Fitness Fabrics & Fashion, Can Radiation Be Good For You, How To Do Isokinetic Training & More!

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast, Fitness Fabrics and Fashion. Can radiation be good for you? And natural remedies for too much radiation, how to do isokinetic training, what to do about sweaty hands, and much more.

Welcome to the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast. We provide you with everything you need to know for total performance, fat loss, recovery, digestion, sleep, brain and hormone optimization. So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you just want to shed a few pounds, get ready for non run of the mill, cutting edge content from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

I enjoy your alliteration in the title for this podcast.

Do you like how I read off those titles? So illiterate. Like, I have a literary amount of. I have a high amount of literacy. By the way, today is the is the Fitness Fabrics and Fashion episode in which we talk all about the latest and the greatest fitness fashion and what kind of clothing that you can wear to make your workouts amazing.

As a matter of fact, that's what I was alluding to when I said the alliteration. The fitness fashion and fabrics.

Yeah. As most people know, if you get your fitness fashion down and your fitness fabrics down, then working out hard really becomes meaningless. It's just about looking good. Speaking of which, what are you wearing today, Brock?

Yeah, I have an outfit that I wear when I'm working while I work from home every day. But when I actually feel like I need to put on something other than just my boxer shorts and my sweatpants, I have these comfy old jeans that feel just like sweatpants because they're so old. Yeah. And a T shirt that's so stained it's actually embarrassing.

Gotta love the comfort jeans. They're kind of like comfort food. Yeah, they're just nice.

Yeah. Well, this way if somebody comes to the door, I don't feel super embarrassed.

Right.

Just a little embarrassed.

Right, Exactly. Probably less embarrassed than me. I'm wearing my. My teeny tiny track shorts.

Nice.

My. My old Iron man ones from the. Gosh, these things are like the early 2000s. Way dated.

So the elastic is totally shot.

They're like diapers. That's right. And yeah, that's about it. So when it comes to fitness fashion, we're looking good and minimalist today.

News flashes head on down to twitter.com banongreenfield yes, for all your news flash needs.

Unless you want to get totally freaked out about food labels, because that was one of the first things that I tweeted this week was food labels and what your food label really means. Now this was really interesting. The title of this article was in the Guardian, and as with anything that we talk about on the show, we'll link to it over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com 315 for today's episode. But this one was called Inside the food Industry, the surprising truth about what you eat. And it was especially targeted towards people who think that they're only eating healthy, unprocessed foods. And the author delved into everything from fruit salad to coconut milk to show you that indeed, the food industry puts things into food that you may not even be aware of if you think you're eating healthy.

Now, the only goal beyond the bugs that we talked about last week that sort of sneak into your food, beyond the.

The insects. Yes, exactly. The. The etymology, I believe it was called. But anyways, even though the article itself is pretty long, I wanted to go into a few of the things kind of towards the end of the article that are relatively shocking. For example, when you look at the natural colorings that you'll find in food, the only difference between these and artificial ones is that they start with pigments that naturally occur in nature. I don't know if that's redundant to say naturally occurring in nature, yeah, sure. But otherwise they're made using the same highly chemical industrial processes, including extraction using harsh solvents and chemicals. Even though it says natural colorings, the enzymes that are used to, for example, make bread stay soft longer and that are injected into livestock before slaughter to tenderize their meat, and even used in fruit juice processing to create a cloudier, more natural appearance are just more chemicals that are injected into food that can still be advertised as healthy, unprocessed food. For example, the. What are a few others that are kind of interesting? The wash and ready to eat salads. Those are actually cleaned by sloshing them around in tap water that's dosed with chlorine, often with powdered or liquid fruit acids to inhibit bacterial growth. And they'll usually use the same tank of treated water for up to eight hours at a time to chlorinate your washed and ready to eat salads. And even the natural flavorings. When you see natural flavorings on a label, there really isn't much difference in the chemical composition of a natural versus an artificial flavor. So what this really comes down to is that you should probably go buy some composting dirt and some chickens and just start to take care of your own food, because there's a lot of nasty stuff out there in food manufacturing.

But I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wish I was an earthworm and I could just pass some dirt through my digestive tract and just be completely unaware.

That's right. Or at least follow the old school recommendations. And you know, this isn't totally bulletproof, but at least it's, it's halfway there bulletproof. Not tm, to borrow Dave Asprey, but more bulletproof, just using the traditional sense.

Of the word penetrated by bullets.

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. I mean, you'll at least friggin skip half this stuff. So that was interesting. And then another kind of interesting article that came out this week was about an ancient Anglo Saxon remedy that has been found to kill the hospital superbug mrsa. This one caught my attention simply because a couple of years ago I myself had a MRSA infection that tried to eat off half my leg. And that was.

And that's how Ben lost his leg.

So I lost my leg.

Develop the strange limping accent.

It wasn't a whale, it was mrsa. Anyways, though, you know, I've written about MRSA before on the website and how it can be controlled using things like essential oils, for example. But what these, these, I guess they would have been. What do you call people who go out and find old stuff? Archaeologists. Anthropologists. Yeah. So anyways, what they found was this old English medical compendium and it's called Bald's Leech Book, which sounds just like a fantastic title for a medical compendium. And what the ancient authentic ingredients were that our ancestors used to fight MRSA was a combination of a variety of things, but specifically copper in a brass vessel that had leeks and garlic and a few other herbs added to it in this blend that researchers this week tried and found that killed 90% of the, of the superbug MRSA, the staphylococcus. So it turns out that there may actually be something to shocker herbal remedies as an alternative to or an adjunct to antibiotics. So it was, it's really interesting and I think the article itself is actually to be noted that, you know, the, the ancient use of herbs and essential oils and things along those lines seems to, seems to have something to it when it comes to actually having some effect against, against things like mrsa.

As long as it's served in the golden chalice.

That's right.

Or the copper chalice with mead.

Red Knight. Red knight rules. Okay. And then our friend Alex Hutchinson over at Runner's World published an article that I actually got a few questions on this week. Because everybody knows I'm a fan of the whole ice baths, cold thermogenesis thing. And this was about a newer study that they did that may have found that ice baths are completely ineffective.

Oh yeah, I saw this One may.

In fact be deleterious. And at first glance, when you look at this study, it appears to significantly indicate that ice baths may not be all they're chalked up to be. What they did was they took a group of subjects and they had them exercise and half of them cooled themselves in an ice bath post exercise for about 20 minutes, about a 50 degree Fahrenheit, 10 degrees Celsius ice bath. And the other group, the non cooled group, of course, did not. And what they found was that there were better adaptations in blood supply to the trained muscles. There was a better increase in muscular endurance, and there was a significant increase in the strength response in the people who. Drum roll please. Did not do the ice bath. And they didn't find a significant difference in the markers of inflammation in the non cooled versus the cooled group. Now here is the kicker. All they were testing was wrist flexion and wrist extension and the actual cooling of the wrist in an ice bath. They did not submerge these folks in an ice bath. They did not engage in any activity that would have resulted in significant core heating. Because most people don't really get that hot and bothered by doing wrist flexion and extension.

Depends on how vigorous.

When you look at previous studies that have indicated some difference in people who are doing more hardcore exercise, like elite cyclists and people who are doing full body weight training, as far as the potential decrease in soreness or at least perceived soreness, this study, I think is one, one that I personally would kind of toss out in terms of it really not being applicable to the general population. And in addition to that, all of these studies that look into ice baths, they don't really look at some of the other reasons that, for example, I personally do things like ice baths and cold showers. Like for example, better ability to be able to deal with the mammalian dive reflex, right? That sharp intake of breath that you take when cold water hits your face. That is, if you can control it and not take that sharp intake of breath and get yourself to the point where you can submerge yourself in cold water without actually being stressed out by it, makes you more resilient to stress and gives you a little bit better ability to consciously control the activation of your sympathetic nervous system, your fight or flight response in response to stress. These studies also don't look at some of the fat burning hormones that are stimulated by excessive, not really excessive, but significant exposure. Exposure to cold. Right. Like cold that makes you shiver. Such as adiponectin, the hormone that can help you mobilize energy out of fat tissue, or leptin or even insulin sensitivity. There's a lot of things that go above and beyond what researchers study when they look at some of these ice bath research. And you know, that's. Those are my thoughts on this recent ice bath. One that, that is now once again spreading the rumor that ice baths don't work.

Yeah, well, I think it's kind of like the research that's around using carbohydrate for, for fuel when you're, when you're exercising. Like, yeah, it works and, and it's really good and all that. But there is another side to things and it's not just about going fast all the time.

Right, Exactly. And, and I think that sometimes, you know, the folks in the lab coats look at, at one element, right. Like performance or inflammation and don't look at other things like say fat loss or heart rate variability or nervous system health or things like that. So kind of interesting. And of course, I've tweeted out a lot more this week. You can follow that all@twitter.com BenGreenfield and we'll put a link to some of these articles over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com 315 whether you want to heal MRSA, whether you want to soak your wrists after a nice bout of typing, or whether you want to get freaked out about the chemicals in your food.

Listener Q and A. Hi, Ben Brock. I recently discovered my home has high levels of radon gas. And while I've gone through the mitigation process with installation of a vent pipe system and fan, I'm still concerned about the potential long term effects of minimal exposure, especially on my 22 month old twins. Now, is there anything I could still do to reduce exposure and protect my family, such as in my diet or anything additional you can think of. Thanks. Love the podcast.

So, radon gas.

Yeah. You know, I think I mentioned this on the show before because we talked a little bit about radiation in the past and I actually studied a couple years ago this whole idea of like the hormetic effect of radiation and the concept that small doses of radiation may actually be good for you. And because of that, just look at the Hulk. Yeah, look at the Incredible Hulk. He's huge. Gets a lot done. Anyways though, I actually have. Don't laugh. I Have an irradiated rock that the author of a book on the hormetic effects of radiation actually had had hooked me up with. And it is just like it releases these small microdoses of radiation throughout the day and night. And it just kind of sits on the bed stand, you know, the same amount of radiation that a lot of natural, geologic, geological formations actually release. So it's kind of interesting when you look into this. I mean, there's, there's no doubt that exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation is extremely bad for human health. I mean, when you look at the acute radiation sickness that, you know, scientists who study radioactive elements got back in the day or by, you know, survivors of atomic bomb blasts, you, you see a lot of issues. I mean, even the long term complications of adult survivors of cancer who are treated with a lot of, especially the earlier radiation therapy technology, I mean, it can definitely mess you up. I'm not arguing that high doses of ionizing radiation are dangerous, but this whole concept of low dose radiation and the fact that low dose radiation may actually help with things like genetic repair and preventing tissue damage and a lot of other benefits, it's really, really interesting. So the idea behind this, and this idea that a low dose of a bad thing can have good effects is called hormesis. And we've talked about a little bit on the show before. I mean, we were talking about cold, right? And cold is a form of stress that in high amounts will kill you or at least severely inhibit your physiological potential and your ability to talk and have natural biological function. Exercise, we all know that you get over trained and you can exercise too much and you can create heart issues and adrenal fatigue and all that jazz fasting, that's another one that in small doses can be good for you, but in large doses can be bad for you. And most hormetic stressors work by kind of slightly overactivating your body's repair machinery, right? So you generally get net positive results when you induce things like cellular apoptosis, right, like that when you fast and your body kind of cleans itself up by actually killing cell, turning over some of your old cells. And most hormetic effects act on this same or in this same manner, right? By upregulating your repair function or your ability to be resilient. Speaking of resilience. So when we look at radiation hormesis, I'm pretty surprised at the amount of information that's out there. I mean, I'll link to it in the show notes, but even just the Wikipedia Page on radiation hormesis is pretty massive in terms of the number of stud studies out there that have looked into this stuff. And you know, there's even studies that were published before the 1940s that found evidence of radiation hormesis across like plants and fungi and protozoans and algae and insects and even, even radon has been looked into a little bit. And, and that specifically in the case of Alzheimer's and small doses of radon helping out with, with, with function of patients who had Alzheimer's. But when you look at more recent studies on radiation hormesis, there's been a lot of studies in mice that have found that exposure to low dose radiation protects against the effects of subsequent exposure to mid lethal doses of X rays. And you get less DNA damage and less mortality when low dose radiation is used in terms of the ability of mice to be able to withstand X rays. When you look at for example, low dose radiation and diabetes, they've done studies and found that diabetic rats show faster wound healing when dosed with low levels of radiation. And they've also found that radiation at low doses can prevent kidney damage, which is one of the most common long term complications of diabetes. So the idea behind why this is occurring is theoretically because you up regulate the cellular enzyme systems that are responsible for repairing damaged membranes and that are responsible for repairing mutated DNA. And so if for example, you got exposed to, let's say low dose radiation from the sun, and you had moderate amounts of sun exposure between, let's say, 10am and 2pm every day, then you compared to someone who, who wasn't getting that low dose level of radiation from the sun, who was maybe slathering themselves in sunscreen every time they stepped out in the sun, you might actually be able to be a little bit more resilient against the effects of say a sunburn. Right. Like if you were out on the beach too long compared to that person who hadn't been exposing themselves to that low dose radiation from the sun.

Is that what they call a base tan?

That's what they call base tan. Exactly. That's what I've been going after for the past 10 minutes. This entire thing has led up to the fact that you really should get a base tan. No, but, and I actually have done that. I've used tanning beds before when I know that in the middle of the winter I'm off to do a triathlon where I'll be exposed for 10 hours, you know, in the heat and the sun, to, to, you know, large Amounts of sun with relatively little skin protection or clothing protection. I've used tanning beds to get like low dose radiation leading up to that. And also just so I don't have tan lines, which can be embarrassing and unsightly. So anyways, the low dose radiation. But when it comes to radon, specifically in most cases, when you look at domestic exposure to high concentrations of radon, there isn't much evidence out there for a hormetic effect. And even the studies that have shown there to be any type of benefits to radon, such as that study that I mentioned on, on Alzheimer's and there was another study on, on arthritis that shows that radon may induce beneficial long term effects to arthritis. And even these like radioactive water baths that you'll find in, I know they've, they've got a lot of them over in Russia. There's some in Germany. You know, a lot of these, these countries you would expect to be bathing in radiation, right? Like our. Anyways, though radon spas, right, where people sit for minutes or hours in this high radon atmosphere or in these like radioactive water baths, these actually exist. But the fact is the amount of radon that people are getting exposed to with these hormetic doses is far less than what you would see when you're looking at domestic radon leakages such as you might experience in a home. You know, where you get this radioactive, colorless, odorless gas that basically can get emitted into homes from, you know, I guess it would be in this case, for example, poor ventilation would probably be the number one cause of radon issues in a domestic case like this. So in that situation, I would not say, well, you know, now your kids are going to be resilient and you know, tiny Incredible Hulks or Spider man or whatever.

Godzilla.

Yeah, Godzilla, exactly. I would say that I would actually consider using some of the natural remedies that can help out with higher dose radiation exposure. And there's a lot of them out there. But you know, I always like to look at what science says when it comes to helping to reduce the effects of radiation exposure. And so there's a guy out there named Dr. Mark Serkis and we actually had a premium podcast episode with him last year where we talked a lot about all the different compounds out there that can help you to mitigate some of the effects of radiation or to protect yourself against radiation. And we delved into a lot of detail in that episode. But some of the things that have come up since then, just based on research that has been done since The Japan, the Fukushima fallout. Right. And things that I've looked into for myself are definitely some things that I would. I can't say I can recommend specific dosages and things like that. We may even want to play our medical.

Oh, our disclaimer.

Our disclaimer. Right. Before I go into this, possibly, if you want to inject that, Brock, it could possibly be a good idea since we're talking about children.

Okay.

It's a very sensitive topic.

Ben is not a doctor. And the content provided on this podcast is for informational purposes only and should.

Not be construed as medical or healthcare advice.

Alright, so let's jump into some of the things that can help out with radiation. One is nascent iodine. And when I go do my traveling in Asia, I actually have a little bottle of nascent iodine. The reason is that radiation affects your thyroid gland and can inhibit the ability to create iodine, which helps out with things like DNA integrity and immune function and metabolic and endocrine balance. And when you use nascent iodine, it helps to counteract some of the effects of radioactive iodine, essentially kind of taking up some of the space in the cells that radioactive iodine normally would. And nascent iodine is just a little dropper bottle. It's a little brown bottle that has iodine in it. And it's specifically called nascent iodine because it actually has the ability to, to take up some of those spaces that radioactive iodine would. So that's, that's one thing that I would look into. Another one would be calcium and magnesium. And both of those minerals can decontaminate nuclear waste in the form of strontium 90, which is kind of a common one you'll see with, with radiation leakage from like nuclear. Nuclear.

Nuclear.

Nuclear. From nuclear plants, to borrow. I believe that's the George Bush definition.

Or Homer Simpson.

Yes, or Homer Simpson. Right. So calcium and magnesium. Not much evidence out there when it comes to radon, but definitely some evidence when it comes to strontium. You can use transdermal magnesium, you can use oral magnesium or even like cal mag type of supplements to help out with something like that. There's something called dmso and that's a really potent sulfur based antioxidant. And there are several studies out there that show that DMSO can not only protect the body from the effects of harmful radiation, but it can detoxify the body from the effects of harmful radiation after the body has been exposed. So what it does is it neutralizes the specific radioisotopes that can build up in your body after exposure to nuclear radiation. So the interesting thing about DMSO is it's very similar to something else called msm. So DMSO is a liquid, MSM is a powder. And both are really, really potent sulfur based antioxidants that you need to be careful that you use in very small dosages. But there's some evidence out there that in the case of severe head injury, that MSM can help to counteract some of the intense acute inflammation that can occur that can cause things like brain damage, loss of memory, death of neurons, et cetera. So actually, in both of my cars in the glove box, I have a little bag of M to be able to take about a teaspoon of that should I ever get into a situation where I've gotten in a pretty big accident and actually have the ability or the consciousness to actually get something like MSM into my system. It's something that I have in my car just in case something like that happens for severe injury, specifically head injury. But DMSO is the liquid version of that that they've actually been, that they've done studies on and found it to be helpful for radiation. Zeolite, zeolite clay and zeolite liquid, that's another mineral kind of similar to magnesium. And what zeolites do is they actually attach themselves to and remove nuclear waste from the cellular level. And they had one study over in Europe that found that zeolite clay was an effective decontaminant for animals that were affected by the nuclear waste disaster in Chernobyl. And it can also be taken internally for detoxing radiation. So it appears to be most effective for strontium and cesium. So zeolite may be something more along the lines of something that you'd use for exposure to. You know, again, if you're traveling to Asia and concerned about nuclear fallout from that, from the Fukushima issue, you know, or perhaps a nuclear factory exploded in your backyard. Whatever the case may be, zeolite seems to be effective for that. But zeolite is, is often found in a clay form. And there are many other types of clays that bond to waste and nuclear waste in the body. So you can find like red clay and bentonite clay and green clay. And there's, there's a lot of different types of edible clay that can have a detoxification effect and specifically help out with radioactive waste. So actually the same place where I get the nascent iodine, it's a company called magnetic Clay that was why they're called Magnetic clay is like one of their very first compounds or, or, you know, health foods that they sold was this edible clay that you actually eat as a detoxificant. So, yes, they. They tried it. I have, yeah, I have. I've got some of my bathroom stairs. It tastes like clay. It has like this, this earthy flavor. It's not necessarily pleasant, but it's, you know, according to my wife, it's not much worse than my kale smoothie. So anyways, this company, Magnetic Clay, sells stuff like the iodine, magnesium clay, like a lot of their stuff are. It's a good place to kind of like shop for the type of things that could help out with nuclear radiation, radon exposure, stuff like that. There's a few others. Activated charge charcoal is one that, similar to clay, has the ability to neutralize radiation. And in the studies that have been done on charcoal, it's a pretty high amount. It's about 10 grams of activated charcoal, which is a lot of capsules of charcoal. But it's something that may help out.

Pooping black for a week.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Proteolytic enzymes. And by the way, that's the thing with charcoal, clay, any of that stuff, any other supplements, foods, nutrients, et cetera, that you take along with that, those are likely going to get bound up and pass through your digestive tract as well. So you need to be aware that, you know, if you're taking some expensive multivitamin or something like that, it's not a good idea to take charcoal and clay simultaneously just because you're, you know, you're going to be making expensive poo. So bee pollen is another one. And there's some studies that suggest that, that bee pollen may significantly lower the negative side effects of radiation exposure. And the studies that they've done bee pollen studies on were for radium, which is actually a little bit similar to radon in terms of its molecular makeup, X rays, and then cobalt 60. So bee pollen actually specifically helps with white blood cell and red blood cell and antibody effects when it comes to lowering some of the deleterious effects of radiation. So bee pollen would be another. Interestingly, some studies have shown that beets, kind of similar to bee pollen, can help your body to rebuild specific cells. And in this case, beets can help the body to rebuild damaged hemoglobin in response to radiation. And animal lab studies have shown that rats that were eating a diet heavy in beets could effectively reduce the effects of radioactive cesium compared to rats who didn't eat the beets and beet eating rats actually absorbed and detoxified up to 100% more radioactive cesium compared to the control group animals. So that's another one that.

Another reason to love been studied.

That's right. There's a few others. Brewer's yeast. There's some studies that have shown that brewer's yeast may help to prevent against radiation exposure as well as to help the body repair after exposure. And that's something that would definitely be safe for kids along with beets. That'd be another one. Once you start looking at giving kids things like clay and activated charcoal, I can't comment on studies showing safety or studies that have actually been done on those in children. Although if my kids were exposed to radon radiation, et cetera, I'd probably go the route of giving them some magnesium, some clay, some charcoal, charcoal, beets, bee balm, that type of thing. But I can't say that there's been a lot of studies that I've seen on, on some of those more like binding detoxificants. Right. Like clay and charcoal. So, you know, you'd have to kind of do your research on that. And again, I'm not going to recommend specific dosages because I'm kind of careful doing that kind of stuff, especially when it comes to kids. And then there's a, there's a final one called germanium, organic germanium. And that's a really powerful free radical, scavenging organic compound. And when you get exposed to radiation, the rays from radiation exposure release a lot of free radicals that can really do some damage, specifically to hemoglobin, which is why beets come in handy. But what geranium has been shown to do is to block some of these radioactive rays. And basically what they do is they move freely inside the nuclear structure of the germanium instead of entering your cell in your bloodstream. And so you can get germanium in, in like a supplemental form. And studies have shown that when cells get exposed to cesium and to gamma rays, two things that, that you're going to get a lot of, especially with like a nuclear waste from a, from a nuclear fallout, like a nuclear factory, like the Fukushima disaster. Again, that'd be another prudent one to include. So those are some of the biggies when it comes to radiation exposure. I know it's a lot of stuff and we'll.

That was a biggie.

We'll of course put links and stuff in the show notes, but you know, it's kind of a soft Science, because I haven't seen any research that has shown, you know. Okay, so what happens if you do something like get exposed to radiation and use brewer's yeast, use some beet juice, you know, some organic germanium, throw in some charcoal or some clay and start using iodine? Right. Like I don't see a lot of of studies out there that have looked at cocktails of these different radiation mitigating compounds. But I would, you know, if I were exposed to radiation, to significant amounts that go above and beyond the little rock that I keep on my bed stand or the X ray that I walk through at the airport, or you know, decent doses of sunshine here and there, I would certainly try any or all of these.

Hi Ben. Hi, Brock. I wanted to ask you two questions. The first one is about isokinetic training. I want to use it to increase my strength and to increase my power. I've noticed that the Exergenie is still on the market and I wanted to know your thoughts about it. The other question is about how meditation can raise the input of beneficial hormones. Thank you. I'm Joe.

I've never heard of the Exergenie. Have you?

You haven't heard of the Exergenie, Brock?

No, no, I had to look it up and I'm still a little confused.

Well, the exergy is it's like this, this series of very complex kind of like cables with handles on them. And the idea behind the type of cables that are used in the Exergenie is it's like this woven nylon training line that kind of pulls against you just as hard as you pull against it or resists you just as hard as you move against it. I mean, the best example I can give of an isokinetic muscular contraction is any resistance that you're moving against that is going to resist you harder. The more that you push, you pull against it. And water is a perfect example. Right. Like the harder and the faster you move your hands through water, the harder and the faster water pushes back against you. Which is why swimming can be hard or swimming can be easy. There are certainly some machines out there that provide you with a little bit of an isokinetic experience. That would be as opposed to like an isometric contraction. So an isometric contraction would be where you're contracting and your muscles are firing, but the muscles aren't changing in length. Right. That would be like a wall sit or you know, hanging from a pull up bar and just holding that position or holding a lunge position. And there's certainly a Lot of lactic acid that builds up in an isometric muscular contraction, and a lot of muscular endurance that. That's built from something like that. And it's a good way to kind of rehab or build strength in an area without putting a lot of stress on the joint. Because a joint isn't moving through a range of motion. An isotonic contraction is what most of us experience when we are lifting weights or when we're moving against some form of resistance. And an isotonic contraction is simply where the muscle contracts and shortens against movement. And that's just about every, you know, form of weight training or resistance training that's out there as an isotonic contraction. So the advantages of an isokinetic contraction is that your muscle is going to gain strength evenly through the entire range of movement. And it is a really good way to effectively gain strength, because the harder you push against something, the harder it pushes against you. And if you want to look at, like, a very advanced form of isokinetic training, you know, go back and listen to the podcast that I recently did with Keith Norris.

That's who it was. I was just thinking, somebody just talked about this on the podcast. That's who it was.

We talked about how, in an ideal situation, you would have some kind of a mechanism to perfectly match your body's strength curve. Right. So the harder that you're trying to lift something, the harder it's going to lift back against you. And kind of like an early, rough form of this was when a lot of folks were using chains and still do. For example, in the weight room, where you'll drape chains over a bar. For example, if you were doing a squat or a bench press, and as the bar gets elevated and the links of the chain come off the floor, that actually increases the load. So as you're moving through the range of motion, you're having to push or pull harder to kind of keep the bar moving. So when you're doing that, you're presenting your body with. With more resistance through the entire range of motion. Whereas with, like, an isotonic contraction, technically, a squat or a bench press kind of gets easier as you get up towards the top of the movement.

Yeah.

Just because you're getting into a more efficient range of motion for your joints. And the idea behind isokinetic training is that as you reach that more efficient range of motion for your joints, things don't get easier. They stay just as hard throughout the entire range of motion. So if you do want to build a lot of strength and, you know, you're willing to put up with really the, the teeth grittingly difficult and often kind of awkward feeling of an isokinetic contraction, then you know, something like this could come in handy. Now the exergenie, the Exor Genie I would say is kind of like a, a ropey elastic version of something like the ARX Fit machine. And I've never used one, but I mean they use a lot of the same vernacular as like the ARX Fit website. Right. Like efficient exercise and efficiency and exercise. And in this case it's this tiny compact kit that fits into just like a little bag and you can attach it to different things. And when you're pulling or pushing against this nylon rope that is attached to a special crank, it's getting harder or easier depending on how hard or easy you move against it. It's really interesting. And just like most of this stuff. Will it work? Yeah, most likely. Will it be a different way to challenge your body? Yeah, most likely. Is it like the ARX Fit something that, that is potentially going to keep you inside on a machine exercising in as efficient a way as possible, but not necessarily experiencing the great outdoors, running through the trees, lifting rocks, throwing logs around, that type of stuff? Yeah. And that's why I personally, I don't get too enamored with a lot of these machines and gadgets and devices simply because I like to go out and the forest and do some pull ups from the tree branch and lift some heavy rocks and run around, do some bear crawls, that type of thing. But if your time is limited and you're one of those people who wants to get the most bang for your workout buck, then yeah, isokinetic training is really, really good for building strength. It's also very hard though. I'll warn you that right when you expect things to get easy through a range of motion, they don't get easy. It can be, you know, kind of tough. So it takes a little bit of.

Instead of going.

Right, right. Exactly. When we look at like that.

That was my, that was, that was very descriptive noise making.

Yeah, that was nice. You didn't, you didn't, you didn't poo in your jeans?

Didn't make a mess? No, I'm okay.

Okay. So yeah. So the Exor Genie, the ARX Fit machine. You know, I even have a like this Vasa trainer in my basement, right. Which is a swim machine, a swim ergometer. And it like water, you know, it allows me to lay in my stomach and swim. And the harder I pull against the cables on this Thing, the harder they pull back against me. Now that's not a very high amount of resistance compared to something like the ARX fit. Right. Like swimming on a swim machine is a sub maximal contraction. But it is tough, you know, and it is a. It's definitely a different feel. If you're not used to isokinetic training, it'll throw you for a lo loop. But it is a. It's a good way to get fit. You know, it's just that in most cases you need special machines. They can get a little bit complicated. But ultimately, I mean, like, if I had one of these extra genies, I'd say, yeah, I'd probably use it here and there. I'd probably travel with it or something like that, despite its incredibly cheesy name. But yeah, so that's the deal with the extra genie and isokinetic training. It works. And it's. It's kind of worth throwing a little bit of isokinetic training into your training protocol. It's not the only thing that I do, but it can definitely give you some bang for your workout. Buck.

Hey, Ben and Brock, this is George from Los Angeles. Big fan of the show. I was wondering if you guys know of ways I can keep my hands warm and dry. Lately I've been getting clammy hands even when I don't really feel nervous or anxious. I'd like to tone it down on the first fist pumps and get back to my usual man gripping. Any ideas what this could be from and what I can do about it? Keep up the great work, guys. Thank you.

Sweaty hands.

So George has a handshake that feels like a chicken breast.

The only thing worse than sweaty hands is sweaty balls.

New Year's.

You've seen that? Saturday Night Live.

I have. I love that. Alec Baldwin is hilarious.

Yeah. So anyways, yeah, the whole sweaty balls. There's actually a term for sweaty hands. It's palmar hyperhidrosis. And we've done episodes before on hyperhidrosis and sweating in general.

A little too much.

Exactly. If you go to BenGreenfoldFitness.com 315 I'll put a link to our previous episode on hyperhidrosis. And really the ultimate takeaway from that was that one of the biggest contributors to excessive sweating was food intolerances and issues in the diet that cause a hyperactive immune system. And this hyperhidrosis. And my number one recommendation in that episode, if you recall, was to use something like an autoimmune diet in which you begin to eliminate things like wheat, dairy, soy and some of the common foods that can trigger a hyperactive immune system. When you look at palmar hyperhidrosis specifically, however, it's kind of interesting what they do in medicine for things like this, like, for example, iontophoresis. And iontophoresis is this medical device that actually conducts this mild electrical current across your skin surface. And somehow the electrical current and the mineral particles in the water that is panned out by this device somehow thickens the outer layer of your skin. And that can block the flow of sweat to the skin surface. And so once that sweat output gets blocked or interrupted, sweat production on places like the palms of your hand or the soles of your feet gets turned off. And it's supposedly very effective for sweaty hands and sweaty feet. Iontophoresis. So that's something that would traditionally be done by a dermatologist. And I can't find a lot that indicates that there's a lot that can go wrong in your body with something like iontophoresis. It appears to be relatively safe, but there are other treatments. For example, Botox is another one where.

They'Ll inject in your hands.

Crazy. Yeah, they inject Botox into your palms to dramatically reduce sweating. The problem with that is I, I'm just still a little bit uncomfortable injecting a known toxin into my hand. But apparently that also is very effective at dramatically reducing sweating. There's another one called a thoracic sympathectomy, and that's also given the abbreviation ets. And that is, by my understanding, an actual surgical adjustment of the nerve itself itself and may actually result in what's called compensatory sweating, which is irreversible excessive sweating on large areas of the body. Once you have gotten this endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy to reduce sweating, other specific areas, it appears that it just simply shifts all that sweat somewhere else in the body. And you.

Yeah, that's what I always blow up somewhere else.

Yeah. So, and, and of course, you know, a common recommendation that you're also going to find are antiperspirants, you know, just literally using like, like a deodorant stick. And you could even use, if you wanted to go with something that, that has less aluminum in it, like a, like a homemade baking soda based antiperspirant remedy, or like one of these arm and hammer baking soda based anti deodorants that you could put on your hand, or I suppose you could keep, you know, baking soda in your pockets and just, just stick your hands in your pockets.

That's not a bad idea.

We should trademark that.

Baking pants, those little chalk bags that you have when you're rock climbing.

Exactly, exactly. I would imagine, though, that your hands might still be a little bit white and powdery when you take them out of your pockets. And then, of course, there's the issue of perhaps you go to a cocktail party and you forget your pants that have the baking soda in them, and so then you're screwed. And perhaps you're sweating even more because you're nervous that you forgot your baking soda or your antiperspirant. So, you know, I would say that of the medical remedies that are out there, iontophoresis seems to be the most promising for kind of more permanently reducing some of the issues with palmar hyperhidrosis or sweaty hands. But there's a lot of natural remedies that you're going to find floating around out there as well. For example, green tea. Green tea is recommended in helping to remove excess oil and moisture from the skin and preventing sweat from escaping into the skin surface. And they say the same thing about sage tea. And I really don't quite understand how this happens, but you supposedly soak your hands in sage tea or green tea, and it helps to dry excess oils and keep your hands from sweating. I personally have yet to. To make myself a nice cup of tea and soak my hands in it, but it's something that I see recommended. Now, here's one that seems a little bit more practical and potentially efficacious to me, and that would be alcohol wipes to control sweatiness of the palms and to kind of give a drying effect to the palms. And you could, for example, venture out to your next party or networking event and make sure you have some alcohol wipes in your base or in your bag. And just before you go into the event, give yourself a few wipes of alcohol there just to keep the area dry. And you may walk in smelling of booze and you had a strong scotch right before you came in, but the social lubricant is only on your hands. So there's that alcohol. Another one, in addition to the baking soda, the talcum powder, the coffee, corn starch, all these kind of like dusting remedies that can help to soak up moisture is powdered lemon or orange peels. And the recommendation is to actually take orange and lemon peels and dry them in the sun. And then what you can do is you can use them as almost like a. Like something you would the, the dried lemon peel, the orange peel you would rub them around on your hand and apparently you can even combine them with baking soda. And the essence or the oils from the lemon or the orange peels can help to dry up or keep excessive sweating from occurring on your hands. That's one I haven't tried, but seems like an interesting solution. And then another one is vinegar. Vinegar is recommended as something to control sweaty hands. You dab vinegar in your palms two to three times a day to prevent excessive sweating and to keep your hands dry from sweat. So you can smell like alcohol, you can smell like vinegar, you can smell like orange and lemon peels, or like tea, you can kind of. Or like olive poison. Yeah, there you go. So the last one is tea bags, which apparently have, due to the tannic acids in them, the ability to shrink pores and reduce the chances of sweat from seeping through the pores. And the way that you would do this is you would take moist tea bags and hold them inside your palms for a few minutes every few hours. So that's another thing that you could have in your pockets along with your deodorant and your lemon and orange peels. Fortunately, a lot of these remedies for sweaty palms might also be things that would allow you to survive just a few extra days. If you were stranded on a desert island, you have your lemon and your orange peels, your alcohol, a little bit of tea, perhaps some baking soda. Who knows how long you can survive?

Hey, Ben and Brock, this is Alicia. First off, I just want to say I love the show. You guys are hilarious and informative and shredded, which is a great combo. My question is a what to wear question. I usually run in smart wool in the winter and just race T shirts like the free ones or my sports bra in the summer. But I've been seeing a lot of really fancy space age looking options around for like run clothing. And I'm wondering if you could let us know a little bit about that stuff. I usually like to keep things sort of natural and organic, especially if they're going to be stuck up against my sweaty body. But I'm curious about what some of these advantages of these space age fabrics and gear might be. Any thoughts you have would be awesome. Thanks.

Finally we get to talk about the fashion aspects of exercise.

Yes, fashion. Awesome.

Finally.

Looking forward to this. So yeah, it's kind of interesting. We don't really talk about exercise clothing a lot, but I don't remember. I think we may have mentioned this recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research a couple of weeks ago. And it was entitled Synthetic Garments Enhance Comfort, Thermoregulatory Response and Athletic Performance Compared with Traditional Cotton Garments. And in that study, they had folks do a fitness test on two different occasions and once while wearing cotton clothing and then at a different time while they were wearing some of this special exercise specific polyester clothing that does things like transfer moisture and enhance cooling and kind of has a wicking effect. And compared to the cotton clothing, the people, both the men and women who were doing these fitness tests, they had better performance and they had enhanced cooling and better comfort. So there's definitely two or something too. The idea of maybe, you know, not necessarily putting on the cotton hoodie and the cotton shorts, but using some of these modern synthetic garments to actually allow you to do things like wick sweat, have better comfort, have better flexibility, etc. As far as what to look look for, I'll link to an article that I recently wrote for Men's Health about choosing the right exercise clothing. I'll put a link to that article for you in the show notes and in this case, complete transparency here. And the disclaimer is that for that article Eddie Bauer had sent me a bunch of clothing to actually try and they sent me things like this, this shirt that has these moisture activated polymers that are in strategic sweat zones in your body that open airflow channels and help your body to cool and help sweat to evaporate more quickly. And I did a few workouts in, for example, in this case it was a shirt and it definitely felt cool. Granted, I wasn't exercising in an extremely hot environment, but it was very comfortable and I felt much more cool and less, less sweaty, right. Less kind of clammy in those areas of your body that tend to produce a lot of moisture. When I was wearing something like this versus a traditional cotton shirt. So that's one thing to look for is this moisture wicking effect. In my opinion, it's one of the most important things to look for. And nylon and polyester fabrics work really well for this. Whereas cotton absorbs moisture and it can become really uncomfortable bowl really fast. That would be the first thing I would look for would be some type of a wicking material. And the way that that works is, you know that this, this wicking material actually allows moisture to just kind of come off your skin a little bit more easily and kind of pass through the shirt or else there's, there's special airflow that allows you to be more cool and keep a lot of the sweating from taking place. The other cool part about you know, polyester, spandex, nylon, etc, is just the stretchiness of it, which I really like. So the, the other things to, to kind of consider that I consider when it comes to clothing is protection. You know, a lot of times, especially these days, I'm, I'm doing a lot more of my, like obstacle training out where there's trees, you know, barbed wire, bushes, sticks, stuff like that. And a lot of these, a lot of this modern fitness gear, it's made with things like ballistic nylon and ripstop. It's called a rip stop fabric. It's basically resistance to ripping, to stretching, to tearing, stuff like that. So more durable material that's more rip resistant than cotton, for example, that can be really useful if you're mountain biking or if you're in contact sports or rollerblading or doing obstacle training or something like that. So that's another thing to take into consideration. You know, I think that some of these alternative fabric sources like hemp and bamboo are also something to look into as well. Because when you look at conventional cotton that's grown in the U.S. there's about over 12 million acres of conventional cotton that's grown in the U.S. and a lot of pesticides get sprayed on those acreage, like 55 million pounds of pesticides on 12.8 million acres. So cotton is third in terms of its ranking of pesticide exposure, third behind corn and soybeans for pesticides. And actually a lot of wool, it kind of depends on the company, but wool does require a high level of insecticides and antibiotics to protect the animals used for the wool from pests and disease. And a lot of those pesticides can have some pretty significant health effects and they can cause things like neurological disorders and, and asthma and nausea and headaches. And so especially if you're someone who's sensitive to those type of things, that's something else to look into when it comes to fitness fabrics for your fitness fashion. So I would look into things that wick things that are flexible, things that provide you with adequate protection. And then also if you are going to wear cotton, look into where that cotton has actually come from. So as far as what I personally use, I get a lot of questions like this. So I'm just going to, to I'll fill you in on what I go to because I try and stay relatively minimalist with my clothing in terms of the sources from which I get my clothing and in terms of how much clothing you wear and in terms of how much clothing I wear, period. Actually, I have a big, I have A pretty big wardrobe. Like my, you know, we have a walk in closet and I'm one of those guys who has like, you know, hundreds of T shirts and you know, shorts and my wife is always making me throw out stuff and a lot of his. Just because you, you know, when you go race events and things like that, you always get T shirts and gear. And it's just kind of, kind of part of, part of being a, an athlete is you build up a large amount of gear. But one of the things that I use is for triathlon, cycling, stuff like that. I know we have a lot of triathlons and cyclists and folks who listen into the show. I like Castelli, I like Castelli for my, my triathlon gear, my cycling shorts, stuff like that. They've got some pretty cool technology. Like they use what's called Power Lycra, which actually gives you this body hugging feel. It's got this abrasion resistant outer surface. It's got some really good durability. And so that, that's one of their fabrics. They've got another fabric called Nanoflex and that's this nanofilament coating that prevents water droplets from soaking through fabric. They've got some other interesting fabrics too. Like they've got one called Prosecco Ice, which is a lightweight fabric that actually allows you to cool when sweat actually hits the fabric. Kind of similar to like this, some of these companies that are putting like Xylitol into fabric to help it to cool the body when it gets wet. This is very similar to this ice fabric that, that, that Castella uses a lot of their, their chamois, like the, the cushions that go inside the actual shorts themselves for like cycling or triathlon, they're far more flexible and far less abrasive than what I found in a lot of other kind of cycling slash triathlon gear. So Castelli, it's, it's slightly expensive but it's really durable so you don't have to buy that much of it. And that's the brand that I like for like kind of when I need to be walking around in spandex is I go with Castelli. And so that's one another company that I like and that I use a lot of their stuff and I'm actually one of their athletes. So again, just want to be completely transparent with folks and that's Hylete. H Y L E T E. The cool thing is that because I'm one of their athletes, they give me a 50% discount that I can share with folks. It's Ben 50 that you can use at the Hylete website. But the Hylete stuff, I think it just. You see a lot of like crossfitters wearing this stuff. You see a lot of obstacle racers using Hylete. They're now sponsoring the national pro Grid League team, the npgl, which is basically just like a bunch of crossfitters running around an arena. But ultimately the. The Hylit stuff they make make shorts, T shirts, pants, coats, stuff that isn't quite cocktail party wear, but that is kind of like stuff that makes you look cool at the gym just for like weight training, crossfitting, stuff like that. So it's not quite as spandexy as the Castelli stuff, but it's a little bit more casual slash gym gear. So Hylied is what I use for that. And then I also do a lot of outdoor stuff. And the company that I use for that is called Cryptek. And Cryptek originally worked with the US Military to develop specific camouflage patterns that would allow people who were, who were hunting or fighting to be, you know, as close as possible to invisible. And they came up with some really cool camouflage technology. But they've also, because they've got a lot of contrast with the military, with the combat forces, with tactical training and with hunters. A lot of their stuff is very, very well tested in terms of being tested in the trenches. Everything from the patterns to where the pockets are placed to the durability to the flexibility. You'll find a lot of like camouflage, winter gear, etc. Isn't that flexible? It's kind of bulky and difficult to move in. This stuff is actually really comfortable and excellent for camo, but then also really, really good in terms of its ability to both keep you warm or keep you cool, but also have a good amount of flexibility. So those are the main, like if you go into my closet, most of my stuff is Hylete, Kryptek or Castelli. And then the other company that I'll use just to go out and get like, like cool, you know, cool clothing from like big name brands or stuff that I'll use when I'm going to parties or I'm not working out or I'm not kind of in a geeky exercise mode is Jack Threads. So Jack Threads is this website where you can just get like cool designs. Most of it's really inexpensive. I'm all about just going to like one website to shop for like more fashionable clothing. And Jack Threads has like, like, you know, the sunglasses, the belts, the shirts, the Jeans just like the typical stuff that I'd wear probably about 2% of the time when I actually am having to go out in public and, and wear something that looks halfway cool. So Jack Threads is what I use for that. So those are, those are some of my biggies for fitness fashion is Castelli Hilite, Cryptek Shop at Jack Threads. And then I always look for the stuff that kind of goes above and beyond cotton. And it does make a difference in terms of the way that you, you feel during exercise. And you know, like I mentioned, if you look good, you actually don't really need to exercise. All you need to do is just make sure that you're wearing clothing that's color coordinated and that makes you look cool. And yeah, there's no need to actually work hard. Right?

Exactly. And one of the best ways to do that is to go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com gear.

That's right. And if you go to BenGreenfulFitness.com will send you one of our moisture wicking polyester infused Ben Greenfield fitness T shirts. And we actually send a beanie, a shirt and a water bottle to anyone whose review we wind up reading on the podcast. And it looks like today's review comes from Spastic Spunk. Who says two accents, one podcast. And if you want to leave a review, just go to itunes. We'll put a link in the show notes or@BenGreenfieldFitness.com 315. But Brock, what do you think? You want to take this one away?

Sure.

Although I'm a little terrified after finding out the name of the person. It goes like this. Like the sexy intro lady says, you're gonna get some serious knowledge bombs about health and fitness and even more right here. I don't think she says that.

I don't, I don't remember what our sexy intro lady says.

I don't think she says that.

I'm just drinking my, my Pellegrino as you my. My bubbly water. Proceed.

Continue.

Proceed.

Ben and Brock do their research, wrestle with the reality of how studies pertain to everyday life, and present it all on podcast and in the show notes. Now, these guys aren't what you might call normal.

Oh, thanks.

No, I'll take that. Brock is a self admitted Canadian. What am I supposed to be ashamed of that with some extra funny bones in his body? That's right. I had them added.

Yeah, yeah.

And Ben has an accent all his own. I'm not sure if Ben has a. Has a sadistic. Had a sadistic phonics teacher growing up. Or if he's being sly by mispronouncing technical words on purpose to make sure I'm paying attention. For example. For example, Butyric. How do you say it? Butyric.

Butyric, you say. They're saying. They're saying it's Butyric.

Yeah, I'd say Butyric.

Yeah, Butyric. I don't know. I just have an Idaho accent. That's where I was born, was Idaho. That's it.

That's. That's upsetting enough. Why did somebody name it Idaho anyway? It goes on to say. Nonetheless, don't get trip to up on the bouts of sarcasm and unfamiliar pronunciations. These guys like to keep listeners on their toes as well as outside in the woods doing yoga in their underwear.

Damn.

Go on. It's good for you. Strap on your propeller hat, hit subscribe and get out there.

I like it. I like it. That's right. What's the. The strap on your propeller hat or yoga in your underwear in the woods? Actually, all the above.

Either are. Sure.

Yeah. Just make sure your clothing is not cotton, but that it's base age polyester. Well, cool. Spastic spunk. You heard your review, Red. I'm assuming if you're still listening in so you can email gearreenfieldfitnesssystems.com and we'll send you a handy dandy gear package. And if all the rest you would like to support the show by getting a gear pack, you can just go to BenGreen greenfieldfitness.com gear and you can get. Excuse me, Burping on Pellegrino. You can get one of those. Yeah, that's right. We keep it classy here. What else? Well, of course, like I mentioned, all the shownotes are at BenGreenfieldFitness.com 315 like the quarterly, the custom Father Son Wilderness program, everything else that we talked about. Plenty of links, plenty of discounts. We like to keep our show notes fun and happening. So be sure that you make those a part of your listening experience. And after you listen in or while you're listening in, hit up the show notes. Anything else, Brock?

Yeah, I think we've got a little testimonial from our buddy Austin.

Well, cool. We'll play that for you guys. We'll play out with Austin. Thanks for listening in and stay tuned this weekend for a special podcast. And I believe this weekend's podcast is actually about how to use weird fitness gear like kettlebells and maces and stuff like that. Kind of an interesting interview. So stay tuned for that and until next time, have a healthy week.

Hey, what's going on? This is Austin from Bloomington, Indiana. I'm a college student down there. I'm a health fitness specialist. Love listening to your podcast. Curriculum sometimes falls a little bit short at Indiana University just because that's the way exercise, physiology and nutrition, all that goes in my classes. But really love the podcast and what you guys bring to the table and just add additional education to my somewhat lacking undergraduate degree that I'm getting. Keep up the good work Ben and Brock, and thanks for the advice on how to be a healthier crossfitter healthier college student, healthier diabetic. So thanks guys.

Visit BenGreenfieldFitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness, nutrition and performance advice.

Sam.