Heart Disease Risk in Fit People & Lessons From Elite Strength Coach Ted O’Neill

Robert Todd Hurst (0:02)

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Todd Hurst, and here's what's coming up on today's podcast.

Ted O'Neill (0:06)

He fits in this category that we hear. It's like there was no warning signs. He was a high performer. He was, for his age group, in an elite category of fitness where his body fat was low.

His heart didn't beat on its own for about 20 minutes. He had the emergency machine on him. Ultimately, though, he was able to come out of that, and now it's totally normal. I just saw him today. He's back to training full time, so it was a pretty wild ride, because this was someone who was probably clinically dead for up to 20 minutes.

Robert Todd Hurst (0:36)

So welcome to The Healthspan Podcast, where we talk about how to prevent the event and then protect the decades you gain. And I am especially honored today to have as my guest, Mr. Ted O'Neill. Ted is an incredibly accomplished individual, which you're gonna learn about, but I'll just talk a little bit about his backstory. He has spent more than three decades studying, coaching human performance at an extraordinary level. Ted is a world-class strength and conditioning coach, the founder of Diablo Barbell, creator of ParaPhysical Training and Biointegration and co-founder and CEO of Lifted Academy.

His career is, I could talk all day about it, but just a little bit, he's developed more than 60 elite power lifters, five MMA world champions and three national wrestling champions. On top of all that, as you're going to learn shortly, he is an incredibly thoughtful, intelligent and just really all-around fascinating person. But here's what makes today's conversation especially interesting, is that despite living an exceptionally disciplined, high-performance lifestyle, Ted discovered that he was not immune to heart disease risk. We're going to talk about that experience, what had changed for him, what someone who has spent his life thinking about human potential is learning about health span, longevity, the decades ahead. Really for anyone out there who is interested in living an exceptional life, the strategy, the mindset, and the potential pitfalls that we can avoid, you won't want to miss this conversation. Ted, welcome to The Healthspan Podcast.

Ted O'Neill (2:23)

Thank you, Robert. Great to be here. I'm super excited to have this conversation with you.

Robert Todd Hurst (2:28)

I just can't tell you how grateful I am that you are here. Before we get to you, your fascinating story about how you came to HealthspanMD, could you talk a little bit more about your background, just maybe your philosophies?

I explained some of the superlatives around what you do, but I just think you wouldn't mind framing that because I think you're such an eloquent speaker about the things you're passionate about.

Ted O'Neill (2:59)

My background, you mentioned the strength and conditioning background, and that's something that I've been involved in now for over 30 years.

A little over 10 years ago, probably closer to 15, I started expanding into self-leadership training and executive coaching as well.

The strength and conditioning work really became the lab in which I learned high-level problem-solving. And when I started, I had the unique experience and opportunity to where, as a strength and conditioning coach, I was also doing exercise therapy, and then also working in performance nutrition. And so I got to see a really large segment of the population to where, when I was working with people in exercise therapy, they might be recovering from a stroke, they might be recovering from some type of an injury. And that would be one portion of my day. And then another portion of my day would be bringing people up to elite levels of athletic performance. So seemingly totally different things, but it didn't take me long to figure out that they were only circumstantially different, that the problems that solved one often would be the problems that presented in one area. The solutions would be much more similar than we would think. And it was in those early years in that problem-solving lab, so to speak, that I came up with my motto. It's been my motto in my career my whole life now. And that's every problem has a solution. And that was something that I really endeavored to test and prove on a daily basis. And the majority of my success has really come from testing that model and developing means by which to make that come to fruition. That every problem really has a solution. The solution is actually imbedded in the problem. It's usually just the polarity of the problem itself. And I think that culturally, we tend to drift into looking at problems to the lens of personality situation and circumstance. Whereas if you can look at it a little bit from a different perspective, if you can get above the problem and anchor to principles and purpose, then you're not as distracted and it gives you a much better problem-solving model.