Kelly Starrett
Doctor of physical therapy · The Ready State
A doctor of physical therapy who co-founded The Ready State with his wife Juliet, having started it as MobilityWOD in 2008. He co-founded San Francisco CrossFit as well. The athletes he has worked with run from NFL, NBA and Olympic rosters to military units. His writing turns range of motion, walking, sleep and protein into what he calls vital signs, tests you can run on yourself at home. Becoming a Supple Leopard, Ready to Run, Deskbound and Built to Move all carry his name.
- Entries
- 25
- Does
- 14
- Recommends
- 11
- Discusses
- 0
Gear
6 pieces of gear in this stack
- GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Flat-sole training shoes
Rips the insoles out of most of the shoes in his house, keeping them only in his running pair. Barefoot is what he would choose. For kids he names Vans and Chuck Taylors, on the argument that a raised heel quietly shortens the heel cord over years.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptView item: Flat-sole training shoesOn record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Balance block
Found a SlackBlock in Tim Ferriss's garage and called it a portable slack line that looks like a brick. Then he started handing them out to his athletes like candy. He stands on his during Zoom calls and while making coffee, which is how he works foot strength without setting time aside for it.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)View item: Balance blockOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - GearRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Standing desk
Wants a bar stool by the desk. Lean on it, put a foot up, keep changing position rather than standing rigid all day. A cardboard box under the laptop does the job, he says, and nobody needs a ten thousand dollar desk. He and his wife converted their daughter's fourth grade classroom to a standing classroom after showing the district the research.
Source: Legion Athletics: Kelly Starrett on sitting, mobility and having a movement practiceView item: Standing deskOn record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it, 1 recommends it - GearRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Weight sled
Pushing a sled is one of the ways he gets people back into hip extension. That is the shape he says modern life strips out fastest, between sitting, cycling and the elliptical. Split squats and pressing with a foot up on something cover it when no sled is around.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)View item: Weight sledOn record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 2 recommend it - GearRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Compression socks
Pulling a pair on after you sit down or board a plane makes a real difference, he says, and it is on the short recovery list he gives teams and soldiers. LeBron James wearing compression before a flight is the example he reaches for.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptView item: Compression socksOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - GearRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
TRX Suspension Trainer
Files it with rings, kettlebells and dumbbells as what he calls an open torque system. The shoulder has to make its own stability rather than borrowing it up the chain from a fixed bar. A great piece of home equipment, in his words. Hang in the straps and a disorganized shoulder produces no force, which is the point.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of CrossFit, episode 64 transcriptView item: TRX Suspension TrainerOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Supplements
5 supplements in this stack
- SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Electrolyte supplementation
Water with a pinch of sea salt in it, straight after training. That is his first recovery step, on the grounds that a slightly dehydrated body will not start the protein synthesis work. He is obsessive about it, he says, and thinks he under-hydrates rather than over-hydrates.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptView item: Electrolyte supplementationOn record from 12 of 62 tracked people: 12 do it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)
Genetic testing showed him he does not process omega-3s well, so he doubled his dose to move the ratio at all. His 3 to 6 ratio was already inside normal limits, he says.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptView item: Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)On record from 9 of 62 tracked people: 8 do it, 1 recommends it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Multivitamin
Takes a food-based multivitamin daily. Where it comes from does not much matter to him, he says, as long as it is food-based. He mentioned working with a company called Nutriforce at the time, and being a fan of their pack. Everything else he takes came out of blood work rather than habit, he says.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptView item: MultivitaminOn record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Vitamin D3
Runs chronically low on vitamin D by his own account, so he either takes it or, as he puts it, nukes himself in the sun.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptView item: Vitamin D3On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 recommends it - SupplementDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
ZMA (zinc, magnesium, B6)
ZMA with 5-HTP before bed is one of the few things he named as making a clear difference to how he sleeps. He is careful to add that he has no neurotransmitter problem and is not treating one. The rest of what he takes came out of test results, he says.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptView item: ZMA (zinc, magnesium, B6)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Books
3 books in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Becoming a Supple Leopard
Describes his own first book as an attempt at a Betty Crocker cookbook for people, simple enough that someone can look a problem up and start on it. It was still on the New York Times bestseller list when he said that. He pointed listeners at the several hundred free videos on his site as the place to begin.
Source: Legion Athletics: Kelly Starrett on sitting, mobility and having a movement practiceView item: Becoming a Supple LeopardOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Built to Move
Wrote it with Juliet for people he thinks fitness has left behind. It is also the reference he always wanted to hand someone before the arguments about programming start. They gave it to their world champion friends first, he says, and heard back that it filled holes those athletes had not noticed.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)View item: Built to MoveOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ready to Run
Came out of watching people switch to flat shoes without the tissue capacity to run in them and get hurt anyway. He built it as twelve steps of standards and tests, with Stacy Sims on hydration and Jill Miller on the diaphragm. Running is a great diagnostic tool, he says. The trouble is you can run badly for decades before it costs you.
Source: Legion Athletics: Kelly Starrett on sitting, mobility and having a movement practiceView item: Ready to RunOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Protocols
9 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
Says he loves to lift weights and calls himself a big strong guy. The bias toward heavy squatting came from years around Mark Bell, Jesse Burdick and other powerlifters. Loading yourself somehow is the part he insists on, even if that means pressing heavy dumbbells overhead rather than push jerking.
Source: Legion Athletics: Kelly Starrett on sitting, mobility and having a movement practiceFifteen minutes a day is the number he settled on. In physical therapy school he studied barriers to adherence, and longer sessions were the ones that fell away. So he picks one stiff area, works it for a couple of weeks until it stops bothering him, then moves on to the next. Position mechanics first, he says, and there is less maintenance left to do.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptDiaphragmatic breathing is where he now starts with back pain. On himself, he uses the breath to get motion into a stiff upper back. He credits Laird Hamilton, Brian Mackenzie and the Wim Hof material for pulling him back to it, and says the yogis had it long before any of them.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)Held an eat-food-and-skip-supplements position for years. Then he started testing regularly and found deficiencies he had not suspected. Pairing the panels with genetic testing is what pointed at how poorly he handles omega-3s. Very specific, very personalized supplementation is how he describes the role it plays now.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptAims for six to eight different kinds of fruit and vegetables a day. He admits he hates weighing food, though he says that when he does track it he usually lands around 800 grams or above. The number came from EC Synkowski. What he likes is that it adds food rather than taking any away.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)Works his foot strength during Zoom calls. He hands blocks to athletes with instructions to stand on one while the coffee brews. Twenty seconds on one leg with the eyes closed is the benchmark he uses, and a side-to-side difference is fine to have as long as you know about it, he says.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)Puts a reasonable intake somewhere between 0.7 and 1 gram per pound of body weight, roughly where he says international track and field has landed. He is deliberately agnostic about the source, plant or animal. The vegetarian athletes he saw were often turning up short, he notes.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)Saves soft tissue work for after training rather than before, on the grounds that it is the moment to tip the body back toward parasympathetic. Gut smashing on a ball before bed is the one he names most often. Teach kids to smash out their calves on a roller, he says, and they sort the rest out themselves.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Kelly Starrett Q&A, episode 85 transcriptCalls it his favorite of the vital signs in Built to Move, with the warning that most people find out they are bad at it. Squeeze the glute, then see whether you can breathe there.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)
Habits
2 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
His family watches television from the floor in front of the couch rather than on it. He points to Phillip Beach's argument that the body tunes itself through ground sitting. A week in Japan, where the lodge seats everyone on mats, had already reshaped how he was moving, he says.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)Eight thousand steps is the minimum threshold he suggests, built out of ten-minute walks after meals rather than one long march. He ties it back to sleep: get the count up and people accumulate enough sleep pressure to fall asleep. Most phones are already counting, he points out.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664)
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“So we found that a reasonable amount of protein was somewhere between 0.7 and 0.8 and 1 gram per pound body weight. That’s a reasonable amount. That’s not crazy, we’re not going to shock load you.”
The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664) (opens in a new tab) · 1 Apr 2023 “So 800 grams is 800 grams of fruits and vegetables, and they can be frozen, they can be fresh, they can be cooked; it doesn’t matter. So, four big apples is 800 grams.”
The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664) (opens in a new tab) · 1 Apr 2023 “We love TV in our house. We love it. We think it’s so clever. It’s a way that we chill in the evening. We sit on the floor in front of the couch.”
The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664) (opens in a new tab) · 1 Apr 2023 “And, in fact, my favorite thing in balance training I discovered in your garage. … this really cool thing called a SlackBlock, and it was a portable slack line. … When I’m on Zoom calls, I am working my foot strength and balance.”
The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664) (opens in a new tab) · 1 Apr 2023 “The thing I fear the most for my own body right now, at age 50, is tweaks of soft tissue. That’s the thing I fear the most.”
The Tim Ferriss Show: Dr. Kelly Starrett, The Magic of Movement and Mobility (#664) (opens in a new tab) · 1 Apr 2023
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.