The Best Workout To Look Good Naked, Sleep Biohacks, How To Get A Strong Neck & Much More!

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show, Sleep Biohacks. Is baby powder healthy? The best workout to look good naked? Can you reverse tooth cavities? How to get a stronger neck? And much more.

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness. His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

Power, speed, mobility, balance, whatever it is for you, that's the natural movement. Get out there. When you look at all the studies done, studies that have shown the greatest efficacy.

All the information you need in one place right here, right now on the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

Good day to you, Ben. I hope your workspace smells better than mine at the moment.

Are.

My downstairs neighbors are. Are super hippies. They, like, burn incense all the time, and it's been really hot and incense. And then they're smokers. So that delightful waft is coming in through my window right now. They're super nice people, really good friends. I bear them no ill will. It's just the smell.

Like cigarette smokers.

Yeah, cigarette smoke. Cheap, like patchouli or jasmine or something.

I was gonna ask you if it was patchouli.

Yeah. And then it's like 30 some degrees Celsius. So like 100 or close to 100 degrees.

I don't have a. I don't have a big issue with smaller amounts of patchouli. Patchouli's actually got some pretty cool, like, therapeutic properties to it, and it's. Or ingesting it specifically for your skin. It's actually really good as, like an anti wrinkle type of lotion for the skin. But the problem, of course, is the scent. And I do agree that hippies take it far too far when it comes to the patchouli application. That's unfortunate, man. I'm sorry about that.

It's a bummer. It's a bummer.

My office smells like a forest. It smells amazing.

Because you live in a forest?

Yeah, no, actually, I diffuse evergreen essential oil into my office. It reduces cortisol.

Oh, yeah, I remember that study. They were putting little drops on, like, even if you're in a hotel room in downtown Tokyo or something, you could take some evergreen oil and it would have the same reaction as doing, like, forest bathing.

Probably would work in places other than Tokyo too, I suspect. But yeah, limited to central Japan. I put it on Instagram. I posted. I don't know if people follow me on Instagram, but over on instagram.com whatever my Instagram name is BenGreenfield Fitness.

I think it's Ben Greenfield Fitness. Very inventive.

Yeah, inventive Ben. Instagram.com BenGreenfield Fitness I posted, you know, you're only allowed to do 15 second videos on Instagram, but I showed like this little, little. I use a, a water based vacuum and diffuse essential oils into my office and I use this evergreen essential oil which contains the same compounds that they use in like this concept of shinran yoku or forest bathing or cortisol reduction. So. Yeah.

So you use a water based vacuum like, like to vacuum your floors?

Yeah. What does water do? Jess and I just talked about it in the recent Inner Circle podcast and I'm, I also got a guy on about a one hour long show that I'm going to release hopefully in the next three or four weeks on, on this podcast about like water based versus dry based vacuums and the difference in terms of like controlling things like fungi and mold and dust mites and stuff like that. So.

So you're telling me I'll just have to wait to find you?

Just gotta wait, man.

All right.

Be patient. Sniff some patchouli.

I am, oddly enough.

If you can't beat them, join them.

News flashes.

And if you can't beat them, you may as well join them over@twitter.com BenGreenfield where you can get all of these news flashes and then have us hammer them home on a weekly basis.

Right now, every single news flash that I want to talk about in today's show is about sleep. Nice.

I'm going to get in the fetal position while you read them.

I've been getting really, really good sleep lately. I've been sleeping eight to nine hours a night and just glorious sleep where you wake up feeling incredibly well rested. And I've been doing a variety of things to accomplish that. Probably I would say my top two sleep hacks of late, if you want to call them hacks, number one is the, the CBD stuff that we, we've talked about on a few shows before. Just taking the cbd. That's.

We could say that we've talked about.

It ad nauseam, mixed with ashwagandha and lemon balm and then blush. Really good sex. There's nothing like really good sex to just True, very true. Like a baby.

So kind of best naps I've ever had in my life after a good afternoon delight.

Fat firing on all cylinders when it comes to that. So.

But what's firing on all Cylinders, just.

Like sleep and sex and all that stuff. Cbd.

Nice.

So yeah, anyways though some people don't need much sleep and that was the first thing that I, that I tweeted out about this week was that some people really truly can genetically get by on less sleep. This is really interesting because a lot of times we say, oh, when you hear folks like whatever Bill Clinton or Oprah say that they get by in four hours of sleep, some people will indeed scoff and say that that's simply not true and that everybody needs.

I'm scoffing.

Are you scoffing or coughing up a hairball?

A little bit of both.

So there is this tiny mutation in a gene called DEC2 that they've discovered in people who are reported short sleepers. And what they've found is that when they breed mice to express this same mutation, the mice sleep less, but they perform just as well as regular mice on physical tasks and on cognitive tasks. And the article that I link to in the show Notes goes into the life of some of these people who have DEC2 mutations. And for example, one of the people that they profile in the article has these short sleeping patterns that allow them to sleep. I believe they're like a midnight to 4am ish sleeper. And this one lady, she's running ultramarathons now just because she has so much time on her hands that you know, she gets up at 3am and she runs and she has a full time job and she's like an overachiever and she's getting a great deal out of life based on the fact that she has this DEC2 mutation. And so some people actually do have this. I question and I would be interested to see if it actually makes you die earlier because you know, when you think about living life at, at a fast forward pace. Right. There would be advantages in that you would accomplish a lot more in the time that you do have. But I would be interested to see like a long term study on these mice or perhaps they could do it in fruit flies or whatever because those are very easy to study when it comes to lifespan because they have such a high turnover. But you know, study this DEC2 mutation and see if there, there's gotta be a trade off somewhere. Right?

Well, so they didn't look at the telomere length or anything like that.

They didn't. And you know, as, as I've heard many folks say before, there is no such thing as a biological free pass. Right.

So yeah, or free lunch.

But it is interesting how some people really, truly, genetically can get by on less sleep.

So I can't say that I'm jealous of that mutation. If I was an X man, I would not want that to be my mutation.

I know I want to shoot lasers out my eyes. I don't want to get by unless.

Hey, I can sleep for two hours. Check me out.

But here's another interesting thing. A study that they did. This was published in the journal Sleep. It was a study at the University of Washington School of Medicine in which they followed these women for a year and they studied what type of exercise and movement protocols at which times of day resulted in the best impact on sleep quality. And what they found was that no matter when you exercise, that Exercising at least 30 minutes a day causes improvements in the ability to fall asleep. That's actually referred to, if you want to use the propeller hat term, as your sleep latency. So when your sleep latency is high, that means you're taking a longer time to fall asleep. But if you exercise for at least a half hour per day, your sleep latency decreases. And interestingly, if you exercise but you don't exercise for at least a half hour, there is no effect on sleep latency. So that was one thing that they found. Another thing that they found was that you can exercise in the evening, but if your exercise session ends within three hours of the time that you are going to go to bed, it actually has a deleterious effect on sleep latency and you have trouble falling asleep. So for example, if bedtime is 10pm and you finish exercising at any time after 7pm, it has a deleterious effect on sleep. So ultimately for this I've recommended before that you do an afternoon, early evening exercise session if you're going to do a hard exercise session, because that's the best time of day to do it, your core temperature peaks and your reaction time peaks and your post workout protein synthesis peaks. But you need to be careful that if you are doing that and you want to enhance your sleep quality to the greatest extent possible, you finish up within three hours of bedtime. So it was very interesting. And another thing that they found was that stretching, like yoga instead of say exercise actually had the same effect on sleep as exercise did. Right. So returning back to that concept of exercising at least 30 minutes a day to enhance sleep, it doesn't have to be, say, like high intensity interval training or weight training. Stretching did just as well or had just as great an impact as exercise did on sleep quality. And so you could do instead of, you know, 30 minutes of weight training. If it's. If it's up your alley, and it sounds like maybe it's up, up your hippie neighbor's alley, Brock, they could do 30 minutes of yoga instead of 30 minutes of, say, deadlifts and squats. So, yeah, yeah. Interesting study. And I'll. I'll link to that in the show notes. And all of the show notes, by the way, for today's podcast are at BenGreenfieldFitness.com 326. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com326.

My interest is always piqued when you start off by saying the study was based on following women around for a year. It just sounds so creepy.

Yeah, it is kind of creepy.

I start dialing 911 when you start it like that.

Yeah. And granted, you always have to look at the subjects. Right. In this study, these were overweight women who started off at the beginning of this study, sedentary. Right. So maybe this wouldn't apply as much to the population that we're about to talk about, professional athletes. So this was a cool article. This appeared in the Guardian, and it is about all of the extremely nerdy practices that they're implementing with professional athletes to enhance their sleep. And it's particularly focused on this gentleman named Nick Littlehales, who is a former golf pro and then worked in the betting industry and now works with elite sporting organizations and teams to help them enhance sleep and recovery. Sounds like it'd be a fascinating podcast guest, by the way. So I may need to work on that.

But.

But a few of the very interesting things that the study gets into that that piqued my interest. First of all, one of the things that they hook these professional athletes up with are mattress toppers. So they travel with these, what they call bedding toppers, which are thin layers of foam that have actually been customized to the body shape and the requirements of each athlete. So you can take them, you can put them on top of an existing hotel mattress, or if that mattress isn't suitable, the floor. And the person who's using that bedding topper can it, like, wraps around them. They can sleep on it without even feeling the floor, without even feeling the effects of, say, like, a crappy mattress in a hotel room. And they travel with these. So this is something that's used currently by Team Skies Tour de France cyclists. So they're these sleep kits that include a bedding topper. A few other things that they do, particularly with these professional cyclists, is they put Filters over the air conditioning vents to remove allergens from the room. You know, both of these are theoretically things that anyone listening in could do, right? Like you could probably find a bedding topper. And I believe that the company Essentia, the same company who I purchased my master bedroom mattress from, I think they make bedding toppers. I know they do customized mattresses for many professional athletes, and I'm pretty sure they make toppers as well. But you could theoretically also get a filter, like a HEPA filter or a portable filter and the air conditioning vent in a hotel room. And this is what they're doing with these Tour de France cyclists. They're also having them wear nasal strips while sleeping to open their airways and to help them avoid mouth breathing or waking up with, like, obstructive sleep apnea. So these are all, you know, this may sound extreme, but they've actually found this to enhance their sleep and enhance their recovery. So we've got filters, we've got nasal strips, we've got bedding toppers as three things that they travel with. Now, you know, some of this study or some of the article goes into things that we all know about when it comes to proper sleep hygiene, right? Like adjusting the room temperature to 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, or, you know, using blackout curtains or blackout masks to keep things completely dark, using binaural beats or earplugs to adjust the sound where you're sleeping. But then they also go into a few other interesting things. For example, they've found that right handed athletes sleep best on the right side of the bed, but on their left side. So right right handed athletes, the right side of the bed facing towards the big bed, sleeping on the left side. So you would face out towards the. No, if you're sleeping on your left side and you were on the right side of the bed, you'd be facing out to the wall or the window or whatever, and vice versa, which I thought was interesting because I am a right handed athlete, but I actually sleep on the left side of the bed on my. And so I, you know, after reading this article, I thought, huh, it'd be interesting to experiment with, if it does influence my sleep quality, to sleep on the right side of the bed on my left side.

So would that be an issue for Jessa? Like, do you guys have your side of the bed that you sleep on all the time?

We kind of do, but we're not that picky. Like, sometimes when we're traveling, it's just like whoever happens to hop into whichever side of the bed that's the side of the bed that we get. So no, we're not incredibly picky when it comes to that. It wouldn't be a big deal to. To kind of experiment with that. But the article is very interesting. I'd love to get this guy on the show to go into some of these things. I personally have made a note to myself to look into specifically three things that piqued my interest in the article, in addition to which side of the bed that I sleep on. And that would be do they make some kind of like a filter that I can place over the vent of a hotel room when I'm traveling to assist with air quality or like a portable HEPA filter? So I'm going to research that. And by the way, if you're listening in and you've got leads or your own ideas, leave them in the comments section. I'm going to try out this concept of using a nasal strip during sleep to assist with breathing and to reduce any issues with obstructive sleep apnea. And then the last thing is this idea of a custom bedding topper. I'm going to be speaking with Essentia this week and researching a few other sources for potentially custom fit betting toppers. So there we go. The things we do when we're bored and we want better sleep.

Listener Q and A.

Hey, Ben. So I'm fresh out the shower and you're the first one I want to talk to. What's the deal with baby powder? Specifically talc and cancer? I see stuff online. Is it true? Can you get down to the bottom of it?

Thanks. There's nothing quite like just talcing yourself up, especially on a hot day when you know you're gonna get sticky. It does, yeah, it does keep you a little more fresh.

I like to get into the happy baby pose, the yoga, happy baby pose, and then I.

Especially in the middle of the YMCA change room.

Yes.

Ben's on his back with his legs in the air talcing himself up.

I typically have an assistant or a loved one do the talcing. And I just lay in the happy baby pose with a big toothy smile on my face. But that's just me. No, the American Academy of Pediatrics actually now recommends against using baby powders, and a lot of pediatricians are saying that too. And the issue is the talc. So many manufacturers of baby powder have actually removed the talc. You can look at the ingredient label and it will either say talc or it will say hydrated magnesium silicate oh, wow. Yes.

That's a great idea.

And the reason for that is that that's a very finely ground particle made of stone. And because of that, that talc can be contaminated with other substances. And in its raw state, talc actually contains asbestos. So industrial exposure to asbestos is, of course, linked to lung disease and lung cancer and probably isn't the best thing for your baby to be accidentally inhaling or for you to be inhaling if you happen to be talcing yourself. So, yes, I do not encourage the use of baby powder or the use of talcum powder or whatever you'd like to call it. And it has been shown, actually, that it doesn't just increase the risk of lung cancer, but particularly in women who are using talcum powder to their genitals or using one of these female deodorant sprays that has talc in it. It was found that they had a 50 to 90% higher risk of ovarian cancer.

Whoa.

Yeah. And then, of course, there's a lung damage and lung cancer issues. So I'd be very careful with it. Now, one thing to be aware of is that even if you aren't a baby powder fanatic, talc is actually a common ingredient that you'll find in many cosmetics, like eyeshadow, deodorants, as I mentioned, soaps, lipsticks, especially in many women's products. So the Environmental Working Group EWG has a great website in which they list many, many different products that contain talc, including a number of body powders. We'll link in the show notes to that Environmental Working Group's website and their analysis of many of these personal care products that may have talc in them. But my recommendation would be, of course, to avoid those. So what can you use?

Especially if you have exactly what I.

Was just going to ask a widow baby, or you want to put a widow talcum on your widow genitals. That didn't quite sound like a baby as much as like a. That was more like a. That was more like a cockney accent. Put some talcum on your genitals.

That was just creepy. Don't talk about my genitals with that voice, ever.

Anyways, like I mentioned, you could go to the Environmental Working Group's website that we'll link to in the show notes, and you could just find a good version that. That's talc free. But it's very, very easy using a base and simply essential oil to create your own little sore bottom soothing substance. So the best thing, and this is actually something good to have around for any type of baby powder slash deodorant. Get yourself some arrowroot powder or organic cornstarch. Either of the two work quite well and they're good ingredients to have around for personal care, product creation, anything that involves powder. So arrowroot powder, that's what they use.

In like Gold Bond.

Yes, yes. And by the way, I am my wife makes a powder like a deodorant powder. Excuse me, that uses arrowroot as a base. I'm a little bit lazy, I can tell you right now. I use the hammer nutrition cool feet powder. And when I'm traveling and wearing like compression pants, for example, I'll pour a bunch of that in the crotchal regions. Or I'll like when I'm wearing compression socks, which also tend to get a little bit stinky. Or if I've got like an international flight, I will just dump a bunch of that into the socks. But that stuff's called a cool feet and it uses arrowroot as a base as well. And it's got stuff like clove and all sorts of. It's sort of minty, tasty, minty smelling stuff in it. So anyways though. But if you want to make your own homemade baby powder, incredibly easy. Just get about a half cup to a full cup of arrowroot powder or organic cornstarch and then get thee some essential oil. I like chamomile for this.

Did you say get thee some? I did get thee some essential oil nave.

That's a very good profit voice. So you'll want about a few drops. You don't need much if you're using essential oil. Now if you're, you can make something very much like an essential oil. You can get like chamomile flowers and you can powder them in a blender or a food processor. But frankly, I just think the oil is easier. So you get a little essential oil and you'll put about 5 to 10 drops of that in with the half cup to full cup of arrowroot powder or organic cornstarch. And. And that's it. Just stir that together, five minutes. That's my kind of recipe done. So those are the only two ingredients that you need. And now you too can not get lung cancer or ovarian cancer or stinky crotch.

Hi, Ben Greenfield. Well, basically I think I'm really fat and I so I feel insecure and I just want to know how to get a slim body, a slim butt and slim thighs. And I would love you. I would just love you, love you. To help me. I don't want, like to do exercise or dieting. I just want to eat normally. Like, can you just give me a trick and like, how to get my metabolism high or leptin. I've done so much research and I can't even anything like, I don't want a real, real thigh gap or anything. I just want thin, just a thin line of a gap. I just wanna, I just want. That's how I feel comfortable because a lot of my clothes, I feel like I'm just too big. I'm not huge, but I'm like a size 8 to 12 and I feel that's wrong for my age. So please help me. Thank you.

It's a beautiful accent.

It is, it is. Especially when, when she says thigh gap.

You know, I try and avoid making too many comments on our, our listener Collins when it comes to voice, tonal quality, accents, et cetera. Just because the few times that I've done that, we've received some really nasty emails and comments about everything from, from racism to rudeness to my complete lack of skill when it comes to replicating accents or even identifying the region of the world that those accents came from. So I'm pretty careful. So I'm just going to say beautiful accent and leave it there. So.

Good.

Anyways, though. Yeah. The thing is that you will see recommendations made often to women who want to fill their clothes out or perhaps become more curvaceous or even say, look good naked, you know, whether you're, you're a man or a woman to, to lift weights. And the fact is that in some cases, even though weightlifting can come in quite handy when it comes to a good workout to, to look good naked or to get good curves and good tone and good lean muscle, it's not necessarily the only thing that you need to do. And I get questions kind of like this a lot. And so the way that I want to answer this is in a manner that will equip you, if you're listening to put together a workout that will allow you to look good naked, that will allow you to kind of have a fitness program that enhances longevity and enhances every aspect of particularly your cardiovascular and your muscular fitness. Because it's not that hard. It's not rocket science based off of the research that we have to put together a program that achieves all of this, right? Like the ultimate combination of fat loss, cardiovascular fitness and muscular fitness. Because if you have those things in place, you will look good naked. So get out your notepad, get out your Notepad. Take that pen out of your ear and here is what you need to.

Do out of your ear from behind your ear.

Behind your ear, that's right. I don't just jam a pen in my ear and keep it in there. I generally kind of put it behind my ear. Okay. So the first thing that you want to make sure that you do is you want to maintain cardiovascular fitness. This is not necessarily the look good naked part of things. This is more the longevity part of things. And what I want to give you are the things that are going to give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to doing things like maintaining cardiovascular fitness. So write this down. Step number one.

All right, Ready?

Once every week to once every two weeks, what you should do is five four minute high intensity efforts. Five four minute high intensity efforts. And those are separated by about four minutes of recovery in a study.

Good, long recovery.

Yep. So this particularly hits what's called your VO2 max maximum oxygen consumption. Many people do this type of training too much. I am not at this point talking about professional athletes, triathletes, marathoners, people who are working towards a specific goal, such as, you know, a spartan race or whatever. We're just talking about fitness for life. Okay, Write this down. Note number one. Once every week to once every two weeks, you want to do approximately 54 minute high intensity interval sessions in which you're going at your maximum sustainable pace for those four minutes and you're recovering for four minutes in between each. Okay, so that's, that's, so you should.

Be gassed by the end of this. You should be like, if you're running, you should be like hands on knees, gasping for air kind of thing.

No, no, no. Because it is impossible to achieve that amount of exhaustion from a four minute effort. That amount of exhaustion would be something you'd achieve with more like a 30 or a 60 second all out bout. So these 4 minute efforts are your maximum sustainable pace. Okay. So generally some more like a little.

Threshold kind of effort.

It's very, very close to your maximum heart rate, but not to the point where you're giving yourself a heart attack. Okay, so, so good advice. So basically that that's step one and that's going to address the VO2 max. Okay? The VO2 max component of your cardiovascular fitness. Step number two is that you also want to increase what's called your muscular endurance and your aerobic capacity. And when we look at studies that have looked into the best way to improve a combination of muscular endurance and aerobic capacity, you Cannot beat the Tabata exercise protocol. And the Tabata Exercise protocol is 4 minutes of 20 seconds, very hard, 10 seconds, very easy. Now, in an ideal scenario, based off of the research that's out there in exercise science, you would want to be doing this three times per week. So three times per week, you choose the exercise. You could do burpees, you could do mountain climbers, you could do jumping jacks, you could do squats, you could hop on a bicycle elliptical trainer, you could use a pool, whatever. But a Tabata set in which you warm up and it can be a 2 minute to a 10 minute warmup, you know, whatever time you have available, and then 4 minutes, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, and then a cool down and that's it. Okay. You don't have to do that four minutes, two times or three times, or five times or 10 times to make yourself feel good about yourself that you hit a full hour of Tabata training. Ultimately it's just eight 20 second sets. Right. Four minutes, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. But you're consistent doing that three times a week. Okay. So that is for your muscle endurance and your aerobic capacity. What's called your.

Now should you mix that up? Like if one day you did it on the bike, should the next time you do it, you should do burpees or swim?

Yep. Ideally mixed modes. Okay, so now you've checked off a few things. Yep. You've got your. Once every one to two weeks, you're doing your five, four minute high intensity rounds, and then three times a week you're doing a Tabata set. You choose the. You choose the effort. Okay. And then the next thing is you want to work on what is called your mitochondrial biogenesis. So while the Tabata sets are indeed going to help you with your muscle endurance and your aerobic capacity for your mitochondrial biogenesis, the creation of new mitochondria, which are like the power plants of your cells, which are going to assist with everything from fat oxidation to longevity. The research that's been shown to work the best when it comes to activating mitochondrial biogenesis are 4 32nd all out sprints. The best mode to do these all out sprints in an ideal scenario would be a bicycle. It's just very, very easy, especially on a stationary bicycle, to do four 30 second all out sprints. These 30 second all out sprints should be separated by four full recovery. We're talking about four good minutes of rest at least. Okay, so these are more like the all out. Like you're just like exhausted, hanging over the handlebars like you were kind of talking about Brock, like, that's where these come in. Okay. And similar to what I recommended for you to do when it comes to your VO2 max, right? Five four minute efforts followed by four minute recovery periods once every one to two weeks. Same thing with these all out 30 second sprints. Okay? You only need four of them and you can do these once every week to once every two weeks. Think about this like taking a fire hose to your arteries. Okay? And again, it's full recovery after these. And remember that when we talk about an exercise program that allows you to look good naked for life or maintain longevity. It's supposed to be doable, right? So I could tell you to do four 30 second sprints four times a week, but you're. I can't guarantee you're going to do that till you're 80, right? But doing four 30 second sprints followed by full recovery once every one to two weeks, you could wrap your head around doing that till you're 80, right? Like it's not that big of a deal. You could do it running. It's just that, you know, there's this, there's this exercise science protocol called the Wingate test. It's a horribly difficult test, but it's an all out 30 second test of your power production. Try doing four of those with full recovery and you'll understand why it really only takes once every one to two weeks to actually get a response by doing these. Okay, so that's kind of like step number three or part number three you're going to include in your protocol. Are these 30 second sprints? Okay, but we are not done yet. There are two other things that I would recommend that you include as part of your protocol.

The next one is five hours worth of very slow running every second day.

No, the next one is you want to control your blood sugar, particularly your postprandial insulin levels. And there is a great deal of evidence out there that movement in either A, a fasted state in the morning at a low level intensity, or B, after dinner or if you'd like, if you have the time, both is very, very effective when it comes to blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity. So the next thing that you want to do is every single day make it a goal to either a walk or swim or move or do yoga or do something for 15 to 20 minutes in the morning and or 15 to 20 minutes after dinner. And this could literally be you walking the dog for 15 minutes in the morning and for 15 minutes after dinner. I know this sounds stupid and silly, et cetera, but these are the little things that if you put them all together, are going to give you a really, really good program for Life. Okay, so 15 to 20 minutes in the morning and. Or 15 to 20 minutes in the evening. Okay. And this is to control postprandial blood glucose and it is to control your. Or to improve your insulin sensitivity. And if you do these in the morning, in a fasted state is better. Okay, cool. So makes sense. And then the last part, the glaring part that everyone's going to be, you know, jumping through the airwaves, pointing out is that we haven't talked much about muscular strength. Right. About the lifting heavy stuff component. Here is what I think is the ultimate scenario when it comes to doability and longevity and the ability to stay consistent with the program. Once per week, do a body weight exercise program. I am actually a big fan of this. This whole like 7 minute workout that they reported on in like the New York Times, which was just basically 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off of. In this case, they did jumping jacks, wall sits, push ups, crunches, step up, squats, dips, planks, running in place, lunges, push ups with rotation inside planks. That was it. That was it.

And it's like 50 things you could do that.

It's 12 movements and you could just do it, you know. Well, we can. We'll link in the show notes to the seven minute workout protocol that this is based on. And it actually is a, is a study that they did on this and they later reported on it in the New York Times. But it's just a very, very basic 7 minute body weight exercise routine. Okay. That you could technically do, you know, more than one time through. Okay. I wouldn't do it more than three times through if you're really just focused on sticking with things, you know, for life. But basically it's a high intensity body weight circuit training. 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off. So that's once per week. And then on the other day of the week you're doing heavy lifting. And if I could choose one style of heavy lifting. Okay. At the risk of having all the USA weightlifting coaches and crossfitters and powerlifters jumping down my throat, here it would be the very basic 12 to 15 minute super slow strength protocol outlined in Doug McGuff's book Body by Science. Okay, that's it, that's it. And I had an interview with Doug McGuff and I can link to it in the show notes that goes into why I recommend that the science behind that protocol, when it comes to increasing peripheral blood pressure, lowering central blood pressure, increasing strength, increasing joint health, all at the same time. Okay, so once you put all these together, okay, five by four minute efforts with four minute recoveries, three Tabata sets per week. The four all out 30 second bouts of exercise once every one to two weeks. The walking for 15 to 20 minutes or light low level movement, 15, 20 minutes in the morning, 15, 20 minutes after dinner. And then one body weight protocol and one like super slow strength protocol per week. If you were to walk up to me right now and say, Ben, you want to live till you're 120 years old. You want an exercise program that you can wrap your head around that will make you look good naked, make you be able to handle any sports that you jump into, like tennis or golf or whatever, and allow you to just kind of stick with it for life. That is exactly what I would do. I would, I would drop all the triathlon training and the Spartan training and everything else because I've never argued, I've never argued that's good for you or good for longevity or even necessarily makes you look good naked. More than the program I've just outlined. That's more like notch in the belt, climb your own personal Mount Everest type of stuff. And I would simply do the protocol that I have just outlined for you. So there you go. I hope you took out your flashcard and pulled the pen out from your ear and wrote that down. And that is what I would do. I can guarantee if you were to do that program, your thighs will not touch, but you'll still look pretty good. So there you go. Hey, Ben, this is chad from Raleigh, N.C. recently went to the dentist and they're saying that I have an abscess on a tooth and need a root canal. I've done some research and there's definitely some mixed research out there in terms of the long term deleterious effects of root canals. Just want to see what your opinion is. And if there's a way to naturally reverse early stages of an abscess. Thank you. Ah, the root. Have you ever had a root canal, Brock?

Thank goodness, no.

Neither have I. I've actually, I've never had a, had a cavity or a root canal or a filling. I've actually been to the dentist, I think maybe eight times in my entire life. I've never had braces. Just didn't really do any of that stuff. Now granted, I also only have three teeth and there's that old Trumper play the banjo quite well. But no, ultimately, the reason that I'm glad for that is because of the issue with root canals that, you know, and, gosh, when we did our fluoride episode, I think we had like 18 different members of the American Dental association leaving very concerned comments on that particular post when we recommended that you actually defluoridate your water and talked about all the issues with fluoride. But we. We may get the same thing when we talk about root canals. We'll see. So here's. Here's the deal. What I'm going to tell you is why you don't want a root canal, what you can do instead, and how to ensure that you don't really need root canals in the first place, and also how to keep your teeth more white. Sound crap. There you go. So.

So this is going to be like an hour.

No, no, I'll keep it quick. I. I will. I will not get into nitty gritty details, but I will give you the. The basics. So root canals are basically a root canal. Teeth are basically dead teeth that, if you allow them to stay dead, become little incubators for anaerobic bacteria. And this anaerobic bacteria can make its way into the bloodstream and cause a lot of serious medical conditions later on. So I will talk about why that is the issue, but the fact is, the American Dental association claims root canals are safe, but they have zero published data or actual research to substantiate that claim. And I would argue that root canals are not safe. And we can trace this back to initial research done by Dr. Weston A. Price of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Hi, Weston. I don't know that he listens. I don't think.

He's been dead for quite a while, hasn't he?

Don't think he's alive.

No.

Rest in peace.

He might still be listening, though.

Yeah, he was a dentist.

On your beliefs.

Do they have podcasting in heaven? Or if you're a Vegan, talking about Dr. Weston A. Price. Hell. Anyways, Dr. Price was A. He was a dentist and a researcher, and he traveled the world to study teeth and bones and diets of native populations who were living without modern food. And it was around 1900 that he'd been treating persistent root canal infections. And he kind of got this idea that root canal teeth seem to be causing some issues and seem to always remain infected in spite of treatments. And so one day he actually extracted a root canal from a woman and then implanted it under the skin of a rabbit. I have no clue why he chose to do this to poor little Bunny Wabbit. But the rabbit developed the same crippling arthritis as the woman who had had the root canal, had and died from the infection 10 days later. Meanwhile, the woman who he removed the toxic tooth from recovered from her arthritis and was able to walk without the assistance of a cane after that. And so.

So the cure is to put your tooth into a rabbit?

That's right. Unless every dentist on the face of the planet begins snickering about this n equals one study. The fact is that Dr. Price then went on to show that many chronic degenerative diseases originate from root filled teeth. And he did quite a bit of research on this. He identified 16 different bacterial agents found in root filled teeth that cause diseases of the joints and the brain and the nervous system. And he's got two different books out that detail this research between dental pathology and chronic illness. And you can actually find many of these books, including one that highlights all this research called the Root Canal Cover Up. The Root Canal Cover Up. I will be sure that I link to that book in the show note for you or in the show notes for you, if you'd like, over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com326 but it's a very good synopsis of this research that Dr. Price did. So the idea here is that your teeth are, as many of us know, the hardest substances in our body. If you find like a, whatever, deer skeleton out in the wilderness, it's always, you know, even if the whole thing's falling apart, those teeth are still intact. Now, in the middle of each tooth is what's called a pulp chamber. That's that soft living inner structure that has all the blood vessels and the nerves in it. And surrounding that pulp chamber is dentin. And dentin is just a bunch of living cells that secrete a hard mineral substance. And then you've got the outermost layer, which is the white enamel, and that encases the dentin. Now, these roots actually go down into your jawbone, and they're held in place by what's called the periodontal ligament. And there are literally miles and miles of accessory canals and blood vessels and very small capillaries that basically feed into this periodontal ligament area. So every single tooth has this maze that extends out about three miles for each of your teeth. And there are microscopic organisms and bacteria that regularly move in and around these different tubules and vessels. So when you get a root canal, you hollow out the tooth and then you fill that hollow chamber with a substance that cuts off the tooth from its blood supply. So you cut off the tooth from its blood supply, but all these tiny tubules, three miles per tooth remains. And any bacteria in those tubules, basically, they're now cut off from their food supply. But they remain in these tunnels and remain very, very safe from any type of antibiotic or natural antibiotic or your body's own immune defenses. And when that happens, they can become relatively virulent anaerobic bacteria that produce a lot of toxins. And these toxins can basically spread throughout your body and cause a lot of disease issues inside that root. That's basically how many of these issues happen. And what Dr. Price was able to identify in root canal teeth was links with nearly every chronic degenerative disease we know about, heart disease and kidney disease and arthritis and joint and rheumatic diseases, and like ALS and Ms. And autoimmune diseases like lupus, and even connections with breast cancer and root canals. And a big, big part of this are these isolated anaerobic toxic bacteria just hanging around in miles of tubules, completely cut off from being able to be metabolized or being able to have your body's own natural immune system, essentially have access to these bacteria. So They've actually identified 42 different species of anaerobic bacteria in 43 different root canal samples. They actually have this foundation called the Toxic Element Research foundation that uses DNA analysis to examine, examine root canal teeth. And they found some very, very non, benign, non ordinary mouth bugs hanging around in these tubules underneath root canal teeth. So basically, you're leaving a dead body part in your body that's causing these bacteria to collect around the dead tissue and produce toxins as they metabolize. So, yuck. So you are probably getting the idea that a root canal is not the best thing to have hanging around in your mouth or to get. Now, if you do have a tooth removed, and we've talked about this on a previous podcast, so I'll. And you could go listen to that podcast if you'd like to, because I get into alternatives to root canals in much more detail. But the three options really are a partial denture, which is a removable denture. It's often just called a partial, and that's the simplest and least expensive option. And then there's a bridge, which is a more permanent fixture that resembles a real tooth, but it's a little bit more involved and a little bit more expensive for a dentist to build for you. And then there's an implant and That's a permanent artificial tooth. Usually it's titanium, usually it's implanted in the gums or the jaw. There can be some reactions to the metals used if you tend to be sensitive to them. Zirconium is probably the implant material used in an implant that shows promise for the fewest complications when it comes to artificial replacements. But just pulling the tooth and inserting like an artificial replacement is not everything that you need to do. You have to actually remove that periodontal ligament that I talked about to reduce the risk of developing an infection from bacterial infected tissues that can be left behind. So what I would recommend that you do is I'll put a link in the show notes to this book, Root Canal Cover Up. If you want to learn more about this and dig into the research for yourself, I would also recommend that you Visit the website toxicteeth.org the reason I recommend you visit that website is it has a good list of biological dentists, also known as holistic dentists that could be in your area. And you know, my dentist or the dentist that I've been to once since I moved to Spokane is a holistic dentist and a biological dentist who I found through this site. And it will ensure or vouch for you being able to get a dentist who is not necessarily going to do root canal and who has access to a lot of other more holistic methods. Last couple of things I wanted to mention though, when it comes to teeth abscesses and natural ways to care for your teeth and root canals, there was a very, very interesting article written by Denise Minger. Denise Minger, who we've mentioned a few times before on the show. And Denise had two interesting points in this article that she made about her teeth. First of all, she claims that fermented foods wrecked her teeth, which is really interesting because we talk all about like sauerkraut and kefir and yogurt and all these things that are really, really good when it comes to fermented foods. But the fact is that fermented foods can be acidic. And if you do have problems with your, with your tooth enamel or you're trying to kind of like wean yourself off a high sugar diet or you're getting a lot of tooth pain and issues with your teeth. You may actually want to be careful with fermented foods. And that was one of the things that she actually began limiting after she had been eating a lot of them. And she found that her teeth began to grow more white when she was careful with the volume of her fermented food consumption. So that was number one and then number two was really going out of her way. And I'll link to this article that she wrote. It actually appeared on Mark's Daily Apple. It's called Nutritional Cures for Damaged Teeth. The other thing that she did was she went out of her way and this probably isn't any news to most of our listeners to ensure that she was getting plenty of kind of like the holy trinity for all things teeth. And that's vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin K2, all three of them, which you can pretty easily find in supplement form. For example, the multivitamin that I take every day, the exos multi that has vitamin D, vitamin a and vitamin K2 in it, all in their properly balanced amount. So I'm getting each absorbed in proper ratios. If you wanted to go for the more natural, AKA less biohacked route, you could do something like include plenty of natto and liver and egg yolks for your vitamin K2. You could include, you know, of course, plenty of sunshine and other fat soluble vitamin sources for your vitamin D. And then include plenty of carotene rich foods, right, like orange and yellow type of vegetables like sweet potatoes and yams and things of that nature for your vitamin A, you know, and, or you could do both, right? Like you could get good food sources and include a multivitamin. But I thought that was interesting. Limit fermented foods. More is not necessarily better. And then make sure you go out of your way to get vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin K2. And I'll link to that article as well in the show notes.

Nice. Now the next question I it actually comes from me. I'm being super sneaky and sneaking in my own taking, taking advantage of my position here at the podcast to get a my own question answered.

Do you want to use an accent?

I think I oh, should I put some kind of crazy effect on my voice so it sounds like I'm using some crappy microphone instead of my, my $300 setup here?

No, that's okay. We get our own listeners doing that enough of the time to where I think it's fine for you to just ask your question.

Hey. Hey, Ben and Brock. This is Brock calling from Toronto, Ontario.

Is that good? Calling in from my styrofoam cup and my wire. Yeah, you know what, the fact is, sometimes I forget. And by the way, we'll post this to our Facebook page. But our audio question, well, is beginning to get a little bit dry. So if you happen to be listening in and you have a good question to ask, go ahead and ask it. But for Pete's sake, at least don't use your cell phone on the subway when you ask your question. We've got a handy Dandy Speak pipe app on the BenGreenfieldFitness.com website. You can go straight to BenGreenfieldFitness.com and it appears right there. You can even call toll free 8772099439 and you can leave your question using a real old fashioned phone. But either way, you know, pay attention to audio quality. And we guarantee the better your audio quality, the more likely it is that your question will get answered.

Yeah, we've definitely thrown out some probably pretty good questions just because I was like, what are you saying? I can't hear you over the children screaming in the background.

Right, exactly, exactly. The rabbits dying from their abscessed teeth implants in the background screaming. If you've ever heard a rabbit scream, it's actually quite disturbing.

Yeah, it's terrifying.

Yes, yes. My wife. We'll get to your question in a moment. Just a complete rabbit hole. There's a bunny that's been eating ferociously my wife's garden. It's tunneled in underneath the deer fencing and she has been on me to somehow end this rabbit. And I go out early in the morning on the porch and I do yoga, like very relaxing, pacifistic, non animal killing yoga. And a couple of times I've seen him out there and I've thought about fetching my bow and attempting to kill said rabbit, but I haven't yet found it in my heart. For some reason it just feels wrong that early in the morning to be out doing my yoga on the porch and to somehow like take out a bow and kill a tiny rabbit. But what I was thinking was maybe now I can implant a tooth in it and just let it die slowly of arthritis. So perhaps.

Well, I guess the important question is, is it big enough that you could eat it?

I could eat it. I could make rabbit stew out of it.

Because really that's the defining moment there. Because you don't want to just kill it because it's an inconvenience. But if you were to be able to have a nice dinner or two or three.

Yes. And put earmuffs on your children if they love rabbits. But the only weapon I have that would actually allow me to end the rabbit without actually blowing it to smithereens is my bow because I have a 12 and a 16 gauge shotgun, a 9 millimeter Glock and also a very large hunting rifle. And overkill. Any of those would make the rattle Glock there, there'd be just like armor piercing rounds. There'd be chunks of hair left on the kale in our garden and I don't think that'd be nice, but I think a bow would be appropriate. Once I find it in my heart to do that for some reason I can, I can go early in the morning and hunt a white tail deer, but killing a little rabbit in the garden is just something I hard time getting around. So anyways though, rabbit hole. Go ahead, Brock, what's your question?

Okay, so I, I actually got a few comments I see there. Last week or the week before we were, you were making fun of me because we had to record early because I was off to see the physiotherapist about my neck and I'm still having trouble. I actually went to the physiotherapist again this morning and had some more acupuncture, some more art, and I've got some kinesio tape running down the back of my neck right now.

Oh, geez.

And it's, it's coming along, but you know, I let it go for way too long. It was like May last year when, remember I had to take three weeks off and I went to, I didn't have to. I went to, to Germany, Croatia and the Czech Republic and just toodled around for a few weeks. And you had to fend for yourself on the podcast for a while there.

Yeah, I do remember that. It's very pissed. I was very pissed that you were actually off having fun and not working. Yeah, I kind of expect you to be at my beck and call at all times when it comes to this podcast.

But anyway, it was on, on the flight, the very first flight that we took straight to Berlin, I fell asleep in a strange position, put a crick in my neck and was like, oh crap, that sucks. But it never really went away and it's now like a year and some months later and I finally have decided to do something about it because it got to the point where I was having trouble riding my road bike because like getting into that position and being able to shoulder check was almost impossible. So I relegated to riding my commuter bike everywhere and waking up in the middle of the night with the, with pain and, and stuff like that. So what I'm looking for, I, I worry about all the little tiny muscles and ligaments and stuff in my neck. So I'm really reluctant to get in There with like a, a foam roller or a tennis ball or a golf ball or something like that to try to loosen up any adhesions or any tightnesses and stuff. So I, I guess what I'm looking for is like, can I, what can I do to strengthen my neck so this doesn't happen again? And what else, what can I do to sort of loosen it up and get in there to break up some of those adhesions that I'm sure are in there?

Your neck doesn't have that many important things going through it.

No. So not, not the most important blood supply.

It's essentially just kind of like a PVC pipe with a little tube where the spinal cord goes through and.

Exactly.

Everything else you can just ream on. No, it is a good point. You can definitely do damage to everything from your, your, your vocal cords to some pretty important nerve plexuses that, that are around. And then of course, the nerves that, that branch off from those that pass up through your neck. If you pull out Gray's Anatomy, for example, you'll see that the, the neck, because it must feed a relatively TV show important organ. Yes, the, the Grey's Anatomy book, not the TV show. For any of you who are born after 1990. The. The idea is that the neck does have a lot of really kind of small fragile vessels going through it. And it also has, you know, I used to dissect cadavers back in anatomy class at University of Idaho. And the neck was always one of the more difficult ones to tackle in terms of neck muscle separation because it's got all sorts of, of muscles in it that are responsible for a variety of movements. It's a very complex joint, you know, because it's involved in flexion, in extension, in rotation, and then also in lateral flexion. Right. Like side to side movement. So we've got sagittal plane, we've got frontal plane, we've got, you know, pretty much, you name it on the XYZ axis for the neck. When, you know, even if you look at another complex joint, you know, somewhat complex joint. Like the knee, for example. Right. Like the knee, we've got flexion extension. We've got a slight amount of rotation, but not too much, and then we've got very little movement. Basically, if you were to imagine the knee, you know, you've got very little movement of the actual patella and knee joint kind of forward and back. It's more like up and down and a little bit side to side. The shoulder joint is probably more appropriately similar to the neck. Right. Like we can rotate the shoulder joint, you know, in many different directions and up and down, side to side, back forth, flexion, extension, rotation.

Right.

So yes, the neck is a complex joint. And let's start with rather than how to strengthen the neck, how to prepare the neck to be strengthened, this is always something I'm cognizant of before I. Even when I wake up in the morning and I do my morning stretching and calisthenics routine, one of the first things that I do is I engage in rotation and mobility before I actually put a joint under stress. It's this concept that you never want to pull on a rope that has a knot in it because you just make the knot tighter. So for example, I'll do inversion poses or I'll hang from an inversion table or do like pull ups in the morning, which put my back under traction. But before I do any of that, I foam roll my back and then I do the rotation exercise for my back on the ground that kind of pops it and snaps it it so that everything's kind of aligned before I move on into strengthening and traction. And so that's one of the first things that you want to focus on when it comes to the neck. Let's assume that all of your cervical vertebrae are aligned properly and that your jaw is aligned properly. And the reason we're going to assume that is because that's not something you can do on your own. Okay. We're going to make the assumption that you've been to a good sports chiropractic doc who is using manual manipulation, not the little tiny like trigger gun that goes and doesn't feel like it does anything like actually putting their hands on you and manipulating your tissues and ensuring that the cervical vertebra is in alignment and ensuring that the neck is in alignment. Okay. That's something that you actually need to have professionally done before moving into more of the, like the at home stuff that I'm about to talk about. So the next thing that you want to focus on is first of all, mobility for the neck. There's a few different ways to do this. You have what's called your first rib and your first rib is kind of up around those neck muscles. It feels more like a neck muscle than a first rib, but basically a couple of ways that you can work that. And Kelly, starred over on his MobilityWOD website, has some of these ideas and also presents them in his book Becoming a Supple Leopard. But number one, this is one way that works really well. If you have a barbell or a squat rack at home is you can table a crossball to a barbell. And once you've got that lacrosse ball taped to a barbell, you can just basically get underneath that barbell and use that lacrosse ball to work its way all up and down those muscles coming off of your neck and all up and down that first rib area. You can also, if you don't have an actual rack to place a barbell on, to do the deep tissue that way is you can lay on the ground and you can take a broomstick or a barbell or some kind of other stick, and you basically lay down on your back and you use that stick that is up against the wall for leverage to dig into all those tissues around that first rib area and all up around your neck. So that's another way to kind of hit your neck because it can be hard to come at your neck properly. And typically a stick or lacrosse ball taped to a barbell are a really good way to do it. If you really want to get a huge amount of torque on those neck muscles and a big amount of mobility. The last thing that you can do, and this is it's painful, but it will work. What you can do is you can get a lacrosse ball and you can place it kind of like right up next to your neck on either side of your head. You just pick a side, you work one side, then you work the other side. And then you'll want something that you can hang from with your arms overhead, like a pull up bar. And what you do is you place a strap right. It doesn't have to be a rubber or elastic strap. And a rubber and elastic strap actually doesn't work as well as just like a type of strap that you'd use for say, like strapping something to the back of a pickup truck, right? Like one of these ratchet straps. And you put the lacrosse ball underneath that strap. And then one end of the strap is holding the lacrosse ball and is looped around your body. And then the other end is attached to a kettlebell or some kind of a weight on the ground. And then you just hang from the bar, arms overhead, and kind of like rotate side to side as you're hanging. And there's a great video of this over on the Mobility WOD website that all it's called the overhead position. First rib mobilization. Painful, but very, very effective mobilization for the neck. And so that's one that you could.

Where is the pain coming in?

Where is the pain coming in? The pain is Coming in because you are hanging and putting a great deal. You know, it's kind of. It would be like foam rolling with someone sitting. Like foam rolling your it band with someone like sitting on your butt. Right. It's just like. It's that combination of traction and rolling all at once. So watch the video to see what I mean.

But basically I'm having trouble picturing it, to be honest.

Yeah, it's a little bit tricky to picture, but I mean, you get it in two seconds if you saw the video. So I'll link to it in the show notes. But basically, mobility using a lacrosse ball tape to a barbell or a stick, like, kind of like coming out of the wall that you can kind of roll against can be really, really effective. And you know that that would be assuming you don't have someone to just stand there and massage your shoulders and kind of work them. I like to put a little bit of magnesium lotion or magnesium oil on the neck muscles and anywhere kind of like upper back ish prior to mobility because it helps to relax those muscles that tend to stay very tense. And so your mobility is going to be more effective. Once you've got your mobility down and you've kind of ensured that you actually have gotten rid of any soft tissue adhesions in the area, the next thing that you can work on is traction. There's a couple different ways that you can do traction, which is going to create more space and alleviate pressure by improving the blood supply to the neck muscles and the tendons and the ligaments around that affected area. One way is you can actually have a friend put like a hold onto like a hand towel that's placed underneath the bone in the back of your head. And you lie on your back and your friend lies behind you and they just kind of pull on your neck using that towel. The other option is to. And I have one of these hanging in my home. They're very easy to find. Just these neck traction devices that you hang from an area in your home. And it's very important that you do your mobility and that you ensure that your cervical alignment is good. But once that that's done, you can, you can use these to put traction on your head. An inversion table will kind of sort of work because it'll use the weight of your head to provide traction. But it's even better to use one of these neck traction devices. So I'll link to what I'm talking about in the show notes, but mine is just a cheapo one off of Amazon and It works. I can literally hang by my head. I'm just very careful that I. That I don't. You don't want to hang from your head when you have a cervical vertebra out of place, because then that just puts pressure on any tendons or ligaments or blood vessels that happen to be pinched by a vertebra that's out of place. So you just want to be careful when you're doing that kind of traction. But that's. The next thing is traction. And then before I go into a few strength exercises, there's also an acupuncture or an acupressure point that you can use for a stiff neck that will help the neck to relax. And the point is very, very simple to find. If you hold out your hand and you look at the area between your index finger and your middle finger, and you look at those two knuckles between your index finger and your middle finger.

Am I looking at the back or the front of my hand?

Back of your hand. And then you just go a little bit down just before you get to the webbing between the index finger and the middle finger. And so you've got your index finger and your middle finger kind of apart in the letter V. And you can see the webbing and you can see the two knuckles. Right in between that webbing and the two knuckles is an acupressure point that you can use your index finger to put pressure against. And the way that you can best do this is you use your thumb on your opposite hand to kind of like stabilize and hold that hand still. And then you use that index finger to put pressure right down into that area. And when you stimulate that acupressure point by making very small circles with that pressing finger while simultaneously rotating your head side to side. This is kind of like patting your tummy and rubbing your head, or rubbing your tummy and patting your head. What you'll get is an improvement in range of motion in the neck. And it's a Chinese acupressure point specifically for the neck. And that's another area that you can work on to improve mobility or to decrease pain in the neck, is that acupressure point. So, so, quick review. You want to do mobility and deep tissue work, particularly for all those muscles coming off your neck and what is called your first rib. And I, I really, really like the book Becoming a Supple Leopard for its entire chapter on. On the neck. Number two, you want to do traction either by hanging or by having a friend, like kind of pull your. Your your head with a little bit of a towel. And then last thing we want to do is we want to of course, ensure that we fortify and strengthen the neck so that these issues are less likely to occur later on. And the neck can be difficult to strengthen. They have at some machines, what's called a four way neck machine that allows you to do neck flexion and extension and lateral side to side flexion. Those are okay, but they can be tough to hunt down at many gyms and I've never seen one kind of hard to use. Yeah, they're, they're not that common. You don't, you don't see a lot of them. But you can do your own manual resisted towel exercises. And this is really the easiest way to do. I mean you sit in a chair or you stand and you simply use a towel and you hold onto a towel and you do for example, 10 neck forward flexion using the towel for resistance by placing the towel against the front of your forehead. And then you place the towel against the back of your head and you do 10 resisted extension exercises. And then you place the towel on one side of your head and Do10 resisted flexion to the right side. And then place the towel on the left side of your head and Do10 resisted flexion to the left side. And just use your own muscles for resistance. With the benefit being that you get an arm workout too when you do this. So the good old old school towel exercise is actually quite useful for strengthening the neck. So that's one of the top ways to do it. Another way to do it is you can take an exercise band and you can literally wrap the exercise band around your head and wrap the other side of the exercise band around a pole or any other removable object. And rather than using a towel, rather than fatiguing your arms, you can simply use the exercise band. And the nice part about that is when you use the exercise band, you get the eccentric component, right. You get the exercise band kind of pulling you back. And the only annoying part is it kind of pulls on the hair a little bit. You could just shave your head Brock be a good look as well. Yeah, shoot an exercise video while you do like a Jane Fonda esque exercise video of you bald doing exercise band head neck rotation exercises. Yeah, so that's another way that you can strengthen your neck is just with that exercise band. And you can also do isometric type of strengthening for your neck and shocker. I know a lot of people don't really like this idea, but it does work and that would be doing things like the yoga elbow supported headstand, right where you're getting onto your head and literally kind of using your arms to support yourself in a headstand. And what I like to do when I'm in a headstand because I'll typically a few times a week just get into a headstand for about five minutes or so just to increase cardiovascular blood flow to the head, but also to strengthen my neck. I will do leg mobility exercises while in a headstand. Meaning like I'll move my legs forward like I'm walking upside down, like Frankenstein walking with straight legs to stretch the hip flexors and the hamstrings. Or I'll let my legs fall apart to the side to stretch the adductors then come back up together. So you get a little bit of a core exercise. But just basically getting into a, a headstand and doing exercises with your legs while you're in a headstand is a great way to kind of kill three birds with one stone. You get leg mobility and you strengthen your neck and you also improve blood flow to your head. So those are a few ways that you can do it as well. Very, very last thing, and I swear by this for, you know, occasionally doing just to relax the neck would be just a basic Epsom salt or magnesium bath. If you don't have magnesium oil or magnesium lotion that you can regularly apply to your neck. Or if you want to use that as, as an additional relaxation protocol for the neck prior to mobility or prior to traction. There's something about having the entire body relaxed like you're, you know, that you would get after doing a salt bath that allows the neck to get even greater mobility.

So those are along those same lines. Would you apply ice to, to the neck?

No, No, I wouldn't. Not unless it's a, it's an acute strain or sprain. There wouldn't be a lot of benefit to applying ice. So heat for, for back and neck works much, much better than ice because your goal is to improve blood flow and improve mobility. Again, unless it's an acute injury, right? Like a sprain or a strain, heat is going to serve you better than cold. So, so no, don't, don't go plunging your head into an ice cold bath anytime soon. At least not if your goal is to heal and repair your neck. If your goal is to wake up and you don't have access to a shot of espresso, then that would be a viable strategy. So Brock, next week, if you're not around, I'm going to assume that you either broke your neck or had some kind of like a blood vessel stricture or perhaps like a collapse of a vessel or a nerve to your head while doing any of the exercises that I just mentioned. Or perhaps you just got stuck hanging from a barbell with a lacrosse ball and an exercise band wrapped around your body and you're just kind of like hanging in your basement somewhere. So if it's me solo next week, folks, that's what what happened to Brock?

If I die trying any of these things, you can bet I will haunt you.

Insert disclaimer here 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.

Okay, so we always, of course, towards the end of our show, we read a review from itunes. Now, one of the best things you can do if you get anything out of this show and you want to spread the good karma around, well, golly gosh, what are you waiting for? Go leave us a review on iTunes. And preferably five stars, four perhaps, if you're feeling less than generous. But we have a review left by JR Midge. And because we're reading JR Midge's review on the show, JR Midge. If you hear this, you can email gearreenfieldfitnessystems.com that's gearreenfieldfitnesssystems.com and we will send you a gift pass just because you were kind enough to leave a review on itunes. Be sure when you email gearreenfieldfitnesssystems.com to let us know your T shirt size. So, that being said, Brock, what do you think? You want to take this one away?

Yeah. Do you want to read the title? It's a good title.

The title is entertaining and informative health and fitness information that you just can't find anywhere else. I like that.

Yeah, really. That's what the podcast should just be called from now on.

We should hire Jarramidge to write headlines for us.

Forget about Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast. It's the entertaining, informative health and fitness information that you just can't find anywhere else. Podcast.

I like it.

Yeah. All right, it goes like this. I have been listening to the Get Fit Guys Quick and Dirty Tips for a little while now and finally decided to check out Ben's other podcast. And boy, am I glad I did. As we should explain, Get Fit Guy at the Quick and Dirty Tips Network is another podcast that Ben does. If you haven't checked it out, you.

Should I actually, yeah, I release a very short 5 to 10 minute podcast on Bite Size. All things fitness. Yes, bite size. Every week. And that's over@quickanddirtytips.com and it actually doesn't overlap much with the stuff we talk about in this podcast, which is just more pseudoscience and woo woo and ways to F up your neck. Anyways, Brock.

Anyway, so this continues. I love the broad range of unique health and fitness topics that Ben and Brock break down and make easily understandable, as well as their sarcastic sense of humor that is just oh so entertaining.

Are we that sarcastic?

I think he was. Or he or she was being sarcastic about our sarcasticness.

Yeah, sneaky.

Sneaky. I really look forward to the new podcast. Maybe this is sarcastic as well. I really look forward to the new podcast every.

Every freaking week.

Keep up the good work.

Yeah, be sure to do that every seven days. Well, cool. That's. That's a great review. And I actually am glad he mentioned the Get Fit Guys Quick and Dirty Tips podcast because as if you didn't have enough to digest going through this podcast for an hour to an hour and a half a couple of times a week, there's another one for you. And actually all of those podcasts are articles that are actually, actually read in podcast form. So you can always just go read the article too. I, I actually spend a great deal of time. I, I recently just wrote an article on, on cold water immersion and ice baths over there that you can go and read. So anyways though, great review, J.R. midge, we'll keep up our sarcastic sense of humor. Or will we? And show we really. Yeah, we'll really think about doing that. You can access the show notes over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com 326. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com326. If you don't have anything better to do with your life and you happen to be sitting on the subway and you want to access a neck cervical traction device or the research on sleep or anything else we talked about, you can do that. And this weekend. Stay tuned. Great podcast coming out on health scams. Everything from infrared saunas to hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers. Find out if they work, find out if they don't. Find out the truth. It's our version of 60 Minutes without the production quality, so enjoy.

You've been listening to the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast fast. Go to BenGreenfield Fitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness and performance advice.

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