April 8, 2015
Podcast #315 from https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2015/04/315-fitness-fabrics-fashion-can-radiation-be-good-for-you-how-to-do-isokinetic-training/
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Introduction: In this episode of the Ben Greenfield fitness podcast: Fitness Fabrics and Fashion, Can Radiation Be Good For You, And Natural Remedies For Too Much Radiation, How To Do Isokinetic Training, What To Do About Sweaty Hands and much more!
Welcome to the bengreenfieldfitness podcast. We provide you with everything you need to know for total performance, fat loss, recovery, digestion, sleep, brain, and hormone optimization. So whether you’re an Ironman triathlete, or you’re just wanna shed a few pounds, get ready for non-run-of-the-mill, cutting edge content from bengreenfieldfitness.com.
Brock: I enjoy your alliteration in the title for this podcast.
Ben: Do you like how I read off those titles so alliterate like… I have a high amount of literacy. By the way, today is the Fitness, Fabrics & Fashion episode in which we talk all about the latest and the greatest fitness fashion and what kind of clothing that you can wear to make your workout amazing. As a matter of fact…
Brock: That’s exactly – that’s what I was eluding to when I said the alliteration; the fitness, fashion and fabrics.
Ben: Yeah, as most people know, if you get your fitness fashion down your fitness fabrics down, then working out hard really becomes meaningless. It’s just about looking good. Speaking which, what are you wearing today, Brock?
Brock: Yeah, I have an outfit that I wear when I’m working – while I work from home every day – but when I actually feel like I need to put on something other than just my boxer shorts, my sweat pants, I have this comfy old jeans that feel just like sweat pants ‘cause they’re so old. And a t-shirt that’s so stained, it’s actually embarrassing.
Ben: Got a little comfort jeans, they kinda like comfort food.
Brock: Yeah! And this way, if somebody comes to the door, I don’t feel super embarrassed.
Ben: Right.
Brock: Just a little embarrassed.
Ben: Right, exactly. Probably less embarrassed than me. I’m wearing my tinie-tiny track shorts, my old Ironman ones from the – gosh, these things are like the early 2000s – way dated. And…
Brock: So the elastic is totally shut like diapers.
Ben: That’s right and yeah, that’s about it. So when it comes to…
Brock: So we’re looking good.
Ben: …fitness fashion, we’re looking good and minimalist today.
News Flashes:
Brock: Head on down to twitter.com/bengreenfield.
Ben: Yes.
Brock: For all your news flash needs.
Ben: Unless you want to get totally freaked out about food labels because that was one of the first things that I tweeted this week was food labels and what your food label really means. Now this was really interesting, the title of this article was in The Guardian and as with anything that we talk about on the show, we’ll link to it over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/315 for today’s episode. But this one was called “Inside the food industry: the surprising truth about what you eat” and it was especially targeted towards people who think that they’re only eating healthy unprocessed foods and the author delved into everything from fruit salad to coconut milk to show you that indeed the food industry puts things into food that you may not even be aware of if you think you’re eating healthy. Now the article…
Brock: You mean, the on the bugs that we talked about last week that sort of sneak in to your food?
Ben: Beyond the insects – yes, exactly. The etymology, I believe it was called. But anyways, even though the article itself is pretty long, I wanted to go into a few of the things, kinda towards the end of the article that are relatively shocking. For example, when you look at the natural colorings that you find in food, the only difference between these and artificial ones is that they start with pigments that naturally occur in nature. I don’t know if that’s redundant to say ‘naturally occurring in nature’.
Brock: Yeah, sure.
Ben: But the – otherwise they made using the same highly chemical industrial processes including extraction using harsh solvents and chemicals even though it says, natural colorings. The enzymes that are used to for example make bread stays soft longer and that are injected to livestock before slaughtered to tenderize their meat and even used in fruit juice processing to create a cloudier, more natural appearance are just more chemicals that are injected into food that can still be advertised as healthy, unprocessed food. For example, the –
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what are few others that are kinda interesting – the washed, ready-to-eat salads, those are actually cleaned by sloshing them around in tap water that’s dosed with chlorine, often with a powdered or liquid fruit acids to inhibit bacterial growth. And though usually used the same tank of treated water for up to eight hours at a time to chlorinate your washed and ready to eat salads and even when the natural flavorings, when you see natural flavorings on a label, there really isn’t much difference in the chemical composition of a natural versus an artificial flavor. So what this really comes down to is that you should probably go buy some composting dirt and some chickens and just start to take care of your own food because there’s a lot of nasty stuff out there in food manufacturing.
Brock: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I wish I was an earthworm and I could just pass the dirt through my digestive tract and just be completely unaware.
Ben: That’s right or at least follow the old school recommendations and anyhow this isn’t totally bulletproof but at least it’s halfway there – bulletproof not TM to Dave Asprey – but more bulletproof just using this tradition…
Brock: Not able to be penetrated by bullets.
Ben: And shoplift it from the grocery store. I mean you always freaking skip half this stuff so that was interesting. And another kinda interesting article that came out this week was about ancient Anglo-Saxon remedy that has been found to kill the hospital super bug MRSA. This one caught my attention simply because a couple of years ago, I myself had MRSA infection that tried to eat off half my leg and that was…
Brock: And that’s how Ben lost his leg. “I lost my leg.” I’m working to develop the strange limping accent.
Ben: It wasn’t well, it was MRSA. Anyways though, you know, I’ve written about MRSA before in the website now it can be controlled using things like essential oils for example, but what these – I guess they would have been, what do you call people who go out and find old stuff? Archeologists? Yeah.
Brock: Archeologists and Anthropologists.
Ben: Yeah, so anyways, what they found was this old English medical compendium and it’s called Bald’s Leechbook which sounds like a fantastic title for a medical compendium. And what the ancient, authentic ingredients were that our ancestors used to fight MRSA, was a combination of a variety of things but specifically, copper and a brass vessel that had leeks and garlic and a few other herbs added to it. In this blend that researchers this week tried and found that killed 90% of the superbug MRSA and the Staphylococcus. So it turns out that there may actually be something to shocker, herbal remedies as an alternative to or an adjunct to antibiotics. So it was really interesting and I think the article itself is actually to be noted that you know, the ancient use of herbs and essential oils and things along those lines seems to – seems have something to it when it comes to actually having some effect against – against things like MRSA.
Brock: As long as it’s served in the golden chalice.
Ben: That’s right.
Brock: Or the copper chalice.
Ben: with mead.
Brock: Red Knight, red knight rules!
Ben: Okay. And then our friend Alex Hutchinson over at Runners World published an article that I actually got a few questions on this week because everybody knows I’m a fan of the whole ice baths called thermogenesis thing, and this was about a newer study that they did that may have found the ice baths are completely ineffective…
Brock: Oh yeah, I saw this one.
Ben: May in affect be deleterious and at first glance, when you look at this study, it appears to…
Brock: The results were shocking.
Ben: …significantly indicate that ice baths may not be all they’re chalked up to be. What they did, was they took a group of subjects and they had them exercise, and half of them cooled themselves in an ice bath post-exercise for about 20 mins about a 50 degree Fahrenheit, 10 degree Celsius ice bath and the other group – the non-cooled group of course did not. And what they found was that were better adaptations in blood supply to the trained muscles. There was a better increase in muscular endurance and there was a significant increase in the strength response in the people who – drumroll please.
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Brock: *drumroll sounds*
Ben: did not do the ice bath.
Brock: What?
Ben: And they didn’t find the significant difference in the markers of inflammation in the non-cool versus the cool group. Now here is the kicker, all they were testing was wrist flexion and wrist extension, and the actual cooling of the wrist in an ice bath. They did not submerged these folks in an ice bath, they did not engage in any activity that were have resulted in significant core heating because most people don’t really get that hot and bothered by doing wrist flexion and extension.
Brock: Well that depends on how vigorous.
Ben: When you look at previous studies that have indicated some difference in people who are doing more hard core exercise like elite cyclists, and people who were doing full body weight training as far as the potential decrease in soreness or at least precedes soreness. This study I think is one that I personally would kinda toss out in terms of it really not being applicable to the general population and in addition to that, all these studies that look into ice baths, they don’t really look at some of the other reasons that for example, I personally do things like ice baths and cold showers. Like for example, better ability to be able to deal with mammalian diver reflex right, that sharp intake of breath that you take when cold water hits your face that, if you can control it, and not take that sharp intake of breath and gets yourself into the point where you can submerge yourself in cold water without actually being stressed out by it, makes you more resilient to stress and gives you a little bit better ability to consciously control the activation of your sympathetic nervous system: your fight or flight response in response to stress. The studies also don’t look at some of the fat-burning hormones that are stimulated by excessive – not really excessive – but significant exposure to cold, right? Like cold that makes you shiver such as adiponectin – the hormone that can help you mobilize energy out of fat tissue or leptin, or even insulin sensitivity. There’s a lot of things that go above and beyond what researchers study when they look at some of these ice bath research. And you know that’s – those are my thoughts on this recent ice bath one that is now once again spreading the rumor that ice baths don’t work.
Brock: Yeah, well I think it’s kinda like the research that surrounds using carbohydrate for fuel when you’re exercising like yeah, it works and it’s really good and all that but there is another side to things and it’s not just about going fast all the time.
Ben: Right. Exactly. And I think that sometimes you know, the folks in the lab coats look at one element or like performance…
Brock: Yeah.
Ben: …or inflammation and don’t look at other things like say fat-loss, or heart rate variability, or nervous system health, or things like that. So kinda interesting and of course I’ve tweeted out a lot more this week, you can follow that all on twitter.com/bengreenfield and we’ll put a link to some of this articles over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/315 whether you wanna heal MRSA, whether you wanna soak your wrist after a nice bout of typing or you whether you wanna get freaked out about the chemicals in your food.
Special Announcements:
Ben: Well Brock, today’s podcast is actually brought to you by Audible.
Brock: I love Audible.
Ben: And you can actually get a free audio book at Audible, you’ll get at audiblepodcast.com/ben, you get a 3-day trial membership and a free book. And I’ve actually got an interesting book this week that I’ve been reading but that is also available on audible as an audio book it’s called ‘Resilience: Hard One Wisdom For Living A Better Life’. And it’s these series of letters that a – that a navy seal wrote to his comrade – this brother in arms that he hadn’t seen in over a decade and this guy came back from the war and he was plagued with like post traumatic stress disorder and he was masking his pain with heavy drinking. And his friend, his other navy seal, sat down and began to pen his thoughts on what it actually takes to go resilience in life. And some of the letters are actually really good, I mean, whether or not you wanna be a navy seal or you’re dealing with post traumatic stresses or heavy drinking, or whether you just wanna kinda learn a little bit more about some of the things that they talk about in this book, about how to build purpose and confront pain, and practice compassion and develop a vocation, and find a mentor and create happiness – it’s a really good book. And it is available as an audio book it’s called ‘Resilience: Hard One Wisdom for Living a Better Life’ over at audiblepodcast.com/ben, I think it’s a worth to read. So, or listen in this case.
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Brock: Or listen, yes.
Ben: So a few other – a few other things to note: first of all the Ben Greenfield Fitness Quarterly launched so this is where you can…
Brock: What the heck is the ‘Quarterly’?
Ben: You got a mystery box from me every quarter and I hand-pick a bunch of things you know, little bio-hacks and health gear, and supplements and nutrients, and fitness stuff; and pretty much everything that we can shelve into a box. And we send it to you every quarter and it’s kinda cool. ‘Quarterly’ is this website that actually takes this curators, you know, people like I guess you know, I think Tim Ferriss has one…. I’m blanking out…
Brock: I believe Dave Asprey’s got one.
Ben: Yeah. I believe Dave Asprey may have like a bio-hacking one. Mine is kinda of a combination of health and fitness and bio-hacks and nutrition and just a whole range of things. But our first Quarterly ships in May, basically about fifteen days or so from the time this podcast comes out, we’re gonna be shipping, so if you wanna get in on the very first – a maiden voyage of the Quarterly box, then you just go to the bengreenfieldfitness.com/quarterly and you get in on all the goodness. It’s like, it’s about a 100 bucks or so to get in on the Quarterly because Quarterly negotiates with a lot of the people who are getting us the stuff to put on these boxes and negotiate like higher volume orders of the stuff. You’re actually getting a lot of cases in a box like a hundred and fifty to hundred bucks worth of stuff, so it’s a pretty good deal plus it’s like Christmas coming every quarter.
Brock: Hmm. So we’ve had a few questions. I’m gonna take this opportunity to ask you the questions that are quickly coming in now they are more regularly. Can people get it outside of the US?
Ben: I don’t know.
Brock: Alright. Good answer.
Ben: I have no clue, I guess you go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/quarterly and look. And I seen the result that they do something like Canada, but maybe it’s a little bit extra shipping to Canada. And yeah, I’m not really sure. I mean it’s a great question but I don’t know. All I do is I pick the stuff, I write a letter with each Quarterly that comes with it that shows you how to use the stuff that’s coming in your box, why I picked it, what’s interesting about it, how you can use it – but I don’t have any dang clue whether or not someone in say, Serbia can get my Quarterly.
Brock: Okay, second question: Is the stuff that’s going to be in the Quarterly, the kinda thing that people would’ve already picked up if they’re fan of yours? Or is this gonna be like new shocking crazy stuff?
Ben: New shocking crazy stuff. I don’t like to be redundant so I’m gonna pick stuff that will blow your mind that when you opened the box, and hopefully nobody has any heart attacks when they open it up. There won’t be any exploding snakes or you know, flying peanuts or anything like that, but it would be quite interesting.
Brock: Alright. Final question: Did you mean to send out a broken link yesterday morning so you’d have the opportunity to send out a second email?
Ben: No. That usually happens when I write an email before I’ve had my cup of coffee and so when you get two emails from me, it just means that I messed up. There is no marketing ploy involved with broken links and all that jazz. It’s just…
Brock: I don’t understand how people think that’s a marketing ploy when we send out…
Ben: Well, well, because it is. Because that’s actually a known internet email marketing technique, is for people to send you a link or a wrong link and then resend a follow up email with the correct link to somehow get your attention. I don’t understand it, I think it’s kinda black hat so to speak like unethical, but for me it’s just pure stupidity when that happens. It’s me typing things in wrong because yes, I still write all my own emails that you get and that means that – well let’s put it this way, typing in URL is not my strongest sweet.
Brock: Alright, that’s it for my questions. You’re okay.
Ben: Great. Thanks. Okay, well, a couple other things: first of all, the Memorial Day weekend Custom Father-Son Wilderness Survival Program that we’re doing is almost full. I believe that there is a spot yet still for two more sets of fathers with their son or sons, and this is gonna be where we all trips into the wilderness out here by an hour from my house and we’ll be making fire by friction and building and sleeping in natural shelters and learning traditional hunting and gathering techniques, tracking wild ani – wild edibles?
Brock: Will you say animals? Yikes!
Ben: Tracking wild animals and eating wild edibles. So it’s gonna be a really cool bonding experience. Not a lot of emails, not a lot of phones, not a lot of computers, not a lot of distractions, not new women – just men and boys.
Brock: Now that’s why I’m not coming.
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Brock: Father and sons. So if you want to again on this wilderness experience, I have no financial affiliation or anything like that with organization that’s putting it on, I just really wanted to do this with my boys and I thought, “Well, what the heck? It could be kinda cool?” rather than doing it with a bunch of complete strangers for you know, some of us kinda Ben Greenfield Fitness folks that just all get together and do it. So there’s a couple of spots left and there’s a link in the show notes over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/315. I’m sorry ladies, perhaps in the future, we’ll have a customed whatever, Mother-Daughter Wilderness Program but for now, there’s this upcoming May 22nd thru May 26th one is the Custom Father-Son Wilderness Program. And then finally, the last conference that is coming out that you still have time to get into is my friend Ari Meisel’s Less Doing Conference in New York which is gonna be all about managing your email inbox, and hacking productivity and enhancing cognitive performance, and learning how to use the wide and often confusing world of phone apps and productivity software, and smart home things and pretty much everything that has to do with doing less. So you can get in on that over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/doless and it’s in New York, May 1st thru the 3rd. New York City, the Big Apple, baby.
Brock: The Big Apple. Delicious.
Voiceover: Did you know that Ben Greenfield personally mentors trainers, coaches, physicians, and nutritionists from around the globe? From business building tips to advanced team and performance and health concepts. It’s all part of a product mastermind called The Superhuman Coach Network. When you join, you get instant access to monthly workshops with Ben, a Q&A forum, over 40 hours of cutting-edge audio and video education and much more. Check it out today and become one of the world’s leading health and fitness experts at superhumancoach.com/podcast.
Listener Q & A:
Todd: Hi Ben and Brock. I recently discovered my home has high levels of radon gas, and while I’ve gone through the mitigation process with installation of a vent pipe system and fan. I’m still concerned about the potential long term effects in minimum exposure, especially on my 22 month old twins. Now, is there anything I can still do to reduce exposure to protect my family, such as my diet or anything addition you can think of? Thanks, love the podcast.
Brock: So radon gas.
Ben: Holy-moly.
Brock: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, I think I mentioned this on the show before because we talked a little bit about radiation in the past and I actually studied a couple of years ago this whole idea of like the whole medic effect of radiation, in the concept that small doses of radiation may actually be good for you. And because of that…
Brock: Just look at the Hulk!
Ben: Yeah! Look at the Incredible Hulk! He’s huge! It’s a lot done. Anyways though, I actually have – don’t laugh – I have a radiated rock that the author of a book on the hormetic effects of radiation actually had a – hooked me up with. And it is just like it releases these small micro-doses of radiation throughout the day and night. And it just kinda sits on the bed stand you know, the same amount of radiation that a lot of natural geological formations actually released. So it’s kinda interesting when you look into this, I mean there’s no doubt that exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation is extremely bad for human health. I mean when you look at the acute radiation sickness that you know, scientists used to study radioactive elements got back in the day or by survivors of atomic bomb blast, you see a lot of issues. I mean, even the long term complications of adult survivors of cancer who were treated with a lot of especially the earlier radiation therapy technology, I mean it’s – it can definitely mess you up. I’m not arguing that that high doses of ionizing radiation are dangerous, but this whole concept of low dosed radiation. In effect that low dose radiation may actually help with things like genetic repair and preventing tissue damage, and a lot of other benefits – it’s really, really interesting. So the idea behind this, in this idea that a low dose of a bad thing can have good effects is called hormesis, and we’ve talked about a little bit on the show before I mean, we’re talking about cold, right? And cold is a form of stress that in high amounts will kill you, were at least severely inhibit your physiological potential and your ability to talk and have natural biological function exercise.
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We all know that you can get over-training, you can exercise too much, and you can create heart issues and adrenal fatigue, and all that jazz. Fasting, that’s another one that in small doses can be good for you, but in large doses can be bad for you, and most hormetic stressors work by kind of slightly over-activating your body’s repair machinery, right? So, you generally get net positive results when you induce things like cellular apoptosis right, like the – when you fast and your body kinda cleans itself up by actually killing cells and turning over some of your old cells, and most traumatic effects acts on this same or in the same manner right? By upregulating your repair function or your ability to be resilient, speaking of resilience. So when you look at radiation hormesis, I’m pretty surprised at the amount of informations out there, I mean, I’ll link to it in the show notes. But even just the Wikipedia page on radiation hormesis is pretty massive in terms of the number of studies out there that have looked into this stuff, and you know there’s even studies that are published before the 1940’s that found evidence of radiation hormesis across, like plants and fungi, and protozoans, and algae, and insects and even radon, has been looked into a little bit and that specifically in the case of Alzheimer’s and small doses of radon helping out with function of patients who had Alzheimer’s. But when you look at more recent studies on radiation hormesis – there’s been a lot of studies in mice that are found that exposure to low dose radiation protects against the effects of subsequent exposure to mid-lethal doses of x-rays and you get less DNA damage and less mortality, when low dose radiation is used in terms of the ability of mice to be able to withstand x-rays. When you look at for example, low dose radiation in diabetes, they’ve done studies and found that diabetic rats show faster wound healing when dose with low levels of radiation and they’ve also found that radiation at low doses can prevent kidney damage which is one of the most common long term complications of diabetes.
Brock: Hmm.
Ben: So the idea behind why this is occurring is theoretically because you upregulate the cellular enzyme systems that are responsible for repairing damaged membranes and that are responsible for repairing mutated DNA. And so if for example you got exposed to let’s say, low dosed radiation from the sun and you had mudder amounts of sun exposure between let’s say 10a.m. and 2p.m. every day, then you compare to someone who wasn’t getting that low dosed level of radiation from the sun who was maybe slaughtering themselves in sunscreen every time they step out in the sun, you might actually be able to be a little bit more resilient against the effects of say – a sunburn right? Like if you were out on the beach too long compared to that person who hadn’t been exposing himself to that low dosed radiation from the sun.
Brock: Is it what they called the base tan?
Ben: That’s what they called base tan, exactly. That’s what I’ve been going after for past ten minutes this entire thing has led up to the fact that you really should get a base tan. No, and I actually have done that, I’ve used tanning beds before when I know that in the middle of the winter, I’m off to do a triathlon where I’ll be exposed for 10 hours you know, in the heat, in the sun to you know, large amounts of sun throughout the little skin protection or clothing protection. I’ve used tanning beds to get like low dosed radiation leading up to that, and also just so I don’t have tan lines which can be embarrassing and unsightly. So anyways though, low dosed radiation. But when it comes to radons specifically, you know in most cases when you look at domestic exposure to high concentrations of radon, there isn’t much evidence out there for a hormetic effect. And even the studies that have shown there to be any type of benefits to radons such as that study that I mentioned on Alzheimer’s. There was another study on arthritis that shows that radon may induce beneficial long term effects to arthritis and even this like a radioactive water baths that you’ll find in – they’ve got a lot of them over in Russia, there’s some in Germany. You know a lot of these countries you expect to be bathing in radiation right? Like our – anyways though, radons spas are people sit for minutes or hours and this high radon atmosphere and these like radioactive water baths – these actually exist, but the fact is the amount of radon that people are getting exposed to with these hormetic doses…
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is far less than what you would see when you’re looking at domestic radon leakages such as you might experience in a home you know where you get this radioactive colorless, odorless gas that basically can get emitted into the homes from you know, I guess it would be in this case, for example, a poor ventilation probably the number one cause of radon issues in the domestic case like this. So in that situation I would not say, “Well you know, your kids are gonna be resilient and you know tiny Incredible Hulks or Spider Man or whatever.”
Brock: Godzilla.
Ben: Yeah, Godzilla. Exactly. I would say that I would actually consider using some of the natural remedies that can help out with higher dose radiation exposition. There’s a lot of them out there but you know, I always like to look at what science says when it comes to helping to now reduce the effects of radiation exposure. And so there’s a guy out there named Dr. Mark Sircus, and we actually had a premium podcast episode with him last year, we talked a lot about all the different compounds out there that can help you to mitigate some of the effects of radiation or to protect yourself against radiation. And we delve into a lot of detail in that episode but some of the things that have come up since then – just based on research has been done since the Japan: the Fukushima fallout right? And the things that I’ve looked into for myself are definitely some things that I would – I can’t say I can recommend specific dosages and things like that and may have want to play or medical…
Brock: Oooh… or disclaimer.
Ben: Or disclaimer, right, before I go into this possibly, if you want to inject that, Brock. It could possibly be good idea since we’re talking about children.
Brock: Okay.
Ben: It’s very sensitive topic.
Disclaimer: 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.
Ben: Alright, so let’s jump in into some of the things that can help out with radiation. One is Nascent Iodine, and when I go do my traveling in Asia, I actually have a little bottle of Nascent Iodine. The reason is that radiation affects your thyroid gland and can inhibit the ability to create iodine which helps out with things like DNA integrity and immune function, and metabolic and endocrine balance, and when you use Nascent Iodine, it helps to counteract some of the effects of radioactive iodine essentially kind of taking up some of the space in the cells that radioactive iodine normally would. And Nascent Iodine is just a little dropper bottle, it’s a little brown bottle that has iodine in it and it specifically called Nascent Iodine because it actually has the ability to take up some of those spaces that radioactive iodine would – that’s one thing that I would look into. Another one would be calcium and magnesium; and both of those minerals can decontaminate nuclear waste in the form of strontium-90 which is kind of a common one you’ll see with radiation leakage from nuclear…
Brock: Nuclear.
Ben: Nuclear – from nuclear plants to – I believe that’s the George Bush definition.
Brock: Or Homer Simpson.
Ben: Or Homer Simpson.
Brock: Either, or…
Ben: Right. So calcium and magnesium, not much evidence out there when it comes to radon, but definitely some evidence when it comes to strontium, you can use transdermal magnesium, you can use oral magnesium or even like CalMag type of supplements to help out with something like that. There’s something called DMSO, that’s a really potent sulfur-based anti-oxidant, and there’s several studies out there that show that DMSO can not only protect the body from the effects of harmful radiation but it can detoxify the body from the effects of harmful radiation after the body has been exposed. So, what it does is it neutralizes the specific radio-isotopes that can build up in your body after exposure to nuclear radiation. So, the interesting thing about DMSO is it’ very similar to something else called MSM – so DMSO is a liquid, MSM is a powder and both are really, really potent sulfur-based anti-oxidants that you need to be careful in use in very small dosages. But there’s some evidence out there that in the case of severe head injury, that MSM can help to counteract some of the intense acute inflammation that can occur, that can cause like brain damage, loss of memory, death of neurons, etc. So actually in both of my cars in the glove box, I have a little bag of MSM, to be able to take about a teaspoon of that should I ever get into a situation where I’ve, you know, gone in a pretty big accident…
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and then actually have the ability or the you know, the consciousness to actually get something like MSM into my system is something that I have in my car, just in case something like that happens you know, for severe injuries specifically head injury. But DMSO is the liquid version of that that has actually been – that they’ve done studies on and found it to be helpful for radiation. Zeolite – zeolite clay and zeolite liquid, that’s another mineral kinda similar to magnesium, and what zeolites do is they actually attach themselves to and remove nuclear waste from the cellular level. And they had one study over in Europe that found that zeolite clay was an effective decontaminate for animals that were affected by the nuclear waste disaster in Chernobyl. And it can also be taken internally for detoxing radiation. So, it appears to be most effective for strontium and cesium. So zeolite may be something more along the line that something you’d use for exposure to – you know, again, if you’re travelling to Asia and concerned about nuclear fallout from the Fukushima issue, you know, or perhaps a nuclear factory exploded in your backyard – whatever the case may be – zeolite seems to be effective for that, but zeolite is often found in the clay form and there are many other types of clays that bonds to waste, and nuclear waste in the body. So you can find like red clay, and bentonite clay, and green clay and there’s a lot of different types of edible clay that can have a detoxification effect and specifically help out with radioactive waste. So, actually the same place where I get the Nascent Iodine, it’s a company called Magnetic Clay – that was why they’re called Magnetic Clay – it’s like one of their very first compounds or you know, health foods that they sold was this edible clay, they actually eat as a detoxificant. So…
Brock: Have you tried it?
Ben: I have. Yeah, I’ve got some downstairs.
Brock: What does it taste like?
Ben: It taste like clay, it does like there’s earthy flavor. It’s not necessarily pleasant but it’s you know, according to my wife, it’s not much worse than my kale’s smoothie. So anyways, this company Magnetic Clay solves the fight to iodine, magnesium, clay, like a lot of their stuff are – it’s a good place to kinda like shop for the type of things that can help out with nuclear radiation radon exposures and stuff like that. There’s a few others: activated charcoal is one that similar to clay, has the ability to neutralize radiation, and in studies that have been done in charcoal, it’s a pretty high amount – about 10 grams of activated charcoal which is a lot of capsules of charcoal, but it’s something that may help out.
Brock: How do you open black for a week?
Ben: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Proteolytic enzymes and by the way, that’s the thing with like charcoal, clay, any of that stuff, like any other supplements, food, nutrients, etc. that you take a long with that, those are likely going to get bound up and passed through your digestive tract as well. So you need to be aware that if you’re taking some expensive multivitamins or something like that, it’s not a good idea to take charcoal and clay simultaneously just because you’re gonna be making expensive poo. So, bee pollen is another one and then there’s some studies that suggest that bee pollen may significantly lower the negative side effects of radiation exposure and the studies that they’ve done on bee pollen, studies on – were for radium. Just actually a little bit similar to radium in terms of its molecular make-up, x-rays and then cobalt 60. So, bee pollen actually specifically helps with white blood cell and red blood cell, and antibody effects when it comes to lowering some of the deleterious effects of radiation. So bee pollen will be another. Interestingly, some studies have showed that beets kinda similar to bee pollen can help your body to rebuild specific cells and in this case beets can help the body to rebuild hemoglobin in response to radiation and animal labs studies have shown that rats are having a diet heavy in beets could effectively reduce the effects of radio-active cesium compared to rats who didn’t eat the beets. And the beet-eating rats actually absorbed and detoxify up to a 100% more radio-active cesium compared to the controlled-group animals. So, that’s another one that has been studied.
Brock: Another reason to love beets.
Ben: That’s right. There’s a few others – brewer's yeast. There’s some studies that have shown that brewer’s yeast may help to prevent against radiation exposure as well as to help the body repair after exposure.
[0:40:02.4]
And that’s something that would definitely be safe for kids along with beets, that would be another one. You know, once you start looking at giving things kids like clay, and activated charcoal, I can’t comment on studies showing safetier studies that actually been done on those on children although you know, my kids were exposed raid-on radiation etc. I’d probably go the route of getting ‘em some magnesium, some clay, some charcoal, beets, beep-on, that type of thing, but I can’t say that there’s been a lot of studies that I’ve seen on some of those more like binding detoxicans like clay, and charcoal. So, you kinda have to do your research on that and again, I’m not gonna recommend specific dosages because I’m kinda careful doin’ that kind of stuff especially when it comes to kids. And there’s a final one called germanium – organic germanium. And that’s a really powerful free-radical scavenging organic compound. When you get exposed to radiation, the rays from radiation exposure release a lot of free radicals that can really do some damage specifically the hemoglobin, which is why beets come in handy but what germanium has been shown to do is to block some of these radio-active rays and basically what they do, is they move freely inside the nuclear structure of the germanium instead of entering your cells and your bloodstream. And so, you can get germanium in like a supplemental form and studies have shown that when cells get exposed to cesium and the gamma rays, two things that you’re gonna get a lot of especially with like a nuclear waste from a nuclear fall-out, like a nuclear factory, like the Fukushima disaster again that would be a prudent one to include. So those are some of the biggies when it comes to radiation exposure. I know it’s a lot of stuff, and we’ll…
Brock: Yeah, I was a biggie.
Ben: …we’ll of course put links and stuff in the show notes but it’s kind of a saw science because I haven’t seen any research that have shown – okay, so what happens if you do something like get exposed to radiation and use brewer’s yeast, use some beet juice, some organic germanium, throw in some charcoal, or some clay, and start using iodine or like I don’t see a lot of studies out there that looked at cocktails of these different radiation mitigating compounds but I would – you know, if I were exposed to radiation, to a significant amounts that go above and beyond the little rock that I keep on my bed stand or the x-ray that I walked through the airport or you know, this and that sunshine here and there, I would certainly try any or all of these.
Joe: Hi Ben! Hi Brock! I wanted to ask you two questions. The first one is about isokinetic training. I want to use it to increase my strength, and to increase my power. I’ve noticed that the Exer-Genie is still on the market and I wanted to know your thoughts about it. The other question is about how meditation can raise the input of beneficial hormones. Thank you. I’m Joe.
Brock: I’ve never heard of the Exer-Genie. Have you?
Ben: You haven’t heard of the Exer-Genie, Brock?
Brock: No! No, I have to look it up and still a little confused.
Ben: Well, the Exer-Genie is – it’s like this series of very complex, kinda like cables with handles on them and the idea behind the type of cables that are used in the Exer-Genie is it like this woven nylon training line that kinda pulls against you just as hard as you pull against it, or resist you just as hard as you move against it. That means – the best example I can give of an isokinetic muscular contraction is any resistance that you’re moving against that is going to resist you harder the more that you push and pull against it, and water is a perfect example, right? Like the harder and the faster you move your hands through water, the faster water pushes back against you which is why swimming can be hard or swimming can be easy. There are certainly some machines out there that provides you with a little bit of an isokinetic experience. That would be as opposed to like an isometric contraction. So an isometric contraction would be where you’re contracting and your muscles are firing but the muscles aren’t changing in length, right. That would be like a wall-sit or you know, hanging from a pool of bar and just holding that position or holding a lunge position. And there certainly a lot of lactic acid that builds up in an isometric muscular contraction, and a lot of muscular endurance that’s built from something like that, and it’s a good way to kinda rehab or build strength in an area without putting a lot of stress in the joint because a joint isn’t moving through a range of motion.
[0:45:04.7]
Isotonic contraction is what most of us experienced when we are lifting weights or we’re moving against some form of resistance, and isotonic contraction is simply where the muscle contracts and shortens against movement, and that’s just about every form of weight training or resistance training that’s out there, it’s isotonic contraction. So, the advantages of an isokinetic contraction is that you’re muscle is gonna gain strength evenly through the entire range of movement and it is a really good way to effectively gain strength because the harder you push against something, the harder it pushes against you. And if you wanna look at like a very advanced form of isokinetic training, go back and listen to the podcast that I recently did with Keith Norris.
Brock: Oh, that’s what it was all about. I was thinking somebody just talked about this on the podcast.
Ben: We talked about how in an ideal situation, you would have some kind of a mechanism to perfectly match your body’s strength curve, right. So the harder that you’re trying to lift something, the harder it’s gonna lift back against you. And kind of like an early rough form this was when a lot folks were using chains and still do, for example in the weight room where you drape chains over a bar for example if you’re doing a squat, or a bench press, and as the bar gets elevated, and the links of the chain come off the floor, that actually increases the load, so as you’re moving through the range of motion, you’re having to push or pull harder to kinda keep the bar moving. So, when you’re doing that, you’re presenting your body with more resistance with the entire range of motion, whereas with like the isotonic contraction, technically a squat or a bench press, kinda it’s easier as you get up towards the top of the movement just because you’re getting into a more efficient range of motion for your joints. And the idea behind isokinetic training is that as you reach that more efficient range of motion for your joints, things don’t get easier. They stay just as hard throughout the entire range of motion. So if you do want to build a lot of strength, and you’re willing to put up with really the teeth-grittingly difficult and often kinda awkward feeling of an isokinetic contraction, then something like this could come in handy. Now the Exer-Genie – the Exer-Genie I would say is kind of like a ropy elastic version of something like the ARXfit machine. And I’ve never used one but I mean, – they use a lot of the same – the same vernacular as like the ARXfit website, relic efficient exercise and efficiency in exercise, in this case it’s this tiny compact kit that fits into just like a little bag and you can attach it to different things, and when you’re pulling or pushing against this nylon rope that is attach to a special crank, it’s getting harder or easier, depending on how hard or easy you move against it. Truly interesting! And you know, just like most of this stuff – will it work? Yeah! Most likely. Well, it would be a different way to challenge your body, yeah! Most likely. Is it like the ARXfit something that it is potentially going to keep you inside on a machine, exercising as efficiently as possible but not necessarily experiencing like the great outdoors, running through the trees, lifting rocks, throwing logs around, that type of stuff. Yeah. And that’s why I personally, you know, I don’t get too enamored with a lot of these machines and gadgets and devices simply because I like to go out on the forest and do some pull-up from the tree branch, and lift some heavy rocks, and you know, run around, do some bear crawls, that type of thing. But if your time is limited and you’re one of those people who wants to get the most bang for your workout buck, then yeah, isokinetic training is really, really good for building strength. It’s also very hard though, and I warn you that, you know, right when you expect things to get easy through a range of motion, they don’t get easy, it can be kinda tough. So it takes a little bit of…
Brock: Instead of going… Hiyaaa, you go Uhhhhhhh!
Ben: Yeah, exactly when we look at…
Brock: Would you like that? That was my… very descriptive noise making.
Ben: Yeah! That was nice. You didn’t poo in your jean.
Brock: Make a mess? No, I’m okay.
Ben: Okay, so, the Exer-Genie, the ARXfit machine, you know, I even have like this vasa trainer in my basement, right, which is a swim machine, a swim ergometer, and it – like water, you know, it allows me to land in my stomach and swim. And the harder I pull against the cables on this thing, the harder they pull back against me. Now, that’s not a very high amount of resistance compared to something like the ARXfit relic like swimming on the swim machine is the sub-maximal contraction.
[0:50:07.8]
But it is tough, you know, and it is definitely a different feel if you’re not used to isokinetic training, it will throw you for a loop, but it’s a good way to get fit. You know, it’s just that in most cases you need special machines that can get a little complicated but ultimately, I mean, if I had one of these Exer-Genie, I’d say – yeah, I’d probably use it here and there, I’d probably travel with it or something like that despite its incredibly cheesy name, but yes, that’s the deal with Exer-Genie and isokinetic training. It works and it’s kinda worth throwing a little bit of isokinetic training into your training protocol. It’s not the only thing that I do but it can definitely give you some bang for your workout buck.
George: Hey Ben and Brock, this is George from Los Angeles, big fan of the show. I was wondering if you guys know of ways I can keep my hands warm and dry. Lately I’ve been getting clammy hands even when I don’t really feel nervous or anxious. I’d like to tone it down on the fist bump and get back to my usual man gripping. Any ideas what could this be from and what I can do about it? Keep up the great work, guys. Thank you.
Ben: Sweaty hands.
Brock: So George has a handshake that feels like a chicken breast.
Ben: The only thing worse that sweaty hands are sweaty balls. You’ve seen this…
Brock: I have. I love that! Alec Baldwin is hilarious.
Ben: Yeah. So anyways, there’s actually a term for sweaty hands – it’s palmar hyperhidrosis, and we’ve done episodes before on hyperhidrosis, and all…
Brock: It’s just sweating in general.
Ben: Yeah exactly. If you go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/315, I’ll put a link to our previous episode on hyperhidrosis. And really, the ultimate take-away from that was, that one of the biggest contributors to excessive sweating was food intolerances, and issues in the diet that cause a hyper-active immune system and this hyperhidrosis. And my number one recommendation in that episode if you’re call was – to use something like an autoimmune diet in which you begin into eliminate things like wheat, dairy, soy, and some of the common foods that can trigger a hyper-active immune system. When you look at palmar hyperhidrosis specifically however, it’s kinda interesting what they do in medicine for things like this. Like for example, iontophoresis and iontophoresis is this medical device that actually conducts this mild electrical current across your skin surface and somehow the electrical current and the mineral particles in the water that is penned out by this device somehow thickens the outer layer of your skin, and that can block the flow of sweat to the skin surface. And so, once that sweat output gets blocked or interrupted, sweat production on places like the palms of your hand or the soles of your feet get’s turned off. And it’s supposedly very effective for sweaty hands and sweaty feet – Iontophoresis. So, that’s something that would traditionally be done by a dermatologist and I can’t find a lot that indicates that there’s a lot that can go wrong in your body with something like iontophoresis. It appears to be relatively safe but there are other treatments. For example, a botox is another one where they’ll inject…
Brock: In your hands? Crazy.
Ben: Yeah, they inject botox into your palms to dramatically reduce sweating. The problem with that is I’m still a little bit uncomfortable injecting a known toxin into my hand, but apparently that also is very effective at dramatically reducing sweating. There’s a another one called a thoracic sympathectomy, and that’s also given the abbreviation ETS and that is – by my understanding, an actual surgical adjustment of the nervous self, and may actually result in what’s called the compensatory sweating which irreversible. Excessive sweating on large areas of the body once you have gotten this endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy to reduce sweating in specific areas. It appears that it just simply shift all that sweat somewhere else in the body and it well up somewhere else. Yeah, so – and of course you know, a common recommendation you’ll also gonna find are anti-perspirants you know, just literally using like a deodorant stick and you could even use if you wanna go with something that has less aluminum in it like a homemade, baking soda based anti-perspirant remedy or like one of these Ham and Hammer baking soda based anti-deodorants that you could put on your hand and I suppose you could keep baking soda in your pocket, and just stick your hands in your pockets to…
[0:55:07.4]
Brock: Hey! That’s not a bad idea.
Ben: We should trace mark that. Baking Soda Pocket.
Brock: And because there’s little chock that you have in your rock climbing.
Ben: Exactly, exactly. I would imagine that your hands might still be a little bit white and powdery when you take them up out of your pockets. And then of course, there’s the issue of perhaps you go to a cocktail party and you forget your pants that have the baking soda in them, and so, you know, then you’re screwed. And perhaps you’re sweating even more because you’re nervous that you forgot your baking soda or your antiperspirant. So you know, I would say that of the medical remedies that are out there, iontophoresis seems to be the most promising for kinda more permanently reducing some of the issues with palmar hyperhidrosis or sweaty hands, but there’s a lot of natural remedies that you’re gonna find floating around out there as well. For example, green tea. Green tea is recommended in helping to remove excess oils and moisture from the skin and preventing sweat from escaping into the skin surface. And they say the same thing about sage tea, and I really don’t quite understand how this happens but you supposedly soak your hands in sage time or green tea, and it helps to dry excess oils and keep your hands from sweating. I personally have yet to make myself a nice cup of tea and soak my hands in it, but it’s something that I see recommended. There’s one that seems a little bit more practical and potentially efficacious to me, and that’ll be alcohol wipes to control sweatiness of the palms and to kinda give a drying effect to the palms, and you could for example, venture out to your next party or networking event and make sure you have some alcohol wipes in your bay and just before you go into the event, get yourself a few wipes of alcohol there, just to keep the area dry. And you may walk in smelling of booze and you know, get a strong scotch right before you came in but the social lubricant is only on your hands. So, there’s that… alcohol. Another one in addition to like the baking soda, the talcum powder, the corn starch, all these kinda like dusting remedies that can help to soak up moisture is powdered lemon or orange peels. And the recommendation is to actually take orange and lemon peels and dry them in the sun, and then what you can do is you can use them as almost like a – like something that – the dried lemon, orange peel, you would rub them around on your hands and apparently you can combine with baking soda and the essence or the oils from lemon or the orange peels can help to dry up or keep excessive sweating from occurring on your hands. That’s one I haven’t tried but it seems like an interesting solution. And then another one is vinegar. Vinegar is recommended as something to control sweaty hands. You dub vinegar on your palms 2 to 3 times a day to prevent excessive sweating and to keep your hands dry from sweat. So you can smell like alcohol, you can smell like vinegar, you can smell like orange and lemon peels, or like tea. You can kinda… there you go. So, the last one is tea bags which apparently have – due to tannic acids in them, the ability to shrink pores and reduce the chances of sweat from sipping through the pores. And when you do this is you would take moist tea bags and hold them inside your palms for a few minutes every few hours. So, that’s another thing that you can have in your pockets, along with your deodorant, and your lemon and orange peels. Fortunately, a lot of these remedies for sweaty palms might also be things that would allow you to survive just a few extra days if you’re stranded on a desert island. You have your lemon and your orange peels, your alcohol, a little bit of tea, perhaps some baking soda. Who knows how long you could survive.
Alicia: Hey Ben and Brock, this is Alicia. First off, I just wanna say I love the show, you guys are hilarious and informative, and shredded. Just a great combo. My question is a “what to wear” question. I usually run in smart wool in the winter and just race t-shirts – the free ones or my sports bra in the summer but I’ve been seeing a lot of really fancy space-age looking options around for like run clothing, and I’m wondering if you can let us know a little bit about that stuff. I usually like to keep things sort of natural and organic especially if they’re gonna be stuck up against my sweaty body, but I’m curious about what some of these advantages of these space-age fabric and gear might be. Any thoughts you have would be awesome. Thanks!
Brock: Finally! We got to talk about the fashion aspects of exercise.
Ben: Yes! Fashion!
Brock: Finally!
Ben: I’m looking forward to this.
[1:00:00.8]
Uhh so, yeah, it’s kinda interesting, you know, we don’t really talk about exercise clothing a lot but it – I don’t remember, I think we may have mention this recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research a couple of weeks ago and it was entitled “Synthetic garment enhance comfort, thermoregulatory response, and athletic performance compared with traditional cotton garments.” And in that study they had folks do a fitness test on two different occasions and ones were wearing cotton clothing and then a different time where they are wearing some of these special exercise specific polyester clothing that does things like transfer moisture, and enhance cooling, and kinda has a wicking effect. And compared to the cotton clothing, the people, both men and women, who were doing this fitness test, they had better performance and they had enhance cooling, and better comfort. So, there’s definitely to… or something to the idea of maybe, you know, not necessarily putting on the cotton hoodie and then the cotton shorts but using some of these modern synthetic garments to actually allow you to do things like wick sweat, have better comfort, have better flexibility, etc. As far as what to look for, I’ll link to an article that I recently wrote for Men’s Health about choosing the right exercise clothing. I’ll put a link to that article for you in the show notes, and in this case, you know, complete transparency here and the disclaimer is that for that article, Eddie Bauer had sent me a bunch of clothing to actually try and they sent me things like this shirt that has this moisture activated polymers that are in strategic sweat zones in your body that open airflow channels and help your body to cool and help sweat to evaporate more quickly. And I did a few workouts in for example in this case it was a shirt, and it definitely felt cool granted I wasn’t exercising in an extremely hot environment but it was very comfortable. Right now I felt much more cool and less sweaty, right, less kinda clammy in those areas where your body that tends to produce a lot of moisture when I was wearing something like this vs. a traditional cotton shirt. So, that’s one thing to look for is this moisture wicking effect. In my opinion, one of the most important thing to look for, and nylon and polyester fabrics worked really well for this whereas cotton absorbs more, sure it can become really uncomfortable, really fast. That would be the first thing I would look for would be some type of a wicking material. And the way that that works is, you know, this wicking material actually allows moisture to just come off your skin a little bit more easily and kinda pass through the shirt or else there’s special airflow that allows you to be more cool, and keep a lot of the sweating from taking place. The other cool part about polyester, spandex nylon, etc. just the stretchiness of it, which I really like so. The other things to kinda consider that I consider when it comes to clothing, is protection. A lot of times especially these days, I’m doing a lot more of like obstacle training out where there’s trees, barbwire, bushes, sticks, stuff like that, and a lot of these modern fitness gear, it’s made with things like ballistic nylon and it’s called a ripstop fabric, basically resistant to ripping, to tearing, stuff like that. So more durable material, that’s more rip resistant than cotton for example. That can be really useful if you’re mountain biking, if you’re in contact sports, or roller blading or doing obstacle training, or something like that. So that’s another thing to take into consideration. I think that some of these alternative fabric sources like hemp and bamboo are also something to look into as well because when you look at conventional cotton that’s grown in the US, there’s about over 12 million acres of conventional cotton that’s grown in the US and a lot of pesticides get sprayed on those acreage. So like 55 million pounds of pesticides on 12.8 million acres. So, cotton is third in terms of its ranking of pesticide exposure. Third behind corn, and soy beans for pesticides. And actually a lot of wool, kinda depends on the company but wool does require a high level of insecticides and antibiotics to protect the animals use for the wool from pests and disease and a lot of those pesticides can have some pretty significant health effects and they can cause things like neurological disorders, and asthma, nausea and headaches and so especially if you’re someone whose sensitive to those type of things, that’s something else to look into when it comes to fitness fabrics for your fitness fashion.
[1:05:03.0]
So I would look into things that wick, things that are flexible, things that provide you with adequate protection. And then also if you are gonna wear cotton, look into where that cotton has actually come from. So as far as what I personally use, I get a lot of questions like this, so I’m just gonna – I’ll fill you in on what I go to because I try and stay relatively minimalist with my clothing in terms of the sources from which I get my clothing. So…
Brock: And in terms of how much clothing you wear.
Ben: And in terms of how much clothing I wear, period. Actually, I have a pretty big wardrobe like – we have a walk-in closet and I’m one of those guys who have like hundreds of t-shirts and shorts, and my wife is always making me throw out stuff. And a lot of it is just because you – when you go race events and things like that, you always get t-shirts and gear, and it’s just kinda part of a – part of being an athlete is you build up a large amount of gear. But one of the things that I use is for triathlon, cycling, stuff like that. I know we have a lot of triathlons and cyclist and folks listening to this show, I like Castelli for my triathlon gear, and my cycling shorts, and stuff like that. They’ve got some pretty cool technology, like they use what’s called power lycra which actually gives you this body-hugging feel, it’s got this abrasion resistant outer surface, it’s got some really good durability, and so that’s one of their fabrics. They’ve got another fabric called Nanoflex and that’s this nano filament conning that prevents water droplets from soaking through fabric. They’ve got some other interesting fabrics too, like they’ve got one called prosecco ice which is a light weight fabric that actually allows you to cool when sweat actually hits the fabric. Kinda similar to like this some of these companies that are putting like xylitol in a fabric to help it cool the body when it gets wet. This is very similar to this ice fabric that Castelli uses. A lot of their shammies like the cushions that go inside the actual shorts themselves for cycling or triathlon. They’re far more flexible and far less abrasive than what I found in a lot of other kinda cycling/triathlon gear. So Castelli – it’s slightly expensive but it’s really durable so you don’t have to buy that much of it and that’s the brand that I like for like kinda when I need to be walking around in spandex is I go with Castelli. And so, that’s one. Another company that I like and that I use a lot of their stuff, and actually I’m one of their athletes. So again, just wanna be completely transparent with folks, and that’s Hylete… h-y-l-e-t-e. The cool thing is, ‘cause I’m one of their athletes, they give me a 50% discount that I can share with folks. It’s a BEN50 that you can use at the Hylete website but the hylete stuff, I think it just – you see a lot of like cross fitters wearing these stuff, you see a lot of obstacle racers using hylete. They are now sponsoring the National Pro-grid Lead team, the NPGL which is basically just like a bunch of cross fitters running around in the arena, but ultimately the hylete stuff, they make shorts, t-shirts, pants, coats, stuff that isn’t quite cocktail party wear but that is kinda like stuff that makes you look cool at the gym, just feel like weight training, cross fitting, stuff like that. So, it’s not quite a spandexy as the Castelli stuff but it’s a little bit more casual/gym gear. So, hylete is what I use for that and then I also do a lot of outdoor stuff. And the company that I use for that is called Kryptek and kryptek originally worked with the US military to develop specific camouflage patterns that would allow people who were hunting or fighting to be, you know, as close as possible to invisible. They come up with some really cool camouflage technology but they’ve also because they’ve got a lot of contacts with the military, with the combat forces, with tactical training and with hunters, a lot of their stuff is very, very well tested in terms of being tested in the trunches, everything from the patterns to where the pockets are placed to the durability, to the flexibility. You’ll find a lot of like camouflage winter gear,etc. Isn’t that flexible, it’s kinda bulky and difficult to move in. This stuff is actually really comfortable and excellent for camel but then also really, really good in terms of its ability to both keep you warm or keep you cool but also have a good amount of flexibility.
[1:10:02.8]
So, those are the main, like if you go in to my closet, most of my stuff is Hylete, Kryptek, or Castelli. And then the other company that I’ll use just to go out and get like cool clothing from big name brands or stuff that I’ll use when I’m goin’ on parties or I’m not working out, or I’m not kinda in geeky exercise mood is Jackthreads. So Jackthreads is this website where you can just get like cool designs, most of it really inexpensive. I’m all about just going to one website to shop for more fashionable clothing, and Jackthreads has like, you know, sunglasses, the belts, the shorts, the jeans, just like the typical stuff that I’d wear probably about 2% of the time when I’m actually I’m having to go out in public and works something that looks halfway cool, so Jackthreads is what I use for that. So, those are some of my biggies for fitness fashion: Catelli, Hylete, Kryptek, shop at Jackthreads, and then I also look for stuff that kinda goes above and beyond cotton, and it doesn’t make a difference in terms of the way that you feel during exercise, and like I mentioned, if you look good, you actually don’t really need to exercise. All you need to do is just make sure that you’re wearing clothing that’s color coordinated, that makes you look cool and there’s no need to actually work hard, right?
Brock: Exactly! And one of the best ways to do that is to go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/gear.
Ben: That’s right! And if you go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/gear, we’ll send you one of our moisture wicking polyester infused Ben Greenfield fitness t-shirts and we actually send a beanie, a shirt, and a water bottle to anyone whose review we wind-up reading on the podcast. And it looks like today’s review comes from SpasticSpunk, who says two accents, one podcast. And if you wanna leave a review, just go to iTunes. We’ll put a link in the show notes over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/315 but Brock, what do you think? You wanna take this one away?
Brock: Sure! Although I’m a little terrified after finally open the name of the person. It goes like this: “Like the sexy intro lady says, you’re gonna get some serious knowledge bombs about health and fitness, and even more, right here.” I don’t think she says that.
Ben: Ah, I don’t remember what the intro lady says.
Brock: I don’t think she says that.
Ben: I’m just drinking my Peligreno, as you… my bubbly water. Proceed. Proceed.
Brock: Continue. “Ben and Brock do their research, wrestle with the reality of how studies pertain to everyday life and presented all on the podcast and in the show notes. Now, these guys aren’t what you might call normal.”
Ben: Oh thanks!
Brock: Uhmm, I’ll take that. “Brock is a self-admitted Canadian.” What, am I suppose to be ashamed to that? “With some extra funny bones in his body,” that’s right, I had them added.
Ben: Yeah!
Brock: Yeah. “And Ben has an accent all his own. I’m not sure if Ben had a sadistic phonics teacher growing up or he’s being sly by mispronouncing technical words on purpose to make sure I’m paying attention. For example, butyric.” How do you say it? Byew-tee-ric?
Ben: Byew-tie-ric?
Brock: You said – byew-tie-ric?
Ben: They’re saying it’s byew-tee-ric.
Brock: Yeah, it say byew-tee-ric.
Ben: Yeah, byew-tee-ric. I don’t know, I just have an Idaho accent, that’s where I was born, it was Idaho. That’s it.
Brock: That’s upsetting enough. Why my name isn’t in Idaho? Anyway, it goes on to say, “Nonetheless, don’t get tripped out on the bouts of sarcasm and unfamiliar pronunciations, these guys like to keep listeners on their toes as well as outside in the woods doing yoga in their underwear. Go on, it’s good for you. Strap on your propeller hat, hit subscribe, and get out there.”
Ben: I like it! I like it…
Brock: It’s our new slogan.
Ben: That’s right. What’s the – the strap on your propeller hat or yoga in your underwear? In the woods.
Brock: Well, actually…
Ben: All of the above.
Brock: Either, sure!
Ben: Yeah. Just make sure your clothing is not cotton but that it’s space-age polyester. Well cool, SpasticSpunk. You heard your review read, I’m assuming if you’re still listening in so you can email [email protected] and we’ll send you a handy-dandy gear package. And if all the rest of you would like to support the show by getting a gear pack, you can just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/gear and you can get one of those – what else? Well, of course like I mentioned all the show notes are at bengreenfieldfitness.com/315 like the quarterly, the custom father-son wilderness program, everything else that we’ve talked about. Plenty of links, plenty of discounts. We like to jeep our show notes fun and happy then, so be sure that you make those a part of your listening experience and after you listen in or while you’re listening in, hit up the show notes. Anything else, Brock?
Brock: Yeah! I think we’ve got a little testimonial from our buddy Austin.
Ben: Oh cool! We’ll play that for you guys. We’ll play out with Austin, thanks for listening in and stay tuned this weekend for a special podcast and I believe this weekend’s podcast is actually about how to use weird fitness gear like kettle bells and maces, and stuff like that. Kinda interesting interviews. So, stay tuned for that, and until next time, have a healthy week!
Austin: Hey! What’s going on, this is Austin from Bloomington, Indiana. I’m a college student down there, I’m a health fitness specialist. I love to listen to your podcast. Curriculum sometimes fall a little bit short for Indiana University because that’s the way exercise physiology, in nutritional like those in my classes but really love the podcast and what you guys bring to the table and just add in additional education to my somewhat lacking undergraduate degree that I’m getting. Keep up the good work, Ben and Brock, and thanks for the advice in how to be a healthier cross fitter, healthier college student, healthier diabetic. So, thanks guys!
Visit bengreenfieldfitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness, nutrition, and performance advice.
[1:17:20.7] END
Apr 8, 2015 Podcast: Fitness Fabrics & Fashion: Exercise Clothing 101, Can Radiation Be Good For You (And Natural Remedies For Radiation), How To Do Isokinetic Training, and What To Do About Sweaty Hands.
Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the tab on the right (or go to SpeakPipe), use the Contact button on the app, click Ask a Podcast Question at the bottom of this page, Skype “pacificfit” or use the “Ask Ben” form at the bottom of this page.
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News Flashes:
You can receive these News Flashes (and more) every single day, if you follow Ben on Twitter.com/BenGreenfield, Facebook.com/BGFitness and Google+.
- What’s really in your food (you may want to take up gardening after you read this).
- Typists BEWARE! All this “ice baths don’t work” study proves is you can’t build cardio or muscle in your…wrists.
- But wait! I thought nobody needs supplements, oils, extracts, etc and you can fix everything with food? Isn’t that the way the ancients did it?
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Special Announcements:
This show is brought to you by Audible. Just visit AudiblePodcast.com/Ben to get an audiobook of your choice, free, with a 30-day trial.
The BenGreenfieldFitness Quarterly box has officially launched! When you sign-up, you’ll get a Quarterly handpicked box jam-packed with Ben’s favorite fitness gear, supplements, nutrients and research-proven biohacks
April 13-16, 2015: Ben is speaking at New Media Expo, where the world’s top bloggers, podcasters and content creators teach you how to make money by creating content online, and how to enhance your blog, your podcast, your videos and any other media you create online. Better yet, you can come and attend the conference, then join Ben at Spartan Vegas on April 17! Click here to register for New Media Expo and use code “bgreenfield20” to get 20% off the current pricing.
April 24-26th, 2015: Come hear Ben and Jessa speak at PaleoFX 2015. The can’t-miss conference that is the Who’s Who gathering of the Paleo movement, with world-class speakers including best-selling authors, physicians, nutritionists, research scientists, professional athletes, trainers, sustainability and food activists, biohackers, and more (including Jessa’s “Whipped Up Homemade Heavy Body and Face Lotion.” and Ben’s potentially offensive Pecha Kucha presentation).
May 1-3, 2015: Ben is speaking at Ari Meisel’s Less Doing Conference, the year’s top conference for learning about things like how to manage your email inbox, hack productivity, enhance your cognitive performance, learn how to use the latest and greatest phone apps and productivity software, free up as much time as possible, and much more! Click here to get more details and to book a free productivity call with Ari.
May 22-26, 2015: Custom Father-Son Wilderness Program with Ben Greenfield. Imagine taking five days with your son(s), and connecting deeply with nature and your boy(s) through ancestral wilderness survival skills, all within a small “tribe” of other fathers & sons that are like minded with similar values. Since the dawn of time, fathers and sons have bonded deeply in and with the wilderness. Ancestral wilderness skills have an innate ability to deepen the Father-Son connection like nothing else. During this custom Father-Son Wilderness Program, we’ll make fire by friction, build and sleep in natural shelters, learn traditional hunting and gathering techniques, and track wild animals. Primitive wilderness survival isn’t a “Man vs. Wild” scenario, it is an opportunity to build a deep relationship with the Earth. As you and your son do so, you’ll find that your relationship with your son deepens in powerful ways. Click here for all details and to register.
Grab this Official Ben Greenfield Fitness Gear package that comes with a tech shirt, a beanie and a water bottle.
And of course, this week’s top iTunes review – gets some BG Fitness swag straight from Ben – leave your review for a chance to win some!
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Listener Q&A:
As compiled, deciphered, edited and sometimes read by Brock Skywalker Armstrong, the Podcast Sidekick and Audio Ninja.
Fitness Fabrics & Fashion: Exercise Clothing 101
Alicia says: How should she choose what kind of training gear to wear? She usually wears smartwool in the winter (or the free race shirts) and just a sport bra top in the summer. Is there anything to all the new space-age fabric that is out there for run clothing. Can you let us know about those fabrics? Does she need to be concerned about whether or not fabrics are organic, etc? Especially since they are going to be pressed up against her sweaty body.
In my response, I recommend:
-The article “5 Tips To Choose The Right Exercise Clothing“.
–Castelli for cycling/triathlon gear
–Hylete (use code BEN50 to save 50%)
–Kryptek (use code BEN to save 15%)
-Jackthreads Daily drops of new curated collections from the brands you love, a seemingly never-ending feed of limited-run collaborations from mega brands and up-and-coming designers alike, and a growing stable of private label product Jackthreads is building from the ground up that you can’t find anywhere else.
Can Radiation Be Good For You (And Natural Remedies For Radiation)?
Todd says: He just discovered that his home has high levels of radon gas. He has gone through the mitigation process of insulating and venting but is wondering if there is something else he can do to lessen the long term damage it may have done to his family (including his 22 month old twins). Perhaps something he can add to his diet?
In my response, I recommend:
-The concept of radiation hormesis
–Nascent iodine
–Calcium, magnesium, clay and the other compounds found at Magnetic Clay
–Activated charcoal
–Organic Germanium
–Organic Brewer’s Yeast
–Bee Pollen
–DMSO
How To Do Isokinetic Training
Joe says: He wants to know more about isokinetic training for strength and power. He has noticed that the Exer-Genie is still on the market and would like to know what you think of that.
In my response, I recommend:
–Vasa Swim Ergometer
–ARXFit
What To Do About Sweaty Hands
George says: He would like to know of ways to keep his hands warm and dry. Lately he has been getting clammy hands even when he doesn’t feel nervous or anxious. He would like to tone it down on the fist bumps and get back to the man gripping. Any idea what might cause this and what he can do about it?
In my response, I recommend:
–Our previous episode on hyperhidrosis
–Autoimmune diet