Our 5 Factors Year in Review: Training & Nutrition (Part 1)

The Full Listener's Guide

We kick off our annual Five Factors Year in Review with a deep dive into Training and Nutrition - exploring the small tweaks and intentional changes that made the biggest difference for us in 2025.

You’ll learn why structured intensity beats “just go hard” training (especially as you get older), how to finally make mobility work actually stick, and why breaking intermittent fasting might be the right move for your performance. Plus, we share the simple nutrition habit that transformed Patrick’s consistency: 30 grams of protein before 9am.

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🖐 5 BIG IDEAS

1. Intentional Intensity Beats “Just Go Hard”

For years, Ben’s approach to training was simple: show up and go as hard as possible. That works when you’re a 24-year-old professional athlete with seven hours to recover and perfect sleep. It doesn’t work as well when you’re approaching 50 with two businesses and four kids.

The shift this year was moving from random intensity to intentional intensity - training at defined set points for specific adaptations. Now Ben can tell you his VO2 max pace on the rower, his lactic threshold, his anaerobic capacity. These aren’t just numbers; they’re tools that help structure each week for maximum return on time invested.

The lesson isn’t that you need to become a data nerd. It’s that as life gets more complex, your training needs to get more strategic - not harder, but smarter.

2. Mobility Is the Unlocking Factor You’re Probably Ignoring

Here’s something that surprised Ben this year: he always assumed his strength was his biggest limiter. After running assessments, he discovered it was actually his mobility. Everything changed once he started dedicating 30 minutes to mobility work before training - not just stretching, but targeted self-myofascial release.

The insight that connects it all? Your psoas. It’s the only muscle connecting your upper and lower body, running from the front of your quads to your lower back. When Ben loosened up his hips, his Achilles issues—which he’d been treating directly for years - disappeared.

The point isn’t that everyone needs to obsess over their psoas. It’s that the limitation you’re treating might not be the actual source of the problem. Sometimes you have to look upstream.

3. Stretching Rents Flexibility - Targeted Work Owns It

When you stretch, the muscles that are already flexible do most of the work. The tight ones stay protected and gunked up. Think of it like pulling two rubber bands tied together—one thick, one thin. The thin one stretches while the thick one barely moves.

That’s why stretching alone often feels great in the moment but doesn’t create lasting change. You’re “renting” that new range of motion instead of owning it. The solution is targeted self-myofascial work before you stretch - breaking up the adhesions in the muscles that actually need it.

Ben’s go-to tools: a slam ball or kettlebell instead of a foam roller. More pressure, more precision. Try it on your hips before your next stretching session and notice the difference.

4. The Five Factors Aren’t Pillars - They’re a Stew

We often think of health as separate pillars: training, nutrition, sleep, mindset, connection. But they’re not independent structures standing side by side. They’re more like ingredients in a stew - add too much salt, and you have to adjust everything else to balance it out.

When Ben moved his training later in the morning, it changed when he ate breakfast, which changed his pre-workout nutrition, which affected his energy throughout the day. One adjustment cascaded into others.

The practical takeaway: when you make a change to one factor, don’t be surprised when it affects the others. That’s not a problem - it’s how the system works. Adjust accordingly.

5. You Don’t Need to Optimize Everything—Just Nail the 20% Across All Five

Here’s the framework that ties it together: if you nail the essential 20% of each of the five factors, you get 80% of the returns. That’s 20% times five factors equals 100% - the whole picture.

The trap is going too deep into any single factor. When training becomes 40%, 50%, 80% of your focus, you’re investing effort for diminishing returns while neglecting the other factors where small investments would pay off big.

The goal isn’t to become a mobility expert or a nutrition scientist. It’s to consistently hit the basics across all five: train most days, eat real food, sleep enough, think well, connect meaningfully. That’s it. That’s the whole game.

🤔 3 REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Where are you over-indexing right now - and what’s suffering because of it?

Think about the five factors in your own life. Are you crushing it in the gym but surviving on four hours of sleep? Are you meditating daily but haven’t called a friend in months? What would change if you redistributed even 10% of that effort toward a neglected area?

2. What “limitation” have you been treating directly that might actually be caused by something upstream?

Ben spent years working on his Achilles when the real issue was his hip mobility. What’s your equivalent? Is the problem you’re solving actually the source, or just a symptom of something else? Sometimes the answer isn’t working harder on the obvious thing - it’s looking at what’s connected to it.

3. What’s one small tweak you could make this week to be more intentional rather than just more intense?

You don’t need a complete overhaul. Ben added 30 minutes of mobility. Patrick started eating 30 grams of protein before 9am. What’s your version? What small, strategic adjustment could compound into something significant over the next twelve months?

🔑 1 KEY TAKEAWAY

Small, strategic tweaks beat dramatic overhauls—especially when you’ve been doing this for a while.

It’s tempting to think that meaningful change requires massive action. A new program. A complete diet reset. A lifestyle transformation. But for most people who’ve been intentionally working on their health for years, the real gains come from refinement, not revolution.

Ben didn’t change everything this year. He added intentional intensity to his training, moved his sessions later, started eating breakfast, and prioritized mobility work. Patrick kept his nutrition simple with four meals and 30 grams of protein in the morning. None of these are headline-grabbing transformations. All of them moved the needle.

The deeper lesson is that health isn’t a destination you arrive at. It’s a practice you refine. You’re not supposed to “figure it out” once and coast forever. The game is about continuously learning what works for you right now, in this season of your life, with these constraints and these goals.

And here’s the permission slip embedded in all of this: you don’t have to be perfect. You can have a month where training slips. You can struggle with consistency in the dark, cold months. What matters is that you keep showing up, keep tweaking, and keep chasing.

That’s the whole point. It’s not about being excellent. It’s about chasing excellence - knowing the horizon keeps moving and choosing to pursue it anyway.

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