The Human Systems Engineer™

It was the Fall of 2016, I stood in the lobby of my apartment in Irvine, California. As my coffee was brewing, Kristin looked at me and my TBP outfit and guessed correctly. “I should probably hire a trainer.” She smirked, pocking her tummy. People say this a lot to me. Most times, they’re not serious, so I took a wif of my freshly brewed coffee and smiled. Kristen then casually mentioned that her house burned down in the recent round of fires. I was shocked, not by the fire, but by her...

Information is everywhere. You can read the books, memorize the macros, and know exactly how to train. But if simply having the information was enough, you wouldn't be staring at the ceiling at 2:00 AM with a racing mind, paying the ultimate Exhaustion Tax. Take my client Tito, for example. Tito is a former collegiate soccer player, a Jiu-Jitsu competitor, and a military veteran. He knows fitness, cardiovascular endurance, and hard work. But then life changed. Baby number two arrived, he...

You know the feeling... It's 3:00 PM. You're staring at your screen, your brain feels like it's covered in fog, and you're debating whether to grab a third cup of coffee or just surrender to the tiredness. By the time you get home at 6:00 PM, you have nothing left in the tank. You become a "Ghost Dad" physically in the room, but mentally checked out, giving your family the tired, irritable scraps of your day. Most people think the solution is more caffeine, better time management, or just...

It was Christmas of 1999 in Los Angeles, California, just two days before my 21st birthday. I was home from UC Irvine, studying to be an engineer. The house phone rang in the middle of the night. (We had landlines in those days...) It was my uncle. Weird because my Tio Jose never called. "Is your brother home?" he asked in broken English. "No." "You need to get over as fast as you can." Uh-oh, I thought. My drug-dealing, gun-carrying uncle's in trouble again. As I drove over, I could hear...

The apartment was completely quiet except and then the door slammed. A few moments later, my wife Courtney texted me, "Hey, your mom's crying downstairs." Mama Sofia was in tears, speaking rapidly in Spanish. She was saying she does so much for our family and never asks for a thing... It was the residual fallout of a tense discussion we just had about finances. For the last 30 years, I've been the one to help my mom out financially. I bought her a car, I help with bills, and she helps us...

It was a rainy day in Cancun, Mexico. I sat on a quiet patio balcony listening to the drumming of the tropical rain. My body shattered. I had just crossed the finish line of my 2nd Ironman, but while my muscles were exhausted, my mind was racing. Following the success of my first book, Get Me Skinny!, I had a burning desire to write again. I opened up my NASM fundamentals textbook, pulled out my notes, and started to write. I started writing because of something I just couldn't ignore...

I was talking with a 1-on-1 client the other day about his breathing mechanics... I've spent years studying the science of breath, and I know exactly how much breathing through your nose can pull you out of the 3:00 PM brain fog. I asked him if he tried using the Myo-tape yet? He leaned back, shook his head, and just laughed. Myo-tape increased my sleep by 1.5 hours "Oh, hell no. I couldn't do it. As soon as I laid down with the tape, I knew this wasn't going to work. I thought I had my mouth...

Hey Reader, We walked into Disneyland for our 5 year anniversary, and it immediately hit us with the smell of fresh, warm churros. Courtney and I couldn't wait to show Jagger the Disney Magic! You could hear the Toon parade passing by mainstreet... I picked up my son and pointed at the giant Disney Ferris wheel. He just pointed at the ground and said, "Ducks, ducks, ducks!" He spent a solid half hour just chasing a group of birds. I looked over at Courtney, shrugged my shoulders, and said,...

Once Ruben mastered his breath, we added another incredibly simple habit. We added water. That's it. We only focused on those first two dominoes. The Breath Domino and the Water Domino. And guess what happened next? His sleep got drastically better. He started making much better decisions with his daily food intake. Through this foundational process, we found out he was grossly malnourished. He wasn't giving his body the high-quality fuel it actually needed to perform. I used to think of food...