AMA #14: 2023 Philanthropy, Evening Routine, Light Therapy, Health Metrics & More

00:00:00.000 | - Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast,

00:00:02.260 | where we discuss science and science-based tools

00:00:04.900 | for everyday life.

00:00:05.900 | I'm Andrew Huberman,

00:00:10.620 | and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology

00:00:14.020 | at Stanford School of Medicine.

00:00:16.340 | We are now live today with our annual and lifetime members

00:00:21.340 | of the Huberman Lab Podcast premium channel.

00:00:24.420 | First off, I just want to welcome everyone.

00:00:26.620 | Thanks so much for being here.

00:00:27.740 | I hope you're having a good holidays,

00:00:29.040 | and I'll wish you a happy new year at this point,

00:00:32.000 | and again at the end.

00:00:33.680 | I want to kick off our discussion today

00:00:36.220 | by just highlighting some of the incredible things

00:00:38.480 | that you all have already done.

00:00:41.660 | The premium channel, as most of you presumably know,

00:00:45.960 | provides support for important research.

00:00:49.260 | And when I say important research,

00:00:50.760 | we can define that as research that is done on humans,

00:00:54.860 | with humans, with their consent, of course,

00:00:57.080 | that we believe stands the highest probability

00:00:59.260 | of leading to new quality treatments and improvements

00:01:03.100 | in mental health, physical health, and performance.

00:01:06.500 | So support from the premium channel, that is from you,

00:01:11.200 | has already allowed us to make several substantial gifts

00:01:14.540 | to various laboratories, as well as some other endeavors.

00:01:18.940 | So I'll just quickly tell you where those funds have gone,

00:01:22.300 | and then I'll tell you something really truly exciting

00:01:24.540 | about where we're headed in 2024.

00:01:26.860 | We'll get to the questions in a moment,

00:01:28.120 | but I think this is important to hear.

00:01:29.980 | First of all, we made a year-long gift,

00:01:32.900 | and when I say year-long gift,

00:01:34.140 | we're talking gifts that I certainly can say

00:01:36.380 | from my perspective as a researcher

00:01:37.660 | who's run a laboratory for a very long time.

00:01:40.380 | These are the size gifts that allow researchers

00:01:44.220 | to do research that they otherwise

00:01:45.980 | would not have been able to do.

00:01:47.940 | They pay salaries, they pay for materials in the laboratory,

00:01:51.620 | they pay for the sorts of things that allow science

00:01:54.420 | to happen that would not otherwise happen.

00:01:56.660 | We made a gift to Dr. Alia Crum's laboratory at Stanford

00:02:00.820 | in the Department of Psychology.

00:02:02.820 | She studies mindsets.

00:02:03.860 | Some of you may have seen the episode with Allie,

00:02:06.580 | as she's called, Dr. Crum, on the human lab podcast.

00:02:10.940 | She's studying mindsets and how they affect

00:02:12.600 | both mental health and physical health

00:02:14.780 | in children and adults.

00:02:16.620 | And that work, hopefully we'll get a report back on

00:02:19.060 | at some point soon about how those mindsets

00:02:21.940 | can improve performance in schoolwork, athletics,

00:02:24.580 | and other areas of life.

00:02:25.680 | So the idea here is that you supported that work

00:02:28.300 | through the premium channel, and then that work can happen,

00:02:31.560 | and then we can get the information

00:02:32.780 | about what the conclusions of that work are

00:02:35.020 | out into the general population, meaning into the public,

00:02:38.380 | so that people can benefit from that knowledge right away

00:02:40.900 | and in many cases implement that knowledge.

00:02:42.740 | We also made a gift to Dr. Sachin Panda

00:02:44.420 | at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

00:02:46.140 | Sachin Panda is an expert in circadian biology

00:02:49.340 | and intermittent fasting.

00:02:50.680 | And the study he is using those funds for

00:02:53.660 | relates to intermittent fasting as a specific tool

00:02:57.400 | for improving mental health.

00:02:59.540 | We also made a gift to Dr. Carla Schatz

00:03:02.200 | at Stanford University School of Medicine.

00:03:04.640 | She's studying how the immune system and maternal conditions

00:03:08.040 | and especially infections of various kinds

00:03:11.840 | that pregnant women sometimes encounter or get

00:03:15.640 | can affect the developing fetal brain.

00:03:17.300 | And that work also relates to stem cells.

00:03:19.540 | I know there's a lot of excitement about stem cells nowadays

00:03:21.500 | so I'll give you an update on that as soon as I can.

00:03:23.280 | We also made a substantial gift to Dr. Joanna Steinglass

00:03:26.000 | at Columbia University School of Medicine.

00:03:28.180 | Dr. Steinglass has not yet been on the podcast,

00:03:30.260 | but hopefully she will have time to come on the podcast

00:03:32.640 | at some point soon.

00:03:34.000 | She's studying and developing novel treatments

00:03:35.600 | for eating disorders.

00:03:36.940 | If you didn't see the episode

00:03:38.020 | on healthy and disordered eating,

00:03:40.400 | sadly anorexia nervosa is the most deadly

00:03:44.100 | of all the psychiatric conditions.

00:03:45.980 | That is a great number of patients

00:03:49.040 | that have anorexia nervosa unfortunately go on to die

00:03:53.280 | of malnourishment and things related to malnourishment.

00:03:55.880 | So it's a critical, critical issue

00:03:57.600 | that's not talked about enough

00:03:59.420 | and frankly is not well-funded enough

00:04:02.220 | at the level of federal funding.

00:04:03.360 | But through your support, there's now funding

00:04:05.960 | siphoning into her laboratory

00:04:09.540 | and she's directing those funds directly at novel treatments

00:04:12.640 | based on neuroscience and habit formation

00:04:14.840 | for eating disorders, anorexia and others eating disorders.

00:04:18.560 | Dr. Nolan Williams, also at Stanford,

00:04:20.200 | who does work on transcranial magnetic stimulation,

00:04:22.460 | which is a tool to non-invasively alter neural circuits

00:04:25.460 | in the brain for purposes of relieving depression and PTSD.

00:04:29.600 | And excitingly, Dr. Williams' laboratory

00:04:32.600 | also combines TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation,

00:04:35.920 | with psychedelic treatments,

00:04:38.160 | in particular ibogaine, but also psilocybin.

00:04:40.860 | There's a lot of excitement about that.

00:04:42.280 | And then last, but certainly not least,

00:04:45.080 | we also funded a chronobiology conference.

00:04:48.020 | They were desperate for funds, reached out,

00:04:51.940 | and we were delighted to provide the funds

00:04:54.200 | for that conference.

00:04:55.860 | Those funds allowed graduate students and postdocs

00:04:59.300 | who come from laboratories that couldn't afford

00:05:00.900 | to send those students and postdocs to that conference

00:05:02.680 | to attend that conference.

00:05:04.060 | And I must say from a lot of years of experience

00:05:06.600 | in the scientific community,

00:05:07.500 | the ability to attend these high quality meetings

00:05:09.820 | is absolutely critical for those young scientists

00:05:13.140 | to be able to glean important information

00:05:15.380 | and go back to their own laboratories

00:05:16.940 | and to make novel contributions.

00:05:18.740 | It also can be the difference

00:05:19.660 | between a new collaboration getting sparked up or not.

00:05:23.600 | And I should just mention that the research laboratories

00:05:26.940 | that we fund were at a much higher level

00:05:28.340 | than the conferences, but the conferences, I think,

00:05:30.460 | are also a really important way to direct funds.

00:05:34.760 | For those of you that don't know,

00:05:35.600 | chronobiology is how the timing of light temperature

00:05:37.540 | and exercise and eating affect health.

00:05:39.940 | So all things that I think people are interested in.

00:05:42.980 | So that's it for what we covered

00:05:45.660 | and what we supported in 2023.

00:05:48.100 | We're very proud of the support

00:05:49.180 | that we were able to provide, thanks to your help.

00:05:51.380 | And I am very, very excited to announce

00:05:53.620 | that while in 2023, it was SciComm, us,

00:05:57.500 | the human lab podcast through your premium channel support

00:06:00.540 | that allows us to make that support.

00:06:01.900 | And we had a matching donation, dollar for dollar donation

00:06:04.780 | from the tiny foundation heading into 2024.

00:06:07.700 | Tiny foundation is going to continue to do a dollar, dollar,

00:06:10.780 | a dollar for dollar match, excuse me, which is exciting.

00:06:13.180 | And we've brought on, in addition to that,

00:06:15.380 | two other donors who are going to also do

00:06:18.460 | dollar for dollar donation.

00:06:19.500 | So in other words, for every dollar

00:06:20.760 | that the human lab premium channel has or raises in 2024,

00:06:25.760 | there will be $3 to match that.

00:06:28.620 | So this is phenomenal.

00:06:29.660 | And what it means is that the SciComm

00:06:31.820 | and the human lab podcasts are now doing

00:06:33.780 | what's considered on university campuses

00:06:35.820 | as major philanthropy.

00:06:37.060 | So very exciting.

00:06:38.560 | And so thank you also very much for your support.

00:06:41.200 | You are making a difference in the research.

00:06:43.180 | And I don't just say that.

00:06:44.820 | I know anytime there's fundraisers, things of that sort,

00:06:47.340 | by the way, this is not a fundraiser.

00:06:48.660 | This is us saying thank you to you.

00:06:50.760 | But it's always hard to know where those funds go.

00:06:52.620 | And we make sure that the whole process is very streamlined.

00:06:55.540 | We cut the fat in every dimension

00:06:58.820 | so that the money can go to discovering new tools

00:07:02.780 | for mental health, physical health, and performance.

00:07:04.580 | So thank you so much.

00:07:06.760 | Okay, first question is up.

00:07:08.700 | Carolyn A. writes, "I am interested in studies

00:07:12.420 | about the anterior mid-singulate cortex."

00:07:14.540 | Oh yes, such an interesting structure.

00:07:16.920 | "Would you please share any information regarding those?"

00:07:19.720 | Thank you for all you do in the Advancement of Science.

00:07:21.220 | Thank you for all you do in the Advancement of Science,

00:07:23.840 | Carolyn and others listening.

00:07:25.060 | Okay, so the anterior mid-singulate cortex,

00:07:28.220 | for those of you that may not have seen the episode

00:07:31.040 | on willpower and tenacity, but even if you have,

00:07:34.400 | is a region of the brain that is involved

00:07:36.940 | in leaning into difficult challenges of all kinds.

00:07:42.100 | This is an area of the brain that gets larger

00:07:45.500 | when we embrace effort that leads

00:07:47.600 | to a bit of internal anxiety,

00:07:50.020 | but it's something that's good for us, an adaptive thing.

00:07:52.580 | And this is an area of the brain that gets smaller

00:07:55.160 | when we don't engage in challenging endeavors.

00:07:57.580 | Now, we need to define challenging endeavors very,

00:08:00.340 | specifically, challenging endeavors

00:08:03.180 | that stimulate the growth of the anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:08:05.540 | or challenging endeavors that we would prefer not to do.

00:08:09.140 | We may want the end goal, right?

00:08:10.700 | So we may want the consequence of the exercise,

00:08:13.440 | the consequence of the learning,

00:08:14.700 | the consequence of whatever the challenge is,

00:08:16.780 | but that the challenge itself feels uncomfortable.

00:08:18.940 | And here, of course, we want it to be uncomfortable,

00:08:21.780 | but safe challenges is what's going to grow

00:08:24.080 | the anterior mid-singulate cortex.

00:08:26.160 | Now, another thing about the anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:08:28.540 | that's important is that for people

00:08:30.300 | that end up being successful diet

00:08:31.980 | or successful pursuit of fitness,

00:08:34.060 | for people that complete a degree or finish an exam

00:08:37.940 | or things of that sort, the anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:08:40.840 | gets bigger.

00:08:41.680 | For people that fail to do the work required to prepare,

00:08:44.660 | so the preparation, that is,

00:08:46.940 | the anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:08:48.180 | actually shows a bit of atrophy.

00:08:49.820 | So the anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:08:51.500 | is an anatomical and neural reflection

00:08:53.540 | of willpower and tenacity.

00:08:55.540 | And I think what people get wrong over and over

00:08:58.400 | about these sorts of findings

00:09:00.580 | is that the anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:09:02.460 | is really responding to a variety of inputs,

00:09:05.700 | as a lot of different inputs and outputs,

00:09:07.380 | we know that based on neural circuit tracing,

00:09:09.300 | but it absolutely responds best

00:09:13.300 | to things that feel like that they are indeed difficult,

00:09:16.300 | that they are a challenge.

00:09:17.180 | So if you're like me and you enjoy certain forms of exercise

00:09:20.140 | and it's just pure bliss for you the whole way through,

00:09:22.260 | that's not going to grow your anterior mid-singulate cortex.

00:09:24.520 | However, if you add a bit of, let's say,

00:09:27.140 | higher intensity work,

00:09:28.260 | I like doing a long run or hike on Sundays,

00:09:30.860 | I don't do sprints too often at the end of that,

00:09:33.020 | but if I were to do a couple of hill sprints at the end

00:09:35.100 | and I really was like, ah, this is rough, this sucks,

00:09:38.580 | that's actually the sort of thing

00:09:39.700 | that's going to stimulate the anterior mid-singulate cortex.

00:09:42.700 | The anterior mid-singulate cortex,

00:09:43.940 | since Carolyn, you asked about studies,

00:09:45.220 | was actually discovered in cases

00:09:47.620 | where people were stimulating this brain area

00:09:49.980 | and the subjects,

00:09:51.300 | these were people receiving neurosurgery for other reasons,

00:09:53.540 | reported feeling like something was impending,

00:09:56.920 | some, not impending doom,

00:09:58.540 | but there was some challenge,

00:10:00.500 | like they were going to head into a storm,

00:10:02.020 | something challenging was coming,

00:10:03.860 | but the other subjective feeling that they reported

00:10:06.420 | was feeling like they could lean into it,

00:10:08.300 | like they're ready for it,

00:10:09.220 | they were ready to meet that challenge.

00:10:11.420 | So what you're looking for

00:10:12.980 | when you are interested in growing

00:10:14.460 | your anterior mid-singulate cortex,

00:10:15.920 | and I'll tell you why that's a good thing to do,

00:10:17.780 | is you're looking for that feeling

00:10:19.540 | of leaning into challenge, that friction.

00:10:21.920 | If something's too easy or it's too delightful,

00:10:24.520 | that's not going to contribute

00:10:25.960 | to your anterior mid-singulate cortex function and growth.

00:10:28.820 | It might contribute to other things, indeed it will,

00:10:31.220 | and life isn't all about leaning into challenge,

00:10:34.020 | but why would you want to stimulate

00:10:36.160 | your anterior mid-singulate cortex in this way?

00:10:38.020 | And by the way, those challenges

00:10:39.040 | can come from physical endeavors,

00:10:40.300 | it can come from language learning,

00:10:41.500 | it can come from a hard conversation

00:10:42.960 | that you've been putting off that's hard for you to have,

00:10:46.100 | Lord knows we all have those aspects of our lives,

00:10:48.660 | the things that we're putting off or that are hard for us,

00:10:50.740 | or that feel difficult, again, keep these endeavors safe,

00:10:54.000 | never want to do anything

00:10:54.840 | that would damage your mental health or physical health,

00:10:56.940 | but leaning into challenge in that way

00:10:59.700 | does seem to activate and grow

00:11:02.660 | the anterior mid-singulate cortex.

00:11:04.120 | Now, the advantage of that is that there are studies,

00:11:07.460 | excuse me, showing that the so-called super agers,

00:11:11.300 | the super agers, I don't like that name so much,

00:11:13.140 | it's a bit of a misnomer, they call them super agers,

00:11:15.580 | but they really should be called super non-agers

00:11:17.820 | because these are people

00:11:18.660 | who seem to maintain healthy cognitive function

00:11:21.540 | much longer than most individuals.

00:11:23.900 | Their memory, their IQ remains stable

00:11:27.180 | into their much, much later decades of their life,

00:11:29.480 | or even improves over time.

00:11:31.780 | And then the correlation, and again, this is correlation,

00:11:34.120 | but these people's anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:11:36.320 | does not atrophy.

00:11:37.160 | And in general, what the studies point to,

00:11:39.120 | and there still needs to be more data collected on this,

00:11:41.520 | is that these people are regularly engaging in things

00:11:44.560 | that are hard for them and challenging,

00:11:45.880 | and they've embraced that challenge.

00:11:47.000 | So lots to say about anterior mid-singulate cortex,

00:11:50.160 | but I think that grabs the top contour.

00:11:52.960 | And I'm a big fan of trying to do something difficult,

00:11:56.520 | at least one thing, ideally every week,

00:12:00.040 | and perhaps even every day, a little bit,

00:12:02.360 | it doesn't take much, maybe even just five minutes.

00:12:04.820 | It's that friction, that feeling,

00:12:06.160 | oh, I don't want to do this, I can't do this,

00:12:07.960 | and then continuing to practice

00:12:09.540 | or continuing to lean into that challenge safely, of course,

00:12:12.600 | that is going to grow that anterior mid-signal cortex.

00:12:15.080 | And I just think that's amazing, right?

00:12:16.600 | We hear so much about brain atrophy and memory loss

00:12:19.040 | and et cetera, et cetera, as we get older,

00:12:21.040 | a lot of data now about how to preserve

00:12:22.740 | healthy physical function.

00:12:24.200 | Here, we're really talking about

00:12:25.120 | how to maintain healthy cognitive function,

00:12:26.880 | and the anterior mid-singulate cortex

00:12:28.360 | seems to be a barometer of how well we are doing that.

00:12:31.560 | Mark S. asks, "Would love to hear more

00:12:34.160 | about an evening routine and not just morning,

00:12:36.260 | especially when it comes to light."

00:12:37.500 | Ooh, I love this question.

00:12:38.820 | I love this question because I've made a lot of changes

00:12:40.640 | in the last year related to this,

00:12:42.020 | because there's this guy on the internet

00:12:44.900 | that talks about the importance of getting morning sunlight.

00:12:47.360 | Just kidding.

00:12:48.200 | There are several of us, and gals,

00:12:52.280 | but I suppose I've been quite vocal

00:12:54.580 | about the importance of getting morning sunlight

00:12:56.320 | as soon as possible after waking.

00:12:57.680 | And of course, of course, of course,

00:12:59.160 | unless you have powers I'm not aware of,

00:13:00.520 | if you wake up before the sun comes out,

00:13:02.240 | people always ask, "What do I do?"

00:13:03.560 | You wait till the sun comes out.

00:13:04.900 | If it's overcast, you get outside a bit longer.

00:13:07.360 | If you want to wake up before the sun comes out,

00:13:10.060 | turn on bright artificial lights.

00:13:11.680 | Now, these days I've actually been playing around

00:13:13.200 | a little bit with some bright artificial lights

00:13:15.080 | because I tend to wake up before the sun is out.

00:13:17.680 | It's the winter months.

00:13:18.520 | But in any case, I've talked a lot about the morning routine

00:13:21.240 | in the early part of the day

00:13:22.220 | and a bit about the afternoon part of the day.

00:13:25.280 | Evening routine.

00:13:26.880 | Okay, well, I'll tell you ideal,

00:13:28.760 | and then I'll tell you what I do.

00:13:31.640 | I'm always shooting for ideal, but I'm human.

00:13:34.200 | I think there's this idea on the internet

00:13:37.080 | that I've seen that my whole life is protocols.

00:13:39.880 | Protocol, protocol, protocol.

00:13:41.180 | And indeed, sometimes it looks like that,

00:13:43.320 | and indeed, sometimes it doesn't.

00:13:44.780 | I'm human, things happen.

00:13:46.380 | We all encounter different challenges.

00:13:49.600 | So to answer your question directly, Mark,

00:13:52.220 | I think it's, I know it's very important that if possible,

00:13:55.740 | that you get a little splash of sunlight in your eyes

00:13:58.940 | in the afternoon and evening.

00:14:00.340 | Why, why is that important?

00:14:02.080 | And what we're really talking about here

00:14:03.400 | is not necessarily seeing a sunset at the beach,

00:14:06.240 | although that would be great if you could do that,

00:14:07.820 | but getting some sunlight in your eyes

00:14:09.120 | before the sun goes down, maybe for five, 10 minutes.

00:14:12.660 | It's not as important as the morning sunlight,

00:14:15.380 | but it does have a great benefit.

00:14:17.060 | And the benefit is it adjusts the sensitivity

00:14:19.740 | of the neurons in your retina and in your brain

00:14:21.440 | such that it protects you against brighter artificial lights

00:14:25.920 | later in the evening.

00:14:26.760 | Now, it doesn't protect you completely,

00:14:28.160 | but what it does is if normally, and this is true,

00:14:32.080 | bright light viewed for 15 seconds or more

00:14:35.340 | between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.

00:14:37.940 | I'm talking about somebody on a standard schedule,

00:14:39.500 | not shift worker.

00:14:40.640 | Bright lights viewed for 15 seconds or more

00:14:44.500 | between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.

00:14:47.260 | can dramatically quash melatonin levels,

00:14:51.180 | melatonin being the hormone that's involved

00:14:52.740 | in feeling sleepy and falling asleep.

00:14:54.340 | It does other things as well, of course.

00:14:56.100 | It's secreted from the pineal.

00:14:57.600 | We know based on a really nice study

00:15:00.740 | published in Science Reports that if you view that afternoon,

00:15:04.180 | late afternoon, evening sunlight,

00:15:06.220 | you don't have to be too strict about the time.

00:15:08.420 | Pop your sunglasses off as long as you can do that safely.

00:15:10.540 | Get some sunlight in your eyes,

00:15:11.740 | or if you can't look directly at the sun,

00:15:13.620 | and by the way, never stare directly at the sun,

00:15:15.620 | at least getting some daylight in your eyes

00:15:17.460 | before the sun goes down.

00:15:18.900 | That can offset that melatonin reduction by about 50, 5-0%,

00:15:22.900 | which is pretty impressive.

00:15:24.740 | Now, you would still do well

00:15:26.660 | to dim the lights in the evening.

00:15:28.520 | And one thing that I've been playing with recently

00:15:31.220 | is using red lights.

00:15:33.300 | So a lot of people, when they hear red lights,

00:15:36.440 | they think, oh, you're talking about red light panel,

00:15:39.580 | which that has its uses.

00:15:40.840 | Those tend to be very bright red lights.

00:15:42.700 | Or, you know, portable red light.

00:15:44.940 | I actually use a small portable red light.

00:15:46.900 | It looks like a piece of, thick piece of toast.

00:15:48.860 | I use that for other reasons.

00:15:50.700 | This is not what we're talking about with evening routine.

00:15:52.500 | With evening routine, it can be beneficial

00:15:55.200 | and very, very cost-effective to get some red bulbs

00:15:59.520 | and put them in, say, the bedroom where you read

00:16:02.280 | before you go to sleep,

00:16:03.380 | or in a particular room in your house

00:16:05.580 | that you tend to spend time in in the evening.

00:16:07.440 | Makes for a nice mellow feel,

00:16:09.420 | but it also does several other things.

00:16:11.180 | First of all, if they're the correct red bulbs,

00:16:14.660 | and I'll mention the ones that I've been using in a moment,

00:16:17.080 | they eliminate all the blue wavelengths

00:16:19.600 | that tend to be stimulating for the,

00:16:23.220 | what we call the noradrenergic system.

00:16:24.620 | So adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol, et cetera.

00:16:27.660 | Indeed, there's a study that shows that

00:16:29.980 | when shift workers who have to be up at night

00:16:32.360 | use red lights of the type that I'm describing,

00:16:35.020 | when they work under red light,

00:16:36.860 | they have less of a cortisol increase

00:16:40.300 | than were they to work under standard fluorescent lights

00:16:42.460 | or even standard LED lights.

00:16:44.700 | So number one thing would be dim the lights in the evening

00:16:47.300 | and at night as much as you safely can

00:16:49.300 | to perform whatever functions you need.

00:16:50.620 | Don't fall, you know, don't burn yourself with a stove.

00:16:52.300 | You know, if you have to write and do work,

00:16:53.800 | as I often do, you need light.

00:16:55.860 | But to the extent that you can shift to red lights,

00:16:58.400 | that can be helpful.

00:16:59.240 | And many people, many people, and myself included,

00:17:01.800 | find that you get sleepier when you do that.

00:17:04.660 | So I might just do this for the last hour of the evening,

00:17:06.700 | even if I'm up till 10 or 11.

00:17:08.660 | Or if I do it earlier, then I tend to get really sleepy.

00:17:11.440 | But those red lights, you know,

00:17:13.320 | I have a little lamp above my bed.

00:17:15.020 | I'll do that if I'm going to read in bed.

00:17:17.140 | I'll make it much easier to fall asleep,

00:17:18.380 | probably because of the reduced cortisol

00:17:20.260 | associated with eliminating the blue wavelengths.

00:17:22.700 | And they tend to be fairly dim.

00:17:23.980 | And now there's one brand of red light

00:17:26.300 | that you actually can, that actually will work on a dimmer.

00:17:30.220 | So this is important.

00:17:31.580 | I suppose you could use red party lights or Christmas lights.

00:17:34.260 | Those can be very affordable.

00:17:36.300 | Some people do that, but it's kind of festive feel

00:17:38.640 | in the room.

00:17:39.480 | Other people, like myself,

00:17:41.100 | will use a red light that's dimmable.

00:17:45.580 | I want to mention that what I'm about to say,

00:17:47.380 | I don't have any financial relationship to this company

00:17:49.780 | in terms of the bulbs.

00:17:51.580 | Red light panels are different.

00:17:52.700 | I use the Juve.

00:17:54.220 | I use Juve type.

00:17:55.440 | But for red lights that,

00:17:57.060 | for the purpose that I'm talking about,

00:17:58.180 | that would go into a standard lamp and that you dim,

00:18:00.380 | where that's a very different purpose, right?

00:18:02.900 | The red light panels have a very different purpose

00:18:04.700 | than red bulbs that you would put

00:18:06.380 | into a standard light fixture.

00:18:08.240 | The dimmable ones are called,

00:18:10.700 | you can find them as red light.

00:18:11.820 | You just put BON.

00:18:13.540 | It's the technical name of the company is,

00:18:18.540 | sorry, forgive me for Googling this now.

00:18:21.300 | Yeah, it's a BON charge, B-O-N, separate word, charge.

00:18:26.100 | And those are dimmable and they have the proper wavelength.

00:18:29.020 | So that's what I use.

00:18:30.780 | They're not super cheap, but they're not expensive either

00:18:32.780 | in comparison to most red light therapies or something.

00:18:35.660 | So we're not talking about red light therapy.

00:18:36.860 | We're talking about reducing the overall amount

00:18:39.140 | of blue light in your environment, et cetera.

00:18:40.540 | Now, for many people who don't want

00:18:42.380 | to purchase something new,

00:18:43.300 | and again, I have no financial relationship to BON charge.

00:18:46.220 | So I don't glean anything.

00:18:48.300 | I buy them with my own money

00:18:50.180 | and I just have one or two of them and I dim the lights.

00:18:52.840 | Even those red lights I dim while I'm reading at night

00:18:54.680 | and then fall asleep.

00:18:55.740 | If you don't want to use red lights for whatever reason,

00:19:00.100 | then you would be wise to just dim the lights that you have

00:19:03.120 | and where possible to have those lights be set fairly low

00:19:06.200 | in your room environment.

00:19:07.540 | Now, why would that be?

00:19:08.460 | Okay, well, first of all,

00:19:09.300 | the cells that activate the alertness system in the brain

00:19:12.540 | via the retina, your eye,

00:19:15.040 | tend to look up into your environment.

00:19:16.660 | And that makes sense because they're essentially there

00:19:18.860 | to view sunlight and the presence or absence of sunlight.

00:19:21.920 | But in addition to that, think about it logically.

00:19:25.380 | If I take a flashlight and I shine a beam on the ground

00:19:28.080 | or at a tree in the yard, it looks very bright.

00:19:31.320 | But you're not getting all those photons in your eyes, right?

00:19:34.260 | You're seeing it at a distance.

00:19:35.860 | As opposed to shining the light in your eyes,

00:19:37.320 | it's very, very bright, okay?

00:19:38.920 | So when you have lights that are overhead

00:19:40.520 | and going into your eyes,

00:19:41.520 | it's very different than the light being on the floor

00:19:43.660 | or on a surface.

00:19:45.380 | This gets back to something that I often get asked.

00:19:47.260 | How could it be that viewing sunlight through a window

00:19:50.700 | takes 50 times longer to activate your circadian system

00:19:53.520 | than it does when you step outside?

00:19:54.860 | Well, let's think about that.

00:19:55.700 | When you step outside, there's sunlight everywhere.

00:19:58.080 | If you face the sun, there's even more coming at you.

00:20:00.660 | But when you're inside,

00:20:01.560 | unless there's a beam of light coming through that window

00:20:03.840 | and the window is very clear or open for that matter,

00:20:07.120 | you're not really getting the light in your eyes

00:20:09.580 | in the same way that if you were outside

00:20:11.000 | with the sunlight in your eyes, right?

00:20:12.460 | It's the same thing as like looking at a beam of light

00:20:14.140 | from a flashlight against a wall

00:20:15.300 | versus the beam of light going at your eyes, okay?

00:20:17.980 | So we talked about dimming the lights,

00:20:19.980 | setting them low in the room.

00:20:21.620 | It's not red light therapy,

00:20:23.840 | but changing over to red lights.

00:20:25.620 | Bon Charge is probably just one of many out there.

00:20:27.720 | I've seen it done pretty nicely with just somebody,

00:20:30.240 | people grab red party lights,

00:20:31.420 | go on whatever your favorite search engine sales site,

00:20:34.700 | and red lights, and you could do that.

00:20:36.180 | That's gonna be better than any blue lights.

00:20:37.740 | And then if you're gonna be on your screens,

00:20:39.780 | here's what I suggest.

00:20:40.620 | There's a shortcut function in your phone

00:20:43.560 | where you can triple click to switch your phone over

00:20:45.860 | to eliminate all the blues.

00:20:47.460 | This is very different

00:20:48.940 | than just using the nighttime function, very different.

00:20:51.780 | And I think we should probably put out a video

00:20:53.660 | on how to do this.

00:20:54.480 | What you do is you go into the accessibility function

00:20:57.260 | on your phone, you go into color filters,

00:20:59.140 | and then you drag down the blues,

00:21:02.240 | but that's not how your phone is gonna be set all day

00:21:04.140 | 'cause then you don't see anything that's in blue,

00:21:06.200 | but you can introduce a triple click function.

00:21:08.180 | I'll put out a clip soon on how to do that.

00:21:09.700 | And so when I go to sleep at night or in the evening,

00:21:12.520 | what I'll do is I'll triple click

00:21:13.740 | and I'll switch my phone over to red only.

00:21:17.340 | And that's completely zero cost.

00:21:19.120 | By the way, it doesn't cost anything.

00:21:20.480 | And then in the morning,

00:21:21.320 | when I wake up at click, click, click and turn on,

00:21:23.220 | although I try and get the sunlight in my eyes

00:21:24.580 | before I look at my phone.

00:21:26.560 | Okay, Tom M. asks, light therapy recommendations

00:21:30.100 | for those that live in Northern regions

00:21:31.760 | with limited morning light or too cold to get outside

00:21:34.440 | for morning light, dark when waking, do red light therapy?

00:21:37.180 | Great question.

00:21:38.020 | I'm gonna take a sip of this bone broth

00:21:39.380 | because at the rate I'm speaking,

00:21:42.180 | if I try and keep this up for an hour and a half,

00:21:43.700 | I might get a little hoarse.

00:21:46.220 | Red light therapy is different than what I just described.

00:21:49.160 | Red light therapy is the use of red light panels.

00:21:52.060 | Can be smaller panels, like the small juve that I use,

00:21:54.500 | which is a unit, it's about the size of a piece,

00:21:56.880 | I guess they call it Texas toast, right?

00:21:59.700 | Texas, thick piece of toast.

00:22:01.900 | Maybe someone knows why it's called Texas toast.

00:22:04.220 | I guess it's big.

00:22:06.020 | It's about the size of a piece of toast,

00:22:10.340 | provides very bright red light.

00:22:11.660 | And in between those red lights on there,

00:22:13.620 | there tends to be near infrared light, so far red.

00:22:16.500 | So, you know, to a biologist,

00:22:19.140 | red doesn't mean as much as the wavelength of light.

00:22:22.060 | So wavelengths in like the 650 to 800 nanometers

00:22:26.220 | is what we're talking about.

00:22:27.120 | Whereas blue light is down in the, you know,

00:22:28.820 | four and five hundreds and really like 535 to, you know,

00:22:32.380 | low sixes, you know, like the rainbow, right?

00:22:35.740 | Red, orange and green, blue.

00:22:37.140 | There are also larger red light panels.

00:22:41.420 | And nowadays I also see a lot of advertisements

00:22:44.020 | for red light panels.

00:22:44.840 | You can actually lie down in red light beds.

00:22:46.940 | Here's the story.

00:22:48.020 | Red light will often be marketed as the most powerful,

00:22:51.660 | the most intensity, the most luxe.

00:22:53.380 | Most important is the proper wavelengths

00:22:56.680 | or are the proper wavelengths.

00:22:58.360 | So that's why I use the Juve,

00:23:00.020 | because Juve has the proper wavelengths of red and far red.

00:23:03.900 | The distance to view a red light of that sort

00:23:08.180 | generally is about 18 inches, sometimes a little closer.

00:23:11.020 | Now, sometimes people would put red light

00:23:12.820 | on different parts of their body.

00:23:14.720 | I covered a bit of this in the light and health episode,

00:23:16.740 | but red light, because it's longer wavelength light

00:23:19.640 | can permeate through tissues to fairly substantial depth.

00:23:22.740 | How deep depends on the tissue.

00:23:24.020 | If you put it up against your skull,

00:23:25.420 | is it going to get down into your brain?

00:23:26.620 | No, it's not going to get through your skull.

00:23:28.660 | Maybe a little bit.

00:23:30.260 | If it's a very high powered red light,

00:23:32.140 | if you're holding a red light of that power at home,

00:23:34.720 | something's wrong.

00:23:35.560 | I don't, that's a medical, that's a medical device.

00:23:37.860 | However, Juve are medical grade red light

00:23:40.420 | and near infrared lights, and they are quite powerful.

00:23:44.600 | They're the right wavelengths.

00:23:45.820 | Actually, that's why I prefer Juve,

00:23:47.060 | because they are medical grade.

00:23:49.960 | They can be directed at your eyes in the morning

00:23:55.300 | for the purpose of, there's a study out of,

00:23:57.360 | two studies actually out of Glenn Jeffries Laboratory

00:23:59.380 | at the University College London,

00:24:00.740 | showing that viewing red lights at a distance

00:24:03.160 | of about 18 inches or so in the morning

00:24:07.180 | for people who are over 40, but not for people younger,

00:24:10.260 | by the way, that can offset some

00:24:13.540 | of the age-related reductions in mitochondrial function

00:24:17.500 | and vision loss.

00:24:18.560 | So I look at a red light in this, my Juve Texas Toast light,

00:24:22.020 | or I have a Juve panel, at a distance of about,

00:24:25.180 | I confess I stand about 12 to 18 inches away,

00:24:28.500 | and I do not force myself to look at that light.

00:24:31.260 | I don't hold my eyelids open.

00:24:32.620 | I allow myself to blink so I'm comfortable.

00:24:35.380 | Truth told, you could probably close your eyelids,

00:24:37.260 | and some of that red light is going to get

00:24:38.560 | through your eyelids.

00:24:39.420 | Not a ton, but some.

00:24:41.100 | So no problem blinking.

00:24:42.920 | You never, ever, ever want to look at any light,

00:24:44.900 | sunlight or otherwise, red light,

00:24:46.300 | any light so bright that it's painful to look at.

00:24:48.860 | If you have to blink, it's too bright, step back.

00:24:52.080 | If you have to blink every once in a while, that's okay,

00:24:53.900 | but if you have to blink in order to close your eyes,

00:24:56.020 | in order to protect your eyes,

00:24:57.660 | then you're standing too close.

00:24:59.620 | In the morning, you can do red light therapy.

00:25:01.100 | On skin, you can do it on eyes.

00:25:02.520 | Will it wake your system up?

00:25:04.460 | Will it provide the kind of cortisol increase,

00:25:07.220 | which by the way, you want early in the day,

00:25:09.340 | and adrenaline and dopamine increase

00:25:11.060 | that sunlight can provide?

00:25:12.860 | The answer is no.

00:25:15.000 | Sunlight is unique in that way.

00:25:16.300 | However, if you live in an area of the world

00:25:18.580 | that's too dark, or you wake up long before

00:25:22.020 | you get sunlight in your eyes, what can you do?

00:25:24.140 | Well, you can flip on artificial lights.

00:25:25.900 | You would do that the opposite

00:25:27.040 | of how I recommend in the evening.

00:25:28.420 | You'd want to flip on overhead lights as bright as possible.

00:25:31.880 | If you have the disposable income and you want to invest

00:25:35.160 | in a 10,000 lux light panel or a 900 lux light panel,

00:25:38.600 | again, I have no financial relationship to these companies,

00:25:41.020 | but there's a light panel, 900 lux drawing tablet

00:25:45.140 | that I've set on my desk for a number of years.

00:25:47.060 | Recently, I confess I've started experimenting

00:25:51.580 | with some of the 10,000 lux light panels

00:25:54.220 | that sit on your desk.

00:25:55.660 | Excuse me, those are very, very bright.

00:25:57.420 | And I do use that now if I wake up really early

00:25:59.700 | and I'm going to do some work,

00:26:00.540 | I'll turn that thing on and it sure wakes you up.

00:26:03.100 | Now, is it as good as sunlight?

00:26:04.700 | No, it doesn't have the right color features

00:26:07.020 | and alternation between yellow and blue

00:26:09.100 | that morning sunlight has and that evening sunlight has.

00:26:11.740 | And without doing a whole tutorial,

00:26:13.140 | when the sun is low in the sky,

00:26:14.340 | so-called low solar angle sunlight,

00:26:15.700 | you'll notice if you take a picture with your phone,

00:26:17.500 | provided it's not a cloudy day,

00:26:19.080 | you'll see that there's a lot of blue yellow contrast

00:26:21.500 | and that's the optimal stimulus.

00:26:23.160 | That said, if it's overcast out,

00:26:26.060 | you should still get outside

00:26:27.080 | because some of those wavelengths are coming through

00:26:28.540 | even though you can't perceive the blue and the yellow.

00:26:30.740 | So these, you could get a 10,000 lux light,

00:26:33.220 | but if you can't afford that or you don't want to,

00:26:35.660 | oh, and by the way, those you set on your desk,

00:26:37.520 | you turn on for five, 10 minutes

00:26:38.800 | while you're making coffee and things of that sort.

00:26:40.340 | They actually recommend that you don't keep them on too much.

00:26:42.780 | Some people actually can feel a little too euphoric

00:26:44.920 | and maybe even get a little headache

00:26:45.880 | 'cause it's a lot of blue light.

00:26:47.640 | So that's one thing.

00:26:48.760 | The other thing you can do

00:26:50.380 | is that if you can't access light of any kind,

00:26:53.660 | so dark, dark, dark,

00:26:54.500 | that's where the cold shower really can help

00:26:56.140 | 'cause you get that adrenaline bump early in the day,

00:26:59.040 | which is good.

00:26:59.880 | So early in the day,

00:27:00.720 | provided that you're not going into states of anxiety

00:27:02.940 | as a consequence of it, getting adrenaline,

00:27:05.460 | dopamine, cortisol increases is great.

00:27:07.480 | And then as the day goes on in the evening and nighttime,

00:27:10.020 | certainly you want to taper

00:27:11.380 | the levels of those neurochemicals off.

00:27:12.980 | Now, of course, there's always going to be some cortisol.

00:27:14.940 | There's always going to be some epinephrine.

00:27:16.200 | There'll always be dopamine in your system.

00:27:18.060 | If you go out dancing, you go to a party at night,

00:27:20.020 | should you worry about the lights?

00:27:21.180 | No.

00:27:22.020 | Okay, I am not,

00:27:23.060 | despite what you might presume or hear or read,

00:27:27.120 | I am not the sort of person who wears sunglasses at a party.

00:27:30.420 | Although the other day I was at a party

00:27:31.620 | and someone was wearing sunglasses.

00:27:32.620 | I think it was for other reasons.

00:27:34.060 | That gives the impression there was something bad going on.

00:27:38.480 | I think they were just like looking cool by the way.

00:27:41.120 | And they did look cool, but I don't do that.

00:27:42.720 | And if I drive at night, I don't wear sunglasses.

00:27:46.960 | I do.

00:27:48.560 | And I have been exploring the use of blue light filter

00:27:52.120 | glasses in the evening and those red lights in my house.

00:27:54.120 | But I think for most people,

00:27:55.080 | if you get out every once in a while,

00:27:56.040 | you go out to a late night, you go out dancing,

00:27:57.680 | you have a party with friends.

00:27:59.080 | You know, you get home, dim the lights,

00:28:01.040 | maybe use those red lights, get to sleep.

00:28:03.040 | Early in the day, bright lights, ideally from sunlight,

00:28:05.460 | bright, bright, bright, bright, bright.

00:28:06.760 | How bright?

00:28:07.600 | As bright as possible and as many as you is reasonable,

00:28:11.120 | except to the extent that it could damage your eyes.

00:28:14.480 | So don't be staring at any bright lights excessively.

00:28:17.040 | Okay?

00:28:17.880 | I think that that pretty much summarizes it.

00:28:19.320 | And then of course, early day,

00:28:21.200 | it's really about sunlight or light of other kinds.

00:28:24.480 | Cold water, if that's your thing.

00:28:25.580 | If that's not your thing, that's fine.

00:28:28.040 | There was no tablet that descended down to us,

00:28:30.580 | telling us that we had to get into cold water each day.

00:28:32.620 | It's an option.

00:28:33.460 | It's all an option.

00:28:34.320 | Dennis from Munich.

00:28:37.420 | I love Munich.

00:28:38.260 | I haven't been there in a while,

00:28:39.140 | but I used to go in Max Planck, Munich

00:28:42.680 | for a number of times per year.

00:28:45.260 | And I miss the food.

00:28:46.480 | I miss the schnitzel.

00:28:48.100 | As we approach a new year,

00:28:49.160 | what health and fitness metrics do you recommend checking?

00:28:51.540 | Oh, good one.

00:28:52.540 | And could you share

00:28:53.380 | your annual medical fitness check routine?

00:28:56.080 | Okay.

00:28:56.920 | What I'm about to say,

00:29:00.200 | I'm sure will generally jibe with what Dr. Peter Attia,

00:29:05.200 | who I'm sure you all know and who I respect tremendously,

00:29:08.820 | also grateful to call him a close friend,

00:29:11.160 | basically asserts is important for fitness.

00:29:15.160 | I think if you're going to do a fitness test,

00:29:20.580 | you know, Peter's got it in mind and I generally agree,

00:29:23.620 | you know, you deadlift your body weight 10 times

00:29:26.180 | in the same set,

00:29:27.300 | hang from a bar for a minute or more.

00:29:29.620 | Okay.

00:29:30.760 | In the same set.

00:29:33.140 | These sorts of things.

00:29:34.980 | I tend to be far less PE class about it, frankly.

00:29:39.680 | My goal is always the same.

00:29:41.680 | I'm 48 years old.

00:29:42.720 | I've been doing the same training program

00:29:44.100 | ever since I was 16, more or less.

00:29:47.120 | I mean, I've had, you know, peaks and valleys

00:29:49.900 | in terms of my consistency based on other obligations.

00:29:52.660 | And of course, when I'm sick, I don't train.

00:29:55.160 | Sick people stay out of gyms, please.

00:29:57.140 | Nothing makes me more frustrated than people showing up

00:30:00.200 | to get their workout and getting everybody sick.

00:30:03.260 | Here's the deal.

00:30:04.100 | I try to be capable, that is ready for various things.

00:30:10.980 | What?

00:30:11.860 | The ability to go on a long hike.

00:30:13.040 | What's a long hike?

00:30:13.880 | Five to 10 miles with some hills.

00:30:15.980 | The ability to sprint for the airplane

00:30:18.740 | without blowing a gasket.

00:30:20.520 | The ability or that means hurting oneself

00:30:23.580 | or having a heart attack.

00:30:24.740 | The ability to carry some heavy furniture

00:30:27.940 | with assistance safely.

00:30:30.620 | Or God forbid, to take a trip and not damage myself.

00:30:34.220 | And of course, to have some level of agility

00:30:37.540 | and coordination.

00:30:38.980 | So how does one do that?

00:30:40.300 | So what health fitness metrics do I recommend checking?

00:30:43.860 | Well, I'm going to do this next week

00:30:45.060 | because it's the end of the year.

00:30:46.640 | But pretty much every week, it's the following.

00:30:48.660 | Three cardiovascular training sessions.

00:30:51.640 | One is long, meaning an hour to 90 minutes.

00:30:54.280 | That's going to be slow for me.

00:30:55.620 | So this could be a weighted hike.

00:30:56.880 | So a weight-vested hike.

00:30:58.220 | Or you could just put some weight in a backpack.

00:30:59.840 | Or just be a hike if it's really steep.

00:31:01.820 | Or a long, slow jog once a week.

00:31:03.920 | For me, it's jogging or hiking.

00:31:05.260 | For other people, it's cycling or swimming.

00:31:07.360 | Sometime in the middle of the week,

00:31:10.520 | I'm doing a 35-minute run.

00:31:12.260 | So maybe five minutes of warmup

00:31:13.820 | and then a faster 35-minute run.

00:31:16.620 | You could also do it on a rower.

00:31:17.560 | You could also do it on a bike.

00:31:18.420 | But you're really pushing up around, I don't know, maybe,

00:31:21.580 | I don't tend to measure heart rate,

00:31:23.080 | but where it's, I could not hold a conversation.

00:31:25.480 | I'm working, I'm working, working.

00:31:27.140 | I'm not sprinting, but I'm working.

00:31:28.500 | And then another time during the week,

00:31:30.100 | a shorter workout of about 12 minutes.

00:31:31.860 | It's going to be three minutes of warmup, some calisthenics,

00:31:34.300 | a little bit of cycling on an assault bike

00:31:36.060 | or something of that sort.

00:31:36.900 | Assault bikes are the ones where you have the handles

00:31:38.540 | with the fan.

00:31:39.820 | Or it could be a rower.

00:31:41.140 | Or it could be sprinting a hill.

00:31:42.960 | And then doing sometimes one minute on, one minute off

00:31:46.900 | for 12 minutes.

00:31:47.980 | Sometimes doing 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off

00:31:50.940 | for eight rounds.

00:31:52.340 | And it's real work.

00:31:53.340 | It's getting the heart rate all the way up, VO2 max.

00:31:56.100 | The combination of those three types

00:31:57.480 | of cardiovascular training sessions

00:31:59.360 | are that I'm ready to sprint for the airplane.

00:32:01.680 | I'm ready to take a long hike anytime.

00:32:04.420 | I can go out for a two mile run

00:32:05.760 | and really enjoy that if I need to.

00:32:07.760 | It's a readiness thing.

00:32:09.100 | And I think it covers all bases.

00:32:10.340 | Am I ever going to be a marathoner

00:32:12.260 | or a champion sprinter with that or a miler?

00:32:14.820 | No, but that's not my goal.

00:32:16.580 | And it never has been.

00:32:18.000 | I ran a cross country race in high school

00:32:20.300 | and we'll tell that story another time.

00:32:22.300 | It was a lot of fun until I hit the second mile.

00:32:26.840 | The other thing I do three times a week

00:32:29.380 | is I work out with resistance training.

00:32:31.140 | I train my legs one day.

00:32:32.340 | So that's calves, hamstrings, quads.

00:32:34.700 | I train my torso.

00:32:36.020 | So that's, I do some pushing for my shoulders

00:32:38.580 | and upper chest and some dips, that kind of thing.

00:32:40.480 | Some pull-ups, some rowing, the sort of thing.

00:32:42.500 | And I train my neck 'cause I'm a big believer in that

00:32:44.340 | for the upper spine, but don't go at it heavy.

00:32:47.400 | It's just really to maintain posture

00:32:50.280 | and to make sure that upper spine is supported,

00:32:52.480 | something that most people neglect.

00:32:54.240 | And then one day a week, I do smaller body parts.

00:33:00.240 | Like I'll train my calves again, biceps, triceps.

00:33:04.320 | I'll make sure that if there are any small body parts

00:33:06.120 | that happen to miss during the middle of the week

00:33:07.480 | because of scheduling like rear delts or something,

00:33:09.080 | I'll do that, maybe a little bit more neck work

00:33:10.560 | or some ab work.

00:33:11.400 | Okay, those are spread out about a day apart.

00:33:14.800 | I don't get too obsessed with the spacing

00:33:16.520 | between those workouts,

00:33:17.840 | but they're not all stacked against one another.

00:33:19.640 | So it might be, in my case, it's long run on Sunday.

00:33:22.920 | This is just how I do it.

00:33:23.760 | Monday tends to be off.

00:33:26.080 | Excuse me, long run on Sunday or hike.

00:33:28.320 | Monday is legs.

00:33:29.600 | Excuse me, Monday is always legs.

00:33:31.660 | Tuesday off, Wednesday, I generally would do

00:33:34.460 | that shorter run or the torso work.

00:33:36.320 | I'll flip-flop them depending on how my legs are feeling.

00:33:38.960 | And the next day I do whatever I need to do,

00:33:40.980 | either the torso resistance training or the 35 minute run.

00:33:44.700 | And then Fridays, that faster clip cardio.

00:33:48.100 | Saturday tends to be the smaller body parts,

00:33:50.100 | biceps, triceps, et cetera.

00:33:51.780 | I must say these days of the week

00:33:54.020 | always have the ability to slide one way or the other.

00:33:57.740 | So for instance, if I'm traveling

00:33:59.360 | and I don't get back on Sunday until late,

00:34:02.620 | if I was not able to do that training

00:34:04.980 | while I was on the road, then I will do it on Monday.

00:34:07.620 | And then I'll just slide things around

00:34:09.260 | so that I finish off the week with everything done

00:34:11.060 | and I can get back on schedule.

00:34:12.300 | But the way I've arranged it,

00:34:13.860 | every body part gets hit twice,

00:34:15.220 | once directly, once indirectly.

00:34:17.060 | And the cardiovascular training covers all bases.

00:34:20.420 | Why train this way?

00:34:21.880 | Well, it ensures strength.

00:34:24.020 | It ensures whatever aesthetic changes you want.

00:34:26.100 | You can emphasize working harder and more sets,

00:34:28.500 | perhaps for the things that you want to bring up

00:34:30.940 | certain body parts that are weaker.

00:34:33.140 | You can certainly recover

00:34:35.380 | 'cause you're only training legs once a week.

00:34:36.700 | But guess what?

00:34:37.580 | You're doing them on Monday and you're sprinting on Friday.

00:34:39.460 | So they're getting hit indirectly on Friday,

00:34:42.340 | even if it's on the bike, that fast, hard pedaling

00:34:44.580 | with resistance is going to make sure

00:34:46.460 | that your legs aren't going to atrophy.

00:34:48.620 | You can still get,

00:34:49.960 | but you can still train them again on Monday, again.

00:34:52.840 | So this schedule is designed in a very specific way.

00:34:55.540 | None of the workouts except the longer workout on Sunday,

00:34:58.560 | that jog or run is longer than an hour ever.

00:35:01.260 | It's 10 minutes of warmup and 55 zero minutes

00:35:03.580 | of work in the gym, sometimes 60.

00:35:05.780 | Sometimes I'll truncate to 45 or 40

00:35:07.660 | if I'm really, I have a bunch of things going on.

00:35:09.740 | So this sort of schedule sounds like a lot,

00:35:12.040 | but it's not, it's actually a very small investment.

00:35:14.100 | It's about an hour a day and not even on Tuesday,

00:35:17.040 | which is a rest day.

00:35:18.660 | So what are the metrics that I recommend checking?

00:35:21.340 | Well, I'm a big believer that if you're sleeping well

00:35:24.340 | and your appetite is consistent

00:35:26.500 | and you're feeling generally good,

00:35:28.660 | that's an important metric.

00:35:29.600 | It's a very subjective metric, but that's important.

00:35:31.380 | Are you sleeping well or are you waking up sore

00:35:33.500 | and you're not able to recover?

00:35:34.840 | Are you feeling like no matter how much sleep you get,

00:35:36.580 | you can't feel rested, these kinds of things.

00:35:38.180 | Now there could be other factors involved,

00:35:39.500 | but that's the sort of a basic one.

00:35:42.220 | The other one is how much energy and pep

00:35:44.720 | are you bringing to your workouts?

00:35:45.880 | That's important.

00:35:46.720 | And it relates to caffeine and fueling

00:35:48.320 | and all those sorts of things,

00:35:49.240 | which we're not talking about right now.

00:35:50.680 | It's far too much to talk about here,

00:35:52.040 | but we did cover in the foundational fitness protocol.

00:35:54.000 | By the way, all of this is put into a PDF

00:35:55.880 | that's available online at HubermanLab.com, zero cost.

00:35:58.820 | Simply go to the newsletter tab under the menu

00:36:02.200 | and you can scroll down,

00:36:04.740 | find the foundational fitness protocol,

00:36:06.240 | gets into sets and reps and loads and all that kind of stuff

00:36:08.580 | completely zero cost.

00:36:09.780 | I do take my morning resting pulse rate.

00:36:14.120 | I know what my pulse rate ought to be.

00:36:15.940 | If it's elevated substantially

00:36:17.880 | and I'm not particularly stressed about something,

00:36:19.880 | then I might pay attention to that

00:36:21.440 | and back off a little bit on the intensity on things.

00:36:23.360 | If I have a throat tickler, I'm not feeling very well,

00:36:26.100 | I'm really careful about working out.

00:36:27.720 | Sometimes I'll do it, sometimes I won't.

00:36:29.220 | I'll make sure that it isn't just some sort of like dust

00:36:31.200 | or allergen in the environment.

00:36:32.600 | But if I'm feeling under the weather, I'll take,

00:36:34.240 | I'll just skip.

00:36:35.240 | I just skip that workout.

00:36:36.600 | And some people go, oh, you know,

00:36:37.880 | you skip because you're, you know.

00:36:39.300 | I'll be honest, I'm 48.

00:36:41.260 | I've been training very consistently.

00:36:43.400 | I am fortunately, knock on wood, a little bit suspicious,

00:36:45.940 | knock on wood, I have avoided major injuries.

00:36:49.560 | I've been able to train consistently

00:36:51.400 | and I've also don't tend to succumb to colds and flus.

00:36:54.420 | I think about once every 18 to 24 months,

00:36:56.460 | I've had a colder flu of some sort for many years.

00:36:59.740 | That's been the kind of cadence,

00:37:00.980 | but not more frequent than that.

00:37:02.420 | I think in part because I don't tend to push really hard

00:37:05.080 | when I'm sick, I tend to be the guy who goes,

00:37:06.600 | all right, I'm feeling kind of under the weather.

00:37:08.780 | Should I train?

00:37:09.620 | Maybe not.

00:37:10.440 | Okay, I'm going to take a hot shower and get in bed

00:37:11.720 | at 6 p.m., read and go to sleep.

00:37:14.020 | If I wake up at 3 a.m. because I went to bed too early,

00:37:16.480 | just chill in bed and read, maybe fall back asleep.

00:37:18.400 | Maybe not.

00:37:19.480 | I think taking care of oneself in that way

00:37:21.200 | is very beneficial.

00:37:22.680 | And then people say, well, you haven't had kids.

00:37:24.360 | Well, I've had kids in the house

00:37:26.000 | and I also know what it is to get sick

00:37:28.940 | because of roommates and all this stuff

00:37:30.320 | and working with people and working in a medical center,

00:37:32.120 | you're always exposed to things.

00:37:33.240 | So I hear you loud and clear.

00:37:35.800 | We can't avoid exposure to infectious vectors

00:37:40.120 | as they're called, delightful in the form of kids.

00:37:43.320 | But the reality is I try and back off

00:37:46.200 | when I'm not feeling well.

00:37:47.320 | I push when I'm feeling good.

00:37:48.660 | I'm not one to do two a day workouts.

00:37:50.600 | And I'm very careful about not exceeding my program.

00:37:55.120 | I'm very careful about that.

00:37:56.920 | I don't go crazy.

00:37:58.300 | I don't do two Pilates classes and then go to the gym.

00:38:01.040 | And I'm also not the guy who's complaining about his back

00:38:03.440 | or always being sick.

00:38:04.400 | And I do not have, you know, like phenomenal genetics

00:38:06.760 | for with respect to fitness.

00:38:08.360 | You know, I'm small jointed or relatively,

00:38:10.020 | I have a medium-sized joints.

00:38:11.440 | You know, I'm not particularly strong

00:38:13.080 | nor do I have particularly strong endurance.

00:38:14.760 | You know, I think I'm kind of in the middle.

00:38:16.180 | So in terms of medical fitness check,

00:38:18.560 | I do blood work every six months.

00:38:20.800 | I find that to be, that has identified a few things

00:38:23.140 | that for me needed taken care of.

00:38:25.120 | And I pay a lot of attention

00:38:27.280 | to overall feelings of wellbeing and I chart them, frankly.

00:38:31.600 | I, on my calendar or my workouts,

00:38:34.080 | I put the level, I put like L1 to 10.

00:38:36.500 | Typically my workouts are in the six to eight

00:38:39.000 | out of 10 intensity.

00:38:40.280 | I'm not measuring this by any kind of device.

00:38:44.760 | And if I get sick, I tend to look back and say,

00:38:47.160 | well, what was going on before I got sick?

00:38:48.920 | You know, if I'm getting substantially weaker

00:38:51.780 | or I'm feeling fatigued, I take stock of what's going on.

00:38:56.000 | So I think some people get the impression

00:38:58.240 | that I'm like hyper-analytic about all things.

00:39:00.280 | And, you know, I would say Atiyah is much more

00:39:03.280 | into measuring things and I love that about him.

00:39:05.800 | I'm more of the mindset, like if I'm feeling good

00:39:09.080 | and I feel like I can move my body well,

00:39:11.380 | not too many aches and pains.

00:39:12.400 | Occasionally I get a little something,

00:39:13.520 | I have a little disc bulge or something,

00:39:15.000 | but, and then I take care of it.

00:39:17.200 | But in general, it's about being able to feel good seated,

00:39:21.120 | feel good moving, be able to have that readiness,

00:39:23.760 | readiness, readiness.

00:39:24.720 | For me, that's the foundation of health.

00:39:27.000 | So other things, you get a regular eye exam.

00:39:30.960 | I do have an appointment in ophthalmology department.

00:39:33.500 | Do that air puff test for glaucoma.

00:39:35.000 | There are treatments for glaucoma,

00:39:36.180 | but you need to know if you have it.

00:39:37.120 | A lot of people don't know if they have it.

00:39:38.900 | It is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide,

00:39:40.900 | second only cataract.

00:39:41.960 | It's very easy test.

00:39:44.760 | You can get it from optometrists or ophthalmologists,

00:39:46.640 | get that eye test.

00:39:47.480 | Your vision is so precious, vision is so precious.

00:39:50.240 | So I can't overstate that enough.

00:39:51.980 | It's generally pretty inexpensive as well,

00:39:55.560 | especially from the optometrist and the drops work.

00:39:59.280 | Pablo F asks, "What do you do with waking up

00:40:01.880 | in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep?"

00:40:03.320 | Oh, such a good question.

00:40:04.400 | I have three different tools that I use.

00:40:06.200 | First of all, long exhale breathing,

00:40:07.880 | just to try and calm myself.

00:40:08.980 | I also try and relax my face.

00:40:10.520 | If I do this right now, it's gonna be funny,

00:40:11.680 | but relaxing the face tends to relax the jaw,

00:40:14.240 | and then I'll do a progressive body relaxation.

00:40:17.300 | I do use the Reveri, R-E-V-E-R-I app,

00:40:20.760 | and they have a specific hypnosis for falling back asleep.

00:40:23.280 | Hypnosis is self-directed hypnosis.

00:40:25.640 | David Spiegel, who's been a guest on the podcast,

00:40:27.360 | his voice is terrific for hypnosis.

00:40:29.500 | Even just thinking about his voice makes me wanna go under.

00:40:32.180 | Typically with Reveri, you practice the falling asleep,

00:40:35.000 | falling back asleep hypnosis, it's only eight minutes long.

00:40:38.480 | You practice that in the daytime,

00:40:39.600 | and then you can use it in the middle of the night

00:40:40.800 | if you need to.

00:40:41.620 | That does require that you have your phone present.

00:40:42.920 | And by the way, if you're going to do that hypnosis,

00:40:45.860 | you can select whether or not you're going to do

00:40:47.920 | the one where you have to interact and speak or not.

00:40:50.920 | I like the one where you don't interact.

00:40:52.360 | Also, if you sleep next to someone, it won't wake them up.

00:40:55.240 | Reveri is great for this purpose.

00:40:56.560 | And you might think hypnosis, that's wacky,

00:40:58.880 | or that's, you know, magic carpet stuff, but it's not.

00:41:01.500 | This is, you know, hypnosis, by the way,

00:41:03.460 | is one of the few approved medical treatments

00:41:06.960 | for various psychological, psychiatric conditions.

00:41:09.500 | We're not talking about staged hypnosis,

00:41:10.880 | people clucking like chickens.

00:41:12.040 | We're talking about you learning to self-direct relaxation,

00:41:14.280 | which is a skill that you can enhance in hypnosis,

00:41:18.080 | such as with Reveri.

00:41:18.920 | I think Reveri now is a free trial,

00:41:20.980 | and it's available on Android and Apple,

00:41:24.640 | and it's a nominal cost when you compare to things

00:41:27.240 | like supplements or sleeping pills.

00:41:28.520 | I think it's a few dollars each month,

00:41:30.360 | maybe seven, $8, something like that.

00:41:32.000 | Someone will tell me.

00:41:32.960 | But if you think about the cost relative to, you know,

00:41:36.480 | some other purchasable, it's relatively low.

00:41:39.260 | The other thing,

00:41:40.100 | and this is something that's completely zero cost,

00:41:41.720 | and I can't encourage it enough,

00:41:43.760 | is that you get into a regular practice

00:41:45.240 | of non-sleep deep rest, NSDR, or yoga nidra,

00:41:47.760 | and that you do that during the daytime.

00:41:48.960 | There's a 10-minute NSDR that I did,

00:41:51.600 | which is available on YouTube.

00:41:53.180 | You just put NSDR Huberman.

00:41:54.560 | It's available, completely zero cost.

00:41:56.920 | It will teach you how to self-direct your own relaxation.

00:41:59.960 | And you can also use it in the middle of the night

00:42:03.600 | if you wake up.

00:42:04.440 | Many people fall asleep during NSDRs, that's fine,

00:42:06.560 | or yoga nidras, many of which are available

00:42:09.040 | on the internet, free, okay?

00:42:10.960 | Completely free.

00:42:11.800 | Yoga nidra's a little bit different than NSDR.

00:42:13.480 | It is a category of non-sleep deep rest

00:42:16.140 | that includes intentions and things of that sort,

00:42:18.160 | self-directed relaxation.

00:42:20.000 | But relaxing is a skill.

00:42:22.000 | Now, there are a few things that you can do

00:42:23.320 | to avoid waking up in the middle of the night.

00:42:25.200 | One is try and limit the total amount of fluid

00:42:27.340 | that you drink in the last couple hours before sleep.

00:42:29.220 | Don't go to bed with a super full belly.

00:42:31.220 | Some people find that if they take theanine,

00:42:34.480 | which is something that is in the sleep stack

00:42:36.340 | that I recommend, and by the way,

00:42:38.380 | I don't necessarily believe that everyone needs

00:42:40.180 | to take supplements in order to sleep.

00:42:42.360 | I think you should get the behavioral stuff,

00:42:43.720 | the light, the exercise,

00:42:44.920 | not drinking caffeine too late in the day,

00:42:46.600 | avoiding alcohol, ideally completely,

00:42:48.920 | but maybe late in the day, especially, et cetera, et cetera.

00:42:53.240 | And if you can't get your sleep right that way,

00:42:55.220 | then perhaps you start to rely on

00:42:56.880 | or enhance your sleep capabilities with supplements,

00:42:59.420 | but they're certainly not a requirement.

00:43:01.420 | The sleep supplement theanine,

00:43:05.560 | which is in the so-called Huberman Lab sleep stack,

00:43:07.560 | which includes magnesium threonate and apigenin and theanine.

00:43:12.560 | Theanine, for some people, can really create vivid dreams,

00:43:15.780 | and then they wake up from those dreams

00:43:17.000 | and they have a hard time falling asleep.

00:43:18.240 | In that case, I would just reduce the dosage of

00:43:19.960 | or eliminate the theanine.

00:43:21.720 | Some people like to use inositol,

00:43:23.120 | 900 milligram inositol, because they prefer that,

00:43:25.520 | and that works better for them than the sleep stack,

00:43:29.060 | or some people even take it in addition to the sleep stack.

00:43:32.000 | As long as dosages are followed,

00:43:35.120 | there's no reason to think that any of this stuff isn't safe,

00:43:37.780 | but of course, check with your doctor

00:43:39.340 | before adding or removing anything from your supplement,

00:43:42.640 | protocol or any protocol for that matter.

00:43:45.040 | I say that to protect you, not to protect me.

00:43:48.440 | The other thing that you can do

00:43:49.300 | if you wake up in the middle of the night

00:43:50.940 | is to not look at the time.

00:43:52.720 | Now, that's a little bit difficult

00:43:53.760 | if you're going to look at your phone,

00:43:55.620 | but this is something that folks

00:43:57.060 | at the Stanford Sleep Clinic taught me,

00:43:58.820 | that people who look at the time

00:44:00.300 | when they wake up in the middle of the night

00:44:01.400 | generally have a harder time falling back asleep.

00:44:03.680 | So to the extent that you can refrain from doing that,

00:44:05.700 | and certainly don't get on your phone

00:44:06.920 | and start scrolling social media,

00:44:09.200 | try NSDR, try the Reverie app,

00:44:11.680 | try yoga nidra, try some long exhale breathing.

00:44:14.520 | All those protocols, by the way,

00:44:15.600 | include long exhale breathing.

00:44:17.280 | And if you're taking melatonin before sleep,

00:44:19.680 | oftentimes you'll fall asleep very readily and then wake up.

00:44:22.720 | So if you're taking melatonin,

00:44:24.160 | you might want to reconsider that.

00:44:26.120 | Melatonin does have its place for treatment of jet lag

00:44:29.040 | and things of that sort in the acute situations

00:44:31.080 | and not taking it too often,

00:44:32.120 | but in general, dosages are too high.

00:44:33.880 | People take too much of it and too often, in my opinion,

00:44:37.420 | but that's just my opinion.

00:44:39.600 | And then I would say,

00:44:41.320 | if you wake up in the middle of the night

00:44:42.860 | and you simply cannot fall back asleep,

00:44:44.600 | just remember that you can survive one night

00:44:48.520 | with minimal or no sleep.

00:44:49.940 | Unfortunately, we've all had to deal with that.

00:44:51.960 | If it starts becoming a chronic condition,

00:44:53.500 | then you may want to talk to a sleep specialist,

00:44:55.840 | but we've done multiple episodes of the Huberoon Lab podcast,

00:44:58.500 | The Master Your Sleep, Perfect Your Sleep.

00:44:59.880 | We have a sleep newsletter

00:45:01.460 | that you should definitely download.

00:45:02.640 | It's zero cost.

00:45:03.600 | Again, huberoonlab.com newsletter.

00:45:05.460 | Go to menu newsletter and you can find that.

00:45:07.880 | For those of you that subscribe to the premium channel,

00:45:09.840 | I'm guessing that you're aware of these various tools,

00:45:14.480 | but one thing we know from the sleep lab at Stanford

00:45:17.240 | is that when people are excited about their next day,

00:45:20.520 | sometimes they wake up

00:45:21.780 | and that their sleep actually can be less than normal

00:45:25.460 | and they can function well the next day.

00:45:27.120 | In fact, there've been two studies,

00:45:28.680 | at least that I'm aware of two studies, there may be more,

00:45:31.640 | showing that when people are given a quote unquote

00:45:35.000 | poor sleep score, their cognitive performance

00:45:37.120 | and physical performance is diminished

00:45:38.600 | even if they slept really long and really well.

00:45:40.860 | So they've lied to them in these studies.

00:45:43.100 | Conversely, if people haven't slept that much

00:45:46.700 | and they receive a great sleep score,

00:45:49.080 | they perform really well.

00:45:50.520 | So these sleep scores, while I like them,

00:45:53.160 | I look at my eight sleep sleep score or whoop sleep score.

00:45:56.780 | Some people use aura rings and things of that sort.

00:45:59.340 | You don't want them to drive your perception

00:46:01.320 | of how available you are for hard work

00:46:04.140 | and cognitive function.

00:46:05.660 | So I tend to rely largely on subjective measures.

00:46:09.460 | Unless you were talking about things like ApoB

00:46:11.680 | or cholesterol levels, subjectively guessing

00:46:14.400 | what your ApoB level is, is not a good approach, right?

00:46:16.780 | Or resting heart rate, there are real metrics.

00:46:18.840 | But you want to be careful about relying too heavily

00:46:21.180 | on biometrics gleaned from devices, even if they're accurate.

00:46:25.000 | Don't put too much weight into them.

00:46:26.480 | Take the average, see how you're doing lately.

00:46:28.680 | If your sleep score is dropping each day by 15, 20 points,

00:46:32.960 | well then pay attention to that.

00:46:34.120 | Or your heart rate's going up or it's going down.

00:46:37.400 | Averages, averages, averages.

00:46:39.440 | And so be a scientist of yourself.

00:46:42.140 | Coach Ruby writes, what's the best protocol

00:46:43.800 | for strength training without hypertrophy for women?

00:46:45.860 | Great question.

00:46:46.760 | When I've lifted heavy weights, I tend to bulk up fast.

00:46:48.880 | Okay, I want to embrace more resistance training

00:46:50.480 | without the bulk.

00:46:51.320 | Great question.

00:46:52.280 | So here's the interesting thing about weight training.

00:46:54.920 | That's kind of cool.

00:46:57.760 | You will never get larger than the so-called pump

00:47:01.880 | that you achieve in a single workout.

00:47:03.620 | What do I mean by that?

00:47:04.460 | Well, a lot of people, and women in particular,

00:47:06.560 | are concerned about getting quote unquote too big, too bulky.

00:47:09.900 | And indeed some women, some men,

00:47:13.160 | react very quickly to weight training.

00:47:15.600 | They have high fiber density.

00:47:16.920 | And for whatever reason, it could be hormones,

00:47:20.800 | but it probably also has to do with

00:47:23.440 | different types of proteins

00:47:25.000 | that are expressed in the muscles

00:47:26.080 | and even the connective tissues.

00:47:27.680 | Some people just grow, quote unquote,

00:47:31.200 | faster from weight training.

00:47:33.440 | But I will tell you this.

00:47:34.280 | No one's ever looked at a weight or picked up a weight,

00:47:36.120 | done a set, and then hypertrophied so much

00:47:38.960 | that it was permanent, right?

00:47:42.400 | The so-called pump, the blood flow

00:47:44.000 | that you get into a muscle gives you a little window

00:47:46.800 | into what that muscle might look like

00:47:48.080 | if you feed it and rest it properly

00:47:50.280 | so it can recover in hypertrophy.

00:47:52.340 | So does that mean that you should avoid the so-called pump,

00:47:55.120 | the blood flow into the muscle?

00:47:56.160 | No.

00:47:56.980 | What do we know from, gosh,

00:48:00.200 | I guess it'd be 40 years of physiological data

00:48:04.220 | and probably hundreds of years of just

00:48:08.600 | outside the laboratory data,

00:48:11.340 | that very heavy weights in the range

00:48:13.480 | of one to three repetitions

00:48:15.480 | generally make people stronger,

00:48:17.580 | but there isn't much hypertrophy.

00:48:19.540 | When you get from three to five repetitions,

00:48:21.520 | you're still in the mostly strength, some hypertrophy range.

00:48:24.580 | When you get out towards six repetitions

00:48:27.200 | out to even 30 repetitions,

00:48:28.700 | provided the sets are going to failure,

00:48:30.380 | you can't perform another repetition in good form,

00:48:33.360 | well, then you're stimulating hypertrophy.

00:48:34.760 | Now, there are exceptions to this.

00:48:36.340 | There are exceptions.

00:48:37.440 | If you do, for instance,

00:48:39.420 | a one repetition set with a weight,

00:48:43.080 | but that weight allows you to do that set

00:48:46.840 | over the course of 75 seconds,

00:48:49.320 | that's a lot of time under tension

00:48:50.660 | and you can get hypertrophy.

00:48:52.540 | In addition to that,

00:48:53.720 | weight training that involves an accentuation

00:48:56.580 | of the negative, the eccentric,

00:48:57.920 | the lowering portion of each repetition

00:49:01.020 | also will stimulate hypertrophy, but also strength gains.

00:49:03.860 | So if you're somebody who wants to strength train

00:49:05.720 | and strength training is oh so important,

00:49:07.360 | not just for muscles,

00:49:08.500 | but for neural function in the brain

00:49:10.600 | and elsewhere in the body,

00:49:12.060 | then you really don't want to put on any size whatsoever.

00:49:15.200 | I would encourage you to explore some of the protocols

00:49:19.160 | that Dr. Andy Galpin and I discussed

00:49:20.720 | on the exercise series that we did with Dr. Galpin.

00:49:24.000 | That would be largely training after a warmup, of course,

00:49:27.260 | in the one to three repetition range.

00:49:29.880 | And even some training that's done strictly for power,

00:49:33.760 | moving the weight quickly at loads

00:49:35.740 | that are substantially lighter.

00:49:36.900 | Although for some people,

00:49:38.400 | just because of their genetic makeup,

00:49:40.760 | they are going to react with hypertrophy

00:49:42.520 | to that kind of training.

00:49:43.360 | So I would say if you want to weight train,

00:49:46.160 | which is a great idea,

00:49:47.120 | and you don't want to put on size,

00:49:48.920 | but you want to get stronger,

00:49:50.080 | train in that one to three repetition range.

00:49:51.780 | Now that does not necessarily mean one repetition maximums,

00:49:55.640 | you know, eking out the absolute last single rep

00:49:59.600 | that you can with the most amount of weight.

00:50:00.960 | Maybe you back off on your single repetition maximum,

00:50:03.600 | you're still just doing one repetition.

00:50:04.960 | But of course,

00:50:06.240 | if you want that repetition to be of any value

00:50:08.760 | in inducing strength,

00:50:09.720 | then you should be getting close to your one repetition max.

00:50:12.740 | But keep in mind also

00:50:14.680 | that if you're doing three repetitions, heavy weights,

00:50:17.360 | but you're only resting, you know, 30 to, you know,

00:50:21.160 | 120 minutes between sets,

00:50:23.520 | well, then you can get a kind of compounding effect

00:50:26.400 | where you can induce hypertrophy.

00:50:27.960 | So if you react that well,

00:50:30.960 | and by the way, many people do,

00:50:33.560 | or there are some, excuse me,

00:50:34.760 | many, most people do not, some people do,

00:50:37.000 | to lower repetitions,

00:50:38.140 | then you may have to increase the weight

00:50:39.600 | and lower the repetitions even further long rest.

00:50:42.240 | Just make sure that if you're doing that kind of training,

00:50:43.960 | if you're concerned with overall health

00:50:45.600 | and not just powerlifting,

00:50:47.440 | or being really, really strong,

00:50:48.600 | that you're also doing some cardiovascular training,

00:50:50.760 | which includes, you know, walking plenty

00:50:52.620 | and the sorts of cardio that we talked about earlier.

00:50:56.500 | Steve says, "What are your thoughts

00:50:58.560 | on these full body scan MRIs

00:50:59.980 | that are becoming quite popular?

00:51:01.040 | Do you think these are beneficial or are they unnecessary?"

00:51:04.680 | Hmm, well, I got one and I paid for it.

00:51:09.680 | I didn't get it comped or anything.

00:51:12.480 | And I must say, I learned a lot.

00:51:14.320 | Fortunately, I learned I don't have any tumors,

00:51:18.060 | at least not of the size

00:51:18.980 | that could be detected by that MRI.

00:51:20.940 | I also learned that I have a disc bulge

00:51:22.900 | that explains a lot of times in my life

00:51:25.620 | where I do a certain movement.

00:51:27.160 | There's one or two movements that I do in the gym

00:51:29.220 | where running at a certain stride

00:51:30.600 | where that thing goes and confirm that.

00:51:34.760 | So I've managed to,

00:51:36.320 | I'm very grateful that I only had one white spot on my brain.

00:51:40.160 | The white spots are considered naturally occurring,

00:51:42.600 | typically, lesions of neurons.

00:51:46.620 | Everyone has these.

00:51:47.720 | You're allowed one per decade of life

00:51:50.640 | before they start to consider it a potential problem.

00:51:53.800 | I think I have that right.

00:51:55.980 | There's not a whole lot you can do for those, by the way,

00:51:57.680 | except don't get any more head hits

00:51:59.760 | if you're doing a contact sport or construction

00:52:02.680 | or something where you can, you know,

00:52:03.880 | but some people still have to continue to work.

00:52:05.600 | And if that's their work, they have to work.

00:52:07.580 | So yeah, I think it was informative for me.

00:52:10.560 | I watched a Netflix movie in there.

00:52:11.880 | It was pretty cool.

00:52:12.800 | The movie wasn't very good,

00:52:15.260 | but it was cool that you can watch a Netflix in there.

00:52:16.940 | It's pretty easy to do.

00:52:18.040 | They're not cheap.

00:52:19.120 | They're a couple thousand dollars minimum.

00:52:22.500 | It was reassuring to me to not see any tumors on my liver,

00:52:26.500 | tumors on my kidney, knock on wood, you know.

00:52:28.700 | I mean, and to see that I didn't have a lot

00:52:31.780 | of intravisceral fat or anything like that.

00:52:33.660 | I mean, I doubt I'm the healthiest specimen

00:52:35.220 | that has ever rolled through there,

00:52:36.580 | but it was reassuring to me that I wasn't dealing

00:52:39.300 | with a bunch of white spots on the brain.

00:52:41.200 | I wasn't dealing with that sort of thing.

00:52:42.780 | And, you know, is it necessary?

00:52:45.220 | No, no, it's not.

00:52:46.780 | Also, some people don't want to know

00:52:47.820 | what's going on under the hood.

00:52:49.600 | Is it unnecessary is what you asked.

00:52:52.060 | That's a tricky one.

00:52:52.900 | I mean, it really depends on finances

00:52:54.260 | and how curious you are.

00:52:55.380 | I will say this.

00:52:56.420 | My good friend and former guest on the Huberman Lab Podcast,

00:52:58.940 | Dr. Eddie Chang, who's a medical doctor

00:53:00.580 | and chair of neurosurgery

00:53:03.140 | at University of California, San Francisco.

00:53:05.680 | When I asked him about it and I told him I got one,

00:53:08.100 | he said, "Oh yeah, we get people coming in all the time,

00:53:10.700 | "patients all the time who've gotten these whole body scans

00:53:13.180 | "for recreational purposes or because they were curious

00:53:16.860 | "and they will identify issues that need to be resolved

00:53:18.900 | "with neurosurgery."

00:53:19.740 | Now, that splits my answer in two

00:53:22.460 | because that's kind of scary, right?

00:53:24.580 | Could there be walking around with tumors on the brain

00:53:27.180 | and not even know it?

00:53:28.200 | Yeah, absolutely.

00:53:29.380 | For a lot of tumors are benign.

00:53:30.640 | A lot of tumors don't impinge on areas of the brain or body

00:53:33.860 | that create problems and never create problems

00:53:36.540 | and others create problems.

00:53:39.160 | And do you want to know?

00:53:40.820 | Do you want to get that tumor excised?

00:53:42.460 | There are a lot of non-invasive ways

00:53:43.660 | to deal with tumors nowadays.

00:53:45.080 | I guess it's a question of whether or not you want to know.

00:53:49.620 | And when I say want to know,

00:53:50.940 | I mean, obviously everyone would love to know

00:53:52.960 | that they have a clean bill of health under the hood,

00:53:54.940 | but are you prepared for what might happen psychologically

00:53:58.980 | and medically and what you would have to do

00:54:00.380 | in order to remove an issue that maybe not an issue, right?

00:54:05.320 | It's possible that you have a growth or a mass

00:54:08.060 | that's benign, but then you have the anxiety

00:54:10.500 | of the period in between.

00:54:11.380 | So it's tricky.

00:54:12.860 | Some tissues like prostate tissues or different tissues

00:54:16.700 | in the female reproductive tract can be enlarged,

00:54:19.580 | but not be problematic.

00:54:20.940 | But then people might want to make changes

00:54:22.860 | to ensure that the enlargement doesn't continue.

00:54:25.660 | I'm a big believer in data.

00:54:26.760 | I like data.

00:54:27.600 | So while I'm not big on tracking my sleep every night,

00:54:29.720 | I do track it at night,

00:54:30.900 | but I don't necessarily put too much weight

00:54:33.080 | on any one individual night's sleep score.

00:54:35.580 | And by the way, if you get a really lousy, lousy sleep score,

00:54:39.540 | chances are you know you slept poorly.

00:54:41.380 | If you get a great sleep score,

00:54:42.340 | chances are you know you slept well.

00:54:44.860 | So stuff in between that kind of gets people interested.

00:54:48.100 | So I don't know.

00:54:50.740 | I think for me, I was happy to get the bill of health I did.

00:54:54.380 | And had I discovered something that needed dealing with,

00:54:58.420 | I guess I'd be grateful that I went in for it.

00:55:00.880 | So that's my answer.

00:55:02.140 | But again, they're expensive.

00:55:03.600 | I hope the cost comes down.

00:55:04.660 | I hope insurance will cover these eventually.

00:55:07.740 | Orca La Vista, what a great name.

00:55:09.900 | Orca La Vista.

00:55:10.960 | Awesome.

00:55:12.900 | Asks, would you as a dog lover considering doing an episode

00:55:16.920 | on dog wellness and communication?

00:55:18.360 | Yes.

00:55:19.200 | Yes, absolutely.

00:55:21.780 | I love dogs.

00:55:23.120 | I love dogs so much, it's ridiculous.

00:55:25.420 | I just do.

00:55:27.120 | I just, I like being around them.

00:55:29.000 | I like thinking about them.

00:55:32.040 | I like hanging out with them.

00:55:33.220 | And they're family members, right?

00:55:35.980 | Costello is a family member.

00:55:37.540 | And I'm eagerly anticipating getting another dog

00:55:40.580 | probably when we get back from tour in Australia,

00:55:42.800 | from Australia.

00:55:43.760 | I'm not going to bring back an Australian Shepherd.

00:55:46.440 | They have like way too much energy for me.

00:55:48.080 | I like the mellow dogs.

00:55:48.940 | I like economy of effort in a dog,

00:55:50.940 | which is why a bulldog or a mastiff

00:55:52.260 | is probably a good one for me.

00:55:53.760 | Yes, yes.

00:55:54.600 | And yes, pet health is key.

00:55:57.420 | Relationships with pets are key.

00:55:59.440 | Don't get a dog that you can't take great care of.

00:56:01.940 | And bulldogs are a ton of work and they're very expensive.

00:56:05.020 | Plan on spending at least, I'm not kidding,

00:56:06.500 | $20,000 a year in medical bills on a dog to keep,

00:56:09.140 | a bulldog to keep them healthy.

00:56:10.700 | Adopt if you can.

00:56:14.020 | A lot of dogs out there need be adopted.

00:56:17.160 | Heidi M says, "I need advice.

00:56:18.940 | I'm 32, I'm working out for two, three years,

00:56:20.840 | but my left arm is weaker than my right.

00:56:23.000 | How do I balance muscle strength between sides?

00:56:24.720 | Different weights or strategy?"

00:56:26.080 | Great question.

00:56:27.320 | Well, I guess you're assuming it's a lot weaker.

00:56:31.160 | I mean, I am a big believer in doing unilateral movements.

00:56:34.080 | I can't remember the last time I did a barbell curl

00:56:36.840 | or the thing they call the EZ bar tricep extension.

00:56:42.320 | I almost always do unilateral stuff, dumbbell curls.

00:56:45.660 | I think the real key,

00:56:46.700 | if you want a weaker arm or limb to get stronger,

00:56:49.800 | is that mind-muscle connection.

00:56:51.780 | You know, it means presumably,

00:56:54.020 | unless there's some sort of underlying neurologic thing

00:56:55.940 | and I don't want to scare you, it's always possible,

00:56:57.420 | but it seems unlikely based on the way you word the question,

00:57:00.300 | is that you want to make sure you're gripping the handle

00:57:02.420 | of the weight really tightly.

00:57:03.360 | By the way, that will increase your strength

00:57:04.780 | and performance on a set to grip tightly.

00:57:06.420 | There's neural reasons for that.

00:57:08.180 | And that you're really working hard to contract the muscle.

00:57:11.820 | And also use weights that you can control.

00:57:13.600 | Remember when you lift weights for sake of getting stronger,

00:57:16.460 | it's not about lifting weights.

00:57:17.740 | You're actually using the weight as a tool

00:57:19.080 | to stimulate strength and hypertrophy increases.

00:57:23.140 | So it's a tool and you don't walk around

00:57:25.580 | with the weight number on your body.

00:57:28.240 | You walk around with the muscle development

00:57:29.820 | that you achieved and the strength that you achieved

00:57:33.200 | with a particular weight

00:57:34.280 | and no one cares what that weight is.

00:57:35.540 | So if you're, you know,

00:57:36.520 | if you can't carry two bags of groceries up the stairs,

00:57:39.740 | it doesn't matter if you were able to, you know,

00:57:42.200 | carry 400 pound dumbbells through the gym, right?

00:57:46.200 | I mean, that's why I think the readiness thing is key.

00:57:48.820 | I think we think so much about the gym as the endpoint,

00:57:51.540 | but the gym is a place for training for the rest of life,

00:57:55.620 | in my opinion.

00:57:56.500 | It also happens to be fun for me,

00:57:57.780 | but if your left arm is weaker, I would emphasize,

00:58:01.900 | well, you could perhaps do more sets.

00:58:04.180 | Certainly I would do,

00:58:05.560 | you could do all your left arm sets first

00:58:07.100 | then your right arm sets.

00:58:08.620 | If it's really substantially different,

00:58:10.660 | you may actually want to stop training the right side

00:58:14.220 | as intensely for a period of time

00:58:16.740 | and get that left arm up there, things like that.

00:58:20.720 | But I like unilateral work.

00:58:22.380 | I don't do a lot of unilateral work for my legs.

00:58:25.460 | One thing I do, leg curls.

00:58:26.500 | No, that's both legs, same time.

00:58:28.340 | I definitely try and pull with both legs, same time.

00:58:30.340 | Leg extension, same time.

00:58:32.460 | Hack squat, same time.

00:58:33.380 | Glute hammering, same time.

00:58:34.220 | Okay, yeah.

00:58:37.180 | Just keep training it, but don't overtrain it.

00:58:39.140 | If it's really weak because you're giving it 25 sets,

00:58:41.660 | make sure you're allowing time for it to recover.

00:58:43.500 | And by the way, I don't know how,

00:58:47.180 | I don't recall 'cause the question's gone now,

00:58:48.640 | how old you are, but give your body time.

00:58:51.500 | Give your body time.

00:58:52.340 | I started training when I was 16.

00:58:53.580 | Give your body time.

00:58:55.140 | It takes time to train correctly

00:58:56.900 | and it takes time to develop

00:58:58.180 | a strong mind muscle connection.

00:58:59.540 | And don't rush, don't run out there and start using,

00:59:02.560 | don't get cavalier with pharmaceuticals or anything else.

00:59:06.580 | Just take your time, enjoy your training.

00:59:08.380 | The best advice I ever got about training

00:59:10.380 | was somebody very accomplished and he said,

00:59:13.620 | and I really internalized this, like,

00:59:15.980 | learn to, and you may delete the learn to,

00:59:19.080 | learn to enjoy training really hard

00:59:22.240 | or just love training hard.

00:59:24.300 | I love training hard.

00:59:25.660 | I love it, I love it, I love it.

00:59:27.380 | So just learn that, like lean into that process

00:59:29.260 | and enjoy it.

00:59:30.340 | And if there's certain parts that are challenging,

00:59:32.360 | remember you're increasing the size of that medial,

00:59:34.580 | anterior mid cingulate cortex.

00:59:36.640 | Last question, really?

00:59:38.160 | I was hoping we would just keep going.

00:59:39.940 | Maybe I'll do like a 24 hour marathon of this

00:59:42.300 | and then we also do it as a study in sleep deprivation.

00:59:45.620 | Does anyone want to vote for that?

00:59:47.240 | I've done that before.

00:59:48.080 | I used to work 36 hour stretches

00:59:49.780 | when I was in graduate school, no joke.

00:59:51.800 | We would do these physiology experiments.

00:59:53.900 | My producer here is sitting here going like, don't do it.

00:59:56.320 | But it's probably by the end of those experiments,

00:59:57.740 | we'd be wearing tinfoil on our heads

00:59:59.180 | and we were doing these experiments,

01:00:00.060 | but we built a lot of resilience.

01:00:01.620 | We used to survive on In-N-Out burgers

01:00:03.280 | and I was like, don't eat the bun

01:00:04.380 | 'cause the carbs will make you sleepy.

01:00:05.900 | And then we'd argue about it and we'd, you know,

01:00:08.380 | we'd start to hallucinate somewhere around the 30 hour mark.

01:00:11.240 | And my friend Colenzo,

01:00:12.080 | he's now a professor back at University of Maryland.

01:00:15.520 | So he can vouch for that story.

01:00:17.380 | But gosh, that was fun.

01:00:18.820 | I don't miss it.

01:00:20.220 | I was in my 20s, 30s.

01:00:22.180 | Yeah, no, 20s, late 20s.

01:00:23.700 | But if people think maybe we do a fundraiser,

01:00:27.500 | like raise extra money for research

01:00:29.940 | and I'll do 24 hours of just answering questions

01:00:31.940 | around the clock and just see how, you know, see at what point

01:00:34.700 | I just completely, and then I can also teach you guys

01:00:37.440 | how to do a proper all nighter 'cause there are tools.

01:00:40.820 | And one of the main tools is don't trust your thinking

01:00:43.620 | between the hours of 2.30 AM and 4 AM.

01:00:47.100 | So maybe during that time, we just all meditate together.

01:00:49.880 | All right, last question.

01:00:51.540 | Until we do the 24 hour Huberoon Lab AMA marathon,

01:00:55.000 | do you have plans to produce more content or protocols

01:00:57.180 | specifically for children's development and health?

01:00:59.100 | Yes, we're going to do a children's or child development

01:01:01.740 | series, but that also extends into adolescence

01:01:03.720 | and young adulthood.

01:01:04.940 | Most are going to be doing episodes on that.

01:01:06.500 | Some amazing guests for them and do some solos as well.

01:01:09.220 | Are there any current resources you recommend

01:01:10.700 | for this topic?

01:01:11.540 | Yeah, I like Alan Shore's book.

01:01:13.380 | It's a little detailed, little technical, S-C-H-O-R-E.

01:01:17.580 | Alan Shore, I think it's how you spell it.

01:01:19.140 | Let me check, let me check, @ucla.

01:01:21.060 | Little tech, Alan Shore.

01:01:24.940 | Yeah, A-L-L-A-N, separate word, S-C-H-O-R-E.

01:01:29.660 | He's a psychologist and researcher,

01:01:30.780 | really talks about regulation of the,

01:01:34.780 | he talks about right brain, left brain

01:01:36.140 | in a way that actually is accurate.

01:01:37.660 | There are very few people talk about right brain,

01:01:39.180 | left brain accurately, he does.

01:01:40.700 | And talks about attachment and emotional regulation.

01:01:43.380 | And it's mainly focused on early childhood development.

01:01:47.180 | There's some beautiful, you know,

01:01:49.700 | there's some beautiful stuff out there

01:01:51.100 | that's been, comes from the psychology literature

01:01:54.260 | and neuroscience literature on this.

01:01:55.620 | But I'm also going to get my friend,

01:01:58.180 | Dr. Linda Wilbrecht on the podcast.

01:01:59.700 | She's a professor up at Berkeley,

01:02:00.780 | studies adolescent development.

01:02:02.540 | There's just so many great folks out there

01:02:04.340 | that we want to bring onto the podcast.

01:02:06.020 | And we will organize that into some protocols

01:02:09.220 | and things of that sort.

01:02:10.660 | A lot of work to do for us to get it all, you know, succinct.

01:02:13.380 | I realize sometimes podcasts are long.

01:02:15.020 | You know, sometimes people ask, I often get asked, you know,

01:02:17.460 | what are the plans for 2024?

01:02:18.860 | What are you going to do?

01:02:20.000 | Keep improving the content.

01:02:21.040 | We actually have some shorter form content coming out.

01:02:23.580 | I don't want to give away what that is.

01:02:25.700 | You know, some 30 minute episodes

01:02:28.300 | that capture the essence of the most important protocols

01:02:31.560 | in science.

01:02:32.400 | And yeah, the goal for 2024 and forward

01:02:36.180 | is just keep improving the content

01:02:38.660 | and try and make it as succinct and digestible

01:02:41.460 | for you as possible, but also as thorough.

01:02:43.400 | You know, if I go real short form,

01:02:45.620 | then important details will get lost.

01:02:47.440 | But child development is extremely important.

01:02:50.140 | And remember, we're always in development.

01:02:51.500 | Development doesn't stop when we hit 25.

01:02:53.940 | Development is an arc from birth until death,

01:02:55.900 | which hopefully will be a long time from now for all of you.

01:02:59.240 | And there's just a ton to explore there.

01:03:01.700 | A lot of science, psychology, protocols.

01:03:03.380 | We're going to get into all of it.

01:03:05.800 | So I was told that's the last question.

01:03:07.460 | I confess I'm a little bit sad about that.

01:03:09.620 | I could just keep going.

01:03:10.860 | But maybe we'll do this again at some point.

01:03:13.980 | And I think we should do that 24 hour marathon

01:03:15.840 | as a fundraiser.

01:03:16.860 | I don't know what you think, but I don't know.

01:03:18.540 | I would do it anyway.

01:03:19.780 | That's the truth, I'd be here anyway.

01:03:21.740 | I want to thank everyone for tuning in.

01:03:25.260 | Thanks ever so much for your support

01:03:27.300 | of the labs I mentioned earlier.

01:03:28.900 | If you know somebody who you think might be interested

01:03:32.620 | in the premium channel, let them know that they can watch

01:03:34.960 | the early parts of those premium channel episodes

01:03:37.700 | on YouTube and listen to them on Apple and Spotify

01:03:40.040 | without having to log on for, you know,

01:03:42.980 | not having to pay, not everyone has the resources.

01:03:44.860 | For those of you that devoted resources to the podcast,

01:03:47.320 | the premium channel,

01:03:49.260 | just know that it helps support the regular podcast,

01:03:51.200 | which of course is available cost free to everybody.

01:03:53.180 | It really subsidizes that.

01:03:54.420 | And it's also subsidizing this research

01:03:57.220 | that's taking place in these laboratories.

01:03:58.580 | And we're going to expand the research.

01:03:59.680 | We got that three to $1 match for 2024.

01:04:02.900 | So I really enjoyed today.

01:04:05.060 | That's the truth.

01:04:05.900 | I love your questions.

01:04:06.820 | I could do this all day every day.

01:04:08.540 | We're going to record an episode today and tomorrow.

01:04:12.180 | And I'm basically just going to keep talking

01:04:13.700 | until they tell me it's time to stop.

01:04:14.860 | So when someone in the corner goes like this,

01:04:17.420 | then I'll stop.

01:04:18.260 | We're in one of our live events.

01:04:19.340 | Like they're supposed to end the night there.

01:04:20.920 | There we go.

01:04:21.760 | They're telling me to stop.

01:04:22.580 | Time's up.

01:04:23.420 | Thank you, everybody.

01:04:25.420 | I hope you had a great holiday.

01:04:26.820 | I hope everyone has a very happy New Year's.

01:04:29.980 | If you're like me and you're going to be asleep

01:04:31.220 | by 1030 on New Year's,

01:04:33.180 | enjoy the good night's sleep and enjoy New Year's Day.

01:04:35.380 | I'm a big New Year's Day guy.

01:04:36.780 | Get out on New Year's Day and enjoy something.

01:04:38.780 | And just remember whether or not

01:04:41.100 | you're doing behavioral protocols

01:04:42.620 | or you're super into the supplements of the red lights.

01:04:44.420 | The most important thing is those pillars of, you know,

01:04:47.660 | sleep, nutrition, exercise, stress management, sunlight,

01:04:51.840 | I guess we're getting up to six, and social connection.

01:04:53.900 | So it's a lot to try and do all that all the time.

01:04:56.700 | Don't pressure yourself.

01:04:58.620 | Meanwhile, thank you for everything that you do for us.

01:05:01.700 | And last but certainly not least,

01:05:03.700 | thank you for your interest in science.

01:05:05.440 | [upbeat music]

01:05:08.020 | (upbeat music)

AMA #14: 2023 Philanthropy, Evening Routine, Light Therapy, Health Metrics & More

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