For many people CrossFit is practically synonymous with intense strenuous exercise as a concept. It is self-evident that they have mastered the art of making effortful challenging training coachable and they've been doing it for quite a while making CrossFit programming 1 of the many great options for someone starting out and wanting to tap into the biologically unique benefits of vigorous intensity exercise. My athletic background, is that of a runner not a crossfitter. However, working with a coach. I am finding it extremely valuable to add compound multi joint lifts and many other Hallmarks of CrossFit style programming to my growing repertoire, whatever type of training you do. I encourage you to find something that can engage you in a way that you find challenging and that you can commit to regularly in short. I encourage you to put in the effort and sweat.
The episode you're about to listen to is a keynote presentation. I gave at the CrossFit Health Summit in Austin, Texas last februari. There are accompanying slides on YouTube, but they are not necessary for the information as presented in this presentation. I cover why below normal cardio may be a great starting point for adding years to your life and the surprisingly simple math for adding 45 days to your life with incremental VO2 max improvements. What protocols are scientifically proven to quickly improve VO2 max and how to estimate your V2 Max in 12 minutes without a lab what it takes to reverse 20 years apart aging with exercise and also the brain and blood pressure benefits of vigorous intensity exercise how training effortfully improves focus and attention and protocols for maximizing bdnf from training including heart rate training targets and duration why this sheer stress generated by exercise kill circulating tumor cells and why reducing circulating tumor cells may play a big role in cancer survival why exercise snacks are crucial pre and post Meal Time.
How Omega-3s can prevent disuse atrophy how much protein you actually need to preserve muscle mass and why the protein RDA is too low and the flawed experiments that led to that why we should lift for aging to prevent the 8% per decade decline of muscle mass the optimal sauna parameters for the most robust health effects how infrared saunas compared to traditional saunas why hot baths can be a valid sauna alternative and why you might want to consider using a sauna after resistance training. Also we talked about whether or not extreme sauna temperatures above 200 degrees Fahrenheit have any adverse health effects as I share in this presentation 1 of the unique qualities of vigorous exercise that I so so much value is its brain effects in line with that if you're interested in a crash course on the lifestyle habits that research suggests May boost cognition and protect the brain against aging I encourage you to get my comprehensive protocol guide for cognitive enhancement you can
Find that available totally free at bdnf protocols. Once again, you can get my totally free cognitive enhancement protocol guide at bdnf protocols. You don't want to miss out on that. We cover research supported exercise strategies aspects of diet and supplementation and more protocols. I hope you enjoy my keynote presentation at CrossFit Health Summit 2024.
Hi CrossFit.
Um, yeah. So today we're going to be talking about how to maximize your health span and I'm going to focus on 3 really important lifestyle behaviors. We're going to talk about exercise. We're going to talk about the the strength of resistance training and the power of deliberate heat exposure.
That's my disclosure. So, um focusing on exercise. It's going to be really uh vigorous exercise. We're going to talk about the importance of vigorous intensity exercise going like 80% max heart rate or more. We're going to talk about the brain benefits. We're going to talk about cardiovascular benefits, um cancer a little bit exercise snacks and we're going to get into some muscle biology a little bit, uh, the importance of protein resistance training and then into deliberate heat exposure and sauna and how that can synergize with both exercise and also with resistance training. So let's start with the vigorous exercise. So cardiorespiratory Fitness is probably 1 of the most important biomarkers that we can measure via VO2 max. So maximal oxygen uptake during maximal exercise that really indicates our fitness levels, right? But it also is a probably 1 of the most important indicators of longevity and there's been studies that have shown probably the most important I would say the maximal
Benefits you get from improving your cardio respiratory Fitness go from if you're below normal and you go anywhere above that. So if you're a below normal VO2 max and you go just to normal you're getting about a 2.1 increase in life expectancy. If you go below below normal to high normal, which is about where half the population lies then you're getting a almost 3 year increase in life expectancy. And then if you go to like more of an elite level, so you're getting into like above the upper limit. That's a 5 year increase in life expectancy compared to where you were when you were below normal.
Um and about each unit increase in your VO2 max is associated with a 45 day increase in life expectancy.
And there was a really important study published in Jama Journal. This was like in 2018 and there's now been a couple of papers since then but I really liked this study because it really sort of showed that there wasn't an upper limit on the the longevity benefit of improving your VO2 max.
And so people that were in the elite group of V2 Max. So this is we're talking like the top 2.1% Those people had a 80% lower all cause mortality compared to people that were in the lower 20% or so VO2 max if you were not the elite, but like just you still are really fit you had a high VO2 max. You had great cardio respiratory Fitness.
You still had a 20% increase in um, I'll cause mortality compared to the elite athletes. Like the people that had the really good VO2 max. So there seem to really be a benefit at every level but what was so interesting about this study was that people in that low fitness group. They had a low VO2 max their risk of Death and All cause mortality was similar to having diseases like type 2 diabetes cardiovascular disease. It was similar to smoking. I mean these things that everyone focuses on these disease states that everyone focuses on and we know they're bad. They we know they decrease life quality they decrease lifespan, but what people don't focus on is how not having not being physically fit not having a good cardio respiratory Fitness is almost like having 1 of those diseases and I really think that puts it into to prospective how important VO2 max is for longevity. So, how do you improve your VO2 max? How do you improve your cardio respiratory Fitness? Well aerobic exercise is definitely 1 of the best ways to do.
that
What type of aerobic exercise I think it's pretty clear that high intensity interval training is 1 of the best ways to improve your VO2 max and particularly when you do longer intervals. Yes, you can improve your your cardio respiratory Fitness with any type of uh, aerobic exercise particularly, if you're starting from being sedentary and then going up right but there was a really important study that was published a large large population of people that showed people that are doing moderate intensity sort of Zone to like training, you know, this is the kind of exercise that is more enjoyable. You can go for a run and you can still have somewhat of a conversation your breathy. Um, those people are doing 2 and a half hours per week. They're meeting the guidelines and yet they couldn't improve their via 2 max about 40% of those people. So you're talking like half the population here until they added in some high-intensity interval training and once they like once they added in some high-intensity year old training they were able to improve their VO2 max. And so
I really think that again this highlights the importance of really trying to get your heart rate up to you know, at least 80% max heart rate or more. Um, the question is well, what kind of Protocols are best for improving VO2 max. I mentioned longer intervals, I think probably
You know, so Dr. Martin gibala does a lot of This research at McMaster University in Ontario Canada, and he has talked about, you know, 1 minute being sort of like probably the the bear like the minimal effective dose for improving VO2 max. Like at least getting in 1 doing some 1 minute intervals and repeating that 4 or 5 times, but I would I think 1 of the most evidence-based protocols if you look in the literature out there for improving cardio respiratory Fitness is the Norwegian
Go to a lab that measures the O2 max. If you don't have access to 1 of those you don't want to pay or whatever. Um, there's there's a good evidence-based way of estimating VO2 max. And that's really the 12-minute run tests or walk test depending on your Fitness level. And essentially all you need is a wearable device that tracks your distance and you run you need a flat surface because uh anything hilly will obviously you won't run as far because it's more challenging. So you need like a flat surface like a track field and you run for 12 minutes and you pace yourself you want to you want to go hard, but you want to be able to like do it the entire time. Um, and then there's an equation you can look up 12 minute run tests equation V2 Max and it's you know, the distance and this whole equation will give you a really good estimate of your V2 Max for anyone that's interested in sort of seeing how they're training affects their their VO2 max.
But I think 1 of the most convincing studies that I've seen for vigorous intensity exercise has to do with structural changes in the Aging heart. So as we age our heart undergoes structural changes, it gets smaller in size and it gets stiffer and this translates to functional, um, you know deficiencies like Exercise capacity goes down but also it increases the risk for cardiovascular disease a lot of different changes start to happen in the cardiovascular system when that occurs and so um, there was a study done at UT Southwest in Dallas by Ben lavine's group where they took 50 year olds that were
They were disease-free, but they were sedentary right so they didn't have type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but they weren't Physically Active.
And they put them on 1 or 2 2 different exercise protocols 1 that was the control group which was more like a stretching a little bit of a body weight, um training it wasn't high intensity. They weren't really getting the heart rate up a little more like yoga is type of workout and the other group did that but they also had a high intensity like vigorous exercise workout program. And this was a 2-year intervention, um study and so the first 6 months was like a progressive building up their their their their endurance and um, once they got to the 6-month part mark, uh, most of these people were doing about 4 to 5 hours a week of training and a good portion of that time was spent and what's called maximal, um, your maximal state exercise state where they they were doing like 20 to 30 minutes a day of maximal intensity exercise and not maximum intensity, but um steady state so they were able to basically maintain
The maximum amount of intensity they could for 20 or 30 minutes. So it was it was vigorous. They were going 75 80% Max Max heart rate. Um, they also did the Norwegian
Days a week about 20 to 60 Minutes of vigorous intensity exercise can improve their blood pressure similar to medications like anti anti-hypertensive medications and blood pressure is not high blood pressure is not just um, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It's now been established that it's 1 of the most important early risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer's disease. So the fact that you can comparably get these improvements in blood pressure. Um, like you would get with the pharmaceutical drug is also I think extreme, right?
So I want to shift gears just for a minute and get into um some of the brain benefits. I think probably 1 of the most convincing reasons to get your heart rate up high when I say hi. I mean 75 80% in max heart rate to do that is from brain benefits and that largely has to do with something called lactate which probably many of you are familiar with so when you force your muscles to work so hard that they they you can't get oxygen to them fast enough to make energy. They're they have to adapt right and they use glucose as energy without the mitochondria, which is generally how you're making energy and as a byproduct of that you're make you're you're turning out lactate, which was thought to be this sort of metabolic byproduct. Um, it turns out it's much more than that and so lactate gets into circulation and it's taken up by other tissues including the muscle the brain the heart liver and it's used as energy in those tissues. So it's a very energetically
Favorable source of energy. It's actually easier to make energy from lactate than from glucose. So it takes less energy to make energy from lactate than glucose. But also it acts as a signaling molecule. It's a way for your muscle your muscles to communicate with other parts of your body. Um, because you know when you're exercising it is a stress on the body and so adaptations happen right when you're when you're working your muscles hard, you can you know increase muscle hypertrophy, um, these adaptations happen cardiovascular improvements, you're getting increases in stroke volume cardio respiratory Fitness improvements. Will the brain also works really hard during exercise and so lactate is communicating with the brain. Um, and there's many benefits to having lactate go into the brain and 1 of those is that it signals to the brain to make something called brain Drive neurotrophic factor or bdnf and what this is is a growth factor that is involved increasing new neurons inside the hippocampus. Um and other regions
In the brain, but mostly the hippocampus which is an important for learning and memory um, and there's been intervention studies showing that aerobic exercise after you know older adults that do it for 2 years increase their hip campal volume by like 2%
So, um, it increases neurogenesis, but it also is important for neuroplasticity. Um, this is this is the way your brain adapts and um is able to adapt to the changing environment and still function. It plays a big role in um, depression people that are depressed have a very, uh, low level of neuroplasticity. And so they're they have a hard time adapting to the changing environment and that causes depressive symptoms.
So brain Drive neurotrophic factor is like amazing for your brain. You want more of it and high-intensity, you know exercise is the way to get more of it.
It also lactate also signals to the brain to make neurotransmitters, like norepinephrine and serotonin. These Studies have been done in humans. Um lactate again made from muscles when you're forcing your muscles to work hard when you're going high intensity crosses over the blood brain barrier and your brain is working hard during exercise. And so lactate is fueling that your brain function during exercise, but it's also increasing things like norepinephrine which is involved in focus and attention serotonin and there have been studies showing that even 10 minutes of a high intensity interval training workout can um, improve cognition improved mood. I mean, it's just really easy to get those improvements in just a short amount of time by like, you know, just getting after it pretty hard.
Some of the protocols that have shown improvements in uh, maximizing BNB bdnf, um really are intensity and duration dependents. So the harder you go 80% max heart rate for 30 to 40 minutes is 1 of the most robust ways. There's also another really good protocol. So this would be 6 minutes of high-intensity training where you do about 402 all out intervals separated by some recovery periods. That also has been shown to pretty robustly increase brain Drive neurotrophic Factor as well. So I just wanted to spend just a second talking about some of the anti- metastatic effects of a vigorous intensity exercise.
Most of us here know that exercise is 1 of the best things you can do to prevent cancer, but also as an adjunct cancer treatment many different ways that occurring but 1 interesting way that most people don't know about is through the shearing forces of your blood just blood flow. So just getting that blood flow flow to go faster by exercising by getting that exercise, um kills what are called circulating tumor cells. Um, these are these are tumor cells that have escaped a primary site of the tumor get into circulation and they go and you know, try to travel to other tissues and take Camp there and you know metastasize well circulating tumor cells are very sensitive to the mechanical forces the shearing forces of blood flow and they can't they can't handle the stress like our normal cells can and they die. Um, and so that I think that's a really interesting way to think about it because it's so it's like, oh, yeah. I need to get my blood flow up. I need to I need to get my heart rate going and my blood flow up and that is something that has an anti-static effect.
And there's studies that have shown um, you know, obviously aerobic exercise and the higher the intensity of the exercise, uh, it can reduce the amount of circulating tumor cells and people with cancer like colon cancer circulating tumor cells in people with cancer, uh is a it's it's an indicator of bad outcome. So they have a 4 times higher, uh mortality risk than people without them and uh people that engage in aerobic exercise have improved outcomes. They have better, uh reduction in disease recurrence and also in mortality.
So I want to shift gears for a minute and talk about exercise snacks.
So
we're going to talk about improving metabolic Health, but also longevity and exercise snacks.
It's kind of a broader term but it really can refer to either a deliberate sort of type of exercise that you do for 1 minute 2 minutes 3 minutes. And this is anything from burpees to squads. Um, you can do high knees you can do, you know, there's a variety of different things that you can do to to get your heart rate up really high and a short period of time and um, we're talking at least 75% max heart rate.
And their studies showing that it really there's a real metabolic benefit to even doing a minute or 2 of of this exercise snack type of exercise and that again comes down to lactate lactate, you know muscle you're forcing your muscles to work really hard lactate gets into circulation gets taken back up by the muscle and it causes glucose Transporters to come up to the muscle and sort of open the gates. So that glucose can come in and um, you know, so this really improves blood glucose levels and there's been a lot of studies looking at this particularly in people with type 2 diabetes doing exercise snacks around meal time. So anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour before after a meal can really dramatically decrease the postprandial glucose response and and improve blood glucose levels now sure that's important for people that are metabolically disregulated people with type 2 diabetes, but like who doesn't want to improve their postprandial glucose response. I mean, that's part of what makes you feel sleepy and your reduces mental clarity.
After a meal so doing timing these exercise snacks around meals is a great idea is a great and sort of easy way to improve your blood glucose levels as well and it's pretty easy to do.
um, the other way, it improves metabolic health is
These exercise snacks when you're doing a high-intensity, you know interval training sort of thing even 1 or 2 minutes, but mostly when you're going higher than that, like 10 minutes 20 minutes, uh, it's a very potent stimulus to increase the number of mitochondria in your muscle tissue. Again, it's an adaptation you are forcing your muscles to work so hard that they can't use their mitochondria because it's the again oxygen can't get there fast enough. And so they're forced to make energy another way, but your muscle smarts like oh I need to like adapt so that the next time I'm working hard I can use my mitochondria and the way it adapts is by making new mitochondria. It's called mitochondrial biogenesis and high intensity interval training is 1 of the best ways to increase mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle.
Again, lactate plays a role in that because lactate is that signaling molecule. It increases the protein called PGC 1 Alpha that regulates mitochondrial biogenesis.
Exercise snacks have also been associated with improved longevity. So there's another type of exercise snack that's a little bit more of taking advantage of like everyday situations. It's called bigger vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity. And um, these these types of exercises are like, let's say you you work on the F fourth floor of a you know, some office building. So rather than just walking up the stairs every day, which is better than taking the elevator you sprint or let's say you, you know walk to your office. Well rather than just walking interval walk or you you sprint there you you do some sort of interval where you're getting your heart rate up. So there have been multiple studies showing that doing 1 to 2 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise. So people these large studies people are wearing wearable devices and so, um researchers are getting their data their heart rate data and and able to measure something and identify people that are getting their heart rate up, right? Um, and so people that do 1 to 2 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise a day. Um, sorry 3 times a day had about a 40% reduction.
In all cause mortality. So that's dying from all like non accidental causes of death and a 50% reduction in cardiovascular related mortality, which is like the number 1 killer in most developed Nations. So this is again just 1 to 2 minutes 3 times a day where you just you you're doing those exercise snacks. It adds up. It's beneficial. Um, and and clearly it's making an effect in people's lives. And and these are these benefits were also found in people that identified themselves as non exercisers. In other words. They don't like go to the gym. They're not, you know, they're not they're not taking time to like deliberately engage in a sort of exercise routine and they still have these benefits.
So how do you implement, you know exercise snacks in your day? Why would you want to well?
There's there's there's evidence out there that just being sedentary. So like right now we're all sedentary where you're sitting with you guys are I'm not yeah, you're sitting you're sitting in your your chair or you've been in here for about what an hour or so, um that is sedentary time when you're sitting at your desk at your computer for 6 hours or whatever fill in the blank time, even though you're going to go to the gym later or maybe you went earlier that time that you're sitting is sedentary and being sedentary is an independent risk factor for cancer. Um, so there is reason to kind of break up your sedentary time with exercise snacks. And again, these would be like a deliberate sort of thing that you can do. So I think all you need to do
is
Some high knees, right? No. Um, yeah so finding something that you're going to do consistently.
That's that's really important. Right? I'm talking a lot about vigorous exercise, but it needs to be something that you're going to do consistently whatever it is.
Norwegian
I definitely like you're you're you're amazing. Um, so, you know, the the thing is to really just measure your heart rate, right? That's that's the easiest thing. Um, make it make it consistent do something you like.
All right. We're going to shift gears just for a minute and talk a little bit about muscle preservation this energy of protein intake lifting resistance training and heat exposure Peak muscle mass happens around.
between the ages of 20 and 30
and then after that, you know, so as you start to get in your 40s and 50s, you lose about 8% of muscle mass per decade. Once you get into your 70s 15% of muscle mass per decade. So most people by the time they're 70 or 80 years old only have about 60 to 80% of the muscle mass. They had when they were 30
skeletal muscle is
It is a reservoir for amino acids.
Um, so like we store, you know, we store glucose as glycogen in our liver and our muscle we store fat as triglycerides.
We don't really have a good way that we store amino acids, but we need amino acids every day amino acids, make up proteins and proteins are doing everything in our body from making neurotransmitters to making a heartbeat, you know, everything so um, unfortunately, if you don't get those amino acids from protein you're going to pull from that amazing Reservoir your muscle your skeletal muscle and so you really need to be constantly giving yourself protein to not do that. And so the question is well, how much protein do you need to give yourself to not do that?
And that's a pretty contentious. I would say, um question that people have, you know differing answers on.
So the recommended daily allowance the RDA.
Was this is set by these committees and there's lots of things involved in that but to simplify, um about you know, 40 years ago this RDA was set and it was set to be 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram body weight and that was thought to be the amount that you needed to take in every day to not to minimize. Um, the amino acid losses from muscle right to replace all your amino acids to be able to to get enough protein. Right? Well, it turns out so studies that have been done by experts like Dr. Stuart Phillips at McMaster University, uh, and others have shown
so the the way that that RDA was
40 years ago, uh set was it was in flawed. Um, in terms of like the techniques that they used they're called nitrogen balance studies. They underestimated the amino acid losses. And so here we are 40 years later scientists have more sensitive tools. We have a lot more at our disposal and they're saying no actually we redid these studies and we found it's more like 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight as the bare minimum to just basically be able to uh not be pulling amino acids from our muscle, right?
Um, and then that number goes up if you're physically active, um, it goes up to 1.6 grams per like per kilogram of body weight and then there's a you know, the elite level you can go up even further than that. But um, I think the the bottom line here is that the RDA is too low and there's a lot of scientific consensus in terms of um, you know, people that are experts in that field that are saying no we need to we need to boost that up. And another problem with that is that the RDA 40 years ago. They did these nitrogen balance studies in young adults.
Not older adults and we know that older adults again. This is data from Stu Phillips lab. Um, he's a real leader in this field, uh that older adults experience something called anabolic resistance. So their skeletal muscle is not as sensitive to amino acids to make so uh to to increase skeletal muscle protein synthesis.
So, um, you know, he's done studies where he's found that actually older adults.
You can they can um prevent their atrophy by taking in 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram body weight versus the RDA, which is 0.8. So all the more reason to increase that you know that RDA to 1.2 grass regular on body weight, you know, obviously the less muscle mass you lose the less frail you're going to be and those Studies have also been done the more muscle mass less rail less likely to you know, fall and break something fracture risk and all that so important to improve and increase that um RDA just as a quick aside because we're talking about anabolic resistance. I just want to bring omega-3 in there. So Chris mcglory, he's a Queens University, uh trained with Stu Phillips and when he was training with stew he found that high dose omega-3. So anywhere between 4 to 5 grams could basically blunt the disuse atrophy that occurs by like 50% and this was in this was in younger adults not an older adult, but it's just really it so
There's been some some subsequent studies since then and this is really a growing field. That's really in its infancy. But Chris and some other people believe that partly what's happening is Omega-3s are sensitizing skeletal muscle to amino acids. So this is independent of its anti-inflammatory effects.
Uh, and and that's also it's important to note here that the studies that they're doing. They preload people with high dose omega-3 for about 1 month because it takes about 1 month for Omega-3s to accumulate in cell membranes including in cell b your skeletal muscle cell membranes so that I think is also really an interesting thing. It's a growing field. Like I said there have been meta-analyses looking at
Muscle mass and older adults taking Omega-3 supplements and if the doses are high enough, so at least 2 G. So this is a meta analysis of multiple randomized control trials. There is an improvement in muscle mass and also in some there's some functional improvements as well. But the dose had to be at least 2 grams for doses less than that it there was really no effect. Again. You'll find conflicting data in the literature. So it really depends on the protocol that's used.
so you're talking about muscle mass, but
strength actually Fades faster with age reductions in muscle strength can happen. So in men they start to lose 3 to 4% in strength, you know as they get older women are about 2.5 to 3% and this can lead to functional issues slow walking you start to lose Independence and you get increased, you know fracture risk Frailty and then all those things sort of add up to a, you know higher risk of death. So resistance training is 1 of the best ways to not only increase muscle mass.
But also muscle strength and there have been a lot of meta analyses of study. So there's 21 different randomized control trials that were that were analyzed and they found that older adults that engaged in resistance training 1 to 3 times a week for about 8 to 18 weeks could recover strength that was basically lost over years of just being inactive. So in other words just doing you know, 8 weeks of resistance training 1 1 to 3 days write 1 to 3 days, they could recover losses and strength like from years of being inactive and sedentary and and strength is a lot easier for older adults to get that to get those gains. Um, they still can get gains in muscle mass as well. But but the the strength is something that's very encouraging as well because you know, the the functional decline is is something that's very important. And so if they can gain those strengths get those strength gains back, it's also going to improve their quality of life and also, um reduce their mortality risk. So how much do you have to lift? Um, well, this is also very encouraging for older adults again Stu Phillips pioneered the
These studies first an untrained individuals where he showed that people could lift lighter weights and get the same gains and muscle mass and strength as people lift lifting heavier. Uh, as long as the volume was like enough for long as the effort was put in and there's you know, they're they're basically getting fatigued. Um, and then Brad shanfield went on to show this also in trained people so it wasn't just a newbie effect. And now it's I think becoming a little bit more clear that you don't have to lift heavy to get gains in muscle mass and muscle strength. You can lift lighter but as long as you're putting in that effort and still get improvements in muscle mass and strength and I think that has a lot of relevance for a broader population of people not just people that are really, you know, the elite sort of bodybuilder type. We're talking our parents, right, um, our grandparents, you know, maybe people like that don't really know how to do resistance training. I don't want to injure themselves. So I I think this has a lot of um application and its really important thing to point out. Okay for the last part of my talk. I just want to talk about
deliberate heat exposure and how we're just going to focus on a couple parts of this. Um, we're going to talk about how I can synergize with what we've been talking about today cardiorespiratory Fitness muscle mass. So in engaging in deliberate heat exposure from something like a sauna or even hot tub hot bath.
There's a lot of physiological, um adaptations and effects that happen that are very similar to aerobic exercise. And those things are like increased heart rate. You're getting increased plasma volume, you're getting increased stroke volume. You are getting hot your core body temperature is elevating. So, uh, you sweat to kind of cool yourself down. There's a lot of similarities between deliberate heat exposure from the sauna and more like moderate intensity exercise. I would say, uh, your your heart rate can go up to about 1 120 beats per minute. Some people can get it up a little bit higher particularly if they go in right after a workout,
but there's been head-to-head comparisons of moderate intensity exercise and
Sauna use and it's really like the the Studies have shown they're pretty comparable. So like when you're doing the activity heart rate goes up, uh, your blood pressure goes up while you're doing the activity, but then after the activity whether it's exercise or sauna, you're getting blood pressure improvements. Your resting heart rate is improved. And so and these things are comparable so really in some way I would say do engaging in deliberate heat exposure from the sauna is mimicking the moderate intensity aerobic exercise.
And there have been observational studies and some intervention studies. We'll talk about in a second but observational studies looking at people that are and this is in Finland where sauna is a pretty ubiquitous and most people are using them. Um, so people in Finland that have a sauna are using sauna and they exercise have a better cardiorespiratory Fitness than people that exercise alone. We're talking about, you know, same volume of exercise and these people are the ones that do that but also sauna had it had a better cardio respiratory Fitness than people that only engaged in exercise and then there's been intervention Studies by uh, Dr. Yari Lakin and that have shown so he's taken. Um, he's taken an untrained people and put them on an exercise protocol it it was the stationary bike and then he had 2 groups 1 that just to the stationary bike with passive recovery. And the other ones that did the stationary bike but then they went right into the sauna for 15 minutes and and he looked at a variety of parameters 1 of them being VO2 max. So what he found was that those people that did the the
Necessary size bike and the sauna had a better V2 Max than the ones that only did the exercise bike. And to me that makes sense because again, it's almost like extending the workout. You're you're you're extending it just a little bit more. Um, there were also better improvements in blood pressure and other lipid parameters as well in the group that also added a sauna plus the the exercise. So I think there's benefits to deliberate heat exposure for people that are Physically Active but also, you know people that are not people that are disabled people that can't get on a bike people. They can't go for a run people that can't do a burpee they can get into a sauna and get somewhat of that cardiovascular benefit and there's all sorts of observational data out there looking at people that use the sauna, um, 47 times a week. They have a 50% lower cardiovascular mortality 40% lower all costs and mortality and it it goes on and on
So I think there's there's a lot of uh utility there for people that really just can't go and and work out as well. So another really important adaptation that happens when you are engaging in deliberate heat exposure for something like the sauna also a hot bath is the increase in something called heat shock proteins. And these are this is an Adaptive response. So
As you're elevating your core body temperature, you're getting hotter these heat shock proteins are activated and they are the main role that they this the main function they serve is to prevent proteins from aggregating and forming plaques in your cardiovascular system in your brain. Um, in fact, it's been multiple, uh, you know, animal studies showing that If You Give a Mouse, you know, like a AMOLED beta plaque sort of what we we get in with humans and Alzheimer's disease and you express the heat shock proteins make them highly expressed that uh, they don't get the Alzheimer's like symptoms and it it helps with the plaque, uh, Aggregates and stuff.
So he he talked proteins play an important role in preventing protein aggregation. They have somewhat of an antioxidant effect. They're also very important for slowing muscle atrophy. Uh, and this is again it has to do with a variety of mechanisms. There's been a lot of animal studies on this but there's now been some human data where people you know, there's an intervention trials where there, you know engage they basically immobilize 1 of their limbs for a period of weeks and then did some local heat exposure and the local heat exposure prevented the disuse atrophy by like 40%
So, um, you know, I think that's a very relative again a very relevant, um way for people that are injured or again people that are older and they're experiencing a lot of muscle atrophy as well. But there was also a very recent study and this is
small so it needs to be repeated but people that were engaging in resistance training.
Either just alone or then went into the sauna right after the resistance training. They had greater gains in muscle mass if they went to the sauna right after the resistance training compared to resistance training. Well, they actually it was biomarkers of it. So I they didn't directly measure a muscle mass. It was biomarkers. But but anyways, I think it's an encouraging and promising area that of course I'm excited about I'm glad people are out there researching. Um, but it's another possibility possibility for um, a Synergy between resistance training between like vigorous intensity exercise or exercise program and then engaging in deliberate heat exposure as well. So what are the parameters and a lot of these studies? Well a lot of the parameters, um, and many of these studies are coming out of Finland. The temperature is about 174 degrees Fahrenheit and the duration spent in the sauna is about 20 minutes and that's important because people that spent less than 20 minutes. Like let's say they were in there for 11 minutes. They didn't have the robust effects. Uh, so it really is a a temperature dependent Dior.
Dependent but also frequency. So how many times a week, you know, people are getting in the sauna for anything to occur 2 times a week was like the minimum effective dose of people did something twice a week. It was more beneficial than once a week, but people that did 4 times a week 4 to 7 was really the the most robust effects. So if you are looking for the most robust effect, the minimum time would be 4 times a week, you know compared to to 1 time a week. Um, the humidity is usually around 10 to 20%
And the question a lot of people ask is well, what about you know, what kind of sound what if you don't have a 175 degree sauna? What if you have an infrared sauna that goes up to 145 like is that can you get comparable effects? Um again temperature duration dependent, right? So you're not you're not going to get the same effect in 20 minutes in a 145 degrees sauna in terms of the heart rate and the cardiovascular adaptations as you're as you're going to get in 180 degree Fahrenheit on all right. So, uh, you might have to stay in there twice as long you might have to stay in their 45 minutes to an hour to start to get your heart rate up again, you can wear some kind of heart, you know wearable heart rate measure, uh device where you're looking at your heart rate and you can feel it like when it starts to go up. Sometimes it'll take a long time and an infrared sauna, there are studies out there that have compared regular Hots on us to infrared in terms of cardiovascular benefits and that if the same volume of time is spent in there, you're not going to get as as robust of an effect on blood pressure improvements as you would with a regular sauna. So again, you might have to spend more time in there as well.
Hot baths have also been shown to increase some of these biomarkers like heat shock proteins that sauna has and I really think that's a really a good um, you know, the fact that it's able to increase some of the same biomarkers to me signals that may be hot baths or any sort of modality. That's really increasing your heart rate. That's making you hot is something that's going to be beneficial as well.
So I do think that people that don't have access to a sauna could do a hot bath get 1 of those little uh, pool devices that measure temperature put on your back and keep it up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit and being there for 20 minutes because that's what the city has shown 20 minutes at 10:04 shoulders submerged all the way down.
So that's it for today, uh, 3 powerful habits that I think will help.
Delay, the aging process that will improve healthspan. We have vigorous intensity exercise find a way to make it frequent. Do those exercise snacks. They're so easy incorporate resistance training protein intake thinking about that protein intake is a lot of work and then and deliver engaging and deliberate heat exposure. Whichever way you like I prefer to do it after a workout, but I also like to do it at night as well. So, um, that's that's that's what I have for you today. I hope you guys enjoyed it and thank you so much.
Okay, we're going to take some questions for um Brian if anybody has what there are lots of pans up. Woohoo. Thank you. Um, I had a question about the Omega-3s you mentioned a minimum of 2 optimal 4 to 5, is that total Omega-3s or is that specific DHA or what Omega-3s? Yes. So, um, the question is like what type of Omega-3 is involved and then disused atrophy study coming out of Dr. Chris. Miglo at um, Queens University. Uh, so it was the marine forms of Omega-3. So it was EPA and DHA. I don't know off the top of my head of the ratio, but they were pretty similar. Um, if I were to interject my own thoughts here, I think
A large part of it has to do with DHA which is what's mostly accumulating in the cell membranes a lot more than EPA is the EPA is a little bit accumulating every DHA is heavily accumulating in many different cell membranes including in skeletal muscle. So I and I've talked to Chris about this. I was like I really going hard on DHA is something that you might want to consider in the future just because it's you know, it's it seems as though the importance of the you know, preventing the disease atrophy by via sensitizing skeletal muscle to amino acids from whatever way it's doing it Chris thinks mitochondrial ways and possibly transport. It's not known um that that basically, uh, you know, getting getting that high dose and again it needs to it takes about 4 weeks for the DHA to accumulate in the skeletal muscle. So it's not it's not like the anti-inflammatory effect of Omega-3 which is like instant, right? So it's a little bit different.
Do you have a question?
But um, I took away here.
Do you like live through research is like more is better and I understand that there's also some research around, um cardiovascular injury from like endurance athletes and intense intense sport. I'm just curious if you have seen any of that or or offer any kind of cautionary around around those kinds of conclusions.
That's a great question. Um, and I'm gonna defer to some of the experts on that where like Dr. Ben LaVine. Um, I think
he is far as I've I've heard from him is yes, like when you get to this like elite elite athlete endurance athlete level. I mean there some of the increased risks to to do with like coronary calcification, whatever the you know, the increased risks of that outcome are are actually even lower even if the card coronary calcification is a little bit higher. Do you know what I mean? So it's like their card their risk of cardiovascular death is still lower, um than people are normal like, you know committed exercisers. So, uh, but yeah, I I'd say that's that's not my area of expertise, but that's kind of the takeaway that I've gotten so far from experts.
we have 1
a question about the uh, Finnish Sauna versus the infrared saunas, um is the mechanism that uh, they're providing benefit, uh, just because of the the temperature and the increased heart rate. Um, is that what makes Finnish better than infrared and then correlated to that? Um, you mentioned like 174 degrees is being a temperature. Um, what if it's like 200 or 220, does that make it better or worse or is 174 kind of a sweet spot.
Those are great questions. All right. So um to First address the the mechanisms and is is is the beneficial effect of deliberate heat exposure that I've talked about today, uh due to the increased heart rate, you know, the the the mimicking of I would say moderate intensity exercise. I think a lot of it comes down to that the the improvements in cardio and respiratory Fitness and cardiovascular improvements. Um, also the heat shock proteins as well. So, um the heat shock proteins are playing a role in the muscle, they're playing a role in the immune system and they're also playing your role in the brain. So people that use Finnish saunas 4 to 7 times a week at those temperature, you know parameters that I mentioned have about a 66% reduction in dementia risk. Um, Alzheimer's disease risk. So yeah, I do think there is it really does come down to elevating the core body temperature and getting that heart rate up and and and being being physically uncomfortable like you are when you're exercising, um infrared saunas do work a little bit different. They're they're moving molecules in your body and uh heating you up a different way there.
Is evidence coming out of Dr. Ashley Mason's Lab at UCSF? Um who I've been collaborating with showing that a very rigorous infrared sauna protocol. It's like a heat bed where your head out and these people are they're they're used it's using infrared, um, you know heat to into a fever state. So they're getting to like 101.3% you know, in some cases over an hour 50 minutes over an hour and it's a very intense protocol that most people doing Infrareds on Art doing so I do think there is a rule for infrared sauna. But again, it's like you just like getting getting to that point where you're getting the heart rate up and getting all those those benefits. It takes a lot longer. Um, and then the other question is well, what about is more better? Um, so here here I'll give you my take and I'll tell you about 1 Study. Um, I think that when it comes to the the we're stressing our body and this kind of goes back to the this this latest question as well, I mean,
Heat stress is a stress. Right? I mean hypothermia is a real thing like you can get damaged from too much heat.
So, um, it's important to keep in mind that there's always like a window of you're you're you're engaging in this this kind of stressful activity like physical activity or Del deliberate heat exposure to have this, you know response. Um, it's it's an adaptation is some people call it a hormetic response, um to you know, have the anti-inflammatory benefits the antioxidant benefits all the adaptations that happen, but when you make that stress too high, then it's hard to counter that stress with our adaptations, right? So, um when you're going in a 200 degree Fahrenheit on or to 15 or whatever.
It is very hot. And there are studies animal studies and stuff. Like when you get too hot you can actually permeabilize the blood the blood brain barrier. Um, and so I know it's like there's this go hard and there's always this push like and if you're that kind of person you're like, well I give him my all um, there's there's 1 study. This was not at a doctor Yari lakin's lab it was another study. I can't remember if it was Poland, uh might have still been Finland. It was Finland or Poland but um, they were looking at a variety of temperatures and dementia risk and Alzheimer's disease risk, um, and people that use the sauna and it was it repeated what Dr. Lacan had found. So people that use the sauna frequently, uh had a much lower risk of dementia Alzheimer's disease, but only if they weren't getting in a a sauna that was over 200 degrees Fahrenheit if they were getting in a sauna that was over 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
They were actually having the opposite effect and I don't talk about that a lot because it's not really understood why and I don't want to like people to get scared but I do think it kind of highlights the role of like, why do you need to go in a 215 degree? Like have you it's it's it's so hot, you know, and your brain is in there like so I I don't think that going in a 200 degree Fahrenheit. Zona is the way you have to do it. I think you can get in 180 185 if you really want to go 190. Yeah, like but maybe stop before I get to 200 to be fair and right so
well
Yeah, so the question is was is 174 degree Fahrenheit The Sweet Spot. That is the average temperature that people in those studies were using and um, I I typically do around 1751 180 and I do I do put water on the rocks to make Steam which makes it hotter and I usually do it after workout. So I'm already hot. I'm already I already have my my heart rate elevated. So um, yeah, I mean doing doing 30 minutes at 175 degrees Fahrenheit is nice. I think it's safer for the brain and then you're getting a lot of the benefits Studies have shown that 30 minutes at 163 degrees Fahrenheit increases heat shock proteins by 50% over Baseline. So I don't know that you have to go to 200 degrees and I don't know that you should um to be honest.
Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you.
A big thanks to CrossFit for the invitation to speak at this event and a big thank you for listening. Don't forget to explore the valuable resource. I've mentioned for enhancing your cognitive abilities the cognitive enhancement protocol guide available at no charge on bdnf protocols cam. This guide Dives deep into exercises that elevate bdnf levels and improve cognitive functions offering you actionable steps based on solid scientific foundations in it. You'll not only find a key to unlocking bdf's potential for Neural Health, but also get a glimpse into my own personal protocols. I've adopted or I'm exploring for my own cognitive enhancement if elevating. Your brain's performance is your goal. This guide serves as an indispensable tool head over to bdnf protocols calm now to get your road map to cognitive enhancement and a lifelong neural resilience. Thank you for tuning in and I'll talk to you soon.
