Today we’re talking about the remaining MOFO Mission Assignments and what makes them such effective and integral tools for testosterone optimization.

This episode will illustrate the importance of taking a comprehensive approach towards hormone optimization: you’ll hear about the profound effect relationships have on our hormones and learn interesting research taken from numerous global studies about testosterone. We also talk about how your lifestyle can negate the effects of supplementation and other testosterone-boosting practices, as well as what the presence of visceral fat on the body reveals about your health.  

Listen to part 1 of the show here!

TIMESTAMPS:

Male testosterone level has been declining since the 1980s. [01:35]

The visceral fat that collects around the abdominal organs secretes its own chemicals causing inflammation. [04:55]

Brad reviews part one of the MOFO Mission: sleep, clean up your diet and toxic relationships and keep moving. [05:47]

If you don’t get up and move frequently, you will lose your ability to focus and concentrate. [13:32]

Hit it hard…..include brief explosive high-intensity workouts into your fitness regimen.
There’s a sweet spot for the optimal duration of your sprint efforts. Don’t overwork. [16:14]

Assignment number 7 is: take control of your life. Our connectivity to technology is proving to be harmful to the brain. [37:01]

Estrogenic compounds are everywhere in plastics and household products.  Get rid of plastics that are touching your food. [46:17]

Many of the health and beauty products we use at home have chemicals that are not good for your health. Minimize your EMF exposure at night. [51:52]

Rest, recovery, and restoration. You might want to learn to nap. [54:55]

Number 10 of the MOFO assignments is to quit being a dick to your wife or girlfriend. Manage your emotions. [58:44]

LINKS:

• Brad Kearns.com
• Brad’s shopping page
• Brad’s Micro workouts
• USWellnessMeats.com
• MOFO Mission No. 1 podcast
• Body by Science
• P E Ratio Diet
• Podcast with Dr. Craig Marker
• The Primal Blueprint Blog
• Mark’s Daily Apple
• Primal Blueprint Fitness Pyramid
• This is Marketing
• Seth Godin
• Brad’s First Morning Routine
• Brad’s Current Morning Routine
• Estrogeneration
• 8 Weeks Out website

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B.Rad Podcast

Brad (00:00:00):
Hi listeners. I am ready for the mission. Part two. How about you?

Brad (00:01:36):
Alright, let’s get into it, everybody. Hopefully you listened to wonderful part one because the MOFO mission consists of 10 lifestyle assignments, a comprehensive approach to optimizing testosterone, especially as you age into the upper age groups, you experience a very natural and potentially very slight decline in testosterone as you age, obviously. But research is showing a couple of interesting things first that we are in a world of a disastrous accelerated decline in the average male testosterone levels. It’s falling at a rate of about 1% per year since the 1980s. So we’re talking about 40% lower in the 40 years. That’s been since the 1980s started, right? So grandpa and, and pop had 20 to 40% better testosterone than the average person does today at whatever age checkpoint we’re talking about. So I’m not talking about a decline in testosterone as we age as humans, but rather a checkpoint in time where the modern world has conspired to trash.

Brad (00:02:54):
The average male testosterone. And this is from research around the globe, not just an isolated study in one country, great research from Japan, from Denmark, from the United States, that the average male is less of a man than dad or grandpa was decades ago. And it’s, uh, an accelerated decline that has a lot of, uh, adverse consequences. There’s a lot of health risks as you age, when you have declining testosterone. Another prominent study from Israel revealed that a male sperm count is about 50% decline from just a short time ago. I believe in the nineties. So we’re talking about fighting this battle on all fronts. This MOFO mission, and you can learn more if you visit my website, Brad kearns.com and click on the link. It’ll tell you all about it. Of course, I’m promoting a wonderful nutritional supplement product behind it, but that’s not the point of this show.

Brad (00:03:45):
And the purpose here is to promote a comprehensive approach to hormone optimization because there’s, you can swallow whatever you want or whatever magic supplement secret formula. But if you’re not engaging in the proper lifestyle practices, uh, the benefits are going to be largely negated. And yes, that goes for hormone replacement therapy as well. So even when you call in the big dogs and decide to go over to the other side of the coin and undergo hormone replacement therapy, even that, that powerful exogenous source of testosterone will, the benefits will be negated if you are in an inflammatory, unhealthy state as particularly revealed by the presence of visceral fat, abdominal fat, AKA belly fat. So this is a very adverse metabolic consequence, bad diet, not enough exercise for whatever reason. You’re adding a spare tire over the years, and this is known to be a highly inflammatory condition.

Brad (00:04:55):
So, uh, the special kind of fat that collects around the organs in the mid section is called visceral fat. And it secretes its own chemicals. These, uh, inflammatory agents called cytokines. The power or the significance of this is such that the visceral fat can literally be defined as a separate organ in the body because its ability to secrete hormones. So secrete chemicals into the bloodstream. So, uh, when you have a spare tire, uh, you’re engaging in inflammatory lifestyle practices, bad food, bad exercise habits, bad sleep, high stress, whatever it is. And you’re walking around with the spare tire. If you go and get hormone replacement therapy, because you’re dragging ass little bit, you can’t get it up, you can’t perform, you can’t recover whatever your condition is, your complaint is. And the doctor says, Hey, let me give you a little something to try.

Brad (00:05:47):
You may get an immediate boost and boy that’ll feel great. You’ll feel like you’ve found the answer, but what happens when you’re in an inflammatory state is this process of aromatization, where any extra testosterone that you receive through injection, uh, will be aromatized into estrogen because of the inflammatory state of your body. So, so even if you decide to dope up like a real Olympic or professional athlete, you will largely negate those benefits unless you cover your bases and clean up your adverse lifestyle practices. So part one of this two-part recording about the MOFO mission covered the first five assignments on the mission. Uh, we started with sleep, so I’m just do a quick recap. Sleep is number one, all other lifestyle practices, lifestyle optimization efforts, flow downstream from getting adequate sleep. So if your sleep habits are off-kilter, it’s really not even worth discussing a fitness regimen or dietary changes until you can at least get proper rest overnight.

Brad (00:06:53):
And yes, of course, uh, adverse sleep practices will, uh, influence your dietary choices to a negative extent. Uh, you’ll be more likely to crave sugar and overeat and reach for quick energy because you’re not fully rested and restored every day. And of course, it’ll mess up your fitness endeavors because you won’t have the energy to perform recover. And of course, execute good technique too. Go out there and get injured like a weekend warrior. Okay. So sleep was number one. And we talked about, uh, the main takeaway there is to strive to minimize artificial light and digital stimulation after dark. That is the key. So put those devices away earlier in the evening, if you insist on enjoying screen entertainment, which you deserve after that busy, stressful, hectic day, try to get it done. And then devote the last hour before bedtime to calming mellowing rituals in a darker, quieter environment.

Brad (00:07:53):
Maybe it’s taking the dog for a final stroll around the neighborhood late at night, eh, under dressed, getting a little chilly, which is a great facilitator of sleep when you get back home. Okay, sleep is number one. Then we covered number two, which was called clean up your act. And we’re talking about ditching junk foods, which is the starting point for the conversation when it comes to dietary changes. Uh, and also throwing into that title, clean up your act would be to ditch the toxic relationships, toxic energy, uh, all kinds of, uh, things to clean up in your life. Okay. Number three was now that you’ve ditched all the junk food, uh, we want to emphasize the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. Uh, the wonderful ancestral, the Primal Blueprint foods that you’re so familiar with meat, fish, fowl, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.

Brad (00:08:42):
That’s the primal list. Uh, we also have allowances for certain modern foods that have health benefits and minimal objections. Things like, uh, raw organic fermented high-fat dairy products, high cacao percentage bean to bar dark chocolate. So trying to emphasize the most colorful and nutrient dense foods and paying particular attention these days, uh, to making sure that you get, uh, enough of these super foods, we can call them that. Uh, but the most nutritious foods that are often overlooked, uh, even among health conscious eaters. So that would be the nose to tail strategy, organ meats, bone broth, uh, oysters are the highly ranked food, salmon eggs, liver, the real King of the planet, where you’re getting the absolute maximum nutrient density. And there’s so much good content out there on this recent emergence of the carnivore style dietary pattern, where you’re having what would be called an animal-based diet.

Brad (00:09:43):
So you’re getting a lot of pastured eggs and grassfed beef and quality sustainably raised animals, and then throwing in the super foods like bone broth, things that are really difficult to get in the modern diet, organ meats, uh, oily cold water fish. And what’s cool about going into an animal-based carnivores style pattern and trying to up the nutrient density of your diet is in many cases, it’s really affordable because the organ meats are still so unpopular in modern culture that they’re super cheap. So you can go and get some, uh, grassfed liver at a good, uh, natural foods, grocer or online places like USwellnessMeats.com. Uh, we’ll get you some, uh, great chunks of liver and it’s way less expensive than a quality cut of steak, for example. So you can go to your organ meats, bone broth can be pretty pricey for small amounts.

Brad (00:10:37):
Uh, the high quality bone broth that the great makers are selling, uh, not to be confused with the cartons of, uh, what should be called stock. That water-based stuff that you can get in the, uh, the, um, rectangular cardboard carton and use that to, uh, prepare things in the Crock-Pot just as a stock, but the true bone broth is distinguished by because it’s a gelatinous when it’s refrigerated, so that stuff can be pricey, but you can make your own in a Crock-Pot by simmering of bones and joint material for a couple of days. So no excuses, man cleaning up your diet. If the size in the ancestral foods, that was number three, number four was pound the MOFO. And that’s where I talk about supplementation, a little plug for, uh, upping the nutrient density of your diet, restoring your cellular energy, because you may be living a depleting, exhausting, stressful lifestyle, and therefore your body’s in a rough state needs to recover.

Brad (00:11:34):
It needs to rebuild, needs to regenerate, and we can go for, uh, and consider any advantage possible. So I’m a huge fan of our, obviously of our male optimization formula with organs. It’s got rich, uh, nutritional grassfed organs from New Zealand. So a super clean product, no additives, no nothing that was extracted in a chemical manner in a laboratory. Uh, so you can consider it kind of a food supplement, uh, but whatever you do, um, and whatever information you’re, uh, studying about what might be good to supplement boy, uh, make good choices and consider it to get that boost that you need to stay motivated and energized to take on all this lifestyle change. Obviously, primal kitchen.com has some great products that you could call, uh, in the supplement category, especially the collagen, which is very difficult to obtain, uh, in general, everyday diet, unless you’re eating consuming a lot of bone broth or consuming a lot of meat on the bone and that, uh, gelatinous liquid that comes from, uh, things of that nature, you might be low on collagen.

Brad (00:12:37):
Uh, Mark told me to take 30 grams a day for the rest of my life, and I’ve been listening for several years and will continue to just because it’s so difficult to obtain in the diet. So what I’m looking for in the supplement category is, uh, stuff that’s hard to get from natural, healthy, nutritious meals, uh, because otherwise you’re always better off getting stuff from the, uh, the natural source. So collagen is on that list. Uh, there’s a lot of support for creatine, uh, for athletic performance and recovery. So I have that on my go-to list while I have a constant supply and I will continue to take that for forevermore. And of course the organ capsules are getting really popular because not many people can raise their hand and say, yes, my organ meat cooking game is on point and tonight I’m serving kidney and tomorrow morning I’ll have liver, not too many people enjoy the taste that much, or just go to the trouble to source these foods that can be difficult to find.

Brad (00:13:32):
So if you’re a little behind on your meal planning, uh, consuming enough liver, Hey, go get it from, uh, capsuled form and make sure that you’re, that you’re dialed in there. So that was number four, pound the. And then the number five on the list of 10 assignments is to move frequently. And I closed out the other show, talking about finding ways to move more in all different ways in general, everyday life, but starting and focusing on walking as Mark Sisson and calls it J F W just F’ing walk as the centerpiece of your movement. Objective. And I also like to throw in there, uh, that, you know, taking quick breaks from prolonged periods of stillness, if you’re engaged with a machine or at a desk for long periods of time, and you can get up and take a one minute break or a two minute break, every 20 minutes, every 40 minutes, whatever you can do to keep your body moving throughout the day will have wonderful benefits on so many levels, especially on fat metabolism on cognitive function.

Brad (00:14:33):
Focus, your brain literally cannot really focus intently on a peak cognitive tasks for longer than 20 minutes. Anyway, so you need a break. And if you, if you refuse to take breaks and just grind away at your desk, your brain is going to take breaks for you and things are going to take longer. You’re going to be less focused. You’re going to forget where you put something. You’re going to forget to call somebody back. You’re going to drift over to YouTube like me and watch HighJump videos instead of continuing soldiering on working on an ambitious peak performance project, like a book project, because I didn’t take that break. So I’m getting really good and really devoted to, uh, jumping up and doing something. It might be going up on the pull-up bar and doing a set or just stretching off the bar or pulling some stretch cords or doing some monster walks down the hall with those mini bands.

Brad (00:15:24):
So a mini workout is great. We have great YouTube content, uh, micro workouts. Uh, there’s two different videos I believe, but you can look for Brad Kearns micro workouts, and I’ll give you some ideas that you can put into action in an office environment, but moving, moving around, Hey, formal movement practices count like yoga, Pilates and Tai Chi, um, foam rolling counts as a movement objective cause you’re moving the blood. You’re moving the, getting the lymphatic system going. So that’s on the list also. So if you’re binge watching at night, get the foam roller out and have some fun. So that was the first five. All that was, was a recap of the previous show. How nice, I guess if you really don’t want to go back and listen, you will be somewhat up to speed, but go back and listen. Cause I go into more detail and cover those first five assignments.

Brad (00:16:14):
And now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get into number 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. And I love number six. I call it, hit it hard. And we’re talking about the critical objective of including brief, explosive high intensity workouts into your fitness regimen. This is widely ignored, disrespected, or misappropriated by many fitness enthusiasts. And what we see in general are people that completely ignore the explosive exercise in favor of driving over to the gym, looking for a close parking spot, walking in, and then climbing on a moving staircase for 45 minutes, watching CNN and calling you to workout or a bicycle or a treadmill or whatever. So the pure cardio folks are doing something that is certainly better than sitting on the couch, but it has minimal fitness, health, longevity, disease prevention benefits in comparison to once in a while, putting your body under maximum load and asking the maximum challenge from your muscles and from your cardiovascular system.

Brad (00:17:28):
So the payoff, the return on investment of workouts that are incredibly short are vastly superior to workouts that are six or 10 times as long. Uh, my main man, Doug McGuff. Dr. Doug, McGuff one of the bright minds in the progressive fitness circles. He has a great book called Body by Science, where he, uh, very devotedly cites research showing, uh, how much subjects can improve from a workout regimen that lasts as little as 12 minutes a week. So if you go in there and hit it hard in some way, shape or form, and we’ll talk about some ideas shortly, uh, you can greatly increase your fitness in a very short time in comparison to someone who’s out there running or cycling for hours and hours on end. Uh, what happens, in brief is the concept that McGuff is trying to convey in his book Body by Science, and I’ve heard other people express it pretty nicely.

Brad (00:18:25):
Uh, Dr. Ted Naiman, co-author of the P E Ratio Diet talks about this to his favorite exercise regimen is doing single set to failure and that’s it. And he’ll stack up oh five or six different exercises over the course of the day. He might do them all in succession, or he might just do one set of pull-ups to failure, go back to work for two hours, come back and do a sprint up a hill once to failure, to a really difficult, challenging, full speed sprint. And, uh, then, you know, later on the day, do his pushups to failure or his deadlifts or whatever you’re talking about, but it’s a really interesting concept to, uh, get these muscles challenged at the very maximum. And that’s where the magic of fitness happens. You have to challenge your body to stimulate a fitness adaptation. And the essence of that is pushing yourself, uh, hard and you know, to a place where maybe you haven’t gone before, when you’re talking about, uh, you know, continually improving with your, your sprint time or your, uh, vertical jump or your speed climbing up the rope.

Brad (00:19:29):
And so there is a lot of good programming out there that respects the importance of, uh, explosive high intensity training. But generally it’s organized into this high intensity interval training format or protocol that defeats the purpose because the workouts last too long. So when you go in to a spin class or a bootcamp class, or a session with a personal trainer, and they’re asking you again and again, and again, to deliver maximum output, what you are doing is turning the workout into an exhausting depleting fatiguing session. It’s too hard and it’s too much. And after just a few, uh, maximum efforts, you will start to have cumulative fatigue occurring during the workout such that you won’t be able to deliver a truly explosive effort, uh, for the rest of the session. This happens if you are asked to do too many explosive efforts, or you’re asked to sustain maximum output for too long, a period of time, uh, I had a great show with Dr.

Brad (00:20:35):
Craig Marker, uh, on the podcast, you can search the archives. They have a really nice search function. I don’t know if listeners know that, but if you go to blog.primal blueprint.com. Oh my gosh, you type in a word into the Google search function and pull up an old show. And Dr. Craig Marker had this absolutely fantastic transformative article published on Breaking Muscle.com called HIIT versus HIRT. Uh, we reappropriated that for Mark’s daily apple. So if you look in the Mark’s daily apple archives, you can see an article titled HIIT versus HIT. H I I T versus H I R T. And what H I R T stands for is high intensity repeat training. This means you will perform a sprint and explosive effort of some kind could be an actual running sprint down the athletic field or the track. It could be a set of kettlebell swings to maximum effort for a specific duration of time could be a, a set of box jumps that can count as a sprint, or of course, a bicycle sprint, cardio machine, whatever it is.

Brad (00:21:42):
Uh, but this high intensity repeat training concept suggests that every time you perform the effort, it’s an equivalent level of quality, consistent quality of effort. Uh, your first one, all the way to your last one. So you don’t have this decline, this breakdown of form and, uh, effort, energy expenditure caused by cumulative fatigue. Uh, so when I’m talking about my go-to template, running sprint workout of six to eight times 80 meters down the football field, uh, what’s happening on each one is I feel fantastic. I feel explosive, and I’m repeating the high intensity effort each time. And of course something, if something comes up, uh, my hamstrings start to twinge. I start to feel myself slowing down or breaking my technique that designates the end of the workout. There’s no struggling and suffering involved. It’s high quality, high performance explosiveness, and go hard and then go home.

Brad (00:22:42):
So same with a kettlebell swings, whatever it is. If you start to notice a break, like kind of a imaginary, a skew in the graph where it starts to get really, really hard on your seventh one, you’re done. So you want to leave these workouts feeling, uh, pleasantly fatigued because, uh, it’s a difficult, difficult effort to put out maximum effort, uh, but not exhausted and depleted as we’re so accustomed and programed to feeling. So there’s a sweet spot for the optimal duration of your sprint efforts. And that would be somewhere around 10 to 20 seconds. And this is what Dr. Marker details in his article, that as you try to sprint, try to truly go all out beyond around 20 seconds, you start to experience an exponential increase in the rate of cellular destruction in order to try to fuel that raging fire of ATP.

Brad (00:23:44):
That’s the currency that your cells burned for energy. And so if you’re sprinting, if you’re going all out, you need a ton of ATP thrown into this raging fire in order to sustain you as you run around the track or whatever, you’re doing a pedal the bicycle during your Peloton workout. And so once you try to extend your sprint beyond 20 seconds, uh, this cellular breakdown process occurs. It’s called disassembling and demanation of cellular proteins in order to make ATP really quickly. And it comes at great expense. So you have a lot of recovery ahead of you. Uh, it may turn into muscle soreness if you’re doing something that’s high impact, but if you’re doing a bicycle, uh, sprint session where they’re asking you to do, Hey, we’re going to do ten 30 second sprints, uh, with 30 seconds rest in between them. And that’s going to be the end of this hard workout, just like the guys in the tour de France, Hey, Hey, it’s a lot of fun, but the workout is overly stressful and ill considered because as you progress through this imaginary set hypothetical set of 10 sprints of 30 seconds, each with only 30 seconds rest between them, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, and the 10th are going to be crappy as evidenced by a reduction in wattage output.

Brad (00:24:59):
And if you’re familiar with that, um, any of the technology that measures Watts, it’s really great in cycling, because you can determine how much energy you’re putting out into the pedals and it’s called Watts. Uh, so if you’re going uphill, you’re pumping out a lot of Watts. If you’re going fast on the flat and you’re pumping out, uh, let’s say the same amount of Watts has going up slowly up a hill, or if you’re on a stationary bike, everything’s consistent, there’s no wind resistance or hill or anything. And so you can see how many Watts you’re putting out when you sprint and you want to have this consistent quality of effort means that the first sprint all the way to the eighth sprint or whatever you’re doing, uh, you’re going to hit the same number of Watts. And it’s going to feel a similar degree of difficulty.

Brad (00:25:44):
So it’s not going to be an absolute torture fest to do the seventh and eighth one again, like we’re so socialized to believe that that what constitutes a good workout that constitutes a crappy workout with a lot of cellular destruction and a lot of recovery time afterward. So if you can hit it hard correctly, guess what? All kinds of benefits ensue. One of them is this wonderful burst of adaptive hormones flooding into the bloodstream. And those would be namely testosterone and human growth hormone. Very, very important for females as well. Females have around a 20 to one ratio, less testosterone than males, but they still require an optimal level of testosterone to get lean and strong and, uh, look great and have high energy and all those great things that testosterone does just to a lesser extent in females. So all these things apply to females.

Brad (00:26:40):
Also, you want to optimize these adaptive hormones. So do the workouts correctly, hit it hard correctly, and walk away from this, a flawed concept of exhaustive depleting, high intensity interval training workouts. How’s that sound? Yeah, this is aligned with our genetic expectations for health, right? We either had a pretty calm sedate hunter gatherer lifestyle, where we were, uh, going through our daily routine, lots of leisure time, lots of low level, everyday movement, walking and so forth. And then once in a while, we had to summon superhuman physical effort to save our life from the predator that’s chasing us or to catch that evening’s dinner. So we don’t starve that kind of thing. So humans are really well adapted to brief explosive, maximum all-out efforts and then lots of recovery time. So that’s the second part of the, uh, the workout model here is that you want to do these brief explosive efforts that lasts between 10 and 20 seconds.

Brad (00:27:49):
Never more than 20 seconds,. Because guess what, you can’t sprint all out. You can’t deliver all out effort for more than around seven seconds anyway, and that’s what the, uh, it’s called. The ATP creatine phosphate energy system will give you maximum output for around seven seconds and then it’ll poop out. So if you watch the Olympic hundred meters and the great Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter of all time pulling away from the pack, guess what’s happening? He’s actually, um, decelerating the least, but he’s reached maximum output and maximum speed, uh, at around 70 meters. And so, uh, even the best can’t continue on at a true maximum effort for longer than seven seconds, but you’ll get a lot of fitness benefits if you can extend it up to let’s say, 20 seconds, especially on low impact activities. So if you’re doing low impact, like a bicycle sprints, yeah.

Brad (00:28:41):
I would drift toward the upper side of that range. And if you’re doing high impact running sprints, I would camp around the low part of that range. The ten second mark. And when I’m doing an 80 meter sprint, I think it’s taking probably only around 10 seconds. That’s plenty of sprint for me when I’m really going strong and delivering maximum energy there. So 10 to 20 seconds sweet spot. And then the recovery interval should be what Dr. Craig Marker describes as luxurious. Yes. You want to take luxurious rest intervals in between your sprints. I know that’s a strange and foreign concept to the hardcore, especially the endurance mindset that I come from and, and, uh, formulated myself during my years as an endurance athlete where it’s like, yeah, I’m tough. I’m going to leave on, uh, an amazing, uh, minimal rest interval. Like I used to in all my swim workouts and all that kind of thing.

Brad (00:29:36):
But in this, uh, example of a true high intensity repeat session, we are looking for quality. We’re looking for power explosiveness and that hormonal burst that we’re going for, and that requires a lot of rest so that you can return to whatever it is, the kettlebell, the starting line, uh, the bicycle peddling. When you turn the handle and crank up the resistance, you want to return feeling fresh, energized with central nervous system, ready to perform again. So luxurious rest intervals, at least a six to one ratio from the work effort. So if you do a ten second sprint, like I described, so imagine me going down the, uh, the football field for 80 meters takes around 10 seconds, and then I’m going to recover for at least one minute in between these efforts. Now, how many sprints did you do? That totally depends on your fitness level.

Brad (00:30:31):
Uh, but I would say I would volunteer, uh, somewhere between four and 10 would be appropriate for almost everyone. And Hey, if you feel great and you’re going strong and you did 10, and you feel like you can do two more, guess what? Uh, it’s not about quantity again. And I would otherwise recommend, uh, I would rather recommend, uh, that you try to go faster for, for the 10, that you do have tens a lot. And we have the wrong mentality here because we’re so used to these suffer fests where we go again and again, and again, we have a great interval workout or hill repeats or whatever it is. Uh, but we want to kind of reject this, uh, this chronic notion, this exhausting fatiguing, depleting workout, and instead go for that sharpness and the great, uh, elite sprinters and, uh, explosive performance athletes in the world know this, they’ve been training this way for many years.

Brad (00:31:26):
I have a great book. I’m reading about sprinting, uh, by the late Charlie Francis Canadian coach. And he’s talking about the East German system that came over and that he learned, and you would not believe these recovery intervals that the great East German sprinters did during their workouts. They would do things like, uh, four times 30 meters sprinting, right? So that takes them no, no more than four seconds. Probably they would do a set of four times 30 meters with seven minutes rest in between effort. Then they would proceed to do a one times 80 meter sprint with 20 minutes rest afterward. Then they would go to a hundred meters one time with 25 minutes rest. Then they’d go to 120 meters with a 30 minute rest. Uh, those are pretty accurate, not maybe exact, uh, but I’m counting up the time, the workouts taking a couple of hours.

Brad (00:32:22):
And all they did was four times 30 meters than an 80 than a hundred than a 120. And then they go home, uh, and they are running at near world record pace for these efforts and getting themselves completely primed for peak performance at international level. Okay, so now we have a pretty good overview of how to hit it hard,. Brief, explosive, high intensity efforts lasting in that sweet spot between 10 and 20 seconds with luxurious rest intervals, at least six to one. And in most cases, you’re going to do four to 10 reps. So I mentioned, um, kettlebell swings, a ten second effort of jumping up and down the box, sprinting, sprinting on a bike sprinting on the ground. Uh, but we can also take this concept over into strength training. And of course there are so many different training modalities. They’re all better than sitting on the couch.

Brad (00:33:19):
And so, uh, the direct translation of the sprint philosophy into, uh, going in there and putting your body into resistance load, uh, is not directly relevant. But one thing we should take away when we’re talking about strength training is sure take plenty of rest between your sets or if you’re doing, uh, the so-called supersets where you do, uh, some legs. And then you go over immediately and do some pull-ups because you haven’t worked those muscles, whatever you’re doing, be sure to, uh, take those rest periods interspersed as needed so that you can have a high quality workout all the way. And if you are pushing yourself hard and putting your body under a lot of load, it’s not going to take that long to get an outstanding workout. This is what Primal Blueprint has been talking about since the Primal Blueprint Fitness Pyramid came out.

Brad (00:34:08):
Uh, we released that thing 11, 12 years ago or something. Uh, I believe the, the tech says, uh, strength training sessions two times a week, 10 to 30 minutes is great, is plenty and never over 30 minutes. I mean, if you’re training for the Olympics and what I’m commenting here, uh, is in conflict with your super-duper coach, Hey, go do your thing. If you’re an elite athlete and it works for you, that’s great. But for most people, if you’re in there putting your body under resistance load for a 30 minute session total, right with rest periods and pulling the pin and putting the pin in somewhere else, all that, you’ve probably done enough work to make it really a great session. And as you start to extend out too long, that’s when you start to, uh, give back a lot of the hormonal and fitness benefits and plunge into this extremely distressing pattern, this common pattern of chronic exercise or overly stressful exercise, a human lab podcast, new podcast with Dr.

Brad (00:35:11):
Andrew Huberman of Stanford, great stuff. I love how this guy rolls. He just does these long narrations about science, of healthy living peak performance. And one of his messages was about the hormone balance in relation to exercise. And I believe the research that he cited said, uh, once you get out above 60 minutes and up to 75 minutes, that’s when the cortisol starts pumping into your bloodstream to keep you going. Obviously, if you’re doing hard work for that long, a duration of time, then you’re going to get an adverse stress, hormone fight, or flight response that lasts too long. And the adaptive hormones, the testosterone and human growth hormone that want to spike after a really hard, brief effort, uh, start to get suppressed. And so you have an overly stressful workout. So boy, if you get, uh, on that clock and it says 60 minutes, and you’re still going, and you still have a few more stations to do before your tidy workout is over.

Brad (00:36:08):
Uh, let’s think twice about that, because that means you probably haven’t worked hard enough during the first 60 minutes to really want to stay in there and do something for the final 15. And again, I’m talking about the concentration of effort where you’re performing a set, resting, performing another set. So if the first 15 minutes of your time in the gym is foam rolling and doing, uh, your physical therapist recommended, uh, drills with the bands, and then you go hit the weights. Of course, we’re not counting that time, but a 75 minute hard effort or a duration of workout is definitely too long. It’s just going to, it’s not going to pay off, uh, as well as going in there, going hard and going home. Okay. So I think that’s enough on assignment number six, which is to hit it hard assignment, number seven, take control of your life.

Brad (00:37:01):
And I’m mostly pointing to this huge modern problem. The one that’s probably number one on my list of health concerns these days, and that is hyper-connectivity. A constant potential for distraction and instant gratification with technology, especially mobile technology, but also all forms of digital technology, where we’re accumulating hours and hours every single day, whether we have a work day of eight hours and then two to three hours, uh, entertainment at nighttime. And then we have our mobile device everywhere we go. So we’re constantly stimulated. This is proving to be very harmful to the brain. It is building a generation of short attention span, instant gratification seekers, and it’s an increasingly difficult challenge to withstand or to manage, right? Because the technology is so clever. We have the smartest and best trained and best paid folks in the world, programming these social media platforms and internet platforms to draw you in and suck you in and distract you from whatever you were trying to do, uh, and entice you to continue taking a deeper and deeper dive into their content because that’s how they make money.

Brad (00:38:13):
So we also have the incredible usefulness, so I’m not here advocating to go, uh, live in a camper like Chris, who I just met up in Lake Tahoe. Who’s totally self-contained in there. And he drives his camper around to a series of different ecstatic dance gatherings, uh, on different days of the week. So he’s on the he’s on the, uh, the hippie trail. He, it good for him. It’s super fantastic and interesting to learn about it. Uh, but for many of us who choose in to modern life, modern technology, there’s no escaping it. So the secret is to manage it, to take control. I had a wonderful interview with best-selling author, Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing and many, many other best-selling books. He has a great blog. Uh, if you type in Seth Godin into Google, you’ll find his blog. And he has these pithy, uh, everyday messages, which are usually very short.

Brad (00:39:07):
Uh, but he gave me some great advice. When I posed a question to him during a podcast interview of like, Hey, how do I manage all the distraction? And my email inbox is constantly trying to pull me away from it. My project of writing a book or whatever, do you have any suggestions? He said, yeah, turn that shit off and get the work done because the work’s that important. You can’t be distracted by the stuff. And so I think we all have to take control, stand up and say, you know what, I’m going to control my day. I’m going to be the one who says when the power on button is on and when the power off button is, is going off and, uh, you know, be resolute throughout the day to use technology to your advantage. One thing that I have found very valuable to me is to build in other opportunities for healthy living, such that you’re creating this framework so that you’re not, uh, you don’t have that penchant to get distracted.

Brad (00:40:02):
Okay. So for example, I’m recording a podcast now. So my phone is off or actually it’s on silent in case some emergency comes through and I have to disrupt this, uh, thought flow and go answer a bloody phone call. So, uh, that’s one example of taking control. Another one, perhaps my favorite one. And you’ve probably heard me talk about this during other recordings is to design a deliberate proactive morning movement routine, such that the first thing you do every single day is this regimented structured routine. You do the exact same thing. So you don’t have to apply creativity, willpower, uh, you know, and wonder how long it’s going to last or what you’re going to do. But you design a sequence of movements. It can be as simple as getting out of bed and immediately leashing up the dog and taking the dog for a walk around the block and perhaps stopping at the bench and doing a set of 20 squats as your, uh, as part of your routine.

Brad (00:41:01):
And if you can hear the dog breathing in the background with this great microphone, uh, you’ll know how passionate I am about giving the dogs the life they deserve. Uh, my routine, which you can see on YouTube, Brad Kearns morning routine. Oh my gosh. I am so excited to talk about it. I’m so proud to tell you and the other listeners that I do this every single day without fail, I’m on a streak now that’s lasted four and a half years. I haven’t missed a single day and the routine has become more difficult, challenging, more sophisticated over time, but it’s happened at a very gradual rate, such that I’m really comfortable with the commitment. It never seems like a hassle or an inconvenience. Okay. Maybe one out of every 10 days, I got something else going on and it’s, I want to get through it.

Brad (00:41:46):
Uh, but for the most part, it’s built into habit such that I don’t have to summon those fragile resources of motivation and willpower to get it done. Uh, it actually, when you search Brad Kearns a morning routine on YouTube, you will see two videos come up. The very first one, the initial iteration of my morning routine in 2017, it was pretty easy. It only took 12 minutes. I did a lot of the exercises in bed. I was touting that because, uh, you’d be sure not to get distracted. And a lot of it was core exercises. And I realized one day when I hit the deck and did the same moves that it was way harder on a solid surface. So the second iteration in 2020, it’s really cool. Cause in the first 52 seconds, you can see the entire thing and fast motion. And then I explain every single individual move, but this one is much more difficult and challenging.

Brad (00:42:35):
It takes a minimum of 35 minutes every single morning to get through this thing. So I’m not recommending you jump into, uh, you know, that mode just yet. But the idea here is that you make a commitment to do something besides reaching for your phone first thing in the morning. Something that 84% of Americans, uh, per a recent ad week survey do upon waking up and something like 56% of those 84%, uh, are doing it while they’re still in bed. So they’re reaching for a phone implying that it’s within reach, which ideally it would, it would not be within reach. Uh, and then once you get your brain into that reactive, uh, instant gratification, dopamine triggering mode from reading text messages or reading social media stream, it’s very difficult to return to the desirable morning disposition of high level thinking, strategic planning, reasoning, uh, you know, gratitude.

Brad (00:43:35):
We want you to write in your gratitude journal in the morning and look at the sunrise and have that philosophical view of boy. Life is great, isn’t it? Uh, but if you’re jamming on that phone, first thing, uh, you’re going to ruin your potential for that. And the behavioral psychology experts say that it’s very difficult to recalibrate once you’ve had your first dose of dopamine, that’s why I’m really advocating to do something very first thing in the morning, and that sets you up ideally, or hopefully for more success, the rest of the day, uh, with more discipline and more focus and less penchant for distraction and instant gratification. And the other time when we really get weak on this objective of taking control is when we’re tired, when we’re burnt out, when we’re fried. And that goes to your exercise habits, your diet, your sleep habits.

Brad (00:44:27):
So if you take care of yourself and be healthy, then you have the, the ability to, to take control and discipline your use of technology. Um, so I’m, I mentioned the morning routine. There’s also some other cool stuff that are mentioned in the, uh, the MOFO book, the ebook, the free ebook that you can get when you go to Brad kearns.com, click on MOFO. It’s called becoming a modern day MOFO. And it details, uh, many of the things I’m talking about here, how, how to get really, really great at this, uh, taking control, um, but cold exposure and things like that. These brief natural hormetic stressors make you a more disciplined, focused, and resilient person against all other forms of stress and distraction throughout everyday life. And boy, if you’re a parent listening, uh, we talked to the dog owners. Now I’m talking to the parents, uh, walk your talk, because if you don’t and you have poor discipline with your use of technology, you are going to model this for your kids, and we’re already creating a, uh, digitally addicted generation.

Brad (00:45:26):
So the best thing we can do, uh, walk our talk and establish strict rules and guidelines. I know there’s a common, uh, recommendation of, you know, putting a big salad bowl, uh, at the family dinner table and come 9:30 PM or whatever time you decide everyone throws their phone into the bowl. Maybe it’s one of those charging stations. You can have a theatrical, a shrine to technology and have a charging station somewhere in your house. And the alarm sounds, and all the kids have to report, cough over their phone and enjoy the last wind down hours. Like I talked about at the outset of this recording, when you’re dialing in your sleep, you want to at least preserve that final hour before bedtime for calming, relaxing, low stimulation activities, uh, hopefully dark and cool and just chilling instead of, uh, checking out a screen.

Brad (00:46:17):
Assignment, number eight is protect yourself. And what are we talking about here? Mostly this incredibly disturbing, modern new concern about estrogenic compounds in our environment, they call them environmental estrogens or estrogenic compounds. And this is the, uh, the chemicals that we see in plastics or in, uh, commercial cleaning products, laundry products, even certain foods, especially the big three: soy, corn, and flax. The foods made with these agents have up to 200 times more, uh, estrogens. They call them phyto estrogens, plant estrogens as any other foods. So you want to stay away from soy, corn and flax for many reasons, Ooh, flax might be a surprise cause we’re buying our flax seeds and putting them on our salad or taking flax seed oil. Uh, but it’s known that the high omega-3 content of flaxseed oil is difficult to convert into usable forms of omega-3 in the body. So even though it’s not lying on the label, that there’s 5,000 milligrams of this kind of omega-3, it’s not the best source of omega-3.

Brad (00:47:30):
That would be oily, cold water fish, as you already know. So get rid of the soy, corn, and flax in the diet, but even first and foremost above that is to get rid of plastics that are touching your food or drink. So never, ever, except when you’re dying of thirst and all they have is a plastic water bottle. Then you have everyone’s permission to, uh, chug the water. But we want to get that plastic away from things that are in our food, because the, uh, the plastic gets integrated into the molecules of water or food, especially the very, very worst thing would be to microwave a crappy plastic Tupperware container and the people who sell water bottles and things like that, tout that there are different forms of plastic that are less likely to bring volatile compounds into your body. Uh, the firmer ones, generally speaking, I forget what the, uh, oh, it’s the Nalgene is the brand, the hiking bottles that are really, really hard plastic.

Brad (00:48:29):
So if you have to take plastic, which you do when you’re riding a bicycle, you’re not going to bring in a stainless steel water bottle on a bike. I promise you that’s a very bad idea when it falls off and the guy behind you rolls over it and crashes. So when you do have to do plastic, uh, try as hard as you can not to have that plastic ever heated up. I made a big mistake here because I’d have the disposable plastic single use water bottles, and they might be in my car, uh, over the course of a day, uh, such that in the afternoon they got heated up. And then in the morning I reached for the bottle. It’s fine. The water temperature is okay, it’s pleasant, but the damage has already been done during the hot hours of the day when those plastic molecules leached into the water.

Brad (00:49:11):
So we’re talking about going for the glass, baby. Going for the mineral water, uh, the Perrier Pellegrino, uh, mountain valley, spring water. And I love listening to Ben Greenfield. One of his shows where he talked about his top 10 quick tips off the top of his head for health and on that top 10 list, believe it or not was mineral water, drinking mineral water. And I never really thought about the importance of much, uh, until, you know, digging further into this idea, this concept. Uh, but here we are, when we have tap water, uh, we know that it’s generally safe because they blast the shit out of it with chlorine and other chemicals. Uh, but it certainly doesn’t, um, benefit your health. And a lot of forward-thinking health enthusiasts are trying to stay away from tap water. A lot of people think nothing of it, and that’s their main source of water, but you’re not getting any, uh, minerals or benefits in there because the water has been blasted so hard, uh, for public health reasons, right.

Brad (00:50:06):
They’re trying to serve up water. Uh, I remember one, uh, survey I read that said that, uh, the two best or the two safest water supplies in America, Los Angeles and New York City, the two biggest and that’s cause maybe they have the biggest tanks, the chlorine or whatever safety measures they have to make sure you’re not going to get, uh, you know, uh, digestive bug, like some small town where the, uh, you know, the flies got through the crack and, uh, started swimming around. I don’t know, anyway. So, uh, go for those glass bottles and that mineral water has a bunch of cool minerals, especially magnesium that are now deficient in the food supply. You’ve heard about the depleted soil and things like that. So mineral water is a great source of natural minerals and spring water, mineral water. So go looking for that. And I know it’s not the greenest move to go to Costco and buy a dozen of the Pellegrino bottles imported from Italy.

Brad (00:51:03):
Uh, but something to think about in terms of health that we want to get, especially away from plastic and try to make an effort to drink out of glass bottles or stainless steel. When you’re talking about making your own preparations. Uh, I love that company Klean Kanteen starts with a K. I have no association with them, but they have a really cool website, great products. I’ve been buying them for many years and you get yourself a stainless steel Klean Kanteen bottle. And then boy, if you do have to purchase plastic, you pour it into the steel and drink it out of there. Next best thing, same with ordering takeout, get the takeout out of the crappy styrofoam or plastic container and put it into the, you know, your, your China, your glass and enjoy the meal. Okay. So that’s the main area that you want to protect yourself is the plastics touching food and drink, uh, avoiding soy, corn and flax.

Brad (00:51:52):
And then when it comes to your home, uh, we want to get rid of the most commercial mainstream branded products, uh, that touch your skin. So that would be shampoos, toothpastes, soaps, and also in this category would be laundry detergent, right? Cause they’re washing your clothes and boy for an amateur, a novice, how are we going to navigate this guess? What if it has a wonderful, fresh smell, you can bet that they put a ton of chemicals in there that are not healthy for you. And so fortunately, wonderfully, we have a whole market segment of companies who are committed to health and producing, uh, environmentally friendly and also skin friendly, health friendly, uh, cleaning products for the body and for the clothing. Dr. Bronner’s probably my favorite. You love those labels. Those crazy labels has been around for, I don’t know, a hundred years making this Castiel soap that you can use on your hair, on your skin.

Brad (00:52:50):
Uh, I brushed my teeth with it maybe once a month. It makes my teeth feel great. Uh, there’s all kinds of natural toothpaste. Boy, if you went to, um, the paleo FX annual convention, the, uh, district, uh, the, the exhibitors, there have all kinds of, uh, healthy, uh, environmentally friendly body care products, especially the deodorants and other things where, um, you’ve probably heard about those concerns. Maybe don’t pay them a lot of mind, but the goal here is to do the best you can protecting yourself. And also in this category would be, uh, EMS, right? I’m not gonna get too deep down that rabbit hole. Uh, but you know, we went up, we don’t want that cell phone, uh, one foot away from our brain while we’re sleeping at night. Uh, ideally you would turn off wifi and just, uh, mellow things out. There’s a guy named Anthony, Jay

Brad (00:53:41):
Dr. Anthony, Jay. He wrote the book called Estroeneration. And if you search podcast content, I think he did a good show. I know he did a good one with fundamental health. Paul Saladino has been on other shows and he gives a really nice overview with some memorable takeaways. And one of the things he said was, Hey, you know, we’re surrounded by EMF w up our wazoo all day long. Uh, look no further than when you go to, um, try to pick up a wifi connection and you see like 47 of them within reach of your laptop. That always trips me out. Uh, but he says at night, that’s when the body really needs to restore and rejuvenate and the calcium channel blockers in our cells that process the energy and help with restoration. Uh, we do not want to disturb those with EMF exposure. So if you can minimize your EMF at night, that would be a big win and then do the best you can within reason during the day.

Brad (00:54:35):
Um, guess what I just did for this, uh, this show and my interviews that are on zoom, I hardwired from the, uh, the modem in the home with ether net all the way up to my laptop. So I’m not using wifi. Now I have a more stable connection for one, and I’m also minimizing my EMF exposure by turning that wifi off,.

Brad (00:54:55):
Assignment number nine, rest like a. MOFO. And we already talked about sleep. So this is an entirely different category of reclaiming the lost art of downtime, right. Kind of related to taking control and getting rid of digital technology. But I think just putting a plug in for rest, recovery, restoration of all forms, uh, taking a nap might be in this category here because anytime you’re sleep deficient and sleep expert, Jeff Khan has a great rule of thumb to take this insight in a simplified form and kind of keep it in the back of your mind at all times, uh, this, this concept of sleep deficit, and that is the accumulated hours that you’re deficient in sleep.

Brad (00:55:44):
So if you have a wild weekend and you only got six and a half on one night, and then you only got seven on the other night. You hear you are supposed to get eight? Right? So you’re two and a half hours of sleep deficit. And you want to find a way to make that up, to get back to zero and keep that zero balance going at all times. Uh, so that would be a 30 minute nap for the next six days. Uh, then you’re looking good and getting ahead, right. But that’s, what’s so great about napping is it helps you, uh, make up, uh, with this sleep deficit very powerfully and, uh, very efficiently. So, um, other parts of the downtime category would be things like a meditation exercise, meditation practice, right? Uh, those frequent breaks from peak cognitive function that I mentioned earlier.

Brad (00:56:35):
So every time you’ve been, uh, diving in deep for 20 minutes, get up and take a one to two minute break, uh, sitting around and just, uh, gazing off into outer space, uh, sitting on the porch in the old days on the rocking chair, right after a busy day. These are actually ways that our brain can cement learning and experiences and memories. Huberman just mentioned this on a recent podcast. He has a lot of brain stuff cause he’s a neuroscientist. But he said, when you’re trying to learn a difficult task, taking 30 second breaks for just numbing out and chilling, and then returning to the difficult tasks, whether it’s piano or learning to eFoiling, which I’m doing right now. Very challenging mentally, you have to have total concentration and then you wipe out. And, uh, before I get back on the board, I just sit in the water, reflect on the beauty of Lake Tahoe.

Brad (00:57:25):
And I’m not necessarily thinking about my technique. I’m just spacing out. And then I regroup and get back on that board, hit the remote control in my hand and go eFoiling away. Okay. Uh, when it comes to training, of course, this is a huge area of concern and a huge area of recommendation is to emphasize these recovery based workouts that are designed to rejuvenate you. If you go over to Joel Jamieson’s website, it’s the number 8 weeks out.com, 8 weeks out.com. He trains MMA fighters. So it’s eight weeks out from a fight. He has this wonderful concept called rebound workouts, and there’s some free content where he will take you through step-by-step how to perform a specially designed workout that promotes parasympathetic activity and actually speeds recovery as evidenced by improved heart rate, variability scores. It speeds recovery in comparison to total rest. Pretty fantastic insights there. And it just means going to the gym or going out on the roads and taking it so easy that you feel refreshed and re-energized from, uh, some form of movement. Of course a walk would also be a great example of a recovery workout, a foam rolling, cold exposure, sauna exposure, all these things have a restorative benefit.

Brad (00:58:44):
And then finally, number 10. Yes, this is the actual title of assignment. Number 10, quit being a Dick to your wife or girlfriend. And the relationship interactions have such a profound effect on hormone levels and hormone optimization that it might even be, uh, argued that this could go right up there, uh, next to the category of sleep as the single most important. So if you have a loving, uh, stable, functional long-term romantic relationship, it can optimize hormones like fewer other things in life, optimize life. And if you have a dysfunctional relationship, it’s going to tank your testosterone and cause all kinds of other, uh, health problems, suppression of the immune system in favor of you guessed it chronic overstimulation of the fight or flight response. Um, so, um, talking about how a real displays, emotional self stability, vulnerability and kindness, the idea here is to refrain from, moaning, angry outbursts, nitpicking as Dr. John Gray, the number one best selling relationship author of all time describes. He wants you as a man to remain calm, cool, collected, and clear thinking at all times to act like the Kung Fu master in the story.

Brad (01:00:06):
And when you can do that, that’s when you can optimize your testosterone levels. If you do have a difficult interaction, are you feeling stressed or triggered or whatever you want to call it? The idea is John Grey’s recommendation is to go off into your cave and do testosterone boosting activities. This is advice dating all the way back to his first book. Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus in the early nineties, and it kind of conflicts with, uh, some modern relationship advice where they want everybody to be open, honest, authentic, vulnerable at all times, and talk through everything and not be stoic, sitting in the corner and not sharing your feelings. Um, so we don’t want to misinterpret the suggestion here, but I’m a really strong believer in this idea that if you keep your cool, of course, when it’s time to express yourself and you have an issue, uh, you can say anything and everything with loving kindness.

Brad (01:01:01):
So as not to inflame it, what’s already going to be a difficult discussion and you can say it at the right time when you are calm, cool, and collected. And so the idea of going away and getting space and testosterone, boosting activities are anything that’s challenging, focusing problem solving, right? The males primary biological drive is to solve problems and conquer one’s environment. And so if you can go tinker in the garage with your motorcycle, uh, playing a video game counts, watching sports counts, participating in sports counts. All of those things will have you returning to what might be a difficult interaction or there’s some heat or dysfunction going on in the relationship. And you’ll be a better person for the effort that you make to become calm and collected, uh, quickly. Here’s the assignments from, uh, honoring John Gray and also, uh, Dave Rossi author of The Imperative Habit.

Brad (01:01:58):
Uh, number one, do not speak if you are experiencing a negative emotional charge, just shut the F up and maybe do some more listening, okay. Manage your emotions. Um, if you get into it, it might be, uh, fulfilling and clearing and cleansing for the female due to primary biological drives and her wiring. But you’re going to feel drained and depleted of testosterone, literally, number two, this is from Dave Rossi’s book, don’t argue, defend, or judge. Put your ego aside. Try to have empathy for someone else’s point of view. And I forget who made this quote, maybe it was John Gottman relationship expert, uh, but it goes like this. Would you rather be right or be in love? And then as I mentioned before, when you do have this, a negative emotional charge, go and take some cave time and get some distance and then return to the scene, uh, with that calm, cool collected manner.

Brad (01:02:56):
Uh, isn’t that great? Okay. So numbers six through 10 recap, hit it hard, brief, intense, explosive workout efforts and refraining from those exhaustive type of workout patterns. Number seven, take control. Most importantly, with discipline to use of your technology, especially mobile technology, replace it with an energizing morning routine, number eight, protect yourself. Most importantly from the estrogenic compounds in the environment, get that plastic away from your food or drink, avoid the high estrogenic foods of soy corn and flax, and go find some, all natural skincare and personal care products. I mentioned Dr. Bronner’s. I also like Meyer’s Clean Day. They have the sprays, they have soap, they have laundry detergent. So go looking for good companies that care about your health. Uh, number nine is rest like a MOFO. We’re talking about downtime. We’re talking about naps when you get a sleep deficit and we’re talking about workouts that are designed to boost recovery rather than be a little tiny bit too hard on a day when you really need rest and restoration.

Brad (01:04:06):
And number 10, quit being a Dick to your wife and girlfriend. Now that is your mission. You should choose to accept it. This message will self-destruct in five seconds. Thank you for listening to the show. I love sharing the experience with you and greatly appreciate your support please. Email podcast@bradventures.com with feedback, suggestions and questions for the Q and A shows. Subscribe to our email list of Brad kearns.com for a weekly blast about the published episodes and a wonderful bimonthly newsletter edition with informative articles and practical tips for all aspects of healthy living. You can also download several awesome free eBooks when you subscribe to the email list. And if you could go to the trouble to leave a five or five star review with apple podcasts or wherever else, you listen to the shows that would be super, incredibly awesome. It helps raise the profile of the B.rad podcast and attract new listeners. And did you know that you can share a show with a friend or loved one by just hitting a few buttons in your player and firing a text message? My awesome podcast player called Overcast allows you to actually record a soundbite excerpt from the episode you’re listening to and fire it off with a quick text message. Thank you so much for spreading the word and remember B.rad.

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