King of Hearts

Dr. Mehmet Oz

Inside the operating room, Mehmet Oz, M.D., sees hearts at their worst. He saves hearts and their surrounding arteries that are scourged by cigarettes, damaged by chronic stress, and hopelessly clogged by burger and Alfredo-sauce addictions. But Oz, an internationally recognized cardiovascular surgeon from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University, an Oprah regular, and coauthor of the best-selling health-advice book YOU: The Owner’s Manual, isn’t nearly as inspired by the near-dead hearts as he is by the fully alive ones.

“I don’t spend a lot of time scaring people with the bad things. I don’t think fear works,” Oz says. Instead, he lays it out straight to his patients: The heart has needs, and you have to meet them or it’ll stop working. But taking measures to keep your heart healthy won’t just keep you off the operating table; starting immediately, it will improve the quality of your life by making you stronger, more energetic, and more vital.

Oz himself is testimonial to that. Those who know him marvel at his ability to maintain high energy through marathon weeks, juggling a dozen demanding projects, and remaining fit, trim, and good-humored. How does he do it? Here, Oz pulls back the curtain on his own life and reveals how he keeps himself at peak performance and his own heart in mint condition. Copy his moves, and you’ll never have the pleasure of meeting him.

Dr. Oz’s 5 Favorite cardio workouts
You might think that a 46-year-old guy who is one of America’s top heart surgeons would hit the treadmill hard every day. But Oz, who works an average of 16-hour days with 10 surgeries a week, has precious little time for long, dedicated cardio workouts. He needs his daily exercise time to multitask and accomplish more than just conditioning; he uses it to wring away tension, bond with colleagues, spend time with his kids, and several other differing missions. Here are his five top cardio-training activities.

Power yoga: Oz has practiced yoga for 15 years. While he enjoys the mental aspect of it, he combines traditional yoga with more rigorous forms so he can get the spiritual and cardiovascular benefits. Power yoga gives him the chance to work hard but then also meditate at the end of the session, or even while in it. “I’m very hyperactive, so it helps get my body busy and my mind quiet,” he says.

Basketball: On the weekends, Oz plays basketball with people from work. Again, the physical rewards are only partly the motivation; the main reason is the competition. “I love the challenge of beating the other person,” Oz admits. “I always want to be on the weaker team, because I love the upset—the challenge is what’s enjoyable.” Hoops also gives him insight about human nature. “I learn a lot about people by watching them play and interacting with them,” he says, “to see whether they give up, how driven they are, how ferocious they are.” Literally, to see which ones have heart. “It teaches me how folks control their emotions and think smart about winning, rather than just hustle. It shows me their mental resilience.”

Tennis: Oz, a lifelong athlete who played football and water polo at Harvard, also likes tennis for the same reasons he likes basketball—the competition, the challenge, and the “playing” aspect of exercise.

Cycling: He prefers to ride outside, but if that’s impossible, Oz will hop on the stationary bike at the end of the day to break a sweat while catching up on work or reading (another multitasking opportunity).

Running: The best part about running, Oz says, is that he can do it anywhere, any time. He doesn’t have to schedule meeting times for this activity like he does with basketball and tennis. On an average run (about 4 miles), Oz likes mixing up his pace with interval-type training. For example, he’ll find some point in the distance and go all-out to that point. “Or if I go by a football or soccer field, I’ll head there and run a 100-yard dash—it reminds me of playing sports in school,” he says.

Dr. Oz’s 5 Favorite Stress Busters
We all know how vulnerable the heart is to tangible, physical dangers such as nicotine, saturated fat, or stray bullets. But the heart can be damaged just as badly by an invisible killer: stress.  Stress is ancient, and your heart expects to weather its share of it—in the way we did as cave dwellers millennia ago. “The human heart is supposed to have ups and downs,” Oz says. It can handle periods of extreme stress, if it can relax and repair itself afterward. When your heart is continually strained by the fight-or-flight responses to persistent, low-grade mental anxiety—e.g., the boss’s phone calls—it can break down.

Giving your heart the breather it desperately needs doesn’t require a deserted island and a hammock. Any tactic that lets your heart downshift (or flex its power to feed O2 to working muscles as it was designed to do), will do the trick. While it initially raises your heart rate, it also de-stresses your heart. Here are Oz’s biggest stress relievers.

Ball tag: “Ball tag is my stress buster,” Oz admits. He plays this game—a mix of dodgeball and freeze tag. The rules: His kids are one team; he’s the other. Oz throws the ball to try to hit the kids. If he does, it freezes that one, and the free kids can tag the frozen one to free him or her. “If I get all the kids with the ball before they touch each other, I win the game,” he explains. “After 45 minutes, I’m drenched in sweat. It’s an impressive workout.” Oz also likes the game’s fringe benefit: It makes his kids play as a team and teaches them that if they play smart and are athletic, they’ll win. And, again, focusing on the game makes him push harder and longer than he would during plain old exercise.

Plain old exercise: No matter what form he chooses, Oz finds that any exercise (especially at high intensity) helps him clear his mind and unwind after a long day. At the gym, his favorite exercise is the squat with 150 pounds (using perfect form), and he also does chest presses and bent-over back rows—with 45-pound dumbbells in each arm.

Watching from the sidelines: When he can’t join in on ball tag or he’s chained to his work desk at home, just watching his four kids (Daphne, 20; Arabella, 15; Zoe, 11; and Oliver, 7) play for a few minutes eases his stress. “As we get older, we forget to play—we’re so preoccupied,” Oz explains. “Kids very much live in the moment. And living in the moment is what it’s all about.”

Office yoga: Oz can’t play ball tag at the hospital (the administrators just won’t warm to it), but he can shut his door and do a couple of yoga moves while taking deep breaths. Alternatively, he’ll just bend and touch the floor with his hands. “I keep my tension in my hips and lower back,” he says. (Tip: Figure out where you store your tension. Then find a stretch that targets it.)

The lip lick: In a moment of stress or frustration, do this 3-second exercise that Oz relies on. Breathe in, lick your lips, swallow, and breathe out slowly, saying “ohm.” It’s a soothing move that helps you reset, calm down, and refocus in stressful times.

Dr. Oz’s 5 Favorite Exercises
The heart isn’t the only muscle that Oz trains. He does resistance exercises to build strength and stay lean, as muscle burns more calories at rest than fat. He focuses on “foundation muscles”—those in his legs, his core (abs, hips, trunk), chest, and back—and prefers moves that target several large muscles at once and also increase his stamina…as you’ll see. On Saturday and Sunday, he does a 20-minute workout of about 18 tortuous exercises like the ones mentioned here, which is laid out in his new book YOU: On a Diet. They require no weights, so he can easily do them on the road. His favorites:

Planks: Get in push-up position, but with your elbows on the floor instead of your hands. Keeping your back straight, hold that position for as long as you can. Sounds easy? Try to last a full minute. This strengthens your entire core—from your abs to your lower back. Having a powerful core is critical to Oz, due to an occupational hazard. “Heart surgeons retire early because of back problems,” he reveals. “We’re always leaning over patients.”

The electric chair: For strengthening your legs, stand with your back against a wall and slide your back down it until you’re in a squat position (as if you’re sitting in a chair). Hold that position for as long as you can. Oz calls the move the electric chair because, well, after 45 seconds or so, it’ll be obvious.

Bicycle: Lie on your back, and bring your right knee up to your torso while bringing your left elbow toward the knee. Alternate legs and arms in a bicycle motion to work your abdominal muscles for as long as you can, working up to 2 minutes.

Push-ups: The no-frills classic. He does as many as he can with strict form during his weekend workout. He also sneaks in 60 to 80 push-ups every day, in sets of 10 or 20 in stolen moments (also a stress-buster).

Rickety table: Get on your hands and knees, keeping your back flat, so your body looks like a table. Raise your left leg straight back behind you and raise your right arm straight in front of you, so that both your arm and leg are even and parallel with your back. Bring them back to the ground, and now raise your right leg and left arm. Alternate and do 10 to 12 on each side. This trains your core, and both your upper and lower body. To make it harder, hold dumbbells during the move.