Negative effects from breathing into the stomach

When I was a child, I was interested in Yoga. One of the techniques that I learned from reading Yoga books was to breathe into my stomach (“inhale and push the stomach out, exhale and bring the stomach in”). I learned the technique quite well. Now, many years later, I see the unintended consequence of that technique. It caused my chest to cave in, which resulted in a hunch in my upper back (kyphosis). I am working diligently to undo the harm. I am consciously lifting my chest up (“stick your chest out”) and standing tall and proud.

Mastering recovery is the key to longevity

The damage builds up as we age. The physical damage. The mental damage. The emotional damage.

But what is that damage due to?

I hypothesize that it is due to a lack of recovery.

We exercise but then we don’t physically recover 100% before we exercise again. We work a mentally taxing job but then we don’t mentally recover 100% before we are back at work again. We have a disagreement with our family but then we don’t emotionally recover 100% before we are at odds again.

What if we physically recovered 100% after each exercise session? Our body would improve, grow stronger, grow healthier, more energy, more liveness.

What if we mentally recovered 100% after each work session? Our mind would improve, grow stronger, grow healthier, more energy, more liveness.

What if we emotionally recovered 100% after each family disagreement? Our emotions and spirit would improve, grow stronger, grow healthier, more energy, more liveness.

Recover 100%. We might live for … a very long time.

Is it good to be open with your thoughts and feelings?

“Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions. They do this for several reasons. First, it is easy and natural to always want to talk about one’s feelings and plans for the future. It takes effort to control your tongue and monitor what you reveal. Second, many believe that by being honest and open they are winning people’s hearts and showing their good nature. They are greatly deluded. Honesty is actually a blunt instrument, which bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend people; it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the coarse and ugly truth of what you feel or think. More important, by being unabashedly open you make yourself so predictable and familiar that it is almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not accrue to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.”

• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, page 20.

Keto diet, stems cells, etc. … what helped, what did not

Years ago I learned about the Carnivore Diet by reading Dr. Shawn Baker‘s book.  Yesterday I watched one of his recent YouTube videos [1] and he talked about a neck injury he sustained while doing Jui Jitsu last August. He cracked a disk in his neck. He did a lot of therapies to help heal his neck. In this video he summarized the therapies, what worked, what didn’t work. Here is his list of therapies, in order of decreasing effectiveness:

1. Time: “time heals all wounds.”

2. Exercise: “I felt better after every exercise session with all the endorphins kicking around.”

3. High fat diet: “Research has shown that a high fat diet which triggers the body to produce a lot of ketones will reduce inflammation and promote recovery, so I did a high fat diet (about 80% of my calories came from fat) for a month. It was effective, but I didn’t enjoy all that fat; it made me nauseous. I normally eat quite a lot of fat (about 60%) by eating ribeye steaks but 80% was a bit too much.”

4. Stem cells and peptides: “I was already 90% healed by the time I got these treatments, so it’s hard to know how much, if any, benefit I got from them.”

5. Physical therapy: “I went for about 10 sessions. The physical therapist gave me a bunch of exercises. None of them were effective, except for a “neck flossing” exercise (move the left arm to the left while simultaneously moving the neck to the right. Ditto with the right arm).

6. Acupuncture: “This did nothing for me.”

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJboSBpubmw

I got Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy yesterday

I went to a place called Restore Hyper Wellness and got 60-minutes of HBOT.

Super interesting.

I breathed 98% pure oxygen for an hour.

Initially it was a bit painful in my ears as the chamber pressurized. But that passed after a while.

The neat thing is that as the end of the hour approached, I moved around and noticed that all my body aches and pains were gone. No knee pain. No shoulder pain.

Awesome!

Next day … some questions and answers:

• Were your vitals (pulse, blood pressure, respiration) being monitored during the procedure?

No. But I did have a walkie-talkie in the chamber so that I could communicate with the person on the outside.

• How high was the pressure during the procedure?

They said that the pressure was equivalent to the pressure when under water 10 feet.

• Was the C02 you exhaled being extracted?

I don’t know. I suppose so. It never felt stuffy in the chamber.

• Was it necessary to decompress slowly at the end of the procedure to avoid getting the bends?

Yep. 5 minute decompression period.

• How long lasting were the positive effects of the treatment?

So far so good. I woke up this morning with no aches and pains. Plus, in my exercises this morning I smashed all previous personal records (PRs).

Life lesson that has been hardest for me to learn

The life lesson that has been hardest for me to learn is this:

More is not always better.

I have slowly come to learn that everything has a curve like this:

Do more and the benefit increases. But only to a point. After that doing more results in declining benefit.

• Exercise: a certain amount of exercise yields optimal results. Beyond that amount of exercise and the benefit decreases, ultimately leading to injury.
• Stress: a certain amount of stress is good. Beyond that is bad, possibly leading to nervous breakdown.
• Vitamin Supplements: when deficient in a vitamin, supplementation can be helpful, but too much of the supplement may cause damage.

Active versus passive recovery

Scenario #1: You spent the whole day doing hard, physical yard work. The next day your body is aching. How to recover?

One way to recover is to lay on the couch all day. That is passive recovery.

Another way to recover is to go for walks, do mild exercises and stretches. Keep moving. That is active recovery.

Scenario #2: Your tasks at work are very mentally stressful and demanding. The next day your mind is burned out. How to recover mentally?

One way to recover is to watch TV all day. That is passive recovery.

Another way to recover is to read a light, enjoyable novel. Do a fun crossword puzzle. That is active recovery.

Which is better: passive or active recovery? Experts say that active recovery works faster and more completely than passive recovery.

6 properties I expect of an exercise routine

1. I expect to be aware of the muscle(s) that I am using in an exercise. (Mind-body connection)
2. I expect to feel changes in my body upon completion of the exercise. (Proprioception)
3. I expect the exercise to have a low risk of causing injury.
4. I expect to have a good metric for showing progress in the exercise.
5. I expect that my progress will be erratic, some days forward, some days backward, but the long arc will be upward.
6. I expect an active recovery.

I found an exercise routine that satisfies all those properties!

Let me explain the routine with an example.

I lift a kettlebell with one arm and stand upright with the kettlebell to my side. I am in front of a mirror and watch to see that my posture remains perfectly upright and erect, i.e., no bending to the side. I focus my mind on the tension in my core muscles. I hold this position, unmoving, for as long as I can. I set the kettlebell down and then immediately go for a short walk. I carefully note the changes in my body – the arm that was holding the kettlebell feels so light. The walk is active recovery.

I prefer time under tension – how long can I hold the kettlebell – as the metric for measuring my progress. I keep a record of the time each day. Over the weeks and months the times go up and down – 30 seconds one day, 45 seconds another day, 35 seconds another day – but the trend is upward.

The fact that I am motionless during the exercise reduces my risk of injury.

Rest 24 hours between sets

I do 3 sets for each exercise. I rest 24 hours between sets.

Take 5 to 15 minutes between sets

I’ve heard people say, “Oh, I got the whole workout done in 45 minutes.” You can’t recover in time between the sets. Especially for strength sports, when you do heavy sets you need to have between 5 and 15 minutes rest between sets. You’ve got to let your energy source rebuild. Then you come in and give it all you’ve got. With a minute or two minutes rest you’re only performing to half of what you are capable of.

• Eddie Hall