In this segment of the YouTube video, host JJ Virgin interviews a palliative‑care physician (referred to as Dr. K). The discussion begins with the clinician’s observations about near‑death experiences (NDEs). Dr. K notes that classic reports of “seeing the light” are rare among his patients; instead, he sometimes senses a vague presence in the room when a patient is actively dying. He also highlights a striking phenomenon: many patients seem to know the exact moment they will die, often predicting their own death despite stable vital signs. JJ then shares a specific case—patient Grant—who, after emerging from a coma, described vivid out‑of‑body experiences, including traveling to other places in the hospital, encountering a “gray man,” and being offered a choice to return to life. This anecdote reinforces the notion that something beyond ordinary consciousness may be involved. The conversation then shifts to practical health advice: Dr. K explains how he provides strength‑building recommendations to patients, emphasizing personalized programs, compound lifts (squat, deadlift, press), progressive 5×5 schemes, and high‑intensity kettlebell Tabata workouts, illustrating how lifestyle changes can impact patient outcomes even in palliative settings.
Since you've been around people who have died and come back, and this is a total segue, like this has totally got nothing to do with what we're talking about, but any near-death experience stuff that you've heard or seen?
You know, so I also work in palliative care, and I, so I'm around death and dying a lot, and I've never heard from a patient of, of seeing the light or any kind of moment like that. But there are times, JJ, it's hard to describe that sometimes when you're in a room when a patient's actively dying or they pass, sometimes there's just like a general feeling. It's hard to describe. Some people will say it feels like a spirit is in the room or left the room or something. And I haven't experienced this with every patient or every circumstance, but sometimes there's just like, feels like there may be a presence. And it's tough to quantify or to describe, but yeah, to answer your question directly though, I've never heard from a patient that I've been involved with that, you know, I saw the light or anything like that. But one thing I do see very frequently, JJ, that patients know when they're gonna die, which is often a bit spooky, 'cause sometimes they'll look fine, and they'll go to you like, "Dr. K, like, I'm gonna die tonight." And as a young doc, you'll be like, "Oh no, you're fine, your vitals are good, like, you know, things are fine." And that night they'll die, or the next day they'll die. You see some fascinating things in this line of work.
When Grant was able to finally start talking again, he told us about the gray man. He told us about all the places he visited in the hospital when he was lying in the coma and described exact situations that he never would have known about, like where we were sitting, what we were wearing. I'm like, okay. And then He described the gray man, you know, being on the other side, what it was like being given the choice by the gray man and deciding to come back because he kept hearing— because I would sit and talk to him in the ICU. So I was like, there's definitely something, something more out there. That's all, uh, that's all I know because he says no space, no time, and it's just beautiful. So Let's go back over to the health stuff. So being strong, which do you have any specific recommendations that you like to give patients? Do you get the opportunity to give patients these recommendations or are you just like getting them out of the dire straits?
So JJ, this is one of the gifts that, uh, has come to me recently. So to answer you directly, no, my patients don't, I don't get to have that conversation with patients most often. Often they're unconscious, often they're delirious and they're not aware of their surroundings. Occasionally, I've had once a patient ask me about ketogenic diet. The patient was morbidly obese and I was so encouraged that they were willing to look at lifestyle modification. So I threw them a bunch of resources 'cause that was of interest. But the gift of the last few years, JJ, of being able to have platforms to advocate for some of this stuff has been an absolute blessing. I can't tell you, I mean, you know this 'cause you live it, but how rewarding it is when someone comes to you and say, my mom now is no longer on diabetic medications. My mom now is, like down 10 pounds and is physically stronger. So you could see her bicep. Like, that to me brings me so much joy because you're changing a complete trajectory of someone's life. And in the ICU, it's one-to-one, right? Where what we're doing right now is getting to thousands of people. And whether it's a half a dozen, whether it's 100 of them that they that this lands with, it's so beautiful. It really is inspirational to me. So to get to your question, so I basically like to, when people, I get a chance to talk about this stuff either on our show or when people track me down, I like to really try and meet them where they're at. And I think one of the things that is the most important thing when it comes to getting strong is, is personalize it. You know, some people are afraid to go to the gym because they're intimidated. So can you— what are the bodyweight exercises that you can do? And I'm personally a believer of, you know, if you ask me what I think is the most effective 80/20 of getting strong and staying physically active, I, I'm a big fan of compound lifts. Like, I think there's a huge bang for your buck. You squat, you deadlift, you press, you hinge. There's such beautiful exercises that in fact involve your whole body, right? And depending on what your goals are, like I'm a big fan of 5x5, so you know, just incrementally increasing that weight. So you're aiming for 5 sets of 5 reps. As I've aged, I've actually, in terms of focusing on more high-intensity interval training involving weights, like I've, you know, we will do a Tabata workout with kettlebell, doing kettlebell swings, Tabata workout for hang cleans, like things like that. But the average person that comes to me, if they're serious about trying to really get strong and increase their lean muscle mass, Push weight, compound movements, and you, you're always, in my opinion, gonna get results.
