Episode #304 – Full Transcript

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Podcast #304 from:  https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2015/01/304-how-to-get-a-better-butt-top-3-ways-to-relieve-stress-at-night-a-natural-dhea-secret/

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Introduction:  In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast:  Natural Remedies For Congestion During Exercise, How To Deal With Saddle Sores, The Top 3 Ways To Relieve Stress At Night, and How To Get A Better Butt, and much more.

Brock:  So you are up doing something wacky this morning, so we’re recording way later in the day than usual.

Ben:  I know it’s kinda weird to be recording around lunch time but I was getting…

Brock:  Yeah, I’m waking up from my afternoon nap, not waking up from my normal night sleep.

Ben:  Seriously, yeah, actually my left arm is kind of numb right now just hanging by my side because I was getting some treatment on my elbow.

Brock:  Oh, I thought maybe you had a stroke.

Ben:  Hmm, no.  I didn’t have a stroke, that’s not why my arm is numb.

Brock:  Sorry, that’s not – that’s a terrible thing to joke about.  I’m sorry everybody.

Ben:  Yes, our apologies to all of our stroke victims.  Nah, I had Prolozone which is where you…

Brock:  Oh!  Cool.

Ben:  …inject a joint that you need to initiate healing in, in this case my elbow is a little bit jacked up from just like a year of Spartan racing.  You inject prolozone into the elbow to reinitiate.  What it does I sit reinitiates the inflammatory process for something that got inflamed, never really healed and has some scar tissue laid down.  So you numb it, you inject it with prolozone.  The doc that I went to follow that up with a k-laser treatment which is where you kinda – you laser the area…

Brock:  A cold laser?

Ben:  Yeah, and then I stuck my hand in one of those fish tanks where the fish eat all the little dead skins all up to your arm…

Brock:  Really?

Ben:  No, not really.  That part I didn’t do, although I have done that before in Thailand.

Brock:  You have the softest hands, they’d feel like chicken breast.

Ben: You actually can’t get – you can’t find this fish tanks anymore in Thailand.  Normally when you’d walk on the beach, like in Phuket, Thailand for example, where you’ve been with me before, Brock.

Brock:  Yeah.

Ben:  We walked along the beach and there’s these fish tanks that you can stick your arm into and the fish eat all the dead skins off your arms, you play arm out and it’s all like moist then skin’s rejuvenated but because…

Brock:  And release bacterial infections.

Ben:  Yeah, ‘cause the fish we’re feeding on multiple people’s arms eventually folks started getting like MRSA and all these other infections, like flesh-eating diseases on their arms so they had to get rid of the fish tanks.

Brock:  But their skin was delightfully soft!

Ben:  Uhm.

News Flashes:

Brock:  Very cool stuff over on twitter.com/bengreenfield and this is the time when Ben is going to tell us about that stuff.

Ben:  Always.  I’m always tweeting out tons of useful things.  I’ve come a lot of – across a lot of really cool studies recently.  I think I’m scheduled with tweets – I pre-schedule my tweets just because like if I’m reading something and I wanna tell my twitter followers about it, I pre-schedule.  I think I pre-schedule like half way through February now with tweets.

Brock:  Nice.

Ben:  Anyways though, a few of the more interesting ones from this past week.  The first thing is that, a lot of people ask me about natural ways to control their blood sugar, because most people understand that when you have frequent surges in blood sugar, it’s bad for your waistline, it’s bad for your chronic disease risk factor, it oxidizes cholesterol, so like if you’re eating say like a high amount of healthy fats, and you get constant surges in blood sugar, those fats get oxidized and your high fat diet ends up indeed being unhealthy, right? like this whole fat’s not bad for your heart thing, it’s kinda sort of not true, if there are risk factors like high blood sugar present, you’re needing a lot of fats.  So, the question is, how do you keep blood sugar control.

And there was this really interesting study that came out that looked at what kind of things can increase the expression of glucose receptors.  So glucose receptors increase the transport of glucose from your blood into your cells.  And the most common one is called GLUT4, g-l-u-t-4.  So, what kind of things could you eat that would increase GLUT4?  Really interesting study because of all these natural compounds that they found that could do this like cinnamon is one that we’ve talked about on the show before, like making it a goal each day to go through 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.  I follow that rule.  Annoys the hell out of my wife lest I go back to the grocery store to buy cinnamon all the time.  But cinnamon is really a good one.

[0:05:01.0]

Another one that was on there was resveratrol.  So resveratrol can help to control blood sugar.  Ginger was an interesting one, along with a vanilla extract.  Turmeric was in there, curcumin was in there…

Brock:  Was it the liquid vanilla or the powdered? Or does it matter?

Ben:  I think it was the vanilla gummy bears for sure.  No, I’m actually I’m not sure the vanilla…

Brock:  The vanilla jelly beans…

Ben:  The vanilla that I use is just like the real vanilla extract.  I – what I do is actually put that in my smoothie.  I like the flavor that it gives to my smoothie.

Brock:  Uhmm.  I put them in my eggs in the morning, my egg banana thing.

Ben:  Yeah, a whole list of stuff but what some of these things are hard necessarily to like, unless you’re getting them in supplement form like – say like, astaxanthin, right, or fucoxanthin, or lipoic acid.  But some of them are easier to get your hands on like if you follow the rule of using a little bit of real vanilla extract or vanilla powder each day, in your coffee or in your smoothie, and you make it a goal to have a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon each day, you work about a gram or two of curcumin which could just mean like frequent use of curries and turmeric and stuff like that.  You know, have a glass of wine each day, and maybe have workin’ some ginger tea, like it’s pretty easy to get yourself to the point where you just kinda controlling blood sugar with natural herbal things that you’ll find laying around the old average house.

Brock:  Honestly you can throw all that stuff in a pot and make yourself a darn tasty little concoction.

Ben:  I just released a video to Youtube, so then I’ve been putting a lot of videos up on the Ben Greenfield Youtube channel.  You could check it out at youtube.com/bengreenfieldfitness, but my latest concoction because my tummy was a little bit rumbly couple of days ago, and I thought I might be coming down with something.  So, I made this concoction that I do when my stomach is potentially at risk for flipping.  And it is about an inch of ginger, and you boil that along with a few cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a teaspoon of curcumin, about 3 ounces of apple cider vinegar, and then the juice of a lemon, and you put all that together and you drink it down, and it taste like arse, but it’s…

Brock:  Spicy arse.

Ben:  Yeah, spicy arse but it has this amazing tonic effect.  I think just because it tastes bad, it gives you that nice feeling inside that you must’ve done something.  You must have killed something in there.  So, there’s that.

Another really interesting thing was that an older study that I came across, based on nutrigenomics or this idea that we could somehow look at genetic variations.  Say like, genes that might allow us to metabolize caffeine faster or genes that might not allow us to for example, use vitamin C to create our own glutathione that our liver can use for detox.  Like everybody has different variations in this type of genes.  Genes that help alcohol to be good for your heart or cause alcohol to be bad for your heart.  This is all based on nutrigenomics.  So theoretically, you can get your genes tested and you can tweak your diet based off of what your genes are telling you.  And this is one of the reasons that 23andme got shutdown in fact from releasing more information above and beyond just like ancestral data…

Brock:  Are they still shutdown?

Ben:  Yeah, they still are.  It’s still difficult unless you export your 23andme data to get health information from 23andme because it’s still kinda dicey.  The amount of research that shows that, oh hey, whatever you tested higher than normal for prostate cancer, so you should put more tomatoes on your salad, right like…

Brock:  I think they’re offering that service in Canada now and it’s not – they didn’t get the kind of rush put on in here.  So, if you could get a Canadian mailing address, you could probably get hooked up.

Ben:  Well, I use DNA Fit in the UK ‘cause I did the podcast with them and that’s what I get, like if you go to greenfieldfitnesssystems.com and you click on the lab testing, that’s the gene lab that I recommend people go to now.  Just they can get away with all sorts of crap in the UK.  So, yeah.  Anyways though, in this study, what they looked at was, if they took a bunch of people and they tested their genetics and they advised them based off of their genetics, what they should be eating.  Gave them what’s called a nutrigenetically tailored diet.  That’ll be the great name for a book – The Nutrigenetically Tailored Diet.  You could have like a tailor on the front with jeans on.

Brock:  I don’t… I don’t think that – that doesn’t really sound like a bestseller to me.

Ben:  Anyways, you can – I’ll link to the study in the show notes for the podcast episode that you’re listening right now, over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/304.

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But what they found was of significant lead better adherence to the diet in the group that was getting their diet prescribed to them based on their nutrigenetics vs. the control group.  They saw a very significant drop.  Speaking of fasting glucose levels, they saw over a 20% drop in fasted glucose levels in the people who were making their dietary choices based on their genes and everything from carb, protein, to fat ratios, to the type of supplements that they took vs. people who were just like eating a standard healthy diet.  They found better weight loss in the nutrigenetically-tested group as well as a longer adherence to the weight loss, so after a year they were like maintaining their weight loss.  And a significant reduction…

Brock:  That makes sense… all that stuff make sense.

Ben:  Yeah, a big reduction in risk factors associated with excess weight like diabetes and cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.  So it’s really interesting.  So I guess the takeaway from this is – like if you’re still on the fence about getting your genes tested and maybe just making up a few little tweaks – you know, like me I tested higher than normal for prostate cancer risk and type 2 diabetes.  So, I go way out of my way to do things like control blood glucose and to do things like put those fresh tomatoes on my salads so I get the lycopene that can help to combat prostate cancer risk.  I personally do those things even though, yeah, you don’t have  dyed in the wool clinical studies that say that – hey, you go out, you get tested, you find out what you have, whatever, higher than normal risk for prostate cancer, so if you start putting tomatoes on your salads, it’s gonna decrease that.  But we have a lot of anecdotal evidence and I think that you can make some cool informed decisions based off your genetic testing.

Brock:  Well, this stuff you’re doing, isn’t like noddy either like throwing tomatoes on your salad.  Well, that’s awesome and you’d wanna do that so…

Ben:  Yeah, exactly.  And then again maybe you’ll just find out that you’re Chinese, and you never knew that, so.

Brock:  That’ll be… that’ll be awesome.

Ben:  That’ll be awesome!

Brock:  I hope I’m Chinese.  So cool.

Ben:  Okay, what else?

Brock:  Look mom, look.

Ben:  I’ve got – I found a US Patent that was really interesting.  So check this out.  There’s actually a US Patent that exists for a way to increase your DHEA and I went and looked at all the different people that they tested, what’s in this patent on, and every single person across the board had this huge jump in their DHEA.  And DHEA, just for those of you who are listening in, it is one of the most anabolic hormones that you can have floating around your bloodstream.  It’s illegal to take if you’re competing in World Anti-doping Association sanctioned competitions because it has such a significant performance enhancing effect like if you actually are taking a synthetic form of DHEA vs. using something like this patent was using that causes your body to make its own DHEA.  And I’ll link to the actual patent itself if you wanna read about the mechanism of action and everything like that, but the patent is on transdermal magnesium.  Isn’t that interesting?  It’s just basically applying magnesium to the skin and it was magnesium chloride in this case with just like a gelling agent for to turn into a lotion.  Significant increase in DHEA.  Now this is something that I’ve heard about for a long period of time but I didn’t know patent existed on it.  And you know, so I use transdermal magnesium, that’s what I use for my own magnesium replenishment but it’s very interesting.  It’s pretty cool that a patent actually exists on this thing and this is much, much different than like a study that you’ll find in PubMed but the write up that accompanies the patent is really interesting.  So if you’ve tested and you’ve tested low for DHEA, or you wanna do something like increase your levels of anabolic hormones, build muscle fast, recover faster, give a little bit of a performance boost, try slappin’ some transdermal magnesium somewhere in your body and see what happens.

Brock:  Awesome!  That’s easy.

Special Announcements:

Ben:  Well, first of all I should mention that this podcast is actually brought to you by Harry’s, and I would say that one of our top New Year’s resolutions, you know, I know this ranks really high for me is not overpaying for drug store razor blades.  That’s really bad habit that you should leave behind.  No, but seriously, I actually have gotten some of these blades from harrys.com and they are like a work of art.  They’re these really cool, high quality German-engineered blades.  They’re crafted for sharpness, and precision but they’re like half the price of like even the cheaper razor blades that you find at the drugstore.  They come with free shipping, they have a shaving gel that’s really, really nice, that makes me super duper smootchable.

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And they send you this kit.  It’s the razor, you get three blades, you get the shaving gel, and that is 15 bucks.  But it’s actually 10 bucks for any of our listeners because when you go to harrys.com, and you use code BEN, you get these cool blades and the shaving gel, and the razors all sent to your home for 10 bucks.  So, there you go.  harrys.com and use discount code BEN.  If you’re sick and tired of failure in life and a very ugly demeanor based off the fact that you have crappy razors, so.

Brock:  Uhmm, I’m growing my beard bag right now ‘cause it’s like minus 30 outside, but as soon as I’m shaving my beard, I’m using harry’s.

Ben:  Well, speaking of being smootchable, I don’t know if folks know this, but the Spartan CEO, Joe De Sena and I were caught making out on camera, and Spartan just launched the podcast in which they show full video footage of this scenario.  Now, I’m gonna keep things kinda mysterious here, I’m just gonna tell you where to go if you wanna actually check out that entire scene.  You may want to put blindfolds on any young children that are nearby if you don’t…

Brock:  Uhmm, not safe for work.

Ben: … want to field awkward questions from them.  But go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/spartanup, that’s bengreenfieldfitness.com/spartanup,  s-p-a-r-t-a-n-u-p, Spartan up.  So, when you go there, you’ll be able to not only see the video but also listen to a co-podcast with yours truly.  So, check that out, it’s a pretty cool podcast seriously.

Brock:  It’s a brand new podcast isn’t it?

Ben:  Yeah, and I like it!  It’s well produced, good videos, good audio.  So, I’m normally very, very careful about recommending other people’s podcast on my podcast because if you’re listening to someone else’s podcast, maybe you aren’t listening to mine but in this case…

Brock:  It’s definitely hard.  It’s hard to listen to two podcasts at once.

Ben:  Yeah, I do it all the time.

Brock:  Binaural podcasting is difficult to listen to.

Ben: Uhmm, yeah. Put you right to sleep. So, bengreenfieldfitness.com/spartanup. So, speaking of Spartan, couple other things while we’re in that avenue of thought. The first is that the obstacle dominator training plan is alive, people are loving it. This is the training program that I wrote for anybody who wants to do a Spartan Race, a Tough Mudder, and wants kind of a done-for-you training program, along with the nutrition program, videos of like how to do the obstacles, videos that show you how to do things like climb a rope or throw a spear. Anyways, all of that, along with a bunch of audio interviews, ton of cool stuff.  It’s still on sale, it’s on sale ‘till January 15th and you can get it all over at obstacledominator.com, obstacledominator.com, but I’m not done yet because there is something you could use that plan for. And that is the upcoming Spartan Cruise. This is starting to sound like a Spartan podcast.

Brock:  It is.

Ben:  If you go to thespartancruise.com, my wife, my boys, me, we’re all gonna be on that cruise.  There’s gonna be a lot of partying, race for the kids, race for the adults, not one of the huge monster races but like a sprint, like a 3-4 mile island sprint, beautiful beaches, exclusive island challenges, it’s in the Bahamas.  I think we leave from like Miami or something like that, but anyways, it’s March 6 to the 9th.  Awesome way to celebrate a spring break with your family.  So, check it out – the spartancruise.com and you’ll get a 10% discount when you use code BEN10.  That’s easy to remember, BEN10.  So…

Brock:  Yes.  But Ben, what if I’m not interested in Spartan things, don’t you have something for the rest of us?

Ben:  [chuckles] I’m glad you asked that, Bro-uck.  Uhm, so just a couple of other things to announce here for a – two things.  The first is, January 30th through the 31st, I’ll be speaking over in Dubai.  So if you happen to be anywhere near Dubai, we’ll put a link right there in the show notes at bengreenfieldfitness.com/304, or you could check that out.  And if you live far away from Dubai, it’s actually the most centrally located place on planet earth, really easy to get to.  Plus there’s a two day like 6 hours a day, really intensive seminar with me on all things super human.  We’re gonna cover performance, digestion, brain, sleep, fat loss, hormone balance, everything, so.  Check that out over in Dubai.  And then finally, this is an announcement, this is the brand new announcement about the Ben Greenfield experience that you are about to hear.

Brock:  This deserves a drum roll?

Ben:  This deserves a drum roll.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to get completely immersed and come hang out with me for the weekend, and pretty much get involved with every healthy ancestral living technique and cutting edge biohacking tool that I have.

[0:20:09.5] 

And you just basically hang out with me, eating, working out, getting completely equipped with everything that you need to know to go home and reinvent your home, and your body, and your life.  This is only available to one person, you get to choose the date.  It can be May 15th through the 17th, that’s a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or May 22nd through the 24th, which is also a Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  We basically – it’s an intensive, it’s a three day intensive where you’re just with me and I’m teaching you everything that you need to know about bringing your life and your health to the next level.  So, this is not for everyone, it is 10k for the weekend for you to come and have my undivided attention for those three days.  If you’re interested, and you’re seriously interested, just email [email protected] and when you email [email protected], you and I hop on the phone to chat, we determine if you’d be eligible for somethin’ like this and we figure out if this is somethin’ that we can work out.  So, if you’ve always just wanted to take a deep, deep dive into this stuff, get immersed in the entire healthy living experience along the biohacking, the technology, the self-quantification, everything, then this Ben Greenfield experience could be right up your alley.  So, check it up, email me if you are interested.

Brock:  For the 10k, does that include coffee enemas?

Ben:  Uhm, no.  Those are extra.

Listener Q & A:

Barb:  Hi, I’m wondering if you can help me.  I have been experiencing a lot of mucus and like histamine response after my workouts.  It’s been going on for several months and it seems that when I workout really hard, it seems to have.  And I thought it was related to the pool but it’s just with any workout, it could be after hard intervals on the bike.  And I really have not been able to get to the bottom of this.  It’s been kind of going on and off for a couple of years, but most recently it’s been like consistent for about three months now.  I did an Ironman in August, and I’m just wondering if there’s something going on with my recovery.  I feel good, I feel very strong on the bike, swim, run, but this is just debilitating me with this histamine I’m having.

 [Some noises – coughing, sneezing]

Ben:  That sucks.  Ehem!  Whoa!  That was not mucus.  Or maybe it was!

Brock:  So yeah, we’ve talked about this before when you get the histamine response when you’re really given-ner that your body just naturally kicks that stuff out, right?

Ben:  We have talked about it before and it can actually be – it can be a few different things that would cause that type of stuffiness.  But the idea here is that when you exercise, the blood flow to the little blood vessels in your nose and your nasal cavities, that blood flow starts to slow down.  And when that happens it shrinks the tissues that are responsible for creating mucus.  And at the same time, it widens your air passages.  So you’re taking in more air but that means you’re also taking in more of those pesky allergens that might be floating around whether it’s inside your gym or outdoors or wherever.  And that can potentially trigger an allergic response and those wider air passages might actually cause your nose to feel stuffy after the workout because when you stop your workout, all the blood rushes back to those little blood vessels in your nasal tissue, and then this can fill up those blood vessels too much, so it causes it to dilate and that blocks these airways that were wide and it makes you feel stuffed up.

So, that can happen to a lot of people.  You know, without there being some big histamine response or something like that present.  It can just be basically your body not being used to that flow – that regulation nasal blood flow.  Sometimes that can go away and new exercisers especially.  But there can be other things, so for example, one of the things that can happen is when you go to the gym or you work out, your body loses heat and it loses water and when that happens your cells’ response to increase heat production and to increase extra cellular fluid, is to release histamine into your bloodstream, and when you get a bunch of histamine release, that can cause a lot of the symptoms of an allergic reaction: stuffiness, red face, itchy skin, a lot of these things that are associated with what’s called exercise induced anaphylaxis or exercise induced allergies.

[0:25:01.5]

So, that’s another thing that can cause this.  And then finally, you might be just freakin’ allergic to somethin’ like you might be allergic to, let’s say, you know, if this happens at the gym, something that they’re cleaning the treadmill with or maybe someone – the perfume of someone who’s working at next to you or what they’re cleaning the floor with at the gym.  So I mean, it could a pollen allergen to like a cleaning chemical.  So, there are a lot of things that can cause an exercise induced hypersensitivity disorder.  So, what I’m gonna do first of all, if you’re listening in is, there is this – this really interesting study that goes into all of the different things that can cause this exercise induced anaphylaxis.  It’s kind of a dry like more researched kinda medical based study, if you’re really interested in getting into all the different things like mastocystosis, and hereditary angioedema, and all the things that could potentially cause this.  But in most people, it is a histamine response.  And so, one of the best things that you could do is to – a) avoid any foods that could potentially cause an allergenic response prior to you working out.  And the biggest one that I found to be the issue is dairy.  Dairy can cause a lot of mucus and congestion issue in folks and that could include butter but it could also be just milk, yogurt, stuff that you might be mixin’ into a pre-workout smoothie, kefir, any of these type of things can potentially cause that.  So I’d be really careful with that.  I’d also be careful with histamine contained foods.  I actually almost passed out of the gym this summer when I took probiotics right before I went to the gym because probiotics can cause a little bit of a histamine response.  And there are other foods that can cause a pretty pronounced histamine response as well like, fermented foods, like anything that’s like kombucha, or kefir, or kimchi, or sauerkraut, like any of these foods that normally not that big of a deal.  Once you combine it with exercise and especially if you combine them with intense exercise in the heat, they can cause this histamine response.  In my case, my whole face swelled up, my skin was really itchy like it was not a good thing.  It was really uncomfortable.  So, I thought I was gonna die, I was like, this is how I’m gonna go, lying on the gym floor, the base of the treadmill.  Everybody’s gonna think I’ll die of a heart attack when it was the damn probiotics, and they’re gonna say, see look, healthy people can die of heart attacks too when it was really a lot of bacteria churning out histamines in my gut.

Brock:  And that’s all you were worried about as you’re laying on the gym floor dying.

Ben:  That’s it.  Yeah but I mean like, hopefully you’re not drinking alcohol before you workout but that can induce a histamine release.  Chocolate is another one that can do this.  I mean, you could go to like a Google search for histamine containing foods, and just like make a list of things not to eat prior to – to going on exercise but I found fermented foods, and probiotics tend to be a biggie.  Chocolate tends to be a biggie, and also another one, would be canned foods like sardines and anchovies, and beef jerkies, and stuff like that, some that has been preserved because the nitrate or the nitrites that can cause a histamine response as well.  Now, there are things that you could take that are natural anti-histamines.  Probably two of the more common ones that you can find a supplement, one is called butterbur – that’s a supplement.

Brock:  Butterbur…

Ben:  Butterbur… And there’s another one, mangosteen.  Mangosteen is like a fruit extract that you can find in like a juice form or capsules, and I found a really interesting study done back in 2003 where they use a mixture of eight different  herbs and tested that mixture for its inhibitory effect on histamine release from mast cells which are the type of cells in your body that release histamine and they found a significant effect from these herbs that were just mixed in water.  The herbs were chamomile, saffron, anise, fennel, caraway, licorice, cardamom, and black seed.  And you could technically get most of those in like a tea form and you could even try just like one of them.  You can try a chamomile tea, chamomile licorice is a common tea blend but as long as an herbal tea that has a really good anti-histamine effect, the same type of tea that’s typically marketed for congestion, that type of thing.  That’ll another thing to look into when it comes to this.  So…

Brock:  You’d make a cold version of it and just rehydrate after the workout or something like that.

Ben:  Exactly.

Brock:  Be delicious and helpful.

Ben:  Delicious and helpful.  So, those are some of the places I would start.  I’ll link to that research study in the show notes for  if you really want, just put your propeller hat on and take a deep, deep dive into this stuff but ultimately, that’s where I would start, Barb and best of luck with all mucus.

[0:30:00.8]

Jeff:  Hi Ben.  Hi Brock.  This is Jeff.  I love the podcast, I just got a question.  I’ve noticed that I’ve had a little bit of acne on my back side.  Sometimes it’s a little worse than other days, and some days it looks more like a heat rash, and it was kind of on my hamstrings, as well as my lower back but more so on my butt.  I’ve looked into it, you know, cleaned up my diet and stuff, I do wear compression gear, quite a bit for my workouts.  I’m not sure how to clear it up, it’s just more annoying than anything, and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions.  Have you even tried going days without wearing any underwear at all, but I was wondering if you have any tips that may help me out.  I appreciate all the work you guys do, and keep it up.

Brock:  Ah, Jeff.

Ben:  Ah, Jeff, I’ve got news for you.  That’s not acne.  [chuckles]

Brock:  It’s herpes.

Ben:  Yeah, in most cases if you get like acne or you get something like pimples, you get like red sores, like stuff like that on your butt, it’s usually the combination of heat, friction, sweat, and occasionally, I’m just saying Jeff, lack of hygiene that causes the formation of basically what we call saddle sores.  And a lot of people get this… yeah, and like if you try and pop ‘em and stuff like acne, that makes it oh so much worse.

Brock:  Oh!

Ben:  Yeah.  You definitely don’t wanna do that.  And a lot of typical acne remedies like everything from like say, reducing dairy consumption, being careful with insulin, to using like topical things that dry up the skin, a lot of these things don’t work in that area because unlike, well, I’m hoping most people aren’t walking around with their face covered with a chamois and some bike shorts dripping with sweat.  I suppose if you’re wearing like a – what they’re called a burka, that covers your face…

Brock:  Yeah, that’s what they’re called but that’s not like wearing chamois on your face.

Ben:  You know, maybe those women that are wearing burka do get saddle sores on their face.  I don’t know.

Brock:  I doubt it.  That’s a beautiful, light material.

Ben:  Yes, okay.  So, anyways, segue…

Brock:  But that was a rattle when I was in segue.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah, the other thing.  So anyways though, you wanna treat this the way that you would treat saddle sores, and you wanna be careful with this, like I’ve had saddle sores before that have progressed into full blown stuff.  Like full blown MRSA.

Brock:  Yeah, you almost lost your leg like two years ago.

Ben:  Yeah, like holes eaten in the side of my butt.  Like really nasty stuff.  You do want to take this stuff seriously.  So I’m gonna give you some tips for taking care of this stuff.  First of all, keep stuff clean down there, alright.  So, when you’re riding on your bike, before and after, keep things clean but make sure that your shorts don’t have a bunch of crap in there and you’re not using your shorts for many, many days in a row without washing them.  But get some good cycling shorts with a good chamois and as far as cleanliness goes, one of my tips is there’s this stuff called Action Wipes.  It’s like melaleuca – a bunch of essentials oil.  It’s like a butt wipe like baby wipe but you can use it on skin, post-workout or pre-workout.  I really like that stuff and I’ve always got some of that in my gym bag and kinda like in the mud room near my back door where I can just grab some when I’m headed out, and I have stuff in my jersey, sometimes I use it if I need to like stop and change my chain because it can clean or – not change my chain but like if I get change or after my chain falls off, I have to do bike tech when I’m out there.  It washes the oil off your hands really well too.  So, Action Wipes, check those out.  I’ll put a link to them in the show notes as well.  You want some…

Brock:  I take those to the finish line of most races too ‘cause you don’t know if you always have access to a shower or something after, so it’s a nice way to clean up after a race before you jump in the car.

Ben:  There was one of the very first people that I interviewed for the Ben Greenfield podcast, and I get some complaints after the interview because she told the story about how Action Wipes were first invented and they were invented as like a sex product for cleaning up the mess that can happen during sex.

Brock:  That’s great!  I’ve never thought of using it for that.

Ben:  The inventor of Action Wipes has very messy sex.  Such that she has invented action wipes… Action Wipes.  [chuckles] That’s gross.  So anyways, I do not endorse by the way, talking about stuff like that on a podcast that we know children are listening to.

[0:35:04.2]

So, you need some kind of a friction cream, some kind of an anti-friction cream.  There’s a few different ways to skin that cat, like Bag Balm can work pretty well.  That’s a stuff that comes in like that green tin and it just look really cool ‘cause it’s old school, right?  Like it was develop I believe for cow tits, for farmers, and now you can get it in most pharmacies and feed stores and all over the place but it’s this stuff that comes a little metal tin, it’s cheap, and you slap some of that on there.  It’s a lanolin and it can help especially if an area is red or irritated, but if you just wanna keep an area from getting there in the first place, then just some kind of anti-friction cream.  I use this stuff that I really like ‘cause it’s totally natural, doesn’t have stuff in there that’s gonna cause you to absorb endocrine disruptors through your butt cheeks.  It’s called Hammer Seat Saver, it’s made by the Hammer Nutrition Company.  I’ll put a link to that in the show notes for you, but that’s the stuff I use in my feet, and on my butt.  So I use them in my feet when I’m out walking or running, or racing, and then I’ll use it on my butt when I am seating on a bike saddle.  That’s about the only time my butt is experiencing high levels of friction or when I’m dragging my butt on the carpet, that’s the other time, I’ll put some of that on.

Brock:  I believe that’s called scooching.

Ben:  Yes, when I’m scooching I put on the Hammer stuff.  Few other things that you could use, as far as the cycling shorts go.  Some people who are riding for long distances actually swear by wearing two pairs of cycling shorts, and that can feel like you’re riding a bike wearing a freakin’ diaper.  Some people do like that, they find that for long periods of time spend riding in bicycle that it can really help out.  And then, if this stuff is just like progressed to the point where you’ve got a freakin’ World War 2 on your back side, you may wanna consider a hydrocortisone cream just to knock some of that stuff out of the park.

Brock:  Yeah, just a short term, take care and get it out of there and then back to normal.

Ben:  Yeah, exactly.  So, those are my tips.  There’s one other thing that I’ve been doing lately for any topical winds, I started doing this during the Spartan racing season where I’ve finished a race and had like open-cuts and wounds and I have to be like get to an airplane and stuff like to go home, I use this essential oil.  I use the thieves blend of essential oil which is really good as an internal cleanse, right if you have bugs, or parasites, or you wanna like clean up your stomach and you don’t wanna use my ginger, garlic, cayenne, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, lemon blend.

Brock:  The spicy, harsh blend.

Ben:  The Lord knows why no one would want to drink that but thieves essential oil.  You can put it topically too, so you take a few drops of it and you just like smear it over any area that you wanna cleanup and infection on.  It smells really good too, so you might find that people are actually attracted to you because of your saddle sores with all that lovely essential oil on them, until you take off your pants and you hear  screaming and running for the hills, but up to that point you’ll smell great.  So, check out this essential oil too.  So, I’ll put links to all this stuff, resources for you over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/304, Jeff, and best of luck with your teenage boy back side.

RC:  Hey Ben and Brock!  I’ve been listening to your podcast for a while, really love it.  Keep up the good work.  I have a question based on your recommendation just a – from hearing what you’ve done, I have L-Theanine and Rhodiola, I’ve tried some of that just appear powder forms and I’ve tried at night and also in the morning, and I’m just kinda wondering, I mean as far as just to reduce stress and tension, what time of day would it be best for, and should it be on empty stomach, and there any other better stacks for supplements that I could take at night to maybe help me to relax and just maybe fall asleep a little bit better since I seem to be a not night owl.  I just really curious on your thoughts.  What else that would be good, I know I’ve looked in to lemon balm as well and actually – I can’t even say the name but I think you know what I’m trying to say.  Just please any advice you can give for what would be a great stack to combine for stress at night time.  Thank you.

Ben:  Uhm, Rhodiola and L-Theanine, interesting.  You know, both Rhodiola and L-Theanine can indeed relax you.  Like L-Theanine is something that you can take at the same time that you take caffeine, to help caffeine from being less stimulative like you get less jittery, like I think we’ve talked about it before on the show, Brock.  But like there’s this capsule called smart caffeine.

Brock:  I took it this morning, in fact.

Ben:  Yeah, it’s called smart energy or smart caffeine?

[0:40:00.9]

Brock:  Smart caffeine.

Ben:  Yeah, it’s like caffeine mix with L-theanine and I mean green tea is effectively the same thing or very similar, right, in lower amounts but it’s caffeine and L-theanine kinda balances it out.  So L-theanine is good as far as whether or not you should take it on an empty stomach, the answer is yes.  When you take it on an empty stomach, typically you’ll feel L-theanine within about 30 minutes.  L-theanine has been shown to last about 8-12 hours.  I – speaking of videos released to my Youtube channel, I recently released a video of me vaping using a liquid vaporizer to vape this stuff called Sweet Dreams, that’s a mix of chamomile, L-theanine, passion flower, and melatonin.  That means that it’s basically getting absorbed to the mucosal membrane in my mouth, and that’s something that lasts all night long.  I’ll put a link to that video in the show notes for you but…

Brock:  That video is not creepy at all.

Ben:  No, it’s not creepy at all.  It’s not creepy to see me on my bed wearing my creeper glasses with my creepy red light and my creepy little E-cigarette that I’m smokin’ L-theanine with.

Brock:  You grew a tiny little mustache for that video too which was nice.

Ben:  Beats the pants off nasty, baby.  So anyways, yeah, L-theanine will be on empty stomach.  Rhodiola, rhodiola also has some pretty good relaxative properties but it’s also important to take that one on an empty stomach.  Most herbs in general whether it’s an herb that you’re using as a smart drug, or an herb that you’re using for relaxation, you’ll gonna feel its effects best on an empty stomach.  So, you know, for example I use a blend of herbs called Inner Peace, and it’s made by the same folks that make my favorite smart drug.  Smart drug called Tianchi, but I like to take a nap after lunch, so about 30 minutes before I eat lunch, I’ll take 3 capsules of that Inner Peace stuff, and by the time I finish up lunch, I’m a little sleepy and then I go down for a nap.  So, that’s why I really like for an afternoon nap but because it’s herbs, I definitely take it on an empty stomach.  Some stuff, melatonin for example, it’s really an herb, you don’t have to take it on an empty stomach, it’s more like a hormone but most herbs on an empty stomach.  So, I’ve got a bunch of different ways that you can get to sleep at night or relieve stress at night, you know, to answer your question about what I’d recommend, but I’d say if I had to choose 3 things, ‘cause I wanna keep this simple for you ‘cause honestly we can do a whole podcast on things that help to relax you, and de-stress you…

Brock:  You did a whole podcast series on it.

Ben:  Yeah, seriously like I’ve got two whole chapters in my book just devoted to this.  But what I’d say – I almost feel like I should start talking in a really relaxing voice then.

Brock:  Uhmm, yes.

Ben:  Bad name, three things…

Brock:  What would they be… uhmm.

Ben:  Oh no, the first would be that, that new stuff – that vapor boost stuff.  So you can check it out at bengreenfieldfitness.com/vaporboost.  It’s called Sweet Dreams…

Brock:  You feel that stuff is pretty darn safe like just – since you’re inhaling it into your lungs?

Ben:  Yeah, yeah.  I investigated the – what’s happening on a bio-chemical level with that propylene glycol that’s using it, and it just gets converted into water once it mixes with the moist air in your mouth.  So, when you’re exhaling it’s effectively just steam that you’re seeing not smoke.

Brock:  Yeah, but I think the biggest point is that you’re not actually taking it into your lungs, so you’re just holding it in your mouth and actually smoking it.

Ben:  Yeah, I found about three drops to be really effective.  Comes out to about 0.5 milliliters if you’re to fill it up in one of those vaporizers or atomizers, but you see you don’t need much.  That’s gonna be about 10 puffs or so spread out over a course around 10 minutes.  So you can like sit in bed and read a book as you kinda puffing on the thing.

Brock:  How relaxing.

Ben:  How relaxing.  The next one is a blend of essential oils.  It’s like lavender, and chamomile, and frankincense, and a bunch of essential oils that can really tend to relax you, and it comes in like this applicator stick and you rub it almost like Chapsticks on your upper – just above your upper lip where you’d normally grow your amazing 70s movie star mustache.  But you smear this – it’s called Peace and Calm Essential Oil.  You can get it from the same people that make this Thieves Essential Oil blend, it’s made by that young living company.  I had a rep from that company a podcast a few months ago.  Really relaxing!  I actually used that one with my kids too.  They saw me put it on my lips one night and they wanted to know to put it on their lips, and they just like go to sleep so quickly.  It’s just this natural essential oils that really relax you.  So I’m big fan of that one too.  So, you got the stuff that you can smoke, you’ve got the stuff that you can smear on your skin, and then the last thing would be like something that you can take.  And I would say, if you wanted to get the most bang for your buck, I am a fan of the multivitamin that I use, the Thorne AM/PM Complex because it has philodendron and magnolia in the PM part of it.

[0:45:09.1]

So, if you take that PM part, I generally like to take it before dinner again ‘cause it has herbs in it, so you feel the effects and they’ll last like 8-12 hours, the herbs that lower cortisol – help you to feel relaxed but I like that ‘cause you’re killing a lot of birds with one stone when you use a multivitamin like that just ‘cause you got like antioxidants, and you’ve got stuff that balances out the vitamin C in the multivitamin, and you’ve got like all your vitamin D, and your vitamin E, and all your vitamins, all your minerals, the curcumin, all that jazz.  So, really powerful multivitamin and it’s got the sleep stuff in the PM part.  Don’t get the AM and the PM mixed up by the way.

Brock:  Yeah, okay.  So, you’re some in the morning, some in the evening.  It’s important not to mix them up.

Ben:  There’s three AM capsules and they’re yellow because of all the curcumin in them, and the PM ones are white.  And so, just think sun and moon.  Alright?  Yellow and white.  Pretty logical.  So yeah, those would be my top three things that I’m lovin’ right now.  The Vapor Boost – sweet dreams, The Peace and Calm Essential Oil, and then the Thorne AM/PM complex.  Those would be the three things that I’d go with and then for an afternoon nap, I really like the Inner Peace stuff to throw into your mix of drugs.

Brock:  And if all else fails, tequila.

Ben:  Uhmm

Tony:    Is it normal to have a smaller hips than legs?  Like my legs are wider than my hips.  It’s really, I don’t know, like my pants right up way more, or even my boxers right up.  It’s pretty annoying, I don’t know.  Anyways, uhm yeah.

Brock:  Sounds like Tony’s got the classic case of white man butt.

Ben:  Uhmm, yeah.  You know what I noticed –I was looking in the mirror the other day, my butts gotten really bigger the past year.

Brock:  Damn!

Ben:  Like none like a bad way.  I’ve got some glutes.  I know why because, it’s because I’ve been doing way more uphill walking, with weighted vest and stuff, I’ve been doing way more squats.  Doing like a 5×5 protocol and I’ve been doing a lot of deadlifts too.  And just like those three additions, and my wife’s noticed it too, it’s like my boxer shorts are really hugging my back side pretty tight.

Brock:  Would you call it a badonkadonk at this point?

Ben:  I’m up there with J. Lo, yeah, it’s getting’ up there.

Brock:  Nice!

Ben:  I can’t quite twerk quite as well, but I’m getting there.

Brock:  As J. Lo?  Oh dearsome!

Ben:  Anyways, so glutes, best way to get a better butt.  I’m gonna say some things that they may not be aware of ‘cause it goes way beyond my squats and deadlifts, and walkin’ uphill with the weight vest, but if your legs are wider than your hips, it does indeed mean that your hips and your glutes could use some development.  So the first thing that can keep your butt turned off even when you’re at the gym.  Like once you start doing squats, once you start doing deadlifts at the gym, it doesn’t assume you’re using your butt.  And one thing that can turn your butt off because it tightens up your hip flexors, and it tightens up your hamstrings, and it interferes with vascular function and nerve function in your glutes is sitting.

So, if you’re sitting for any longer than about a two hour period of time, any point during the day, you are inhibiting your ability to use your butt.  So, I mean, if you can stand up every now and again and do some body weight bridges like layin’ on your back on the ground doing some glute bridges, going up and down a flight of stairs is a great way to turn your butt on, doing a few squats is a good way to turn your butt, but do something that turns on your butt during the day and don’t sit for longer than two hours for any given period of time, especially if you’re working out later on the day and you plan on doing squats and deadlifts, and stuff like that.  Definitely, avoid too much sitting – that’s one way that your butt can get turned off.

Brock:  I feel like 2015 is going to be the year of the bridge.

Ben:  The year of the bridge…

Brock:  Like we’re only seven days into it and I’ve heard so many people talking about doing bridges.

Ben:  Mark Brocks we’re I actually – I’m not a fan of bridges because I’m like you know, there’s not a lot of time that you’re gonna be making a bridging motion, and I don’t wanna be crash, but it’s pretty much like during sex, especially with like man on the bottom style sex, that you’re gonna be bridging much.  Other than that, I mean, there’s not a lot of periods of time.  I honestly like squats and deadlifts, and stuff like that more than I like bridges.

Brock:  Because of the functionality of the movement.

Ben:  Yeah, to me that’s kind of a lazy exercise honestly, just like laying there, just like thrusting.

Brock:  So, the rest of us are gonna do bridges in 2015 and that’s gonna be thrusting.

Ben:  Yeah.  So, a few other things that can turn off your glutes.  One would be imbalances and the most common one would be tight hip flexors, especially related to your hip extensors.

[0:50:05.4]

So, tight psoas, tight kinda front of the legs.  My favorite thing to do at various point throughout the day is, I just stop, drop and going to a lunge with one arm overhead, and then lunge for the other leg with the other arm overhead.  Just to keep those hip flexors nice and lucy guzzy, and that helps you to keep your glutes turned on.  So, muscle imbalances and more specifically hip flexor tightness and making sure that your hip flexors are not tight is going to allow you to use your glutes much better and keep those bad boys turned on.  So always do a check on the front of your legs, kinda the front upper legs to make sure that those hip flexors aren’t too tight.  The next one would be glute activation.  A lot of people just like – they get to the gym, to do their workout or they get ready for workout and their glutes just like – they have a hard time turning them on.  This is the same reason like, a lot of people, like women more get incontinence when they run for example, because they haven’t forget how to turn on their pelvic muscles, like their deep core muscles.  Some people will get constipation because they haven’t figured out how to properly activate some of their pelvic muscles or responsive for pushing certain muscles and relaxing certain muscles.

So, for example, a situation of urinary incontinence, sometimes kegel exercises can help.  In the case of constipation, sometimes using something like a squatty potty, right adapting like a normal squatting position can help.  And in the case of the – of the glutes, I’m a big fan of – prior to your workout, during your warm up, including some things that turn on your glutes.  My favorite are the sidewalks with the resistant bands, right where you…

Brock:  Like monster walks…

Ben:  Yeah, monster walks where they are walking forwards, or backwards, or sideways or all three, kind of like down in a half squat position.  Really, really good way to turn on your glutes.  Another good way to turn on your glutes is to get into a crawl position and just do like the hiking exercise, like the dog hiking its leg on a fire hydrant exercise.  And you do that until the glutes’ just a little bit burning on both sides right you do.  Let’s say – like 30 reps for your right, and 30 for your left and then 15 and 15, and then 10 and 10.  And that – it’ll take you 2 minutes to do but it turns on your glutes prior to starting these other stuff especially if you’ve been sitting for a while for your workout.  Like one of those end of the day, after day at the office type of exercise people, that can really help out quite a bit.  So, pre-activate the glutes even if it means throwing the bridges in, you could do a few bridges.

Brock:  It’s 2015 after all.

Ben:  And then finally as a lot of people know, like squats, and deadlifts, and step-ups, some lunges, all of those are great for your glutes and great for your butt, you certainly shouldn’t avoid those but those are be considered exercises that lows your glute vertically.  And you also need to do things that load your glutes in a more horizontal sense.  So, some of the more popular that the two that I like – one is the back extension, this should be like getting on the back extension machine at the gym and doing – and it’s kind of a shearing force on your spine, but doing back extensions.  The other thing is like I do this on my inversion table, like the one that you hang from is you can just arch your back and squeeze your butt cheeks as you arch your back and just get your body in like hyper-extension as you’re hanging there on an inversion table.  That’s a great way to kinda like hyper-extend and work those same muscles.

The other one that I really like and I do a lot of this too – that might be also why my boxers are getting’ filled out so nicely, is reverse hyper-extensions.  These are pretty cool.  They’re deceptively difficult ‘cause you’re not moving through a very big range of motion but you lay down on your stomach, on like a bench – you could technically as like one of those big exercise balls too, and you figure a way to keep your upper body from moving.  Usually that means you hold on to the legs of the bench or the pole on the bench, and then you just lift your legs as high as you can, like lift your heels toward the ceiling as high as you can, and then back down.  So it’s almost like that Superman exercise that you do when you’re lying on your stomach on the ground and lifting all four limbs off the ground, except for this one, you’re holding to a bench and you just lifting your legs up behind you, like with your heels up for the ceiling and your butt like you hold up for a second and then you drop, your butt will just be turned on.  So, that’s a really, really good one too – the reverse hypers.  So, those are some of the things that I would do – avoid sitting, keep the hip flexors nice and stretched out, pre-activate the glutes before you start your workout, and then also include some horizontal loading exercises like back extension and reverse extension.  And then finally, it’s really interesting, there’s this study that they did where they looked at the number exercise that based off of EMG analysis cause the most activation of the glutes.

[0:55:04.1]

And it was what’s called a butt squeeze, and this is where you stand with a really wide stance and your feet turned a little bit out, and then you contract your feet out as hard as you can for about 30 seconds.  So you’re basically squeezing your glutes really hard where you’re keeping yourself in that wide stance.  It’s kinda hard to describe, you just got…

Brock:  Like pushing your feet out?

Ben:  Like try – you can try right now where you’re listening if you want.  Take a really wide stance, turn the feet out a little bit, squeeze the glutes and kinda push the feet out while your keep your knees – you’re driving your knees close together.  It’s kinda hard to learn but basically what you’re doing is an isometric contraction of your glutes where you almost like a wide – not a wide squat position, just a wide standing position.  Probably, that if you wanna learn how to do this really well, the book Core Foundation, like that entire book was originally designed to relieve low back pain but it does effectively is turn on your glutes.  Now, I love that book, they’ve got like a DVD series as well but it’s written by a chiropractic doc named Eric Goodman, it’s called the Core Foundation Exercises.  Those are really, really good.  That’ll teach you how to do that motion and like you can break a sweat just doing that one thing like in the Core Foundation exercise, you’ll be holding that position like two minutes sometimes.  Your butt is just screamin’ at you when you finished, but in a good way.  We like butt screaming…. in a good way.

Brock:  I’m having trouble imagining that stand.

Ben:  There’s no acne involved, especially.

Brock:  Ahhhhh!

Ben:  [laughs] You do not want a nice butt if it’s covered with saddle sores.  If there’s one thing you’ll learn in this podcast, get those saddle sores under control before you…

Brock:  You will definitely not need any of the Action Wipes.

Ben:  Yeah, otherwise you just have more real estate for the saddle sores.  So anyways, yeah, I’ll put a link to the Core Foundation book for you, along with all the resources that I talked about over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/304, and this is about the point in the show where we give away some stuff.

Brock:  Uhmm… we give away a beanie!  Which is really handy in weather-like I’m having right now ‘cause it keeps your ears nice and toasty.  And the t-shirt, Ben Greenfield t-shirt with the new logo, looks sweet.  It makes my abs look ripped.

Ben:  Or screwing acne…

Brock:  You can wipe your acne with it if you like, and also a BPA-free water bottle.

Ben:  Uhmm, yup.  Good for keepin’ your saddle cream in.

Brock:  Hmm, I never thought of that.  I suppose you could.

Ben:  So, if you leave your review on iTunes and you leave us 5 stars, we might read a one star review someday.  But if you read…

Brock:  So just send a nasty one, just somebody who hates us.

Ben:  And then we send them free stuff.

Brock:  Yeah.  Just got pissed them off…

Ben:  Which is kinda just the equivalent game like dog poo firing your front door a Ben Greenfield t-shirt from a guy that you hate.  Anyways though, if you leave your review, we read your review and you hear it read, just email us your t-shirt size, [email protected] and we’ll stick a handy dandy Ben Greenfield fitness gear pack in the mail, shipped straight to your front door, and it looks like today’s review is from….uhm, who is it from?

Brock:  Cherithh…. Cherith H.

Ben:  Uhm, what Cherithh, I have to say?

Brock:  The title is – Ben and Brock are the gateway drug to insane health.

Ben:  Uhm, crazy.

Brock:  Alright, yup.  Well, insane anyway.  “I ran across Ben Greenfield’s podcast through Feedly and was immediately hooked.  Several months later my friends think I have lost my mind but in reality I have lost 15 lbs. and gained so much more.”

Ben:  Thanks, Feedly!

Brock:  Yeah, good work, Feedly.  “My coworkers see me drinking lemon water with chia and my friends are confused by my adding grass-fed butter to my coffee.  Even more crazy, my neighbors see me carrying rocks around my backyard and going for walks in 30 degree weather, half dressed.”

Ben:  Uhm, that’s hot!

Brock:  Yeah, once again I wonder which half of her is dressed.  “If you think – if you two think I’m crazy for these things, spend some time listening to this podcast.  Ben and Brock are easy on the ears (and eyes)…”

Ben:  Boom!  Sexy time…

Brock:  Yeah.  “… and make my daily commute interesting.  But they are also very generous with the knowledge they have gained in their own quest for health.  Sometimes they recommend costly equipment, but more often they offer things that anyone at any income level can accomplish.  They have also introduced me to their friends who have more wisdom to offer including physical therapy and nutrition.  I am a Ben and Brock groupie.  Thanks, guys.”

[1:00:00.9]

Ben:  That’s awesome.  She can come to our concert.

Brock:  Hey, maybe she’s got 10 grandchildren who like stop by your house.

Ben:  Uhm, that’ll be cool, but yeah!  We do sometimes recommend costly equipment though, I know, yeah.

Brock:  I don’t.

Ben:  Like the Biomat… yeah, that is kinda spendy.

Brock:  That is.  Like the inversion platform.

Ben:  But we also recommend very affordable things like some of things that we talked about in this podcast.

Brock:  Yes!  It was totally affordable, I feel it.

Ben:  Not eating Kimchi before you run on the treadmill, or using the sexy time clean-ups on your ass.  So, there are those things too, but anyways, we’ll put links to all that stuff and so much more over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/304, you can support the podcast by going and leaving your iTunes review.  Be sure to check out that other podcast at bengreenfieldfitness.com/spartanup, check out our sponsor for today’s episode, Harry’s at harrys.com, use $5 discount code BEN.  Don’t cut yourself shaving, that is our warning.  And then of course, check out obstacledominator.com if you want a crazy fitness plan for 2015.  There’s a bunch of crazy fitness stuff like walking on a treadmill for as long as you can while holding one dumb bell and just shifting that dumbbell all around your body until you have to drop it on the moving treadmill belt.  Don’t hurt yourself with that one.  That’s just one of the many workouts that you’ll find in obstacledominator.com.  So check that out.

Thanks for listening, tune in this weekend for a super secret interview – it’s gonna be really cool ‘cause we always release really cool interviews on the weekend, and until next time, I’m Ben Greenfield…

Brock:  What?  Super secret?

Ben:  Uhh, I actually don’t remember what this one is about.

Brock:  Is that why you said that?

Ben:  Yeah, that’s why I said that.  I can’t remember.

Brock:  Yeah, I can’t remember either.

Ben:  Yeah, anyways though, I’m Ben, he’s Brock.  Thanks for listening in.

Brock:  I’m Brock…. shhhhhhh.

 

 

Jan 7, 2015 Podcast: Natural Remedies For Congestion During Exercise, Natural Remedies for Saddle Sore, The Top 3 Ways To Relieve Stress At Night, and How To Get A Better Butt.

Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the tab on the right, 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… but be prepared to wait – we prioritize audio questions over text questions.

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Special Announcements:

This podcast is brought to you by Harry’s Shaving. Harry’s high-quality German-engineered blades are crafted for sharpness and precision, at half the price of big name drugstore brands, with free shipping straight to your door. Just go to Harrys.com and get $5 off when you use discount code “ben”.

The Obstacle Dominator training plan – has launched. Click here to get it now. This is going to make you tough as nails, give you a third lung, change your workouts forever, and thrust you into the fittest 99% of the population (probably the craziest and most nefarious thing Ben has ever created).On sale for $77 until Jan 15.

January 30th – 31st, 2015: Ben will be speaking in Dubai – Talise Fitness and Jumeirah Emirates Towers, proudly invite you to take part in an exclusive two day seminar held by the renowned nutrition and fitness expert, best selling author, coach, speaker, ex-bodybuilder and Ironman triathlete, Ben Greenfield. Click here for all details.

March 6-9, 2015: Come on the Spartan Cruise with Ben Greenfield and family! Use code BEN10 to save 10% when you book this cruise to a private island in the Bahamas for the ultimate tropical Spartan Race. This cruise includes free travel for kids and a kid’s Spartan race, along with a sprint Spartan for the adults, tons of partying, beautiful beaches and new, exclusive island challenges.

April 24-26th, 2015: Come hear Ben speak at PaleoFX 2015Below is just a taste of what to expect at this can’t-miss conference that is the Who’s Who gathering of the Paleo movement, with world-class speakers including best-selling authors, physicians, nutritionists, research scientists, professional athletes, trainers, sustainability and food activists, biohackers, and more.

The Ben Greenfield Experience is now available for either May 15-17 weekend or May 22-24 weekend (you choose): This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to be completely immersed in Ben’s unique combination of healthy, ancestral living and cutting-edge biohacking. Total cost is 10K for entire weekend(Fri/Sat/Sun) – includes yoga, workouts, food, and the full learning and living experience. You’ll leave completely equipped with everything you need to know to reinvent your home, your body and your life.

The entire experience takes place at the Greenfield home in the forest, which is completely biohacked to support optimum human biology, including 100% organic and green experience with zero electrical pollution, allergen-free materials, natural mattresses, circadian rhythm matched lighting and much more – including:

-Outdoor obstacle course on 10 acres of forest, with nature walking trails, climbing wall, rope traverses, spear throws, sandbag carries, Tarzan swing, monkey bars, mountain bikes, woodchopping and everything you need for the ultimate outdoor fitness experience.

-Completely outfitted gym with power lifting rack, indoor swim trainer, hypoxic air generator, bike trainer, elevation training mask, luxury Tru-Form running treadmill, outdoor yoga patio and much more.

-Cold thermogenesis endless swimming pool with chlorine-free, naturally ozone-treated hot tub for a one-of-a-kind outdoor, winter forest swimming and soaking body treatment.

-Plenty of biohacks to play with, including a recovery-enhancing Biomat, infrared lighting, electrostimulation, inversion table, power lung, and ore.

-Locally-sourced, natural and nourishing food from over a dozen nearby organic farms and Ben’s goats, chickens, organic vegetable garden, along with filtered, structured and deeply hydrating well water.

-Giant living room with wood burning stove and enormous oak table for learning, socializing, working, eating and relaxing.

-Outdoor obstacle course workouts, hiking excursions, yoga and high performance living led by America’s top personal trainer.

E-mail ben at bengreenfieldfitness.com if you are interested, and Ben will set up a private phone call with you to discuss details and your eligibility.

Grab this Official Ben Greenfield Fitness Gear package that comes with a tech shirt, a beanie and a water bottle.

And of course, this week’s top iTunes review – gets some BG Fitness swag straight from Ben – leave your review for a chance to win some!

 

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Listener Q&A:

As compiled, deciphered, edited and sometimes read by Brock Skywalker Armstrong, the Podcast Sidekick and Audio Ninja.

Natural Remedies For Congestion During Exercise

Barb says: She gets a lot of mucus and histamine response after her hard workouts. After intervals on the bike or in the pool. It has been happening on and off for a couple years but lately it is very constant. Is this related to recovery? It is very debilitating. Do you know what the cause could be?

In my response I recommend:
Exercise induced anaphylaxis research study

Natural Remedies for Saddle Sore

Jeff says: Lately he has been getting acne on his backside. Sometimes worse than other days… sometimes looks more like heat rash. Also a bit down his hamstrings and lower back. He wears compression gear when he works out but has also tried going without anything (even underwear). He is wondering how to clear it up. It is more annoying than anything.

In my response I recommend:
Hammer Seat Saver (use 15% discount code 80244)
ActionWipes
Thieves Essential Oil

The Top 3 Ways To Relieve Stress At Night

R.C. says: He has been trying out Rhodiola and L-Theanine. He has been using the pure powder forms in both the evening and the morning. For relieving stress, when should it be taken? Should it be on an empty stomach? Is there anything else you would recommend instead for someone who has trouble winding down in the evening?

In my response I recommend:
–VaporBoost SweetDreams
Peace And Calm Essential Oil
Thorne AM/PM Complex
Inner Peace

How To Get A Better Butt

Tony says: He is wondering if it is normal for your legs to be wider than your hips. All his pants and boxers “ride-up” and it is really annoying.

In my response I recommend:
Core Foundation exercises

Read more https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2015/01/304-how-to-get-a-better-butt-top-3-ways-to-relieve-stress-at-night-a-natural-dhea-secret/

 

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