Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Funk Roberts, welcome to the Midlife Fulfill podcast. This is gonna be a maximum episode.
Funk Roberts [00:00:06]:
Thanks so much for having me, and I cannot wait to share my story.
Bernie Borges [00:00:10]:
I can’t wait to hear your story, Funk. Well, let me give my listener a little bit of an introduction to you. You are a leader in two distinct and also complimentary fields. You help men 40 transform their health and fitness, and you also empower entrepreneurs to build high engagement membership communities. Now you’re really super well known in the fitness industry, Funk. You are considered the world’s go to guy for guys, for men 40, forties, fifties, and sixties, that’s me, to help them transform their bodies and get into the best shape of their lives. And you’ve been doing this for a while, Funk. You have more than 10,000 men that have gone through your 40 alpha program.
Bernie Borges [00:00:59]:
And, you know, on your website, you’ve got so many photos of guys before and after. So really, really impressive to see those before and after results. Now, Funky, you’re also a former professional athlete and a celebrity fitness expert. You’re a best selling author. You’re a podcaster. I mean, you’ve you you do a lot. You I mean, I can only imagine what’s next. And what I’ve invited you here to discuss today is, you know, I’ve got my five pillars of life.
Bernie Borges [00:01:29]:
Right? Health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. And I’ve asked you to come on and unpack your six pillars of health and fitness for men 40. And, ladies, do not tune out, ladies, because there are men in your life who are gonna need to hear this. So hang with us. You’re gonna enjoy this. And, Funk, I wanna make a prediction before we get into it. And that is that this is gonna be this episode is gonna be one of the most popular episodes of my 230 plus episodes published because, a, the topic is a hot topic, and, b, you are hot to cover this topic. So let’s get into it.
Bernie Borges [00:02:04]:
And, Funk, let’s begin with your backstory. I wanna hear the backstory before we get into your six pillars of health and fitness for men 40.
Funk Roberts [00:02:12]:
Sure. Well, thank you so much for that intro. That was awesome. I felt I feel like I got goosebumps for the intro. But, yeah, let’s talk about this backstory in regards to, you know, kind of my origin story. So as you mentioned before, I was a professional athlete, so grew up, you know, only child, in Toronto. So I’m from Toronto. And, you know, played played professional beach volleyball and indoor volleyball.
Funk Roberts [00:02:33]:
So this is back in the nineties when beach volleyball was really big. Played all over the world, represented my country. And then, after that, you know, I retired at the age of 30. So I retired actually very young because I I lost that passion for for practicing and training. And once that happened, it’s like, alright. We’re out. But I still played indoor and I still played a little bit. But then I moved into the nine to five world.
Funk Roberts [00:02:56]:
Right? The corporate world. Because when you’re an athlete, you know, that’s your number one focus. And now I’m nine to five. I gotta, you know, get up, you know, I got kids to to to deal with that, you know, I had every other week and, you know, kinda kinda, you know, getting settled into that corporate world. The other thing too was I always had that, that that zest for fitness and health. And even as a athlete, I was training other athletes, other all of my other guys I would play against. Right? On the beach, we would do plyometrics, and so I always had my one foot in the in the health and fitness. I had all the magazines.
Funk Roberts [00:03:34]:
I would read them even since I was 11 years old, Sports Illustrated, etcetera. And so I was always doing either personal training during the, you know, my corporate world, corporate days, or or I was one I had one of the first boot camps here in in Toronto. So, you know, hundred people would come to my boot camp, and I’m lugging all these this equipment to the sand and all these things are are happening, you know. So so and then and then from there, online fitness started or not online fitness, but YouTube started to, you know, to start to to happen and blogging. And so even though I was working for the company on, like, nine to five, I would still be blogging and and creating a newsletters, and I really love that.
Bernie Borges [00:04:17]:
Kind of a side hustle for you then at the time.
Funk Roberts [00:04:19]:
Yeah. I wasn’t making any money, mind you, but that was my side. I would I would shoot videos, post them on YouTube, try to grow this YouTube thing. And, again, this is this is before I mean, we’re talking 02/2006, maybe, 02/2005. And, and and and yeah. So so doing all of that, still still my nine to five. But then at that point, I was about 39 years old, and I started to feel things shifting in my life. Like, I wasn’t feeling the same because I was always in shape, but 38, 30 nine, things started to change.
Funk Roberts [00:04:52]:
Right? Like like, I started to get bigger and puffier. We call it, male PMS, which is puffy muscle syndrome. Right? You’re like like, instead of being lean, I was two hundred and fifteen pounds. I was biggest puffy. I had a big belly. You know, and then, one of the days I came home I was living with a girl, and I came home from the gym, and she had her bags packed and literally told me, hey. I’m out of here. I’m leaving.
Funk Roberts [00:05:19]:
I thought this was gonna be the woman I was gonna marry. And she told me, listen. We haven’t had sex in however long it’s been, and I’m out. I mean, I can’t I can’t do this anymore. And that devastated me because I didn’t realize that, oh, yeah. Maybe we haven’t had sex. Right? So my libido had gone down. And then I started getting injured, and then my mood started to change.
Funk Roberts [00:05:38]:
And then I started to party more and more and more and put myself into, you know, the the dull the the, you know, in in into the depths of the the grossness of society, you know, strip joints and after hours and trying to I was actually trying to mask my manhood because when a girl leaves you because you’re not having sex and you’re the man, that literally destroyed me. Right? I didn’t realize how much because I was masking my manhood.
Bernie Borges [00:06:04]:
And you’re still in your thirties
Funk Roberts [00:06:05]:
at this this 39 years old. I was 39 years old. So this is kinda like the forties when things started to change up. Although, I had no clue this was happening. So then I so then I my my I got into a depression, then I was suicidal. Like, it was it was a horrible time in my life. I mean, the addiction, I was addicted to drugs, all that happening probably in a six to seven month period. Like, it was very fast.
Funk Roberts [00:06:29]:
But then, I went to the doctor to get my yearly checkup, and he told me my testosterone levels were super low. Hey. You got t levels of a grandfather, like, a 89 nanograms per decibel, which was extremely low. And I didn’t know what that meant because to me, being big and buff and and even though it’s puffy, it was big and, you know, I’m going all these places. There’s it it’s impossible. Like, no. That can’t happen. But he he explained to me what testosterone is, why this is happening.
Funk Roberts [00:06:56]:
And if I did something to naturally increase testosterone, then I’d be good. So that’s what I did. I kinda changed my workouts, changed my nutrition, got, you know, got into recovery. Like, all of the things that I do now at four at 56, this was 49, or 39, I I did. And and it, six months later, I was a hundred and eighty five pounds. I was lean. I was ripped. I went to Thailand and fought Muay Thai.
Funk Roberts [00:07:21]:
I got married. I, you know, so my forties were some of the best years of my life. I I I left my 6 figure job and literally went 101% on my online fitness and online business. And from there, I just continued to to go down that journey. Had ups and downs like everybody does when with business, but then I really leaned into men 40 about seven years ago and created a membership site specifically for men 40 who struggle with what I struggled with because a lot of guys didn’t don’t know what’s happening to their bodies at that time. So that’s really where we’re at right now. The kinda like the high level, of of what’s what’s where I’ve been through Okay. Throughout my journey.
Bernie Borges [00:08:01]:
Alright. So before we get we unpack your your six pillars, I just wanna point out to my listener. And, again, whether it’s a guy or or a gal, who’s gonna share this with a guy in her life. You said you’re 56 years old.
Funk Roberts [00:08:15]:
Yep.
Bernie Borges [00:08:16]:
And, right now, for those that are watching on video, you know, Funk is in his tank top. He’s a little low in the camera, so you can’t see his bod. But I’m gonna include, a photo or two that Funk is gonna provide in my weekly newsletter. So if you’re not subscribed to my weekly newsletter, you’re not gonna see it. Funk, you you’re 56. You look like you’re 26 because you are ripped. I mean, I don’t mean you just look 26 years old. I mean, your physique, your your muscle tone is just off the it’s a 10.
Bernie Borges [00:08:47]:
It’s it’s it’s a 10 on a scale of one to 10. It is truly, truly amazing. So hats off to you. You are you’re you’re a walking testimony of everything that you stand for. So let’s get into it. The six pillars of health and fitness for men 40. Let me just kinda rattle them off, and then we’ll just unpack them one by one. Sure.
Bernie Borges [00:09:09]:
Mindset, recovery, sleep, workouts, nutrition, supplementation. Go for it, Funk.
Funk Roberts [00:09:15]:
Okay. So I need to I need to premise this by saying that I have not always looked like this. Right? And it it was implementing these pillars that helped me get to where I am and where I’m staying and everyone in in my program. But you need what what what men need to understand is when you reach the age of 40, or even before that, there’s physiological changes that happen, which is why we have to put these six pillars in place. Number one, we lose testosterone one to 2% every single year, so our testosterone levels decrease one to 2% every year after the age of 30. So by time we’re 40, our testosterone levels are generally low. In fact, testosterone is the lowest it’s ever been in modern day history even though we know everything about you know, we have more information on, you know, technology and medicine and all of the info that we have, yet our testosterone levels are the lowest. And testosterone is everything for us.
Funk Roberts [00:10:08]:
Okay? It’s fat loss. It’s better sleep. It’s mood. It’s everything. So our goal so so if you’re listening to this or you’re, you know, a woman lives listening to this, your husband’s testosterone levels need to be as high as they they they can in order for for us to be as healthy as we can. The second thing that happens is sarcopenia, which is a natural loss of muscle due to aging. Muscle is the most important organ in our body. It’s the longevity, the life.
Funk Roberts [00:10:32]:
We need to be building muscle. You don’t have to be big and stocky in a body builder, but we need to be building muscle because we lose it. And when we lose muscle, we gain more fat, and we’re susceptible to a lot of more chronic health issues. The only thing that happens is the metabolism slows down, and that’s not physiologically.
Bernie Borges [00:10:47]:
Jump in here for just a second. Sarcopenia, I didn’t even know sarcopenia existed until I noticed because I’m 67, and I noticed maybe seven or so years ago, somewhere right around age 60 that I couldn’t keep my muscles where they had been even though my workout hadn’t changed. So I looked it up, and I came across sarcopenia. I’m like, holy cow. This is a real thing. I can’t keep my muscles developed as much as they used to be.
Funk Roberts [00:11:14]:
Yeah. That’s that and that’s so huge. It’s like one of the biggest things. Next to testosterone, that sarcopenia is one of the biggest things that I teach and that our, you know, our guys really truly lean into. And I see more and more men and people in general. My wife, she I mean, it doesn’t matter. Male, female, you need to be building muscle. And, again, it’s not bodybuilding muscle.
Funk Roberts [00:11:34]:
The third thing is our metabolism slows down. Now this isn’t physiologically. This is just because of our lifestyle. Right? Like, we’re more sedentary than we’ve ever been before, and, like, our lives have changed specifically during our thirties. So by time we reach 40, we’re literally at a point where where our moods are changing, we’re depressed, we don’t know what’s happened to our body, we’re probably obese, we’ve got chronic health issues coming up. So these pillars are gonna be very important for us to implement as we move into our forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, because although things are gonna get a little bit harder, the our margin for error is very small. We still need to do these things because we can be in the best shape of our lives. I see it every single day inside my brotherhood.
Funk Roberts [00:12:13]:
Like literally, guys who came in 300 are now a hundred and eighty five pounds, six pack abs because they implement these things. So let’s pack it down. The first thing is the mindset. Right? One of the biggest mistakes that most men make and not just men, but we’re talking about men right now is they don’t get their mind right when they’re starting something new. What does that mean? Well, we get excited when we have something new. Right? Oh my god. This is a beautiful new new expo, you know, pen. I love this pen.
Funk Roberts [00:12:40]:
This is great. We start playing with it for the first three days. It’s writing in pink. It looks beautiful. But then four or five days later, guess what happens? We get bored of it. It’s like, oh, man. This is bored. It’s like when we’re kids.
Funk Roberts [00:12:50]:
Right? Your grandkid, you probably see or your kid, they get a new toy, they play with it for a week or two weeks or whatever and then they go on to the next thing. That’s the same thing that happens when we join workout programs or fitness programs or try something new. We get excited. We’re in. But then when things get hard, when things start to get, you know, just monotonous, when things get to start to get in quotes boring, that’s when we quit. Right? And that’s the first thing that happens. Guys jump to the workouts, they jump to the nutrition. They get into a program.
Funk Roberts [00:13:22]:
They feel great. But then what happens three weeks later? They’re gone. What happens four weeks later? And that’s because they don’t have the right mindset. Before you start anything, and this is not just workout programs or nutrition. It’s anything. You have to have a strong why. You have to sit down with yourself and say, why am I doing this? Why am is it because I was bullied? Is it because I have chronic health issues in my family? Is it because my wife is looking at me in disgust because I have you know, I’m three hundred pounds or two hundred pounds or I have a big belly or I have or I, you know, I’m sitting on the couch. Like, why am I doing this? Do I wanna run up and down the stairs with my kids or my grandkids? Your why needs to make you cry and you need to you need to ask that question four or five times deep, not I wanna lose 20 pounds.
Funk Roberts [00:14:05]:
Because you know what? You’ve wanted to lose 20 pounds for years, and you and you couldn’t and you kept quitting, quitting, quitting. You you know, you weren’t motivated. Right? Your why is gonna motivate you, but your why has to make you cry. You gotta go deep. You know, you gotta go back to if it’s something that happened when you were a kid, if it’s something that’s going on in your life, whatever it is, it needs to be that stronghold because when Brenda comes to, the comes into the boardroom on Wednesdays because Brenda always brings muffins in the boardroom every single Wednesday and you used to love Brenda’s, muffins. But when Brenda comes in, you’re that why is gonna stop you from grabbing Brenda’s muffins. That why is going to gonna say say to you when you come home from work and you’ve had a really bad day and nothing went right and you’re tired and you know you have to get a workout in, that why is gonna get you to wherever it is, whether it’s in your basement, whether it’s in your living room, whether it’s at the gym. Alright.
Bernie Borges [00:14:59]:
Franklin, I I wanna I wanna I wanna highlight something you said because you you covered a lot just on the mindset. You said something really, really key, and I wanna make sure that we put a little exclamation point on it, Funk. And that is that you need to ask this question five times. You need to get really deep. It’s not a surface level question. It is a deep question, and it really requires a lot of self examination.
Funk Roberts [00:15:26]:
Mhmm.
Bernie Borges [00:15:26]:
And it’s not one that you answer in ten seconds. No. You’ve gotta really, really and and for a lot of people, it’s writing it down or maybe getting with a buddy or a partner or a spouse or whatever and and just kinda talking through the why until you get to the point where you really have this light bulb moment and you have a clear understanding on your why. So I’m with you a % on that.
Funk Roberts [00:15:50]:
Yeah. Super powerful. Super powerful. And, again, that that’s that’s the that’s the make or break for most guys in the in the program. Like, they they’ll do their why, and I I take them through the process. And, man, it makes a big difference to keep them focused. So that’s number one. So once you have your why and once you have that anchor, then the next thing is sleep.
Funk Roberts [00:16:07]:
Now these aren’t in any order. The mindset’s in the is the top, but the rest aren’t in any order. But sleep. This is the lowest hanging fruit yet and and gives you the biggest benefits when it comes to getting seven to nine hours sleep every single night. That is your goal. You need to start focusing more on your sleep, whether it’s and and stop using the the, the excuse of, oh, I’m a I’m a night owl or I’m this or I’m that. That’s just the that’s just identity you’re giving yourself. You gotta change that identity by focusing on oh, if I was to give you a million dollars to not be a night owl, you’re gonna change 100%.
Funk Roberts [00:16:44]:
Or if you had a new job that made you wake up at four in the morning, you’re gonna change. So that you’re not tied to that. But why is sleep so important? Well, sleep is is related to building muscle. Right? We build muscle at night. Our muscle repairs at night. Sleep is, is important for testosterone, our hormone. Right? Testosterone, production happens in at night during deep sleep. So if you’re not, getting that sleep, you’re not producing testosterone.
Funk Roberts [00:17:11]:
Again, testosterone is the most important, male hormones. It’s everything for us. Lack of sleep, will obviously affect your mood, your energy, things that you need to do for the next day. Lack of sleep is gonna gonna gonna cause, cortisol levels. So you’re gonna get belly fat, you’re gonna get high cortisol levels, high stress. Every there’s so many things that that sleep affects chronic health issues that if you can just focus on that, right, changing your lifestyle, maybe getting blackout blinds, maybe going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time every single night, that’s gonna be a huge plus specifically if you wanna lose weight, if if you wanna burn fat, if you wanna build muscle, and if you just wanna have a healthy energized life. So sleep is key. I know it’s it’s it’s it’s a it’s a tough one, but it is a little tangent free.
Funk Roberts [00:17:59]:
Like, you don’t need a manual. You just need to go to bed
Bernie Borges [00:18:01]:
at seven. Yeah.
Funk Roberts [00:18:02]:
At 08:00, you can get up at ten.
Bernie Borges [00:18:03]:
Or It’s also one that you can it’s not difficult to develop the habit. Again, once you have your why so I think you know a little bit about my routine. So I get up at 5AM, and I get to by six. And in order to get up at 5AM, I try to be in bed by 10PM, sometimes 10:30. So 10PM makes it seven hours. Ten thirty makes it six and a half, not optimal, but that works for me. I I I I don’t drag during the day. I’m I’m fine with that.
Bernie Borges [00:18:31]:
You know? So but it’s become a habit for me. That’s just my lifestyle.
Funk Roberts [00:18:35]:
Yeah. And at first, it’s gonna be, you know, uncomfortable. Everything that we do here and we talk about is gonna be uncomfortable at first, a %. But, yeah, that sleep thing is huge and just even starting with going to bed at the same time. I gotta go to bed at 10:00. I get up at six. And, of course, it’s not gonna be exactly ten sometimes. It’s not gonna be exactly six, but at least you have that that habit, that, you know, that thing that you’re doing on a daily basis, and then it becomes more of a healthy habit.
Funk Roberts [00:18:59]:
So sleep would be the second biggest pillar. The third is gonna be recovery. Now recovery is broken up into two. Recovery is broken up into physical recovery and mental recovery. So physical recovery is just as we get older, we have all those aches and pains and all of the injuries that we suffered when we were younger will come up, you know, lower back injuries, knee hurts, elbow, you know, elbow sometimes, shoulders, like, all of these things that that hurt us. So we need to to focus more on adding things like mobility, adding things like yoga, adding things like movement to help us stay injury free, help us to get pain free, and help us moving as optimally as we can into our fifties, sixties, seventies. Because when you’re when you’re forties and fifties, maybe the your your goal for fitness will change is different from when you’re in your sixties and your seventies. When you’re in sixties and seventies, I know for my guys, they still wanna be, you know, going hiking and traveling and not, you know, being the grandfather who sits at the at the take taking the grandkids to the zoo and the and you, the grandfather, you have to sit at sit at the entrance because you can’t walk for two or three hours.
Funk Roberts [00:20:07]:
Right? You don’t wanna be that grandfather. Right? So so you wanna be able to to move pain free, injury free, which means you add those things like yoga and mobility, which aren’t they’re not sexy, but they are the key to longevity specifically through your body. And the other side is mental recovery, which is the like, which is gonna help us with chronic stress, which is gonna help us unpack things that happened to us in the past. So adding things like breath work, adding things like meditation, adding a gratitude journal, that’s another low hanging fruit, focusing on the things that you’re grateful for, learning how to breathe through stressful situations. Right? Learning how to meditate and be with yourself and just kinda calm yourself down and prepare yourself for the day ahead. Like, these are things that are gonna help us with chronic stress, which is another big killer, kills our testosterone, kills everything. And we also need to to let go of a lot of things that we hold on to. As men, we try to be strong, and I’m tough and I’m strong.
Funk Roberts [00:21:02]:
I don’t wanna feel weak, but the weak guy is the one who holds all that stuff, and the weak guy is the one that masks his manhood like I did. I I turned up becoming extremely weak to the point where’s I I was suicidal and an addict because I tried to be strong and mask. And that was at 39. I can’t even imagine now at 40, 50, 60, 70. So we gotta we gotta do things to to let go of the past and and give us a healthy mental recovery, routine. So that’s number three. Number four is nutrition. You can’t out train a bad diet.
Funk Roberts [00:21:34]:
Now let’s talk about nutrition a little bit because it’s gonna probably be the opposite of what you think it’s gonna be in regards to the type of nutrition. Because all of these diets out there, like, you know, the keto diet and low fat and low carb and all of these other diets are are are killing our testosterone. They’re very feminizing diets. Why? Because they don’t feed our testosterone. Remember, testosterone is the the number one male hormone. And so if you’re not eating a balanced plate meal, which means every single time you eat, which will be three times a day, we’ll have a source of complex carbs. Right? So rice, potato, steel cut oats. Why do you need that? Because complex carbs are important for our metabolism.
Funk Roberts [00:22:16]:
Remember I told you our metabolism slows down? Metabolism is our thyroid and complex carbs feeds the thyroid. K? That’s one. Number two, muscle. You’re not gonna build muscle if you’re not eating complex carbs. It’s that simple. And as we get older, it gets more difficult. Complex carbs are also important for our brain health and our overall energy, so we need complex carbs. Right? Number two is protein.
Funk Roberts [00:22:39]:
Again, this is the building blocks of our muscles, our bones, the metabolic processes that go through our body. So we need protein. It’s not even a question. Protein is gonna help with with building muscle. Protein is gonna help with all the metabolic processes, and, of course, protein is gonna help with fat loss as well. So we need a source of protein. Animal protein will be your best. Then we need a source of, of of healthy fat.
Funk Roberts [00:22:59]:
This is insanely important because cholesterol is the precursor to testosterone production, which means if you do not have good cholesterol in your body, in the late egg cells when that’s the last that’s the last kind of process of testosterone production, then there’s no testosterone production. There’s none because that’s what we need. Where are we gonna get that from? Healthy fats, avocado, grass fed butter, olive oil. So there needs to be a source of that on every plate or smoothie or whatever you eat. And and finally, you you
Bernie Borges [00:23:29]:
did sorry to interrupt, but I just I wanna give a shout out to a specific episode that you did on your podcast where you schooled us on cholesterol. I’m gonna include a link in the show notes to that particular episode. That episode is a dedicated episode to good cholesterol, the bad cholesterol, the role of cholesterol in the body. It it’s a deep dive just on that one topic, and it’s highly informative. So just wanted to mention that.
Funk Roberts [00:23:56]:
Thank you so I appreciate that. That’s yeah. It’s a good one. It was a good one. That was a good I got I had actually doctors, reach out to me regarding that specific episode. Yeah. Ones that actually agreed with what I was saying. So I was very good with that.
Funk Roberts [00:24:08]:
Yeah. So the last is vegetables and fruits. Right? Like, that’s really really the fruits are huge for the antioxidants and and, the vegetables, the greens, all of those things are are gonna give us the micronutrients. Because what I explained to you before fats, carbs, and, proteins, those are macronutrients, which are important. But if you’re following a program that doesn’t say tell you that it’s the micronutrients, the vitamins, the minerals, the phytonutrients that come from the food that we’re eating, you’re on the wrong diet. Because all of those things, the micronutrients are what fuels our hormones, what helps keep us healthy, what helps keep us out of the doctor’s office when we should not be in the doctor’s office or in the hospital suffering from some chronic health issue where we have our families taking care of us instead of us taking care of our family. So that’s very important. So it’s three meals a day.
Funk Roberts [00:24:58]:
That’s it. There’s no snacking. You don’t need it because you’re gonna have enough carbs. But once you have those few foods and the foods are delicious, by the way. The plates in my brotherhood, the food that I eat is extremely delicious because you can eat extremely healthy and extremely delicious, you know, eating this way. So that’s really, really, really key to me.
Bernie Borges [00:25:17]:
Before you get to supplementation, I have a question for you on nutrition. I’m gonna share with you one aspect of my my diet, and I’m gonna ask you to critique it and just, you know, shoot straight with me. If it’s bad, tell me. After dinner, I have dessert, but my dessert is the following. Nonfat Greek yogurt with fruit, either grapes or sliced pears or maybe sliced apples. But that’s it. That’s my dessert. Good or bad.
Funk Roberts [00:25:46]:
When do you have that dessert? Right after you eat or, like, hours after you eat? Oh, no. Right after I eat, like, immediately. Okay. So that’s part of to me, that’s part of your meal. Right? And I like the fact that you have, Greek yogurt because that is protein. That’s the other thing too. You with every meal you eat, you you have to have protein because protein is gonna help with digestion. It’s gonna help, you know, keep you that insulin spike.
Funk Roberts [00:26:08]:
And then, of course, grapes, great. I love having fruit as well as my, as my dessert after I eat. So that’s that’s fine specifically because you’re having this at the same time as your meal. Right? You’re not having it, like, two or three hours after. Right. That’d be a little bit different. I would probably say, why are you having that two or three hours after? Is it because you’re not eating enough carbs? And that’s usually what the answer is that I get to most people. But, no, I think that’s perfect.
Funk Roberts [00:26:34]:
I love it. And the fact that you’re adding the the the Greek yogurt is perfect.
Bernie Borges [00:26:38]:
Okay. Great.
Funk Roberts [00:26:39]:
Thank you. Okay. So we’re now we’re gonna get into workouts, actually. That’s the next one. This is this is the one I get asked so many times. What type of workout should I do? So first, I’ll tell you what not to do. Do not do cardio. Do not do long cardio where you’re just on the treadmill or on the stepper or on the elliptical or what have you for forty five, sixty minutes at a moderate pace because what that’s doing is, a, it’s creating a catabolic environment, which means you’re breaking down muscle.
Funk Roberts [00:27:04]:
You’re also increasing your cortisol levels. We don’t wanna listen. Our cortisol levels are gonna be increased for sure when we work out, but we don’t want them elevated for a long period of time because after thirty minutes, thirty five minutes, the cortisol levels are much more difficult for them to decrease, which again will hamper your, your your hormone levels, etcetera. So that’s number one. You don’t you don’t wanna do that if you’re gonna do any type of cardio. You can do it in the type of workouts I’m gonna explain to you in a second. And the second thing that doesn’t work for us as we get older anymore is an old body bodybuilding style. Right? Bites and tries, back and shoulders, you know, those those workouts that that we focus on one body part but takes, like, an hour, an hour and a half.
Funk Roberts [00:27:44]:
Again, we don’t recover the way we used to. Right? We our joints don’t recover the way we used to. So we can’t be spending all this time inside the gym because the longer your workouts are, the more elevated your core levels are, and plus you’re just not giving your muscles enough time to recover if you’re only working on one or two body parts a day. So instead, you wanna do total body workouts twenty to thirty minutes per day. That’s it. And those workouts are gonna be in what you probably know as circuit training. I call it metabolic training. So you’re moving from one exercise to another for a specific time.
Funk Roberts [00:28:14]:
So for instance, maybe the first exercise are goblet squats where I’m holding a dumbbell up and I’m doing squats for forty seconds, then I’m gonna rest for twenty seconds, and the very next exercise I’m gonna do, floor chest press for forty seconds, and then I’ll put those down and do back rows for forty seconds. And that’s a circuit. You do that circuit, you know, three, four times, whatever it is that make up a twenty minute or thirty or thirty minute workout, and that’s it. That is all you need. Metabolic training, whether it’s with body weight or with resistance, because we use dumbbells, we use our body weight. Those are the most powerful workouts for us guys over 40 because it helps give us that perfect hormonal balance with our growth hormones or testosterone because we’re not working out too long, but it also allows us to recover because we only work out three to four times a week. That is it. The recovery piece is even more important than the actual workout because if we’re training over and over and over again, we’re setting ourselves up for for failure.
Bernie Borges [00:29:08]:
So but I’m working out five days a week. You’re telling me that’s too much?
Funk Roberts [00:29:13]:
Well, listen. If I if you were to come to me and say, okay, Funk, I’m working five days a week. How do I change this? I would tell you, just go to four days a week. In those other two days, incorporate mobility or incorporate yoga, incorporate something that allows your muscles to recover. Because if you keep training, you’re literally breaking down muscle every single day, and you’re not their muscles need time to recover. So that those extra rest days give your muscles time to recover. It also allows you to do some more mobility and and and work that will keep you from getting injured. And so that’s that’s that’s the optimal optimal.
Funk Roberts [00:29:47]:
Now it all also depends on the type of workouts you’re doing and what whatever you’re doing. Like, the workouts that the guys in the pro metabolic workouts, they can get very challenging. Right? Because it’s only thirty minutes. So the these workouts are pretty challenging. Right? You’re one exercise to another. So they need, though, that that next day sometimes to just I gotta recover, man. Right? And because I don’t wanna beat my body up. A lot of guys are in my program for three, four, five, six years.
Funk Roberts [00:30:11]:
Right? I’ve I’ve years and years of programming follow along workouts. So I have
Bernie Borges [00:30:16]:
though, in in the the the routine you just explained, really, the cardio is built into the routine.
Funk Roberts [00:30:21]:
%. Hundred %. Yes. You got that right. So you do a warm up, then you do the main workout. I also have an ab and core finisher because we again, building a strong core and abs is very important for us as we get older, and then I have a stretch stretch afterwards. So that’s really what that routine happens about forty minutes from start to finish depending on what workouts they’re doing, and that that’s enough. And then on that next day, they’re doing some type of mobility or yoga, something that’s still challenging because for most men, yoga is challenging.
Funk Roberts [00:30:51]:
Right? Mobility is challenging because now we’re opening up and doing the things that, you know, have crept up. And so it is still challenging, but, again, it just gives them the perfect balance for that week. And on those those workout days, they can start to go a little bit heavier and challenge themselves to get better. But, again, everyone’s different. I just find that that that’s the that’s kinda, like, the key to success. And then finally, supplementation would be the last one. Right? So so this is one of the things that back in the day, it used to be, like, a a badge of honor for some reason that, you know, people didn’t use supplements. Like, that that would blow me away.
Funk Roberts [00:31:23]:
Like, when someone came up to me and said, I don’t use supplements. I’m like, why? Oh, you know, I wanna be natural. It’s like, yeah. But supplements are natural. So why would you not use it? But now even more because the foods that we don’t have, they’re not as nutrient dense as they used to. Like, apple today is not the same as an apple in the eighties. Right? Like, it’s totally different. Broccoli, all of that stuff.
Funk Roberts [00:31:44]:
So so so key supplements would be definitely, you need a protein powder, not even a question, whey protein, because we don’t eat enough protein to begin with. Men generally don’t eat enough protein to begin with. So having a protein supplement will help with adding it to your breakfast. Maybe steel cut oats and a scoop of protein after your workout. Protein shake with water. Perfect. You know, a a a magnesium supplement is is key. Vitamin d three and vitamin and k two because, you know, that the sunshine, vitamin.
Funk Roberts [00:32:14]:
We don’t get enough sun depending on where you live. Right. But but we all learned during, you know, the shutdown, the lockdown, how vital and how important vitamin d is and how deficient most people are and how that led to a lot of the comorbidities that people had. So, I mean, that’s a that’s a given. Omega three is great for, you know, inflammation, keeping inflammation down. It’s the healthy fat that a lot of people don’t get as well, brain health, etcetera. Multi a multivitamin is very, very important to have as well. Probiotics, if you can get a good probiotic for gut health, because that’s I mean, we could go deep into gut health and where how that so so those are some key supplements that that, you know, if you had a, you know, your little supplement thing, those are the ones that would creatine for sure.
Funk Roberts [00:32:58]:
I would add creatine in there now specifically because it’s such a powerful supplement. So in supplementation, that’s where I start. And then after you add certain supplements depending on what the goal is or where you’re at in your in your journey.
Bernie Borges [00:33:12]:
Okay. So, I wanna before we we start to wrap things up here, I wanna speak to the the older end of the demographics. You know, you’re 40 40 for men is you say forties, fifties, sixties. What about seventies, eighties, nineties? And I wanna give a shout out to a buddy of mine. My friend Ken listens to this podcast. Hey, Ken. He’s listening right now. He’s 92 going on 93.
Bernie Borges [00:33:42]:
So what about the guys that are in their seventies, eighties, nineties? How how does everything you’ve been discussing, how do they embrace this?
Funk Roberts [00:33:52]:
So I have many 70 year olds in my program now because these guys have actually crossed over the the threshold of sixties and seventies. And some of those guys in their seventies, Craig Morphett, Don Cameron, etcetera, are, like, in incredible shape. And I think it’s it’s it’s the same in regards to, you know, the mobility stuff is gonna be really key. It also depends on where you’re at. Like, in your eighties and nineties, where where are you at? Where you’re starting from? Right? Just maybe just walking and moving and getting to to walking is is is where you start. It’s not it’s not as easy for an 80 or nine year old who has been sedentary for the last thirty years to just get up and start doing all these workouts, just getting up and moving. Nutrition’s gonna be a little bit different. Like, this is this is not in my in my wheelhouse in regards to, like, the the older older population, but, I definitely, 70 year olds that I’m seeing now that are in my program are are just as fit, if not more than the 40 year olds because, again, when you adopt the lifestyle because, remember, this is a lifestyle.
Funk Roberts [00:34:55]:
So you’re eating this way, you’re sleeping this way, you’re working out this way, you know, you’re listening to your body, and you’re more tuned to your body. Like, you start to learn more about how your body reacts to certain foods, how your body reacts to certain workouts, how your body reacts to days when you sleep and not sleep, etcetera. So as you get older and older, you know, just getting up and walking, like, I mean, walking is huge. I mean, I brought to do a podcast episode 10,000 steps. Like, just get your steps in. That alone can start the process of feeling better and now starting to look a little bit deeper into the type of foods that you’re eating that are harming you, getting rid of those, and implementing foods that are gonna help you specifically as you’re getting older. Because here’s the thing. One last thing.
Funk Roberts [00:35:38]:
I wanna be doing burpees at 99, and I’m not even playing games here. So everything I do today is getting me to that
Bernie Borges [00:35:45]:
Somebody who doesn’t know what a burpee is? Explain what a burpee is because they might think it’s something else.
Funk Roberts [00:35:49]:
Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Burpee is jumping up in the air, going down into a push up position, and then jumping back up. It’s something that we everyone had to do back when we were kids, but it’s one of the hardest, exercises because it uses 600 muscles. It uses your whole body. And so as we get older, we lose the ability to do just jumping and running, let alone doing burpees. But when I tell that to somebody, because they’ll ask me how, like, you know, how long do you wanna live for? So I wanna I wanna be doing burpees at 99.
Funk Roberts [00:36:17]:
I wanna be able to see my great grandchildren. I wanna be able to, you know, I wanna be there, but not be like my grandmother who was in a wheelchair and hardly able to talk. I wanna be able to do that stuff that I’m doing now at some level when I’m 99. So I have to invest in my my life today because everything I do today will get me there. And and and thinking about that a little bit differently because everyone says, oh, who was nuclear ninety nine? Well, yeah. Don’t you wanna see what your great great grandchildren and your your lineage? Right? Like, that that’s what you wanna see. You wanna be a part of that.
Bernie Borges [00:36:50]:
Yeah. So I just wanna before we get to wrapping here, I wanna go back and put another exclamation point on the mindset because that’s what keeps you sustaining a a focused routine, health and fitness routine is that mindset. When you have your why, you will always do it. You will I mean, even to the to my detriment, Funk, sometimes I go to the gym where I’ve got I feel a little bug coming on. Mhmm. Probably shouldn’t even be there. I should just be home resting. And I’m at the gym, and I can tell, like, I I feel a bumming on.
Bernie Borges [00:37:24]:
You know? Maybe I shouldn’t be here, but I’m still there working out. That’s how strong the why is.
Funk Roberts [00:37:30]:
Yeah. I I I agree a %. Like, 80% of the time, I do not wanna work out. Like, believe me. The last thing I wanna do is train because I know my workouts are difficult. So the last thing I wanna do is work out, but that why keeps me there. But the other thing that that’s probably the most important thing out of all of these, Bernie, is you need to have a community. You need to be connected with men who are on the same journey as you.
Funk Roberts [00:37:51]:
Because I’ll tell you right now, those 10,000 guys, the 3,000 side of the brotherhood right now, they lean on each other. Right? They lean when someone has fallen off and comes back, it’s open arms. It’s like, welcome back. Let’s go. You tell each other they love each other. These are guys from all over the world, like, different races, different backgrounds, different religions, like, all those things, and we’re all on the same journey. And it’s that brotherhood that everyone says whenever, you know, whenever we do, like, a survey or whatever. The number one thing that keeps people coming back no matter what is the brotherhood.
Funk Roberts [00:38:20]:
It’s like, man, if it wasn’t for the brotherhood, I don’t know if I’d be here. So us us guys, we seem to isolate a little bit more. We lose friends a little bit more. I think we talked about that on your podcast. But this is the key to helping you as well as your why is being connected with guys on the same journey because a lot of other people don’t understand when you say you wanna get into shape, you say you wanna lose weight. They’re most likely, they’re not gonna be on your side because that they’re gonna feel like they’re losing you. Oh my god. I’m losing my drinking buddy.
Funk Roberts [00:38:48]:
I’m losing, you know, big Johnny. Big Johnny with the big belly. He’s no longer gonna be big Johnny with the big belly. This is no longer gonna be my drinking buddy. So they’re gonna try to sabotage, not in a negative way. They may not even know that they’re doing it, but they’re doing it and that’s their and when you wanna lean on them, they’re not gonna be the ones you’re gonna lean on. They’re gonna try to sabotage you in some way. And it’s not, again, not a bad thing.
Funk Roberts [00:39:09]:
That’s why you need to hook up with people that are on the same journey as you, that understand what you’re going through, have the same struggles in some cases, and that you can be part of something bigger than yourself.
Bernie Borges [00:39:21]:
Exactly. Exactly. Well, Funk, this is an awesome conversation. You mentioned, my podcast. You know, I know what you meant was, I was on your podcast recently. So my episode on your podcast where I shared a little bit about my journey as well as, you know, my, five key life pillars. So thank you for that, really. That was an awesome conversation.
Bernie Borges [00:39:41]:
But let’s get to, how people connect connect with you, learn more about your community, and just everything you’ve got going on, Funk.
Funk Roberts [00:39:48]:
Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s very simple. Go to over40alpha.com, w w w Over 40 alpha Com. It’s $1 30 day trial. That’s That’s where you’re gonna get everything. I don’t really post a lot on on on my Instagram or YouTube anymore, although I am gonna start posting more workouts. You get a lot of workouts there. But if you truly, truly want to change your life, literally change your life, and you know that you’re at a point where you need help, then it’s a $1 trial over 40alpha.com.
Funk Roberts [00:40:14]:
That’s where you find me. That’s where you find the brotherhood, and we are there to help guide you through your journey.
Bernie Borges [00:40:19]:
Well, Funk, my listeners post that that will be linked up in the show notes. So, Funk, I just wanna thank you for taking time to, to hang with me for this episode, this conversation. We covered a lot in about a forty minute span. You go deep on this stuff in your community and on your podcast. You know, you I mentioned the podcast episode you did just on cholesterol. You did one on high blood pressure also, which was in a another highly educational, episode. So just thank you so much for joining me today, and I’m gonna continue to stay plugged into your world.
Funk Roberts [00:40:55]:
Thanks so much for having me, and get it done.
