Video summary
Andrew Huberman addresses a recent media controversy surrounding his podcast, where certain outlets misinterpreted an episode titled "Huberman Husbands" to suggest that his audience is predominantly male. In reality, his listenership is split evenly between men and women, despite YouTube's demographic skewing toward males. The term "Huberman Husband" originated from social media trends on TikTok, depicting a specific archetype of a partner who engages in health protocols like red light therapy, coal plunges, and sauna treatments. Huberman humorously notes the absurdity of this trend, joking about men cosplaying as him by wearing black long-sleeve shirts and using sunlight exposure or sleep deprivation as dirty talk in the bedroom. He clarifies that while he does not control internet culture, his content focuses on health protocols applicable to everyone rather than gender-specific stereotypes. A significant portion of the discussion shifts to challenging traditional masculine dynamics regarding self-care. Huberman argues that the stereotype of men being tough enough to ignore sleep, exercise, or medical advice is counterproductive and contradicts the scientific principles he teaches daily. He emphasizes that resistance training serves both aesthetic purposes—such as reducing body fat—and functional ones, specifically highlighting the importance of neck training for posture and spinal stability. Drawing a parallel between untrained glutes appearing like "basketballs on upturned baseball bats" due to disproportionate development, Huberman stresses that men must train their necks proportionally to their shoulders to avoid injury and maintain proper biomechanics during pressing movements. Huberman provides detailed technical advice on how to safely strengthen the neck without causing dysfunction or jaw issues common in heavy training regimens. He recommends avoiding bridges used by wrestling coaches due to disc injury risks, instead suggesting a safer method involving lying on a bench with one arm down and placing a light plate wrapped in a towel behind the head for extension exercises. Crucially, he instructs listeners to keep their tongue on the roof of their mouth and jaw shut during these movements to prevent clicking or ear pain caused by manipulating craniofacial musculature. He references Jeff Cavaliere from Athlean-X as an excellent resource for tutorials on this zero-cost content, noting that while heavy neck training can deepen one's voice through vocal cord thickening similar to puberty changes, excessive weight should be avoided by professional speakers and podcasters who need clear airflow and unaltered jaw mechanics. The conversation also touches upon the biological realities of gender differences in muscle growth, particularly regarding the neck. Huberman notes that while women may train their necks for aesthetic reasons or longevity benefits like preventing "kinks," they generally do not desire the rapid hypertrophy seen in men because this specific muscle group grows quickly and can look disproportionate if overdeveloped without corresponding shoulder width. He shares a personal anecdote about his own voice never changing due to an androgen receptor alteration, contrasting it with typical pubertal changes driven by thickened vocal cords. Ultimately, Huberman concludes that small stabilizer muscles like those in the neck are vital for longevity alongside core work, urging listeners to prioritize these often-neglected areas over large muscle groups alone.
Read the full video transcript
have you heard of huberman husbands do
you know what this is yeah um
unfortunately well I I should say that
the most unfortunate thing about the
huberman husbands post is that it was
about is that it was taken by certain
media Outlets to amplify the idea that
the audience of my podcast is just male
when in fact it's 50% male female at
least in the listenership YouTube Skuse
male but we knew that anyway um but the
listenership is 50% male 50% female and
the huberman husbands thing um was
really about how a woman was saying that
she thinks she's the huberman husband
because she does all these different
things that they got taken from that for
the people that don't know that the meta
meme around huberman husbands which you
can search on Tik Tok right now is that
the hot new thing that all of the wives
want out there is a husband who's into
red light therapy and he do coal plunges
and he does Sauna treatments and stuff
so I I wondered see guys I'm trying to
help you out look dude I I wondered how
you feel of a bunch of guys potentially
cosplaying as Andrew huberman in the
bedroom like the price of long sleeve
black shirts has gone through the roof
you now have people fully Ling as you
maybe they're they're telling them
telling their wife that they didn't get
enough sunlight in their eyes as dirty
talk in the bedroom I'm not sure I
wondered how it feels to have this Army
of Andrew huberman from wish now
existing on on the internet so so we
covered the amcc it means interior mid
singulate cortex but I confess even
though know that I don't know what
cosplay is and I don't know what laring
is cosplay is dressing up it's it
happens at um a lot of conventions
someone will go as Anakin Skywalker or
Pikachu or whatever and Ling his life
for sexual titilation sometimes but not
always uh so this is sort of like a this
is the this is like the action hero um
variation on furries kind of yeah but
it's not f is more Lex's domain
precisely yeah we know we know that well
uh and then we know that but we don't
know it well fortunately liveaction role
playing lapping so that again is this
kind of I'm saying there are potentially
there is potentially a market out there
if a guy is struggling in the dating
world
to take the aesthetic get fully huberman
pilled and then there is a a huge
potential demand amongst the wives out
there okay so um this is news to me um
one thing that's come up recently in
discussions with some traditional media
Outlets but but also just generally
right is you know to what extent is all
this focus on health um you know does
that change something about masculine
feminine Dynamics like like the
traditional um stereotype of men was
that they're tough enough to not need to
engage in any self-care right they don't
need sleep they can drink a lot of
liquor they'll eat when there's food
they'll eat whatever they don't like
going to the doctor right is is like
runs very countercurrent to the kinds of
things I talk about in my podcast like
hey get up in the morning get some
sunlight right uh lift weights run um
and I should point out that none none of
what I've talked about with exercise
ever of course there's an aesthetic
component right limiting body fat to
some extent right not having excessive
body fat um you know resistance training
as we know is an incredible way to
adjust this one's Aesthetics if they
feel like their proportions aren't where
they want or you know by the way guys
train your neck uh clearly Chris does um
I mean nothing looks more ridiculous
than like wide shoulder b and a little
and a head with a Little Neck neck I
mean it's well it's just it's crazy
because this is proportionally you see
it and you're like this is it's the it's
the male equivalent of the BBL if you
have like
a I'm teaching you I'm so happy that I
get to teach you this s like class for
me I've got cospl make sure that you've
got your notes so this is the Brazilian
buttlift it's kind of like the bum
equivalent of a boob job and they have
an implants for the glutes I think that
they actually take fat from elsewhere in
the body uh and then put it into the
it's the uh risk the uh surgery risk of
this is really quite high they just do
like hip thrusters or something isn't
there that there's um that takes too
long there's the Brett contras glute guy
yeah yeah yeah he's very popular because
he he puts glutes on people but but they
actually put them on themselves because
they're the ones doing the work I think
the doctor technically puts it on them
but yeah and it kind of looks because
there's no Associated leg development
with the glute development it's kind of
like if you put two basketballs on
upturned baseball bats so you have like
a the leg and then you have like
ridiculous it's I've seen some I went to
Miami for the first time a few months
ago and I saw one that kind of terrified
me it looked like a bag of cats from
behind in a set of leggings uh you like
you could kind of see sort of Paws
coming out like this moves poorly poorly
finished I would say plant moves it just
it wasn't wasn't good anyway my point
being uh neck for guys need to have it
proportional to the shoulders yeah it I
mean yeah so I'm sort of taking Digs at
people that don't train their neck it's
also life insurance right um I had an
accident a few years ago where I fell
off a second story roof and I walked
away from it because I've long done neck
training because I injured my neck when
I was younger and um even if you don't
do fight Sports I don't do fight sports
but um wouldn't be uh aligned with my my
role needing my brain um and I got
nothing against people that do fight
sports but that's a choice that i' I've
actively made not to do them anymore um
but neck training is is really important
for just what's the 8020 of neck
training what what's are the biggest
movers for improving your neck oh well
first of all I'll tell you in a moment
um but I think that you know remember
that your neck is your upper spine so
people are big on training their abs you
know for for spine stability and lower
back hopefully as well for spine
stability the midthoracic regions as
well but you know it's your upper spine
and and you want it strong and you um
you'll get much stronger in other things
as well everything's better people's
posture is far better when they train
their neck it actually changes the tone
of people's voice and I had a guest on
my podcast Dr Eddie Chang who's our
chair of neurosurgery at UCSF I've known
him since we were kids um he's a
phenomenally smart and creative guy and
I've asked him about this offline you
know why is it that neck training does
that well you know the voice change that
occurs in boys when they um when they
develop and go through puberty is a
thickening of the vocal cords that's
Androgen dependent I have this weird
mutation I've talked about this a little
bit but maybe not um that on a program
as broad as this that actually have the
same voice I always had from when I was
a little kid my voice never actually
changed I have a I have an androgen
receptor uh alteration okay um so
fortunately for me like doesn't cause
any other issues but this was my voice
when I was 5 years old how terrifying
yeah they call me froggy yeah it was
kind of a joke I like the kid on The
Little Rascals that was froggy in any
case but for most people they hit
puberty and then their voice changes
because of a thickening of the vocal
cords but obviously I had some early
Androgen exposure um that was clear cuz
I also had hair on my atam Apple when I
was like four years old so there was
some early Androgen exposure I'm not
going to [ __ ] with that foury old no I
was I was a kind kid until I was a
teenager and then I eventually angry
teenager I went through it but you know
I was I was kind nonetheless but in any
event um when you train your neck
actually um it it does improve posture
and it actually changes the tamber of
your voice somewhat um but for people
who speak a lot for a living podcasters
singers actors Etc lawyers and lawyers
seem to talk a lot um you don't want to
do a lot of really heavy neck training
because it actually changes the way that
your jaw moves in the way that you speak
and you know you and I especially like
my solo podcast that sometimes take me
11 hours to record and um so you want to
maintain healthy air flow through
through this region right um but the
best way to develop a strong neck safely
is to unfortunately stay away from
Bridges which you know wrestling coaches
love to give can the discs can can be
inj you can you can cause dysfunction of
the discs and then the pain comes on in
a moment and then you're you're you're
hosed um best thing to do is take a
plate and start really light lie on a
bench stabilize yourself by putting one
arm down okay so you want to close the
chain so to speak if you can get a foot
down as well and then put that plate you
know probably start with a five or a 10
pound plate wrapped in a towel so you
don't end up with an imprint of the five
or 10 on the side of your head or face
and then you're you're just going to go
from neutral position which is your head
you know essentially straight up and
down but you're lying on your side to to
just you know uh about maybe 30 or 45°
you AR like really cinch into it and you
want to keep this is important keep your
tongue on the roof of your mouth your
jaw shut so that your jaw and moving
around because some people do neck work
and then they'll get clicking of the jaw
they get pain in the ear there's I've
spent a lot of time with skulls and I
can tell you human skulls and other
skulls by virtue of my work in
neuroscience and dissecting stuff and I
have kind of an obsession with
cranofacial stuff as well and you know
there's a lot of musculature and
ligaments of the the skull that have to
be contended with so tongue on the roof
of your mouth and you're just going to
you know nasal breathe and you're not
going to failure you're not training
really heavy higher reps in the you know
10 to 25 repetition range three sets
yeah three sets and then the other side
and then you know rather than doing a
lot of forward neck workk which people
are already doing because they're doing
a lot of phone reading and shaping
themselves like a c you want to lie on
your stomach and put a plate on the back
of your head and get into that you know
the the neck extension straight back but
not pinching or wrenching your head back
movements like where you're creating
some torsion up into the sides like this
is a little more dangerous I don't
recommend um the person who has great
tutorials on this and many other things
as well is Jeff Cavalier athl X has a
great neck tutorial may you could link
to that's where I learned it over time I
worked up to from a 10 pound plate I I
can do five or six wraps on each side
with a 45 PB plate you're kidding me you
put a 45 that's 20 kilos for the
anglicans listen yeah so I'll do that
and I don't say that to be tough or
anything but the idea for me is to just
have a really strong um neck so that ALS
so for pressing movements and pulling
movements you'll get much stronger there
well listen the bar has now been set for
the fledgling huberman husbands out
there they know that the neck training
is a important part black shirt neck
training bit of a beard what what the
black TR well to be clear and women
should probably train their neck as well
but lighter you know um for aesthetic
reasons um and if they want to have a
bigger neck they can do that but I think
most women don't want their neck this is
one muscle er group that does tend to
grow pretty quickly
um is that right it does it does and and
then the other thing and this looks
ridiculous but that Fighters know it's
very useful is that there's the kiss the
sky thing where they'll actually look up
and you know and you'll feel it in the
deeper muscles of the neck wow so that
kind of thing is again you know some
people use a towel for this stuff they
don't have access to weights but neck
work is really key just like ABW work is
key just like lower back work is key
just like tib work is key knees over
toes guy you know love his content Ben's
amazing so these smaller muscle groups
are not going to be the main state of
any workout but they become so important
when you're thinking about longevity
because they are the muscle groups that
tend to cause if not train shin splints
kink in the neck the kink in the neck is
obviously uh not a technical term but
pain in the neck the turning in the
shower after doing heavy pressing and
then like you're out your neck you can't
turn your head the lower back pain
sciatica often lower spine stabilization
issues I I really think Jeff cavaliere
has some of the best zeroc cost content
on this that's uh I followed his content
for years and you know if you put in for
instance sciatic a low back pain he has
diagnostic tools there that really help
you establish whether or not it's truly
lower back pain or it's a medial glute
issue and gives you the proper things to
do and NEC is just one piece of the
equation getting back to huberman
husbands um that yeah I chuckled the
first time I saw it I I think it was a
little frustrating to me because I
thought wait there are a lot of women
that do these protocols too our
Protocols are Mo we have had some male
hormone Health episodes some female
hormone Health episodes but in general
we're just talking about stuff that's
applicable to everybody but listen um I
don't control the internet um I don't
make the rules out there and you know
and then traditional media Amplified the
huberman husbands piece through a couple
of
Articles and the next thing you know
that that's where the black shirt I
should just say um is because uh I try
and as we've talked about before I don't
want T My Tattoos to distract I got a
lot of them um I want to focus on
content and teaching and people hearing
the content and um and black shirt is
something I did long before I had a
podcast that's cuz the great Joe
Strummer singer for The Clash muscolo
wore a black button-down shirt while he
would do full shows and he' be soaking
wet it was like the punkest thing I ever
saw yeah that he was like doing full
shows like belting it out in long sleeve
black shirt and he was just literally
the shirt was like stuck to his body and
I was just saying like not only is he an
amazing humanitarian writer poet singer
for The Clash creative you miss him he's
gone but he's still here through music
right as they say and he um you know
he's just so Punk he's just up there in
his 40s or late
40s and soaking wet and I'm thinking
like that guy like he's got he's got it
figured out i'mna do you know so anyway
and I like the black shirt what can I
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