September 16, 2015
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Introduction: In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness show: The Best Smart Drug Stacks For Creativity, Ben’s Experience With Transcendental Meditation, Rebounding Vs. Running, Should You Eat Placentas, and more!
He’s an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America’s top personal trainer and one of the globe’s most influential people in health and fitness. His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield. “Power, speed, mobility, balance – whatever it is for you that for natural movement, get out there! When you’re working all the studies done… studies that have shown the greatest effort to see…” All the information you need in one place, right here, right now, on the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast.
Ben: Brock has got my big box of clean Exo and it’s not because we’re gonna be talking about eating cute little innocent placentas.
Brock: (chuckles) It’s because we’re gonna be chopping onions?
Ben: No, it’s due to the strange invader that you listener may have heard introducing us on the show. And the fact that that strange invader is going to be replacing you, Brock.
Brock: Uhmm. You have…
Ben: It’s a sad clown noises here.
Brock: (chuckles) Sad clown noises. I’m not sure what those are, but it is.
Ben: It’s better than a scary clown.
Brock: It is. But yes, it’s true. You have a brand new Ben Greenfield fitness podcast sidekick by the name of Rachel Browne.
Rachel: Da-da-da-da! (laughs)
Ben: Actually it’s a man living in his mother’s basement named Bill, but we had adjusted his vocal chords to make him a sexy female Australian.
Brock: Hey!
Ben: Hey Bill!
Rachel: Hi! Hi guys!
Ben: So, first of all before we delve into Rachel who is obviously right here with us and who is indeed the new podcast show host. Brock, what’s going on, dude?
Brock: Well, you know I’ve been doing the show, it’s going to be, can you believe it, it soon be 5, no 4 years next month.
Ben: Four incredibly long freakin’ years.
Brock: Yeah, it’s like working in freakin’ salt mine, anything here…
Ben: Seriously.
Brock: And some opportunities came along. I’m not gonna lie. Some lucrative and some fun, interesting, new endeavor kinda stuff coming along, and not that I didn’t love all my time here, but in terms of longevity of my career, and also longevity of this podcast and people not getting super-duper sick of the same kinda stuff over and over again, it just seem like the prudent thing to do to move along. Make room for a new sidekick, make room for a new audio technician as well. I think the show is gonna benefit from it and it’s gonna be a good time, and people can ping me separately if you wanna know more about what’s goin’ on, but basically I’m movin’ on to other things.
Ben: And now you can take up your dream to become a professional Zamboni driver upon that.
Brock: You promised you’re not gonna tell everybody. (crosstalk)
Ben: I know you’ve always, always fantasize about that. Now all your wildest dreams are coming true.
Brock: It’s the only job you can do while stinkin’ drunk.
Ben: Hmm, just what a hermit doin’, we’re a hermit so…
Brock: Uhmm, yup.
Ben: Ah, Rachel!
Rachel: Uhmm…
Ben: Rachel, welcome to the show.
Rachel: Thank you.
Ben: Obviously you and I have known each other for a while, and honestly I know you through your – is he your boyfriend or fiancée now?
Rachel: He’s actually now my husband.
Ben: Oh!
Brock: What?
Ben: Well crap.
Rachel: Yeah!
Ben: That just shows that my relationship with Rachel and my level of communication with her is rock bottom because last – wasn’t last time you were over, were you guys – you guys were engaged, right?
Rachel: No, we were actually officially married but then as well, yeah (chuckles) sorry Ben.
Ben: Oh really? How did that totally like why you are married or…
Rachel: Well… we kind of – well, under pressure to do it very quickly because I was gonna have to leave the country so…
Brock: Uhuh, it’s a green card marriage.
Rachel: Well, eventually have a bigger labyrinth ceremony that you’ll hear about I’m sure.
Ben: Uhm, cool. Well anyways so, I know you through Jacob and who is your husband, fill that up right away, but I think maybe what we should do, Brock is – what do you think? Should we give Rachel like 2 minutes to let our listeners know who she is?
Brock: That sounds good. Two minutes…
Ben: Okay, no pressure Rachel.
Brock: No more, no less
Ben: But in 3, 2, 1… dan-dan-dan-dan (singing/humming)
Rachel: Okay, uhmm.
Ben: Okay, you got 10 seconds up.
Rachel: (Chuckles) I’m a – I’m from a small town called the Sunshine Coast in Australia, and I know you have a lot of Australian listeners. I hope to and I’m so excited to hear and see on the podcast. I’ve been living in America a couple of years, I’m a year-good teacher and student, and I love all things to do with meditation and mindfulness and I’m super excited to hear your transcendental meditation experience and… what else… oh, I work in a homeless women shelter and I’m not an endurance athlete. I love the idea of it but ah – oh, I would say I’m a recreational runner, uhm, but yeah, I love learning about how – to be honest, I love the podcast and I’m super excited to be filling the giant-enormous shoes of Brock.
Ben: Alright, I’m gonna add a couple of things here. First of all, Brock does not have big feet because (crosstalk) people thinks he’s just a Zamboni driver, second of all, she did not say yogurt my friend, she said Yoga.
Rachel: (laughs) That’s true. I have to clear that up all the time.
Ben: Just you can get to see an Australian accent and uhm, third, Rachel is somebody who kinda has been working behind the scene at Ben Greenfield fitness for a while. She’s done like some social media stuff, and some work with Facebook, so she’s intimately familiar with all things Ben Greenfield fitness which makes her a logical person to be one of the – one of the – the new podcast host.
Brock: Yeah, when I first started being the sidekick, I didn’t know anything, like she is – Rachel is infinitely more qualified than I was four years ago when I walked in. It was like – everybody! Hua –hua! (making sounds)
Ben: Yeah! Alright well. That being said, now that we’ve got just a few listeners left mostly are Australian ones and couple Zamboni drivers, we think as we delve into today’s news flashes…
Rachel: Let’s do it.
News Flashes:
Brock: So, while preparing for all of these new excitement here on the podcast, Ben has been busy tweeting things out at twitter.com/bengreenfield…
Ben: Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah! Slow down. Shouldn’t – shouldn’t – shouldn’t Rachel be taken over the…
Brock: Oh yes! Ah yeah, old horses, new tricks.
Ben: Rachel, you introduce the news flashes. No pressure. Go.
Rachel: If you want to stay up to date with all the latest from Ben, make sure you follow him on twitter.com/bengreenfield, and for more information on those you see things that you’re learning the show, go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/331. (clapping)
Ben: Isn’t it forward slash?
Brock: Bravo, bravo! (clapping) It’s just a slash. That if you put the wrong slash in, it directs to your hard drive. So don’t worry about it.
Ben: That’s right. And they do everything upside down In Australia anyways so. Alright well, uhm, alright, so we work on the slash. So, just bear with us listener as Rachel learns the rope, alright about which way things go on the internet. But there’s three Ws Rachel. It’s not ww, it’s www, so.
Rachel: Yes, Ben.
Ben: I’m gonna be giving you a hard time all day long.
Rachel: Love it.
Ben: So, yeah so, well, here’s where we start. Not to kick this horse to death, but as I’ve mentioned on the past couple of episodes, I have a squeaky clean colon because I got a colonoscopy, and they stuck a tube at my back…
Brock: I highly don’t stayed clean this long.
Ben: And no, I’m pretty sure it’s still clean. Pretty sure. It’s squeaky clean.
Brock: Alright.
Ben: Anyways though, during the time that I was doing my special, oh-so tasty and pleasant colonoscopy prep which is where you drink a bunch of solution, it’s like a…
Brock: Uhm! Go lightly.
Ben: Uh, what you call that, like a laxative/diuretic solution that’s just basically makes everything come out all at once like a fire hose except it’s like a 30 minute long fire hose. I had to follow – well basically like a liquid diet. So it’s making up all these new recipes, and I found a recipe that I not only enjoyed but that I’ve now been repeating like an afternoons or the evenings or any other time when I want a slightly lower calorie snack, and I tweeted it. It’s pretty simple. Here’s how it goes. I get out my blender and I put ice in it, then I add some coconut water, and you could use coconut milk as well if you wanted to, or any other beverage. You can even use bone broth I guess, like any – anything it’s got like electrolytes, aminos, stuff like that. I put a little bit of dark chocolate stevia in there, some sea salt and then…
Brock: Not with the bone broth version.
Ben: Not with the bone broth version. And then you can throw a little bit of banana in there if you want even more creaminess. If you’re doing low carb thing, then you couldn’t leave that out I supposed. And then, gelatin. And that’s it. And then I blend that at high speed for about 60 seconds, and it actually makes this like surprisingly flavorful, almost like ice cream like texture that’s creamy and delicious and that according to my high-tech calculations contains maybe like a hundred calories and a huge mug of these stuff.
[0:10:14.3]
So, it’s really, really tasty.
Brock: Sounds like.
Ben: And ah, yeah, so I tweeted out that recipe but I also put it in the show notes for folks. I’ve been using anything from like gelatin to this primal peptides that I talked about last week which are basically like rich in collagen. They’re these collagen protein booster made by company called Natural Force. But what they do uhm, I really honestly don’t give a crap in this case about the level of amino acids as much as the fact that when you blend them for 60 seconds with ice, they almost make your little ice cream smoothie thing – chewy. So it’s kinda cool.
Brock: Uhm.
Ben: Yeah!
Brock: Chewy. Why do they go chewy?
Ben: I don’t know. But it’s really, really good. And I recommend that if you are a listener and you want like a little low calorie beverage to add in, you try this one out. It’s the next big thing to chocolate ice cream or to that chocolate avocado pudding stuff to make. So… Yeah! Another cool thing that I’ve discovered is over at Reddit. I recently had a guy over to my house and we’re walking around my land doing some plant identification, and I mentioned that I occasionally use this app that I’ve talked about before in the show. It’s an app called flower checker. Whether you guys use this before?
Rachel: I haven’t nay. I would love to though.
Brock: I live in a city.
Ben: Uhm. (chuckles) You know what they say, Brock, there’s even wilderness growing in the laid of grass that’s come out to the sidewalk.
Brock: Is it edible though?
Ben: I – I don’t know who said that. Probably Confucius. Anyways though, well, what flower checker does is you take a picture of a plant, you send it off or you upload it, and a team of live botanists on the other end identifies the plant and send you back Wikipedia page, Google links, etc. to the best resources for that plant, so you can go learn more about it.
Brock: So, an actual human looks at it?
Ben: An actual real-life human being, those exist on the internets. So however, I’ve discovered another way that you can do this at this – this fellow mentioned to me when we’re walking along in my land and it’s simply a reddit called “What’s This Plant?” So, for those of you who really wanna delve in to this whole idea of being able to identify things that you could use as like an edible, or whether you could put something in the smoothie or the particular vitamins that might be in some random weed frankly that’s growing in your backyard. You basically go to this reddit page, and I’ll link to it in the show notes, and you upload the photo and then all sorts of folks on reddit, obviously they’re not trained botanist so…(crosstalk) proceed with caution. Yeah, should be cons… yeah, you could eat that. Eat that all the time.
Brock: Go ahead.
Ben: So all these people living in their mom’s basements can let you know what plant it is that you have uploaded as a photo. So, anyways though, it actually is – I look through it and it appeared that people were relatively knowledgeable. I’ve vetted it before I mentioned it on the podcast, so we don’t have a bunch of listeners getting explosive diarrhea from eating some thorny, poisonous plant that they were told was edible dandelion but ultimately it’s the reddit – what is this plant page so…
Brock: Will they able to tell you the difference between the sativa and the indica strain?
Ben: Uhmm, of Marijuana?
Brock: I – maybe? (chuckles) Maybe something else.
Ben: I – I have no clue. I don’t know. I haven’t uploaded that yet but I would imagine they probably could, Brock.
Brock: Damn!
Ben: So yeah, that would help you out with your Zamboni adventures. Uhm, the last thing that I wanted to mention is about electro-stimulation. This is a research study that came on the Journal Strength Conditioning Research, and whole body electrostimulation is something that I’ve toyed around with for a while. And by toyed around with I mean, attached electrodes to various parts of my body to see what happens.
Brock: Hiyoo!
Ben: (chuckles) When you shock those muscles into submission. And I’ve talked before about the effects on blood flow, the fact that it can cause things like muscle hypotrophy and even localize fat loss when you shock the heck out of a muscle, and it’s not necessarily pleasant, it’s not necessarily like the made for TV versions where somebody sitting there with electrodes attached to their six pack abs, you know, watching TV and eating Twinkies while they, you know, shock themselves into hard chiseled stomach form. But it is a cool way to exercise and it’s a cool way to kind of like biohack your exercise. For example, hook of a bunch of electrodes and do like a quads and hamstrings workout while you simultaneously lifting free weights for your upper body and yeah, maybe you’re doing in a sauna wearing an elevation training mask. But ultimately, electro-stim is kinda cool. I like to have a unit around at all times just in case.
Brock: Yeah, don’t you even do it in the car sometimes?
Ben: I do! Yeah! I’ve done it on airplanes as well so.
[0:15:02.2]
Brock: Hmmp? I’m surprise they let you on the plane with that.
Ben: They do. They do. Once you convince them that it’s not a bomb, that it’s just design to shock yourself while you’re on the plane, they’re fine with it. So anyways though, what the study looked into was the effect of electrostimulation on red blood cell deformability. And if you’re not familiar with the term red blood cell deformability, all that it refers to is the fact that red blood cells can actually change shape and size, and by deforming in that way, they can actually more or less wizzle their way deeper into capillaries tissue, etc. and thus improve oxygen supply to working tissue. Now, what the study looked into was the effect of electrostimulation particularly on red blood cell deformability, and so they were actually doing blood testing on athletes – on one group of athletes of course using electrostim and another group that didn’t. And what they found was not only a significant increase in red blood cell deformability and oxygen supply to working tissue, but they also found a big boost in what’s called red blood cell nitric oxide synthase. Now, nitric oxide synthase is, you know, the substance like Viagra for your muscles, right? So it’s a vasodilator. It’s referred to as NOS, it’s the same thing that gets release when you do things like sauna, or cold thermogenesis, or heck, exercise – if anybody does that anymore these days. But frankly, I thought it was pretty cool not only the fact that electrostimulation can result in increases in red blood cell deformability but when I looked at the study in detail because I subscribed to this particular journal so I can see, you know, what products they use for example, they use something called a BodyTec. I’d never heard of this before but it’s actually an electrostimulation vest that you can wear, that extends as far down as like your quads, your thighs, and your hamstring so you can literally, rather than say, like attaching electrodes to your skin which kinda be kind of annoying, and you have to know the proper anatomical placements, etc. You literally just put on this like electrostim clothing and go through a series of workouts.
Brock: I’m actually just at the website right now. Just watching the video. That is so cool.
Ben: Yeah, and of course it’s only available on Germany, of course. Damn Germans, always get things first. I’ll link to it in the show notes, if anybody wants to check out either the study or this BodyTec vest. So, there you have it.
Brock: It looks like it comes with shorts too.
Ben: Uhmm! Yeah, like I mentioned it’s got the ability to stimulate your quads, your hamstrings too. So – so, Rachel can grab one and use it while she’s doing her yogurt.
Rachel: That sounds lovely. I would love to. (chuckles)
Special Announcements:
Ben: So Brock, Rachel, I am picking coffee grounds out of my teeth right now because I made cowboy coffee this morning. Have you heard cowboy coffee?
Brock: That’s so. I grew up with cowboy coffee.
Ben: Uhmm. It’s very, very high tech. You take a bunch of grounds and you put them in a pot, and then you heat up the pot over the stove, and then you pour the coffee into a cup, and you drink it and you try to avoid sucking grinds into your teeth as you drink it.
Brock: If you really fancy, you run up to some cheese cloth.
Ben: Uhmm, I would thought about dumping it through paper towel but I didn’t. You guys ever do cowboy coffee in Australia?
Rachel: We don’t know. Never heard of it.
Ben: Do you drink coffee, Rachel?
Rachel: We have some of the best coffee in the world in Australia.
Ben: But do you personally drink coffee?
Rachel: I do. I love it.
Ben: Good. Then you can – you can stay on the podcast. (chuckles) You’re allowed.
Brock: You passed that test.
Ben: You passed. Anyways though, I was doing that because I was out hunting this morning, and there was a big buck on my property that I’m trying to – he and I have been at battle for the past week. I’m trying to learn his trails and his ways, and I’ve come across him twice now. Both times were out on the runs, but I have yet to come across him while I’m yielding a weapon.
Brock: You’re not gonna take him down with your bare hands and your…
Ben: Well, my wife’s been in this pressure because we’re almost had no meat in the freezer and she’s never gonna go spend 500 bucks of my hard-earned money on half of the grass-fed cow or else I’m gonna get that buck. So…
Brock: By the way, Rachel is a vegetarian.
Ben: Uhmm.
Rachel: She accidentally ate chicken yesterday though but she’s going…
Brock: She accidentally ate chicken. (laughs)
Ben: Kale-shaped chicken?
Rachel: Worst vegetarian of all.
Ben: Uhmm.
Brock: Hmm!
Rachel: I won’t elaborate. Keep going Ben.
Brock: Okay.
Ben: By the way, Rachel and any of our listeners, Google Joe Rogan Vegan, and watch Joe Rogan’s comedy video on veganism. It’s hilarious even if you are vegan. It’s hilarious.
Rachel: Uhmm.
Ben: Because as you know, we are the only animals that drink milk of other animals. That’s mess stuff.
[0:20:00.0]
Anyways though, so, Rachel you can put your ear muffs on if you want to, but I’m now looking for this buck every morning at about 4 AM including this morning, so I just get up and make coffee as fast as I can. What am I getting at here? Well, I still even if it’s cowboy coffee, have been using my new favorite blend called Kimera Koffee. So, Kimera Koffee is the brainchild of a fitness junky, MMA artist and American jiu jitsu grandmaster, a musician, and basically a group of folks who have delved into whether or not it’s possible to actually combine neurotropics which sometimes called…
Brock: Otherwise pronounced nootropics.
Ben: Nootropics… with coffee, and what they’ve done is they’ve taken some of the most proven nootropics – to borrow Brock’s pronunciation, on the face of the planet. I’m gonna begin to ask Rachel how she pronounces nootropics.
Brock: Al-u-minium.
Ben: Yogurt. So, alpha GPC, taurine, L-theanine, and DMAE, are the four components that they’ve added to this coffee, and we’ll talk about smart drugs for specific purposes later on in the show, but it is amazing, and it’s also taste really good, it’s growing high altitude, blah, blah, blah… anyways so…
Brock: And best news of all… It’s available in freakin’ Canada. Finally, I hoarded a bag yesterday.
Ben: Yeah, so you can check it out at kimerakoffee.com. That’s k-i-m-e-r-a-k-o-f-f-e-e.com, use code “Ben10” to get 10% off. And this podcast is also brought to you by Caspers Mattresses. So, Caspers mattresses, I have one in my guest room, and it’s a kinda interesting. It’s a mix of latex foam and memory foam. And before I would allow them to sponsor this podcast, I also delved into the materials that they use and I do use non-toxic, organic material. It’s not a mattress that’s jam packed with stuff that’s gonna give you – I don’t know, cancer…
Brock: Scabies.
Ben: Or scabies, or I don’t know.
Brock: Adverse reaction to latex.
Ben: Yeah, I was waiting for Rachel to kick-in with some unknown Australian disease.
Rachel: I’m gonna think of one.
Ben: Anything, yeah.
Brock: ______ [0:22:09.6]
Ben: Anyways though, so it’s got good sink, it’s got good balance but the cool thing I like about it is unlike most mattresses, not only it is incredibly inexpensive but it shows at your house like this little tiny box that you unpack, and it’s just take all the pain out of putting a mattress in any room, and they actually are really, really cool. I’m a fan. I just like anything I talked about in the show, I actually do own one and use one, and you can get $50 off a Casper mattress if you go to casper.com/ben and use promo code “Ben” which seems incredibly redundant but apparently that’s the way they wanna do things. So, go to casper.com/ben and use promo code “Ben”, and you get $50 off a caspers mattress.
Brock: Yeah!
Ben: Just don’t spill your kimera koffee on it.
Brock: I just realized when I bought my kimera koffee yesterday, I used code “Ben” not “Ben10”.
Ben: Which is why it was so expensive.
Brock: I did get a discount but I bet somebody else’s giving credit for the purchase.
Ben: Probably.
Brock: Eh, sorry buddy.
Ben: Okay, so couple other things. As our listeners now I’m frequently globe-trotting. I’ll be over in Helsinki, Finland, Sept. 23rd and 24th for those of you who are at the Biohackers Summit. If you still wanna get in to that, grab yourself a last minute plane ticket to Finland. Go to biohackersummit.com. And I need to get on my finished lessons, so I actually downloaded the learned, finished podcasts off of iTunes but I have yet to listen to a single episode.
Brock: Yeah, you’ve got to know “Please” and “Thank You” at least.
Ben: I do know, I believe and our finished listeners are going to write in infuriated with my pronunciation, but I believe it is something like ‘getos bellon’ is a please, and I think ‘bellon’ is a thank you or something like that?
Brock: Alright. Well…
Ben: And I could – I could have those completely backwards.
Brock: They’ve gone with the wind, just sorted out.
Ben: It’s possible I just said, “Please pass the mustard”. I don’t know.
Brock: That – that works too.
Ben: Also, here’s something cool. I’m headed down to Carlsbad, California, December 4th through 6th to speak at the Unbeatable Mind Retreat, and this is where Seal Fit and Navy Seal Commander, Mark Divine is gonna assemble a bunch of folks – the – what they see, the best of the best… plus Ben Greenfield. In everything from performance to mental training, to sleep tactics. bunch of stuff. So, they’re gonna have like morning wods at Seal Fit headquarters which is the side of the world’s famous Kokoro Camp. They’re gonna have like Warrior Yoga instruction and workouts, and they’re going to have a lineup of speakers like Robb Wolf, Dr. Kirk Parsley, Dominic D’Agostino, whose like the expert in like ketosis for active people, and many more folks including me.
[0:25:01.0]
I’m gonna be there speaking on a nutrition panel, and I went last year, and it was a good retreat. So check it out at bengreenfieldfitness.com/unbeatable15. That’s bengreenfieldfitness.com/unbeatable15. I believe they do have limited entries on that one so…
Brock: Yeah! It’s only a hundred people this year.
Ben: Yeah, yeah, so…
Brock: They’re keeping it small.
Ben: Yes, they’re doing the whole scarcity thing. So, there you go. And – you know, those are some of the main special announcements that I wanted to cover today. Rachel, do you have any special announcements that you would like to discuss on today’s show?
Rachel: I would like to say that we’re actually doing a Kimera Koffee giveaway on Facebook this week.
Ben: Oh!
Rachel: So, am I allowed to say that?
Ben: No! (laughter) Now, we have to write to Kimera Koffee and they should pay us more money to sponsor the show because you did that.
Rachel: Well…
Ben: Now seriously, yeah, so how can people access that or go do it?
Rachel: All you need to do to enter is go to facebook.com/bgfitness and you’ll see the post, and all you have to do to enter…
Brock: (chuckles) Just say “slash”.
Rachel: “Slash”, okay. All you have to do to enter is comment on the post as to whether you use coffee to enhance your brain.
Ben: Sweet.
Rachel: And you can go and draw to win 2 bags of kimera koffee.
Brock: Nice!
Rachel: Yeah!
Ben: Made! She hasn’t said made yet. I’m waiting for that.
Rachel: Made…
Brock: (chuckles)
Listener Q&A:
Jacqui: Hi Ben! This is Jacqui in Japan and I wanted to get your thoughts on using placenta for skin issues. This is probably a pig placenta. It’s pretty commonly found as a supplement in the corner drugstores here in Japan, and I wonder if you would know or have heard anything about its efficacy. Again, it’s probably use more for anti-aging qualities more than anything, but have you heard of any other benefits or controversial things about its nutritional efficacy? Thanks much and as always keep up the great work!
Brock: Wow! We’re starting to show off with a bang!
Ben: That’s actually you know, I’ve done a lot of things to my body. I’ve put a lot of things in my body, both ends, but I have never eaten placentas. I must – at least not consciously. Maybe kinda like Rachel actually checkin’ at some point in my life I have actually eaten placenta.
Brock: I’m sure when you – when you’re rude to the waiters at certain restaurants. You probably get all kinds of stuff you don’t know about.
Ben: Yeah, yeah. By the way Rachel, are you a vegetarian or vegan?
Rachel: I’m vegetarian.
Ben: Okay, so you do eggs…
Rachel: I do, yeah. Uhmm.
Ben: …and – and what about dairy? What are your feelings on dairy?
Rachel: I love dairy but I don’t drink milk. I drink almond.
Ben: Uhmm. Yes.
Brock: And what are your feelings on placenta?
Rachel: Uhmm, you know, I’m open. (laughs)
Brock: Alright!
Rachel: No. It is quite a popular supplement. I mean, even in the Northern part of Australia, it’s – you’ll find it in some shops up there special so, I’m interested to hear what you have to say Ben.
Ben: Yeah. So, it is interesting that unlike the fact that humans are the only animal that drink milk of other animals. I tried to say as many times as possible on today’s show because of our vegetarian show host. Most mammals eat their placenta after giving birth and humans are actually one of the few mammals aside from the folks who are now engaged in placenta encapsulation, who really seem to have fallen off that bandwagon. But the idea is that not just the carnivorous will do it. The herbivorous like you see cows eating placentas as well, and that’s one of the few times that you’ll actually see a cow eating animal flesh. So, it’s really interesting, and one of the things that you’ll see folks talking about when it comes to placenta and what’s called placentophagy, or placentofagy. You know, it’s similar to the eating of insects called – what it’s called – entophagy? Entofagy? How would you pronounce it?
Brock: Entophagy.
Ben: Entophagy. Probably entophagy. So placentophagy. I’ve actually added that word to my vernacular. I’ll try and use that at my next cocktail party. But basically there are a few different things that happened in terms of eating the placenta. So apparently it’s very rich in iron. And iron deficiency maybe a possible cause of postpartum depression. So, it could be a good way for mammals to get iron when they would be in an iron deprived state. You know, after having bled, and giving birth, etc., the placenta may actually provide for a higher levels of iron. The other thing that it may affect, and there was an interesting study done on this on placenta ingestion by rats, enhancing what’s called delta and kappa opioid antinociception.
[0:30:03.1]
What that means is that the consumption of the components in a placenta may effect pain suppression, particularly by triggering opioid receptors – endogenous opioid receptors. So, it may help to shut down pain as well. There are a few studies that have been done on placenta and for example, one study was done way back in the 50s and they found that 86% of new mothers in this case, human mothers were given a placenta or placental extract experienced a boost in milk production and flow. And they actually used a placebo in this case, they used the placebo of beef. So, they compared placenta to – of all things, beef. Apparently that’s the perfect uh uhm, I guess the perfect placebo when you’re giving someone a placenta is a beef pill. And those mothers had just a 33% increase in milk production. So, it turns out that placental intake may increase the ability to lactate, and milk production and milk flow. Most of the studies have actually been done in animals, in rodents, etc., but the biggies appeared to be iron, pain killing, and the increase in milk production. Now, as far as immune factors, some people say that placental eating may improve the mothers immune response to the presence of a fetus in later pregnancy by preventing the formation of fetal tissue antibodies. What that means is that you eat the placenta. and because if you’re gonna have another baby, the tissue in that placenta resembles the same type of tissue that’s gonna be present in your body again when you have the next baby, it may keep you from producing antibodies that could potentially harm that baby. That is all totally blue sky, it’s totally theoretical and nothing’s actually been proven when it comes to that. So, placental encapsulation though is something that people are doing and there are actual – I can link to this. There’s a DIY placental encapsulation book on Amazon, yeah, that teaches you how to take a placenta and encapsulate it. And there’s also a DIY placental encapsulation kit, I don’t know if they’re same made by the same person, but it’s possible and that also sold on Amazon. Now, as far as the nutrients and the benefits of consuming placenta for people who are not new mothers, for say like the random 20-year old male college student who is pushing the aisle at Whole Foods and decide he wants to get an encapsulated placenta, most of the benefits you’re gonna get from it in terms of fat-soluble vitamins, in terms of iron, in terms of immune factors, etc., you could also get from organ meats. You know, the consumption of things like liver, desiccated liver powder, or the consumption of anything from like heart to kidney, to all these things that are traditionally consumed as organ meats. And so, you know, it’s kinda sexy one have and half does and the other one that comes to that. So, ultimately that’s the deal with encapsulation. There is no evidence that placental – that what you would find in placenta that’s gonna hurt you. That is gonna cause any type of allergies, or something like that. So, the only thing you have to worry about is of course where they got that placenta in the first place. That’s the thing that I would look into since I personally don’t supplement with placenta, I’m not quite sure of the sources of the placenta that they’re using for these like placenta encapsulations. But I would say that because most mammals into intuitively eat their placenta, if I could go back and have River and Terran again, or more specifically I could go back and have my wife have River and Terran again, I wouldn’t be close to the idea of like saving the placenta, encapsulating it, and having her supplement with that or something like improving milk production, or replacing the iron loss during childbirth, or in this case during the C-section, and what I should throw out there anecdotally is I know many people who are function medicine practitioners and specifically like alternative medical practitioners who I respect and almost all of them, when I’ve spoken to them since they’ve had children have used placental encapsulation with – for the mom after they’ve had the baby, so there’s that.
Rachel: Uhm, and what about – is there a difference between eating like a sheep’s placenta and your iron placenta?
Ben: I would imagine that that theoretically the only difference would be the fact that you’re consuming something that may help you with that antibody factor, right? That something that came out of you, so it may help you with future pregnancies perhaps, but other than that I’m not sure that there’s really gonna be much of a difference between a sheep placenta, human placenta.
[0:35:05.0]
I would say that maybe a dolphin placenta, you would probably draw the line. I would definitely draw the line in dolphin placenta.
Brock: I don’t think you would be that baaaad.
Rachel: Taran-ting! (chuckles)
Jory: Ben, I’ve never heard a question ask about creativity and stacks for promoting creativity. You mentioned that you use THC that help put you in a creative mood. What else?
Ben: Well, like I mentioned my smart drug stack of choice this morning is coffee grounds in my teeth that I’m still digging out. The gift that keeps on giving.
Brock: I’ve had 2 cups of coffee and some Alpha Brain.
Ben: Uhmm.
Brock: How about you, Rachel?
Rachel: I meditated? Does that count?
Brock: Totally!
Ben: You – you’ve meditated.
Rachel: Yeah! I supposed it’s the earliest smart drug.
Ben: Those count actually. We’ll talk about that later. Actually it’s a little bit of a smart drug. Now, Jory mentioned the THC and I guess we could use that as a jumping off point because THC is certainly something that is well known among musicians, artists, etc. for enhancing creativity. So of course, that’s the more psycho-active component of cannabis. Most people are familiar with and you know, I’ve been talking quite a bit lately about cannabidiol, the non-psycho-active component that has more of the anti-inflammatory, and a little bit more of like the peaceful, relaxation inducing properties of the cannabis plant although when taken in smaller quantities like 110 mg, I found that it also increases focus quite a bit. There’s some research done on its ability similar to like the alpha brain that you took, Brock for its ability to help produce alpha brain waves. So, I have an entire article about mixing a bunch of smart drugs, and we certainly talked quite a bit about of that before in other podcast. I’ll link to that article that I wrote on how to make your own smart drugs in the show notes at bengreenfieldfitness.com/331. But there are few things that I wanted to mention that I’ve been using of late and that I’ll also recommend for creativity, and also some differentiations between some of the popular smart drug stacks, or smart drug that are out there and kinda making the round right now. So, first of all, when you look at something like alpha brain, since you mentioned it Brock, I’ll talk about it, and you can get a discount by the way, at Onnit.com/bengreenfield. I believe it’s our discount link for that. So, I have found alpha brain to be most useful when you need verbal fluency, or word recall. So for something like writing, and creativity or making music, I don’t necessarily think that’s the best choice. For something like say, you know, podcasting or speaking on stage, or debating, or arguing, or even in my case, let’s say like doing health-er, or fitness consults with people, that type of thing. I’ve found that 2-3 Alpha Brain anywhere from 30-60 minutes prior to those activities, can come in quite handy. And one of the other things that alpha brain is handy for, I especially find this to be the case when it’s combined with CBD, is lucid dreaming. So you can take – I found about a 3:1 ratio work well. So, 3 capsules of alpha brain with 1 capsule of this cannibadiol is not only good for enhancing the alpha brain waves producing effects of alpha brain when you take it early in the day, but also enhancing the lucid dreaming effects of alpha brain when taken later in the day. However, I don’t think that that’s the best stack for creativity. Another thing that you see making the rounds quite a bit is Aniracetam, and I recently had a guy named Jesse Lawler on the show. The guy from the show “Smart Drugs Smarts”, and he’s involved with this new company called Axon Labs, and one of the things that they make is this thing called Nexus. And Nexus is based on – it’s got CDP choline and Phosphatidylserine and some of these things in it that get turned over at a faster rate when you’re using any of these racetams like piracetam or aniracetam, whatever. But what I’ve found is that any of these racetams like aniracetam or piracetam – some of you may have heard of like modafinil or the limitless drug which is the pill that, you know, that shoves your productivity to the roof. It’s like, you know, legal crack cocaine just…
Brock: Is that the one that’s called Provigil?
Ben: Yeah, Provigil is another version of that. Now, what I found is that aniracetam or piracetam – they’re kinda like a baby version of that. They’re aren’t gonna keep you up for 24-48 hours, you know, vacuuming your floor, writing a novel, and making a five-star chef meal, but they can really enhance your ability to just produce all day long.
[0:40:05.7]
Not necessarily produce creatively but just get stuff done. I mean, I’ve used something like aniracetam and I’ve actually use Nexus particularly for this. Like on a weekend, where you wake up and you’ve got a to-do list. That’s like 20 things long from cleaning the garage, to plant new seeds in the garden, to walk the dog, to run 8 billion errands. Aniracetam seems really useful for that type of thing although I’ve found that because it causes you to almost jump around so much, engage in so many different activities that if you do wanna do something like play music or write, but that’s not really the best choice for a smart drug or a nootropic, or whatever you wanna call it. However for productivity, that’s the one that I would recommend for something like that. I’ve just found that it kinda makes your brain dance around a little bit though as well. So, uhm, and Nexus is the one that I’ve mentioned for that – it’s kind of like the newer form of aniracetam that mixed with some of the things that if you don’t mix them with aniracetam, can leave you feeling depleted after just a couple of hours. So I know I haven’t yet gotten to the creativity component.
Brock: It’s coming folks.
Ben: It’s comin’ because – do I mentioned THC? Now, there’s a website that I use when I am researching particularly strains of marijuana. Earmuff kids, anybody under 18, anybody living in areas where this is illegal, I do not endorse it if it’s not legal. You don’t want the cops busting down your door and taking away your Ben Greenfield podcast and your weed.
Brock: Don’t break the law, folks.
Ben: But if you go to Leafly, that’s l-e-a-f-l-y, they’ve a really good phone app, they also have a good website. And what they do is they allow you to explore different strains of marijuana based on your goals whether those goals be say – creativity, fighting cramps, treating arthritis, treating anxiety, you know, motivating yourself staying productive, getting a good night sleep, exercising, etc. So, it’s really interesting. And, one of the strains that they have on there, one of the areas that they have on there is an area devoted to creativity, and a list of 30 different strains that are different hybrids like mixes of indicans, sativa forms of the plant, and then also sativa strains, indica strains, etc. Now, one of the things that I do is, I will occasionally especially when I have a really big bout of writing or I’m like learning a new song in the guitar, I will use some THC because it does improve creativity quite a bit. And what I will do is that I will take the edge off of that, meaning the inability to focus or the paranoia or any extreme psycho-activity by combining it with CBD. So I take 1-2 capsules or 10 to 20 mg of CBD and then I will take the form of THC. Now, what I’ve been using lately is this machine, it’s called a Magical Butter Machine. Have you seen this before?
Brock: Oh, I have seen that for – for using for herb extract butter like making fancy oregano butter, and basil butter and stuff.
Ben: Yeah, it works for infusing any type of butter, or say like coconut oil, or in my case, what I’ve been using is ghee which is just clarified butter with some of the – some of the dairy proteins and things like that removed and what you do is you simply – you decarboxylate whatever strain that you’ve purchased. So, in the case of – like marijuana, all that means is that you are removing a carboxyl group by putting in the oven for a certain period of time. And then you dump it into this magical butter machine which is just like cheesiest name in the place of the planet, but it works. And then you put in your butter or your mix of choice. Like I mentioned, I use ghee, and then you mix it and it just mixes for 4 hours, or 8 hours, or how it long it needs to go, and then you pour it out and in my case, I pour into molds and I put it in a little bit of chocolate just like an alkali-free dark chocolate powder, and then some sea salt. And in my case, I use – in case anyone wants to replicate my recipe, I use chocolate and sea salt, and then this strain called Blue Dream which is a very popular form of THC originating in California that is known for inducing what’s called cerebral invigoration. And so, it can definitely enhance creativity, it’s not something you would wanna take before you go to a party ‘cause you’re be kinda – kinda I find quiet introvert, very creative, and uhm, then I’ll just use that along with the CBD. I know that that particular stack for creativity is not necessarily legal in many States, but I just keep it in the freezer – this whole chocolates and I’ll eat one of those. One has about 10 mg or so of THC from this blue dream, and then some CBD added to it. As far as things that would be legal for creativity, and not comprising marijuana, I would say right now, my favorite is this Kimera Koffee stuff that I talked about earlier.
[0:45:07.4]
I’m not just saying that ‘cause they sponsor the podcast, I’m saying that because caffeine can spark creativity all by its little e own self and when you combine it with the alpha GPC and the choline, and some of these other derivatives and something like this Kimera stuff, it’s actually very, very nice for creativity. I guess my one complaint about it is that because I do most of my writing in the evenings, and most of my – playing a music, and things like that in the evenings. I’m not a big fan of using something like that in the evenings which is why instead opt for like the combination of THC and CBD. But one thing I can tell you is that if you mix high amounts of theanine, and Kimera Koffee already has some theanine in it but if you take some extra theanine along with caffeine, it can reduce the wakefulness enhancing properties of caffeine that allow you to sleep later on even if you’d have caffeine later in the day. So you could for example, get yourself some theanine capsules and take some theanine along with something like this kimera koffee and that’ll be a pretty good stack for creativity. And I’m feeling like a druggy right now going to all these.
Brock: You should. (laughs)
Bryan: Hi Ben, I have been practicing transcendental meditation since October of 1974, and my question is: how did your initiation go? Did you transcend?
Ben: Uhm. From weed to meditation.
Brock: Yeah, this is the hippy show. And there’s a vegetarian on the show. Man!
Ben: So, wait… alright, is everybody wearin’ their tied-eye by the way?
Brock: Absolutely!
Ben: Okay, good. Just checking. Uhm now Rachel, you done – have – we’ll just refer to as TM from now on just to shorten things up, but you’ve done a TM course. Haven’t you?
Rachel: I actually haven’t. No, I found out one but haven’t done it yet.
Ben: So, what form of meditation like you said you did meditation this morning. What form of meditation do you currently do?
Rachel: I do a classical meditation just kinda practicing on breath. I use breath as my anchor and that works pretty well for me. It’s definitely gonna journey to getting to the point where I’m actually enjoy it and – but yeah, just practicing on breath.
Ben: Okay. Gotcha! And Brock, have you ever experimenting much with meditation?
Brock: Uhm, actually not much until last year’s Unbeatable Mind Retreat when we talked about it so much and Commander Divine was such a believer in it. I started doing a lot of breath related meditation as well. I tried to do it almost everyday for about 20 minutes now and I love it!
Ben: Yeah, yeah. So, TM is just a form of meditation and I’ll be straight forward with you. The reason that I honestly begin to look into TM was because of a research study that we talked about on the podcast last year, in which they found that people who regularly practice TM were able to achieve similar levels of cognitive performance on 5-6 hours of sleep as people who were sleeping the traditional 7-9 hours per night. And I thought this was interesting because I do find myself in situations many times where I’m travelling, racing, etc. where I want to get by on less sleep. And there are certainly other ways that some people have done this for example, probably one of the more popular ways that people get away with like very, very brief power nap for recharging is via the use of binaural beats. So, you’ll put headphones on that play one frequency in one ear and one frequency in another ear, and then you’ll simply lay there for 10 minutes or 20 minutes with your eyes closed and often these beats are at a specific frequency design to either elicit like alpha brain wave production, or delta brain wave production, or something else whether you’re goal is to increase focus, to sleep better, etc. There are also machines now that are combination of eyewear along with audio, like there’s one called the David – things called the David Mind Alive Device. I talked about a little bit in my Beyond Training Book but it flashes different colors of light and that you look on these glasses whether with your eyes open or your eyes close and then that also comes with headwear that you – that plays music in your ears or sounds in your ears that are similar to binaural beats. So that’s another thing that folks were using. I have experimented with both of those, but I really wanted to see because I’ve heard so much about TM particularly for this goal but also for variety of other goals. I really wanted to try it out myself. And when I say other goals, the ones that I’m referring to specifically – there’s a very, very big body of research on reduction of stress, reduction of anxiety, and for those of you who aren’t such a big fan of the woo woo, and wanna delve more into the physiological, a significant decrease in salivary cortisol, and blood cortisol levels in people who engage in TM.
[0:50:01.6]
You also see as I eluded to earlier, reduction in insomnia and higher quality of sleep. It’s been shown to lower blood pressure, it’s been shown to decrease free radical production which is very interesting because that something that Wim Hof, while I recently had on a podcast episode is able to consciously do via his form of breath work is – I believe he calls it fire breathing. He’s been shown in laboratory studies to decrease the levels of inflammatory cytokines that are produced through that particular form of breathwork/meditation, and it turns out that TM can also achieve that same thing base on some studies that have been done on TM and production of free-radicals. There’s also been some studies that have been done on reduction in pain. So like chronic pain, fibromyalgia, etc. when it comes to TM, we just talked about creativity and there is probably one of the bigger body of research behind TM has been done on intelligence, creativity, and learning ability, and most attractive to me is the fact that there is that study that shown that it can enhance those even in the absence of what would be considered adequate amounts of sleep. So, you know, the research behind TM which you can go check out at tm.org is pretty vast. Now, I am aware of all of the websites and all the arguments out there against TM because I looked into it pretty heavily before I decided to take the leap and actually have an instructor, a TM instructor come to my home, and we’ve done 5 sessions now, and before I began to devote myself to trying out TM for myself and when I say trying out TM for myself, I mean that for about the past, I think it’s been over 30 days now, closer to 40 days, I’ve been doing 20 minutes of Transcendental Meditation nearly everyday because when I jumped in to something I really wanna give it a good go and try it out. There’s a website called suggestibility.org I believe is the name of the website, and it is a website put together by a former TM instructor who basically has lay out all the arguments against TM, and you know, I went through that entire website…
Brock: You’re against it?
Ben: Against it, and you know, going through everything about how it can create severe psychological problems, cause headaches, about kind of the weirdness of the guys like David Lynch, you know, uhm, he compares to Tom Cruise, like Tom Cruise believes that the – 75 million years ago, the evil galactic ruler Zenu attacked the planet or whatever…
Brock: He’s a scientologist but…
Ben: Yeah, he’s a scientologist and he compares that to David Lynch who believes that you can actually do things like levitate from the ground when you’re practicing something like TM, and I will totally admit that there are some cookiness out there around TM in terms of its power. And I do not believe in many of these – I would say more extreme claims that are made about what it can or it cannot do. I would also agree that even though with TM you’re given a specific mantra based on – like ayurvedic practices, it’s like a – I can’t reveal what my mantra is because I actually I’m under – this is again gonna some woo woo, but I’m under oath right like that – it’s something I agreed to when I took up my instruction TM that I wouldn’t reveal my mantra, that I wouldn’t go to, you know, delve too deeply into the – the specific instruction that I was given because it’s, it’s for me, it’s my own special. So, there you have it. But anyways, what I would say is that I have – did before by ______ [0:53:52.1] with the comments and tells me about all the science that is – or not necessarily the science but all the arguments made against TM, I’m aware of them. Okay, I’d looked into them quite heavily and I’m also aware that you could say a word in your hear over and over again for 20 minutes. Let’s just say, a word like – uhm, I don’t know, throw a word out at me, Rachel or Brock.
Rachel: Universe!
Brock: Yogurt!
Ben: Universe! So, you could sit there for 20 minutes everyday and you could say “universe, universe, universe”, over and over again sitting quietly with your eyes close and you would probably see some benefit, right? Like and that’s probably the biggest argument that I would see made against TM that probably has the most potential for, you know, for showing that TM is not necessarily all that special is that, you know, well, anybody’s gonna get better at like managing anxiety or sleeping if they just take a freakin’ break to sit for 20 minutes during the day, and just like say something to themselves. But there are a lot of little things that you’re taught when you learn TM particularly regarding breath work, the way that you manage thoughts coming in and out of your head, the way that you recite your personal mantra to yourself as you are sitting quietly doing it.
[0:55:06.5]
And I won’t delve into all the things that I was instructed on my course ‘cause honestly, I’ve been through 5 hours so far, we take forever. But I have noticed some pretty significant benefits when it comes to me being able to get by on less sleep, me being able to manage stress and anxiety, much better particularly during the day when I’m just, you know, when it’s like the matrix and you’re dodging all these bullets and a million things are gettin’ thrown at you. And I’ve also noticed that I have a better ability to be able to organize thoughts in my head to be able to – when something comes across my plate, put it into specific category, stack it, and then later on put that down in Evernote document or whatever. So, almost like my short term memory and memory organization. My head seems to have improved. Those are some of the things that I’ve noticed just objectively since beginning this practice of sitting for 20 minutes everyday, quietly, saying this specific mantra over, and over, and over again. And I certainly thought that some components of TM as I learned it were woo woo, and what I mean by that is like during my initial ceremony or whatever you call it, I had to bring a white handkerchief and like this special like sweet fruits, and freshly picked flowers and bring them in, and we had this special ceremony where we burnt the incense here on the flowers and the fruits, and some of that stuff, uhm, maybe it’s just because I’m like this hard core science guy, I always have an eyebrow raised at but I’m also very open-minded and you know, if that is something that’s traditionally done, I’m not necessarily gonna scoff tradition because it seems kinda weird to me, and I’m fine with that and I have not gotten headaches, I haven’t gotten extreme psycho-activity, I haven’t gotten any of these things that people will say will sometimes happen when you do TM, so at this point I would say, I will – I’ll absolutely keep doing it. I definitely will give credence to a lot of the research that’s been done on it, and so far, it is done exactly what I have – what I wanted to do when I first started it which was allow me to be more productive and to get by on less sleep. And that’s really the main biggie for me. So, there you go.
Rachel: I think uhm – have you meditated before this, Ben as well? Have you tried other forms of meditation?
Ben: I have. I’ve done everything from holotropic breathwork, to just – just basic like Native American seats spots. I’ve obviously done huge amounts of what I would call, moving meditation.
Rachel: Right.
Ben: A.k.a. you know, Ironman triathlon training, you know, sitting for 5 hours on a bike. I’ve done alternate nostril breathing, box breathing. I’ve done quite a bit of the meditations that Mark Divine put us through when we were at the Seal Fit Academy and Kokoro, and he did everything from going to your special what he called like your training shelter in your mind, and you’d stay there for specific period of time, and paint all these pictures to finding your power animal to like ______ [0:58:22.8]. So yeah, I’ve done on – experimented with a lot of different forms.
Rachel: Do you see any different in TM? Have you experienced, you know, anything different from other forms of meditation that you’ve done?
Ben: Yeah, absolutely, the sleep component for sure that I talked about.
Rachel: Okay, right.
Ben: So yeah, yeah. So – so you have it, I mean, and I would tell you right now. It’s expensive! Like if you go to tm.org and you buy your course and everything, and sure! They’re making money of it but, you know, like Brock and I talked about it last week, like if something is beneficial, I’m a capitalist. Like if you found something that changes peoples’ lives, and that’s beneficial and they decide they wanna buy it from you, more power to you. That’s fine. So I’m also fine with selling it for high amounts of money. But anyways, so that’s the deal with transcendental meditation, and delve more deeply and I’ll probably mention a few more times on the podcast, I may even get the guy whose instructing me, Phil – whose from Herrin or from close by in Idaho, I may even get him on a podcast sometime so we can geek out a little bit more, but at this point, that is my experience with transcendental meditation, call me woo woo, call me crazy but… there you have it.
Natalie: Hi Ben and Brock, it’s Natalie from Australia. Love the podcast, you mean everything you relate a new one. Just a question for you about rebounding. There’s comments around saying that rebounding for 15 minutes is equivalent to running for an hour. Seems a little bit exaggerated but interested to hear what you think about rebounding. Also, please keep up the great work of the podcast. Absolutely love it, and look forward to teach about the results. You guys rock! Hope to see you in Australia sometime soon too! Bye!
[1:00:06.3]
Ben: I rebounded at my grandmas.
Rachel: You did?
Ben: I’ll admit, I did, yeah. So, my dad got into rebounding for a while, and he liked how a couple of like fancy mini-trampolines and I thought it was the dumbest thing ever honestly, and I go over to my grandmas down for Lauderdale sometimes, and those mini-trampolines are still there. And I rebound every morning when I’m at my grandmas. Actually, felt pretty good! So…
Brock: Can one of you explain rebounding to me? I’m not sure I get it. So, they’re tiny, little trampolines, and what do you do? Just bounce.
Ben: Yeah, basically.
Brock: That’s it. Nothing’s fancy.
Ben: So, what I do when I rebound is I will bounce up and down for specific period of time, and then I bounce faster, I bounce slower, I bounce on one leg, I bounce on the other leg, I bounce and pull my knees to my chest. So, I’ll throw in all sorts of different moves but there’s no rule about how you’re supposed to rebound necessarily. So, they’ve actually looked at rebounding. The Journal of Applied Physiology – there’s a study in that – on rebounding. They’ve also looked – another organization called the NCBI has looked at human lymphocyte activation with rebounding, and it’s very similar to draw parallels to vibration platforms in terms of the effects and the benefits of rebounding. So, back in the 80s is when it first gain popularity, and NASA was actually studying rebounding ‘cause they wanted to figure out a way to help astronauts regain their bone mass and their muscle mass after being in space, because we all know that you’re just like these giants sack of Jello when you step off the space shuttle after being in space for a while because you’re expose to less gravity, and I don’t know if I need to explain this to you guys.
Brock: Not me. I read Commander Hadfield’s book, so I know all about it. And I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in space travel.
Ben: Rebounding or Commander Hadfield’s book?
Brock: (laughs) Commander Hadfield’s book.
Ben: Well, what they did was they, they – in this NASA study, they tested the athletes were running on treadmill, the astronauts in this case, and they measured what was called the G-Force. They measured it at the ankle, they measured it at the back, and they measured it at the head, and what they found was that the G-Forces while on a trampoline were almost identical at the ankle, and the back, and the head, and so they were actually inducing similar forces in terms of what the joint experienced during running but with less pressure and less impact particularly in this case, to the feet and to the legs. And they also found that the work output and the oxygen uptake was actually slightly greater when trampolining than when running. Now, I think that this is all subjective because obviously a good runner and someone who is a seasoned runner is probably gonna be able to get themselves up to a higher level of cardiovascular output than a novice runner when they’re running vs. when they’re trampolining. And of course, there are all sorts of other benefits that come from running like –like the impact. You know, one of the things that happens with the impact and with bone jarring is an increase in red blood cell production, and an increase in plasma volume, and an increase in bone density. And some of the other things that you may not get in quite as high a level when you’re trampolining. But they did find that trampolining could avert a lot of the deconditioning that can occur during immobilization such as might occur during bed rest or space flight, or at my grandma’s house. So basically, there are benefits that have been proven, and the other thing that is completely kinda unrelated to athletism or G-Forces is lymphocyte activity like I mentioned earlier, the lymph system which transport to immune cells, to your body, supports immune function. It’s actually stimulated quite heavily the bouncing up and down. The same has been shown with the lymph system, lymph drainage immune function with vibration. And that’s very similar to what occurs during trampolining. Now there’s some other interesting like anecdotal things that haven’t been looked in into too much studies but there are some hypothesis out there about how it may like help improve digestion, like maybe even, you know, help you with your morning poo when you bounce for 5 minutes on the trampoline when you get out of bed, you know, me – I personally do jumping jacks, but you could do trampolining. There’s some hypothesis that it may stimulate mitochondrial production although I have yet to see any compelling studies on that. Maybe would help improve balance. I’ve definitely notice when you’re bouncing back and forth on one foot vs. the other, that it seems like it’s helping that, but again there’s no studies that have shown that. It may help improve the effects of the other exercise, and there was one study that found that people who rebounded between their weight lifting sets saw 25% greater improvement in strength after 12 weeks of strength training than people who didn’t rebound between their weight lifting sets.
[1:05:03.8]
Interestingly, again not to kick this horse to death but the same has been shown with vibration platforms. So, we see a lot of parallels in terms of research when it comes to the benefits of rebounding, and the benefits of vibration platforms. So, uhm, I’m a big fan of doing it if you’re trying to rehab an injury, if you’re trying to maintain fitness, you know, and you’re a runner, and you’re injured. I like things like aqua jogging, like vibration platform, like trampolines to maintain fitness without necessarily producing the same amount of impact. So, I have yet to go out and purchase a mini-trampoline. I will certainly put a link to some of the better reviewed mini-trampolines in the show notes if people are now, you know, basically foaming at the mouth, wanted to go out and get themselves a mini-trampoline. But basically, I would say that if you are a novice exerciser, you would probably get similar benefits between rebounding and running. If you’re an advanced athlete, you know, Ironman triathlete, marathoner, someone like that, you’re probably gonna still wanna stick to running as your – as your bread and butter but rebounding, throwing a mini-trampoline in the bedroom or whatever, you know, it’s not only fun but productive. So, there you have it.
Brock: I’m not sure about putting it in the bedroom.
Ben: Well, you could use it for other activities as well.
Brock: Ohhh! (chuckles) I – gotcha!
Ben: Break all the mirrors in the bedroom.
Brock: Say no more!
Ben: Yeah! I don’t know how that would work but… it’s there.
Brock: Me neither, but I’m willing to try.
Ben: It’s there – it’s there flips under the bed. So, have either of you guys like to purchase mini-trampoline, or do you have one laying around that you could go practice on? Give us some feedback next episode.
Brock: Uhm… Brock would be out for that. He’s not gonna be on the next episode.
Ben: Oh wait…. Brock won’t be – waaa, waaa, waaa!
Brock: Waaaa, waaaa!
Ben: Thank you for – thank you for reminding us, Rachel.
Brock: I could have told you so many wonderful tales of my rebounding exploits but sadly….
Ben: Yes. This – this podcast is beginning to drag on. So, I guess we should probably move on to the very, very special part of the podcast, which is where we – I was gonna say – where we say goodbye to Brock, but it’s actually where we read a review.
Brock: Where you give away a bunch of crap.
Ben: When we give away a bunch of crap. Then, we’ll say goodbye to Brock. And you too, if you would like to say goodbye to Brock, please go to the show notes at bengreenfieldfitness.com/331. This is your last chance aside from perhaps doing an iTunes review where you can shove Brock under the bus, give him a hard time, wish him luck in his Zamboni travels, make fun of his Canadian accent, take digs at coconi and poutine, pretty much anything that you would like to do to…
Brock: Best part of Rachel taking over is her accent is even more ridiculous than mine, so….
Rachel: (laughs) Well, I’m not sure about that.
Ben: Yes, yes. She has no idea what she’s about to get into.
Brock: Yeah, I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Ben: Hold on for dear life Rachel. And in the meantime, if you’re listening in and you would like to leave this podcast a review, or say your thoughts about Rachel replacing Brock, you can do so over on iTunes, and you just go to iTunes, you do a search for Ben Greenfield fitness show, and you can leave your review there. And we – if we read your review on the show, and you email [email protected], that’s [email protected], then we will send you a handy-dandy gear pack, chockfull of cool Ben Greenfield fitness beanie, a pcv-free water bottle that won’t fill your plasma with plastic, and also a shirt, but not just any shirt – a tech t-shirt that you can wear when you are at the gym. Automatically gives you six-pack, no electrostimulation required. So, who wants to read this week’s review?
Brock: Uhm… let me do it just for – just for old time sake.
Ben: For old time sake.
Rachel: Go on!
Ben: Alright. So, this review is from Kyle_Moz. It’s called The No. 1 Fitness slash – forward slash, Rachel, Life Podcast.
Brock: Does it refer to which way the slash is meaning? Is that the idea?
Rachel: I guess so. Yup, uhmm.
Brock: Alright, that makes sense. Alright, Kyle_Moz says, “In this podcast you have a ridiculous amount of information given to you. Ben doesn’t just throw out numbers or pieces of info that he heard from a friend or from someone at the gym. The man does his research and tests out things himself so you have a legitimate opinion that is based on facts”. Except when it comes to transcendental meditation. “A perfect combination of nutrition, health, lifestyle, and fitness all thrown into one podcast. Should be – should be number 1 on iTunes for the rest of time.”
Ben: That’s right. Did you hear that? Did you hear that – this American Life and what else? RadioLab?
Brock: Uhmm.
Ben: And Serial? And ah what else – Marc Maron? Maron? How do you say that? We should be number 1 on iTunes.
Brock: Yeah, get the hell on the MITR.
Ben: That’s right. Now I’m inspired to go out and cease the day. So, Kyle thank you for that fantastic review, and in the meantime, not only Kyle’s review but everything else that we talked about in today’s show, from the Unbeatable Mind Retreat to my special recipe for the ice and coconut water with chocolate stevia to the reddit – what’s this plant, full body electrostim. You name it, you can find all that at bengrenfieldfitness.com/331. And Rachel, do you think that you could send me perhaps like a headshot or a photo, or something like that so people can – can see what you look like?
Rachel: Absolutely!
Ben: Mustache and all?
Rachel: Uhmm, I will do that.
Ben: Okay. Handlebar mustache and all.
Rachel: Oh, I don’t know about that.
Ben: So, so we’ll put a picture of Rachel too in the show notes if you would like to go see who this is that you’re going to be forced to listen to now, in the future.
Rachel: And make fun of.
Brock: Yeah. When I first took over like 4 years ago when I joined the show, there were some people who are really helpful and really constructive in their criticism, but there are some real dicks.
All: (Laughter)
Brock: And I just – I am for you, don’t be a dick. Like if you have something to say about Rachel, if you have something to contribute to the show, do so. That’s always welcome. Ben, is really open to that, I know Rachel is really open to that, but don’t be a dick. These are humans.
Rachel: Thanks, Brock.
Ben: I don’t know. I was kind of a dick to Rachel for the past hour and twenty minutes.
Brock: No, don’t follow Ben’s lead.
Ben: Alright, well…
Brock: That’s all I have to say about that. And thanks everybody for four awesome years. It’s been a real pleasure, Ben being your sidekick and all you fans out there. Thanks for being positive and being awesome, and I’m getting a little choked (choking sounds). I’m getting – cut it off, cut it off before I cry. Sounds like we’re taking a pill when we choke up… yeah…
Ben: Alright, we’ll end it there.
Brock: I’d say so.
You’ve been listening to the Ben Greenfield fitness podcast. Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness and performance advice.
[1:13:05.4] END
Sep 16, 2015 Podcast: Should You Eat Placentas, The Best Smart Drug Stacks For Creativity, Ben Greenfield’s Experience With Transcendental Meditation, and Rebounding Vs. Running?
Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the tab on the right (or go to SpeakPipe), use the Contact button on the app, click Ask a Podcast Question at the bottom of this page, Skype “pacificfit” or use the “Ask Ben” form at the bottom of this page.
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News Flashes:
You can receive these News Flashes (and more) every single day, if you follow Ben on Twitter.com/BenGreenfield, Facebook.com/BGFitness and Google+.
- Here’s an easy, low-calorie, refreshing recipe that tastes pretty good: blend ice, coconut water, chocolate stevia, sea salt and gelatin or amino acids for 60 seconds at high speed. (for the gelatin part of this recipe, I recommend the primal peptides from Natural Force nutrition, use 10% discount code BEN10).
- This is pretty cool if you’re into plant identification: https://m.reddit.com/r/whatsthisplant/
- Yet another reason I am still including electrostimulation in my training protocol – good new research (in this case they used a Miha-BodyTec).
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Sep 23-24, 2015. Ben is speaking at the Biohackers Summit in Helsinki, Finland. Discover the latest in wearables, internet of things, digital health, and mobile apps to increase performance, be healthier, stay fit, and get more done. Learn about taking food, preparation, cooking, and eating to the next level with the latest science and kitchen chemistry. Even delve into implanted chips, gene therapy, bionic arms, biometric shirts, robotic assistants, and virtual reality. Two days with an amazing crowd and a closing party with upgraded DJs to talk about. Click here to get in now.
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Ben Greenfield has officially launched his first work of fiction: “The Forest”. Twin brothers River and Terran discover a portal to a hidden forested world attacked by parasitic fungi, dark shamans, and serpents. Along with an assembled band of unlikely misfits that includes coyotes, whitetail deer, wood thrushes, and fox squirrels, they must unlock their unique powers to control the elements of earth, air, fire and water, and save the forest before the evil they’ve uncovered can spill back into their own world. Click here to read it now! New chapters released every 7-14 days.
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Meet the New Podcast Sidekick: Rachel Browne!
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Listener Q&A:
As compiled, deciphered, edited and sometimes read by Rachel Browne, the NEW Podcast Sidekick.
Should You Eat Placentas?
Jacqui says: She wants to know what your thoughts are on using placenta for skin issues. It’s a common supplement in Japan, and she wants to know if you’ve heard anything on its efficacy. What do you think?
In my response, I recommend:
–DIY Placental Encapsulation book
–Do It Yourself Placenta Encapsulation Kit
The Best Smart Drug Stacks For Creativity
Jory says: He wants to know your best recommendations for stacks that promote creativity. You mention THC – what else?
In my response, I recommend:
–My Make Your Own Smart Drugs article
–Leafly
–Magical Butter Machine
–NatureCBD
–Alpha Brain
–Nexus from Axon Labs
Ben Greenfield’s Experience With Transcendental Meditation
Bryan says: He has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since 1974, and he wants to know how your initiation went. Did you transcend?
In my response, I recommend:
–TM.org
Rebounding Vs. Running
Natalie says: There’s comments saying that rebounding for 15 minutes is the equivalent to running for an hour. Is this true? What are your thoughts on rebounding?
In my response, I recommend:
–Mini-trampolines
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