How a Man’s Mental Posture Shapes His Strength for Life

and I'm trying to hit that gym [music] so I unrackck at 07 the best version of me. And I can't do it if I'm thinking about a fight or an argument we had with the wife the night before, the kids, and this and that. [music] I have to be selfish right now because it's the only block I'm going to have for me to optimize [music] myself. And if I keep myself blocking everything that's externally toxic to me when something [music] does get put on me that I have to wear, I'm in a good posture to put it on. That jacket might weigh 55 [music] lbs. I put it on and I'm still strong. And for me, it's physical movement. If you have the ability to move, move. Don't lay in that bed. Don't just [music] sit there and scroll. Your diet's important. Not what you eat, but what you consume. >> Recently, I heard you talking about physical posture in the gym, literally form and how upright one is with their stance or squat and how that translates to mental posture. And it was the first time I've ever heard anyone talk about translating the physical into the mental in this way. Um, so if you don't mind, uh, how do you think about mental posture and physical posture and how the two intersect? >> I think in that analogy, the metaphor I used, physical posture, if you think if I stand feet shoulderwidth apart and I put a barbell on me, you slide on 45s, I'm strong. Two more 45s, I'm strong. You could load up 8 900 lb and I could sit there and hold it. Or if you put 315 lbs on it, I can drop butt the floor and I can squat it. If I hold it at 90° and you add on a 45, it feels like a ton. You start adding on 10, everything starts to quiver. I use the same thing as my mental health. If I wake up in the morning, I've set my morning routine and I'm firing on all eight cylinders. You can stack on everything on top. And because I'm in an optimal state, I can take it just like I'm in a full posture. Just keep giving it to me. Keep giving [music] it to me. If I wake up, my morning routine's not there. I start reading some hateful stuff in the morning, don't have a good input with my wife first thing, I'm stuck behind the school bus, late for my first meeting, now you hand me a parking ticket, it feels like the world is collapsing on top of me and I can't do anything for it. So throughout the entire day, that's the whole purpose of the micro win kind of formula. stack up as many wins to put yourself in optimal headsp space because reality isn't going to know. It's going to smack you either way. And if I keep myself blocking everything that's externally toxic to me [music] when something does get put on me that I have to wear. I'm in a good posture to put it on. That jacket might weigh 55 lbs. I put it on and I'm still strong cuz I've been dropping off everything that I don't need to wear all day long. Yeah. I mean, but you'll see it. I mean, I know you see it. You analyze people all day long. When people are in a negative headsp space, their posture changes. Their head drops. Their shoulders roll forward. They're always looking at the ground. They're never up processing information. It's because they're dragging whatever just happened all day long. Now you add in one more thing. Your mom's got cancer. Oh, your wife's going to leave you. Oh, your kids are so everything just starts to weigh down you. And it feels feels like something you'll never get past. Insurmountable. It's at some point. And that's all because you start to let it slowly but surely chip away at you. It's like control the things you can control. And the things you can't control, you either avoid them completely or you take them as that's reality you have to live through right now. I don't know why you have cancer, but you do and you got to get through it. Okay. Well, what positive things do I have? [music] Great relationship with my wife, great relationship with my kids, great relationship with my friends, my social circle has shrunk. Everyone around me is better than me and they want me to be better. Okay, I can take on a whole lot if I don't have a tight circle, no relationship with my wife, ostracized my kids, everything. [music] Now, you start to add on that external stress, it it cripples me really, really fast. And I know I'm not the only one. So, when I say it to everybody, whatever you have going on right now, whatever is absorbing all your bandwidth, it's us two, but you're choosing to wear that jacket all day. You're putting on another one and then another one. Then you add the external pressure of having to provide for a family and be, you know, that emotionally stable figure for the household. It's hard to do all day long. And a lot of people lose sight of it. And I think that's why so many people close their chapter early. They offer suicide because they think there's no way I can write the ship. Like it's go it's gone too far right now and I don't want to have to sit here and rebuild it. And they close the chapter out. [music] It's like if we could have eliminated all those things and given yourself a breath of fresh air, would you have done the same thing? If I would have grabbed you right before the moment, like this isn't permanent. You can fix this right now. You just have to change these aspects. They would in the moment though, and I've been there, you don't have the clarity. You don't have the vision. And a guy told me a long time ago, he goes, I think a lot of people want to hit the reset button on the Nintendo. [music] Cha-ching. restart. Restart the game. You're not restarting the game. It's over forever. And I hate seeing people do it. I think now, you know, after I've come out of the medicine, I've done a bunch of therapy and cut out a lot of toxicity out of my life. I've gotten that breath of fresh air. And I'm just I told Mark and Amber Capone when I came out of the treatment, I'm going to jump on the nearest building. I'm going to shout it from the rooftops like this will help. There is a way out of this funk. It's just one step further than you've currently gone. like there's light at the end of that tunnel. Just [music] one step further. One step further and just continuously go and it'll get better. But yeah, for me posture is a huge thing. In combatives, it's a huge thing. In processing information, it's a huge thing. In dealing with stress, it's a huge thing. I can't let myself collapse cuz once you start adding another pound to me, it hits me to the floor really fast. So, control the things you can control. And a lot of it is just your posture and your perspective. >> Great [music] message. Would you agree that lying down in bed on one's phone [music] on social media is a very dangerous posture? Because I would argue that >> and I also tell guys if you are going to lay in a fetal position and tweet out how bad your mental health is, stop. Go to a Starbucks, go to Whole Foods, walk around and see normal human interaction and tell a stranger you're suffering from mental health. They don't do it. You're just going to sit there in a fetal position feeling sorry for yourself and you think it'll get better tomorrow. It won't. I've already lived that life. I've already painted the picture for you. I played you the movie. You've watched it. It's not going to work. You're going to have to get out of that bed and you're going to have to do something every single day that brings you out of that dark depression. And for me, it's physical movement. If you have the ability to move, move. Don't lay in that bed. Don't just sit there and scroll. You know, Vernon says it. Your diet's important. Not what you eat, but what you consume visually, audio, the music you listen to. We all know there's some music you listen to that just changed you ever so slightly. Is that the person I need to be walking to this store? Do I need to blare mega death right now? No. I need to play Ludovico. That's what I need. I need to walk into this room at 100% full capacity and just receive whatever energies in the room right now. It's hard to do if I'm in the depths of despair right now. So yeah, I try to put myself in a position where I have optimal posture all day. I know you're human and I understand enough about the brain to make an assumption which is that you don't wake up every morning with the alarm going off at 5 thinking great I'm going to get up and just roll right into the day that there may be times when you consider you know going into fetal position [music] you know it's warm under those covers >> but also that your mind like anyone else's probably start spinning you leaps to the past leaps to even a little more stress than you'd like a little a little little more uh lethargy, this kind of thing. Do you purposely stack [music] up to-dos so that you stay out of all of that? And if some of that persists as you're brushing your teeth, what's what's the way of dealing with that? >> I just keep pushing. I just keep myself in motion the entire time. And I talk about dials, not switches a lot with people, and it sounds selfish, but I have to be selfish right now in order to be selfless later. So I tell guys, you know, as soon as that alarm clock goes off, I'm not thinking about my wife. I'm not thinking about my kids. I'm thinking about being as efficient as humanly possible. And I'm trying to hit that gym so I unrackck at 07 the best version of me. And I can't do it if I'm thinking about a fight or an argument we had with the wife the night before, the kids, and this and that. I have to be selfish right now because it's the only block I'm going to have for me to optimize myself. Cuz at 10:00 a.m., I'm going to get pulled from 50 different directions. It's the exact same thing when I go home. So now between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. I'm only thinking about work. I don't think about my wife. Don't think about my kids. I only think about the team and everything we're trying to do. At 6, you can watch and I tell everybody if you would put a hidden camera in my car and break the internet. I do it every day. I slam that car in the park. I put my phone on do not disturb. I check social. I check all my textes. I'm good. There's no phone calls. And I've got a 12-minute drive from door to door. [music] Those 12 minutes I put on Chris Stapleton. Something that makes me feel good. that calms me down and I pre-rehearse everything that's going to happen the moment I hit that garage door opener. >> Really? >> I do it every single day. >> I realize it's personal, but to the extent that you're willing, maybe share a couple of the what what you're [music] rehearsing. >> I pull into the driveway. I slam it back in park. I check my phone one more time and I tell myself, you're only going to have 3 hours from 6:00 to 9 to be the person they need you to be. [music] You got to be a full-time dad right now. You can be a full-time husband. And I don't get it right every time. Some days I drag that stuff home with me, two-hand texting frantically, but I really try not to. And before I hit that garage door, I tell myself like, [snorts] they don't know what's going on. They don't know the stress you're at work. She's had her own day. They've had their own day. I mean, I've got a I've got a daughter in seventh grade. I've got another one uh second grade. Like, [music] you know, we got to work through this whole thing together. And it's like, what version of me do I want to present to them right now? I'm going to walk in, bags over my right shoulder. I'm going to clear the threshold, make an immediate 90° turn, and there's going to be that seven-year-old. And she's a huge ball of energy. She gets all shaken. She runs at me at full blast. And I pick her up, shake her, kiss her like 100% love. Take an immediate right in the kitchen. There's my oldest usually eating something before homework's about to start. Give her a kiss, give her a hug, ask her how her day was, straight to the room to see my wife cuz she's got a she gets like a 30-minute buffer before she has to go upstairs and lock in with seventh grade homework. [snorts] Check her. What do you need? [music] If you can fold the towels, if you can start dinner, done. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. So, my last interaction [music] in the morning was positive. I left on a positive note. The first interaction you're getting at the end of the day is in a positive note.

Physical posture isn’t just about how you stand, it’s a mirror of your mental state. In this powerful conversation, DJ explains how the way you hold yourself physically translates directly into your mindset, discipline, and resilience. He describes how every morning routine, every micro-win, and every act of physical readiness prepares you for life’s weight, so when stress or adversity shows up, you’re ready to carry it. The discussion goes deep into how your physical state can determine whether pressure breaks you or makes you stronger. This is a lesson about control, clarity, and movement, both mental and physical. It’s a message for anyone who’s ever felt crushed by stress, and a reminder that discipline, posture, and perspective are what hold you upright when everything feels heavy. Join #1 men’s community for strength, fitness & longevity. Ask questions, share knowledge, and get support to stay strong for life https://www.skool.com/theory-of-man-5968 Subscribe for more practical, science-backed tips to improve your health and well-being: https://www.youtube.com/@UCgT9oGaVMnQovXUCLPMJu_A Podcast Host: Andrew Huberman YouTube: @HubermanLab Fair Use Disclaimer 1. Under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as commentary, criticism, education, research, news reporting, and analysis. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright law that might otherwise be infringing. 2. This channel does not claim ownership of all content used. Any third-party material has been repurposed and transformed in accordance with fair use, with the intent of educating, informing, and adding context or insight beyond the original source. 3. The content is not intended to infringe on the rights of any copyright holder. Only limited portions of original works are used, and the material is presented in a way that does not substitute for or harm the market of the original content. 4. All content is used for commentary, educational, and informational purposes under fair use principles. #mindset #resilience #mentalstrength #fitness