Stay on Offense Climb Mountains

Attacking Adversity

Go Hiking Because You Are Built for It

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It is so obvious, but it took the title of today’s Bookish Weapon to really consider this. You have two legs and two feet. Your ancestors walked a lot. Actually, no. They hiked! Everywhere!

So why no do something you were built for? It makes perfect sense. However, any have excuses.

My Back Hurts

You are not using your back when you hike and haven’t you heard the mantra of physical therapists everywhere; motion is lotion! Wim Hof (the Iceman) says BREATH!! I say MOVE. What better way to move than using your legs and feet.

Your back will heal and get stronger as you move. Maybe no pack on your back for now. Just get yourself up a mountain.

But My Knees Hurt

Yes, so do mine. Especially the left one, but both have arthritis. One has had surgery. What is the best medicine for that? Movement!!! After a coupe hours of hiking your knees are gong to feel better (usually). Not so much if you fall down and bang it on a rock.

Make sure you use the Couch stretch after climbing. If you don’t know what the Couch stretch is then look it up online under Kelly Starrett.

I Am Too Old

Unless you are in your nineties, you can’t play the age card with me. I am seventy-five. I don’t listen to people that say I shouldn’t climb mountains at my age.

Remember the cliche that you are only as old as you think you are. Never stop moving. Can you get up off the floor without using your hands? Neither can I, but that doesn’t stop me. It might keep me out of the 100 year old Olympics according to Dr. Peter Attia, but it won’t keep me off a mountain.

Bookish Weapon Number Twenty-Three

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Do you want to make better decisions and respond appropriately in more situations? Then this Elizabeth Stanley’s book, “Widen the Window,” is for you. It is a weapon you need in your arsenal.

This is a 400-page book so to pick one idea is pretty much impossible. So I won’t do that. I am going to give you the basics.

Basic Knowledge

Stanley asks that you read the first part of the book before reading her “solutions.” This makes sense because you need to be motivated to use what she suggests. She developed a course called MMFT or for short M-Fit and the book is mostly about the scientific and intellectual concepts that undergird this course. With that in mind, let’s continue.

She says that her “…window of tolerance to stress arousal was adaptively wired in response to my early social environment. It was narrowed during exposure to prolonged stress and trauma without adequate recovery.” Stanley had a tough childhood and then had more difficult times in the military which she discusses in the book.

We have two brains. The survival brain and the thinking brain is what Stanley calls them. They usually fight. It is not good when they fight with each other. The “thinking brain” engages in top-down processing which includes cognitive responses to things. It memorizes and learns stuff. Got it? The “survival brain” is “bottom-up processing.” “One of the survival brain’s most important functions is neuroception, an unconscious process of rapidly scanning the internal and external environment for opportunities/safety/pleasure and threats/danger/pain.” Its memory and learning system is “implicit.”

One of her main coping strategies was “suck it up and move on.” Some people have addictions or adrenaline-seeking behavior, disordered eating and a whole host of other things like isolation. She says these dynamics affect all of us and …they’re shared by anyone who fails to recalibrate their mind-body system after a distressing or traumatic event, such as a flood, car accident, or loss of a job or loved one. They are also shared by anyone who habitually over tenses their mind-body system during prolonged stress without adequate recovery, such as crashing to meet a deadline or working long hours over an extended period without some days off.”

Our childhood affects how wide our window is and works as a negative stressor as an adult. Even in daily life. She cautions that “By understanding how stress and trauma are a continuum, we can see how we might devalue things that are extremely stressful for the survival brain but “not that bad” to the thinking brain.” But, “…the survival brain believes the traumatic event was never complete.”

You might have a mind-body system that unconsciously craves a crisis. That’s not good

There is a lot more basic knowledge, but this gives you a decent look.

The Fix

Stanley wants us “to use our biology in a new way. By systematically training our attention, we can widen the window within which our thinking brain and survival brain work together cooperatively.”

She gives us two exercises to do. The first one, called the “Contact Point Exercise,” involves sitting in a chair and getting a sense of how it feels, how it supports your body and then you notice all the contact points of the chair with your body. You scan your body for tightness or tension. See if the tension shifts. Then you bring the sensation back to physical contact with the chair and she says to pay attention to three areas: 1) between your legs, butt, and lower back and the chair; 2) between your feet and the ground and 3) where your hands are touching your legs or each other. Then pick one point where you feel most contact. Then direct and sustain your attention at that point. Just like meditation, if your attention wonders ring it back. Then after 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes notice your whole body and notice if anything has changed. Higher energy? Less or more tension? That’s the first exercise in a nutshell.

The second exercise she calls “Grounding and Release,” which is a lot like the first. Get yourself into a chair, bring your attention to your symptoms of stress activation (she has a whole list f these in the book). Pay attention to the physical sensations. Once you notice that you are “activated.” Then notice that contact point again with the chair. Keep your focus on the contact point until you feel release from the stress or “activation.”

The idea with this second exercise is to “…let the thinking brain be the survival brain’s ally, by disengaging attention from the stress activation and redirecting the attention towards stimuli that will facilitate the survival brain neurocepting safety.

Rest Of The Book

The rest of the book is more or less typical self-help information. It is interesting, but not as crucial as the above.

Go Hiking And Widen Your Window

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Yes, “Widen Your Window” is the subject of this week’s Bookish Weapon so I thought I would play with that idea a little when it comes to hiking.

The author is talking about widening possible responses in times of stress. One of the ways to do that is to get out into nature.

Relaxing

Being in the woods is relaxing. Even when you are pushing hard up the mountain you can smell the wild strawberries, the bark on the trees, and sometimes if you’re lucky, smoke. Yes, smoke! So maybe smoke is one only I would like and a certain kind of smoke.

When I was small I would spend time with my father clearing land. We would dynamite a stump or two and then burn them. The odor from the stump burning is what has stayed with me. So whenever it is in the air it takes me back.

Getting Away

If you are heading for the mountains it means you are not worrying about work or problems. Your mind is focused on the climb. You leave your cell phone wrapped up in your backpack. Yes, I know many don’t, but they should keep it tucked away. Distractions like that are unwelcome in the woods and you will not be widening your window.

Unless you live close to the mountains, it takes a while to get there. This trip helps me detach from my life back home. By the time I am at the trailhead, I am in a different world both physically and mentally.

Use The Exercise

One of the exercises in this book is developing an awareness of the contact between our body and immediate surroundings. She has you sit in a chair for this, but you can do it on the trail. Feel your feet on the ground and the wind on your face.

I think you could even use the trail to release stress. When you reach a quiet spot, take a deep breath and exhale while imagining all of your stress and tension leaving your body. It works great and I have a particular place I like for doing this.

Your window a little narrow? Go hiking!

Bookish Weapon Number Nineteen

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This book, “Boundless,” by Ben Greenfield will not be available until January 2020 so no, I have not read it yet. However, it is a way to help promote his book for him and provide me the platform to tell you about some of the things I have learned from listening to his podcasts for several years now. This will be a bit longer than my typical post.

Of course, I recommend you read his book and even his older book called, “Beyond Training.” And don’t forget the podcasts! Yes, I know some of you don’t listen to podcasts or read books, but just things that summarize all of that. So let me jump around a bit and see if I can give you a little bit of everything. But remember, this is really an overview and based on my experience and opinion so please research this on your own. It does give you a starting point.

Anti-aging – The Number One Supplement

It surprises me somewhat that younger people have so much interest in not getting old. I would think that you’re so busy you don’t start to think about that until you are, well, older. Yet, this is a hot topic.

Under this subject there are a whole lot of things to discuss. First, supplements. The most popular and well researched supplement for anti-aging is an NAD precursor called Nicotinamide Riboside Chloride and sold by two main companies, Elysium and Chromadex. Elysium sells a product called Basis and Chromadex sells one called Tru-Niagen. I will let you decide which is best. I do take one of them now and have taken the other in the past. Where did I hear about these two products? On the Ben Greenfield podcast!

Wait, I went too fast. You may be asking what, pray tell, is NAD? NAD stands for Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide. As we age NAD levels deteriorate so the idea behind this supplement which is basically Vitamin B-3, is to increase NAD levels in the body. Research has shown that it indeed does just that. So why is that important? Because NAD energizes your cells so you have more energy. You can climb mountains when you’re 74!

There is another product that is supposed to increase NAD levels, but has no research behind it that I know about and that is Nicotinamide Mononucleotide or NMN. David Sinclair takes it.

The Others

Other Ant-Aging supplements recommended by Sandy Kaufman in the Kaufman Protocol (one of Ben’s guests) include Resveratol, Pterostilbene, Astaxanthin and Curcumin for those over 45 years old. There a slightly different recommendations for other categories of people.

Sleep

This is my favorite subject. So I want to pass on what I have learned from Ben’s guests and Ben’s recommendations. Then tell you my experience.

First, getting to sleep can be difficult for some people. Ben recommends Dr.Parsley’s Sleep Remedy, CBD oil and Quiksilver Melatonin. He also recommends a product called Circadia. Think it is expensive? Well NuCalm is almost $5000. He recommends it too, but Circadia is less than a thousand.

Let me throw my two cents in as well. I have had great results with CBD oil and Dr Parsley’s product, but now I am using a product called Mag R&R which helps me with tight muscles and prevents night cramps from long mountain hikes. It contains melatonin, 5-HTP, Rhodiola, Ashwagandha, Gaza, ad Oasis Flower.

Dr. Steven Gundry in his recent book on anti-aging recommends that you do not eat anything for at least four hours before you go to bed. He claims that in order for your brain to be “cleansed” by something called Glymph, your body can’t be focusing on digestion.

Another recommendation from Ben is a grounding mat. It is supposed to eliminate pain while you are on it. Get it from Ultimate Longevity. Why? Listen to the podcast that features the owner for the answer to that.

Blood Tests

When you get your annual physical your doctor orders the standard blood tests. Pretty basic, but what do you really need to order? Here is Ben’s 11 Best Biomarkers:

RBC Magnesium
Estrodiol
High-Sensitivity- C-Reactive Protein
Tryilyceride to HDL Ratio
Full Lipid Panel
Omega Three Fatty Acids
IGF-1
Insulin
Complete Blood Count with Differential
Iron

Toss that at your doctor next time you see him or her. If you want a lengthy explanation for each one visit Ben’s website and search for 11 Best Biomarkers.

Recovery

Hopefully, some of you the read these posts are hikers or engage in some kind of regular exercise. If so, then you are gong to have times when you tweaked or injured something. Maybe it is just being extremely sore which I guarantee if you go hiking with me.

So it is with that in mind that I am introducing you to something called BP 157. Yes, I heard about first on the Ben Greenfield podcast. You can now take it orally, but before this the only way it worked was by injection. There never was an oral BPC 157 that worked. However, Greenfield had the owner of Dr. Seeds dot com on his show and they discussed their oral product. Ben tried it and said it worked, but that because it is oral it took three weeks before you felt any difference to an injury for instance.

What exactly is this stuff? BP 157 is a peptide and it works with your blood to help heal injuries faster. What I didn’t know was that it also dramatically reduces soreness after a workout or training session. I used it for two months and discovered, to my delight that Ben was right. The stuff is amazing and there are no side effects. Dr Seeds sells the only (so far) oral product that works. He calls it Body Protective Complex (clever, right?). If you decide to try it know that the black bottle is the higher dose. That is what I used.

Other Peptides

Peptides are a huge topic. BPC 157 is only the beginning. There are peptides for energy, better sleep, etc. You can dive deep. However, as far as I know all these other peptides require an injection.

For example, there is DSIP or Delta Sleep Inducing Peptide. If you try this let me know how it works as I have not as yet. I tend to stay away from injections.

Surface Scratching

This post has only scratched the surface of what is in Greenfield’s books and podcasts. I hope you will start listening, because it could have a huge impact on your health.

Now, at least you have a place to start. It is a fast changing world of bio-hacks and everything to make you better so you can go hiking of course.

Go Hiking And Get Interested In Exercise And Health

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When a person puts as much effort into a pastime as I do with hiking or someone else might do with Spartan Racing, for example, they become very interested in how they can keep the body going, avoid injury, recover from injury, etc.

In the corresponding Bookinsh Weapon post number nineteen, I dive into some of the things I have learned from listening to the Ben Greenfield podcast. However, there is so much information that I thought I would continue up this trail. Joe Rogan’s interview recently with David Sinclair covered anti-aging. So a lot to discuss. Let’s get going.

Hardware

I thought it would be fun to discuss some of the hardware that is available to improve everything from sleep to performance, to eliminating pain.

The new NuCalm device that sells for a little less than $5,000 does a lot. The company spent twenty years researching to develop this product. It can give you two hours of deep sleep in twenty minutes or improve you regular night time deep sleep and much more. Greenfield has tested it and it does work

The Circadia device sells for less than $1000 and helps you fall asleep. This is Greenfield’s suggestion for folks on a “budget.”

The Grounding Mat (you sleep on it) brought to you by Ben’s guest Clint Ober, is supposed to eliminate pain. Twin size is only $129.

The Chilly Pad gets high praise from a wide range of sleep experts. It allows you to keep your mattress cool while you sleep which helps you sleep better. It sells for about $600.

So I guess you would put the grounding mat on top of the Chili Pad or…

The Halo Sport helps you learn any motor skill quicker. It could be guitar playing or lifting weights.

The Joove Light – Red light that is good for you. Benefits: muscle recovery, joint pain, sleep optimization, testosterone, inflammation, bone health and skin health. I want one! Maybe more than one since they have a portable device as well.

More About Supplements

In the Bookish Weapon post I listed some anti-aging supplements, but here are a few that didn’t necessarily fall into that category, but as you will see, I think they are great!

Atantril – If you have gas, this one is great.
Restore – Protects against Glycosides. I’s great!
Lean – Helps you avoid glucose spikes (from Ben Greenfield’s company Kion). It is great!

Fixing What’s Broken

In Joe Rogan’s podcast with David Sinclair they discuss the progress being made in the field of genetics when it comes to fixing the body. For example, they shot a virus carrying a reprogramming genetic code into the eyes of old mice who had eye problems. All the mouse eyes were reprogramed to have brand new eyes. So within the next year they will begin human trials on people that have Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma.

It will get even better. Later they are planning to use the same technology to heal spine injuries and other serious problems. This is so exciting! In the next ten years health care as we know it will be changing dramatically.

Bookish Weapon Number Sixteen

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When I wrote about having sore legs in one of my hiking posts, I mentioned Kelly Starrett. Well, he wrote a book called “The Supple Leopard,” and Jill Miler wrote a book called “The Roll Model.” If you read and apply what is in these two books you will be Superman or Superwoman. These two also got together to create a CD which I highly recommend called, “Treat While You Train.”

These are all weapons in and of themselves. So I suppose each of these books deserve their own post, but I am going to concentrate today on Starrett’s book. It is a huge book, but I will pick a couple things for your consideration. Keep in mind that this book is filled with pictures so you really need to get it and go through it.

Stability

If the first part of the book Starrett explains his system. Then in chapter two he gets into Midline Stabilization and Organization. He gives you sequences to practice, breathing mechanics, and much more. In chapter three he focuses on the “One Joint Rule,” where “if you see flexion or extension anywhere in the spine, it is an error.” You want to have a braced neutral spine and he shows you how to get that.

In chapter four he covers the Laws of Torque. Want a stable hip position, then “screw your feet into the ground, spin your feet as if they are on dinner plates, spread the floor and shove your knees out.” Hence, law number one – “To create stability when your legs or arms are in flexion, you need to generate external rotation force.” Then law #2: “To create stability when your legs or arms are in extension you need to generate an internal rotation force.”

There are torque tests for hips, shoulders, etc

Movement

In chapter five he covers movement hierarchy and then a whole list of movements including the right way to do a back squat, pushup, deadlift, etc. He breaks them down into category one, two and three movements.

This book is almost 400 pages of color photos and text that help you move better in and out of the gym.

Good luck with all this. It will help you prevent injuries.