Brad Herman

A demanding career as a financial planner doesnâ€™t stop this Seattle-based fitness fanatic (far left in photo) from killing it in the gym.

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated September 28, 2023

Article by Joe Wuebben

On the surface, Brad Herman is a typical young, ambitious, successful guy. He works full-time (and then some) at a large international financial institution in Seattle, where he's responsible for all wealth-planning operations – tax planning, estate planning, retirement planning, you name it. Nice work for a 31-year-old.

As you can imagine, he stays pretty busy, logging 50-55 hours a week at work. Again, this is pretty typical for someone in his position. But what sets Herman apart from the average American is what he does outside the office. By the time he gets to work in the morning, he's already been up for nearly four hours with an intense training session under his belt.

In other words, Brad Herman is a living, breathing, hard-training soldier of the JYM Army.

"My alarm goes off at 4:45 every morning," says Herman, describing his daily grind. "I hammer out my workout first thing in the morning. I'm at the gym by 5:15, I train until 7:00, go back home, get ready for work, and then I'm in the office by 8:30."

Herman may be a young guy, but he already has tons of experience in the gym. He started lifting weights 18 years ago to get stronger for football and was hooked immediately. He landed a job at 24-Hour Fitness when he was still in high school and trained himself, as well as others, throughout his college career at San Diego State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance.

As smart as he is, Herman is also very supplement savvy. He's tried more products than he can name in the past 15 years, so when he came across JYM Supplement Science, he knew what he was looking at.

"I've been taking supplements since I was 16," he says. "I know the companies that are out there to make a buck and I know the companies that give a damn, and there are significant differences between each. I could tell right away that Jim cared about making the highest-quality products possible. I really believe in what Jim's doing, especially after meeting him in Las Vegas at the Olympia last year. He's definitely headed in the right direction."

When asked recently what he thought was the biggest difference between JYM products and others he's tried before, here was his response:

"Hands down, it's the dosing. With a lot of the supplements I took in the past, I'd be at the maximum dose just knowing that I was getting under served. Whether it was BCAAs or citrulline or creatine, whatever it was. From that standpoint, you could just tell a difference over time. When you properly dose, the benefits are there. With Pre JYM in particular, again, adequate dosing is there. But more than that, it's just a different type of energy. So many pre-workout products out there are stacked with a bunch of stimulants, but the only stimulant in Pre JYM is caffeine, and I love that. Also, the longer you use the product, the more you see gains in strength and size because you're supplementing properly, so that's obviously going to help your performance even more."

Herman's attention to proper supplementation – not to mention nutrition, as he also eats well and has followed many of the meal plans on this site – has paid huge dividends for him. At 31, he's still a young guy, but after nearly two decades of training under his belt, he can already notice the difference that age makes. Let's be honest, getting and staying in shape in your 30s is a little bit tougher than it is in your 20s. (And then there's your 40s and 50s, but Herman's not quite there yet.)

"Definitely as you get older, your metabolism changes and you have to work harder in the gym," says Herman, who's also completed many of the featured programs on JimStoppani.com, including Shortcut to Size, Shortcut to Shred and Down and Up Mass). "So utilizing the JYM products has allowed me to get back to where I may have been at a younger age, when I didn't need to use supplements to achieve my desired goal. For me, that's the big piece. As you get older, your body changes, but having the right ingredients and the right nutrients will assist you in overcoming some of those hurdles you face."

Herman uses the entire JYM product line religiously (including the newly released ZMA JYM) but he especially likes the JYM System – Pre JYM, Post JYM and Pro JYM taken around workout time.

"It's amazing," he says. "I've tried a lot of different products, but I haven't stacked anything better – ever."

Related Articles

Foundations