[Transcript] – A Day In The Life Of Ben Greenfield: Ben’s Exact Morning, Afternoon & Evening Routines.

Affiliate Disclosure

Transcripts

October 19, 2019

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/lifestyle-podcasts/ben-greenfields-routine

[00:00:01] Introduction

[00:01:35] Podcast Sponsors

[00:03:25] Will and Ben at Lake Tahoe and Cold Soak

[00:04:52] How Ben First Got Involved with Performance and Fitness

[00:09:20] Ben Greenfield's Routine

[00:20:48] What Ben Thinks Is Underrated When It Comes to Fitness

[00:24:01] Thoughts on Breathwork Through the Nose

[00:27:27] Family and Unschooling

[00:29:35] Podcast Sponsors

[00:32:02] A Typical Day at The Office

[00:35:25] Morning Smoothie

[00:35:59] How to Eat Meat the Right Way

[00:38:19] Mid-afternoon Routine

[00:42:38] What Ben Dedicates His Evenings To

[00:43:48] Getting Ready for Bed

[00:49:47] Under the Radar Hacks to Improve Your Life

[00:54:33] Find Ben

[00:56:22] End of Podcast

Ben:  On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast…

Their life skill, their experiential skill is just through the roof. You could drop my kids in the wilderness and they're going to come out alive. They'll figure out their way around, you know, an iPhone later on.

The number one thing you're going to experience is what I described earlier: a feeling as though you've just meditated for an hour because your sympathetic nervous system is far less driven than it would normally be when you're breathing through your mouth and furthermore–

You know, vegetable oils just because I know I'm going to have to stir up my omega-3, omega-6 fatty acid index two months from now and I want it to look good.

Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show.

Well, howdy, howdy, oh. As I'm proud to say, this is an interview that took place between myself and Will Ahmed of WHOOP, former podcast guest. Been on the show a few times. We recorded in the windy, icy tundra out of Spartan World Championships. And, the dude grilled me about my morning, afternoon, and evening routines. We took a deep dive, a fun deep dive. And, all the shownotes for everything that we talked about as I get put in the hot seat for about an hour, you can find over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/dayinthelife. That's bengreenfieldfitness.com/dayinthelife.

Now, if you dig like kind of stuff that you're about to hear and you want to take an even deeper dive, you should go check out my brand-new book, “Boundless,” over at boundlessbook.com. Why? Because I have a massive chapter devoted to how to structure your routine, the nitty-gritty science behind a lot of what you're about to hear in today's show and plenty more for your immune system, your gut, your hormones, spirituality, almost 200 pages on anti-aging and longevity alone. This book is a massive tome, a guide to your body, mind, and spirit. Check that out, boundlessbook.com.

This podcast is also brought to you by something you can use to build your blood, like little bricks to build your blood. It's called Organifi Red. And, the genius formulators at Organifi have taken all organic ingredients like Siberian ginseng, cordyceps, acai, beets, pomegranate, raspberry, cranberry, strawberry, and other red stuff. Put it together in a low sugar powder that does things like increase nitric oxide, serve as an adaptogenic energy formula, and, yes, build new blood cells. And, it tastes amazing. It only costs a buck and something a serving, which is nothing compared to the 12 to 14 bucks you pay for a bottle of stuff at your local cold-pressed juicer. So, you get an additional 20% off, which knocks that price even lower, if you go to Organifi.com/ben. It’s an Organifi with an “i”.com/ben and use code BENG20 to get 20% off.

Alright. Let's go talk to Willie boy.

Will:  Alright. We are live from Spartan Media Fest, presented by ATP, and I'm here with Ben Greenfield. Ben, how are we doing?

Ben:  It's windy and cold. Actually, I just hiked up the creek bed back behind my condo back here and opted to not take a shower in the chlorine infused water of my lodge and to, instead, go out in nature and do a little cold soak. And, now, I'm questioning my sanity because so now here in the wind that our listeners no doubt can hear.

Will:  Yeah, it’s good.

Ben:  And, chilly Squaw Valley.

Will:  We're here in Lake Tahoe. It's unbelievable event, Spartan World Championships. The obstacle course looks pretty epic. What does a cold soak mean for Ben Greenfield?

Ben:  A cold soak for me does not mean I'm going to like strip down to my skivvies and stand next to an ice bath, do a Wim Hof breathing for five minutes and then soak for 20. It means I'm going to go find a cool waterfall or a cool creek, take off my shoes, jump in, activate that mammalian dive reflex by dunking my head a few times. I'm usually in there two to five minutes. Then, I get out and go along my merry way. And, that's about all this super-duper low body fat body check, unfortunately.

Will:  So, I've been a fan of yours for a while and you've built an amazing following around health and fitness and nutrition. I think you inspire a lot of people. Let's start with what got you where you are today. Did you always know that you wanted be someone who has really focused their life around performance and optimization?

Ben:  No, but I always knew I wanted to teach, Will. Ever since I was a little boy, and I was home-schooled, but I was very self-driven. I was an independent learner and I would spend hours at the library, you know. Grimm's fairy tales or Tolkien or C.S. Lewis, or any of these other grand books of fiction, Arthur Conan Doyle. I would just eat it all up and I would also eat up any book that my parents got for me. But, what I love to do even more was turn around and write about those things. I would write for children's magazines and I would teach things I was learning to the neighborhood kids. I was one of the favorite babysitters of the community because I love to just like teach children and sit around and read books to them. And, nothing was really that focused on nutrition and fitness and health, even though, I grew up kind of in the sticks on Idaho. So, I love the outdoors. I'd love to explore and go find rattlesnakes and throw rocks at cows and find new caves to explore.

I grew up with that love for, I guess, what you might call nature immersion and movement. I've always been a mover. And, recently, I even had my Ayurvedic typing done, this so-called constitutional assessment that a lot of Ayurvedic physicians will do, where they monitor your pulse and they look at your birth date and your birthplace and your birth time. And, it's a form of Ayurvedic typing and, you know, they, of course, typed me as someone who needs to constantly be moving. And, I said, “Yes, that defines me, you know, to the core.” And, when I was 14 years old, I really started to play a lot of tennis. And, even though up until that point, you know, I’d dink around in baseball and basketball and my parents had me in soccer every year. I wasn't that passionate in that stuff. In terms of hacking it, you know, hacking the fitness and the nutrition.

Will:  Where did you grow up?

Ben:  I grew up in Lewiston, Idaho. But, for tennis, I was like, “Okay, how can I increase shoulder power? What physiologically length of a hill repeat should I do to optimize my tennis game? What kind of move should I do?”

Will:  Interesting because I’ve been playing tennis too.

Ben:  And so, that's what got me interested. And then, from there, all the reading and the research and the teaching started to get hyper-focused on exercise, physiology and nutrition.

Will:  So, you fell in love with the research more than you fell in love with tennis, it sounds like.

Ben:  I actually kind of fell in love with my tennis instructor. She's pretty hot. But, no, I fell in love with both the science and the application, which is what I still love to do. I mean, we're sitting here at Spartan World Championships. I love Spartan World Championships but I want to walk with the dude yesterday. He's picking my brain for like a half hour. Like, okay what's my electrolyte load need to be? How many calories per hour or fluid intake? You know, pacing, all that stuff. And, while I love to be out there on the racecourse, I also dig just chatting with cats about that thing, like how do you actually unpack the science behind what's going on in this race, which is why, I think, for the most part, endurance sports wound up drawing me in a little bit more than some of the power sports I was doing, like tennis and water polo. I primarily pick tennis, water polo, and volleyball at Idaho. And, it seems like endurance sports are harder not to crack when it comes to the physiology and the nutrition because they’re sports of attrition, really.

Will:  So, you can argue more important too, right? You can have a freak basketball player who's just really good at shooting, right?

Ben:  You can sit in the baseball dugout, eat Doritos, and maybe become dehydrated and still got doing your homerun.

Will:  But, if you don't have the physiology dialed for endurance, you're hosed.

Ben:  We just offended a bunch of incredible hulks for playing football and basketball and baseball.

Will:  No. I mean, I think, look, I think those guys are amazing too. I’m just saying it's more important if your sport is purely endurance.

Ben:  It is more important because if you don't eat right and you don't pace right, you're screwed, more so than any other flavor of sport.

Will:  Let's walk through a day in your life because I bet you have a lot of interesting things that you do over the course of the day. Walk me through from the moment you wake up, what's the first thing you do?

Ben:  Well, it depends on whether I'm traveling or whether I'm at home.

Will:  Let's pretend you’re at home.

Ben:  But, really, whether I'm at home or I'm traveling, the same general practices persist throughout. So, I take large elements of my home routine with me when I'm on the road, with the exception being that I have a lot of fancy things at my house that I can’t use when I'm traveling. So, whereas, when I'm at home, when I'm sipping my morning cup of coffee, I might be using a photobiomodulation red light panel. When I'm traveling, I'm sipping my cup of coffee at the hotel.

Will:  Okay. So, you wake up and the first thing you do is drink coffee?

Ben:  No. I wish I could wake up and rollover in a piping hot cup of coffee. It has materialized there, but I'm not that lucky. I wake up and the very first thing that I do is I open my gratitude journal and I read an inspiring verse of Scripture. And, I gratitude journal about one thing that I'm grateful for that day, one truth that really left out to me from what I read, and one person who I can pray for or help or serve that day.

Will:  Wow, that sounds nice.

Ben:  If time permits, I will also read, I'm reading Ryan Holiday’s “Stillness is the Key” right now.

Will:  Yeah. They've been talking about that book.

Ben:  Depending on when I wake up, because I don't wake to an alarm unless I have a flight to catch. If I have an extra 10 to 15 minutes to lay in bed and I'm looking ahead and knowing that I have that affluence of time, I will also read something devotional, something like this Ryan Holiday book that I'm going through, something from Scripture. So, I'll spend a little bit of extra time in bed. But, that's exactly how I start my day whether I'm traveling or whether I'm on the road.

Will:  So, gratitude, some reading. Okay. At that point, you're going to get out of bed, probably.

Ben:  Then, I get out of bed and if I am at home, I mean, we could get into the weeds here.

Will:  Let’s do it, yeah.

Ben:  So, we might as well. If I'm at home, I wander into the bathroom and I wash my face with a good oil cleansing. I'm using the one from Alitura right now. Shout out to my friend, Andy Hnilo down there. And so, I wash my face just to wash the oils and things off. And then, I use oil pulling oil, which is a blend of different essential oils that clean the bacteria of the mouth. This is another kind of Ayurvedic practice.

Will:  We will put a lot of stuff in the shownotes, by the way.

Ben:  Yeah. Put the oil pulling oil into my mouth. And, a lot of people just use coconut oil but there's a lot of good blends that you can buy on Amazon, but also things like peppermint and oregano and rosemary. A company called The Dirt makes a pretty good brand that I like. And so, oil pull swishing in my mouth as I go downstairs and begin to proceed about the other elements of my day. So, I've got oil in my mouth. So, if my wife's already up and she tries to say “Good morning,” it’s mm-hmm. Good morning to my kids. But, usually, I'm the first one up. Because when I'm up, it's typically right around 6:00 a.m. And, the rest of my family doesn't get up until around 7:00.

So, I go downstairs and while I'm oil pulling, I begin to prepare some element of coffee. I'm a big fan of coffee versus green tea or matcha, or anything else. And so, I grind to the coffee and usually, I'll either be making a French press or we have a really nice coffee maker that gives a super smooth cup. It's called the Wilfa Precision. And, I don't remember the actual–it's not a pour-over but it kind of infuses the water at a very fast rate with hot water like spraying in through the grinds. It gives a super smooth cup. So, I'll make that or French press. But, as the water is heating for the French press or as that Wilfa Precision maker is making the coffee, or if I'm in my hotel room and I'm traveling and I just have hot water heating up or, you know, I have coffee being prepared in another manner, I spend the first 15 minutes of my day basically taking care of my body, meaning I take out foam rollers, lacrosse balls. I travel with small mobility tools. And, my first 15 minutes are myself love time, my me time, to basically take any nagging ache or pain, anything I want to foam roll, anything that feels like it needs stretching. And, I just kind of combine breathing and stretching. And, typically, that oil is in my mouth for a good 15 minutes or so. So, you know, sometimes I'm starting my stretching before I even spat that out. But, as the coffee is getting ready, I'm just basically moving my body and preparing it for the day, rolling out anything that needs rolling out, focusing on deep nasal breathing. Just a lot of self-love. And, I figure every week I'm getting a good 75 minutes of mobility work even in the absence of [00:14:05] ______.

Will:  Right, these little things add up.

Ben:  Yeah, these little things add up. And so, I get through all of that. And then, by then, the coffee's ready. And so, I'll take my coffee and delve into morning reading. So, I will follow certain accounts on Twitter. I subscribe to certain research reviews and digests. A lot of times, people are emailing me different things to read in terms of journals and research. So, I always start off the day by learning versus reacting and responding and even creating. I don't do a lot of writing early in the morning. The reason for that, honestly, is it's just easy to sip a cup of coffee and read. And, when I'm reading, I want to start to get the wheels turning, like what's come out today in nutrition and science, and fitness, and exercise research. So, typically, it’s a good 20 to 30 minutes that I'm just reading and drinking coffee and researching, and avoiding push notifications, avoiding, you know, emails that I don't need to see. I have one important folder. Everything filters in that. I know important filters into that folder. So, that's the only email folder that I need to check in the morning. And, I spent time drinking my coffee and going through all of that.

Will:  Now, why coffee versus tea? I imagine you're someone who's done a lot of research on one versus the other.

Ben:  Well, A, I like coffee. I grew up on coffee. It's a comfort food for me. My father was a gourmet coffee roaster. And, I understand coffee. I own a company that produces coffee. So, I eat my own dog food. And, I find that green tea makes me just a little bit nauseous, as does matcha. I don't care for the tannic flavor of a black tea. And, even though I do have a giant Mason glass jar full of water when I went out, I spit out that oil at some point, I spit out through swish on my mouth. And, even before I've had my coffee, I have a giant glass of water. And, typically, I put some hydrogen tablets in that. Hydrogen-rich water has been shown to be a very good anti-inflammatory and have some other good benefits. So, I drink this giant glass of hydrogen-rich water. But, coffee is just for a multitude of reasons. And, of course, we know that when taking post-workouts, it can amplify glycogen restoration. We know that it could increase free fatty acid utilization if taken pre-workout. It staves off diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. And, it initiates liver and gallbladder release of bile. There’s a lot of cool things that it does for you. And, it does a really good job initiating a bowel movement, which is typically where I'm off to. Right after I've done my reading, my research, I go and have my bowel movement. And, that's usually good 10 to 15 minutes of just–the Squatty Potty and completely getting myself in that state of bliss emptiness to where I don't feel as though I've got anything left in me.

And, actually, a couple of times a week, and this is because I genetically have a higher than normal risk for colon cancer, and I had several family members with colon cancer, I actually do a coffee enema       . And so, I've got coffee going up both sides. And, there's nothing to make you feel as clean as a whistle like coffee.

Will:  I mean, what made you start doing that?

Ben:  Looking into it, I interviewed a few kinds of big health influencers who have that as a regular practice. I spoke with several people who just swear by it as just like a crucial part of their week to keep things moving and to stave off constipation, and that there's a little bit of detoxification effect that occurs as you release a lot of the phase 1 and phase 2 liver conjugates out into the bile. It helps to move those along. So, I've had two colonoscopies. I'm cleaning as a whistle. And, I think a big part of it is my regular coffee enema practice for the past three years.

Will:  You've done a phenomenal job romanticizing that [00:17:52] ______. If you have enough key terms.

Ben:  It feels [00:17:57] ______.

Will:  Okay. So, you've done that. Now, where are you in the day? What's up next? You haven’t eaten anything yet, right?

Ben:  No, no. I always every day do a 12 to 16-hour intermittent fast. So, the coffee's always black. You know, I don't consume any supplements that have any calories in them like fish oil or anything like that. The oil that I'm pulling with, of course, because it's full of the bacteria from my mouth gets spat out into the garbage can.

So, after I've used the restroom, I'll typically do either A, a full-on workout if my day and my upcoming schedule dictates that I'm not going to have much time or I know I'm going to have a lot of decision making fatigue or cognitive fatigue at the end of the day that would leave me feeling a little bit too drain to do a hard workout. In that case, I will do typically a concurrent strength and endurance work that involves the type of training that would prepare one for an obstacle course race like this. So, a lot of running and air assault bike and burpees and kind of like cardiovascular modes interspersed with sandbag carries and knee slams and pull-ups and loaded push-ups and, basically, a variety of functional moves combined with cardio. That's nine times out of 10 the type of workout that I'm doing.

Will:  So, it’s high-intensity.

Ben:  It's high-intensity concurrent strength and endurance training.

Will:  Not a lot of break time?

Ben:  Almost no break time. No. I squeeze a lot of volume into about 60 minutes of work time. And, that would be, again, if the afternoon or evening is not going to prove you need to do that. Because it's in the afternoon or evening when your grip strength peaks and your testosterone peaks, your post-workout protein synthesis peaks, your body temperature peaks.

Will:  By the way, just to interrupt what you’re saying, that's why most athletes prefer working out in the afternoon, isn't it?

Ben:  I think so.

Will:  I mean, just based on that natural rhythm.

Ben:  [00:19:53] ______ are slow in the morning. It takes longer to warm up. But, if I'm able to do that workout in the afternoon or evening, instead, based on my schedule, I do, for the reasons I've just stated, and what I prefer to do is something similar to what I did this morning, or what I'll do at home: a walk in the sunshine, an easy swim, or some time in the sauna. And, just something very parasympathetic based, something that still gets me moving, something allows me to continue to breathe and clear my head for the day. But, if time does not permit for that and I anticipate that the day is going to go a different way, you know, typically, what I'm doing is that relaxation that I normally do at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day. But, either way, I've got two movement sessions per day: one hard one and one kind of easy parasympathetic, sauna, swim, walk.

Will:  So, no matter what, you’re doing two types of activity?

Ben:  No matter what, two types of activities per day, no matter what. The first one's always fasted.

Will:  Got it. And, what do you think right now is underrated in fitness? Just from like an athletic standpoint or a movement standpoint?

Ben:  Minimal effective dose of training. We talked about this. You and I were on a panel of Vancouver recently.

Will:  Yeah, that’s right.

Ben:  And, this came up, you know, amongst kind of the biohacker community. And, this idea of time under tension being the key versus sets and reps, you know. Two to three minutes of time under tension for a muscle group is enough to initiate hypertrophy and muscle maintenance. So, this concept of super slow training single set to failure. Or, this idea of high-intensity interval training for 15 to 20 minutes versus an hour to steady-state endurance training. It's just for people with increasingly busy lives, just an absolutely fabulous time hack.

And, I incorporate a lot of those concepts as well. Meaning that, for example, if I were doing concurrent strength and endurance training, I might do one single super slow three-minute chest press, set to failure of some kind of a push-up or a chest press or a dumbbell press, or something like that. And then, go on do a set of high-intensity cardio. Let’s say a Tabata set, or two minutes as far as I can go like a 500-meter row. Then, come back and do one single set to failure for shoulder, one single set to failure for pulls or pull downs, one single set for squats or deadlifts, etc. And, I think that this idea of minimum effective dose is very useful.

And, there are, of course, technologies. For me, I'm often labeled as a biohacker. And, I do like some of the technologies that have been created to make this attainable for people. That Vasper machine that combines cold blood flow restriction training, a full-body exercise machine, and 21 minutes of high-intensity interval training, that gives you strength and cardio in the equivalent of a three-hour workout in 20 minutes. Or, the ARX Fit machines which are basically motorized driven machines that produce a massive eccentric load that completely exhaust you over that course of two to three minutes. And, it's one set for each of those muscle groups so you'd get in a 60-minute strength training session in 15 to 20 minutes.

So, sometimes, I think people might feel as though they need to needlessly spend too much time at the gym. That being said, there are some of us, probably a lot of people walking around here at this race, a lot of people in the fitness culture, a lot of people who might listen to our podcasts, who the gym is their happy place. That's their place.

Will:  Yeah. They want to spend more time.

Ben:  For me, I love to go to the gym and spend an hour at the gym just doing stuff, just moving stuff, listening to a good audiobook or podcast. I find, for me, it's just as stabilizing if not more than meditation.

I'm constantly focusing on body awareness and mindfulness while I'm at the gym. I'm breathing through my nose. I'm using my breath, my prana to drive me through movements. I'm not watching TV. I'm not on my phone. I'm not chatting with people. I'm in this very deep focused space. So, I need to couch that idea of minimal effective dose of training with the idea that, you know, if the gym is your happy place so that longer workout is your happy place, then, don't feel guilty about that. Don't over-train, but don't feel guilty about that.

Will:  Talk about your breathwork through your nose and the importance of breathing through your nose versus [00:24:08] ______.

Ben:  Well, there's a few interesting areas to explore regarding this. When you look at the animal kingdom, you know, the naked mole-rat, the bowhead whale, many long livid species they found to have a very high CO2 tolerance, meaning that they maintain high levels of CO2 and high levels of oxygen simultaneously. And, based on something called the Bohr curve and exercise physiology, we know that when you have high levels of CO2, when not breathing off CO2 through something like hyperventilation, oxygen dissociates more readily into tissues, such as muscle tissue and heart tissue. And so, you're actually able to more readily oxygenate tissues when you have simultaneously elevated levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide. One of the best ways to do that is to breathe through your nose. Another very good way to do that is to focus on your exhale lasting slightly longer than your inhale. And, there's a very good book about this called “The Oxygen Advantage” by Patrick McKeown.

Will:  And, to be clear, it's exclusively through your nose, right?

Ben:  Ideally, because the nose allows you to breathe out in that slow manner versus pursing your lips which can be a little bit difficult to remember to do when you're exercising. And, furthermore, when you breathe through your nose, you are humidifying the air, which allows for more oxygen dissociation in the lungs in the alveolar space. In addition to that, you actually tend to breathe more diaphragmatically when you breathe through your nose. When you breathe through your chest, there are baroreceptors in your chest that can activate the endocrine system, that can cause a higher release of cortisol. And so, by breathing through your nose, you're actually keeping yourself in a slightly less sympathetically driven state while you're exercising.

Will:  Which is really important because your sympathetic system is what's goes into overdrive when you're exercising. So, you can decrease that and at still the same output you're making your body more efficient in a way.

Ben:  Right. And, for anyone who has not attempted to just, let's say, do whatever strength training session that you would normally do, either breathe through nose the entire time or use a device. I recently discovered a device. It's a mouthpiece that pretty much makes it impossible to breathe through your mouth. You have to breathe through your nose. It's called an Opti O2. I think it’s how it's spelled. O-P-T-I-O-2.

And, if you do this, if you try this, I guarantee you will come out of your strength training session or your time at the gym, or even your run, they used to have the Spartan boys, the actual Spartan boys. Not the low ones running around orange t-shirts here. But, like thousands of years ago, the Spartan boys would actually put gravel or water in their mouths and be forced to run a rigorous trail. They’ll breathe in through their nose and then they would need to spit out that gravel or that same volume of water at the end.

Will:  It's hardcore.

Ben:  Yeah, but if you're listening and you haven't yet tried this, the number one thing you're going to experience is what I described earlier, a feeling as though you've just meditated for an hour, because your sympathetic nervous system is far less driven than it would normally be when you're breathing through your mouth. And, furthermore, you are more mindful of your entire body because your body is driven by your prana, your life-force, your breath. And so, by being constantly in tune with that during your entire workout, you really do feel as though you're in an elevated state when you finish.

Will:  Really fasting. Okay. So, let's go back. You've now finished some kind of an activity session. It could be high-intensity workout. It could be, you know, something more parasympathetic. What are you doing now in your day?

Ben:  So, at that point, typically I'll go in. I'll visit with my family for a little while. The boys typically are up by then, making themselves breakfast. I’ll chat about the day. Usually, we have like a little family kind of team meeting. What's going on today, what's the schedule looks like? When's jujitsu, when’s soccer, when are we going to have dinner? Or just kind of getting on the same page with everybody.

Will:  How old are your kids?

Ben:  They're 11 years old.

Will:  So, homeschooled?

Ben:  They're not homeschooled, per se. They are unschooled, meaning that we do not use a curriculum. There is zero structure. They wake up in the morning and they do whatever they want to do. And, you know, my job as a parent is to simply surround them with as many proactive activities and people and teachers and tutors and things that keep them from waking up and flipping on the TV and playing video games all day. And, they stay very busy building tree forts and playing in the woods and shooting bow and arrow, and meeting with their Spanish teacher and their jujitsu instructors. They have a fantastic day. It's like a childhood dream.

Will:  And, how do you know that they're developing at a rate that's better than, say, their 11-year-old equivalents?

Ben:  Standardized testing. They still need to take standardized testing.

Will:  So, they’re still taking it?

Ben:  Yeah. The State of Washington requires them to take standardized testing.

Will:  And, they do well?

Ben:  They do well. And, in terms of practical hands-on experience, I mean, they are amazing chefs. They have a cooking podcast. They run a business. They know woodworking skills. They know how to use a skill saw. They built a tree fort. They can hunt and kill and fill dress an animal. In my opinion, all that is far more important than how do you match up on a standardized test. So, their life skill, their experiential skill is just through the roof. You could drop my kids in the wilderness and they're going to come out alive. And, I think, that is a base foundation that's important. They'll figure out their way around, you know, an iPhone later on.

Hey, I want to interrupt today's show to talk about bacon. That's right, bacon heritage breed pork, wild Alaskan salmon, organic chicken. I guess, I'm talking the way that I would imagine a farmer to talk, which is super stereotyping. But, I'm doing it anyways because who doesn't like meat, especially free meat? So, here's the deal. There's this company called ButcherBox. And, they put together these amazing boxes of meat: free-range organic chicken, heritage breed pork, wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon. Like I mentioned, in case your mouth was watering, bacon sourced from heritage breed pigs, uncured, nitrate-free, sugar-free. It's amazing. And, they're going to send you two pounds of 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef free in every box for the life of your subscription at ButcherBox because, that's right, insert subliminal messaging here. You're going to get a subscription. You got to. And, here's how. You go to butcherbox.com/ben. But, especially, butcherbox.com/ben. They'll give you 2 pounds of 100% grass-fed beef free in every ButcherBox for the life of your subscription and $20 off your first box. You're welcome. Check that out over at ButcherBox.

This podcast is also brought to you by Native. What is Native? Native is what I smear my armpits. They have over 8,000 five-star reviews on the Internet. You can see them in today's show, Elle, Good Morning America, PopSugar, Nylon, Hello Giggles, whatever the hell-oh that is. And, there's a reason. Because it smells amazing. It makes me want to eat my armpits off. They make coconut and vanilla, which is my favorite scent, and the most popular, lavender and rose, cucumber and mint, and eucalyptus and mint. And, they give free returns, free exchanges. It's all ingredients found in nature, like coconut oil as the antimicrobial and shea butter as moisturizer, tapioca to absorb the wetness so you don't pit out. And, they are offering all my listeners 20% off your first purchase with a promo code, BEN, at nativedeodorant.com. So, you got to nativedeodorant.com, use promo code, BEN, during checkout. It's going to save you and you're off to the races. Enjoy. Nativedeodorant.com, promo code, BEN.

Will:  Okay. So, family time. And, at what point now are you eating?

Ben:  Typically, this is around 9:30 or 10:00. So, I have my entire team. I own a supplements company, Kion. And then, I also do a lot of consulting. I do a lot of coaching through Ben Greenfield Fitness. I record podcasts. I spend, typically, about 10 hours each week just visiting with my private coaching clients or people who have hired me of either blood, their biomarkers, etc. But, my team knows that nothing gets scheduled before about 9:30 to 10:00.

Will:  It’s awesome.

Ben:  So, I have that morning available. And then, typically starting at about 10:00 is when I'm like a horse with blinders. No push notifications. No emails. No text messages. It's just like four to five hours of deep work to 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon. But, it's at about 9:30 kind of while I'm visiting with my family touring around the kitchen, I'm usually just making a smoothie, like a superfood smoothie.

Will:  Okay. And, that four to five hours of work, that could be anything from business related to research?

Ben:  Yeah. It's whatever happens to be on the task for that day. But, for me, it is consults and phone calls with clients who have hired me to manage their health or their sleep or any other element of their performance. It is writing, meaning writing articles for bengreenfieldfitness.com, editing articles, working on articles for magazines, or working on book chapters. Or, it is recording a podcast; either being interviewed or interviewing someone for my own show. So, I'm a big believer in kind of Cal Newport’s idea of deep work. And, I spend those four to five hours just immersed in non-reactive work. The emails, those get saved for the afternoon or the early evening. The reactive, “Hey, Ben. Can you shoot a quick video for this or two minutes of this, three minutes of that?” All that stuff gets saved for later on the day because that's easy to do even when you're calculating fatigue. You can respond and you can react. But, my time is my time from about 9:30 or 10:00 up until about 1:30 or 2:00. Nothing distracts me. That's all deep work done.

Will:  And, do you take any kinds of supplements or brain enhancement tools at this point?

Ben:  So, I have my cup of coffee in the morning and, in many cases, that will have some Four Sigmatic mushroom extract in it, some lion's mane, or some chaga, or something like that. Sometimes, I'll take a nootropic like Qualia Mind or Qualia Focus. Typically, to keep my appetite satiated as I'm going through morning of work, I am chewing gums. Sometimes, it's nicotine gum. Often, with sparkling water or Zevia. And so, yeah, usually there's some kind of stimulant kind of keeping me going during that time. In addition, my office is just littered with all these pieces of biohacking equipment that I use when I'm working out. So, I'm standing on a grounding mat to reduce inflammation while I'm at work. I have light panels, these red-light infrared panels that kind of shine light on me while I'm working. I have a walking treadmill a standing treadmill desk, a little balance board. I have a kettlebell. So, I'm kind of constantly moving at the office. I mean, technically, even if I don't get a chance to work out during the day, I'm taking like 15,000 steps a day just talking to people and moving around and doing things in my office. And, one thing I didn't mention, by the way, was, you know, when I say I'm having a smoothie for breakfast, my smoothies are pretty damn extravagant.

Will:  I bet.

Ben:  We're talking like bone broth, collagen, coconut milk.

Will:  That’s a meal [00:35:42] ______.

Ben:  Stevia, sea salts. And, I blend it all up to like an ice cream texture so I can eat it with a spoon, almost like an acai bowl. And then, I'll top it with spirulina and chlorella, and cacao nibs, and coconut flakes, and all these, like it’s [00:35:54] _____.

Will:  I bet your kitchen cab is pretty epic looking.

Ben:  It is pretty epic. There's a lot of good stuff in there. And, really, most of everything else I eat, it's very almost like who discovers paleo but it's almost like a bastardized version of the carnivore diet. So, I eat a lot of organic wild meat. I hunt. So, we have freezer full of meat that I've hunted. And, I also will order good organic meats.

Will:  What do you hunt?

Ben:  I hunt whitetail deer, elk, turkey, alces deer, pig.

Will:  Wow. And, what do you kill with?

Ben:  Bow, a Hoyt.

Will:  Wow. So, you're not even using gun. You’re out there with a bow.

Ben:  No. I like the challenge of spot and stalk with a bow.

Will:  That seems amazing, actually. That got to be fairly old-school. And, that's got to require a lot of technique, I would think.

Ben:  I practice every day. I practice shooting every day when I’m at home.

Will:  With a bow?

Ben:  Yeah. And, I travel with this little handheld device that allows me to kind of practice while I'm traveling without my bow.

Will:  If someone wants to get into it, would you call it archery? Is that the right way to describe it?

Ben:  Mm-hmm, yeah.

Will:  If anyone wants to get into archery, how would they go about doing that?

Ben:  My method was to visit my local bow shop and to visit with them to get fit by them, to have a bow belt. Then, I began to shoot in some archery competitions and also some hunting competitions called Trained to Hunt. I went out hunting with some people who kind of mentored me and guided me through my first hunts. I subscribed to Petersen's Bow Hunting magazine. There's a few really good bow hunting podcasts out there, like my friend John Dudley's Nock on Archery. It’s a good show. And so, even a little bit of magazine, little bit of podcast. And then, just immersing myself in the local hunting community.

Will:  That seems amazing, Ben. That seems like such a pure passion to be good at archery.

Ben:  Yeah. And, it allows you to put the meat in the freezer. And so, you know, I eat nose to tails, so a lot of organ meats: liver, heart, kidney, a lot of good grass-fed wild meat, like wild-caught salmon and, you know, elk, bison, buffalo, etc. And then, just lots of like small berries, tubers like sweet potato, pumpkin, yam, etc. Coffee in the morning, a little bit of wine in the evening and, a little bit of raw honey as another carbohydrate source. And so, my diet is very, very simple, aside from a very complex morning smoothie.

Will:  Okay. So, after you've done all this work, it's late afternoon. Are you now going to do another type of activity? You mentioned you kind of like to do two things.

Ben:  Yeah. I break and have lunch. And, lunch is typically something like I've just described, like a little sweet potato with some leftover steak from a night before. I'm a big customer of Wild Planet Sardines, so I order all their herring and mackerel and sardines and anchovies. So, a lot of small cold-water fish. So, I get a lot of omega-3’s. A lot of times, I'll have those for lunch with a little bit of a pumpkin mash or something like that, or squash.

And then, I always take a nap for about 20 to 45 minutes after lunch.

Will:  Nice.

Ben:  I go and it's a recovery nap. I have one of these things called Biomat that makes a heat, like an infrared heat. So, I lay on that. I have some of these Normatec boots that will use gradated compression to legs to recover while napping.

Will:  So, you put the Normatec on while you sleep?

Ben:  Yeah. While I'm on the Biomat, I put the Normatec on, I lay on my back. And then, I have this thing called the NuCalm. It's a vagal nerve stimulator. So, it just shoves you into parasympathetic mode very quickly. And, it has a GABA cream that goes over your carotid artery on either side of your neck. And then, you put these pads on and kind of drives the GABA cream in, stimulates your vagus nerve. I put on a sleep mask. And, technically, the NuCalm has like a 20-minute power nap function. And so, most days, all I have is around 20 minutes available. So, actually, the 20-minute power nap function I'm good to go. But, if I've got luxury of time a little more time that day, I'll like to run the 20-minute power nap function twice. Or else, I'll use, there's another really good app called Brain.fm. And, I'll put on Brain.fm for a while and just kind of fall asleep to that.

Will:  And, are you actually setting this thing to 20 minutes or does your body just naturally?

Ben:  It automatically is on 20 minutes. And, it's designed to simulate a full 90 minutes sleep cycle, which is really cool. And, they've done studies on the military of this thing. And, it's the real deal.

Will:  What’s it called again?

Ben:  It actually works. The NuCalm, N-U-calm. And so, it will bring you through a full 90 minutes sleep cycle in 20 minutes. But, because it brings you out of that sleep cycle at the end, its kind of like has these twinkly sounds like na-na-na-na-na. That kind of wake you up and pull you back into–I think it brings you from beta to alpha to theta. And then, it kind of back up. And, I think that file twinkling at the end kind of is a little bit of a beta release. So, it wakes you up and you don't feel groggy afterwards.

So, I wake up from that. And then, after that, I've got like typically another couple hours of work, like until around 5:00 or 5:30.

Will:  And, you won't have drunk more coffee at this point?

Ben:  No. I don't do a lot of coffee afternoon. Sometimes, if it's the afternoon, I'm still a bit groggy, I'll have another piece of nicotine gum.

Will:  Talk about nicotine gum.

Ben:  It's just like a good little cognitive pick-me-up. And, nicotine, actually, has some good benefits for the mitochondria as well.  It's, you know, you might be familiar with vitamin b3, you know, and some of these other forms of nicotinamide. It's kind of similar. You can actually assess a little bit with what the health of mitochondria and the electron transport chain.

Will:  And, you do it, and it sounds like you do it infrequently enough where you don't feel craving for it?

Ben:  No. I mean, it's mildly addictive the same way that coffee is, or similar that exercise is. But, I'll typically do that with it. I've always got some kind of weird adaptogenic herb blend or stuff that somebody sent me. So, sometimes the afternoons is my time to just experiment.

Will:  Try something.

Ben:  Try something. I visit my pantry at the time. But, usually, I'm a one cup of coffee kind of guy, unless it's a very demanding. Like today, you know, it's Spartan World Championship today. I'll be going. I'll probably swing into Starbucks and might grab a cold brew or something later on today. That’ll be to cover.

So, anyways waking from the nap, kind of pick myself up again and do a little stretching, get my day going again. And, I find that nap gives me almost two days because then I'm like super productive for two hours. All the emails, all the phone calls, all like the little fires that need to be put out, I'm doing that all the way up until about 5:30 or so. And then, it's time to either, A, do that hard work out on an ideal day, or, B, if I've done the hard work out because I know that day was going to be super stressful. I'm just out for a walk or easy bit of time in the sauna.

And then, once that's done, once that workout is done, there is one final dip into the email inbox to make sure there's no additional fires to put out. And then, from then on out, the entire evening is with the family. We have these amazing family dinners. We gather round. We cook dinner. We take out games like Table Topics or Exploding Kittens or Unstable Unicorns or Chess, or whatever else. And, we have an amazing family dinner. Sometimes, we have people over. We finish dinner.

Will:  What time are you finishing dinner in the day?

Ben:  Usually, we finish dinner around 8:00, 8:30, sometimes a little later. And then, we play music. We play piano or guitar and play the kids a song. We read. We go through our gratitude journals for the day. It's just like–sometimes, I mean, honestly, aside from that meet and greet in the morning, I'm not seeing my family that much the rest of the day. But, when the evening rolls around, that's just like the protect. That's just the way my day is structured. That's the protected family time. And, on the weekends, like a Saturday or Sunday, we'll be off, you know, whatever. Going to the museum or doing something fun together. But, weekdays, nobody sees me from, you know, 9:30 or 10:00 until that workout’s done in the evening and I break. And, finally, it’s all coming together as a family for the rest of the evening. I'm pretty much inaccessible to anybody including my family during that time.

Will:  And so, now we're at the end of the day, what is your whole process for sleeping? What kind of tools do you use?

Ben:  So, I have installed in my bedroom, I've replaced all the bulbs, all the artificial, you know, LED flicker with red incandescent bulbs which are very close to torchlight or firelight. So, there's no blue light in the bedroom.

Will:  It looks like a strip club.

Ben:  It looks like a strip club, my bedroom, which is great because, I mean, we're all adults here, and actually red light does make people look better during sex. Actually, there's a reason they use it in strip clubs. So, it does make sex better too. But it’s just red incandescent bulbs. When, I'm touring around the kitchen, opening the refrigerator or whatever at night, I have wrap-around red glasses. I use a brand called RA Optics. It blocks the 400 to 480-nanometer wavelength of light which is the one that's most likely to suppress melatonin production while you sleep. I have a ChiliPad that I turn on. That circulates 55-degree cold water under the bed while I'm asleep to keep my core temperature down and assist with my deep sleep levels. I have an essential oil diffuser that diffuses lavender essential oil into the room. So, I like this nice relaxing scent along with sleep. And, typically, you know, the kids are in bed after I've played them guitar and we've read and stuff. Usually, you know, they're asleep around 9:30. So then, it's time for mom and I. So, between about 9:30 and, at the latest, 10:30, you know it's reading, it's sex, it's chatting with my wife, it's just very passive non-business-based activities. And, yeah, just basically, you know, the room is cool, the room is dark, there's blackout curtains. It's only lit by red lights. There's no business. There's no TV in our bedroom. And, that's just my time to kind of put an end cap on the day with reading and romance.

Will:  And, any supplements at this point? Did you get melatonin or magnesium?

Ben:  What I use to assist with sleep is I typically, even though, kind of like that companies are always sending me whatever, you know. Here's our new blend of kava. You know, try this new, you know, whatever blend of valerian cow mill or whatever. nine times out of 10, my go-to is I take about 60 to 80 milligrams of CBD and I take a few capsules of this supplement called Sleep Remedy, which is made by my friend, Dr. Kirk Parsley, who designed this supplement to help Navy SEALs get to sleep at night. And, it's like a gamma munabutyric acid precursor. And then, I use that when I travel too. The only thing I add in my travel is extra melatonin for the circadian rhythm cycles, you know, because when you cross over to different time zones. And, I like this brand from Quicksilver. It's like a liposomal melatonin that just knocks you out. You put a few sprays of that under your tongue. It gets absorbed super-fast because it says this liposomal formulation. And so, I'll add that in with the Sleep Remedy and the CBD when I travel.

Will:  How much AB testing have you done on your own body around CBD? There's a lot of products out there.

Ben:  Well, with sleep quantification, it definitely enhances deep sleep, but only in high doses and only in the absence of THC. THC seems to disrupt deep sleep cycles.

Will:  That's such a good point. There's so many products that also have THC, so you have to figure out what's right.

Ben:  Yeah. And then, the other thing, of course, I give people the impression that you got to just probably bunch of pills to get to sleep, is the other thing I do a lot of, especially increasingly since I interviewed Dr. Andrew Weil on my show and we talked for a while about this, is this 4-7-8 breathing.

Will:  [00:47:18] ______ that.

Ben:  Once your head hits the sack and the light is off, you start going into this breathwork. It's 4-count in, 7-count hold, 8-count out. And, my latency has considerably improved since adopting that breath cycle. You know, you fall asleep but you don't remember falling asleep, that type of thing. I'll start into that breath cycle and I'll just fall asleep and not remember when I fell asleep.

Will:  And, do you wear sleep mask?

Ben:  I do. I use one called the MindFold. It's interesting because that particular sleep mask was first designed for people who were doing psychedelic journey. Laying on their back and taking a mega-dose of psilocybin or whatever. And, one of the reasons for that is because it does such a darn good job blocking out all light. I used to recommend this silk wraparound sleep mask made by Sleep Number and then I found this MindFold thing and it's next level.

Will:  And, you mentioned blocking out light. Do you stuff with the blue light blocking glasses?

Ben:  Well, I wear them, like I mentioned, at night.

Will:  And, [00:48:18] ______.

Ben:  I wear the RA. RA has a really good wraparound red pair that I wear at night. And then, during the day, if I've got a lot of screen time and monitor time or, for example, again when you and I were just up in Vancouver at that event, I was on stage, there were bright lights, it was inside the Vancouver Convention Center so it's all LED fluorescence, we know those produce a flicker that's mildly damaging to the retina. We know that those, during the day, can disrupt sleep cycles. Even if it's not 5:00 p.m. or if you're walking around at 2:00 p.m. under bright LED as you would find in a mall or in a grocery store, or at a convention center, that can disrupt sleep cycles later on. So, when I'm traveling and I know I'm going to be in those kinds of situations–because when I’m at my house, my house is all-natural incandescent lighting, large windows, etc. But, what I do when I'm traveling and I know I'm just going to be exposed to a lot of this fluorescence and LED, is I wear clear blue light blocking glasses and that same company, RA Optics, they make a kind of fashionable looking clear ones.

Will:  Yeah, totally.

Ben:  I don't know if you saw me wearing those black thick frames. Those are the ones I wear during the day. And then, I switched to red light ones at night.

Will:  I do the ones at night. I haven't gotten into the ones during the day.

Ben:  They help if you're in an unnatural artificial light settings for a long time like I've especially found them at conventions and conferences where a lot of times you're indoors on an expo floor the whole day. They helped so much with sleep later on. That, or a day where I'm doing a ton of writing and I have a lot of monitor time.

Will:  One thing I love that you're describing, which I think people take for granted, is how all these things, even eight hours before you’re even thinking about bed, affect your sleep. And, it's a really important phenomenon that I don't feel like societies really grasp.

Ben:  The sunlight exposure for the first few minutes of the day when you get up is important. Or, at least, simulating it. So, you know, if I'm in Seattle or Iceland, or somewhere, I'm just not getting out the summer, the freaking Vegas, where they make it impossible to get outdoors, I always travel with this pair of glasses that emits light similar to the greenish blue light wave spectrum that you would get exposed to by staring into sunlight in the morning. They are called ReTimer glasses because that's exactly what they're designed to do, to retime your circadian rhythm. And, I also travel with something called the Human Charger which is in-ear light therapy. So, I blast my eyes and my ears with light if I cannot get out in the sun in the morning because that's when your circadian rhythm starts, with that blast of sunlight in the morning.

Will:  Fascinating.

Ben:  It's important, as is red light at night. That’s why getting an infrared sauna at night or using those red photobiomodulation panels at night can be very effective for enhancing your sleep.

Will:  Now, we both share a passion for measuring a lot of stuff on our bodies. Talk about just why you think it's important to measure things like sleep, recovery, and exercise. And, how do you use that data in a positive way?

Ben:  Well, it's two reasons. A, it allows you to make informed decisions, like if I smoke weed before bed, I fall asleep but my deep sleep cycles suck. But, if I take some CBD oil, my deep sleep cycles are better. I wouldn't know that really without a quantification device. Or, I have a rule for myself that I take 15,000 steps a day. And, if I finish up dinner, like tonight, we're going to plump Jack's restaurant for the VIP media dinner, etc., I guarantee if I look at my phone and my step data and I'm sitting there at dinner and it says 14,000 steps, I'm going for a ten-minute walk before I go to bed. So, it allows me to keep track of that stuff. But, it's also highly motivating. Like, I protect my sleep more now that I measure it. I protect my step count more now that I measure it. I protect my HRV more, like how sympathetically driven I am now that I measure it. And so, I pay attention to a lot more. It's same to a blood, biomarkers, saliva. Anything you test, it not only gives you a ton of insight but it also, I think just as importantly, keeps you accountable.

If I know that two months from now I'm going to take a look at my omega-6 omega-3 fatty acid balance, I guarantee that I'm going to be much more careful about my monounsaturated fat intake, prioritizing fish oil, prioritizing omega-3s, maybe not putting the spoonful into the can of almond butter quite as frequently, or mindlessly chomping away pistachios or vegetable oils just because I know I'm going to have to stare at my omega-3 omega-6 fatty acid index two months from now and I want it to look good.

Will:  Totally. And, what are some quick tests that you think everyone listening should do?

Ben:  Aside from wearing a quantification metric that at least gives you sleep and HRV, which in my opinion are the two top metrics to track, you know, and I would say overall heart rate and overall step count would be pretty high up there too, as far as metrics that I think are important to track. I would say that a basic way to track blood glucose and inflammation because glycemic variability and inflammation are the two best predictors of overall wellness, health, and longevity.

So, for example, a quarterly test of all your inflammatory markers like CRP, fibrinogen, homocysteine, etc. Or, a really good glance at what's going on from an inflammatory standpoint. And then, a regular measurement of blood glucose and what is considered to be a three-month snapshot of blood glucose, your hemoglobin A1C.

There are continuous blood glucose monitors you can wear such as the Dexcom. They make a very good device called the Dexcom G6.

Will:  Yeah, totally.

Ben:  And, actually, you can monitor blood glucose in real-time. And, I've done that. It's incredibly insightful for overall health. Nothing exists right now comparably for inflammation. But, I would say, if there's two things you're going to track and you just myopically want to focus on the most important variables, it would be blood glucose and inflammation, both of which are affected most dramatically in my experience by your level of processed carbohydrate or what would be considered a cellular carbohydrate intake, starches, processed sugars, etc., and vegetable oils.

Will:  Got it. Now, where can people find you?

Ben:  bengreenfieldfitness.com. And, I am putting the finishing touches on a massive new book that I'm incredibly excited about. So, I'm going to name that too. It's called “Boundless.” And, that is at boundlessbook.com. It's 608 pages, jam-packed with this shit.

Will:  Definitely include that in the shownotes. Give me the quick plug on the book. What's going to be in the book?

Ben:  It is a complete manual to mind, body, and spirit optimization. It is everything I've been deep in the trenches for the past three years, like very advanced anti-aging and longevity stuff. I cover everything from peptides, SARMs, and hormones to a lot of what the Blue Zones are doing, another longevity hot spots from around the world, a lot of minimal effective dose of exercise stuff, a ton of new biohacking tools and tips and technologies, a lot of stuff in there. There's two big chapters on just like sex and lovemaking and romance and relationships. My goal with that book was for anybody who has a body to be able to pick it up and have a complete blueprint to what makes them tick and how to optimize themselves, live a long time. And, the subtitle of the book is “Upgrade Your Brain, Optimize Your Body, And Defy Aging.” And, that's what the book’s about.

Will:  I love it, man. Well, this has been such a pleasure having you on. I think everyone should check out your book. You've got a ton of credibility in the space. You do the research. You do a lot of testing on your own body, which I think some people don't do. So, I've got a lot of admiration for you. Thanks for coming on.

Ben:  And, you're going to do an enema now. I know it. I can see it in your eyes.

Will:  We’ll get there. We’ll get there.

Ben:  Alright. Thanks, Will.

Will:  Thank you.

Ben:  Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the shownotes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful “Ben Recommends” page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormone, sleep, digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more. Please, also, know that all the links, all the promo codes, that I mentioned during this and every episode, helped to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. When you listen in, be sure to use the links in the shownotes, use the promo codes that I generate, because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.

 

 

In this podcast, recorded at Spartan World Championships in Lake Tahoe, I got put in the hot seat for an hour by a former podcast guest of mine: Will Ahmed of WHOOP.

Will is a two-time previous guest of mine, appearing on the episodes, “The Go-To Self-Quantification Wristband Now Used By The Navy SEALs, Pro Sports, Top College Teams, Olympians & Beyond” and “WHOOP: The Performance Enhancing Wearable That Tells You When To Sleep, How To Exercise, Your Strain Levels & More!“

On today's episode, Will grilled me about every step of my day, and my exact morning, afternoon, and evening routines—from sleeping to pooping to sex and more.

During this discussion, you'll discover:

-How Ben first got involved with performance and fitness [5:00]

  • Always had a desire to teach; consummate learner
  • Write for kids magazines, teach what he learned to other kids
  • Love for nature immersion and movement
  • Constitutional assessment labeled him as a mover
  • Began playing tennis at age 14
    • This began the search for optimizing his game, which led to a focus on exercise, nutrition, etc.
  • Endurance sports are more appealing due to the importance of physiology, nutrition, etc.

-Ben Greenfield's routine [9:20]

  • Christian Gratitude Journal
    • One thing grateful for
    • One truth
    • One person to pray for, help, serve
  • Read for 15 minutes
  • Wash face with an oil cleanser
  • Oil pulling for the mouth
  • Make coffee
  • Spend 15 minutes taking care of body – self love
  • 20-30 minutes Morning reading: Twitter, research digests, emails
    • Learning vs. reacting/responding
    • No creating at this point
  • Giant glass of water w/ hydrogen tablets
  • Off to the toilet, take care of business
  • Coffee enemaonce a week
  • Two types of activity per day:
    • Full workout (high-intensity interval training)
    • Light workout: walk in the sun, a swim

-What Ben thinks is underrated when it comes to fitness [20:45]

  • Minimal effective dose of training
  • Time under tension vs. sets and reps
  • Vaspermachine
  • ARX Fitmachine
  • Focus on mindfulness and breath at the gym
    • No phones
    • Exercise your spirit as well as the body

-Thoughts on breathwork through the nose [24:00]

  • Breathing through the nose increases Co2 levels
  • Focus on the exhale, should last slightly longer than the inhale
  • Exhaling through the nose humidifies the air
  • Exercises the diaphragm
  • Regulates the sympathetic system
  • Opti O2 device
  • Meditation: Be driven by your prana (life force)

-What Ben eats for breakfast [27:30]

-A typical day at the office [32:45]

-How to eat meat the right way [36:00]

-More on Ben Greenfield's routine (Mid-afternoon) [38:20]

  • Have lunch around 3 pm
  • Take a nap 20-40 minutes
  • 2-3 more hours of work (small tasks: emails)
  • No coffee after noon
  • Nicotine gumfor a cognitive pick-me-up
  • Hard workout (if not in the morning)

-What Ben dedicates his evenings to [42:30]

  • Belongs entirely to family
  • Family dinner, games
  • Play music: piano, guitar
  • Read, review gratitude journals

-Getting ready for bed [43:45]

-Under the radar hacks to improve your life [49:45]

  • Sunlight exposure first thing in the day
  • Red lightat night
  • Self-quantification
    • Whoop(use BEN for a $30 discount)
  • Test for inflammation and blood glucose

-And much more…

Resources from this episode:

– Book: Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday

– AnneMarie Skin Care products

– RumbleRoller Foam Roller

– Water and Wellness tablets (use GREENFIELD for a 10% discount)

– Vasper

– ARX Fit (use BEN for $500 off shipping and installation)

– Book: The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown

– Book: Deep Work by Cal Newport

– Walking treadmill (use BEN10 to save 10%)

– Opti O2 device

– Ultimate Longevity Grounding mat

– JOOVV Red light therapy device

– TrueForm treadmill (BEN10 to save 10%)

– NuCalm Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation Device (discount applied at checkout, 65% off the first month of any new monthly subscription)

– Biomat Infrared Sleep Mat

– NormaTec Pulsing Compression Recovery Boots

– RA Optics blue light blocking glasses

– ChiliPad Sleep System

– Quicksilver melatonin (use code GREENFIELD15 to save 15%)

– MindFold sleep mask

– ReTimer glasses (use BGF30 for $30 off of your purchase)

– Human Charger (use BEN20 for 20% off)

– Whoop strap (use BEN for a $30 discount)

– Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor

Episode sponsors:

–Kion: My personal playground for new supplement formulations, Kion blends ancestral wisdom with modern science. Ben Greenfield Fitness listeners, receive a 10% discount off your entire order when you use discount code: BGF10.

–Organifi Glow: A plant-based beverage that helps support the body’s natural ability to produce collagen, smooth fine lines and wrinkles, and protect the skin from sun exposure and toxins. Receive a 20% discount on your entire order when you use discount code: BENG20

–ButcherBox: Delivers healthy 100% grass-fed and finished beef, free-range organic chicken, and heritage breed pork directly to your door on a monthly basis. All their products are humanely raised and NEVER given antibiotics or hormones. For 2 lbs of 100% grass-fed beef FREE in every box for the life of your subscription PLUS $20 off your first box go to ButcherBox.com/BEN.

–Native Deodorant: Safe, simple, effective products that people use in the bathroom everyday. Native creates products with trusted ingredients and trusted performance. Get 20% off your first purchase when you use discount code: BEN

 

Ask Ben a Podcast Question

ASK NOW

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *