video, I sit down with Dr. Isiah Robinson to break down my results, what they reveal about my current fitness level, and the specific strategies I’ll need to implement to hit that next milestone. We walk through the training protocol that will get me there.

If you’re curious about what VO2 max means for your health, or you’re looking to improve your own score year over year, I invite you to watch the full 12-minute conversation.

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Zemer Method Client Spotlight: Sophie B. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Sophie through my Accountability Coaching program via @getverb (https://instagram.com/getverb), and she came in with one clear mission: to get into the best shape of her life.

Balancing a high-powered career and constant travel, Sophie faced a lot of challenges—but that didn’t stop her. Some of her biggest wins on coaching include:

✅ Down 43lbs since starting in approximately 5 months
✅ Consistently nails every lift and hits her daily step goal
✅ Successfully transitioned into a maintenance phase after losing her family home in the California fires

Sophie is one of those rare, superhuman clients. No matter what life threw at her, she stayed locked in on her goals. Whether it was finding time to train in a hotel gym, meals on the go, or getting steps in between meetings—she made it happen.

She’s proof that you don’t need a perfect schedule or perfect conditions to see real, lasting progress. Just commitment, consistency, and the right support.

Sophie should be beyond proud of everything she’s accomplished as I am proud to have worked with her through this transformation. This is just her new beginning.

Link in bio to change your life.

Hip thrusts – the new craze.

My opinion? They are fantastic and don’t negatively impact the rest of your lower body training. I can still incorporate squats, leg press, hamstring curls, and seamlessly include hip thrusts to enhance glute development.

Everyone loves an ass. So consider adding them into your training regimen.

Hip thrusts provide an opportunity to focus on glute volume without disrupting the flow of your overall lower body training.

#shorts

My #1 BBQ hack for this upcoming summer season:

One of the most common themes of working with my clients is their struggle to keep their calories low while hitting their protein goal.

Because of this, I recommend buying ground meat that is 90/10 or above. The first number (90) represents the leanness, while the second number (10) represents the fat content.

A lot of people complain that lean meat doesn’t taste as good as the fattier meat – this is most likely due to it’s dryness. To offset this, I add mushrooms and onions to my lean ground meat to bring moisture and tenderness back.

Saturated fat can have adverse effects to LDL and Apolipoprotein B which is linked to heart disease. So when you’re eating a lot of animal protein, you want to opt for leaner sources.

This is a simple addition to help hit your protein goal, keep calories lower, and get that taste you’re used to with fattier meat.

#shorts

Here’s my current cardio protocol:

Zone 2
🔘 90 minutes per week
🔘 Broken up into three 30-minute sessions
🔘 I prefer to ruck using a vest that’s approximately 20% of my body weight on a treadmill at a pace of 4mph; if you’re new to rucking, I recommend starting with 10% of your body weight
🔘 I keep my heart rate between 120-130bpm
🔘 I choose this modality because it’s minimally fatiguing for my legs. I absolutely love weight training and I train my legs every 4 days using very heavy weight – I don’t want my cardio to affect my ability to lift heavy.

Zone 4-5
🔘 35 minutes per week of HIIT
🔘 Broken up into two sessions of 1:1; one session of Norwegian Protocol
🔘 1:1 sessions are done on the SkiErg typically with 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off with an average watt of about 400
🔘 Norwegian Protocol is four rounds of 4-minutes with watts around 250 with a 3-minute rest break between each round
🔘 The goal is to get my heart rate into the 160s, 170s bpm

Sauna
🔘 100 minutes per week
🔘 Broken into four 25-minute sessions
🔘 When I’m using my home @SISU_sauna, I keep the temperature at 190 degrees
🔘 When I’m using saunas away from home, I keep the temperature around 175 degrees
🔘 Quickly after entering the sauna, my HR enters the 90s and escalates over time to the 130s

#shorts

We’re at Costco buying some of my favorite high-protein breakfast items.

1️⃣ @RedsFoods Egg’Wich
2️⃣ Egg whites
3️⃣ Eggs
4️⃣ @ColumbusMeats turkey bacon
5️⃣ @CatalinaCrunch
6️⃣ @Fairlife nutrition plan
7️⃣ @TheLaughingCowUSA light spreadable cheese
8️⃣ @Fage nonfat greek yogurt
9️⃣ Frozen berries

#shorts

If you’re serious about building muscle, the reps on your program should be used as a guide.

If your program says 10 repetitions of one-arm rows, and you stop at the 10th rep while having more in the tank, you’re severely fucking limiting your ability to build muscle.

Here’s what you need to do:
🔘 Select a weight that by the 10th rep, you will have nearly failed.
🔘 If you miscalculate, and you’re able to do more, simply keep going. Correct your weight by the next set.
🔘 If, however, you miscalculate, and you’re not able to get 10 reps, but you’re close to failure, that’s a great set. Again, you can just recalculate for the next set.
🔘 Push your sets near to failure no matter what

The next time you train, adjust your weight accordingly:
📌 If you only hit 8 reps with 40lbs, depending on how challenging those 8 reps are, maybe stay there. Maybe next week you’ll get 9-10 reps. If you really miscalculated, drop your weights back on the next set.
📌 If you hit 15 reps with 40lbs, then it’s definitely time to bump up to 45lbs.

Remember: training is all about pushing yourself week-over-week so that the weight you are using increases over time – otherwise known as progressive overload.

#shorts

In case you missed it, I hosted my third Zoom event at the beginning of April – Protein 101.

For 45-minutes, I went in-depth about protein. What it is, how it works in the body, and how it serves us while dieting.

Protein isn’t the only macronutrient you need to focus on and there is no reason to demonize carbohydrates and fats. The reason fitness influencers talk at length about protein is because it’s fundamental building muscle and much more. It’s a building block for skin, cartilage, bone, and blood. 

It’s also extremely important while dieting to:
🔘 Trigger muscle protein synthesis (muscle growth and repair)
🔘 Helps you feel fuller for longer
🔘 Forces you to choose more nutrient-dense, healthier food options

You can easily find your protein goal by multiplying .8 x your body weight to get the grams in protein you should be trying to hit, at a minimum. 

Remember: prioritizing protein doesn’t mean you need to focus on the timing of protein. You want to be eating protein throughout your day so rushing to get a protein shake in directly after your workout isn’t necessary.

Here are a couple of the questions I got on my Zoom call:

❓| “Why don’t you recommend collagen as a protein source?”
A: Collagen doesn’t trigger muscle protein synthesis. If you’re putting effort into hitting a protein target, make it count.

❓| “What if I miss my protein goal one day?”
A: That’s okay. Fitness isn’t about perfection. It’s about consistency over time. Missing one day doesn’t derail progress – quitting because you missed a day does.

📲What other questions do you have about protein? Leave a comment below.

Today’s grocery haul is from BJ’s Wholesale Club. I realized I’ve never done a long-format video on YouTube—so what better way to kick it off than with a full-blown weekly shopping trip?

I’m walking you through everything: meats, seafood, breads, yogurts, my go-to high-protein snacks, and a bunch of other favorites. You’ll see exactly what I like at BJ’s—and what made it into my cart.

📌TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 | Intro
1:00 | Frozen chicken
2:30 | Frozen seafood
4:20 | Pasta soapbox
5:30 | Frozen vegetables
6:45 | Meats
8:50 | Wraps
9:50 | Yogurt
10:50 | Protein snacks
11:50 | Outro

Today, I’m making high protein yogurt that tastes like peaches.

Ingredients:
1️⃣ Nonfat Greek yogurt – 340g
2️⃣ Peach halves – 124g
3️⃣ Torani sugar-free peach syrup – 2 tbsp

Instructions:
1️⃣ Weigh out 340g of nonfat Greek yogurt on your food scale
2️⃣ Put 2 tbsp of Torani sugar-free peach syrup into yogurt
3️⃣ Stir everything together
4️⃣ Put 124g of peach halves into mixture

TOTAL: 275 calories, 36g of protein. High protein, delicious snack!

#shorts

I’m so tired of hearing about all of these different creatine options on the market.

Think about it, creatine monohydrate is incredibly cheap so when companies add their ‘spin’ to this very simple, straightforward supplement, they can easily increase the cost.

No, you don’t need liposomal creatine, #1 bioavailable creatine, creatine HMB, perimenopausal creatine, creatine for women… I mean I could go on. These are all fucking bullshit.

You should be buying creatine monohydrate or, if you want something that dissolves better, a micronized creatine may be appropriate for you.

When it comes to general dosage recommendations: women 3g, men 5g. However, this is determined based on body weight, particularly muscle, and level of activity. If you’re a bigger person or working out routinely, you can be upwards of 5g of creatine – and yes, there are studies that confirm this to be safe.

#shorts