Grip Strength, Heart Health, & Longevity: Unveiling The Power Of Isometric Exercise With Mark Young
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Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. My guest today is Mark Young. We're going to talk about improving cardiovascular health through isometric exercise. Mark is a serial entrepreneur, a health tech innovator, and a marketing expert from all the work he's had to do. So welcome, Mark. Thanks. Well, pleasure to be here, Richard. Thank you so much. Yeah, tell me a bit about your background. Why the interest in health tech and cardiovascular health in particular?

Yeah, it's not specific to cardiovascular health, although that's where I spend a lot of my time. I would say that my interest is actually in health in general. So as you mentioned, I'm a marketing guide. I

I'm actually the owner of an advertising agency based in South Florida. But the majority of our clientele actually all falls in the natural health and wellness space. And I'll say this is the group of people who believe that we can make non-pharmaceutical decisions to impact our lives. So that's what we spend most of our time. And tired of a drug for everything, which has side effects and nutrient depletion and all those other great things. And it makes Ben Hyman very... So...

So tell me about cardiovascular health. How did you come up with isometric exercise as a way to help it, improve it? And what does that look like? Let's start with you. Yeah.

Well, I can't take credit for the discovery. What I will tell you is as a marketing guy, I was working with another brand years ago that was a red light therapy brand back before red light therapy was actually like a big deal. And what was kind of cool was we were on the cutting edge of something way back then when we ended up getting a telephone call from a brand that said, hey, if you can do this for them, you can do this for us.

And that was actually a brand called Zona Health and Zona.com is the brand. And when we ended up getting involved with Zona, it's because we actually had a track record for doing this type of stuff. That being said, it kind of got exciting because we're like, all right, so next stop, we were working on detoxification of joint health. Next stop, let's start working on some cardiovascular stuff.

Years later, I was asked if I wanted to sit as the CEO by the board of directors of that company. And I told them, no. I said, it's not really what I do. And I, after much deliberation, I ended up taking it as a project. I'd invested in

in the business. So as an investor in the business, I wanted to make sure that the business continued to move forward. And that's kind of what happened there. I ended up taking the lead on that company and I'm currently in the process of leading it through an FDA clinical trial, which is pretty

pretty exciting, but at the same time, quite intimidating. And we're going through the FDA process to get the FDA to agree that we can do and say the things that we know that we have clinically proven that we can already do. So that is our goal. A little bit of a curvy. What does the protocol look like?

Who's it for and what does it look like? Yeah, so it's actually an isometric... What does this protocol look like? Yeah, so it's a medical device company and the medical device itself actually looks like a hand. A lot of people compare it and say it looks like a barcode scanner or...

or a Star Trek phaser or something along those lines. And because of that, you know, it's kind of fun. But truthfully, it was designed after the joystick that actually is used to fly a fighter jet because the discovery of isometrics and their link to blood pressure actually was discovered in the U.S. Air Force. So that's actually how we ended up in this was that strange discovery. That being said, the device itself uses isometric hand grip strength.

And it doesn't, it's not a hand grip strengthener, albeit that does happen. But the device actually uses isometrics and there's a ton of evidence that actually proves that isometrics is very closely linked to reversing the age of the endothelium, which is the innermost lining of the cardiovascular system.

And it does so by forcing stress on the body that actually makes potassium move through the endothelial lining. And when it does so, it actually reverses the age of the cardiovascular system, which is kind of cool. That's really the science in a nutshell. But my goodness, it's so effective. And our clinical trials and everything have been absolutely amazing.

We've gotten write-ups from the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins University and you name it, they've talked about us because they understand the benefit of what we do. Well, how does this compare to exercise, going on the treadmill 30 minutes a day, three times a week for a month or lifting weights, whatever?

Yeah, it's not actually the same thing. So really what we're looking at is that isometric exercise is exactly, it's the exact opposite of stuff like that, to be honest with you. So we're familiar with, let's say, a sit-up, which is a concentric movement followed by an eccentric movement. So that's the up and the down.

The same thing with if you're doing a bicep curl or if you're doing a squat, right? You're up, you're down, you're in, you're out. Isometrics is the opposite. It's actually holding something at a very static resistance level. So think of a aerobic exercise, as you're mentioning, like running and sit-ups. So a sit-up would be a concentric eccentric, and that's considered an aerobic exercise as opposed to a

plank and a plank would be an anaerobic exercise and that anaerobic system actually forces changes in the nervous system it also stresses the muscle but in a very different way than an up and down it actually stresses it by having to hold it in a static resistance which

which is very counterintuitive to the way that the body's expecting work to be done. And by doing so, that actually triggers several survival mechanisms. And those survival mechanisms in the body, such as the release of nitric oxide out of the system and so on, actually lead to all of this. I say it's the combo shot to the corner pocket. And that combo shot is actually what leads to the reduction in blood pressure. So is the protocol just...

you know, like the in-planks and various other exercises and like how many times a week and like what kind of efficacy has it shown in test groups or cohorts? Yeah. So it's not a protocol at all. As I mentioned, it's actually a device and it's a medical device. As I mentioned before, it's actually shaped like a, like,

like the handle in a fighter jet. And the device itself is a biofeedback device that actually guides you through the exercise using grip strength. So it's not a protocol. It's not doing planks. It's nothing like that. It's a very specific piece.

piece of equipment that you use and you squeeze it and it guides you through how much to squeeze it, how hard to squeeze it, how long to squeeze it and gives you feedback the entire time, making sure that you're staying on track with what the intention is behind the algorithm that's controlling it. Does it take you time to build up even grip? Like, are there people that can't even do it because it's too hard?

Nope, not at all. Because what it does is it actually calculates, it calculates your unique grip strength every single time you use it. So it's actually using it as your grip strength and then calculating the algorithm that you're

based on you. So it does, there is, it's not a static amount that somebody, you know, everybody squeezes the same amount. What it does is it actually calibrates to your uniqueness and then ends up making a calculation and saying, based on how strong you are today, this is what we recommend you do. And then all of that is just flushed out while you're using it. So you're, you know, you're not actually involved in that process. It makes all those calculations without you. Have you crushed it in your mighty grip?

Or has anyone ever done that? I have not. But I'll tell you, people actually do make it somewhat of a game to see how hard they can squeeze it. And I laugh because we do get questions from people saying, yeah, but what's the warranty? And I'm like, no, we do put a pretty great warranty on the product. But that's because we understand that we literally build them so people can crush them every day. So we're pretty confident that you're not going to crush it. So it's target specifically blood pressure or ejection fraction or what? What does it do?

It targets, sir, it's a good question. And that is the device itself is actually, it's an isometric exercise device. So to say that it targets something isn't accurate. It targets a really good biofeedback exercise session using isometrics. That being said, blood pressure tends to be one of the byproducts of that exercise session. And really, blood pressure is a function of just increased cardiovascular function. So

what you're noticing is more blood flow throughout the body. So a lot of, for instance, men will buy one because it actually leads to a reversal of erectile dysfunction. And that's simply you're fixing blood flow. Some people use it because they want increased muscle recovery. Sometimes people use it because they want, you know, they're having migraines and it actually increases or decreases migraines, but increases, you know, the ability to manage that.

So, yeah, there's a lot of different things that it does impact because the answer is you are getting an increase in blood flow. Everywhere blood flows is getting an impact. That being said, that's actually pretty pervasive when you think about it that way. Like, anywhere the blood flows gets an impact. I mean, so, like, do you have, you know, I know everyone's different. Every situation is different. But, like, on average, what kind of blood pressure improvements are people experiencing? Yeah, um...

All sorts of different things, depending on, I'll say, the cause of the hypertension, because hypertension to me is a symptom of a deeper problem. So the symptomatic nature of hypertension is why is it like that? And then depending on how much else you're doing to eliminate. But on average, we notice about a 15% reduction in systolic blood pressure, about 10% in diastolic

And again, we're not saying that it treats anything. We're saying that we're increasing overall cardiovascular health. And because of that, you notice a lot of things happen throughout the body. This just happens to be something that's super...

non-conventional, something that can be done by a person who is somewhat sedentary. A lot of what we do see is, for instance, we see, you know, grandparents or someone who's older and isn't going to go to the gym and work out. This is something that can actually be done from the couch, done while you're reading the newspaper in the morning. You know, all of that kind of stuff is able to be done while you're using the device. It's not prohibitive in any way.

And so some people will experience, you know, a reduction in blood pressure. What are some of the other good outcomes that people experience from it? Use it in Greek blood flow.

Maybe resolution of erectile dysfunction? Sure. As I said, like anywhere that blood is flowing, you're going to notice some kind of increase because you're actually decreasing the pressure that it takes for that to happen. When you're decreasing the amount of pressure that's in the entire cardiovascular system, you're actually putting less of a strain on the heart, which is the purpose of trying to reduce blood pressure.

But yeah, things, as I said, like faster muscle recovery, things such as the reversal of erectile dysfunction. And again, we don't get into the specifics of, you know, because we're not intended to cure anything. We're not trying to make medical claims. But what you notice is when you're doing isometric exercise...

All of that stuff is impacted simply because the exercise itself has been linked to these types of key takeaways. What does a session look like? Does it have you squeeze it like a number of times? Or like what is an example? Sure. So when you're using the device, what it's going to have you do is walk through four two-minute exercises. So you're going to do it once on your right hand for two minutes, pause for a minute to kind of let your nervous system reset. And then you're going to do it on your left, pause for a minute, and then you're going to do it on your right hand.

and then repeat right, left. So per day, it's, you know, right around 11 and a half, 12 minutes, you know, depending on how long it takes you to get through the calibration stage in the initial part. But the reality is, is that it's not a big amount of time. Like as long as somebody's using it three to five times a week, kind of like lifting weights, right? You don't want to do it every day. But this particular device, three to five times a week, and you will actually notice an impact. I'm sure you've used it. So like, what have you noticed your own self? You know, how long did it take? You know, what

for you to notice anything. And what did you personally notice? Yeah, well, what I'm going to say is that some people, we have a healthcare system that is very much geared towards symptom reduction. So when we ask questions like, you know, how long did you take to get results? The answer is, I didn't take anything to get results because I've been using it a long time. So my blood pressure is not high.

You know, I don't have erectile dysfunction. I don't have these considerations because I'm not going to wait until I have a symptom in order to start doing the things that it takes to never develop that symptom.

And that's actually in people's best interest. It's not about symptom reduction. Rather, I want to see people really focus on wellness. You know, how can we actually end up with a system of wellness that is giving people the information and the support systems to never have the problem so that we're not talking about symptom reduction at that point? So, you know, to the question of how long did it take for me to get a

a result? The answer is I never had the problem. But I attribute never having the problem to the point that because I do the right things. I'll say as an example, I actually had made a change to my insurance and they sent a nurse to my office to do all my panels and I'm a 50-year-old man. And I said,

And when the nurse came to my office, she took my blood pressure and it was 110 over 72. And she immediately grabbed her pen and said, well, what medications are you on? And I said, none. And she said, well, no, your blood pressure is 110 over 72. Like you're on something. Like what are you on? And I said, nothing. Right.

Why would I lie to you about that? And so the reality is, is that her expectation was that I must actually be on some kind of medication because nobody has normal blood pressure anymore without doing that. And she says, well, for your age, that's very strange. And I went,

well, I don't understand what for my age means because I thought that was normal blood pressure. And she said, well, it is. And I went, well, why is that different for me at 50 than it is for someone at 30? Like I thought normal blood pressure just meant normal blood pressure. And she seemed perplexed that I was pushing that agenda because I'm like, but normal is normal. So I think that we have a tendency to believe that, you know, things could or should be different or weird or believing that aging is just part of the deal and we just accept decay as

And that's not my intention. I don't have any intention of winding down as I get older. I have full intentions of speeding up. Oh, that's great. That's an excellent blood pressure. Since you were already in good shape and you're caring for yourself, did you notice anything by doing it?

I've been using the device for years, the same way that I take about 75 different supplements a day. And then people say, you know, well, did you notice when you started taking this one? I'm like, no, I didn't notice anything because, you know, I'm already pretty optimized. But that's why I really don't lean on my own personal experience for this, because I'm not I'm not the key demographic. I don't actually have the problem. Now, I attribute not having the problem to because I do this. But nevertheless, I'm

What I will say is that I absolutely, you know, trust the data because I've got all kinds of clinical trials that prove that

that prove exactly what I'm saying. Maybe you should tell people it's your last name. That's the secret. Young. Could be. That's what I say. Like, I'm Mark Young. I'm a marketing guy who works in longevity. Like, the story writes itself. Actually, I've interviewed a lot of the longevity people. And the weird thing is they're usually in terrible shape and they don't take care of themselves. It's really not all of them, of course, but there's been a bunch, you know, the heads of companies that are looking into, you know, increasing telomere length and things like that.

And a lot of them are guys that don't sound good. And I asked them and they're like, yeah, I know. I don't take care of myself. I just thought it was a weird irony. I know you're not the only one, but I'm going to say, I think you're interviewing the wrong people because I have a lot of friends in this space. And I assure you, like I go to conferences for longevity all the time and they're the most attractive group of people in town. Yeah, no, I've seen that too. I've been to some of those, but I guess, yeah, I interviewed, I guess so. I guess I interviewed outliers, you know, maybe that's why they did it.

I was going to say, yeah, like, I'll tell you what, like, I got a lot of friends in the space and I'll tell you, everybody's in pretty good shape. I was going to say, if you're interviewing somebody who's not in good shape and talks to themselves about being a health expert, I think you probably need to end that interview a little early. Yeah. It's no different than going to the hospital and watching the nurses smoking out back. Like, um... I've been lectured by... Years ago, I remember this doctor, he was, like, really, really overweight. He was lecturing me about eating better. And I was like, in my mind, I said...

But you have a gigantic belly. But I was like, okay, okay, okay. Yeah. True story. I'll tell you one other quick one. You know, my dad, he passed now, but he was telling me like in the 80s or something, he was going to the doctor. His doctor used to smoke a cigarette while you'd examine him. Yeah, you'd listen to his heart. You'd watch the ash of the cigarette get longer and longer. And I was like, that's so crazy. You know, you think about it nowadays. But that's how it was for certain people. Used to smoking airplanes and everything else, right? Yeah. That's weird. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's one of the things that people need to understand as well. And that is the understanding of health has continued to change as well. No different than the conversations today about how the food pyramid is completely upside down and the things that we thought we understood about nutrition are completely backwards. And part of science is questioning science, right? We wouldn't be scientists if we just believed everything and didn't continue to ask questions. Yeah, true. So this product, is it available commercially yet? Do you have to get a...

a prescription? No, no prescription required. You can actually go over to Zona.com if somebody wants to learn more. They can absolutely run over there and it'll give them a quick primer on it. There's a video on there that explains how the device works. But I would tell people take a look at it. The goal behind using a device like that is obviously it's a health hack.

It is actually endorsed by darn near every major influencer in the space. Dave Asprey is actually a shareholder in the business, if anybody knows Dave Asprey. I see his picture on the site, yeah. Yeah, I think if you're actually, you know, if you're in the longevity space, it's kind of hard not to know Dave Asprey. But yeah, it's like the device, it's just, it's good science. It's good science. It's the ultimate biohack, as I call it. And the reason is simply because you're not adding anything to your body. You're not taking a pill. You're not, you're literally...

The definition of functional health is allowing your body to just get out of the way and let your body do what it knows how to do. Your body knows how to heal. It was designed to live. And using things like Zona are literally just letting your body do what it already knows how to do without having to provide it with some other kind of input or stimulus or supplement or anything else. You're just getting out of the way. Last thing, are you able to share like testimonials from people like,

or what their experiences were, meaning it's not necessarily representative of everybody, but any interesting feedback you've gotten on the duo? Oh my gosh, so much. And the answer to that is absolutely. Like we get testimonials of people all the time. We've got,

a 92% efficacy based on clinical trials. You know, we get people telling us on a regular basis that, you know, that they use it, that they've come off of medications. Again, I never recommend to anybody that they stop using medication because they're using Zona. But if you do start any kind of exercise routine, which is exactly what this would be, that you consult your doctor because you may find yourself, now that you're doing an exercise, you may find yourself actually

you know, medicated differently because your baseline has changed. But any, again, any interesting comments you've gotten from people? Maybe a couple that you could share? I was going to say interesting comments specifically. I mean, people have used it for a while. Yeah, people find the device efficacious. Their primary thing is that it's just so easy to use. Some people tell us that it's the most relaxing time of their day because you can't

you know, not pay attention to it because it's going to beep and squeal and give you visual cues and everything else if you're not doing it correctly. So people do say that it's an easy to use device. It doesn't require a lot of anything. It travels easily so that they can do it when they're on the road and don't have to worry about, you

you know, remembering to do something. So that, I mean, that's some really good feedback that we get. It's like people are, people are very happy. Obviously they leave reviews on Amazon. They leave reviews on our website, letting us know that the device actually worked for their intended outcome. So we get those on a regular basis and those are all posted publicly. We share that information freely. Well, very good. People go to zonahealth.com. Just go to Zona.com. Not Zona Health. Just Zona, Z-O-N-A.com. Zona Health.

Thanks so much for coming on the podcast. I appreciate it. Awesome. I appreciate your time, Richard. Have a good one, buddy. If you like this podcast, please click the link in the description to subscribe and review us on iTunes. You've been listening to the Finding Genius Podcast with Richard Jacobs.

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