How To Get A Better Butt, Top 3 Ways To Relieve Stress At Night, A Natural DHEA Secret & Much More!

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast, Natural remedies for congestion during exercise, how to deal with saddle sores, the top three ways to relieve stress at night, how to get a better butt, 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 pound, get ready for non run of the mill cutting edge content from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

So you were off doing something wacky this morning. So we're recording way later in the day than usual.

I know it's kind of weird to be recording around lunchtime, but I was. I was getting.

I'm waking up from my afternoon nap, not waking up from my normal night's sleep.

Seriously? Yeah. Actually, my left arm is kind of numb right now and just hanging by my side because I was getting some. Some treatment on my elbow.

Oh, I thought maybe you had a stroke.

No, I didn't have a stroke. That's not why my arm is numb. Sorry.

That's not. That's a terrible thing to joke about. I'm sorry, everybody.

Yes, our apologies to all of our stroke victims. Now, I had prolosome, which is where you.

Oh, cool.

Inject a joint that you need to initiate healing in. In this case, my elbow. That's a little bit jacked up from just like a year of Spartan racing. You inject prolozone into the elbow to reinitiate what it does. It reinitiates the inflammatory process for something that got inflamed, never really healed, and has some scar tissue laid down. So you numb it, you inject it with prolozone. The doc that I went to followed that up with a K laser treatment, which is where you kind of. You laser the area. A cold laser?

Yeah.

And then I stuck my hand in one of those fish tanks where the fish eat all the little dead skin cells off your arm. Really? No, not really. That part I didn't do. Although I have done that before in Thailand.

You have the softest hands. They'd feel like chicken breasts.

You actually can't get. You can't find these fish tanks anymore in Thailand. Normally, like when you'd walk along the beach, like in Phuket, Thailand, for example, where you've been with me before, Brock. You walk along the beach and there's these fish tanks that you can stick your arm into, and the fish eat all the dead skin cells off your arm. You pull your arm out and it's all like moist and skin's rejuvenated.

But because it's riddled with bacterial infections.

Yeah. Cause the fish were feeding on multiple people's arms. Eventually folks started getting MRSA and all these other infections like flesh eating dise on their arms. So they had to get rid of the fish tanks.

But their skin was delightfully soft.

News flashes.

Very cool stuff over on twitter.com BenGreenfield and this is the time when Ben's going to tell us about that stuff.

Always. I'm always tweeting out tons of useful things. I've come a lot of across a lot of really cool studies recently. I think I am I'm scheduled with tweets. I pre schedule my tweets just because like if I'm reading something and I want to tell my Twitter followers about got it all pre scheduled. I think I'm pre scheduled like halfway through February now with tweets. Anyways, though a few of the more interesting ones from this past week. The first thing is that a lot of people ask me about natural ways to control their blood sugar because most people understand now that when you have frequent surges in blood sugar, it's bad for your waistline, it's bad for your chronic disease risk factor. It oxidizes cholesterol. So if you're eating a, say, a high amount of healthy fats and you get constant surges in blood sugar, those fats get oxidized and your high fat diet ends up indeed being unhealthy. This whole fat's not bad for your heart thing. It's kind of sort of not true if there are risk factors like high blood sugar present when you're eating a lot of fats. So the question is, how do you keep blood sugar controlled? And there was this really interesting study that came out that looked at what kind of things can increase the expression of glucose receptors. So glucose receptors increase the transport of glucose from your blood into your cells. And the most common one is called GLUT4. GLUT4. So what kind of things could you eat that would increase GLUT4? Really interesting study because of all these natural compounds that they found that could do this. Like cinnamon is one that we've talked about on this show before, like making it a goal each day to go through two teaspoons of cinnamon. I that rule annoys the hell out of my wife who has to go back to the grocery store to buy cinnamon all the time. But cinnamon is a really good one. Another one that was on there was resveratrol. So resveratrol can help to control blood sugar. Ginger was an interesting one, along with a vanilla extract. Turmeric was in there. Curcumin was in there.

Was the liquid vanilla or the powdered, or does it matter?

I think it was the vanilla gummy bears. Pretty sure. No, I actually, I'm not sure. The vanilla jelly beans, the vanilla that I use is just like the real vanilla extract. What I do is I actually put that in my smoothie. I like the flavor that it gives to my smoothie.

Put that in my eggs in the morning. My egg banana thing.

Yeah, a whole list of stuff. But what. You know, some of these things are hard necessarily to like unless you're getting them in supplement form. You know, like, say, like astaxanthin, right? Or fucoxanthin or lipoic acid. But some of them are easier to get your hands on. Like, if you follow the rule of using a little bit of real vanilla extract or vanilla powder each day, like in your coffee or in your smoothie, and you make it a goal to have a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon each day, you work about a gram or two of curcumin, which could just mean like frequent use of curries and turmeric and stuff like that. You know, have a glass of wine each day and maybe have, you know, work in some ginger tea. Like, it's pretty easy to get yourself to the point where you're just kind of controlling blood sugar with, with natural herbal things that you'll find laying around the old average house.

So honestly, you could throw that all, all that stuff in a pot and make yourself a darn tasty little concoction.

I just released a video to YouTube. So I've been putting a lot of videos up on the Ben Greenfield YouTube channel. You can check it out at YouTube.com BenGreenfieldFitness but my latest concoction, because my tummy was a little bit r a couple of days ago, and I thought I might be coming down with something, so I made this concoction that I do when my stomach is potentially at risk for flipping, and it is about an inch of ginger, and you boil that along with a few cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a teaspoon of curcumin, about 3 ounces of apple cider vinegar, and then the juice of, of a lemon. And you, you put all that together and you drink it down and it tastes like arse, but it's spicy arse, but it has this amazing tonic effect. I think just because it tastes bad, it gives you that nice feeling inside that you must have done something, you must have killed something in there. Yeah, so there's that. Another really interesting thing was an older study that I came across based on nutrigenomics, or this idea that we could somehow look at genetic variations, say, like genes that might allow us to metabolize caffeine faster, or genes that might not allow us to, for example, use vitamin C to create our own glutathione that our liver can use for detox. Like, everybody has different variations in these type of genes. Genes that help alcohol to be good for your heart or cause. Cause alcohol to be bad for your heart. This is all based on nutrigenomics. So theoretically, you can get your genes tested and you can tweak your diet based off of what your genes are telling you. And this is one of the reasons that 23andMe got shut down, in fact, from releasing more information above and beyond. Just like ancestral data. Right. Like where ancestors are.

They still shut down.

Yeah, they still are. It's still difficult unless you export your 23andMe data to get health information from 23andMe. Because it's still kind of dicey, the amount of research that shows that, oh, hey, you know, whatever, you tested higher than normal for prostate cancer, so you should put more tomatoes on your salad. Right. Like.

Like, I think they're offering that service in Canada now.

That.

And it's not. They didn't get the kibosh put on it here. So if you could get a Canadian mailing address, you could probably get hooked up.

Well, I use. I use DNA Fit in the UK because I did the podcast with them. That's. That's what I get. Like, if you go to greenfieldfitnesssystems.com and you click on Lab Testing, that's the gene lab that I recommend people go to now just because they can get away with all sorts of crap in the uk. So. Yeah. Anyways, though, in this study, what they looked at was if they took a bunch of people and they tested their genetics and they advised them based off of their genetics, what they should be eating. Gave them what's called a nutrigenetically Tailored Diet. That'd be a great name for a book, the nutrigenetically Tailored Diet. You could have, like a tailor on the front with genes on.

I don't.

Total play on words.

It doesn't really sound like a bestseller to me.

Anyways, I'll link to the study in the show notes for the podcast episode that you're listening right now over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com 304 but what they found was a significantly better adherence to the diet. In the group that was getting their diet prescribed to them based on their nutrigenetics versus the control group, they saw a very significant drop. Speaking of fasting glucose levels, they saw over a 20% drop in fasted glucose levels in the people who were making their dietary choices based on their genes and everything from carb protein to fat ratios to the type of supplements that they took versus people who were just eating a standard healthy diet. They found better weight loss in the nutrigenetically tested group as well as a longer adherence to the weight loss. So after a year, they were like, maintaining their weight loss and a significant reduction.

Makes sense.

Yeah, big reduction in risk factors associated with excess weight like diabetes and cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. So it was really interesting. So I guess the takeaway from this is if you're still on the fence about getting your genes tested and maybe just making a few little tweaks. Like me, I tested higher than normal for prostate cancer risk and type 2 diabetes. So I go way out of my way to do things like control blood glucose and to do things like put those fresh tomatoes on my salad so I get the lycopene that can help to combat prostate cancer risk. I personally do those things even though. Yeah, you don't have dyed in the wool clinical studies that say that, hey, you go out, you get tested, you find out you have whatever higher than normal risk for prostate cancer. So if you start putting tomatoes on your salad, it's going to decrease that. But we have a lot of anecdotal evidence, and I think that you can make some pretty cool informed decisions based off your. Off your genetic testing.

Well, the stuff you're doing isn't like nutty either. Like throwing some tomatoes on your salad. Well, that's awesome. Why wouldn't you want to do that?

Exactly. And then again, maybe you'll just find out that you're Chinese and you never knew that. So there's that.

That would be awesome.

That would be awesome. I hope I'm Chinese.

So cool.

Okay, what else? I found a US patent that was really interesting. So check this out. There's actually a US Patent that exists for a way to increase your dhea. And I went and looked at all the different people that they tested, what's in this patent on, and every single person across the board had this huge jump in their dhea. And dhea, just for those of you listening in, is one of the most anabolic hormones that you can have floating around in your bloodstream. It's illegal to take if you're competing in like World Anti Doping association sanctioned competitions because it has such a significant performance enhancing effect. Like if you actually are taking a synthetic form of DHEA versus using something like this patent was using, that causes your body to make its own dhea. And I'll link to the actual patents itself if you want to read about the mechanism of action and everything like that. But the patent is on transdermal magnesium. Isn't that interesting? It's just basically applying magnesium to the skin cause and it was magnesium chloride in this case with just like a gelling agent to turn it into a lotion. Significant increase in dhea. Now this is something that I've heard about for a long period of time, but I didn't know a patent existed on it. And I use transdermal magnesium. That's what I use for my own magnesium replenishment. But it's very interesting. It's pretty cool that a patent actually exists on this thing. And this is much, much different than a study that you'll find on PubMed. But the write up that accompanies the patent is really interesting. So if you've tested and you've tested low for DHEA or you want to do something like increase your levels of anabolic hormones, build muscle faster, recover faster, get a little bit of a performance boost, try slapping some transdermal magnesium somewhere on your body and see what happens.

Awesome. That's easy. Listener.

Q and A. Hi, I'm wondering if.

You could help me.

I have been experiencing a lot of mucus and like histamine response after my workouts. It's been going on for several months and it seems like when I work out really hard, it seems to happen. I thought it was related to the pool, but it's just with any workout it could be after a hard intervals on the bike and I really have not been able to get to the bottom of this. It's been kind of going on and off for a couple of years, but most recently it's been like consistent for about three months now. I did an ironman in August and I'm just wondering if you know, there's something going on with my recovery. I feel good, I feel very strong on the bike, swim, run. But this is just like debilitating me with this, this histamine that I'm Having.

That sucks. Oh, whoa. That was not mucus. Maybe it was.

Yeah. So we've talked about this before. When you get the histamine response, when you're really giving her that, your body just naturally kicks that stuff out, right?

We have talked about it before, and it can actually be. It can be a few different things that would cause that type of stuffiness. But the idea here is that when you exercise the blood flow to the little blood vessels in your nose and your nasal cavities, that blood flow starts to slow down. And when that happens, it shrinks the tissues that are responsible for creating mucus. And at the same time, it widens your air passages, so you're taking in more air, but that means you're also taking in more of those pesky allergens that might be floating around, whether it's, you know, inside your gym or outdoors or wherever. And that could potentially trigger an allergic response. And those wider air passages might actually cause your nose to feel stuffy after the workout, because when you stop your workout, all the blood rushes back to those little blood vessels in your nasal tissue. And this can fill up those blood vessels too much, so it causes them to dilate, and that blocks these airways that were wide, and it makes you feel stuffed up. So that can happen to a lot of people without there being some big histamine response or something like that present. It can just be basically your body not being used to that flow, that regulation of nasal blood flow. Sometimes that can go away in new exercisers especially. But there can be other things. So, for example, one of the things that can happen is when you go to the gym or you workout, your body loses heat and it loses water. And when that happens, your cell's response to increase heat production and to increase extracellular fluid is to release histamines into your bloodstream. And when you get a bunch of histamines released, that can cause a lot of the symptoms of an allergic reaction. You know, stuffiness, red face, itchy skin. A lot of these things that are associated with what's called exercise induced anaphylaxis or exercise induced allergies. So that's another thing that can cause this. And then finally, you might be just freaking allergic to something like you might be allergic to, let's say, if this happens at the gym, something that they're cleaning the treadmill with, or maybe someone. The perfume of someone who's working out next to you, or, you know, what they're cleaning the floor with at the gym. So, I mean, it could be a full on allergen to like a cleaning chemical. So there are a lot of things that can cause an exercise induced, you know, hypersensitivity disorder. So what I'm going to do, first of all if you're listening in, is there's this, this really interesting study that goes into all of the different things that can cause this exercise induced anaphylaxis. It's, it's kind of a dry, like more research kind of based study if you're really interested in getting into all of the different things like mastocystosis and hereditary angioedema and all the things that could potentially cause this. But in most people it is a histamine response. And so one of the best things that you could do is to a avoid any foods that could potentially cause an allergenic response prior to you working out. And the biggest one that I found to be the issue is dairy. Dairy can cause a lot of mucus and congestion issues in folks and that could include butter, but it could also be just like milk, yogurt, stuff that you might be mixing into a pre workout smoothie, kefir. Any of these type of things can potentially cause that. So I'd be really careful with that. I'd also be careful with histamine containing foods. I actually almost passed out of the gym this summer when I took probiotics right before I went to the gym. Because probiotics can cause a little bit of a histamine response. There are other foods that can cause a pretty pronounced histamine response as well, like fermented foods, like anything that's like kombucha or kefir or kimchi or sauerkraut. Like any of these foods that would normally not be that big of a deal once you combine them with exercise, and especially if you combine them with intense exercise in the heat, they can cause this histamine response. And in my case, my whole face swelled up, my skin was really itchy. It was not a good thing, it was really uncomfortable. So I thought I was going to die. I was like, this is how I'm going to go. Lying on the gym floor, the base of the treadmill. Everybody's going to think I died of a heart attack when it was just the damn probiotics. And they're going to say, see, look, healthy people can die of heart attacks too. When it was really all that bacteria churning out histamines in my gut.

And that's all you were worried about as you're laying on the gym floor dying?

Yeah, but I mean, hopefully you're not drinking alcohol before you work out, but that can induce a histamine release. Chocolate is another one that can do this. I mean, you could go do like a Google search for histamine containing foods and just make a list of things not to eat prior to going on exercise. But I found fermented foods and probiotics tend to be a biggie. Chocolate tends to be a biggie. And also another one would be canned foods like sardines and anchovies and beef jerkies and stuff like that. Stuff that's been preserved because of the nitrates or the nitrite that can cause a histamine response as well. Now, there are things that you could take that are natural anti histamines. Probably two of the more common ones that you can find as supplements. One is called butter bur. That's a supplement. Butter burden, Butter bur. And then there's another one, mangosteen. Mangosteen is like a fruit extract that you can find in juice form or capsules. I found a really interesting study done back in 2003 where they. They used a mixture of eight different herbs and tested that mixture for its inhibitory effect on histamine released from mast cells, which are the type of cells in your body that release histamine. And they found a significant effect from these herbs that were just like, mixed in water. And the herbs were chamomile, saffron, anise, fennel, caraway, licorice, cardamom, and black seed. And you could technically get most of those in like a tea form. And you could even try just like one of them. Try like a chamomile tea maybe with like, you know, chamomile. Licorice is a common tea blend, but messing around with an herbal tea that has a really good antihistamine effect. The same type of tea that's typically marketed for like, congestion, that type of thing. That'd be another thing to look into when it comes to this. So you can make a cold version.

Of it and just rehydrate after the workout or something like that.

Exactly.

It'd be delicious and helpful.

Delicious and helpful. So those are some of the places I would start. I'll link to that research study in the show notes for you if you really want to just put your propeller hat on and take a deep, deep dive into this stuff. But ultimately that's where I would start. Barb. And best of luck with all that mucus.

Hey, Ben. Hey, Brock, this is Jeff. Love the podcast. I just got a question. I've Noticed that I've had a little bit of acne on my backside. Sometimes it's a little worse than other days, and some days it looks more like a heat rash. And, you know, it's kind of on my hamstrings as well as my lower.

Back.

But more so on my butt. I've looked into it, you know, cleaned up my diet and stuff. I do wear compression gear, you know, quite a bit for my workouts. I'm not sure, you know, how to clear it up. You know, it's just more annoying than anything. And I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions. I've even tried, you know, going days without wearing any underwear at all. But I was wondering if you, you know, had any tips that may help me out. But I appreciate all the work you guys do and keep it up.

Ah, Jeff, Jeff, I got news for you. That's not acne. Yeah. In most cases, if you get like, acne or you get something like pimples, you get, like red sores, like stuff like that on your butt. It's usually the combination of heat, friction, sweat, and occasionally. I'm just saying, Jeff, lack of hygiene, that. That causes the formation of basically what we call saddle sores. And a lot of people get knives. Yeah. And like, if you try and pop them and stuff like acne, that makes it, oh, so much worse. Oh, yeah, you definitely don't want to do that. And a lot of, like, typical acne remedies, like, everything from, like, say, you know, reducing dairy consumption and being careful with insulin to using, like, topical things that dry out the skin. A lot of these things don't work in that area because unlike. Well, I'm hoping most people aren't walking around with their face covered with like a. A chammy and some bike shorts dripping with sweat. I suppose if you're wearing like a. What are they called? A burqa that covers your face.

Yeah. That's not like wearing a. That's what they're called. But that's not like wearing chamois.

Maybe those. Those women that are wearing burqa do get saddle sores on their face. I don't know.

I doubt it. That's beautiful light material.

Yes. Okay, so anyways, segue.

But that was a rat hole. That was in a segue.

Yeah, the other thing. So. So anyways, though, you want to treat this the way that you would treat saddle sores and you want to be careful with this. Like, I've had saddle sores before that have progressed into full blown staph. Like Full blown mrsa.

Yeah. You almost lost your leg like two years ago.

Yeah, like holes eaten in the side of my butt. Like really nasty stuff. So you do want to take this stuff seriously. So I'm going to give you some tips for taking care of this stuff. First of all, keep stuff clean down there, all right? So when you're riding on your bike, both before and after, only keep things cle. But make sure that your shorts don't have a bunch of crap in them, that you're not using your shorts for many, many days in a row without washing them. But get some good cycling shorts with a good chamois. And as far as cleanliness goes, one of my tips is there's this stuff called Action Wipes. It's like melaleuca, a bunch of essential oils. It's like a butt wipe, like a baby wipe, but you can use it on skin post workout or pre workout. I really like that stuff. And I've always got some of that in my gym bag and kind of like in the. In the mudroom near my back door where I can just grab some when I'm headed out. And I got stuff in my jersey. Sometimes I'll use it if I need to, like stop and change my chain because it can clean or not change my chain. But, you know, like, if I get chain drop or my chain falls off or I have to do bike tech while I'm out there, it washes the oil off your hands really well too. So Action Wipes, check those out. I'll put a link to them in the show notes as well.

You want to the finish line of most races too, because you don't often always have access to a shower or something after. So it's a nice way to clean up after a race before you jump in the car.

That was one of the very first people that I interviewed for the Ben Greenfield fitness podcast. And I got some complaints after the interview because she told the story of how action wipes were first invented. And they were invented as like a sex product for cleaning up the mess that can happen during sex.

That's a great idea. I never thought of using it for that.

Apparently the inventor of Action Wipes has very messy sex such that she has to invent the invented actual wipes. Action Wipes. That's gross. So anyways, I did not endorse, by the way, talking about stuff like that on a podcast that we know children are listening to. So you need some kind of a friction cream, some kind of an anti friction cream. There's a Few different ways to skin that cat. Like bag balm can work pretty well. That's that stuff that comes in like that green tin and it just looks really cool. Cause it's old school, right? Like it was developed, I believe for cow teats for farmers. And now you can get it in most pharmacies and like feed stores and all over the place. But it's just this stuff. It comes in a little metal tin. It's cheap and you slap some of that on there. It's lanolin and it can help especially if an area is red or irritated. But if you just want to keep an area from getting there in the first place, then just some kind of anti friction cream. I use this stuff that I really like because it's totally natural. Doesn't have stuff in there that's going to cause you to absorb endocrine disruptors through your butt cheeks. It's called Hammer Seat Saver. It's made by the Hammer Nutrition company. I'll put a link to that in the show notes for you. But that's the stuff I use in my feet and in my butt. So use it on my feet when I'm out walking or running or racing. And then I'll use it on my butt when I am sitting on a bike saddle. That's about the only time my butt is experiencing high levels of friction or when I'm dragging my butt on the carpet. That's the other time I'll put some of that on.

I believe that's called scooching.

Yes. When I'm scooching I'll put on the hammer stuff a few of the things that you could use. As far as the cycling shorts go. Some people who are riding for long distances actually swear by wearing two pairs of cycling shorts. And that can feel like you're riding a bike wearing a freaking diaper. Some people do like that and they find that like for long periods of time spend riding a bicycle that it can, it can really help out. And then like if this stuff has just like progressed to the point where you've got freaking World War II on your backside, you may want to consider like a hydrocortisone cream just to knock some of that stuff out of the park.

Just a short term, take care of it, get it out of there and then back to normal.

Yeah, exactly. So those are some of my tips. There's one other thing that I've been doing lately for any topical wounds. I started doing this during the spartan racing season when I'd finish a race and have open cuts and wounds and I'd have to be getting on an airplane and stuff like that to go home. I use this essential oil. I use the Thieves blend of essential oil, which is really good as an internal cleanse if you have bugs or parasites or you want to clean up your stomach and you don't want to use my ginger, garlic, garlic, cayenne, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, lemon blend, the spicy arse blend. Lord knows why no one wouldn't want to drink that. But Thieves essential oil, you can put it topically too, so you take a few drops of it and you just smear it over any area that you want to clean up an infection on. It smells really good too. So you might find that people are actually attracted to you because of your saddle source with all that, that lovely essential oil on them until you take off your pants and they go screaming and running for the hills. But up to that point you'll smell great. So check out Thieves essential oil too. So I'll put links to all this stuff for resources for you over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com 304Jeff and Best of luck with your teenage boy backside.

Hey Ben and Brock, been listening to your podcast for a while.

Really love it.

Keep up the good work. I had a question based on your recommendations just from hearing what you've done on L. Theanine and rhodiola. I've tried some of that, just the pure powder forms and I've tried it at night and also in the morning. And I'm just kind of wondering, I mean as far as just to reduce stress and tension, what time of day would it be best for and should it be an empty stomach? And are there any other better stacks for supplements that I could take at night to maybe help me relax and just maybe fall asleep a little bit better? Since I seem to be night owl. Just really curious on your thoughts. What else there would be good? I know I've looked into lemon balm as well and ash. I can't even say the name, but I think you know what I'm trying to say. Just please any advice you can give for what would be a great stack to combine for stress at nighttime. Thank you.

Rhodiola and L. Theanine. Interesting. You know, both rhodiola and L. Theanine can indeed relax you. Like L. Theanine is something that you can take at the same time that you take caffeine. Caffeine to help caffeine from being less stimulative. Like you get less Jittery. Like, I think we've talked about it before on the show, Brock, but, like, there's these capsules called Smart Caffeine. And I took. It's called Smart Energy or Smart Caffeine. Smart caffeine, yeah. It's like caffeine mixed with L. Theanine. And I mean, green tea is effectively the same thing or very similar, right? It's like, in lower amounts, but it's caffeine, and the theanine kind of balances it out. So theanine is good. As far as whether or not you should take it on an empty stomach, the answer is yes. When you take it on an empty stomach, typically you'll feel L. Theanine within about 30 minutes. L. Theanine has been shown to last about 8 to 12 hours. Speaking of videos released to my YouTube channel, I recently released a video of me vaping using a liquid vaporizer to vape this stuff called Sweet Dreams. That's a mix of chamomile, L. Theanine, passion flower, and melatonin. And that means that it's basically getting absorbed through the mucosal membrane in my mouth. And that's something that'll last all night long. I'll put a link to that video in the show notes for you.

But video is not creepy at all.

No, it's not creepy at all. It's not creepy. Don't worry. You see me on my bed wearing my creeper glasses with my creepy red light and my creepy little E cigarette that I'm smoking and L. Theanine with.

You grew a tiny little mustache for that video, too, which was nice.

Beats the pants off Lunesta, baby. So anyways, yeah, L. Theanine would be empty stomach, rhodiola. Rhodiola also has some pretty good relaxative properties, but it's also important to take that one on an empty stomach. Most herbs in general, whether it's an herb that you're using as a smart drug or an herb that you're using for relaxation, you're going to feel its effects best on an empty stomach. So, you know, for example, I use a blend of herbs called Inner Peace, and it's made by the same folks that make my favorite smart drug, the smart drug called Tian Qi. But I like to take a nap after lunch. So about 30 minutes before I eat lunch, I'll take three capsules of that Inner Peace stuff, and by the time I finished up lunch, I'm a little sleepy, and then I go down for a nap. So that's what I really, like for an afternoon nap. But because it's herbs, I definitely take it on an empty stomach. Some stuff, melatonin, for example. It's really not an herb. You don't have to take it on an empty stomach. It's a little more of like a hormone, but most herbs on an empty stomach. So I've got a bunch of different ways that you can get to sleep at night or relieve stress at night, to answer your question. But what I'd recommend. But I'd say if I had to choose three things, because I want to keep this simple for you, because honestly, you know, we could do a whole podcast and things that help to relax.

You and your podcast series on it.

Yeah, seriously. Like, I've got two whole chapters in my book just devoted to this. But what I'd say. I almost feel like I should start talking in a really relaxing voice now. If I had to name three things.

What would they be?

No, the first would be that that new stuff stuff, that vapor boost stuff. So you can check it out@BenGreenfieldFitness.com VaporBoost it's called Sweet Drink.

That stuff is pretty darn safe just since you're not inhaling it into your lungs.

I investigated what's happening on a biochemical level with that propylene glycol that's used in it. And it just gets converted into water once it mixes with the moist air in your mouth. So when you're exhaling, it's effectively just steam that you're seeing. Seeing, not smoke.

But I think the biggest point is that you're not actually taking it into your lungs. You're just holding it in your mouth.

Yeah.

Actually smoking it.

I found about three drops to be really effective. It comes out to about 0.5ml. If you were to fill it up in one of those little, like, vaporizers or also known as atomizers. So you don't need much. That's going to be about 10 puffs or so. Spread out over a course around 10 minutes. So you can, like, sit in bed and read a book as you're kind of puffing on the thing.

How relaxing.

How relaxing. The next one is a blend of essential oils. It's like lavender and chamomile and frankincense and a bunch of essential oils that can really tend to relax you. And it comes in like this applicator stick and you rub it almost like chapstick on your upper, just above your upper lip where you'd normally grow your amazing 70s movie star mustache. But you smear this. It's called Peace and Calm Essential Oil. You can get it from the same people that make this Thieves essential oil blend. It's made by that Young living company. I had a rep from that company on the podcast a few months ago. Really relaxing. I actually used that one with my kids too. They saw me put on my lips one night and they wanted to know what it was I put on their lips. And they just go to sleep so quickly. And it's just like these natural essential oils that really relax you. So I'm a big fan of that one too. So you've got the stuff that you can smoke, you've got the stuff that you can smear on your skin. And then the last thing would be like, something you can take. And I would say, if you wanted to get the most bang for your buck. I am a fan of the multivitamin that I use, the Thorne AM PM Complex, because it has philodendron and magnolia in the PM part of it. It. So if you take that PM part, I generally like to take it before dinner again because it has herbs in it. So you'll feel the effects and they'll last like 8 to 12 hours. The herbs that lower cortisol and help you to feel relaxed. But I like that just because you're killing a lot of birds with one stone when you use a multivitamin like that. Just because you got like antioxidants and you've got stuff that balances out the vitamin C in the multivitamin and you've got like, you know, all your vitamin D and your vitamin E and. And you know, all your vitamins, all your minerals, curcumin, all that jazz. So really powerful multivitamin. But it's got the sleep stuff in the PM part. Don't. You're taking. Don't get the AM and the PM mixed up, by the way. Yeah, okay.

So you take some in the morning, some in the evening. Not to mix them up.

The am, there's three AM capsules and they're yellow because of all the curcumin in them. And the PM ones are white. And so, yeah, you take the. Just think sun and moon, right? Yellow and white. Pretty logical. So, yeah, those would be my top three things that I'm loving right now. The vapor boost, sweet dreams, the Peace and Calm essential oil, and then the Thorn AM PM Complex. Those would be the three things that I'd go with. And then for an afternoon nap, I really like that inner peace stuff to throw into your Mix of drugs and.

If all else fails, tequila.

Is it normal to have smaller hips than legs? Like my legs are wider than my hips hips. It's really, I don't know, like all.

My pants ride up way more.

Even my boxers ride up. It's pretty annoying. I don't know.

Anyways, yeah, sounds like Tony's got the.

Classic case of white man butt.

Yeah. You know what I noticed? I was looking in the mirror the other day. My butt's gotten really big over the past year.

Damn.

Like, not in like a bad way. Like I've got some. Some good. And I know why. It's because I've been doing way more uphill walking with, with like weighted vests and stuff. I've been doing way more squats, you know, doing like a five by five protocol. And I've been doing a lot more deadlifts too. And like those, just those three additions and my wife's noticed it too. It's like my, my boxer shorts are really hugging my backside pretty tight at this.

Would you call it a badonkadonk at this point?

I'm. I'm up there with JLo. Yeah, it's getting up there.

Nice.

I can't quite twerk quite as well, but I'm getting there, getting my twerk on.

Oh, dear.

So anyways, so glutes, Best way to get a better butt. I'm going to say some things that you may not be aware of because it goes way beyond like squats and deadlifts and walking uphill with a weight vest. But if your legs are wider than your hips, it does indeed mean that your hips and your glutes could use some development. So the first thing that can keep your butt turned off even when you're at the gym, like once you start doing squats and once you start doing deadlifts at the gym, it doesn't necessarily mean you're using your butt. And one thing that can turn your butt off because it tightens up your hip flexors and it tightens up your hamstrings and it interferes with vascular function and nerve function in your glutes is sitting. So if you are sitting for any longer than about a two hour period of time at any point during the day, you are inhibiting your ability to use your butt. So I mean, if you can stand up every now and again and do like some body weight bridges, like laying on your back on the ground doing some glute bridges, going up and down a flight of stairs is a great way to turn your butt on doing a few squats is a good way to turn your butt on. But do something that turns on your butt during the day and don't sit for longer than two hours for any given period of time, Especially if you're working out later on the day and you're planning on doing squats and deadlifts and stuff like that. Definitely avoid too much sittings. That's one way that your butt can get turned off.

I feel like 2015 is going to be the year of the bridge.

The year of the bridge.

We're only seven days into it, and I've heard so many people talking about doing bridges.

Mark Brock's were. I actually don't. I'm not a fan of bridges because I'm like, you know, there's, there's, there's not a lot of times that you're going to be making a bridging motion. I don't want to be crass, but it's pretty much like during sex, especially with like, man on the bottom style sex, that you're going to be bridging much other than that. I mean, there's not a lot of periods of time. So I, I honestly like squats and deadlifts and stuff like that more than I like bridges.

Because of the functionality of the movement.

Yeah. To me, they're kind of a lazy exercise. Honestly, you're just like laying there, just like thrusting.

So the rest of us are going to be doing Bridges in 2015. Ben's going to be thrusting.

Yeah. So a few other things that can turn off your glutes. One would be imbalances, and the most common one would be tight hip flexors, especially related to your hip extensors. So tight psoas, tight kind of front of the leg. My favorite thing to do at various points throughout the day is I'll just stop, drop, and go into a lunge with one arm overhead and then lunge for the other leg with the other arm overhead just to keep those hip flexors nice and loosey goosey. And that helps you to keep your glutes turned on. So muscle imbalances and more specifically hip flexor tightness, and making sure that your hip flexors are not tight is going to allow you to use your glutes much better and keep those bad boys turned on. So, so always, always do a check on the front of your legs, kind of the front upper legs to make sure that those hip flexors aren't too tight. Nice. Um, the next one would be glute activation. A lot of people Just like they get to the gym to do their workout or they get ready for workout and their glutes just like they have a hard time turning them on. This is the same reason that like a lot of people, you know, like women will get incontinence when they run, for example, because they haven't figured out how to turn on their pelvic muscles, like their deep core muscles. Or some people will get like constipation because they haven't figured out how to properly activate some of their pelvic muscles responsive for like pushing certain muscles and relaxing certain muscles. So, you know, in for example, a situation of urinary incontinence, sometimes Kegel exercises can help. In the case of like constipation, sometimes like using something like a squatty potty, right? And adopting like a normal squatting position can help. And in the case of the glutes, I'm a big fan of prior to your workout, during your warmup, including some things that turn on your glutes. My favorite are the sidewalks with the resistant bands, right?

Monster walks.

Yeah, monster walks where you're either walking forwards or backwards or sideways or all three kind of like down in a half squat position. Really, really good way to turn on your glutes. Glutes. Another good way to turn on your glutes is to get into a crawl position and just do like the hiking exercise, like the dog hiking its leg on a fire hydrant exercise. And you do that until the glutes just a little bit burning on both sides, right? You do let's say like 30 reps for your right and 30 for your left and then 15 and 15 and then 10 and 10. And that's a, that you know, that'll take you two minutes to do, but it just turns on your glutes prior to starting this other stuff. And especially if you've been sitting for a while before your workout, like if you're one of those end of the day after day at the office type of exercise people that can really help out quite a bit. So pre activate the glutes, even if it means throwing the bridges in. You could do a few bridges.

It is 2015, after all.

And then finally, you know, as a lot of people know, like squats and deadlifts and step ups and lunges, all of those are great for your glutes and great for your butt. And you certainly shouldn't avoid those. But those would be considered exercises that load your glutes vertical. And you also need to do things that, that load your Glutes in a more horizontal sense. So some of those, like, some of the more popular, like the two that I like, one is the back extension. This would be like getting on the. On, like the back extension, you know, machine at the gym and doing. And it's kind of a shearing force on your spine, but doing back extensions. The other thing, like, I'll do these on my. On my inversion table. Like the one that you hang from is you can just arch your back and squeeze your butt cheeks as you arch your back and just get your body in the, like, hyperextension as you're hanging there on an inversion table. That's a great way to kind of like, hyperextend and work those same muscles. The other one that I really like, and I do a lot of these too. This might also be why my. Why my boxers are getting filled out so nicely is reverse hyperextensions. These are pretty cool. They're deceptively difficult because you're not moving through a very big range of motion. But you lay down on your stomach on, like, a bench. You could technically use, like, one of those big exercise balls too.

Yeah.

And you figure out a way to keep your upper body from moving. Usually that means you hold on to, like, the. The legs of the bench or, or the, you know, like the, the. The pole on the bench. And then you just lift your legs as high as you can. Like you lift your heels towards the ceiling as high as you can and then back down. So it's almost like that. That superman exercise that you do when you're lying on your stomach on the ground and lifting all four limbs off the ground, except for this one. You're holding onto a bench and you're just lifting your legs up behind you, like with your heels up towards the ceiling and your butt. Like, you hold it for a second or two and then drop. Your butt will just be turned on. So that's a really, really good one too, is the reverse hypers. So those are some of the things that I would do is, you know, avoid sitting, keep the hip flexors nice and straight, stretched out, pre. Activate the glutes before you start your workout. And then also include some horizontal loading exercises like back extension, extension, reverse extensions. And then finally, it's really interesting. There was. There was this study that they did where they looked at the number one exercise that, based off of EMG analysis, caused the most activation of the glutes. And it was what's called a butt squeeze. And this is where you stand with a really wide stance and your feet turned a little bit out. And then you contract your feet out as hard as you can for about 30 seconds. So you're basically squeezing your glutes really hard where you're keeping yourself in that wide stance. It's kind of hard to describe. You just gotta try it, like pushing your feet out. Like, try, try to. You can try right now while you're listening, if you want. Take a. Take a really wide stance, turn the feet out a little bit bit. Squeeze the glutes and kind of push the feet out while you keep your knees. You're driving your knees close together. It's kind of hard to learn, but basically what you're doing is an isometric contraction of your glutes while you're almost in like a wide. Not a wide squat position, just a wide standing position. Probably that if you want to learn how to do this really well, that the book Core foundation, like that entire book was originally designed to relieve low back. Back pain, but what it does effectively is turn on your glutes. Now, I love that book. They've got like a DVD series as well, but it's written by a chiropractic doc named Eric Goodman. It's called the Core Foundation Exercises. Those are really, really good. That'll teach you how to do that motion. And, like, you can break a sweat just doing that one thing. And like in the Core foundation exercise, you'll be holding that position for like two minutes sometimes. And your butt. Butt is just screaming at you when you finish. But in a good way. We like, we like butt screaming in a good way.

I'm having trouble imagining that there's no.

No acne involved, especially so you do not want a nice butt if it's covered with saddle sores. If there's one thing you learn in this podcast, get those saddle sores under control before you get a bigger butt.

You will definitely not need any of the action weight gripes.

Yeah. Otherwise you just have more real estate for the saddle sores. So. So anyways, yeah, so I'll. I'll put a link to the Core foundation book for you along with all the other resources I talked about over@BenGreenFitnessFitness.com 304 and this is about the point in the show where we give away some stuff.

We give away a beanie, which is really handy in weather like I'm having right now because it keeps your ears nice and toasty. And a T shirt Ben Greenfield fitness T shirt with the new logo. Looks sweet and makes my abs look ripped.

Works Great on acne.

You can wipe your acne with it if you like. And also a BPA free water bottle.

Yep, good for keeping your saddle sore cream in.

Hadn't thought of that. I suppose you could.

So if you leave a review on itunes and you leave us five stars, we might read a one star review someday.

But if you read just a nasty one, just somebody who hates us, and.

Then we send them free stuff just.

To piss them off, which is kind.

Of like the equivalent of getting like dog poo lit on fire on your front door. Ben Greenfield Fitness T shirt from a guy that you hate. Anyways though, if we do leave your review or we read your review and you hear it read, just email us your T shirts up, Ben BenGreenfeldFitness.com and we'll stick a handy dandy Ben Greenfield fitness gear pack in the mail, shipped straight to your front door. And it looks like today's review is from. Who's it from?

Cherith.

Cherith.

Hmm.

What's Cherith have to say?

Well, the title is Ben and Brock are the gateway drug to insane Hell Health.

Crazy. All right.

Yeah, well, insane. Anyway, I ran across Ben Greenfield's podcast through Feedly and was immediately hooked. Several months later, my friends think I have lost my mind, but in reality, I have lost 15 pounds and gained so much more.

Thanks, Feedly.

Yeah, good work, Feedly. My co workers see me drinking lemon water with Chia and my friends are confused by my ass adding grass fed butter to my coffee. Even more crazy, my neighbors see me carrying rocks around my backyard and going for walks in 30 degree weather half dressed.

That's hot. Yeah.

Once again, I wonder which half of her is dressed. If you think. If you do think I'm crazy for these things, spend some time listening to this podcast. Ben and Brock are easy on the ears and eyes.

Boom.

Sexy time. Yeah.

And make my daily commute interesting. But they are also very generous with the knowledge they have gained in their own quest for health. Sometimes they recommend costly equipment, but more often they offer things that anyone at any income level can accomplish.

Yeah.

They've also also introduced me to their friends who have more wisdom to offer, including physical therapy and. And nutrition. I am a Ben and Brock groupie. Thanks guys.

That's awesome. She can come to our concert.

Hey, maybe she's got 10 grand. She'll like stop by your house.

Yeah, that'd be cool. But yeah, we do sometimes recommend costly equipment though. I know. Yeah, I don't. The like the Biomat. Yeah, that is kind of spendy.

That is.

But we also recommend very affordable things like some of the things that we talked about in the this podcast. Yeah, today was totally affordable. I feel like not eating kimchi before you run on the treadmill or that's very cheap using using the sexy time cleanups on your ass. So there are those things too. But anyways, we'll, we'll put links to all that stuff and so much more over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com 304. You can support the podcast by going and leaving your itunes review. Be sure to check out that other podcast@bengreepillfitness.com SpartanUP Check out our sponsor for today's episode, Harry's. @harry's.com Use ten dollar five dollar discount code. Ben, don't cut yourself shaving. That is our warning. And then of course, check out obstacledominator.com if you want a crazy fitness plan for 2015 that involves a bunch of crazy fitness stuff like walking on a treadmill for as long as you can while holding one dumbbell and just shifting that dumbbell all around your body until you have to drop it on the moving treadmill belt. Don't hurt yourself with that one. That's just one of the many workouts that you'll find in obstacledominator.com so check that out. Thanks for listening. Tune in this weekend for a super secret interview. It's going to be really cool because we always release really cool interviews on the weekend. And until next time. What? I'm Ben Greenfield. I. I actually don't remember what this one's about.

Is that why you said that?

Yeah, that's why I said that. Because I couldn't remember.

I can't remember, I think.

Yeah. Anyways though, I'm Ben. He's Brock. Thanks for listening in.

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

Sam.