10 Minutes of Intense Exercise Can Transform Your Health (New Research)

In this episode of the Boundless Life Podcast, is isometric training worth it? New research on 10 minutes of exercise per day, natural alternatives to metformin, and more. Welcome to today's episode. It's just me for this show, little old me walking on my treadmill. These are the very special times. I feel like Mr. Rogers when I say that, the special times. When I sit down and take off my shoes and put on my cardigan and have a little chat with you. In this case, I tend to cover relevant research like in the fitness, nutrition, health science realm that you might find interesting or that might improve your life along with— today, I'll be answering a few listener Q&As. If you have a question that you would like featured on the podcast, you can go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/498. 498, that's the number of this episode. BenGreenfieldLife.com/498, leave your question and it might get answered if it's not super stupid or about the strange growth on your right forearm that you haven't been able to figure out for 10 years, in which case you should probably go see your doctor. So, that all being said, I'm going to put one of these in my mouth. This is not a sponsor of today's show, this stuff, this pouch that looks like nicotine. It's called Set. And it uses serotine, which is nicotine's kissing cousin, and L-theanine, 80 milligrams of L-theanine. To kind of take the edge off. Uh, no crap in here in terms of the sweeteners. It's pretty clean, and it's designed to, as the pouch container says, designed to deliver focus and nicotine-like satisfaction with fewer downsides. Uh, Sett, S-E-T-T, a better buzz. Anyways, they're not bad. And now, I can be one of the cool kids doing nicotine except it's not nicotine and apparently doesn't have a lot of microplastics and the other type of stuff you get in the pouches. So, Set, there you go. I'll find the link and put it in the shownotes. Again, not a show sponsor, but that's what's going to keep me buzzing today. All right. First thing I wanted to address on today's show is I just got back from snowboarding in Austria. And although I have not been snowboarding too much in the past 5 years, my legs felt great. Little bit of delayed onset muscle soreness and what you would expect from 5 days of snowboarding. But I attribute a great deal of my ability to just jump right back into that sport and have strong legs without a lot of joint wear and tear due to my habit of isometric strength training. In this case, what I personally do is isometric squats. You might remember these with not-so-fond memories from gym class or some other setting in which you were forced to sit against the wall or get into a squat position and just hold it. Until you have lactic acid coming out your eyeballs. And I do isometric squat holds for 60 to 90 seconds on a vibration platform almost 3 days a week. Typically, when I'm strength training at home, I'll jump on this thing called a Power Plate. It's a vibration platform, drop into an isometric squat and just hold it. Fun fact, I also do isometric squats on elevators. It's just my thing. I have these little habits and I figure, you know what, every time I get on an elevator, I can drop into a squat and hold it. When there are other people on the elevator with me, I don't tend to do this because I don't want people to think I'm taking a dump in the elevator. But, if it's just me, I'll drop into a squat. And, when the elevator is going up or down, there's a little bit of a gravity component too. So anyways, what I'll do, for example, the gym is like in between upper body sets, I'll just go hop on a Power Plate, drop into an isometric squat, and get a little bit of extra leg training in. Now, the reason I am telling you all of this is I was recently reading the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. And it went into a study on whether or not isometrics could improve performance in runners. So, first of all, let's get this out of the way. You probably have a pretty good idea of what isometric training looks like based on my description, like holding a position, the bottom of a push-up, split squat hold in a lunge position, wall sit, calf raise hold, pushing against an immovable object like a wall, et cetera. But basically, isometric training is producing force without visible joint movement. So, the muscle length stays static, but the so-called neural drive and the tension in the muscle can be pretty high when you're doing isometric training. So, what this recent study looked at was holding a position for 3 or more seconds for 10 to 20 reps. So, kind of a unique form of isometric training. And imagine you were going to drop into a squat, you were going to hold it for 5 seconds, and then you were going to stand up, recover for 10 seconds, and do this 10 to 20 times. That's an example of kind of like the strength endurance that they were looking at in runners on this test. And they found that there actually was a significant improvement in tendon stiffness and running economy. And even if you're not a runner, this is interesting information. So, isometrics are going to train maximal motor unit recruitment without velocity. So, your nervous system is really triggered, but because there's not a lot of unlike ground reaction forces and joint jarring that occurs during isometrics, it can be pretty joint-friendly. And, what they found in strength and conditioning research is that you get a lot of force production, you get a lot of joint angle-specific strength in the actual angle at which you're holding the isometric position, and you get better stability under load. For someone like a runner, that would translate to less of a propensity to collapse the hips at mid-stance. And better elastic recoil. Now, distance runners, which is who they looked at in this study, distance runners are pretty heavily influenced by running economy, not just VO2 max or their maximum oxygen consumption, but how economical they can be when moving, right? Can you get from point A to point B? Think about it this way, like burning as few calories as possible while moving as efficiently as possible. Now, because isometrics improve force transmission and increase tendon stiffness, like the recoil of the tendon against the ground, they actually did see a somewhat significant improvement in running economy. And the cool part about isometrics is it's not something that adds significant muscle mass and doesn't result in a whole lot of soreness. Like I said, I'm doing isometrics 3 times a week. Many times during a workout, I'm doing anywhere from 5 to 10, 60 to 90-minute squat holds on a vibration platform. So, eccentric lifting in which you're actually raising and then lowering a weight, that can create muscle damage and some inflammation and some soreness. And, it does work well for putting on muscle, but isometrics create similar tension with a lot less structural disruption. So, you can do them more often. So, basically, the takeaway message here is that I am a fan of isometrics. Don't throw out the other form of conditioning. Isotonic conditioning is what we typically call standard weightlifting, another example of force-increasing relative to the speed at which you move would be something like swimming, like water training where the water's going to push back against you as hard as you push against it. But, during a typical week of training, I like to see some isometrics, some isotonics, and some isokinetics scattered in because you're hitting 3 pretty important parameters of just the biomechanical movement of the body. So, Thought that was interesting, especially if you're prepping for, I don't know, 5K, 10K, half Ironman, marathon, or whatever. Isometrics are a cool way to train, again, without putting on much muscle also. So, there was another study that was kind of all over the exercise science news for you nerds that follow the exercise science news claiming that just a few minutes of vigorous intensity training could replace— most of the claims were around 53 minutes of normal exercise. So, what was this study? They basically followed about 73,000 participants from a UK biobank study. And instead of having them self-report, their level of exercise, they instead measured the actual movement intensity using an accelerometer. An accelerometer is built into most wearables that most people have nowadays like your Whoop, your Oura, your UltraHuman, whatever it is that you use. And what they looked at here was all-cause mortality, meaning risk of dying from anything, cardiovascular mortality, major adverse cardiac events like a heart attack, and type 2 diabetes. And they wanted to compare how much moderate activity or light activity was equal to a minute of vigorous activity for risk reduction. Now, what they found was that a minute of vigorous activity, and this would be like above what's called lactic acid threshold, you're breathing really hard, what you'd think of in terms of like sufferfest, this sucks, it's hard, but it's going to be over quick. What they found was that a minute of vigorous activity was the equivalent of about 4 to 9 minutes of moderate activity for reducing mortality risk. And so, that of course suggests that vigorous activity is dramatically more time efficient. And they also basically produced headlines that said when it comes to light physical activity, a minute of vigorous activity, vigorous physical activity could replace 53 minutes of light physical activity. Meaning a 1-minute all-out sprint on a rowing machine or an AirDyne or a treadmill could replace 53 minutes of just light walking. Now, there are a few things to realize. Even though this wasn't observational and people were actually donning wearables, so they were actually able to measure this directly, that does not necessarily mean that the vigorous activity reduced all-cause mortality. It's a clue that it could work, but many people who engage in light activity might be doing light activity because they're too sick or injured or have some other kind of metabolic issue that keeps them from doing much vigorous activity because they were just observing these people. They weren't telling them to do certain things. They were just wearing their wearables, doing what they'd be doing anyways. And then, they compared things like risk of mortality, risk of diabetes, risk of cardiovascular disease, from the data that they actually found. And it was impressive, don't get me wrong, that vigorous activity was so efficient, but it doesn't mean that the light activity is bad or that the vigorous activity was the only reason that people had a reduced all-cause risk of mortality when they engaged in vigorous activity pretty frequently. This aligns with a lot lot of the literature though that exists when it comes to high-intensity interval training, when it comes to VO2 max as a very strong predictor of longevity. And if you look at the biggest reduction in mortality, it resulted from around 10 minutes of vigorous activity per day. So, we are not talking about a 40 to 60-minute like WOD. We're not talking about even a 30-minute spin class. We're literally talking 10 minutes of doing something that is pretty physically demanding on a daily basis. A lot of people can wrap their heads around 10 minutes, like just walk up that hill as briskly as possible for 10 minutes or hop on an Aerodyne and jam through some intervals for about 10 minutes that leave you pretty breathless. This. So, when it comes to time efficiency, once again, we see vigorous physical activity really winning the day. Now, I should note that previous research by, I believe it was James McKeefe, did indicate that once you exceed 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, you actually tend to see increased risk of cardiac inflammation, calcium scores, and atherosclerosis. I mean, you can definitely do too much vigorous activity. If you do the math, 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week, that actually would come out to not really exceeding 10 minutes per day. But if we're talking about truly vigorous, like really up there close to maximum heart rate, close to VO2 max, most people aren't touching 75 minutes vigorous intensity of physical activity anyways. Like, even most people just like lifting weights for an hour at the gym, a lot of them aren't getting close to actual vigorous intensity. But some people are overdoing it. So, sweet spot takeaway message is that 10 minutes of vigorous physical activity per day is very protective when it comes to longevity and definitely more time efficient than both light and moderate training. But remember, the best kind of exercise is the kind that you're actually going to do. And I'll link to all these studies if you go to BenGreenfieldLife.com/498. Alright, next up on deck. Somebody sent me a fascinating article on the website Healthspan and it's called Beyond Plaques: How Methylene Blue and Ketones Address vascular hypometabolism in Alzheimer's disease. So, if you're a biohacker out there, your ears perked up when you heard methylene blue and ketones. So, this is really interesting because if you look at Alzheimer's as a metabolic disease beyond just the idea of it being a bunch of plaques and tangles in the brain, we tend to see in dementia, reduced glucose uptake in specific brain regions. We tend to see some form of mitochondrial dysfunction, some type of cerebral hypoperfusion, right, like low blood flow to the brain, and then impaired oxidative phosphorylation, which is just impaired metabolic activity in the brain. It's basically a brain energy crisis. So, what this paper went into was how we might be able to address risk of Alzheimer's dementia or Alzheimer's dementia symptoms with ketones and methylene blue, two compounds that I actually use. So, in Alzheimer's dementia, you tend to see a decline in glucose metabolism. Now, we know that ketones, which I've talked a lot about before on the podcast, they can enter the brain via what are called MCT transporters. They can bypass the impaired glucose metabolism in the brain or what's called impaired glycolysis, and they can provide ATP via a process called beta-oxidation. Now, clinical trials on the use of ketones, like literally drinking ketones or using ketone powders, You may have heard these with names like 1,3-butandiol or beta-hydroxybutyrate. They have shown mild cognitive improvements in patients and not a full-on cure, but definitely significant metabolic improvements with the use of ketones. Another example of this would be my son is starting rugby season. And I'm actually going to have him using ketones prior to games because if you have them in your body prior to a TBI or concussion, you could tend to limit some of the brain damage that might occur because you're basically providing the brain with a more stable fuel. My preferred version of ketones is a mix of what's called D-beta-hydroxybutyrate and L-beta-hydroxybutyrate. That's what I put in the Boundless Bar. Shout-out to boundlessbar.com. That's what the company Ketone Labs uses in the form of GoBHB. That's what you'll find in KetoneAid. 1,3-butandiol is also a pretty— well, it's a ketone that works. The advantage to it is that it is much more budget-friendly. You'll find this in a product like Ketone IQ. The disadvantage is it's not quite as powerful as beta-hydroxybutyrate. It has gotten a bad rap lately because people say it can cause liver damage. You would have to use very high doses like bottles and bottles of something like Ketone IQ for that to actually happen from the data that I've seen. But either way, ketones are one part of this equation. And then, The other part of the equation, and this can be just for general brain health if you are in a state of impaired sleep, brain inflammation, travel, and circadian rhythm disruption, et cetera. But the other piece of this is methylene blue. Now, methylene blue is basically what's called a redox cycling compound. So, it can shuttle electrons in the mitochondrial chain. And if you are hypoxic or having brain issues, it can improve mitochondrial efficiency in a totally healthy person who's not cognitively impaired, who's not hypoxic, who's not inflamed. It may paradoxically not be something to use because it does kind of clutter up, so to speak, one part of the mitochondria. But at low doses, it can actually improve what's called cytochrome oxidase efficiency. Now, you would never want to mix methylene blue with something like SSRIs. It can cause some serotonin issues if you do. And, at very high doses, it might, because technically it's like a fish tank cleaner, it might impact your microbiome as well. But basically, what this paper went into was emerging evidence from this doctor named Dr. Francisco González-Limas, Dr. Francisco González Lima pointing to an issue at a terminal enzyme in the mitochondrial electron transport chain as a critical choke point in Alzheimer's disease. And the paper suggests that methylene blue may provide mitochondrial support that can assist with electron donation that helps to compensate for that shortfall in cytochrome c oxidase and enhance cerebral blood flow by increasing nitric oxide. And that ketones would also be an adjunct therapy combined with that to provide up to 60% of the brain's energy needs under certain conditions, specifically the type of conditions where there is low glucose utilization or compromised glucose metabolism, which you'd see in something like Alzheimer's and dementia. Now, the cherry on the cupcake here is that when you throw near-infrared light into the mix, which kind of photostimulates cytochrome oxidase and enhances the efficiency of methylene blue, you have a really powerful kind of like three-legged stool for brain issues. And you could try this, like if you're sleep deprived, if you're jet lagged, if you have some kind of inflammation going on, if you're recovering from TBI concussion, although I wouldn't take this as medical advice, I'm not a doctor. The use of methylene blue, standard dose would be like 20 to 25 milligrams. The use of ketones in the form of beta-hydroxybutyrate or 1,3-butanediol, and the use of near-infrared light like light panel, light bed, light helmet, or even intranasal red light is a really powerful 1-2-3 combo if you want to kind of biohack your brain. So, interesting stuff. Alright, next we are going to move on to Q&A time. Nancy Cardone says, Quick question. A while back, I was reading Ben's opinion on metformin and he suggested it could be good for good aging. I guess she probably means longevity. But now I'm reading he's not taking it and suggests other supplements. What changed his mind? Well, to clarify, I never really used metformin much. I did a few experiments where I took it just to see if it did lower blood glucose after a sugary meal. And of course, it does. It's a very powerful drug when it comes to that. The downside, and I have a whole article about this on my website, is that metformin can impair mitochondrial efficiency a little bit. It can cause some microbiome issues in people and it can impair a little bit the ability to build strength. Now, if you have diabetes, or severe blood sugar control issues, I still think the advantages of metformin would outweigh some of the exercise interaction data. Oh, and one other thing I should throw in, it can also reduce the response to aerobic training. And that's particularly in older adults. Now, if you're metabolically unhealthy, it is a useful drug. But, If you're metabolically healthy and you're training and you just want to control blood glucose and you want some of the longevity-enhancing benefits of controlling glucose via something like an exogenous supplement or pharmaceutical, I think there are better alternatives to metformin. In no particular order of importance, I would say there are probably 5 that that come to mind as the most evidence-backed insulin-sensitizing agents for humans. The first would be berberine, and there's actually a really powerful form of this called dihydroberberine. It's shown comparable hemoglobin A1c reductions, which is like a 3-month snapshot of your blood glucose levels, compared to metformin in some type 2 diabetes trials. You still get some some GI side effects with higher doses of berberine. But berberine or dihydroberberine activates something called AMPK, great insulin-sensitizing agent, good alternative to metformin. So, that would be one. Another would be some form of fiber. Now, even though I'm not a fan of this, I will tell you that psyllium husk has been shown to slow glucose absorption and improve hemoglobin A1C at about 10 grams a day. I don't like it because it can also irritate the digestive tract and cause a little bit of gastric inflammation if you're using it frequently in those doses. But, I think a really simple alternative is just having adequate amounts of digestible fiber with every meal. I really think there's something to the whole salad-first approach. On this recent trip I was on in Austria, dinner every night, there was a salad bar and I would just pile my plate with sauerkraut and fermented carrots and sprouts and extra virgin olive oil and just make this massive beautiful salad and have that before the entree. And by the time the entree came out, like, I ate it because I appreciated the flavor, but I wasn't actually hungry. And doing something like the big salad before dinner approach is kind of like a better alternative to psyllium husk. But the idea of fiber is another example of a metformin alternative. Cinnamon, particularly Ceylon cinnamon, you see modest fasting glucose improvements. Higher dose, around 2 grams a day, But doing something like cinnamon in a morning smoothie, cinnamon in yogurt, making a trail mix where you've got almonds and macadamia nuts, maybe a few chunks of dark chocolate and you have some cinnamon and sea salt in there, that's another example of an insulin-sensitizing agent. Myo-inositol, a pretty strong evidence clinically for insulin resistance for something called PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is kind of an insulin issue. Pretty easy to find in supplement form. And, that's at around 2 grams a couple of times a day as another insulin-sensitizing agent. You would not want to do all of these supplements. You would be hypoglycemic if you did. Typically, you just choose 1 or 2 strategies like take berberine before high carbohydrate-containing meals and have salad, cooked roasted steamed vegetables with every meal. And, that would be enough. And then, the last one, I love this because it's cheap, it's effective, you can find it just about anywhere is vinegar, particularly apple cider vinegar. The equivalent of about a shot of apple cider vinegar prior to a meal can— and I've checked this on my own fasting glucose monitor or my own blood glucose monitor, it can dramatically reduce your postprandial glucose. And I would also give an honorable mention to bitter melon extract. That is— so I have a supplements company, it's called Kion. That's what we use in Kion Lean. There's a few other insulin-sensitizing agents that we put in there. But Kion Lean, obviously I'm biased because I own the company, but Kion Lean would be another really good example. I also think the habit of a pre-meal activity that sensitizes insulin and a post-meal activity like a quick 5 to 10-minute postprandial walk is one of the best lifestyle strategies for keeping blood glucose stabilized. Typically for me, let's say I'm traveling and I have a big travel dinner where I'll be sitting for 2 to 3 hours. There'll be appetizer, there'll be entrée, there'll be sometimes dessert, there'll be sometimes cocktail, sometimes a glass of wine with dinner. An example of that would be in my pre-dinner shower, I do 2 minutes of cold. Cold is fantastic at stabilizing blood glucose and sensitizing you to insulin. And then, I will do a 10- to 15-minute walk after dinner, whatever, call my wife, call my kids, listen to an audiobook, talk with somebody who's at the dinner walking back with me, et cetera. That's something I pretty consistently do, cold before and a walk after. But, some of the other supplements that I mentioned are good. And yeah, the main reason is I'm not a fan of all the side effects of metformin unless you specifically have some significant diabetic-like issues. Okay. Last question is from Nick Collette. Nick says, "You mentioned in a recent post to keep your eye on DHT levels. Is there a certain range that you like to keep it in?" Now, dihydrotestosterone or DHT, that's a really potent androgen hormone. It's derived from testosterone. There's an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase that helps to do that, basically make DHT from testosterone. And, it's critical for male sexual development, for libido, for body hair, for voice deepening, but at very high amounts, it causes what's called hair follicle miniaturization resulting in male or female pattern baldness. This is one of the reasons that people who get on testosterone replacement therapy will sometimes lose their hair or go bald because the testosterone that they're on can get converted into DHT. And especially if people are taking too much testosterone in any form, cream, injections are particularly potent for this because it's such a large amount at a time. You know, oral testosterone, intranasal testosterone, you still get some DHT and sometimes it's high enough to cause the baldness issues that a lot of people are concerned about. Now, typical ranges for DHT vary, but usually you'll see the recommended range is somewhere in the realm of 30 to around 85, and that's in nanograms per deciliter. But there is no universal optimal for DHT. So, the effects depend on your genetic follicle sensitivity, what kind of androgen receptors you have, what kind of alpha reductase enzyme amounts you have, your sex hormone binding globulin levels, meaning if they're high, it could be protective against this, your estrogen balance, your prostate biology. Hair loss when it comes to DHT is also not just about your serum DHT levels. There are genes that are linked to hair loss like what's called the SRD5A2 variant. There's another one called the AR gene, another one called the GWAS loci. All of these can be linked to higher DHT levels causing you to be at a higher risk for baldness or just being at a higher risk of baldness in general. Now, DHT can increase libido in a lot of men even more so than testosterone. It feels more androgenic, It doesn't convert to estrogen quite as easily as testosterone does, but the ranges are really going to vary from person to person. Now, I think the sweet spot is somewhere in the range of, to play it safe, like 15 to 70 for DHT. But the main thing to know is that if you are taking testosterone, you are going to increase DHT levels no matter what. You are going to increase your risk for baldness. If you look at me right now, I have a really big head of hair. My DHT levels have been as high as 110 on tests, and I take testosterone. I try to keep my DHT levels below 100. They still tend to be a little bit naturally high, and yet I'm not going bald. Now, I do things that I've talked about in other podcasts. I derma roll my scalp. I use red light therapy on my head. I try to keep blood flow to my head by doing things like scalp massage frequently. I've even used shampoos and serums. There's one company called Scandinavian Labs that I like. I think probably the number one thing I do for my hair is I have a red light helmet. The brand is— look for Irestore. And, I use that every day. I think there's something to the idea of red light for promoting hair health. Listen to my podcast, and I'll put them in the shownotes, with Dr. Cameron Chestnut where he explains that the only real true cure for baldness is an actual hair follicle transplant. Literally, you can take hair from any area in your body and put it under your head. But, I think it is a good strategy to monitor your DHT levels. And again, it's going to vary from person to person based on genetics. But yeah, just like taking a bunch of testosterone willy-nilly and not paying attention to DHT levels can put you at increased risk, particularly for baldness when it comes to DHT. So, always talk to your doctor. This is not considered medical advice, but more testosterone is not better. And I personally I try to keep my levels below 1,000. And right now, I'm trending between about 800 and 900. So, there you have it. I think that covers just about everything I wanted to talk to you about today. So, if you like these solosodes, these Q&A episodes, leave the show a rating, review, thumbs up on YouTube, wherever you're watching or listening to this. And the shownotes are at BenGreenfieldLife.com/434. 498. That's bengreenfieldlife.com/498. Thanks for going on a walk with me. Make yourself smarter. Have a fantastic day. Hit subscribe. Leave a ranking. Leave a review if you got a little extra time. It means way more than you might think. Thank you so much.