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Alrighty, got a a bit of a different one for you today. Ben Greenfield is a pretty smart cookie. He’s released a number of books around triathlon training, low carb training and even how to raise tiny superhumans. He has an awesome podcast with many a biohack and is consistently at the cutting edge of wholistic human optimisation.

This short post will give you Ben’s recipe for how to cook the perfect steak that he gave on Joe Rogan’s JRE podcast. And actually, it’s a pretty damn good one. So below I’ll break it down step by step..

1. Remove steak from fridge/freezer. Allow it to reach room temperature for about 45/60 minutes.

2. During this time, pre coat the steak by rubbing in a liberal amount of a decent sea salt. Then add cayenne pepper, if using pepper corns, roast them first. Lastly add rosemary, again liberally. Rosemary is best for steak’s flavour but is also reduces the cargonagins that are caused from cooked charred meat. If no rosemary available, you can use thyme, (also anti carcinogenic). Coat and press both sides.

3. Pre heat cast iron skillet in the oven for 5/10 minutes. Once heated to touch, take the skillet out and put on a medium to high heat on the hob. Coat pan with a very good extra virgin olive oil (try a bold flavour choice) for a maximum 2 minutes.

4. The skillet needs to be heated enough so the steak will sizzle when it hits. This allows it to crust on outside but not cook to much on inside. Cook for 3.5 minutes on each side for medium rare.

5. Place your oven on broiler heat (or the grill for everyone else not in the US). Now place the cast iron skillet in oven under broiler/grill and allow the steak to cook 1 minuet each side.

6. Take out the skillet from the oven and remove steak. Put a generous slab of grass fed butter in skillet and let it become liquid but don’t let it burn.

7. Place steak back in skillet with melted butter and cook for 1 more minute each side under grill and remove. Poor juices and melted butter over when serving and enjoy!

Sleep. We all do it. Some love it, some struggle with it, most feel they could probably do with more and some just don’t feel it’s needed. This post will beg to differ that view, offer some expert views and suggest a couple of moves that could be made to improve it.

Health

So, is it that important? Hell to the damn yeah it is. Sleep guru Mathew Walker, whose done a pretty awesome podcast on the Joe Rogan Experience, highlights that lack of sleep correlates with all cause mortality. In fact the very act of being awake is causing low level brain damage, which sleep mitigates against. Walker states that the lack of sleep correlates to both altzimers disease and cancer.

Ryan Munsey, host of the Better Human Project podcast and writer of F**k Your Feelings, highlights that a lack of sleep makes the imigula – the part of brain that makes you act impulsively – more active by up to 60%. This has clear implications on motivation and all kinds of decision making processes.

So we can fairly say, which those with young children can surely attest to, that lack of sleep does have a negative impact on overall health.

There are some differences of opinion regarding how to find these extra hours sleep which many will loose in our 24 hour all systems go society. Many will point to the weekend lie in to find the extra hours back. Dr Rhonda Patrick, another perennial Joe Rogan guest, echoes this view. She has stated research suggests that long weekend sleep may compensate for short weekday sleep. Adding that short weekday sleep was not a risk factor for increased early mortality if it was combined with medium to long weekend sleep.

Sleep & Exercise

A leading light in the field of sleep is Nick Littlehales. He was sleep consultant to Alex Ferguson’s Manchester Utd and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid, and is the author of the super practical book Sleep. Nick warns against the lie in however if you’re looking to improve overall sleep, advocating a consistent get up time. This is especially if viewing sleep through the lens of exercise and recovery.

Exercise and sleep do come hand in hand to a degree with the side effects of a heavy gym session, run, etc, often being perfect for setting you up nicely to hit the hey. Couple of points to consider though.

Ben Greenfield, bio hacker kingpin and previous personal trainer of the year, states if you exercise any closer than 3 hours to the end of your day, it elevates core temperature to the point it can effect deep sleep cycles.

Ben proposes a cold shower as it decreases your core temperature following strenuous exercise and could result in better sleep. Be aware though as it may decrease the efficacy of the work out, especially if you have been doing resistance training. This is as the cold will reduce inflammation, which although generally positive, it’s also what’s wanted for adaptations to get stronger/faster. If you want a little more info regarding cold exposure, check out my previous post: http://whatsuppblogblog.com/2017/09/24/the-power-in-a-cold-shower/

Anyways, let’s crack on with some practical tips as to how you can improve your sleep. I’m going to present a bunch of suggestions, but first, I want to introduce you to a little game changer..

Measuring Sleep

Right, this strategy was presented by Nick Littlehales and it had a pretty big impact for me. Nick points out that the “8 hours sleep” mentality is essentially just an arbitrary number, not the most effective for recovery and not actually based on the cycles we sleep in. A full cycle, he states, is 90 minutes. Nick argues a more productive way to think about sleep is in these 90 minute cycles spread throughout the course of a week as opposed to just one night.

These are his key points:

– First, aim for 35 full cycles of 90 minutes in a 7 day week

– Get up at the same consecutive time each morning

– Aim with 5 cycles a night, however play with 4 and 6 cycles, different people will have different needs

– If you miss your usual bed time, wait until the next 90 minute cycle to come round

(example – missing 11pm for usual 6:30am get up, go to bed at the next cycle, 12:30am). This can be tough if tired but try doing some light exercise for example.

– Missed cycles can be added in over the course of the week if needed. Just keep to the same get up time and work back 90 minutes each time.

– Try to avoid 3 conservative nights of less than 5 cycles unless you’ve already determined you only need 4 cycles a night to perform optimally

– Aim for 4 nights of 5 90 minute cycles a week minimum. Again, unless you really can perform optimally on less and are having trouble getting off to sleep and waking up long before the alarm.

– In the midst of working your weeks out to incorporate your different sleep cycles, look where possible to incorporate 30 / 90 min CRP controlled recovery periods, (CRP), in the middle of the day between 12 – 2pm. I can appreciate this is an indulgence many won’t have so even try a 30 minute CRP around 5pm.

Nodding Off

So what about getting off to sleep? That is often the biggy for many. Well firstly, a non active digestive system will greatly help. Try to leave 3 hours after your last meal before bed or at least 90 mins following a light snack before bed.

Coming back to the sleep cycles. Nick Littlehales highlights some people can just operate on less sleep so firstly do play with the 90 minute cycles and extend them to going to bed later.

A good supplement combination is magnesium citrate and potassium citrate. Try 200 mg of magnesium citrate an hour before bed. If this isn’t enough try stacking with 400/500mg potassium citrate.

If you have any reservations in taking supplements (and those recommended are all natural mineral based), then there are other strategies to incorporate.

Ryan Munsey recommends gratitude journaling before bed. Keep this to only 3 things to avoid any negativity creeping in at a struggle to find many. Gratitude helps with shifting the mindset away from anxiety and into a more relaxed mode for sleep. Read more on my previous post to learn about the benefits of having a gratitude practice: http://whatsuppblogblog.com/2017/10/15/snack-hack-12-having-a-gratitude-practice/

A hot bath can raise your body temperature to that of when it usually shuts down to sleep. However, keep your room cool and avoid socks or excessive layers. This helps to regulate blood flow and keep it circulating around your core. Another little tip, according to Nick Littlehales, the ideal sleeping position is the fetal position on your non dominant side. This is something to do with the phycology of you covering your heart with your strongest side which helps gives an internal subliminal calming message.

Breathe

So the next big tip to clean up your sleep is ensuring you’re nose breathing. The importance of this concept in sleep was introduced to me by breath work guru Patrick Mckeown. Patrick enmphasies nose breathing for both athletic performance and overall health and well-being.

Nose breathing when sleeping acts to ensure a deep good quality sleep by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, (rest and digest). Mouth breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system, (fight or flight) which stimulates homones connected to a heightened state.

If you’re a snorer or are waking up with a dry mouth, you’re mouth breathing in your sleep. Now Patrick advises taping your mouth closed with breathable tape but I have great results using a nostril dilater. This simple little tool you can stick up your nose and will cost about £2:50 (including postage!) from eBay.

Where the Magic Happens

Other considerations are how your room is set up. Firstly, is it serene, minimal and calming, or rather a shrine to Apple technology and abstract art? Essentially the less stimulating factors, whether it be art, photos, electronics or general clutter, the better. Electronics can particularly have a negative effect with excessive screen time (phone/laptops) emitting blue light which will serve to stimulate you. Most phones have a night mode so try to ensure it’s on, or better still, stick it on airplane mode outside of the room.

If you are looking to spruce up your sleeping space however, and more importantly help improve your sleep, think about getting more plants. Shaun Stevenson (sleep messiah) recommends NASA’s top recommended air filtering plant – English Ivy – it’s nocturnal and releases oxygen during the night rather than the day, helping to improve your air quality.

Lastly, a couple more tips via Nick Littlehales on the all important sleep kit AKA bed & bedding. Super king size is the minimum size for mattress for a couple. The frame is effectively a decorative item so spend your money in the mattress as a priority. Try to buy hypo-allergenic bed clothes or minimum 300 thread count. Clean regularly.

Conclusion

Ok, I’m going to leave you with this little analogy via Nick Littlehales. I want you to picture a scene. You’re on a deserted desert island. The sun has gone down and its pitch dark aside from the stars in the sky. You have no electronics just you and your tent. You’ve got a log fire going and it’s burning down. Once it’s out, you’ll pick yourself up and head to bed. Now this is exactly what the ideal wind down bedtime routine would look like when considering how we evolved. Everything and anything that can be put in place to get a step closer to this image is a step in the right direction of better sleep. Till next time.

Welcome back to the ‘what the experts say’ series. These 2 minute reads give you a snapshot of what the experts are saying on the cutting edge of the health and wellness sphere.

So, today we be looking at managing those tricky blood sugars. Blood sugar, or blood glucose, is essentially the amount of sugar that the bloodstream carries to all the cells in the body to supply energy. When food (especially carbohydrates) are broken down by the body to form glucose, your body produces the hormone insulin to transport the glucose around the body for energy.

Issues occur when too much insulin is secreted due to to much glucose being produced consistently. Insulin resistance is on the far end of the scale – think diabetes. On the other end you have ‘hangry’ (hungry/angry), post meal dips in energy and foggy head.

Alrighty, first hot tip from mr primal himself, Mark Sisson. Mark has been one of the fore bearers of the paleo movement and his books give a great insight into tailoring your nutrition, workouts and lifestyle more inline with an evolutionary prospective.

So, his tip – avoid highly processed vegetable and seed oils. They promote insulin resistance by creating oxidative stress in the liver, which Mark describes as ‘the control tower’ for the whole body.

Next tip is via bio hacker website, which, as said on the tin, presents many a great bio hack. They advise apple cider vinegar for lowering blood sugar. It’s especially best to take at night as helps blood sugars balance overnight for the morning and could also help improve sleep.

Building on this last recommendation, we have a pro tip from Mr Aubrey Marcus. He’s contributed a few to this series. In a nutshell he’s the CEO of Onnit and an absolute wealth of knowledge when it comes to optimising health and well-being.

Aubrey advises to reduce blood sugars after eating and to improve digestion, try this concoction:

– 30ml apple cider vinegar

– 1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon

– 90ml room temp water

Lastly, and again from Mr Marcus, try adding soluble fibre to your high carb food to reduce the impact of on blood glucose. Think psyllium or chia seeds. This will slow the absorption of sugars into the blood system. So where you can, always use fat and fibre to delay the immediate blood sugar spike.

Alrighty, that was just about the two minute mark, please like, share and comment if this was helpful in anyway! Till next time.

Right then! Welcome back to the What Supp Blog, the one stop shop for all things performance.

Today’s post is bought via some pretty powerful insights from Mr Dr Daniel Pompa. Dr Pomp (as I’ll affectionately refer to him as) is a pretty damn knowledgeable dude in the health and wellness space. His specialty in particular however, is the use of fasting as a wholistic tool to manage your health and wellbeing.

Ok, obviously fasting as a topic could literally fill a book, (and has, I’d recommend Dr Fung’s complete guide to fasting!),I’m going to narrow it down a little hear. Well, a lot actually. This post will give 7 pretty damn good reasons that Dr Pomp recommends fasting as a remedy to cleanse your brain and manage concussions or brain injuries. It is of note though that many of the adaptations presented completely apply to your overall health, so please don’t think this is limited purely to brain health.

Now, you may well not have had any specific concussions, but you could well play a sport which head impact is a part of the game, namely any full contact sport, or could have been in a car accident for example. Or of course, you just might want to have a brain that performs at its very best. As one of the leading lights of the science behind sleep, Mathew Walker noted, the mere act of just being awake is causing continuous minor brain damage!

It’s worth noting that when we discuss fasting here, I’m referring to anything 24 plus hours. Also, when I say fast I mean purely water fast, anything that the body has to metabolise ,(coffee, herbal tea, etc), could well short change you.

This is all simpler than it sounds with a 24 hour fast being achieved most easily from, for example, fasting from after dinner from say 7pm, to 7pm the next day. To really amp up the effects highlighted below, try and hit that 36 hour mark by seeing through the day and holding out till some time after 7am the following morning (longer the better).

If, however you really want to go deep and see some powerful results, consider a 3, 5, 7 or even 10 day fast. You will likely need a period of aductation to achieve longer fasts (reasonably) comfortably if you are eating a diet high in sugar and carbohydrates.

I won’t go into huge detail here on the science behind each point, (please check the man’s website and/or podcast), but see below the 7 reasons to implement fasting post injury;

1. Promoting autophagy . This is probably one of the best known health promoting by products of fasting. Autophagy is the body’s process of ridding bad cells/bad DNA to promote new healthy cell growth. This is especially important for your brain, and especially if you’ve suffered accumulative or acute damage.

2. There is a natural occurrence of stem cells rising. The fasting triggers them to rise up and this subsequently starts the healing process.

3. Energy diversion. It takes a certain amount of energy to process and metabolise food. Fasting triggers the body’s innate intelligence to start to use this extra energy which has been saved to start the healing process.

4. Turning off bad DNA. Yes you do have the genes you have, but what turns them on and what turns them off is all primarily down to nutritional and environmental factors. In a nutshell, fasting down regulates the bad genes and up regulate your good genes.

5. Gut health. The gut is not called your second brain for nothing. Many neurotransmitters are formed in the gut as well as it being home to all your gut microbes. Fasting can cause a change to the gut michrobiame and hence fix your gut health.

6. Brain benefits from higher ketone production. Now, similar to fasting, the benefits of ketones would fill a book. You don’t however have to start a ketogenic diet to benefit as fasting is a sure fire way to kickstart your liver into producing higher ketone levels.

7. Optimise hormone levels. This one is a lil bit of a shocker as fasting can actually elevate human growth hormone, (HGH), and norepinephrine. HGH is secreted by the brain and stimulates cell growth and reproduction. It also promotes lean tissue and helps mobilize fat, (try telling that to a muscle head down the local gym). Norepinephrine increases arousal and alertness, promotes vigilance, enhances formation and retrieval of memory, and focuses attention.

Alrighty, well there you have it, 7 good reasons to get your fast on. As already stated, all 7 have far reaching beneficial effects across the board so don’t let not having a head injury, be a good reason to not fast! Till next time.