Training for Life: Ben Bergeron on Longevity, Discipline, and Mental Fitness
The Ready State Podcast
Kelly Starrett & Juliet Starrett
4.9 • 623 Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2025
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Discover how to become a humble, hungry, happy person, that kicks butt into your 90s.
In this episode, world-class strength & conditioning coach Ben Bergeron shares his holistic approach to long-term fitness, strength, and mental resilience. Learn how creating supportive environments, building strong connections, and focusing on key pillars—eat, sleep, train, think, connect—can help you crush your goals and stay fit for life. Whether you're training for life's challenges or simply want to feel great and pain-free, Ben’s insights will inspire you to kick butt into your 90s. Don’t miss this motivational deep dive into optimizing health and happiness!
What You'll Learn in This Episode- Why elite performance is about sustainability, not intensity
- How discipline creates freedom in training and leadership
- The difference between being busy and being effective
- Why emotional regulation is a performance skill
- How to avoid burnout while still pushing limits
- What world-class athletes understand about consistency
- Why values-based systems outperform motivation
(00:00) - Intro
(02:49) - Key System Mistakes for Everyday Athletes
(09:35) - Creating a Movement Rich Environment
(10:44) - Feeling Seen and Sense of Belonging
(17:45) - Building Community in Fitness
(18:50) - Evolution of Training Philosophy
(20:50) - Embracing "Yes, And" in Fitness
(22:56) - Shifts in Ben’s Fitness Perspective
(25:28) - Best Practices in Training Implementation
(28:58) - Changes in the Fitness Landscape Over 20 Years
(32:17) - Fitness as a Standalone Discipline
(35:03) - Hydration with LMNT
(37:35) - Momentous: Creatine Chews
(46:01) - Importance of Fun in Training
(47:00) - Squatting and Deadlifting After 40
(50:03) - Current Obsessions in Fitness
(52:36) - Character vs Personality in Training
(58:21) - Training Character Development
(01:01:00) - Changing Your Mindset for Fitness
(01:05:30) - Transformative Impact of Training Methods
(01:09:40) - Infinite Shelf
(01:11:39) - Finding Ben Online
(01:13:06) - Join the Starrett System
SponsorsThis episode of The Ready State Podcast is brought to you by LMNT and Momentous.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're over the age of 65 and you fall and break your hip, your chances of being dead within a year go up by over 20%. |
| 0:08.0 | We're all fitness prepping because I'll put all these deadlifts into a room and someday when the zombie apocalypse come, we'll be ready. |
| 0:14.4 | You know, we've forgotten the point was to have bodies that feel good and are pain free. |
| 0:19.9 | Ben Bergeron. Ben is one of the most successful CrossFit coaches of all time, as well as an entrepreneur. |
| 0:24.6 | Ben is the coach to CrossFit champions, as well as people who just enjoyed CrossFit on the day to day. |
| 0:30.6 | He's coached some of the top athletes in the sport of fitness, such as CrossFit games champions Matt Fraser and Katrin David's daughter. |
| 0:36.6 | The nervous system plays into health and performance. |
| 0:40.9 | And I don't mean it in the way of like, let's be springy, reactive, and do plyometrics. |
| 0:45.4 | What I mean is, do you feel safe and can you downregulate outside of training? |
| 0:50.9 | Our mission has always been the same, which is to create a family of humble, hungry, happy people who kick us in their night. |
| 1:00.1 | Ben, welcome to the Ready State podcast. So good to be here. I know you guys for a long time, so it's great to be here. Yeah, let me set this up. We were all teenagers together in high school. Like, |
| 1:11.8 | we went to the same high school. I think I was 14. I think you were riding along with me when I |
| 1:17.2 | got my driver's lessons. We were like friends on MySpace. Yeah, yeah. 100%. Everyone, Ben Bergeron |
| 1:23.3 | has been part of our community and in our family of coaches and athletes for, I mean, literally |
| 1:29.7 | almost 20 years now. And it is always a pleasure. I mean, just for reference, Kelly had hair |
| 1:34.9 | and you definitely did not have gray hair. So I'm just saying that's how long it's been. I'm going to |
| 1:40.1 | point out, I just saw this thing on the internet, which I really thought was appropriate. And it's called the four stages of being a man and it's and it's awesome you'll you'll appreciate this |
| 1:49.7 | this is how long we've known Ben everyone when I met Ben uh I believed in Santa Claus then I didn't believe in |
| 1:55.3 | Santa Claus then I became Santa Claus to my children and now I look like Santa Claus. So that's the four stages of being a man. |
| 2:02.5 | And now I'm in my, I'm Santa Claus phase. |
| 2:05.1 | We're gray. |
| 2:06.1 | And you are at the peak of your available coaching power. |
... |
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