Episode #220: Natural Ways To Protect Yourself From Radiation - And Our Biggest Fitness Q&A Ever (Featuring A Very Special Guest Podcast Sidekick)

In this special epic episode of the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast, Natural Ways to protect yourself from radiation. Is adrenal fatigue a myth? Do elevation training masks work? What's the difference between sprouting and soaking? How to recover from a meniscus removal? Do vibration plates actually work? How to build muscle fast? What are my recommended RSS feeds for fitness? How to overcome sugar addiction. How to learn from your training logs. How to keep your run cadence high. Does covering your hands and feet in cold training burn more calories? What should kids eat before soccer games and exercise? And should you be concerned if your body temperature is too low? Oh, boy, this is gonna be fun. Welcome to the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast.

We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlon, and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the nation.

So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or.

You'Re just trying to shed a few.

Pounds, get ready for non run of the mill, cutting edge content from BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield. And as you may know, if you're a regular podcast listener, my usual sidekick, Brock Jason Skywalker Armstrong is off gallivanting around in Thailand with his girlfriend ever since we split ways after the race over there. So he's not even with us for the next two weeks. I have a special surprise podcast sidekick sidekick here with you. I had to sleep with her to get her to actually come on the podcast with me, but she's here. She's live. None other than the world famous.

I don't come easy either.

Take that for what you will. The world famous Jessa Greenfield.

Hi.

So our kids are in the other room watching a cartoon. We separated our dog. One's in here in the office and the other one's off somewhere else. So they don't fight with each other while we're podcasting. And if you didn't notice from the intro, we have a ton of questions. Yeah, I should have warned Jessa in advance.

Yeah, we sure do.

This might end up actually being kind of a long podcast. I actually just whipped up some lamb osso buco, which happens to be.

I'm super excited about. Cause I didn't have to cook.

And I made pad thai the other night.

I know he came back from Thailand and he's like a different person. Send him back.

Jessa just sits on her butt now. And rather than podcasting at the ungodly morning hour that I usually podcast with Brock, instead, it's like it's Friday evening. We're both drinking wine right now.

This is only going to get better.

So this is only going to get better, as a matter of fact, on Monday, you guys, if you're listening in, beware, because Monday I've written an epic article on how to get over a hangover as fast as possible and all the different pills and capsules and remedies that are out there. What works, what doesn't. I've had to go through a painful amount of self experimentation to bring this article to you. Some rough nights, some rough mornings. Actually, the nights are fun, but be sure to check that out if you're listening in. I'm going to release that on Monday and this podcast is going to be released, I believe, on a Saturday. So before we jump into the usual news flashes that we typically start this podcast out with a couple quick things. So I raced in Thailand. Yeah. And it went well. As listeners know. I've been kind of going with this whole minimalist training approach and doing some short treadmill sprints and really short swims and basically mountain biking.

How's that working for you?

I've been on my triathlon bike twice leading up to these races over in Thailand and they went really well.

So I'm gonna be like an amazing athlete because I don't do anything.

Jessa and I, we're training right now for a 700 mile adventure race.

I do train a little.

We bought each other mountain bikes for our 10 year anniversary. So we've been doing lots of mountain biking.

Yeah. But now it's snowing or going to snow and she. That might end.

She's a softy. I just put a light on my bike and go.

You don't have kids to pull around in a trailer.

They're my kids.

Oh, yeah. But, you know, I don't see you pulling them.

I don't have a trailer for my mountain bike. All right, so now that we've lost all of our listeners. Anyways, just want to let you guys know the races in Thailand did go really well and I'll write a race report on those soon. I used my usual new nutrition protocol of you can super starch along with some energy. 28. Used my Chinese adaptogenic herbs the whole time I was over there and everything was just super duper solid. And of course, anytime I'm traveling anywhere that's remotely suspect, I always bring along with me a liver cleanse, one called Capricleanse to basically cleanse out my gut should anything bad get into my system. Because as Jessa knows It's usually pretty rare that I come back from someplace like Thailand without something weird inside of my body or my gut.

It's kind of hard not to catch anything over there.

And then I travel with, like, a pharmaceutical grade probiotic and then oil of oregano, Those three things.

What about charcoal?

Boom. Bamboo. Activated charcoal works well. I didn't have it with me. One thing it doesn't work well, though, for is hangovers. It's sold in a lot of hangovers.

I'm really stuck on that.

Well, it's because I just wrote the big article on it. Doesn't work for hangovers, it turns out. So my apologies to anyone I've ever recommended that to, but it does work. If you eat some bad meat, you get some food poisoning, whatever. Traveling with charcoal works. So, that being said, the way that this podcast works, Jessa, is that we always follow up our introductory banter with some news flashes, some timely news flashes. So we're going to jump into this. Those.

News flashes.

How do you like that news flash?

That's some good lead up music. That was like, right out of CNN or something.

Yeah, cnn. Or Fox.

Or Fox or whatever news you prefer.

I'm gonna pull up our microphone volume here. My apologies, by the way. If you guys listening to this podcast and the audio ends up not being perfect, it's because we don't have.

I'm pretty sure I have a really bad radio voice, too.

I'm pre. Or that you're better than Brock.

I can't do that really hot Australian accent, though.

Brock's gonna come back and quit. Brock's Canadian, actually.

Is he Canadian? Oh, I thought he was from Australia. I'm sorry, Brock.

It's similar. Canada and Australia. They're absolutely nothing alike. Okay, so I did.

I was in Canada.

I tweeted a few things over@twitter.com BenGreenfield this week. And I'm gonna give you three of the things that I talked about to make you a better person. First of all, I tweeted that you should be careful if you're using high dose branched chain amino acids, especially when combined with a low carbohydrate diet. And I did get some responses to that tweet. People were like, what the heck are you talking about? Why does this even matter?

I don't even know what you're talking about.

So lots of people these days use branched chain amino acids. Those are like the sexy supplement on the scene. They'll pop them before weight training workouts. They're in a lot of, like, they Even put them in like sports gels and stuff these days.

And what are they supposed to.

Well, there's three amino acids. Leucine, isoleucine and valine. And what they do is they essentially send a message to your brain that you've got high blood levels of amino acids so you don't cannibalize muscle as quickly. And so your brain also doesn't fatigue quite as quickly. But the interesting thing is they did this study in rats where they found that some amino acids are good when it comes to performance, but more are not better. So they jacked up some of these rats on a high dose branched chain amino acid supplement. Meaning they were giving them, they're giving them what would be the equivalent of if you were out there training about 10 grams an hour, which is actually doable to do. If you were using a branched chain amino acid supplement, this would be like around four scoops of it or so. What happens though is when you're using too many amino acids during a workout, your body produces ammonia as a metabolic byproduct of any time it's breaking down protein. But what happens is that ammonia can cross your blood brain barrier. And when you've got high blood levels of ammonia, there's enough there to send an ammonia toxicity signal to your brain that essentially causes exercise fatigue.

So it's the exact opposite effect.

Yeah, so it's basically a more is not better type of thing. So, and what I followed up, the tweet was, was this is especially true if you're on a low carb diet because most people that are on a low carb diet are substituting that with more protein and some other things that can jack up ammonia levels even more. So you need to be careful. If you're using branching amino acids, don't use too Many, don't exceed 10 grams an hour basically of anything.

Otherwise you'll be achieving the exact opposite of that.

Yeah, you've heard me talk about using master amino pattern amino acids before. That's kind of like the more expensive version of branching amino acids. Same thing, don't exceed 10 an hour. So that's your little takeaway from that tweet. The next thing that I mentioned in a tweet was about colostrum and basically a recent news flash, or I'm sorry, not colostrum, the other thing, probiotics. Basically what I treated was that probiotics have been shown to decrease intestinal permeability and help with your gut during exercise and in hot weather.

I believe it.

The reason I tweeted this was because they did a recent study that they found that this was indeed the case. And for you to understand why this is even important, you gotta understand what leaky gut syndrome is. So basically your entire.

This is a huge problem for a lot of people.

It is, it is, it's almost like blown out of proportion sometimes because your gut is supposed to be permeable, right? Because it's how stuff crosses from your gut into the rest of your bloodstream. So your intestines are meant to let certain amounts of nutrients and fluid pass through. Through. But your entire layer of your intestinal tract is made up of all these cells that are called epithelial cells. And all those epithelial cells are bound to one another or connected to one another by special proteins. And these proteins form what are called tight junctions. And some of these proteins you may have heard of before, you may have heard zonulin is one that gets thrown around, occludin is another. And basically all of this array of these proteins and these cells form this tight intestinal barrier that in a perfect scenario only let certain things through. But if you've been eating a lot of wheat and actually I'll talk about some other things in a second that can cause leaky gut, what happens is too many things pass through that intestinal barrier and you wind up with getting a lot of toxins, autoimmune issues. Your body mounts an inflammatory reaction against these undigested proteins circulating around the bloodstream. And what's really interesting is that once the temperature of your gut gets above about 40 degrees Celsius, intestinal permeability goes up even more. These tight junctions open up. So you throw somebody into a marathon or a triathlon in hot weather. And actually it doesn't even have to be like a full on endurance event. It can just be like getting really.

That why people have stomach issues.

It's not only one of the main reasons that people have stomach issues, but it's one of the main reasons that if you're taking ibuprofen or like non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs, you're screwing yourself completely because the pharmaceuticals end up undigested in your bloodstream. And so you can also get some kidney issues and stuff. But the takeaway message is that you get leaky gut syndrome during heat or during what's also caused or what's also called, and this is going to be a big word I'm going to throw in there, ischemic perfusion.

Okay, what was that?

Basically it's a huge amount of blood pressure in your gut when you're exercising really hard. So exercising hard can give you a leaky gut. Exercising in the heat can give you leaky gut. I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise hard or exercise in the heat. What I am saying is that if that is in your plans, you should take some supplements that have been shown to help alleviate leaky gut syndrome. And also stay away from stuff that contributes to leaky gut syndrome. So remember in Spain when I, like, I rarely ever have stomach issues, you.

Are just loving that bread.

And I did the IT world championship.

How can you be in Spain and.

Not eat in Spain? Jessa was with me and we were.

Doing like tapas everywhere.

Tapas, you know, so everything served on bread. And we were doing wine and I.

Had a lot of fun.

Okay, so alcohol and caffeine can contribute to leaky gut syndrome. Wheat and gluten can contribute to leaky gut syndrome. I'm mentioning to you, like, all the things that you should avoid if you're. If you're going into an event that's really important to you and nutrient absorption is important to you. So gliadin from wheat and gluten. Alcohol can actually really wreak havoc on the permeability of your intestines. So I'm not talking about a glass of wine. I'm talking about, like tying one on the same week as you're going to be going out and doing a hard race. Capsaicin. Any other hot spices? That was one thing I was really careful with on this trip to Thailand was two days before the race, I.

Started getting five stars. Getting maybe two.

No, I would. I forget the word. It's like pedmai. I would say no pedmai. When. So I would get everything with spices on the side so that I could just get it kind of bland and add spices the way that I wanted them. And then as I already mentioned, non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs, not only do they become more dangerous, but they can also contribute to leaky gut. So those are some of the things to stay away from the week of.

Like, don't do drugs, don't drink wine, don't eat bread. Right.

Jessa makes this sound like going to prison. Just have some water and colostrum. But seriously, colostrum can help. I actually use colostrum. I load with the Capra colostrum from Mount Capra. That's just like, it's because it's easily digestible. Well, it's all kids. All babies are born with leaky guts. And babies that get raised on formula, they end up later on in life having more gut issues than kids that get mother's milk because of the colostrum that closes up those tight junctions. So colostrum can help. Probiotics can help for similar reasons. And so those are two things that you would want to supplement with if you want to really help out with the integrity of those tight junctions. Butyrate, which you could get easily in like grass fed butter as a source of short chain fatty acids, has been found to decrease gut permeability in a study that was just done this year. So butyrate just from including butter in your diet can help. Fats in general, incidentally, can really help with the mucosal barrier. Being careful not being on like two, two. A low carb diet. Like some people take the low carb.

Diet thing to an extreme. Oh yeah, I know.

Well, you need a certain amount of carbs to produce tears and to produce mucus. And so, like if you're on a low carb diet and you've got dry eyes and you're never snotting up or having to blow your nose or anything like that, it's a pretty good indicator that you probably aren't producing enough mucosa in your intestinal lining. And so that's another issue is being.

On a super duper for digestion. Yeah.

Low carb diet. Yeah, you need mucus for digestion. Lactoferrin, which I really recommended a lot before for bone health and muscle healing, can also help with your gastric or decreased gastric permeability. That's something that's found in another one of those Mount Capra supplements that I recommend. It's called lactoferrin. It's in Capriflex.

Okay. Which I take. I didn't know that.

And then was there anything else I wanted to go over? Oh, there was one other thing. Glutamine, which basically you get in a lot of protein powders. Most good protein powders have decent levels of glutamine in them. This is actually, this particular tweet is a big win for that company, Mount Capra, because I use their protein powder, which actually has a special kind of probiotic spore in it that opens up in your stomach and coats the lining of your stomach. I use their cap reflex, which has a lactoferrin in it. I use their capro colostrum and I use their caprobiotics. And I purposefully did not anticipate this being a commercial for.

They're good people, they deserve it.

There you go. But I'm just now realizing, like, that that supplement protocol is super duper good for gut permeability. So that was another tweet, another news flash, and then the last thing that I tweeted, and I simply put this out there just because I travel with it and I swear by it. For jet lag and for relieving the symptoms of jet lag. I had pretty much zero jet lag when I got to Thailand. 0. Also coming back, going east to west. Like, my biggest jet lag was I told Jessa last night, I woke bolt upright at 2am and I was like, yeah, let's go. I was just like, time for the day to start. I'm like, wait a second.

No, honey, back to bed.

And then I just went back to bed. And that was it. Even if you want to call that jet lag, I've been fine. And I'm blaming it.

Yeah, you have been doing really good.

I'm blaming it. On this Earth pulse, I had the team chiropractor and kind of the team guru for Team Radio Shack, a really good professional cycling team, on this podcast a couple of years ago, and he talked about something I'd never heard of before. It was called grounding or earthing. And they're these special mattresses that these guys in the Tour de France sleep on when they're traveling. And essentially what they actually do is they. And I'm gonna get kind of woo, woo here. They harness the energy of the Earth. So the Earth puts out this magnetic field pulse. And these grounding mats literally plug into the wall. They ground you to the Earth. And when you're traveling and you're flying on airplanes and you're stressed out, you get a large buildup of what are called negative ions in your body. And the idea behind grounding or earthing is that it draws out the these ions. You could get a similar effect, not quite as extreme, but something similar by, like, going outside and doing yoga in your bare feet. Like, that's another way that you literally can help out with.

You have to do it on, like, actual physical ground, actual Earth.

Like, the Earth. Like, you have to be in contact with the Earth. And there are whole books. There's a really good book out there called earthing.

So the Earth will pull out of you.

Yeah, okay. Careful. Don't knock over the microphone.

I don't mean to pull out the microphone. I'm sorry.

So anyways, the deal for me is that I don't travel with a grounding mat or an earthing mat. And I especially don't travel with a mattress.

Come on, isn't you think your bike's oversized?

As a free carry on, I use this little magnetic donut sized object that I put underneath my mattress. North pole facing up, south pole facing down. And it pulls the magnetic fields out literally from the earth. I interviewed the guy that made it on a podcast that I did a while ago called how to Sleep Better. But this thing is like grounding on steroids called the Earth Pulse. You got to have some disposable income to get this because it's like, I think it's $500 or $600.

Okay.

But if you travel a lot, it's one of the best investments you could make. I mean, because I think the way I've explained it to people before is this, like a good night's sleep to me is worth about.

Yeah, I was going to say if you really see results, then $500 is definitely worth that.

It's called pulsed electromagnetic field therapy.

People spend that much on medic, them go to sleep.

And you could totally go research this stuff or go listen to the interview that I did with a guy. The only thing is that it hasn't been studied for pregnant women. So if you've got a baby on board, I wouldn't necessarily use this thing. Not because it would be harmful. It's just because I'm always careful. Lack of research, right? You never know. So, yeah, so the Earth Pulse. So we're going to jump.

Or you could just sleep right on the ground.

Or you could just travel with a tent and sleep on the dirt.

There you go.

Let me know how that works out for you. I'll be inside.

Go back to your roots.

I'll be in the hotel. Speaking of hotels, I do have some cool special announcements regarding travel and stuff to let you guys know about. But before we jump into that, let me mention before I forget that we always end up talking about lots of stuff in these podcasts. Like, we already talked about the Earth Pulse and we already talked about stuff to help decrease gastric permeability and all that. As I know it's hard to keep track of some of the stuff we talk about. That is why we use something called My list for every single BenGreenfieldFitness.com episode. My list?

What's that?

You use Pinterest, right?

Occasionally.

Well, I know you were using Pinterest long before I used Pinterest.

Okay, yes.

I actually don't even use Pinterest that much anymore. I use my list.

It's Mostly for girls.

That's pretty sexist. It is. I'm sure there are a lot.

It's like crafts and cooking.

There's a lot of really cool guys out there that use Pinterest.

I'm sorry. Don't hate.

I'm not.

I'm just going off of experience, that's all.

My list is like Pinterest for Facebook. So it's basically like you make a list and your friends can like it, your friends can comment on it. And so what we do for Ben Griefled Fitness, like the episode you're listening to right now, this super epic episode that honestly, I can already tell is gonna go on forever. It's good that we give the kids a long movie to watch.

Really long movie to watch. We might have to refer another one on for them.

Go get the box of wine and just.

We don't normally plug our kids into the tv. Just so you know.

Anyways, though. So my list podcast episode number 220 is the podcast episode number that this podcast is. And you can literally surf over to facebook.com bgfitness and you can click on the my list for this episode and you'll see everything that we talk about there. Here's the other super cool thing. If you like your time in the limelight, if you make a my list. So if you go over to facebook.com bgfitness check out our my list and then you can click to create your own my list. What?

Are you serious?

I'm serious. You actually can.

Okay.

And if you create one and we like it, we're gonna pick one listener a month and actually get them on for a special 10 to 15 minute segment where you get to talk about your my list and why you created it and why you dig what you dug on your my list.

Okay, cool.

There you go. Dan, one of the listeners, Dan, he wrote into me earlier today and he put together this big my list of his favorite books. And there's a bunch on there that I want to check out, so. All right, special announcements. Special announcements. What'd you think of that special announcement music.

That's really special sound.

Get closer to the microphone or nobody's gonna be able to hear it.

I didn't know we were talking. I'm sorry.

You have to. You have to. Literally, it's like you're making love to the microphone.

Are we really on?

We actually are recording. I shouldn't have said that. There's children listening in now. People are gonna have to answer their kids questions about what I was just Talking about it's about to happen. Anyways, I meant hugging the microphone. Hugging. That's what I meant, hugging it. Okay, so special announcements first of all on the calendar over@pacificfit.net I will put a link to it in the show notes. I've got a friend, my friend's name is John Kenny. John's a coach and he puts on triathlon camps. He puts on really cool triathlon camps where they basically rent houses and you go and live in the house with them and they feed you home cooked meals.

Sounds good to me.

I'm on board with John's nutrition protocol. He's a cool guy. He's a pro triathlete. He's a wealth of knowledge and he's got a camp coming up in Austin on February 22nd. Austin Rock.

Good music scene by the way.

I'm gonna be down there at the end of March for Paleo fx. For those of you who are gonna be down there, I think that's where it's at. And then John's also got a camp in Florida in some weird city in Florida that I'd never heard of before.

Never heard of it. Okay.

New Port Richey Newport.

Richie Newport.

Richie Newport, Richey, Florida. So I'm putting a link to John's camps in the show notes. Basically they're gonna be really cool camps. John's email and his phone number is in there.

Are they hard camps?

They're kind of like half ironman to ironman distance type of stuff. I don't know. You can call John. You might be able to get in if you're, if you're not a half ironman to an ironman athlete. But check out John's camp.

I'm not just so you know, so.

This might be totally premature, but we obviously just got back from a two week camp in Thailand that everybody frigging loved. We had a blast.

How can you not enjoy Thailand?

We went to Thai cooking classes and rock climbing and speedboat rides.

If you've never been to Thailand, it's.

Awesome races and everything. We're doing it again next year and I'm already putting it together so this will fill up fast. And even though it's not on the calendar yet, if you want in on the Thailand trip for next year, I think I'm going. Jess is going because this time I'm extending it. It's actually going to be an option. You can come for one week, two weeks or three weeks, but there will be a maximum of three weeks that you could be there. So email me if you went in on that, if you want in that. Ben greenfieldfitness.com I know it's early because this isn't coming up till November or December, but I know that some of.

You like it requires some planning.

Get dialed in advance. So speaking of racing in Asia, there's also a race that's coming up in Vietnam. I've told people before that the reason that I go and do that, that triathlon in Thailand is because I consider it to be the best race on the planet in terms of how they treat their athletes. Very well done, the food, everything. They've just launched a sister race in Vietnam on April 14th. I will be there. And I think that any listener who wants to race in Asia, who wants that experience, who maybe can't make it when they usually do this race in Thailand in, in December, or who's done the race in Thailand and wants to go check out this one in Vietnam. Check it out for sure. It's, it's going to be my first race of the season next year. I've heard that the race venue is beautiful. I've heard that the Vietnamese food over there absolutely rocks. So get that on the calendar. I'll put a link to the, to the actual race registration page in the show notes to this episode. Episod number 220. And I'll be there.

Sounds like an awesome.

If you're a podcast listener, don't worry, I'll take care of you. I've, I, I personally have not traveled extensively in Vietnam, but I will at least I'll, I'll kind of be a liaison.

I've heard good things.

I'll answer your questions about, you know, getting your bike over there and everything else. So check that out and I'll put links to all that stuff in the show notes. Just a couple more things in terms of special announcements, of course, the Become Superhuman live event March 8th and 9th with me and Jessa right here in Spokane, Washington. I just published a list of speakers for that.

I know you showed them to me last night.

I'm super stoked.

Looks like you got a good lineup, killer.

Phil Maffetone, Dr. David Minkoff, Peter Attia, Jimmy Moore, a couple of my personal naturopathic physicians who are just like underground wealth of knowledge. I've seen what some of these people are presenting on. It's going to knock your socks off. Whether you're a coach, whether you're a trainer, whether you're just somebody who wants to learn how to become superhuman as fast as possible, whether you Already know all this stuff and you just want to come up and party with Jess and I for a couple of days, rub shoulders with all these people, and essentially become a real face to face part of a community. When you go to a conference like this, it's way different than just like attending something online or listening to a podcast.

Oh, definitely.

You form relationships.

Yeah. You meet real people and, and real relationships.

A lot of us don't get out there and do that enough and go face to face. So I, when I, when I do things, people, I go big. This conference will be big. You will get your money's worth and way more. I've already negotiated the hotel rooms. I've already got all the organic, locally catered food set up. I've got.

The Northwest does have a lot to offer.

The after party locations are already dialed in. You need to be there. March 8th and 9th in Spokane, Washington. You can tack on extra days. Stick around.

It's gonna be fun.

Jess and I will be really good hosts. And hosts.

Not only fun, really informative.

Yeah. Even though. Yeah, like, honestly, I'm not gonna lie. There will be DVDs available and all that jazz of the, of the conference.

But like we said, it's not the same.

But it's not the same. It totally isn't. So you need to be there. So mark it on the calendar. Make it happen. Folks, I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I will personally write you a check, full refund of your registration. If you show up and you're like, well, that sucks, I will literally just put your money back in an envelope and send it over to you after you come. So there you go. And then the very, very last thing before we jump into this week's epic Q and A is that I have taken my low carbohydrate Diet for athletes book and I have packaged it with a training plan and I've also packaged it with a full on low carb forum. And you get access to all that with my brand new Low carb Diet for athletes package. It's not just for triathletes. It's for anybody who's active, who wants to eat a low carb diet, who wants to go above and beyond the book that I've written and actually have things like a meal plan that you can drag and drop in training peaks.

Which is the kickback, a meal plan already planned out.

It's all planned out. Grocery shopping lists, everything is in there.

Because that's probably the hardest thing for most people.

I can smell that lamb already. Low Carb. Can you smell dinner? It's been in there for 49 minutes, which means we gotta finish this podcast within an hour and 10 minutes, otherwise it's ruined. So there you go, folks. Check that out. I'll put a link to that brand new low carbohydrate diet for athletes package in the show notes. If you already own my low carb book, you should have gotten an email about this. But you get 50% off that package if you already own my low carb book. So email me if you own the low carb book.

Yeah, just the meal plan alone is handy because honestly, I think that's probably the most challenging thing for people is not even knowing you have all this information. Then you don't know what to do with it.

Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah, having it laid out is nice.

Thanks for selling my plan for me, honey.

I didn't mean to. Just sayin'. I know what people say.

You're gonna knock over the microphone. You get too excited.

I am charismatic.

Let's do our Q and A. You ready for this Y.

Q and A.

Hi, Ben. This is Keith from Japan. I have a question for you today about radiation and the fallout related to the March 11 disaster in northern Japan. The mass media here would have us believe that all is well, but my wife and I are skeptical. We have two young daughters, five years old and one year old. Our second daughter was born soon after the disaster, and we're a little concerned. We've heard to avoid things like mushrooms and other fungi as they have a high rate of absorption of radiation. What other things should we avoid or supplement our diet with to help us detoxify? Any suggestions you might give, short of having us move back to Canada, would be appreciated. Actually, I'd like to move back to Canada. Thanks for listening. Hope to hear this on a podcast soon. All right, so first of all, Keith, what's up, man?

No, I don't think I know Keith.

You do. Keith gave you that rice to ferment.

Oh, yeah. Okay.

I hung out with Keith when I did Iron Man.

Oh. I haven't actually met Keith.

You haven't? But you know who he is, so. Hi, Keith.

Hi, Keith. Thanks for the rice.

Yeah, thanks for that fermentable rice that apparently we can make sake out of if we knew how.

I'll find out.

So, first of all, I'm going to start by telling you that there is a book out there that I highly recommend that was written by someone who sits on my Superhuman Coach Network's board of advisors, Dr. Mark Serkis. Dr. Mark Serkis has been on this podcast before to speak about transdermal magnesium therapy, which he is an expert in. But he also wrote a book after the Fukushima disaster called Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome. And it is the most comprehensive resource that you could ever get your hands on to look at not only what happened in Fukushima and why we need to be worried about it, but also some of the things that we can do to mitigate the damage. So I will put a link to that book in the show notes. But the emerging reality of what happened in Fukushima with the nuclear reactor crisis is that it's not under control at all. The amount of radioactive fallout, plutonium, radioactive iodine, strontium, all these other radionuclides, they have literally been leaking relatively unabated since March of last year into the ocean and into the atmosphere and continues to blow in a pretty steady stream across the Pacific Ocean.

I was gonna say, what about the west coast too?

It really affects all of us. United States radiation. If anybody listens to the podcast that we did just recently with Dr. David Minkoff about how to chelate the body of heavy metals and how to be careful of heavy metal exposure in our environment, the issue with radiation is really not much different. We're surrounded by it. And our goal should not be so much to lock ourselves up into cement lined prisons.

Of course not. That's not healthy.

Yeah. And it's also boring. As much as it should be to equip our bodies to be in a state to where we can actually protect ourselves from this radiation. I mean literally. Like I've read Dr. Mark Serkis book, it's an ebook called Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome. You download it to your Mac or your PC and it's very scary. I mean, it really is. And I don't want to be that person that sounds like the kook up on the ground.

How effective is it to scare people?

Yeah, I'd rather focus right now on answering Keith's question about what he can do for himself and his family. And if you really want to learn about how serious an issue this is, read Dr. Mark Serkis book, Nuclear Toxicity Syndrome. So basically what you need to be aware of is you need to understand what's going on with radiation damage to the body. So essentially, radiation, when it comes to ionizing radiation, the type that would be released by something like a nuclear fallout, what we're talking about is oxidation. And you've heard about oxidation from things like chemicals and pollutants and household cleaners and things like that. And radiation is basically Just oxidation on steroids. And so one tool that you want in your toolbox is the ability for your body to have good access to antioxidant nutrients. The other, the second problem with radiation is that one of the primary radioactive compounds is iodine and radiated iodine, especially if you have iodine deficiency. Radiated iodine tends to bind to iodine receptors in your body, specifically places like your thyroid gland, your prostate, breast tissue. Those are areas where you tend to have a lot of iodine receptors. And if those iodine receptors are not filled because you have an iodine deficiency in your diet, then radioactive iodine is going to do you more damage.

So where would you get iodine? I always say this wrong. I'm sorry, Iodine.

It's not even a big word.

I know, but it's one of those ones that I always say wrong. This is one of those words. So where would you find that in your diet? How would you get that?

You can get iodine from basically sea sources. Seaweed, kelp, you know, kombu, things like that. If we're talking about mitigating the effects of radiation, you actually need supplemental forms of iodine.

And is this stuff, you said this.

Stuff is leaking into the ocean and the air.

So how is it affecting sea life? Like, I mean, would it be affecting the seaweed?

It is highly likely that there is radioactive iodine in fish. The way that seaweed produces iodine would be such that I think you'd actually have to genetically modify the seaweed first, the way the plants work. But it's potential.

I was just curious because I don't know much about the subject.

Is everybody scared yet?

No, I just don't know much about the subject. So I got questions.

Yeah, and I mean, I'm not an expert in radioactivity either, but I do know just from having read Dr. Serkis book about some of the things we can do to mitigate the damage so we can equip our body from an antioxidant perspective. We can equip our body from an iodine perspective by addressing iodine deficiencies. And then we can introduce what are called chelators into the diet. And I think that that last option that I talked about, introducing chelators into the diet, things that actually from a biological perspective tend to pull heavy metals and radioactive compounds out of the diet. That's something you'd want to do if you're really exposed to this stuff in a high level. Because whenever you're looking at chelation therapy, you're looking at the risk of Pulling minerals and nutrients that you actually need.

Under the extent as well.

So you want to be kind of careful with, with chelators and especially using them in high amounts. So we can just go through this stuff one by one from an antioxidant perspective. You want to be careful using like say high dose vitamin C, high dose vitamin E, some of these synthetic man made antioxidants. Because research has shown, and this was research, I think it's been a little while, it's been two or three years now that they've shown. There were all these new studies that said antioxidants are bad for you. And that's literally was high dose vitamin C, high dose vitamin E, it increased risk of stroke. And so you want to get natural sources of balanced antioxidants in your diet, not necessarily like a high dose isolated, what's called a full spectrum antioxidant. There are numerous sources of full spectrum antioxidants out there.

What was a full spectrum? I'm sorry, I mean, I know a lot of antioxidants, but it means that.

It'S not just like ascorbic acid or vitamin C, but that it's some antioxidants from a variety of different plants, seeds, nuts, et cetera, all together in one supplement form rather than one isolated form.

So you're getting it from multiple areas.

It's like what you would ideally get from eating tons of fruits and vegetables per day without that fiber and fructose load that you'd be getting from doing it.

Gotcha, gotcha.

More than one way to skin a cat here. Probably my top three full spectrum antioxidants would be. Nutrarev is a good one. That's a liquid one and it tastes pretty yummy. That one's in our fridge. Life Shots, which is the one that my naturopathic physician invented. Dr. Todd.

Yes. Which also tastes yummy too.

And that one also tastes yummy. And that's available@pacificfit.net and then the last one is Solar Synergy, which is actually made by Mount Capra, who we've already talked about before on the show. So get on a full spectrum antioxid, introduce that into the diet. The next thing that you would want to do in terms of antioxidant activity would be things that typically aren't included in a full spectrum antioxidant but still have potent antioxidant activity. That would be a good omega 3 fish oil and that would be something that's got like vitamin A and vitamin D in it. And you could get that easily with a good high quality cod liver oil.

Can I say something that.

No.

I was actually talking to Dr. Todd this week and he said children should be on squid oil as opposed to cod liver oil because of the higher DHA in squid oil. Since you referenced his children in the question, I am just curious.

Squid oil?

Yeah, squid oil.

I've never heard that in my life.

You should talk to Dr. Todd. Okay, I'm gonna write squid oil higher in DHA.

Interesting. Because a lot of women are deficient in DHEA as well.

Yes. So he said, interesting, interesting.

I had squid. I had a lot of squid twice when I was over in Thailand. So good antioxidant. And make sure that when you're taking a full spectrum antioxidant that you ensure that you're on a fish oil and you're on something also like a cod liver oil that's got vitamin D and vitamin A in it.

And where do you get your cod liver oil from? Because they're not all the same.

Carlson's if you want to really shell out and go for the highest quality stuff you can get, you get something like a Green Pastures fermented. Cod liver oil. Stuff is spendy, but it's dang good. That's a high quality cod liver oil. So in addition to those two forms, so everything I just mentioned is a form of an antioxidant. And those are all things you would want to have in your diet in supplemental form if you want to protect yourself from the effects of radiation. So in addition to that, that you would want to get a good magnesium source in your diet. And here's the reason. There is a specific antioxidant in your body called glutathione. It's the most potent antioxidant in your body. And the chemical mechanism whereby glutathione is actually formed and protects you against free radicals that are going to be produced from exposure to radiation. Is incredibly reliant on magnesium as a CO factor. And considering that over 75% of people are deficient in magnesium, it would be highly prudent for you to be on a magnesium supplement in addition to these antioxidants so that the antioxidants you're taking are actually equipped to work.

So would you take that orally or topically, which is better? Because there's.

So ideally it's topically, but it gets dang expensive. Like topical good topical magnesium oil. I'll put a link to it in the show notes and in the my list. But it's expensive.

But it's okay to take it orally.

You can take it orally. You don't get quite as good absorption. We did a podcast a while ago about which type of magnesium is best to take. But what I do, just because it gets spendy to just use topical magnesium oil. So I do about 10 to 15 sprays per day on each leg, on my inner thighs, where there's a lot of good blood absorption of a topical magnesium magnesium. The nice thing is it helps with soreness. And in dudes, it helps with testosterone as well.

It helps me sleep.

It helps you sleep, too. And then I do oral. I do the natural calm magnesium. Just a little bit of that every night. And that's how I keep my magnesium levels topped off. If you wanted to test your magnesium, you get what's called a spectra cell analysis. And that's how you could actually test.

And everybody can benefit from a little magnesium.

Everybody. Everybody needs a little magnesium in their diet sometimes. So I mentioned iodine. I'll put a link to a good form of iodine in the show notes. Save yourself on shipping if you buy this stuff, because I get my iodine from the same place I get my transdermal magnesium, a website called Magnetic Clay. And you'd want to be. This is not to be misconstrued as medical advice. This. This podcast is not qualified medical adviser meant to manage any type of medical condition. But if I were on iodine for controlling radiation and I were living in Japan, I would be on 6 milligrams a day of iodine. I would not just be doing seaweed and stuff like that. I would be on an iodine. And I'll link to the iodine supplement that I recommend. It's just called Nascent Iodine in the show notes. And the other thing that Dr. Mark Serkis recommends highly is edible clay. There's a brand called Edible Earth. You can get it from the same place you get the iodine and the magnesium. And it is a collater. It can literally collate radioactive compounds from the body.

It draws it out. Yeah.

I called Dr. Serkis after the Fukushima disaster because I knew he was the expert on this. And I had a pretty frank discussion with him and kind of made a shopping list. And I had shoved it off to the side until I got this question from Keith and kind of pulled it back out. And Clay is way high up there on his list. It's one of the first things that he mentioned. And it's literally like you eat it.

Is it like the same thing that you do on your face, it just kind of like draws out impurities.

Yeah.

So I'm not talking about girls facials, but I'm just saying, like, it's the same idea. It absorbs and draws out things.

Yep, exactly. Except you just eat it. So. Okay, okay. And then you already learned, if you listened to Dr. David Minkoff's podcast that we did with him last week about chelating your body with amino acids. And that's what Dr. Minkoff has is his metal free formula. Again, it's not cheap stuff, but it's super duper high quality. It's basically a bunch of what are called peptides. And peptides, unlike a lot of other chelators, allow heavy metals to be removed without the body actually dropping off those heavy metals on other sites throughout your body as it chelates these metals. So when heavy metals are bound to the peptides and metal free, they remove the heavy metal complex, typically via your bowel movement or else, interestingly, via your hair. And this is something that you spray underneath your tongue and you hold for four minutes. I actually, I got some after I did that podcast with Dr. Minkoff, and I've been like, I'm right now doing a metal detox with that metal free. And I know I'm throwing a lot of stuff at you guys, but I want to make sure that I give you the full spectrum. If we're going to address this, we might as well address it in full detail. And what I'm going over, like, if you were to do all this stuff, the metal free, the clay, the antioxidants, everything. I mean, don't get me wrong, you're looking at, for a family, like close to a thousand dollars a month in terms of supplementation. Okay. But you're also ensuring, you know, that your grandchildren aren't born with four limbs or something like that.

Sure.

So, okay, there you go.

Now, do you have to do all of this or can you.

We're talking about best case scenario.

Okay. I was like, is there some that are better than others?

Honestly, like, full spectrum antioxidant would be like your first line of defense.

Okay.

And then you'd add in iodine, and then you'd start to add in these chelators. Especially if you. You're close to the radioactive source. Like a chelator would be like the clay or the metal free, the stuff.

That you spray in your tongue and like the actual, like, cleansing. Can you do that maybe like once or twice.

Exactly.

You don't do it all year long.

No. You could just do it for the full treatment and then stop. The last thing also made by Dr. Minkoff's company related to that metal free, is something called body detox. And body detox is like a shotgun. It's like, it's glutathione. It's a bunch of these things like fulvic acid and hyaluronic acid, which literally just like pull toxins from the body. People who are living a really unhealthy lifestyle starting this stuff and they even feel sick for their body.

Yeah, I was gonna say a lot of people detox feel sick the first week.

Yeah. So that would be the last thing to throw into the mix. Okay. So I realize I just threw a ton at you, but I mean that's, you know, we're talking about like best case scenario and kind of like getting everything. So first line of defense would be getting on good antioxidants, full spectrum antioxidants, some good fish oil and then like a vitamin D source, like a cod liver oil. Second line of defense would be getting some magnesium in your diet so that you really step up the ability of the antioxidants to work really well. And then if you really are close to a radioactive source or you've got a high level of disposable income and you're willing to do whatever it takes, get the edible earth and then get the iodine.

How do you eat that? I'm just.

You literally just eat it.

Isn't it powder?

I asked him. You just eat it. It's like chewing on. He said it's like the texture of like something chewy that you would eat. Like I'm trying to think like play DOH type of texture.

Yeah, that doesn't sound very good.

Just do it.

I know you're not doing it for.

Flavor, but close your eyes and just do it.

I'm a real texture person.

And then last line of defense. Like if you really like, if money is not an issue for you, pick up the 1, 2 combo of the metal free formula with the body detox formula. And that's kind of your 1, 2, 3 line of defense. So. So there you go, protecting yourself against radiation.

That's good, good, good stuff. Hi Ben and Brock.

My name is Tony and I have a question about adrenal fatigue.

My husband is a mountain bike racer and has been racing for several years.

And really enjoys the endurance races like.

The 24 hour race.

And he has self diagnosed himself with adrenal fatigue just through his own research.

He has low energy levels later in.

The day he has a hard time getting up in the morning and he has an energy spike at 9 o' clock at night.

He's not sleeping well.

And from what he's researched, he thinks he has adrenal fatigue.

The problem is we're having a hard time finding a medical doctor who acknowledges.

Adrenal fatigue as a real condition. Is this something that you think is a real condition? And if so, what can you tell.

Us that might help him recover from it?

Thanks so much. I really appreciate your advice and your.

Thoughts and I love the podcast.

All right, so adrenal fatigue and endurance athletes, first of all. Yeah. You're gonna find that a lot of doctors are just like, like whatever. Adrenal fatigue, you know, it's a myth. You see the symptoms of this kind of stuff so much though, that I don't care what you call it. I mean, sure, you don't have to call it adrenal fatigue. You can call it hypercortisolism, you can call it electrolyte imbalances. You know, it's a multitude of things, but you feel like crap. And you know, I wrote an article on this. I wrote a full on article on kind of like, like how to dig yourself out of a hole.

We've known people who've had this severely.

Yeah, and it is true. The very first time I ever learned about this was one of my mentors when I was in high school, a guy who gave me a lot of advice, kind of about getting in shape for tennis. He told me a story about how he was bedridden for nine months. He couldn't get out of bed. The dude was a bodybuilder and he just. Just nothing.

And he's a doctor.

He just overcooked himself. No, he wasn't a doctor. He was like a physical therapist, I.

Think, or something like that.

Anyways, though, I wrote an article that I'm going to link to@BenGreenfieldFitness.com about how to dig yourself out of a hole, what to do when you're over trained. And in that article, I showed you how to track every morning and Jess has seen me doing this every morning. I put my chest strap on and for five minutes I sit there. And it measures what's called my heart rate variability, which is an indicator of how well both sides of my nervous system are working. My sympathetic nervous system and my parasympathetic nervous system, which is my fight or flight section and my rest or digest section. And if both of those parts of your nervous system are speaking to your Heart properly. What you get is good heart rate variability, very responsive heart. When your sympathetic nervous system is overtaxed, you tend to see your heart rate variability jumping around a whole bunch. And when your parasympathetic nervous system is overtaxed, you tend to see consistently low heart rate variability numbers.

Well, two different things cause your parasympathetic to be taxed in your sympathetic.

Yeah, parasympathetic nervous system training you tend to see in endurance athletes and sympathetic nervous training system training you tend to see more in like power, strength, intense athletes. And I'm using something called the Sweet Beat app to do this. And so every time I press save it uploads to my profile on Sweet Beat. And the doc over there actually for the next 30 days is looking at my numbers. And once I get 30 days logged, she's going to hop on a podcast with me and go over, like, all the other things that you can get out of heart rate variability numbers. But first of all, that's a really good way to track whether or not your adrenal glands are actually churning out the hormones that are gonna keep your sympathetic nervous system actually responsive. Now, do you see all this right here, Justin? All these papers that I have here that I'm shuffling?

That's exhausting.

Okay. This is basically an article. It's written by a guy named Dr. Lamb, and he's got a website over@drlam.com and on that website he goes over not only the signs and symptoms of adrenal fatigue, which is what you would think about being like, mildly depressed, having consistently low body temperature, having a tendency to get sick more frequently, reduced sex drive, feeling really tired at night, but also having trouble sleeping. Fibromyalgia, meaning like having pains and achievements, aches and muscles for really no reasons at all, getting lightheaded, getting dizzy. And a lot of these signs and symptoms are because of the physiological manifestation of your adrenal glands being messed up. So basically, what your adrenal glands do are they produce hormones. There are two specific hormones produced that are responsible for that fight or flight response when you're exercising, called epinephrine and norepinephrine. And one of the things that can happen when your body is unable to deal with stress is that this epinephrine and norepinephrine response can become either hyperactive or underactive, depending on what type of over training that you've gotten yourself into. The other thing that gets produced in your adrenal cortex in your kidneys are what are called mineral corticoids and glucocorticoids. One glucocorticoid is cortisol, which everybody is familiar with. Initial stages of adrenal fatigue, your body is churning out too much cortisol, and then you get to the stage of adrenal exhaustion where your body just runs out of cortisol, and cortisol just basically depletes. So typically, adrenal fatigue starts with a bunch of fluid retention and sodium retention from all this cortisol. Cortisol that gets jacked out. And then you start to lose weight, and you begin to drop off sodium and electrolytes as cortisol dumps down. So it's kind of this thing that happens in stages. You also get mineral corticoids produced in that adrenal cortex. And those would be things like aldosterone. And aldosterone is responsible for your balance of sodium and potassium. And as some of you may know, I'm a practitioner for Wellness fx. So one of my jobs. And Jessa sits here sometimes.

Yeah, sometimes I listen.

Our computers are next to each other, and I sit here and I look at lab panels. So I look at people's lab panels. And one of the lab panels that we do is an electrolyte panel. And a lot of times I'll look at that electrolyte panel, and it will show that potassium and magnesium are depressed and sodium is elevated. And a lot of times I don't even need to see a hormone panel to know that in a state like that, cortisol is also elevated because that person is in initial stages of adrenal fatigue. So cortisol, also because it's generated in high amounts when you've got fight or flight going on, it causes your liver to churn out a bunch of glycogen and a bunch of sugar. So you get blood sugar fluctuations as well, which tends to make your pancreas churn out a bunch of insulin. So then you become insulin insensitive, and you start to experience things like dizziness and hypoglycemia.

So that I'm curious, do you have to be an athlete to have adrenal fatigue?

You can get it from extreme stress and lack of sleep. You can also get it from severe malnutrition, not eating enough, as you might see in someone with anorexia. But in most cases, you're seeing it with people who are over exercising, especially in the kick butt kind of active people who are listening into this podcast.

I'm just curious because I'm like, some of these things sound like something that, you know, maybe a person with high anxiety or something.

Yeah.

Might have something like that.

You got it. You got to be stressed out for a while for it to happen. But it can certainly happen, and you'll tend to see it, you know, somebody who has whatever, like a close family member die and they deal with it the wrong way.

Right.

You know, and then maybe, you know, they get the build up of things. Like maybe.

I mean, we're all real people here. I'm like, that's something happen. I'm like, I'm just curious because I'm. Like I said, it sounds a lot of it sounds like, supposed to. That could happen to someone who.

Yeah. So you churn out all this cortisol, and your body has to actually create that cortisol from a precursor called pregnenolone. And unfortunately, pregnenolone is also used to produce things like progesterone and testosterone. And so you tend to see the hormones outside of cortisol begin to drop significantly as pregnenolone. It's called a pregnenolone steal. As all this stuff gets shuttled. And then eventually you reach adrenaline exhaustion, where the adrenals can no longer keep up with the body's demand for corn production.

What about, like. I'm sorry, I don't mean to keep jumping on this, but what about people who are drinking these energy drinks?

It just speeds up the process of adrenal exhaustion. Okay. So I actually recently did an article on energy drinks over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com for those you want to check that out, you should go. You should go read it, because I talk about this issue. So eventually you go from adrenaline fatigue, intradrenal exhaustion, where total cortisol output becomes reduced, and then you see things like. One of the signs and symptoms you talked about, dhea, is you get the hormone. DHEA goes into the dumps along with cortisol, and that's where you reach the stage where you're kind of screwed. And it's very, very hard to dig yourself out of that hole. But what I go into in that article that I wrote was some of the things that I personally do to kind of address adrenal fatigue and nip it in the bud. And before I get into a few of those recommendations, and I will link to that article as well, you know, you hint at the fact, Tracy, that conventional medicine kind of misses adrenal fatigue, and there is an absolute deficiency of adrenal hormones that is recognized in conventional medicine, and it's called Addison's disease. And Addison's disease is recognized as an adrenal problem, but that's pretty much the only thing that you tend to see in medical literature.

Why do they kind of skim over this? I don't understand?

Because it's something that a lot of times you can measure pretty well in laboratory conditions. Symptoms of Addison based adrenal malfunction. What they test, the conventional test for testing for Addison's disease, which is actually pretty uncommon, is called acth hormone challenge test. And it tests what's called your adrenocorticotropic hormones like your cortisol and it tests extreme undercover hormone.

How far along do you have to be to be.

It's kind of like testosterone deficiencies. It's where for a guy who's having a bunch of issues, if he's at rock bottom, an endocrinologist will then that's sad. Help them out. But you got to be at rock bottom first.

It's terrible.

So yeah, and it's one of those issues where you just need to listen to your body and a lot of times you can tell when you're overtrained or over fatigued. And I swear by this heart rate variability thing because it's cheap and I don't have to go to the lab and I don't have to do blood or saliva. It's just heart rate variability.

You can do it on your iPhone.

I watched below 90 and I don't train. And that's it. Wake up below 90, I don't train 90 to 100, boom, I'm good to go. I'm training that day and I'm training hard. So that's it. As far as the article that I wrote, some of the main things, Tracy, that I recommend to your husband, one would be using cold thermogenesis. That would be cold showers, ice baths, cold exposure to water. Basically that lowers markers of inflammatory damage like C reactive protein and interleukin, which do tend to be elevated when you're in stages of adrenaline fatigue. You can also use like the cool fat burner vest that I've talked about before or even like the, the special kind of compression tights, like the 110 compression gear that you can fill with ice leaves. Chinese adaptogenic herbs. The stuff I use, TNT is expensive. It's going to cost you 90 bucks for a month supply. But it's not necessarily something you got to take for life. I mean you could literally do one to two of those a day and at least start to nip stuff in the bud. I swear by those for digging myself out of a hole. Chinese adaptogenic herbs basically will.

What are those exactly?

Well, they're adaptogens, so. Which? That means they help your adrenals to adapt. Cortisol is low, they'll increase production of cortisol. Cortisol is high, they'll decrease production of cortisol. So they're perfect. Whether you're in adrenaline, they can read.

Your body better than you.

That's right. Maybe they should write that on the package.

I'm really good slogan. Did I mention I was in graphic design? We're good at those things.

Deep sleep should go without saying. Get as deep sleep as possible. Buy yourself one of these earth pulse machines. I swear that would help you to get into that deep sleep phase as fast as possible. Read the article that I recently wrote@BenGreenfieldFitness.com about how to get into a deep sleep phase as fast as possible. I geeked out on everything. Just go there and do a search for sleep.

You are a sleep geek.

And an anti inflammatory diet. So I am a sleep geek.

You are.

I slept for like 12 hours the first day I got back from Thailand.

I've never seen somebody who needs so many requirements for sleep.

I have to have my earth poles.

I'm a minimalist in every way.

My markers, my earplugs.

Yeah.

Maybe some melatonin.

You don't look super hot when you sleep. You don't. You got like this bikini on your eyes.

From the neck down. I'm hot from the neck down. But yeah, from the face up, I pretty much look like a snake.

You got wax in your ears and stuff.

Monica Reinagle, who does the Nutrition Diva podcast, she has something called the inflammation fact factor. She's speaking in detail at the Superhuman live event about the inflammation factor, how to use it properly.

I always wanted to actually meet her.

Really?

Because I've heard her voice. Isn't she like an opera singer too?

She is, yeah. Anyways, though, an anti inflammatory diet and eliminating any of the foods. I think her website is inflammationfactor.com but go there and check out all the foods that are high in inflammation and just, boom, get them out completely. And so make sure you're on an anti inflammatory diet as well. And that can help out so that we've just scraped the surface as far as adrenal fatigue goes. But that is where I would start. And yes, I would recognize its. Its existence for sure. So. So, Jessa, you know else. You know else.

We're recording. Yeah.

You know what else? You don't get or who else was probably adrenal fatigue?

Who?

Bilbo Baggins.

Yeah, he looked pretty bad, I think.

I think that dude, he was well.

Into depression and a lot of other things. The green skin was a dead giveaway, I think.

I read that book like seven times growing up. I loved the Hobbit. I was like a fantasy novel.

Well, now it's coming out.

It's coming out, it's coming out. And the reason that I bring it.

Up, I don't think we're gonna show our kids this.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.

The Hobbit.

Audible Audible Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Bilbo Baggins. Anyways, if you want to listen to the Hobbit and not read the hobbit, go to audiblepodcast.com Ben I want to know who does Gollum's voice. Not only can you get the hobbit over@audiblepodcast.com Ben but it's whisper Sync. Ready? You know what that means? No, I don't. I have a Kindle and that means that I could listen to the book and then when I stop listening to it, it will flip forward to the page on my Kindle where I stop listening. So I could start reading it like if I'm on an airplane or something. And then I could start listening to it again where I stopped reading it and it just automatically syncs up. Wow. Whisper Sync.

Sorry. That's cool. That's really cool.

Audiblepodcast.com Ben and you could get it for free. Free.

Very cool.

Free. So there you go. All right, let's move on to our next question. Hey, Ben and Brock, first of all, I just wanted to thank you for I'm a new listener. Thank you for your help with getting me through my first and probably only marathon, finishing four hours with pretty minimal training and had some really quick recovery thanks to your nutrition tips and some of your training stuff. So anyways, the reason why I'm calling is for my mother who had an interesting request for Christmas which was to help her get through recovery from a left lateral meniscus removal. So anyways, I'm looking for your help with a non traditional approach. I still have some in terms of supplements and recovery exercises, physical therapy exercises. I still have some hyaluronic acid left over and cap reflex. But anyways, just looking for your input and thanks again for all you do. Good luck in Thailand. So if I understand correctly, we are your mom's Christmas present. Wow.

I feel special.

I feel special too.

I do.

Well, first of all, Jeff, congratulations on the marathon. And also congratulations on your decision to never run one again. In some ways, that might make your life. Oh, my goodness.

You sound exactly like me.

We should meet. So your mother's meniscus. No, not to. Not to play that down or anything, because I know that can be really. You know, your knees are a very important part of your anatomy. And traditional, modern treatment for a meniscus is to actually, you know, if the torn meniscus is torn to a great enough extent to completely remove it.

I've never heard of that.

When you do that, you put a bunch of pressure on what's called the articular cartilage of your knee, because that's what the meniscus is there to protect. Now, just for people who are listening in who may be experiencing chronic pain as a result of a torn meniscus, and you haven't actually opted to have your meniscus removed, look into prolotherapy before you get that meniscus removed. One of the things that Dr. David Minkoff is going to be talking about when he comes up to the Superhuman Live conference in March are pretty much like every tool that he has in his enormous toolbox.

He's a smart guy. Yeah.

He is. About alternative medical therapies and ways to not remove parts of your anatomy to fix a problem. But prolotherapy, what is that? It's essentially injection of sugar water or injection of water that's got some kind of a mineral compound or a slightly irritating compound in it. And that compound causes increased inflammation and accelerated healing in the body.

Oh, so it draws, like, similar to.

A cortisol shot without the effect that dumping a bunch of cortisol in your body can have on the rest of your physiology. So prolotherapy, it's not necessarily going to help you if you've had your meniscus removed, but just so you know. So look into that if you're listening. Yeah. And if you want to be proactive with it. And so when we get into meniscal repair rehab, what you should know is that there are some really, really fantastic orthopedic surgeons out there who post their meniscal repair protocols online, and there are some that are better than others.

But how do you repair meniscus that's been removed?

Well, I shouldn't say meniscal repair. What I mean is like. What's the word? Rehab from a meniscal removal.

I'm assuming you had to build more muscle somewhere else to.

That's essentially what you're doing. But first you have to rebuild what's called proprioception or your neuromuscular coordination first. And then you move on to actually taking care of the actual muscles. Muscles. So typically the first three weeks or so of rehab are just really, really light stuff. What happens is your hamstrings attach to the back of your knee and if you're overusing your hamstrings, you're going to aggravate that articular cartilage a ton. So you do a bunch of stuff that works your quads without really aggravating your hammies too much. If you've got access to electro myostimulation, that can help a ton. You know, like that thing that I put on my legs that makes you're such a geek. Sexy.

And my quads, it makes your muscles jiggle.

They jiggle. So you can do quad sets with ems. You can also do biofeedback quad sets. Just google biofeedback or look up a biofeedback practitioner or go to bangreevilfitness.com and do a search for biofeedback. But biofeedback or EMS for your quads specifically can help out a ton during those first few weeks along with basically just some roll.

Does it just do kind of like a low grade kind of stimulation, stimulates.

The muscle without you actually moving the joint. So there's an exercise called heel slides. Google it so you can see how to do it. But those can help as long as you're really careful not to work your hamstrings too much. And then light stretching along with lots of ice for those first few weeks can help out quite a bit too. And by the way, I'm going over all this, but I'm assuming that your mom's doc is giving her like a multi phase meniscal repair program. So then you move on typically anywhere from three to four weeks out. You'll move into another three to four week phase where you can generally move into doing like some straight legged quad sets, some really light leg press or multi hip type of movements like step ups or step overs, Light lunges, light wall slides, light mini squats through a pain free range of motion. Calf raises, typically bicycling through kind of a limited range of motion and like using a recumbent bicycle to adjust that range of motion. Doing some single leg stances on unbalanced surfaces, doing a lot of lateral walking, like lateral cone to cone, kind of like not slides or shuffles but just like walking, getting used to moving side to side and Typically it's somewhere in that three to six week phase out from surgery where you're able to like go up and down stairs and stuff like that.

Do you have to relearn a lot of things to.

That's where you want to make sure. Like I spent four months working for the NFL. I rehabbed one of the pro bowlers. I don't think I can actually say his name on the podcast, but anyways, I worked with him down at Duke University and we, we did almost every exercise that we did in the weight room was unbalanced. We were either doing single leg, stance or balance pillows.

So you're just training your body to almost compensate.

He was already eight weeks past, so he had already gone through this proprioceptive phase of just doing like electromyostimulation and light stuff and even some water work, like single leg swings in different directions. And just being especially careful during those first few weeks not to overuse the hamstrings. And then once you get past that second phase, for about the next six to 12 weeks, you can start to introduce actual weight training exercises. Some light squats, some deadlifts, some weighted step ups, a little bit more increased intensity with the cycling, the ability to achieve a little bit more full range of motion with your stretching. And then once you get past about 12 weeks, that's typically when you can return to some form of light impact based training. There are really, really good braces out there that are basically soft, flexible knee braces. You know, McDavid is one company that makes knee braces, but you should be able to get a soft, flexible knee brace. I'm not gonna lie, there's always gonna be a little bit of extra pain when you've got cartilage on cartilage. But as far as the rehab phase goes, what I would do is really, honestly I would pay super close attention to what the doctor has to say. And he wanted to know, Jeff wanted to know about supplements, things like that, that I'd recommend. I already mentioned one cap reflex. I swear by that for any bone or cartilage issue, nine to 12 a day, you don't even have to swallow them. You could chew on them. But those were, those work super well. But this is really a case, I mean, where your physical therapist and your orthopedic surgeon are going to give you a recovery protocol that works because they.

Have the X rays in front of.

Them that works pretty dang well. And I mean, if anything, pick yourself up some cap reflex and then grab yourself like an electromyostimulation unit that you can use at home to work the quads, especially to get those stronger more quickly. And then just remember, single leg stance, brushing your teeth, single leg stance, standing up, waiting in line anywhere, single leg stance. Just regain that proprioception.

And how much, I mean, can you have a pretty normal motion life? Yeah, I mean after something like this, I mean, how can you totally recover?

No, I know, because you're missing something.

But I'm like.

For example, it's like your appendix stores a memory of all of your flora from the time that you were born. So you get an appendix removal and you mess up your gut flora for life. I'm not gonna lie. It's not like you can revert. You remove your meniscus and you've got cartilage on cartilage for life. But you want to primarily focus on restrengthening quads and regaining your neurons.

But you can have a pretty normal exist, you know what I mean? If you do all the appropriate stuff.

Yeah. And I swear by those socks, soft braces that got me through Ironman Hawaii one year when I destroyed my knees. But I went and raced anyways.

Yeah, I remember that.

And I walked the marathon at Ironman.

Hawaii and I walked Alihi Drive and just walked a thousand times with our twin boys waiting for Ben to come in.

He was supposed to be done 4 hours ago anyways though that knee brace even allowed me to just like function. And it was kind of funny because I was like, well, you know what if I do the 112 mile bike and I come off that bike feeling like I know I'm probably gonna feel with this injury that I've sustained.

Then yours was it, wasn't it?

Yeah, but I had positive thinking so I left my brace in the hotel room. So I literally went into bike transition. I went into my hotel room. No, I went and got it. Oh. I went into the hotel room, got the brace, came back out and then I had to go back under the course from the point where I left the course because it's illegal to make forward motion. So I had to do all that, got my brace and then I walked for six hours. So yeah, not fun.

Not fun.

Alright, let's move on.

Hey, Ben and Brock, my name is.

Jenna, I'm over here in Scotland right now.

My gym just got one of these vibration plates. I was wondering if there are any athletic benefits to it. I know people have. There has been some talk about using them for losing weight by just standing on it. But I'm a triathlete that trains about 15 to 20 hours a week. And I was wondering if there's anything that I can do on this that actually benefit my training. Thanks so much. Love the show, guys.

So have you seen these before?

A vibration plate?

Vibration plate?

Yes. No, I don't know what that is.

It's something that you stand on and it vibrates.

Okay.

So exactly. Oh, wait.

Is this kind of like the trampoline thing that your dad does?

No, it's not a trampoline.

I know it's not a trampoline, but it's like, kind of the same idea. It activates the lymphatic system.

Yeah. Like, that's one of the things that it can do. So think about, like, if you're on an elevator. And so an elevator is a good analogy for how a vibration platform works. So when an elevator moves downward rapidly, your body starts to relax, and it feels for a split second like you're floating kind of.

Of, right?

Yep. And then if the elevator stops and reverses and increases speed and goes the other way, all of your muscles suddenly contract as your legs try to remain upright. So think of a vibration platform like an elevator that's doing that over and over again really fast.

So you're having to contract your muscles a lot.

Exactly. So you're switching from free fall to rapid acceleration over and over again. And when you do that, build muscle, you're technically creating g force forces in your body. So you have to theoretically recruit more muscle and able to stabilize your body as you increase gravity on your body. And so when you check out studies that have looked into what happens when people train with these whole body vibration training plates, which are actually kind of sexy right now among, like, celebrities and stuff like that, is you get.

I guess you're burning calories. You gotta be burning calories if you're using your muscles.

I'll get to that in a second. I'll get to that in a second. Okay. So you get more of a neural effect on muscle growth. So you get more motor neurons being activated in the muscle, because you're forcing your muscles to recruit more fibers to stabilize you due to those rapid changes in gravity. And so technically, if you're doing exercises standing on top of a vibration platform, you can. And this is what studies have shown. You can get stronger more quickly. And when you step off that vibration platform and go on to do something like a vertical jump or a barbell squat, you're able to generate more strength and you're able to generate more power. Okay, now the thing to realize is. Well, there's a few things to realize. First of all, when you look at a laboratory like commercial vibration platform, you're looking at a whole body vibration machine that generates a certain amount of frequency. So the higher the vibration frequency, the faster that machine is going to vibrate every second. Second. So you're going to see a lot of these machines that are in like fat loss facilities or like the ones sold for, for home use. They're at like 3 to 10 hertz for frequency. You're looking at closer to 50 hertz being used in the actual studies that have shown these things to be efficacious.

Okay.

So that's the first thing is you need.

So you're getting a lot more hertz.

Than you're getting way more vibrations per second.

Yeah, yeah.

So that's one thing. The other thing that you have to understand in addition to vibration frequency is the actual, what's called the amplitude of the vibration plate. So the amplitude is the range of motion that the actual plate itself moves through. And the higher the amplitude, the greater the, you know, the greater the movement when the elevator stops and goes that your body has to, the more muscle requirement. So machines with a higher amplitude and a higher vibration frequency are the, are the type of machines that are being used in these studies that are finding vibration platforms to be efficacious. I can tell you right now if you're looking into buying a vibration platform.

Amplitude, that's what you're looking for.

Amplitude brands you're gonna be looking for. Hypervibe would be one T Zone is another tectonic. Tectonic plates, that's another good one.

Why don't we have one of these?

Vmax is a good one and Power plate is a good one. And as a matter of fact, power plates are ones that you can get like with Amazon prime shipping, they're still going to run. You ready?

Yeah.

Four to ten grand. That's why we don't have one.

Oh my God.

So I mean, for like, for like.

Can I just jump up and down a hole?

Yeah, exactly. And so that's, that's the deal is a lot of people see these studies and they go out and get a home unit and it really does, doesn't do you that good unless it's a really, really good one. But I mean, you look at the studies and yeah, you even see a hormonal response. In addition to increased proprioception, increased balance, increased muscular recruitment. You can see increased levels of serotonin, increased levels of norepinephrine. Which we just got talking about. Got to talking about. So it could enhance your body's fight or flight response. You also see improved lymphatic drainage, which is interesting because if you look at what's the martial art? I want to say tianchi, but that's the name of the herb that I just got done talking about. You know, the one that I. The martial art, it's called tian something. I'm blanking on it.

I have no idea.

Tai chi, isn't it? Tai Chi.

Tai chi is like the slow movement where they're like.

The one component of that is like you shake your body really rapidly while your feet are rooted to the ground to enhance lymphatic drainage. And this is that same concept with the vibration platform.

You can achieve that in so many ways though.

What I laugh at are these fat loss facilities that charge people money to go stand on a platform for half an hour so that they lose weight. And you go in there and so pardon me if I'm insulting anybody, but usually you see a fat lady, typically with a smoothie somewhere nearby, standing on a vibration platform and her whole body's just kind of like jiggling because she's not actually like contracting any of her muscles.

Ultimately, doesn't it just come down to. I don't, when I see stuff like this, I feel like it's, it's looking.

For free fat loss. Yeah.

I was like, these people are not really looking for a solution. They're looking for if you use a.

Vibration platform properly, you're gonna be friggin exhausted when you finish with it. Okay. It's the same way as if you use electro muscle stimulation to build muscle properly. You're gonna be like tired when you finish your muscle stimulation session. It's not like you're sitting.

That's how the body works, people.

Yeah. It's not like you're sitting.

I'm like, if you're working hard, your body's gonna be tired.

So to get benefits you have to put in work. And especially with vibration platforms, you gotta shell out the money for amplitude.

That's insane.

Four grand A10 on your platform. Yeah. Because you're also looking at these, there being a ton of stress on the motors when you're looking at enough vibration and amplitude to get around result. So that is why this. And actually I think one of the next things we're going to talk about soon, these trampoline training masks, like I'm just like, you know, you got to draw the line somewhere. So for me, if, if our Local YMCA gets a good vibration platform, we'll use one, but frankly the line will.

Be like a half an hour.

Yeah, exactly.

You're not gonna get on it?

Unless I win the lottery, I'm not planning on buying a vibration platform anytime soon.

So they, they sound cool. I mean when you first were telling me about them, but yeah, they do.

So let's answer this question from Michael. Hi Ben, my name is Michael and I am a 19 year old half marathoner. And I was just curious about what your thoughts were on the elevation training mask. It's endorsed by Sean Shark, mixed martial arts fighter. And most particularly I was Interested in the 2.0 version, the newest version that doesn't look like a creepy gas mask. So yeah, just kind of curious if that would be something that would be able to enhance performance in running a half or full marathon or any endurance type event. Alright, look forward to hearing your thoughts and I love the show. Thanks a lot. Bye bye. Okay. Elevation training masks. So these mimic the effect of high altitude training and actually the military uses them. Have you ever seen them before?

No.

Our kids would love them.

You look like, you look like Darth Vader.

You look like a Stormtrooper. You wear this mask on your face. So it's a resistance training device like we've talked about.

Like does this make it hard to breathe?

Have you seen those, those power lungs before? They look like a kazoo that you breathe in and out of.

Yes, I had to use those. Actually I knew somebody who had to use one of those.

It creates what's called pulmonary resistance. So it strengthens your diaphragm and your inspiratory and expiratory muscles. And anytime you're breathing against resistance, it stretches out the lining in your lungs. So that increases the surface area of what's called your alveoli. And when you increase the surface of your alveoli, you allow for more oxygen transportation, you strengthen your inspiratory and expiratory muscles and diaphragm at the same time and you theoretically give yourself bigger, better lungs.

Can you do that swimming?

Yeah, you could.

What about holding your breath?

I've found that my inspiratory and expiratory muscles, when I swim with the finis snorkel, which is a snorkel device that you breathe in and out of, it's smaller than your mouth and so your lungs kind of get tired when you're using it in a different way than they would get if you just held your breath. So holding your breath would be similar to Doing, like, an isometric contraction, like contracting your bicep and just holding it.

But what about, like, holding your breath and going oxygen deprivation?

That's different. That's training your body how to buffer CO2, whereas breathing against resistance is training your inspiratory and expiratory muscles. Okay.

All right. So, see, I don't know much about it.

Well, yeah, the things, they work. Like those little kazoos, those powerlung devices, those work. These elevation training masks, they work, too. They do benefit your respiratory system. And, of course, I guess the. Like, you could use one.

You can go out and you can wear them sweaty.

You can wear them. Well, sure. If anybody. She's done, like, a VO2 Max test in the lab, and you wear that mask, you get a little bit of. Why am I blanking on the word saliva? No, like, when you feel like you're trapped inside a really small area.

Oh, now I'm gonna blink.

Ah, we're blanking on words, and I'm sure the listeners are screaming at us.

I wish you could tell us through the microphone.

I know. Anyways.

Claustrophobic.

Yeah, claustrophobic. So you can feel claustrophobic. Here's the deal, though. Like, with this or that little power lung training device or vibration platforms, it's like, all this stuff is really cool, but you get to a certain extent where it's just, like, too much. It's like, I want to. When I finish work, a day of work, and I go on a bike ride, and I'm out there on the mountain bike on my trail, and, like, you know, bunny rabbits are going by, and I got the river beside me and the wind blowing in my face. I don't want to be, like, straining against breathing through a freaking mask while I'm doing that. It's like, for me, some of the beauty of exercise and physical activity, minimalism.

I'm all about that.

Like, I'm.

Well, I see I'm in fewer gadgets, the better.

I'm into biohacking.

I know you're into gadgets. You're into gadgets. I'm not.

At the same time, I draw the line somewhere to where I'm just like, okay, this is making exercise not fun anymore. I don't care if it makes me, you know, get whatever, twice the benefits in half the time or something like that. You get to a certain point where you just kind of want to unplug. It's like if you have the option to hook yourself up to a synthesizer piano with an electric guitar and a harmonica attached to your face and maybe, you know, like a couple of drum sets underneath your, your feet and you're gonna be a one man banding and tambourine with your ankle versus just like taking out your acoustic guitar and strumming for a little while. It's like the latter makes me happier. So, you know, you can, you can get.

But these people are looking for happier probably, they're probably looking for launch term effect or racing.

But I mean, dude, like, short answer is, yeah, it would help you and not websites, but what's the word? Research studies have shown that this can help you. The power lung can help you. Probably breathing in and out of a little curly straw could help you. You know, it's anything that causes your lungs to have to work harder, help you. I mean, heck, even yoga and just deep breathing. But so, yeah, go for it, Darth Vader yourself up and go do your workout.

And do people wear that when they ride bikes?

Yeah.

Oh, I've never seen that.

If you go to their website, there's a picture of a dude, I better check his bike. So there you go. All right, next question. Hey, Ben and Brock, this is Breed from Alaska calling. I just have a pretty quick and easy question.

I think I'm hoping that you can clear up once and for all the.

Difference between sprouting and soaking. They both seem to be beneficial, but.

I'm a little confused on the difference.

Between the two and why you might choose one over the other for certain.

Grains or nuts or beans or whatnot.

So if you could help me out.

I would appreciate it.

I love the podcast. You guys keep up the great work.

Thanks a lot.

Does it make you feel weird that everybody's calling you Brock?

Kind of, but I understand. I'm not gonna hold against anybody.

You know what, baby? I'm gonna drink some wine. Take it away. You know all about sprouting and soaking. Take it away.

Yeah, I do a lot of both. Actually. The difference, the main difference between soaking and sprouting is I like to. Well, okay, so when you soak something, you're basically removing the digestive inhibitors, which makes it hard for the body to digest. All living organisms, whether it's a lion or a seed, they all have ways of defending themselves. And one of that is one of those ways for seeds and nuts and grains is to have these digestive inhibitors, which makes it hard for the body to break down the nuts and the seeds and then generally causes some kind of stomach irritation or diarrhea and gas. So that's generally soaking seeds. You soak seeds in salt and you soak beans in whey and you soak them for different amounts of times, but soaking them just basically removes the inhibitors. If you want to sprout, sprouting is a whole different thing, actually. And sprouting is superior, in my opinion. I like to tell people, I like to teach people about sprouting. Like you would like an egg if you, you know how chicken lays an egg. An egg doesn't require a mother to nourish it. It doesn't require nutrients from another being to grow. It has everything there. It's equipped with everything to sustain a life for a certain amount of time until birth, basically. And the same thing is with a seed or a nut and some grains, they all possess this, this amount of nutrition that has all this nutrition available, but you don't tap into that until you actually start the sprouting. And so once you start sprouting a seed or a nut or a grain or a bean, you don't tap into the. Or an egg or an egg. An egg, similar egg, but they're similar. You have. It has all the nutrition there. It has the proteins, it has all the vitamins. And until you start sprouting it, it does not tap into all those minerals and proteins and nutrition. So that is the basic difference between sprouting and soaking.

So if you soak something for long enough and you're rinsing it as you're soaking it, it's eventually going to sprout.

In those cases, you have to soak everything initially, right. In order to sprout alfalfa or something, I have to soak it first and then rinse it. And you know, you don't. It's not going to be submerged in water.

And so, like some stuff like say, oats, for example, if you want to reduce some of the lectin and digestive irritation that oats might have the propensity to give you, you could just like rinse your oats, soak them overnight to pre digest them. But you don't have to freaking, like sprout your oats.

No, you don't. You could just eat them.

Them. It's really same for like, quinoa. You could like soak quinoa to get all the saponins off of it and still eat it, still get the benefits from soaking it, but you don't have to go out and sprout it.

And some things taste terrible. Sprouted, you're not going to want to eat it. Sprouted.

Like what?

I don't know, like A like a black bean. You're not going to want to sprout a black bean. It doesn't taste good. It doesn't produce a yummy sprout. But like, things like alfalfa, broccoli, arugula, all those things are great to sprout and are full of wonderful benefits and actually is an extremely cheap way to get greens in your diet over the winter months. So it's a great way to save money and it's a great way to get tons of nutrition in months that are hard to get nutrition in, like the winter months.

So you know who, you know who knows a lot about sprouting because he's in. Because he's like a vegan plant power guy rich roll. He just started a podcast. It's like the top podcast and freaking. That's a cool itunes right now.

You're a cool dude who though.

Yeah, we gotta get. We gotta get Rich has been on the pot Rich dude, if you're listening, we got to get you back on the podcast.

So, yeah, correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

Oops. I pressed stop on the podcast.

Keep cutting me off.

All right, let's do one more question, then I gotta go turn off the other and then we'll come back. So just a second.

Ben's cooking tonight.

That's right. Ben, this is Augie from Michigan. I was wondering, what are your top 10 RSS feeds on exercise science that you like to read that we could peruse to pick up on some of the latest science and ideas on staying fit and getting faster and stronger? Baby, do you know what a RSS feed is?

I've seen that on blog.

Yeah. It's not something you eat.

I know that.

It's not like a clam bake.

I'm not that ridiculous.

Okay.

Jeez, give me some credit.

It's just. Yeah. When you have, like, a blog or whatever, it turns out a feed and you can subscribe to it. And so, like, I use Google Reader, so every time I open up my browser, like, Google Reader is pulled up. I'm just gonna tell you right off the bat, like, some of my favorite feeds. This shouldn't take too long to respond to these feedback.

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

So. And they aren't necessarily research feeds as much as, like, feeds where I can see stuff and then I can go dig into it a little bit more to look at the research behind it. So I follow fitness.alltop.com. there's this guy named Guy Kawasaki. Guy Kawasaki. And he started this website called alltop.com that lists, like, the top blogs and articles across the Internet in all these different categories. So I follow fitness.alltop.com and a lot of times lots of trending topics show up on that. So that's one I'll put a list on.

I don't consider you a trending kind of guy, though.

What's that supposed to mean?

I just think that you're a little. You're not fringe, but you're not always like, asia berries are the greatest things that God ever created on Earth. You're not like that guy.

You don't wear a propeller hat.

I know that. I'm just saying.

Okay, so stone hearth. Stonehearthnewsletters.com I won't even spell that one for you. I'll just put the link in the show. Notes to this episode over episode220.stonehearthnewsletters.com great set of newsletters focused on health, fitness, and kind of keeping you posted on the latest and greatest science. I've also got some blogs I follow. Like, I follow Peter attia's blog@theeatingacademy.com. he just started a really good series on ketosis and what ketosis is. I also like Paul Jaminet's website. I'm just right in the middle of read the second release of his new book, the Perfect Health Diet, which I don't actually think becomes available until December 11th, but we have it. Perfect health diet dot com. Yeah, it's on the toilet.

I saw that.

Yeah.

Where Ben does all his reading.

I do all my reading on my Squatty potty.

That's a good workout.

Chris Masterjohn's blog I like, which is cholesterolandhealth.com except there's a dash like cholesterol-and-health.com. i follow that one. I mentioned Mark Serkis, and even though his website gets a little weird sometimes because he's always like, the world is ending. The world is ending. Like, grab your shotgun and get into your cement.

Does he live in Northern Idaho?

No, he refuses. He refuses to live in the U.S. oh, wow. He lives in, like, this inner compound in Brazil, but he's actually called the International Medical Veritas Association. Veritas stands for truth. I like some of his stuff. It is fringe for sure, but it's stuff that makes me think. I like lifehacker.com I follow lifehacker.com I like Dr. William Davis's website, trackyourplaque.com and then for a few Fun ones to throw in there. I like everymantry.com because it's a good, geeking out website for triathletes. I like enduranceplanet.com because, yo, I own it. And it's just got really good interviews and stuff On it with Dr. Minkoff and Lucho and Tawny and a bunch of professional triathletes and stuff. And then. Jessa, why don't you choose one?

I was just thinking that we're on the same wavelength as usual.

What's your fave?

My favorite. Well, it does not apply to anything fitness related.

Of course it doesn't.

It's design related. My favorite site is Remodelista.

Don't you have like a nutrition side or something?

No, nothing.

Remodel. There you go.

Remodelista.

Yeah, eat your heart out on that.

If you're really into design, you'll love it.

There you go. Okay, I'll put a link to all those in the show notes. Remodelista.

Remodelista.

All right, let's answer this question from Deb. Hi, Ben and Brock. I have a question that has to do with a sugar addiction. I'm a 59 year old woman, very healthy marathon runner and triathlete, and I take no prescription drugs. I do need to lose some weight. I weigh 140 pounds and I'm 5 foot 6. So while people would not say I'm overweight, to me, I would like to lose 10 pounds and I would rather lose 20. I work out at a gym a couple times a week and run about 40 miles per week. I've had a sugar problem my whole life. I eat a healthy diet. No preservatives or additives, no wheat products, no rice or bread or pasta. No processed foods, only healthy oils. Usually I use ghee, coconut oil and olive oil. I eat mostly veggies, some organic meat and poultry, and I do eat salmon a couple times a week. I do not drink. I don't eat candy or cookies or pastry. I don't eat fruit or drink fruit drinks. No soda. No foods with artificial sweeteners either, although I've tried stevia, but to me, that doesn't even taste sweet at all. My big problem is coffee. I now understand that I am, in fact, not addicted to caffeine, but it's the sugar I crave. I've been off coffee for weeks at a time, but I never stop wanting a cup of coffee with sugar in it. Coffee by itself, however, is way too bitter for me. I literally hate it. I have gone off all sugar Many times. But if I can't have sugar in my coffee when I get get up, I just find it very hard to even get out of bed. And my life just isn't as good. Now, I know that sounds ridiculous. It really is. I have lots of friends, and I spend lots of time with them, but every time I've gone off of sugar, even for weeks at a time, I end up going back onto it because I want it that bad. I never stop craving it. What I want is three or four cups a day. I drink it with half cat, so it's not a terrible lot of caffeine. But I want a teaspoon of sugar in every cup. Do you have any advice? Is there a way to reset my taste buds? I grew up in the south, and my mom put sugar in everything she cooked. I've never had a real weight problem because I've always been extremely active, but I could be a lot leaner, and I want to be. And I know there's more and more evidence that sugar is bad for you. I want to get off of it forever. Can you help? Okay, so Deb has a sugar addiction, and Jessa didn't hear that question because she was off turning off.

And I'm cooking for you.

She was turning off the oven for me because I wanted her to listen to Deb's question. By the way, you guys, please don't. I mean, like, feel free to press pause on this podcast and come back to it later. I promise I'll do a long one. I'll do a shorter podcast next week. But I figured I was like, I got. I got my hot podcasting babe in here. I better just, like, churn these things out, get these questions out to you. So literally, like, just push pause and listen to the second half of this next week if you really, like, have to, if you're getting tired of this. So, okay, so being addicted to sugar.

It is real people.

First of all, Deb, in case you didn't know, I have done a ton of articles and podcasts and videos on being addicted to sugar, and I'm gonna put a link to all of them in the show notes, including my simple six step, six step system for eliminating food cravings, how to fight candy cravings, how to stop carb cravings in their cracks, in their tracks. My podcast.

I thought you said crabs.

My podcast with Norga got us on using biofeedback for sugar cravings. But let me tell you that this. Let me tell you some of the things that can cause sugar cravings. Some of the main issues where you're just like, I don't know what else to do. What in the heck could be causing this? Four things, Deb. Four things that I would definitely look into. The first would be an underactive thyroid gland. If you're stressed, you're tired, you're craving sweets through the day, those can all be signs that indicate an underactive thyroid gland, and that leads to fatigue. You feel as though you need to get more sugar to get energy, when in fact, it's more often a case of inadequate bioavailable T3 and T4. And literally that can be an issue with thyroid. It looks like you're eating pretty clean from what you're saying. It doesn't sound like you're consuming a lot of foods that would cause an autoimmune attack against your own thyroid tissue. But what I would consider doing is getting a look at your TSH, your T3, and your T4. Go to WellnessFX. You could use direct labs. You could go talk to your local doctor. But make sure your thyroid is okay. You know, if you've got cold hands, cold feet, that type of stuff, you know, that'd also be another thing to look into. So it doesn't necessarily mean you have low thyroid. Jess is in here raising her hands. She's just a wimp.

No, I really do. I've dealt with that my entire life. And I honestly, my whole family, I swear, is addicted to steroid Jess.

And I just did a big podcast for the inner circle because we do podcasts every month for the inner circle. They're actually videos, not podcasts.

Yeah, they're not like videos.

But Jessa did a full on lab testing. Her thyroid's fine, but she still has cold hands. So look into your thyroid.

I just really like candy.

Look into your thyroid. Next thing speaking of candy is Candida.

Duh.

Do you like that, Sedgwick?

Wow, that was nice, honey.

Yeast infections. Usually when you've got a yeast infection, you can't get through the day without bread or sugar. And usually if you've been on an antibiotic regimen at any point in your life, that's killed the good bacteria in your gut. You've got dysbiosis in your gut. A lot of times you can have a yeast overpopulation that feeds on sugar and that triggers cravings for sugar and bread because it quickly converts those into glucose and uses them to make the yeast multiply. And that causes me even more intense craving, which kind of creates this vicious cycle. So you could Go and get a stool test, a parasitology test to see if you have a yeast infection. You could also just start supplementing with something. Probably my favorite thing for yeast infection is oil of oregano.

Really?

Yes. Oil of oregano has very potent antifungal activity. Probiotics can tend to actually aggravate a yeast infection.

Really?

Believe it or not. Really? Yes.

Because I took probiotics to get rid of a yeast infection. My boys had thrush. Our boys had thrush and I took probiotics and I got rid of it.

I thought they used, what's it called, the purple stuff.

They did, but it didn't work, so I started taking probiotics.

You gotta be careful with probiotics because those can aggravate a yeast infection. I'm a bigger fan of oil of oregano. Okay. Use oil of oregano with a high carbacryl content. That's the active component of oil of oregano. That can actually have that antifungal, antibacterial type of activity. Four to six drops mixed into a glass of water three times a day.

Be careful. I can burn your lips off.

Use diluted stuff like the Ben Greenfield fitness. Oil of oregano is mixed in a 7 to 1 almond oil to oregano ratio, which is a ratio that vastly improves absorption. Go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com oregano It's BenGreenfieldFitness.com Oregano and listen to the podcast that I did there about oregano and how it helps and how to use it. So check that out and think about a yeast infection. I mentioned four things, so number three would be adrenaline overload. We pretty much kicked that horse to death when we talked about adrenaline fatigue.

No, no, it really.

But your adrenal glands pump out the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol when you're under pressure. And when you're under constant pressure and stress, you need some relief, you need some sugar. Those glands become sluggish, you tend to lose cortisol production, you tend to lose the ability to trigger glycogenolysis in your liver, which is the way that your liver churns out glucose for your blood to have glucose circulating in it and for you to have energy. And so you instead try to get your glucose from your diet. And so you could just basically be over trained, in which case press the rewind button and go do everything that I recommended that you do. If you've got adrenaline, what if it.

Comes down to just plain old willpower?

That is an issue. I'm gonna get to that in just a second. Okay, so last thing would be menopause or any type of premenstrual type of syndrome. You can get low mood, you can get reduced sex drive, irregular changing periods, insomnia, headaches, fatigue, hot flushes. And all of that can go along with sugar cravings as well because your body tries to churn out more serotonin. And sugar triggers a pretty potent serotonin release. And that can help, and it can help you feel better, but it can cause you to crave sweet things. One of the best things that you can do to relieve the type of premenstrual stuff, tension that is going to come from something like a need for serotonin would be to get on a good vitamin B complex. Because a vitamin B complex will help you produce more of basically a feel good hormone called prostaglandin. And that would be something you could do, would just be like a high dose Vitamin B. Vitamin B6.

Why don't I have that?

Why don't you have a vitamin B6?

Yeah, I need that.

I really did not know that that was an issue for you, honey.

Oh, my goodness. I am crazy. Like a maniac. Yeah, girls know what I'm talking about.

No, I mean, you were off turning off the oven on Deb's question. Like, Deb is just like 24 7. Just like she's always addicting.

My dad's the same way. I'm. My dad is the same way.

And if it is just a willpower sugar addiction issue, I'm gonna put a link to every, every single thing I've ever done about cravings in the show notes. And you could go geek out and look at it. But also for the past month, I'd.

Say mine's a willpower thing.

Yeah, and it could be. But for the past month, I've been doing weekly seminars with the Pacific Elite Fitness's mental performance coach, Chris Janzen. Every Monday, we've been doing a one hour webinar called the Diet Dominator. And it covers all of the psychological aspects of food cravings and how to stick to a diet. No matter what diet you're on. Low carb, low fat, Atkins, Mediterranean, Paleo, Primal, whatever. We teach you how to mentally stick to that diet. So check that out. It's not available. We took a small number of people, mostly from our inner circle, and gave them access to it. We're in the middle of producing all those audios right now. It's going to be available soon. That'd be a really good resource for you. So check out thedietdominator.com thedietdominator.com that's just a really good webinar series that we just got done teaching, so should be available super soon for those of us.

Who have no willpower.

There you go. Speaking of no willpower, sounds like our kids are killing each other in the living room. So that means the movie must be.

No, they're screaming at the dog. It's fine, honey. Don't worry.

Do we need to replay the movie? What?

Oh, do we have more?

Well, we do have more questions. Okay. All right, I can start the next question if you don't go entertain the kids. Just go do a song and dance. I'll get the next question going. I'll explain to you the question when you come back. Hey, I'm Panka Stiwari. I'm from India and I want to increase my body weight. I'm actually ectomo. I'm super skinny, super skin. You can call me ectomorph. I want to be a mesophore. People call me. I'm very skinny. I must improve myself. I have got a bit of muscles, but not that big in some part of my body. I can see my joints, but muscles are not up to the mark. And I want to please suggest me some kind of workouts and what should I keep diet plan to be accurately into the be completely fit. I mean, thanks in advance for replying me, if at all you reply me. And I wish I could hear you soon. Thank you, sir, Madam. All right, so Jess has stepped out of the the office for a little while. She should be back soon. But Panja wants to increase muscle mass. I know it was kind of hard to understand what Panja was saying. He wants to increase body weight super skinny. So he talked about switching from becoming what's called an ectomorph to a mesomorph. He's referring to the body types that I talk about in my book, how to get fit for your ideal body type over@getfitguy.com. he probably hasn't read that book, though, because you can't actually change your body type. Panja. Jess is back, by the way. We're gonna talk about how to.

I don't know what kind of body type I am.

How to get jacked, basically.

I wouldn't be good at that at all.

Your body type is based off of your bone length and your bone width and your muscle fiber ratio. Like your ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fiber. It's based off of your Metabolism, which is related to your thyroid gland. It's based off of the levels of the hormone or the protein called myostatin, which helps you to build muscle. It's based off of your epigenetics, which basically means that certain people are built. So that triggers cause them to build muscle faster, like being exposed to a heavy weight causes them to build muscle faster. And so there are all these factors that you have no control over. There are factors that you do have control over. But understand that you can't change your body type. What you can change is kind of your body shape based off of your body type. And there are certainly things that you can do to build muscle. Now, we did do a full podcast a while back on how fast you can build muscle and understand that it's not as fast as most men's health websites would have you to believe. So if you are a complete beginner. Complete beginner. About the most muscle that you can actually gain per month is two pounds. Okay. Or about one to one and a half percent of your total body weight.

You helped my brother out.

I did, yeah. Yeah. Jess. Brother.

My brother is skinny as a Ryan.

Super skinny. That's what I did for Christmas, wasn't it?

Last year? It was a Christmas gift. Yes.

Super skinny.

He wanted to get buffer.

He played college basketball and like, his coaches were doing everything to try and protein Shakespeare. Never build muscle. He put. He put on some decent muscle with my program. He did.

He actually. I totally could tell.

Yeah, he did put.

He was 180.

And he didn't get too fat.

No. And my brother is generally. Just to give you an idea, between 130 and 140.

Yeah.

And he's six, three. I think he's a skinny guy. Yeah.

And I had skinny guy. I had him lifting heavy four times a week. Full body heavy, deadlift, clean squat, bench press. Meet with a weightlifting coach or a personal trainer.

If you don't do this stuff. I really was. But you got to be.

And I had him eating a thousand calories more than his metabolic rate. So basically a lot of his wife.

Complained that he was never hungry for dinner.

I took his body height and his weight and all that jazz and plugged it into what's called the Harris Benedict equation to get. Get an approximation of his resting metabolic rate. Okay. And then I added 1,000 calories to that. Basically, he was eating about 42 to 4,500 calories per day. Yeah.

He had to put it away.

So for guys, I find that generally I can get them up around that range without gaining too much fat and still be able to gain muscle at a decent pace. Once you get over and above about 1,000 calories more than your daily metabolic rate, you just start to get too fat. So there was a study that was actually done over at California State University that tracked a group of men for eight weeks and they did gain an average of. It was close to six pounds of muscle for eight weeks. So they actually were almost more than what most people actually can get. They were pushing close to three pounds a month, which is a lot. That's a lot of weight. Don't get me wrong. That's a big amount of muscle to be able to gain. But they also gained a half pound of fat. So you can do it without gaining fat, but it happens a lot more slowly. So there was another study where the men ate just a little over 2,000 calories a day. And it was the same thing. It was over an eight week period of time. They only gained two and a half pounds of muscle over that eight week period of time, but they lost seven pounds of fat. So it kind of depends.

Depends on what you're going for.

It sounds like POCAH is starting from a pretty skinny starting point, so you don't have to worry as much about gaining fat.

That's like my brother.

So what I would do would be full body heavy lifts. Find out what your resting metabolic rate is, which is easy to do. Just Google the Harris Benedict equation. Eat that many calories plus 1,000 calories per day, lift heavy, give your body full recovery, stay away from cardio, period. Like stay away from treadmills, bikes, stuff like that. None of that's going to help you. And also, you know, he would have.

An amazing distance runner.

Really. Like, the program for skinny guys to look sexy as hell is all laid out in my book over@getfitguy.com I take every single body type, females, all the way up to males, the four different body types associated with each sex, and tell you exactly how to gain muscle based off you did go with my brother specific body type. So there you go. So we are coming up on two hours right now.

Oh, really?

Today's breakfast.

I've been having fun.

So if we're still having fun, you know what, what the heck. Should we finish it off as well?

I might.

We might as well finish it off because I told you guys, just press pause. The food's not going to get cold, is it?

No, it's still in the oven.

It'll be warm, but the oven's off, right?

Yeah, the oven is off.

All right, let's answer Craig's question. Hey, Ben and Brock, this is Craig from Birmingham. And I find myself in a place in my run TR where I know that I need to maintain a high cadence of around 90 to stay injury free. On the other hand, my aerobic fitness is not to a point where I can maintain that for very long. So, two questions. One, how do I get that fitness up? What's the best way to do that? And two, in the meantime, what should I do in a race? Thanks. Bye. Jessa, what would be your advice to Craig?

Just move your feet faster.

Just move your feet faster, Craig, Come.

On, dude, I'm teasing you.

Just move your feet faster.

I know it's hard.

First of all, there's stuff that goes way above and beyond running fast than just cadence. It is true.

So true.

They have done studies on runners, optimal stride length and optimal stride cadence. And the fact is that you can take a professional runner and you can look at their cadence, and yes, a lot of times in the fastest people, they're running out of cadence. Cadence of 90. But that doesn't mean that if your natural cadence is 80 or 85, that trying to force your body to run at a cadence of 90, it's going to cause stress, is necessarily going to help you. But there are ways that you can definitely get faster as a runner. So understand first of all that there's basically three variables that are going to affect how fast you run. The first is going to be your VO2 max or your maximum oxygen consumption. The second is going to be your ability to buffer lactic acid. And the third is going to be your economy of motion. And that's the same whether you're swimming or running or cycling, whatever. So your economy is basically how much energy you're consuming or how much energy you're expending for every time you turn for any given movement velocity. Okay? So the more economical you can become as a runner, especially as a distance runner, the faster you're going to be over that distance. And technically, some people also use the word efficiency, which is different than economy. Efficiency is the percentage of energy that's expended by your body that actually gets converted into locomotion, that gets converted into work. So if you're 90% efficient, you're converting, which nobody is when they're running. The top that you are when you're running is something like 30%. It's nuts. But there's a difference between economy, which is you're or, you know, the metabolic cost, the way your body versus efficiency, how much you actually transfer into work. Aren't I a good little physicist?

You are. That is what your degrees is. Physiology, physics. That's different. Okay, Sorry. Anyways, I thought you said.

So when we look at VO2 max and lactate threshold, that's just training, you know, it's doing your tempo work, you know, doing your whatever, wearing your. Your elevation training mask while you're training, whatever, that kind of stuff. When we look at economy, running economy, there are a ton of factors that influence running economy. Form, running, form, running. Your cadence is just one of them. Your body weight is another. Your leg length and your body size is another. Your leg strength and your leg power is another. Your flexibility is another. Your running form is one. Your foot biomechanics is one. The resistance of the air that you're running through and the air temperature is another. Your age is a factor. Your training status is a factor. So understand that cadence. Cadence is not the magic bullet. But let's say that you want to improve your cadence, and you're already doing things like strength training to improve your neuron recruitment. So you're getting that good muscle efficiency going on. You're already taking care of your diets. You're addressing the body weight and body fat factor. You've got good shoes, and you're injury free. And then finally, you have good range of motion, because anytime that you've got tight hip flexors, that affects your pelvic tilt. And if you affect your pelvic tilt, you can't put out leg power. So you've got all those variables addressed, and you're running with good form speed, work. Three things. Three things that I would do to increase cadence. Ready, Jessa?

I'm ready. I know what I do.

Number one, treadmills. You are forced to run at a higher cadence when you're on a treadmill and you just can't plod, you dial the treadmill in.

You're there.

You do a workout such as a 10 by 30 second with 90 second recoveries in each 30 second, you're counting how many foot strikes that you have, and you should have how many in 30 seconds. If you're looking for a cadence of 90, 45. Okay, sorry, one second. Number two would be pool running. Believe it or not, pool running increases cadence really well because it's hard to get your heart rate up with a low cadence when you're doing pool running. So you can hop in the pool and you can do literally like 20.

I've done two summer 20 by 30.

Yeah. Jessica got a stress fracture.

I've had three.

Yeah. But pool running is really good at improving your cadence. You could buy one of those.

It didn't feel like it.

$20,000 pool treadmills. And just go get in the pool, put on a. A floaty vest, and you'll get in the pool.

Okay, if you say so.

It helps. Trust me, it helps. Number three would be downhill running. Yeah.

You have to have a high turn.

Preferably on a soft surface.

Yeah.

So golf course, whatever. Something like that.

And if you can run a tilt at a downhill, you're even better.

Yeah. And some treadmills are cool like that. Some treadmills can actually almost, like, technically. And you learn this if you listen to the MACA interview. Like, running on a flat surface is closer to 3% on a treadmill. And technically, 0% on a treadmill is really like running downhill. So you could do downhill repeats on a treadmill.

Yeah, but it's not the same. Like, if you're doing an extreme downhill, you have to have a very high turnover rate to not fall flat on your face, especially if you're running at a tilt, which is the proper way to run down a hill.

Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. So, Craig, those are the three things I would do. Pool running, treadmill running, and then downhill running. And then as far as, like, you know, like, how you're supposed to race until you get your cadence up to 90. Dude, do not sweat it. Seriously, it's not that big of a deal. Honestly. Like, I. I had one of. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I killed it at that recent half ironman in Thailand. I did really well, and I. I ran down a ton of guys, and I finished the race. And Alex Bach from Team TBB came up to me. He's the guy who runs Team tbb, along with Brett Sutton, which is like a professional triathlon team. And he's basically like, you look like shit when you run. And I'm like, yeah, I know. And he goes, but you're still fast, so just keep doing what you're doing.

Some of the fastest runners have some of the worst form ever.

Yeah, I mean, so don't beat yourself up too much. What it really comes down to is your fitness and your ability to go down. Down to the pain cave. I mean, that's really, like, during a race, that's more important than being like, oh, am I at 90? And, like, counting between aid stations whether your cadence is at 90.

Oh, yeah. Then you're just stressing your body out. Yeah, but I'm like, for me, I know that if I do, like speed workouts and I do, like, track stuff that I. If your body doesn't know the rhythm, you have to train your body to know the rhythm.

You do. You do. But during a race, just don't focus on that.

No, but I'm like, but if you're doing it often enough, I'm like, your body just knows.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it's a really good point. Like, you. You'll get to the point where you can run in a cadence of 90 and you don't have to think about running at a cadence of 90. When you get to that point, the angels start singing and light shines.

But I don't think I've ever thought about, like, my. My cadence ever. I was like, if I, you know, if I just do like 800 repeats or something like that, you're. You're going fast and you're trying hard and you're training your body to know what it feels like to be fast and hard. I mean, the same thing is in a pool when they have you on those elastic bands, I'm like, they do that so you can train your body to know what it feels like.

You're totally right. Fast swimming fast is how you swim. Fast running fast is how you run.

You just have to know.

You just have to. Yeah, you have to.

You got to train the body to know fast.

Yes. So no. Long, slow distance.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. All right, next question. Evening, guys. This is Thomas Herbert calling from London, United Kingdom. I was just wondering about something. I heard you mention a while back about training in cold weather. Now, from what I remember, you said that there were benefits of exposing your body to the cold, which was an increased metabolism due to your body having to itself warm, but exposing your hands and your head actually reduce your metabolism. I also recently watched a documentary on the BBC called Operation Iceberg. And during the documentary, a scientist basically spoke about the theory behind heart attacks and extreme cold exposure that is falling in the water. And it is due to apparently the torso exposure and face exposure producing opposite effects on the heart. One speeding it up, the other slowing it down, causing an arrest. I've just started training and adapting this winter for a number of obstacle races like Tough guy, Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, which I'm wanting to start next year. For the first time, I found myself going out in a T shirt and shorts, but with gloves and a beanie. In my mind and from experience, this is working so far, but I'm like to optimize this if need be. I'm Fairly lean, around 80 kilos, 10% body fat. And my weekly training is a cycle of longer runs, sprints, and Scott Sonnen's tack fit programs. I also follow Paul Germain's perfect health diet for athletes and starting to do carb backloading to see if this helps me in any way. Really, I just wanted to know if you could clear up any of this training for me and whether or not there's any merit to covering the hands and feet. Great. Thanks for your time. Cheers. Bye. Okay, so this. This is one of those questions we get Jessa.

I don't really know anything about this.

Jessa actually doesn't even listen to the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast.

Well, that's cause I have you in my house. Yeah.

So she doesn't realize some of these totally geeked out questions like Thomas's that we get. So. Yeah, Thomas, first of all, one really important thing is that when you. Whoa. Don't break your wine glass, honey. Cheers. When you get a heart attack from cold water exposure, it is cold shock response. So that happens when the temperature of the blood returning to your heart is so cold that it affects the electrical conduction within your heart, and it causes what's called fibrillation, which results in cardiac arrest.

I don't think I know that kind of cold.

You can't even go out and train.

I don't even know that kind of cold.

I'm diving under, first of all. No worries there, man. Like, training in the cold is just not gonna happen. That sounds like arctic. You can't replicate cold shock syndrome unless you're underwater. It's just not gonna happen. So part two of your question, though, in terms of like, covering your hands, your feet, your crotch, your face when you're training in the cold. Yes. What happens is your body will begin to downregulate your metabolism when your hands, your feet, your face, your crotch, any really sensitive or vital areas get super cold when you're training. And so if your goal is to go out and do a training session in the cold so that you burn more calories or you get the thermogenesis benefits.

I'm just scazing sorry of.

Yes. Wear your mittens and your wool socks and your elephant trunk underwear and that's it. And that's it.

And you'll burn a lot of.

Actually, I mean, like, theoretically, like, I know we're joking, but that's kind of like what we're talking about is, like, you know, you can keep your torso relatively uncovered. You could even just, like, run in shorts, wearing some underwear, wear some good wool socks, wear some mittens, and wear a beanie. And that would give you the best of both worlds because you're keeping the vital areas warm while still allowing your torso and your legs to stay relatively cool. And if your goal when you're out there running is to get the full benefits of, like, cold thermogenesis, then, you know, that would be, if you wanted to. To totally geek out on this stuff, how you'd want to do it. And you could go back and listen to the podcast episode that I did with Ray Cronice and Tim Ferriss when they were on a couple of years ago, and we kind of talked about this stuff in a little bit more detail. I don't want to give you the impression, though, that I really care that much about the. Like, when I go out and run in cold weather, I just, like, put on all my clothes and I go out and run, and I don't. I don't think that much about, okay, I gotta have just one layer on my torso and, you know, whatever, two layers on my hands and my feet, and I gotta make sure I get my special wool underwear.

And doesn't it kind of depend on how long the run is, too?

Yeah, it does to a certain extent. I mean, your whole body's gonna get cold at a certain point. But I'm a bigger fan of, when it comes to cold thermogenesis, doing stuff like taking cold showers. You know, in the spring and the summer and the fall, I go do some cold soaks in the river. Jess has seen me pull out that cool fat burner fest from the freezer.

That you can get over my entire freezer.

It takes up one shelf. Cool. Coolfatburner.com you can grab that. And, like, I really don't rely on exercising outdoors in the cold that much for the real true cold thermogenesis benefits. I mean, yeah, I realized, like, last night as I'm riding my mountain bike through sleek cold rain on my way to church choir, where I met Jessa, who drove. That's right. My body is burning more calories to stay warm, and whether or not my hands or feet are cold, it's not gonna make that big of a difference. We're kind of grasping at straws with a lot of this stuff, but the answer to your biggest question is no. Don't worry about a cold shock response and getting a heart attack. And our Next question.

Well, I used to run cross country in the fall with mittens and a tank top and really short shorts. Briefs, actually. That's what you would race in.

Did you wear a top?

Yes, of course. A tank top. Hello. I'm like, so, yeah, we wore next to nothing in the fall in the Northwest. That's cold.

That's sexy.

I didn't know you then.

Next question. Hey, Ben and Brock, It's Joe again. For the past year, I've been trying the thermal ketogenesis and trying to do a high fat diet, and I've noticed in two separate doctor visits that my body temperature is now down to 96.2 degrees. Thanks, guys. Any help with what's going on? Everything's okay. Just let me know. Bye, Joe. You're dying. That's what Jessa thinks you are. Slowly, just like you're just gonna wake up one morning and just.

You're becoming more efficient. I know it.

Blue. So, no, I mean, like, that's one of the things that people with low thyroid can do is they can use a mercury thermometer or, like a digital thermometer. And if you take your temperature for five days, you're looking at wanting it to be between 97.8 and 98.2 degrees Fahrenheit. And if it's less than 97 degrees for five consecutive days, that's a pretty good indicator that you may have thyroid issues going on. Not necessarily that you do, but that you may have thyroid issues going on. And it'd be a good idea to go get your TSH and your T3 and your T4 measured. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you do have low thyroid. You might just be lowering your body temperature because you're keeping yourself cold so much. Like I've noticed. Like, just because when I do cold thermogenesis, my body fat drops. I'm kind of keeping my body a little bit colder anyway. I'm wearing a little bit less because I know that when I keep my body cold, it burns a little bit more fat. But I've measured my TSH and my T3 and my T4, and it's just fine, even though my body temperature is consistently a little bit low. Now, there are other things that can result in low metabolism. For example, there's something called the thermic effect of food. That's what keeps your body warm when you eat. And if you're not eating enough or if you're on a pretty low calorie diet. The thermic effect of food is not going to be present in adequate quantity to keep you warm.

That's just like being lean.

What do you mean?

Like, I know, I mean I'm like just like thin people. Aren't they just.

Well, yeah, people with low body fat are going to be colder anyways. But I know that isn't diet. Like temperature is super regulated by your circadian rhythm. So if you're not sleeping enough, that can literally throw off your body temperature cycles. In a perfect sleep cycle, your temperature drops between about 2am and 6am and then it begins to slowly rise as your body produces cortisol and you go throughout the rest of your day. So let's say you don't churn out that morning cortisol. You know, say you're in a state of adrenal exhaustion. Like we got done talking about.

We're really on that subject.

Yeah, talk about that a lot. It seems like we have then that could affect your body temperature. We talked about getting adequate carbohydrates. Typically you need about the equivalent of anywhere between 400 and 600 calories of carbohydrates in order for your body to produce kidney function and tears and mucus and all that stuff that we were talking about earlier. Don't cut your carbohydrate count lower than that if you want to maintain a normal, healthy sustained metabolism and body temperature. So that'd be another thing to look at into. So what I would do if I were in your shoes is I would go get a TSH T3 T4 to double check on your thyroid. If your thyroid's okay, try to eat a little bit more carbohydrate and that's going to naturally also increase the thermic effect of food because you're going to be eating a few more calories and that's about it. So get tested and then just freaking like eat some more food. So that's my recommendation. So there you go. We've got just a couple more questions. Almost there. And then we can go eat. I'm getting starved.

Well, it is seven o'. Clock.

That's right. All right. Hey Ben, how are you? This is Seth. I listen to your program pretty often. You're doing a great job. And I have a question.

So I hope it can be as.

Informative as some of the other Q and A's you guys do for some other. Some other listeners or watchers. Anyway, my question really is coming from me, my perspective and experience and the deal is I'm going into my second year of tri racing and loving It. So I'm in the early season training and I have my data from what I did for the previous year, including, you know, food intensity, heart rate, workouts, routes, all this kind of stuff. Pretty decent log. But basically what I'm trying to do is figure out ways that, you know, people such as myself analyze that data and figure out what, you know, figure out what they can do better for, you know, in the current years and the coming years. Basically how to improve your training, you know, to get better results. I am doing some stuff like adding strength training, modifying nutrition, and also trying to modify rest to get better results. But any input you could have direction. I'm sure you've probably written a lot on this already, but would be greatly appreciated and yeah, thanks for all the work you guys do and yep, I'll listen in. See ya. All right. So Seth, you're tracking your training, which is great. And first of all, I want to point you to two really good resources that I will link to in the show notes. Probably two of the guys who I really respect most when it comes to tracking training variables and learning from them. One guy is Joe Friel and his website is@joefrielsblog.com, but he is the guy who basically like invented a lot of the performance predictors and a lot of the tests, tests that they have over at TrainingPeaks. And I'll go over some of his performance predictors here in a second, but he'd be one really good guy to follow. The other guy is Sammy Inkonen, who's been on this website before, who has a blog, fittingly enough, called Incurable Data Geek. And I'd also check out his website as well. And I'll also tell you what I do. So first of all, Joe Friel has a really good recent blog post that he did on which performance predictors are best to measure and best to pay attention to. So the ones that he recommends is the strongest predictors of performance that you'd want to pay attention to. One would be what's called your functional threshold power or your functional threshold pace. It's called your FTP. And that's essentially the maximum pace that you would be able to hold for about 60 minutes in race conditions. Now, this would also be something that you could go out and test, test by looking at the maximum power that you could sustain for 20 minutes or the maximum running pace that you could sustain for 20 minutes. Make sure that you're warmed up really well before that test. But that's something that you could do every four to eight weeks. And you obviously logically want that power or that pace to improve. Joe is also a fan of looking at your peak power and your peak pace. Like what's, what's the fastest you could run on a treadmill or outdoors? You know, for like, at what distance? Well, for peak, we're talking a pretty short distance.

We're talking about like, that's different for every distance.

We're talking like 100 meter sprint or like warming up well on a bike and what's the maximum power you can produce once you warm up well on the bike. And then also looking at your event specific power and pace, meaning, like you take, and this is obviously something that takes some time, but you literally do a race and then the next year compare that year's race power or that year's race pace or that year's race time to the previous years, and those would be kind of his big main.

Seems like there's a lot of variable.

Performance predictors or his three. So the ones that Sammy Inkonen does is he does a set of two hundreds in the pool. He does five by 200 meter repeats and he does a 10 second rest between each of those 200 meter repeats. And he measures the total time that it takes him to complete five 200 meter repeats with a 10 second rest between each one. So it's essentially like a 1000 meter time trial without the mental shoot me now difficulty of the ones I don't.

Like to do, you mean.

So that's a really good test. And then he also does a 15 minute test on the bike where he basically rides for 15 minutes and looks at the most power that he can produce for a 15 minute set on the bike. So that's pretty close to Joe Friel's functional threshold power, kind of like 20 minute test. And then for the run, what he does is he does a 10 minute test on the treadmill where he runs at his maximum sustainable pace. He tracks his heart rate and he likes to see that his heart rate, if he's testing, say like every four weeks, that his heart rate goes down from test to test, meaning that for any, for that given pace that he's running at his maximum sustainable pace, his heart rate is at a lower heart rate. Based off of that, the tests that I personally do are a little less precise. Believe it or not, Jessa knows me, so she probably realizes. So what I do is. Okay, you're gonna laugh at the first one. Okay, how fast can I ride to the YMCA from my house? Because I Do that a lot. Like I go to. So I know if every four weeks I throw in a how fast. So I know that when I'm in really, really good shape for race, I can make it to the YMCA from our house in about nine to nine and a half minutes on my time trial bike.

Okay.

So that's just like. And that works like if you've got a regular.

I'm just curious. Like, I'm like, there's seasons in life and there's seasons in your body function and or whatever. I'm like, that stuff changes.

Yeah.

I'm like. And speaking as a woman, I'm like, that changes for me monthly. I was like, I can kill it running a week before, but the week after I am as slow as a dog.

That's why you want to test. That's why you want to test in relatively conditions that are the same. Relatively. What am I looking for? Consistent conditions.

Right, okay. Because I was going to say because I'm like, I definitely have seasons.

You're going to test during your period every month. Test during your period every month. Month. You know what I'm saying? Like pick a time and do it when it's predictable.

So this gentleman is not a woman. But I'm just saying women listeners. And I'm just saying like there's definitely differences.

You could have periods.

I'm just like, there's your body changes and I'm like, I just.

That totally went over her head.

Okay, I didn't know. I know energy. I'm just making it relevant to the women.

No, I totally hear you.

Okay.

The next thing I was talking my saying my joke about him having periods.

I got it. But I, I just didn't want to laugh at your dumb joke sixth grader humor.

Okay. Next thing I do is 10 by 100 in the pool at maximum sustainable pace.

Okay.

How fast can I hold 10 by 100? So I do that test too. That's the other thing that I do. And then for the run, I do 10 by 10 on the treadmill. Meaning that I do 10 efforts at 10 miles per hour on a 10% incline for 30 seconds per effort.

That sounds hard.

And I see how long that takes me. I see how long that takes me. So basically, yeah, it's really hard.

That sounds hard.

If I'm in good shape, a workout like that is gonna take me close to 10 minutes. Meaning that I can almost have a one to one work to rest ratio after sprinting for 30 seconds at 10 miles per hour. So obviously what I'm Getting at here is there's more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to training logs and testing and stuff like that. But that's what I would do, Seth. I mean, those are some of the ways that you can learn from your training logs. Best article for you to read is going to be the one that I'll link to in the show Notes, the recent article that Joe Friel wrote on. It's entitled what is met with what is Measured. What is measured improves. So check that out. And we've got one more question. Okay.

Hi, my name is Lucas and I'm seven years old. What's the best thing to eat before my early hockey games?

I think Lucas is Anthony's son. Hey, Anthony. Lucas, what's up? I know Anthony. Anthony's one of my buddies. He's out in New York. I'm pretty sure Lucas is his son because it looked like it came from his phone number. So. Yeah, bump it up, Lucas. Hope you kick butt in your hockey games.

Seriously.

Yeah, man. Like, kids are different. In case you didn't notice, they're not just little adults. So, first of all, if you look at exercising kids, they show anywhere from 10 to 40% higher fat oxidation when they're exercising.

Holy cow.

Compared to adults. So kids are really, really good at using fat. Which is why I wish when I see kids sucking down, like, a Capri sun before their basketball game or whatever.

It doesn't bother you so much.

No, no, it bothers me because I'm like, a kid can actually chomp through, like, an avocado or, like, suck down some coconut milk or some nuts or seeds. And they oxidize that pretty dang efficiently during exercise. Not high fructose corn syrup compared to adults. So kids are good at burning fat. So first of all, understand that filling up on avocados, coconuts, nuts, seeds, stuff like that can make just as much sense for a kid as candy and energy bars because kids oxidize fat more efficiently. Only do women oxidize fat more efficiently, but kids do kids more.

So women are amazing.

Kids more so than women. Women are amazing.

We live longer, we're better.

Yeah, they're just fun to have around. Women are so. The other thing that you gotta understand is that based off of your body surface area, kids also tend to basically need more hydration compared to adults. They cool their bodies a little less efficiently. So. So hydration is something to pay attention to, something you learn to when you get older. I mean, you know, you could literally, like, get a good electrolyte Solution like slam it like a Zico coconut water.

That's what we give our boys.

Something like that along with, you know, literally like some almonds and raisins. That's one example of something that you could do. That's not the only thing that you could do. But for example, you could also do. You could do rice cakes and you could slather some almond butter on those. You're not a fan of rice.

Rice has got a bad rap. Especially rice products high in arsenic.

Arsenic, yeah.

Don't eat rice cakes.

I forgot about that.

Stop eating rice cakes if you eat rice cakes.

I think Chris Kresser wrote an article on that.

Yeah, don't eat those things.

Yeah, you're right. I forgot about that. Okay, so forget that we have things called like, our kids get superhero bars. Like, we don't like to give our kids, like these wrapped up packaged bars very much. Much like whatever hammer bars or Coco Chia bars or any other number of bars that a lot of times people tend to like, send stuff to our house for me to trial. And our kids are like, daddy got Superman bars in the mail. We give them those type of things to them, though, a lot of times after they've finished their soccer games or basketball games or periods of time during which the parents tend to hand out granola bars and stuff like that, that I'll let my kids take the bars and everything. And then they're just like, super excited because they know that when they get home they can trade it in for a super bar. Yeah. Because our kids, like, they, they go out of their way to eat gluten free.

It's pretty funny. It is pretty funny.

Like they will ask people, like, I've watched them after soccer games, they'll walk up to the lady handing out the treats and they're. They say, is this gluten free?

And then the lady gets a really nervous look on her face like, I don't know. What are you asking me?

So anyways, I like coconut water. There's also a company called it's not like perfect energy drink. They make coconut water beverages. Remember we had a bunch of them in our fridge. Anyways, like, coconut water works, though. Like, I like coconut water because it hydrates kids, gives them some electrolytes. They like it. It's got a little bit of sugar in it for the activity, but you can combine that with a healthy fat that like a seed or a nut. Instead of slathering almond butter on a rice cake, you could slather almond butter on literally like a Like a gluten free rolling or a banana, a piece of fruit, something like that. But essentially what it comes down to is the main thing that you'd want to avoid as a kid or an adult is a lot of protein because that's going to take energy to digest and it's going to draw a lot of blood into the stomach. So avoid protein bars, avoid tuna, salmon meat, nuts and seeds. Don't have enough protein for them to be that much of an issue.

You gotta eat a lot of those.

Protein shakes, stuff like that. Save that for afterwards.

An avocado is a good one. Avocado's good.

Fruit rollies, like those natural fruit leather fruit rollies. Those aren't too bad. You could put almond butter on that kind of thing as well.

I've done that. I actually did.

And it tastes like a peanut butter and jelly rollies. It's pretty good with, without the spread.

It's good.

Yeah, yeah. And, and those are just some examples of some of the things that you could use. Jess and I tend to geek out on this kind of stuff in the inner circle quite a bit. We've got a forum that, you know, we, for those of you that didn't know, Jess is kind of like the mother hen of the inner circle. And we've got a forum on there where people ask a lot of questions, you know, about kids and, and health foods and household cleaners and stuff like that. So that's over@benny greenfieldfitness.com inner circle. It's 10 bucks a month to come hang out with us. But that's another good place to find out about kids and what kids are.

Plus, like just having. I like to make up things in the kitchen that are just good snacks for kids to have around that are good for, you know, before any kind of game. Hockey game, basketball game, tennis, whatever, whatever your kids do. It's nice to have stuff that's readily available rather than having to cook something up or, you know.

Yeah, Jello shots.

Yeah, I do a lot of those.

Jello shots.

Whatever, honey.

Seriously. We have been podcasting for two and a half hours. Do you realize that, Folks, let me tell you this right now. Let me tell you this right now, okay? We just covered a ton of material. I'm going to release a guest interview for you guys next week, but please do not anticipate a repeat of this week for next week. So if you just listen.

He's exhausted.

I can't do this anymore. Brock's coming. I hope to God Brock is coming back soon because I have to podcast with this hot blonde sitting next to me until Brock gets back.

Anyways, though, I'm the girl with the dumb question.

You guys. Links to everything in the show. Notes. The triathlon camps that I talked about, the trip to Vietnam, which is gonna be. I can't say the B word. It's gonna be kickin. You're gonna love it. The trip to Vietnam, the brand new low carbohydrate diet for athletes package, the instructions for creating your own my list. And of course, the most important thing, the link to come hang out with me and Jessa at the Become Superhuman Live event.

Which is gonna be fun.

Which is gonna be fun. Leave the podcast. A ranking or a rating in itunes?

You better give me a good ranking because I don't show up very often.

That's right. You better do it.

Thank you very much.

You heard her, folks. Okay. And let's go eat dinner. Okay. All right.

Bye.

Later.