De-Stress With Your Breath with Peggy Cappy

So I did a huge amount of research about the breath, Eric, and what we find is that the brain is so tuned into the breath because we can't go without breath for more than three or four minutes. So it gets the brain's attention immediately. And knowing that you can actually start to breathe in a way that is a non stressed breathing. And as soon as you start to change your breath in a non stress breathing way, the brain goes, oh, I don't need to send cortisol out. I don't need to send the blood to your muscles so you can fight or run away.

Welcome back. It's Eric Edmeats here with another episode and I'm very, very thrilled to bring with you a very good friend of mine, Peggy Cappy. Peggy Cappy is a phenomenal expert in the space of yoga. She's written some great books on yoga, but more than that, she's also kind of the face of yoga at PBS with her show, it's called Yoga for the Rest of Us, if I've got that right. I think if I read this correctly, you sold over a million CDs, DVDs, in the yoga space. So you have really had an impact in the area of movement. The reason that I was so excited about bringing Peggy here is that as many of you know, I've been working largely on helping people to figure out ways to stimulate their health and their immune system at a time when we really need it working. And movement is absolutely one of the keys to maintaining a healthy life, both in terms of your mental health and your physical health. So I'm super glad to have you here on the show with us today. Peggy, welcome.

Yeah, thanks. I'm so delighted to be here. And however I can help, what happens is you get tons of experience living and doing what you love. And when that experience all comes together, it's just, it can come out in ways that you never know who's going to be touched.

You know, Peggy, I thought about you the other day because we were interviewing, I was interviewing a good friend of mine, Daniel Priestley, and we were talking a little bit about reinvention and what do we do during recession, all that stuff. And then he said, like, you know, too many times people are off chasing opportunities and what they should be doing is looking inside. And he said they should be looking for their passions. And he started talking about the different. He was like, he was, I feel like I have a passion for snowboarding, but I don't. Snowboarding is a hobby. And he says one of the ways you know that it's a passion, is that you could sit down and write 20,000 words about it in a minute. And suddenly I was thinking about it. Like for most people, yoga, they think of it as a passion. But the truth is for most of them it isn't, it's a hobby. But for you, it's your passion.

For me, it's absolutely passionate. It's funny you should say sit down and write a book because I decided, oh, with this extra time I have now I have a book and it's just flowing out of me. I'm going to be, I'm going to write it in record time. I'm so excited. I'm so thrilled to package. I know in a, in a way that is just beyond what anything anyone has ever done. You're, you know, people will laugh when they see the title even, oh, I'm.

Glad to hear it. And I, you know what I'm up for? I want a pre release copy and I want in.

Yeah. Well, let me just say the title is don't get out of bed.

What's the subtitle?

10 Yoga Exercises to start your day in bed.

It's funny because the way you said that initially I thought you were holding it back. The big reveal. I didn't realize you were going to tell that. I think that's absolutely fantastic. In fact, a very good friend of mine, Sam, she says, I'm totally into yoga. And I said, really? Because at that time I was doing a lot of Bikram yoga, which I enjoy hot yoga a lot. And I said, really? What's your favorite kind of yoga? And she goes, bed yoga. I like doing it with a phone.

Is it Sam Horn?

No. I don't know how Sam feels about that.

I've taught some restorative poses.

So Peggy, let's jump in with this. One of the things that I've been making really clear to anybody who will listen is that our cardiovascular systems have pumps, our blood and our air have pumps because those things are urgently needed on a minute by minute basis. So we evolved pumps, but our lymphatic system doesn't have a pump because we don't need it minute by minute, but we do need it daily. And of course, in our traditional evolutionary life, movement was a fundamental requirement of existence. You had to walk to go and get water and fruits and vegetables and hunt and all that stuff. And so the body was like, well, I don't need a pump. We seem to be moving a lot. I don't need a pump. The pump is muscular. Contraction and movement. And of course, now we've got a whole lot of people sitting on couches and trapped indoors. You know, Peggy, I saw today that there are some countries that have now forbidden people to leave their homes except for what they consider to be essential services, which, of course is food, medical attention, and shockingly in Prince Edward island, alcohol. But in any event, one of the things they've said is that you can leave the house if you have a pet. So apparently in some of these countries, there are pets all over the place begging not to go on another walk because they're being lent out to their friends so their friends can get air. The point is, we need to move. So talk to me a little bit about, you know, how can people get started? Like, they're trapped. They don't. They can't go to a yoga class and they need to move. What can they do?

You know, it's simpler than anyone realizes. You know, I've been fortunate enough to study not only yoga, but qigong and tai chi and all those. Those art forms. And there's something that comes from qigong that's called body tapping. And let me stand up and just go over. In fact, if I put on some music. Could you hear that?

Give it a try.

Because it's really wonderful to do this with some sound because it just kind of gets you going. And this is a piece of music called Crazy.

See if you can put it right by the microphone. This is a first on Thrive tv, like interactive music. Can you hear that?

Can you hear that?

All right, so I'm gonna.

So if we're here, we just tap the side. Cup hands one side.

Yeah.

Good. And then the other side cup hands just all along the side. Now the test. This is where the sinus gland is good for our immune system stimulates. And then the back of the neck and the back of the should. And if you're standing. All right, then take one hand across the top of the shoulder and then come right down. And when you get all the way down to your hand. Right finger crossing. Yeah. And smiling is good, too. And then up the arm, Then across the chest and over to the other side. And that's happening with a little bit of force and down the arm.

This is so fun.

Back to classic. And then up beyond. Back to chest, down the front of the body, doing hips. And then bending the knees so you can have a long back down the.

I hope Facebook allows us to get away with this music on the fair use basis.

Then the bum. This makes a nice sound. And Then take the Mary a little lighter and lightly tapping kidneys, gently touching the chest.

But take a moment. Now I'm going to stand up. Just feel the body.

You've definitely raised the vibration, there's no question about it. I can feel a little circulation and oddly I've got a little glow. I feel like I had a low grade workout.

Absolutely. It really gets the whole body. Every part of the body gets charged up and it's just such a happy way to begin, isn't it, Peggy?

I really like it. You know, I had Allison Stoner on the show. I don't know if you're familiar with Alison, but she gave us this really neat exercise about she calls threading the needle. And it was just kind of this neat idea of instead of your whole body having decide what to do, you just have this one thing to follow and it just gives you this permission to move. So I really like that you did that. I imagine you must have some videos on YouTube and that kind of stuff that people can go and put on the big screen and follow.

I have some, but this is a call for me. I have a ton of DVDs that I've made over time, you know, many scores of hours. And what I'm just about to do is to get those digitally on my website. And I want to come up with like a no brainer, like a dollar a month. People can access any of the videos and I'll do little tutorials because it's for every part of the body. If you have arthritis, if you have back problem, whatever it is. And that's what I've done is made the esoteric body of knowledge, that's yoga, very simple. Because we used to think before 2000, we used to think that you had to mold your body to the specific posture. And some of the postures are truly weird. But what we found is we can adapt the poses to whatever's going on. So if you're injured in any way, or if you're out of shape, or if you're elderly, you know, we can adapt the work, just customize it to you. You can customize it for yourself. And it's just so powerful. So always in that when I teach we do tapping. There are several other things you can do to get that energy moving that really begin to warm up the body. Because also we want to make sure not only the lymph is flowing, but everything's just gently stimulated.

Good deal. That's really. And that's what we're all about here is like, I really have been trying to encourage people. They've got to find ways of moving that are fun and what have you. And by the way, one of the challenges I think people have right now is keeping themselves entertained and connected and all that kind of stuff.

And not glued in front of a screen all the time.

Exactly. But all of a sudden, you know, I was thinking a little bit about Grey's Anatomy, you know, the dance it out, like get the family up and moving around and play fun games. And, you know, even here's a great thing, even playing a game like charades that makes people. I mean, charades. I hate to say it, but charades is like. It probably falls very nicely into the yoga for the rest of us, because, oddly, it's undirected yoga. I'm just acting and moving. I think it's really, really, really great that you're. That you're inspiring people to move. And by the way, here's another example. Somebody who has yoga as a hobby might come on this show and talk distantly about yoga. Somebody who has yoga as a passion is going to get up and move the camera and actually demonstrate.

You know, I mean, and it brings me back to what I'm working on now. It's like, who in the world thinks you could do yoga in bed? But I've just been doing it every morning. I mean, independent of whatever else I do for yoga, I do some stretches for my feet and my legs and my hips and my back, because as I'm aging, my. My body really needs that. And as a result, I can say I don't have aches and pains that most people just think comes with aging, and it doesn't. It comes from disuse.

You know, I think more and more we are getting absolutely clear that the vast majority of physical suffering that humans go through right now is a consequence of not using your body correctly. And that ranges from not breathing properly, not hydrating properly, not eating properly, not moving properly, not getting enough sunlight. And it's amazing that if we do those things. And by the way, Peggy, I don't know how much reading you've been doing about this, but it is absolutely my opinion that we're going to get some fascinating statistics out of what's going on with the coronavirus and who's getting hospitalized and who's recovering and all that kind of stuff. And I think we're already beginning to see it, But I think when it really gets analyzed, we're going to find that what we consider to be lifestyle diseases, which what I would really call Them is lifestyle injuries. Right. They're just repetitive stress injuries. They're not diseases. But I would say that we're going to find that those diseases, obesity, hypertension, the type 2 diabetes and this sort of things, we're going to find out that they are major risks in a pandemic like this. And so it's no longer just, oh, I need to move and I need to eat so that I can be okay in my old age. No, it's so that you can get through everything.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm so grateful to you because I took your WildFit program and that really gave me a different way of understanding food. Even though I've always had a great diet in general. I just love that program because it just showed me that, you know, the junk that I think is a treat isn't a treat, it's poison. And if you live without that junk for even as little as one month, you have a transformation that takes place. It's just the byproduct of eating healthy.

Yeah. I'm absolutely clear that if somebody were to right now just focus on meeting those basic physical needs, breathing nicely, deeply, really circulating air, staying really well hydrated, making sure that they're getting some sunlight, that they're moving their body and that they're eating well and not putting toxins in. I am not suggesting for one minute that would prevent somebody from getting infected with virus because that's not how immunity works. What I'm saying is it might make them not even know they got infected or that their recovery would be a lot better.

That's what I'm planning on. I'm in one of the high risk age categories because I'm over 70 and I don't worry about the.

You're not over 70?

I am, but I'm not worried about it because I do these deep breathing exercises. So my lungs are in phenomenal shape. I don't have any other problems. So it's. If I would get it, there's nothing that would take me under with it.

You know, and by the way, and I'm sure you've seen this, but you know, initially there was all this like the virus is ageist and it goes after people based on age. But the truth is what I think we're finding now is it's not going after people of age specifically. It's just that age happens to correlate with advanced lifestyle diseases. And so, you know, I read the other day about this 103 year old woman that survived the coronavirus. Well, guess what? She Walked, she ate well, she was, you know, emotionally, you know, and, and yet the other day I'm reading on CNN about a 21 year old man who died from coronavirus. Now of course CNN wants to give us the most alarming headline they can and make it sound like it's killing young people. But the person, the kid had leukemia and breathing disorder. So I think the idea of the age being the filter isn't health is the filter and that puts you not.

In the health is the filter. I want to change the topic though because there's something really important I want to communicate is that I've just recently done a program of stress relief with yoga or breathing for stress relief. So I did a huge amount of research about the breath Eric, and what we find is that the brain is so tuned into the breath because we can't go without breath for more than three or four minutes. So it gets the brain's attention immediately. And knowing that you can actually start to breathe in a way that is a non stressed breathing. And as soon as you start to change your breath in a non stress breathing way, the brain goes oh, I don't need to send cortisol out, I don't need to send the blood to your muscles so you can fight or run away. And so I'm going to ask everybody that's listening right now just to take three neutral breaths so we can go to a starting place. So just a deep breath in anyway, out through the mouth, one more, last one. Now that's just our starting place. But can you feel the difference? So anytime anyone begins anything, you can come to a more neutral place just with those three breaths. But that's not what I want to show you. What I want to show you is how, how simple it is to send a message that all is well through the body so that you get to experience that. And what does it most benefit? It benefits the digestive system which gets shut down in stress and it benefits the immune system. Something we need to keep really, really active and engaged. So just a little pre story, I was going to take my granddaughter, 15 year old granddaughter to the mall several months ago and I went up to her room and she said, she calls me Yaya Yaya, I can't go. And I said why? And she said I was just put on this medication and I'm too anxious. I said sweetie, we can take care of that easily. Close your eyes. So she closed her eyes and I said take a deep breath in. And I said now like you're blowing out a candle Blow with a little restraint and, and try to double the length of that inhale. And so she said, okay, Eric. Four breaths later she said, opened her eyes and she said, I don't believe it. I'm not anxious anymore. Four breaths later, it's magical. So let's do that. Let's just take the time. You're going to breathe in and out through the nose. And the exhale is a little restrained. So the first one can be like you're blowing out a candle or you're trying to make a candle flicker but not go out. And we're going to try to make the exhale at least twice as long as the inhale. So take a slower, deep breath in and then a longer, smoother breath out. And so you've got to let that out even slower. So don't worry about the candle anymore. In fact, close your eyes. Deep breath in and then breathe out for that length. And then again, same length. And if you're wondering if you're doubling, you can breathe in to a count of four or five. And then as you breathe out, count that four or five twice. Do it one more time. So already if someone's sensitive to the nervous system, they can feel. Man, my whole nervous system is calming down. So where can you use this? Well, like in my granddaughter's case, if you're, if you're anxious or you have incessant thoughts and they just are controlling you, sit down, close your eyes, do five of those breaths. It's okay if you make it longer the exhale, longer than twice. We just want it about twice. But many people have either trouble going to sleep or they wake up at night, they can't get back to sleep. This is a fabulous technique to use. So I recommend those three cleansing breaths out through the mouth and then do this. I think if someone is programming themselves to do this, they won't even last five breaths before they drop off to sleep.

Do you know, Peggy, we do talk a lot about breath in the context of Wildfit because of the sort of the two way nature of breath. And what I mean by that is that we think that we alter our breathing because of our circumstances. In other words, something frightens us or something startles us and that we breathe in response to that. And that's true. But I think also what's happening is that our nervous system responds to our breathing. In other words, when our nervous system is trying to make a decision about whether the environment is safe or not, it's looking at a number of things, like are your Eyes darting around like this because that's an indication that things are not safe. And if you're breathing really shallowly, then that might be an indication that you're afraid of being hunted or attacked in some way. And so when we take those deep breaths, I believe one of the things that we're doing is sending a direct communication to our cells that says, there are no hyenas, the lions are far away, there's no dangerous tribes, there's no storm coming. You are safe. And I think that's one of the reasons that it helps sleep so much. And I think it's one of the reasons that it creates calm. In fact, I am almost certain that that is the largest reason that cigarette smoking is habitual, is that people go, and they light a cigarette and they go, Yeah, yeah. And then they feel good and they think that it's the noxious chemicals that are making them feel good. And, and it's really that they're communicating to their body they're safe. I really, I'm glad you showed us that. I think it reminds me, and I think it should remind everybody that right now more than ever, it's really important to take time in the day and tell your body, I'm safe. And one of the best ways to do that is to breathe like that.

And, you know, I'll go one step further. When I was working on the stress relief breathing, I have a Tibetan bell that I brought back from Nepal 50 years ago. And I got it out and I hit it, recording it until I had the perfect vibration. And then Alan, my husband, he copied it so that there are 10 minute tracks with just the bell sounding. And sometimes the bell sounds for 6 seconds, 5 seconds, 4 seconds, 3 seconds. And so it just goes over and over. So people can not even have to think all or count or anything. They can play the bell sounding over and over for 10 minutes and really drop themselves into a place that is so, so important. Sorry, I have to turn off my phone. That is so.

I thought you hit the bell. You were going, you got to hit the bell. You could have gotten away with that.

I could have.

Darn.

So. So this is what, you know, before I ever ask anyone to do anything, I really work it myself. So before I made this cd, I had a preliminary one and I, you know, our friend Jack Canfield, he has so many little things and he was the one that told me, you know, in order to create a habit, you've got to do something consecutively for 30 or 40 days. So I said, okay, I'M going to do this every day, 30 to 40 days. And I'm playing two of those 10 minute pieces. So either 20 minutes or 30 minutes, I really like it. So sometimes I do an extra one. But anyway, I decided to do that. And what's amazing, Eric, is that after doing it for 40 days in a row, it's just a part of who I am. I wouldn't think of getting out of bed without doing it. I do mine from bed because I don't fall back to sleep. If you fall back to sleep, you have to sit up. But there's these little changes that we can start to make in our lives. This is a perfect opportunity. There's so much chaos that we see from TV of what's going on around us and the worry and the concern. We've got to take time to tune in and use the resources like breathing. And so another thing that my good friend Jack Canfield says is to take that hour of power every morning. 20 minutes meditation. And this is a meditation on sound for me and breathing. So it's my 20 minutes breathing meditation and then 20 minutes of some kind of exercise. Hey, you could do 20 minutes of body tapping or some simple yoga and then 20 minutes of something that's going to be uplifting. So I read for 20 minutes and I really do. 20, 20, 20. It's not that, you know, it's not that huge amount of the day. I mean, most people, if they're stressed, but we have extra time now, so why not 20 minutes breathing, 20 minutes of some kind of stretching or moving or exercise, taking care of this body and 20 minutes taking care of our minds, that, that really bring us to a place where we're so appreciative for what's available to us.

You know, Peggy, I'm so with you. And I really like this idea that, you know, the idea of habit forming is everything from 21 consecutive days to 90 consecutive days or whatever. I think it has a lot to do with the emotional connection with the habit and all this kind of stuff. But here's one of the things that I've been sharing with people is that obviously this is a chance for reinvention. There are some people who will have their health absolutely degrade during this time because they went and hoard purchased frozen pizza. And there are other people that will come out of this even healthier than they were before.

Absolutely.

And there are definitely going to be some people that come out of this with skills that they didn't have before and with habits and routines as you said right now most of us have an abundance of time because we're not at minimal, we're not flying, we're not commuting, that kind of stuff. And many of us, our work has changed. So what if somebody were to dedicate just a period of time in the morning and maybe they can't, maybe they can't go quite as far as that hour of power, but what if they did start with 20 minutes? Because if they just did that every morning, then that might be a habit that they get to keep when this is all over. Yes, I really like the offer that. Let me ask you this. Let's say somebody wants to just get up in the morning and just sort of like open their body up. They want to move a little in the morning, like they've just stepped out of bed, pre shower, just kind of open the joints up and get. Do you have a routine or an idea? Like what kind of, you know, what would you give us a. Give us a structure.

So Bikram didn't do this in his plan, but Ashtanga and all the other things have, have a moving series called Sun Salutations, right. And so that is designed to open the body, to stretch it and open the body. So forward and backward bends. But you use your limbs, it works the whole body. I always tell my students, three rounds and a round is doing one with the right leg moving back and forward, one with the left leg moving back and forward three times. The first one, you're really stiff. I mean, I'm really stiff in the morning. Second one's a little bit easier. The third one is like, hey, this is really, really great. And I think I might have on my website someone can come and get a chart that they could print out that has three versions of it. One without any assist, one. But I really like using a chair to bring the floor up 18 inches higher so that you don't bend as far forward. Can I just go through really quickly? This is not how fast I'm recommending to do it, but if I bring a chair over and let's see if this is lined up. Can you see me? Do I have to change?

You could lift a little.

Okay, so you're not going to see my feet very much, but that's okay. I'm going to go through really quickly because what I want to show you is the flow. So we start here. Inhale up, exhale forward, one leg back and you get a nice stretch and a heel stretch both legs back. Sorry, I'm disappearing forward. And then it just repeats to come back and then we just take a side stretch and then that means the left leg moving now, left leg back. And you work with the breath. So exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale. So you know when I am a lover of yoga because people are gonna, they're going to go, oh my God. I was studying in India. I was doing an advanced hatha yoga training in India, also advanced meditation. I was there for four months and my class began at 4am in the wintertime and it was in an open pavilion of marble. So the ground was really cold, the air was really cold. 4am it's dark. It's not what you want to be doing. And they said now the class starts at four, but we're going to expect you to do your own warm ups. So you'll probably need to come about 3:30. So you know, you're in an ashram. Ashrams are sometimes really extreme. I'm not saying this is the best way to learn this, but they said the best thing you can do is to do sun salutations. They didn't use a chair. You go, you know, use the floor, they said, because if you do 100 sun salutations, you're going to be warm for class and you won't get hurt. And so I'm thinking 100 sun salutations. Well, it turns out once you know them, the first five rounds or so, you do very slowly, another five, you warm up. But then after about 10 rounds, which is 20 sun salutations, you can go one pose a minute. And because there's 12 poses, you can fit five of those rounds, five of those sun salutations into one minute. And five times 20 is 100. So in 20 to 25 minutes you can do 100 sun salutations. Tell you you feel good.

You know, this is a really good example of one of the challenges that I think we humans face is that we put our attention on the wrong space and time. And so we get up in the morning and we go, oh. Because let's be clear, Peggy, even you come on with all your passion. The first one is not the funnest one, is it?

No, it's stiff.

That's right. You know, the first one's the tough one. And so people, you know, but I.

Say that's why I do three rounds. You don't ever do just one. You do three rounds.

Yeah, that's exactly it. I noticed it when I first got into running, you know, long distance running, the first mile, I hated it. I hated It. But when I ran like, you know, seven or eight miles, I loved it. But what that taught me is the idea of going out for a quick 15 minute run is terrible because that means 50% of it sucked. Whereas if I go out for a 45 minute run, then only then only 10% of it wasn't so fun. And so I think that what happens to us is we look at the immediate timeframe, this right now will be stiff. This right now might not be good, but if we could just shift focus for 1, 1 second to the honesty of how good we'd feel after doing it, we'd be a whole lot more inclined to do it. And I think that's what I'd love everybody to think about is if you got up in the morning and the first thing you did, you know, go to the bathroom, you know, whatever it is you need to do, but within minutes, get up and do some sun salutations or stretches, there's lots of yoga videos out there. Just something that moves your body. You're going to not only feel better in five minutes, but I think you're going to find you feel better all day. And then of course there's the added bonus of it is absolutely supporting your lymphatic system and your overall health as well.

Yeah, yeah. And you know, we're talking about doing something, but in movement, we also want to be undoing. And by undoing I mean that we are putting our body in positions all day long that are not healthy for the body. I mean, like sitting, if you have your phone and you know, you're. I mean, I'm exaggerating, but you know, this is what happens. The head comes forward. I've seen teenagers with the worst posture. So what we have to do with our head too far forward, and this is most all of us with head too far forward, is that there's some simple ways. You know, before you get out of bed, take your pillow away from your head and you're just lying on your bed. Do a head press. Press your head a couple times. Press and hold. Imagine having the bed there. And also do shoulder press in bed even before getting out of bed.

That feels good. Now against the chair.

So this is like. So you can. Let me show one, one thing you can do. You can take the chin, jut it out because it's already out. And then imagine that you have a tennis ball or a golf ball that you're going to tuck under, pull back, you stretch out, you get that golf ball or tennis ball, you hold it and Then you pull the head back.

That's actually really nice. I can feel it releasing tension.

Yep. So that's really simple. So that's one neck movement. There's something, though, that I call hitchhiker. That is fabulous for your back. I have to back up a little bit to show it to you. You see how much I love to do this? So if we start with our hands out in front, and then we take the elbows out to the sides, then we make hitchhiker thumbs. Now, not too many people are hitchhiking like I used to do when I was young, but we lift the hitchhiker thumbs up to the ceiling. Can you see?

Yeah.

And then what we do is squeeze. First, pull the shoulders slightly back. Now squeeze the shoulder blades a little bit together. And pull the shoulder blades down the back while you lift the heart center and squeeze and hold. Hold for five counts, 10 counts and release. Squeeze and hold and release. Squeeze and hold and release. And what that does, I would do, you know, like 10 of them.

I have to admit, I just had a little chiropractic adjustment back there.

And how hard is that? It's just knowing what to do and doing it and.

You know, Peggy, it's funny. I've had a big metamorphosis myself this last year. And what happened in my case is kind of silly and embarrassing. But I've been in pretty good shape for the last 20 years. I climbed Kilimanjaro routinely. I. I could easily right now, if I needed to, go and run 20, 25 miles if I wanted to. I know, because I have to do that from time to time when I'm out hunting with bushmen and stuff. So I'm in pretty good shape. But one of our videos went quite like crazy. I had 7 or 8 million views. And then one day, I made the mistake of looking in the comments. And so mostly the comments were nice, right? But every now and again, you got some troll hater or whatever. And this guy writes, I don't know why he's talking about exercise, because he's not in very good shape. And I was like, oh. And I realized that my reaction was telling. In other words, if he'd written. And he'd go, I don't know what he's talking about. I think he kicked small puppies on the sidewalk. I'm like, why are you saying that? There's no truth to it. Wouldn't hurt me. But when he said that about not being in particularly good shape, I was like, that hurt me for a reason. There's Something going on. And so I realized I've been, I'm in good shape, but my shape isn't good. And so what happened in my case is I thought, wow, I've totally fallen off. Like, I'm doing all this sports and activity, but I'm not. I'd stopped doing yoga, I'd stopped going to the gym. I wasn't doing any of my home workout routines. You know what's crazy? I started doing them again and Peggy, it was embarrassing. I sat down here to do push ups. I'm talking push ups. And I really struggled to get five or ten push ups done when, like, I mean, it was really difficult. But you know what's really great to your point of like, this is a chance to start some routines. I did them every day. I did them every day. And within a few weeks, I was up to doing three sets of 25. My body responded fast. And then I went to do pull ups. I could barely do one. I was at Dave Asprey's house from Bulletproof. I was at Dave Asprey's house and he had a pull up bar. And I'm like. And we're not talking chin ups, you know, we're talking those wide arm pull ups that pull on your back. I could barely do one and now I can do sets of them. And I'm so encouraged by that, the physical change in my body. But here's the big thing. Everything you've just shown us about, like when you showed us that exercise, what's really crazy is it suddenly reminded me I used to have so much pain in my neck and my shoulders, especially doing the kind of thing I'm doing right now, all these interviews, all that stuff, I would be so sore. I did, I think three or four back to back interviews yesterday, and normally that would have had me crippled over by the end of the day, and it hasn't. And a big part of that is those muscles are healthy again. So it's really important that I love those practical exercises. Thank you so much.

We have to strengthen the muscles and keep them strong, but we have to always work with flexibility because it is the image that we have of old people, shoulders up tight, you know, hunched over. We've got to keep the flexibility through all the joints. That is just as important as the strength.

Yeah, I agree, I agree. In fact, the way I generally approach that through, through wildfit is that physical, you know, once you're done with hydration, nutrition, fresh air, sunlight, what have you, when you get to movement, I really believe that movement comes into three categories. There's cardiovascular, your heart and lungs have to be healthy and that, you know, and then, then there's strength training and that is building muscle density, which is incredibly important because it's not funny to think people don't realize, like when you go running, you know, yeah. You work on your cardio and you can build leg muscles and stuff. But the other thing that happens is the impact is actually good for your bones. It's part of what indicates. And the other thing that's good for the bones is the strength training. Because when we do a big bicep, like say curl, and we go to lift that, not only is the muscle being torqued, but the, the bone is being torqued which tells it to get stronger. And then of course, the one thing that I just see so many people leaving out, I go to the gym and I see these people working on ego muscles and I'm like, whoa, hang on, where is your flexibility? These guys can barely walk. And I think you're absolutely right. Flexibility is at least as, if not more important. At least as important as those other two. Very important.

But you know what you say about strength training for the bones. You know, when I was 50, I had my first bone density and I was just kind of curious to see because I've done yoga since 20 and when I got my results back, they said, we don't understand this. And I said, why, is anything wrong? They went, no, your bones are 20% better than a 20 year old's and that's simply from putting that pressure and work for the bones as well as staying limber and loose.

I'm still Peggy. I've known you for years and you know, and we've had lots of great chats and been to very cool countries together and places and all that kind of here. And here's the deal, I never knew how old you were. I don't think in those terms. But honestly, if you're in your 70s, you have like, just looking at you, your youthfulness, the way you move, the way you have redefined what 70's oh yeah, what 70 needs to be. And that's, I'm incredibly encouraged by that. I often get that comment about I just turned 50 about a few days ago.

Yay. See, it doesn't start to get good till 50. And really you have to be 60 before the brain can come together and put things together in a way as never before.

Peggi I tell this story sometimes, so people may have heard it, but my mom called me on my 21st birthday. And you know, by 21, like I was homeless at 15. And I got through that and I finished school. I was a self starter in a million, a million ways. My mom called me on my 21st birthday and she's like, happy birthday. And she goes, I'm really, you know, I'm proud of you. You've done really well. I just want you to know that when you get to 30, you're going to realize that as smart as you are now, you know, And I'm like, oh, arrogant. I was so, like, she's so condescending, you know, and then I got to 30 and I'm like, oh my God, who was that kid? Peggy, do you know that at 21 you can sign legal contracts? You should, you can get married and have children at that age.

I don't even think you should be.

Able to drive a car at 21. Honestly, it's insane. And so I called my mom and I go, I go, okay. You know, she says, Happy birthday, I'm 30. And I go, listen, you know what you said to me about that whole when I get to 30, I'll realize how little I knew at 21? I said, I totally get it. You are so right. And this is her response. Wait till you get to 40. So now you're telling me 60 is the number? I'm there.

The brain is not able to put things together until you've had six decades of living. I mean, really, it is phenomenal. It's so exciting. I don't know why people don't share the good parts of getting older. They find the worst. It's like what we see on tv. What I saw was these people fighting over toilet paper. Don't show me that shit. I don't want to. I don't want to fill my head with the greed and all of that. Show me the good things that are happening. And that's what. Tell me what good is in my body and what I have to look forward to because it is awesome. It is so awesome.

You know, Peggy, I do believe that one of the troubles is, is that in our world today, modern living, you know, the Ubers and taxis and, you know, like, I was in the US a couple, I don't know, a month and a half ago, and I saw this gym and there was an escalator leading up to the gym, you know, like, I think that when we. One of the things that's going on is that people are robbing themselves of what might be the most rewarding, the most stimulating, the Most excellent phase of their life, which is the last third, where the wisdom is accumulated and the life experience accumulated, the stoicism. Because look at my age, I look at some of the stuff that bothered me at 21, I hear 21 year olds and I go, oh, guys, like, honestly, it's like I see a kid crying in the park, I'm like, look, wait till you find out about income tax. The stuff you're worried about now. Well, that just keeps going and going. But the trouble is, is that with our current food regulations at a national level, our current food distribution systems being driven by profit and not by health, and our current laziness tendencies, I think what's going on is a lot of people are getting to 50 and they're getting older. And I think that if they recognize that they could, like you, get into their 70s and still be young, then the quality of those of those years is unbelievably valuable. Except for most people, they're in such stiffness and discomfort and inflammation that they're not getting to enjoy it properly.

Yeah, yeah. And we just have to come to a different understanding. You know, a lot of people are getting hip replacements and they get some, some view through an MRI or an X ray and they hear the words bone on bone. Well, it's really not bone on bone that's giving a problem. It's probably muscular as much as anything. And we just, we just need to educate ourselves as to, you know, what's really going on and what can I do to help myself not give over everything to the doctor.

Yeah, I agree with you completely. I have a lot of respect for, for people in the medical community, more even today than before, the people that are putting themselves at risk and going out on the front lines. And here's the thing, what I've really come to recognize is that anybody who's willing to dedicate that kind of resource, time, money, effort to go to medical school has to have a big heart and wants to heal. And they're pushed into an education system which is all about dealing with the results. And it's not about prevention. And that's not what they're there for. And I think that we have to be the ones that are responsible for the prevention side. If a doctor can become spend six, eight years in medical school and never study food or movement of the body, what they're there to deal with is, oh, there's something wrong. Peggy, I was in Africa a couple of weeks ago. I suddenly started getting. I was in the bush, like deep. And you Know me, I'm not like on some soft safari. I am deep in.

I know bush.

Yeah, I'm with you. So I'm deep in the bush. I have to come out of the bush for one day to pick up some of my buddies who are coming to do a week long stay with me with the Hadza bushmen. And I started experiencing stomach pains. Luckily, two of the guys on my team, one of them was a gut doctor and the other one was a surgeon. And they both did abdominal exams and determined that there was a really good chance that I was dealing with appendicitis. I'm in the middle of nowhere and the next thing you know, I'm in a field hospital. They happen to have a CAT scan machine. It looks like my appendix is in trouble. An hour and a half later, I'm on the operating table again. I don't go to doctors. I don't now I'm on the operating table and I'm awake for the procedure because I won't do the general anesthetic if I can help it. But that meant that I got to watch the procedure, which was pretty fascinating, by the way. The doctor. You want us to take the screen down? I want to watch. But no, they opened me up and my appendix had actually perforated like I was going to die. And so I am absolutely grateful that there are doctors out there in the world, world that are there to save us in those situations, to deal with trauma. And what we have to do is recognize that it's our responsibility to do the best we can not to visit them. And movement is obviously a big key to that. Tell me something. When did you start? Did this come naturally to you from the beginning or was there an awakening moment?

I've had an amazing, amazing life. Well, first of all, my grandmother did yoga and had a guru. I mean, like, who knew? I remember at about 9 or 10, walking into her bedroom and her legs were. She was on the other side of the bed and her legs were just sticking up in the air and it just looked so funny. She had these big, you know, cotton old lady underpants on and her legs were sticking up. And I just went, what in the world are you doing? And so I joined her at the time. And so it was wonderful to be able to have an image of an older person, person doing that. But I had the good fortune, you know, when I was. I got married at 18, at 19, just as soon, right before I turned 19, I went to live with an indigenous tribe in Papua New guinea, supported by national geographic so I had amazing film resources and that's where I saw how simple life is but on the way home I actually sold insects so I had enough money to travel for for seven months and on the way home I stopped in India and I saw this weird guy in a loincloth standing in tree pose which is a balance pose for the entire time that I watched him which was about 15 minutes and I was like who in the heck would want to do something like that and then I go well I wonder why he would want to do that. So anyway I decided when I got back to the US would find a yoga class and I also was kind of curious about meditation so I'd find a meditation class and sure enough I went to my parents because I didn't have a home at that point and my younger sister said oh there's a yoga class at our high school gym happened to be a great teacher I went the first class I had such an extra.