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Tyson Popplestone is a Comedian from Melbourne Australia. Join him for a brand new interview each week.
ap:
And what are some of the topics that you wanna cover? You just wanna keep it conversational.
Tyson:
Man, I was fairly conversational, which I was glad when I saw your message, you said you were similar to that. Obviously health is a really big subject, it's really broadened. I was keen to pick your brains on a couple of things. I feel as though I got a feeling the conversation is gonna flow pretty nicely, because
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
a lot of what you're about, I'm about, from what I can tell. So if there's any rifts or any random tangents we go down, just follow it. It's a fairly relaxed kind of a style. I've got the
ap:
Sick.
Tyson:
idea, like let's use health as the umbrella. And, uh,
ap:
Okay.
Tyson:
and, and man, I'm sure you and I for an hour can, can kill a conversation on health.
ap:
Let's do it.
Tyson:
No brother. Actually, I'm saying that it's probably a really good place to start because health has been a little bit of a foundation on this podcast, probably for at least the last 10 or 15 episodes. We seem to have hit a theme, whether it's mindset or nutrition or exercise programs. It's interesting to hear how people who speak about health refer to health. So as a bit of a launch pad for the conversation, man. I thought for the world that you're in, that's a big part of the conversation. But
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
when you speak about health and optimizing health, what is it you're actually referring to?
ap:
That's a great question. I think when it comes to optimal health, the definition that I tend to give is a combination of doing what we can in the modern day to live a biologically consistent lifestyle, meaning trying to replicate what we would otherwise get as human beings in nature, but in the modern day, and then taking it a step further, considering the unique context and goals of the individual to really cater that process to them. That's how I would describe optimal health from an umbrella perspective. Obviously for different people, it means totally different things, and I'm a big believer in testing and using data as a means to provide a backbone for that process. So what I always tell people is, look, I wanna work with you to reveal and unleash your greatest potential and really develop a sort of timeline or a guideline with calculated steps to get there. And a lot of people approach me for the more Sorry, one sec. Buen
Tyson:
Yeah.
ap:
buen So I'm at my grandparents place right now visiting. So that's not gonna be an issue anymore. We can edit this part out.
Tyson:
Yeah, for sure.
ap:
So what I was saying was, yeah, you know, I work with a lot of data. I like setting up a sort of guideline and a timeline for people so that they can take a calculated approach to get where they wanna be. And a lot of people will approach me first and foremost for some of the more you know, in a way I would say relatively superficial goals, like they want to improve their body composition. They want to, I don't know, lose weight, get stronger, get faster. A lot of people that approach me now, I think they are people are starting to see that my approach is a little more integrative. I work with a number of professionals on my team, you know, have all kinds of doctors, all kinds of specialists. And I'm the guy that kind of holds your hand through that process while collaborating with the best in the world, helping you discover the purpose of your health journey and helping you kind of see and feel that this is more spiritual than anything else. Like I really like to get to the root of why people are doing what they do. And the byproduct naturally is that they look the best they've ever looked, they feel the best they've ever felt, but they're also accomplishing everything that they've ever set out to accomplish. And beyond that, you know, in different areas of their life, like their relationships are better, their performance at work, where they have completely shifted. Like I've helped people in their, like that are middle aged, in their 40s, 50s, do complete 180 shifts in their careers and in their lives because they've realized that they had a potential that they never really had the chance to reveal. And so a lot of this is an ability to kind of provide that scientific backbone that kind of opens people up to the idea that things can and should change and then helping them just completely change their lives and bring them in a direction that is oriented towards, in a way you can call it self-actualization. Like I think self-actualization has a lot to do and it's very similar. closely parallels, if this isn't already redundant, optimal health.
Tyson:
Yeah, that's really good point. I love the approach that you take and I love the way you speak about it because Health is such a broad conversation and you touched on it that depending on who you speak to Is going to dictate what they mean for a lot of people a lot of my friends when they refer to health They simply referring to the fact they don't have a cold or they don't have a flu and for them That's enough just to be able to get through the day like that But as you say it's interesting as you even if you come into the conversation with some superficial goals Which is nothing wrong with that the body look a bit better. Once you start to get a little bit of traction, once you start to get that ball rolling, you start to look a little bit deeper. I think I'm a classic example of this. I've always been interested in health and fitness, but I was interested from a distance running perspective. That's my background. So health was all about, all right, how do I get the most out of my body on the racetrack on race day? And you take a step back from that and you go, okay, well, it's not just about the running training, it's about the recovery, it's about the nutrition. It's about the clothes, it's about the mindset. And I think the answer that you just gave, it touches on all those things. Health, you realise really quickly is quite a broad perspective. But the one thing I'm really interested in specifically in regards to you is you take a very scientific approach to the way that you measure health and the way that you guide people in their health, which I like because. in the world of sort of mindset and health coaching, there's a, if you're not already aware, there's a lot of woo woo, like there's a lot of wank, there's a lot of talk, there's a lot of people saying a lot of stuff without too much to really back it up. So looking through your stuff, what I appreciate is you go, okay, I'm not only going to tell you things, I'm going to support it with research and data to give you not only more confidence, but a little bit more clarity on what we're trying to achieve. So. I was hoping that you might be able to unpack that a little bit. When you're referring to the science behind what it is that you do, what is it that the science does? What research are you looking at? I guess that's quite a broad question, but feel free to take that where you best think.
ap:
Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. And right before I get there, I want to say that absolutely there's no, there's nothing wrong with wanting these and I think superficial is a is a is a maybe the wrong word to use here. But it's like, it's like, I would say it's the bottom tier of what people are actually looking for. Because I think that if you look at health as just the way you look, and the number on the scale, you're getting so many things wrong. And I think the effort is honestly going to be even greater if you're looking at health that way, because you're gonna completely dismiss. the rest of your life as influencing your health. And ultimately now you're going against the grain. So it's like, imagine if you are living a lifestyle that in almost every category rewards you with more energy, with better recovery, with better feelings and emotions. Like all of a sudden, anything that you do in the name of improving yourself is gonna be so much easier. So that's the way that I see it. And so I think a lot of people, maybe they approach me for that reason, or maybe that's how they're initially introduced to health. That's naturally what they first see. and what gets them interested in health. But I think a real, a genuine transformation and a real health journey is about realizing that everything in your life is related to your health. And how I use science as a backbone to guide someone along that process, it's a number of different ways. So if you look, for example, on my, I have two websites, I have my personal website and I have the knowyourphysio.org website, which is my organization. If you look at that website and you go to the Learn page, you're going to see articles in different topics like sleep, for example, or HRV, or testosterone that are all backed by the best and latest science. And by latest, I don't mean like, all right, we're getting the, we're cherry picking what we think is the best and is agreeing with their bias. I mean, there's always going to be a certain level of bias, but it's not like the best and latest meaning like what's the newest and most cutting edge. We're also looking at what's the most established and the most scientifically sound. So we really look at, you know, getting systematic reviews. randomized control trials when we make any kind of these points. And a lot of the articles that are there are actually based off of some of the expert conversations that I have on my show, when I bring all kinds of thought leaders and experts in the field on and I make their science more accessible, more actionable. But then we actually go in and we fact check some of these key points and we provide the supporting research. So if you go there, that's one example of how you can start to think about your sleep, your nervous system function, your hormones. from a more scientifically sound perspective. And for those of, for the folks that kind of want to digest what would otherwise be a 60 to 90 minute conversation, they can do so now in five to 10 minutes by reading the article, you can actually scroll all the way down to the bottom of the article. You're gonna see two things. You're gonna see just the actionable steps. If you go, okay, I think I trust this guy. I think I trust this organization. I just want to get the action items that I can implement immediately. Just scroll down. You can literally see things you can start doing immediately. And then the second part, is all the scientific references. We take those very seriously. I think we spend more time doing the science justice than we do making it accessible, even though we're striving always to find the perfect balance between the two. We want them to be there in harmony. So I have an incredible team. I have a registered nurse. Her name is Oriole Kamen. She's absolutely amazing. She's based out of Pennsylvania. She's visiting me this Friday. We're gonna spend the whole day together. She's the best super creative writer, incredible scientist. She's like the stickler on my team that tells me, no, Andres, I know. that you like to talk about all the cool, fancy biohacks, the new stuff, but this is what the research says. Like she kind of puts things in perspective in that sense. I think it's important to have people on your team that have these unique perspectives. And then I have Stefan Wenning, who's out of Germany. He's finishing up his master's in biochemistry. He's an exercise physiologist. He's another one of my writers and co-founders. And he's also, you know, a stickler for structure, for data, for the science. I would say I can maybe be more of like the... I don't know, in a way like the unicorn that is like up in the air sometimes like, oh my God, the spirituality behind this process of becoming amazing. And it's like, they're like, all right, Andres, but we stand for the science. Like you've got to come back down to earth and we have to work together on this. So I think in a way I can be the guy that maybe motivates and inspires people and shows them what's possible and really is there to guide them along the journey. But then, like I said, I have these people on my team. Then I have a whole medical board that I work with now who are top doctors. So my business partner, He's twice my age. He's a Harvard MD radiologist, one of the best in the world. And a long time ago, we started a, say a long time ago, but I'm a young guy. So like five, six years ago, we started a program for weight loss based in science that helps people understand the language of their hunger hormones. So we're not saying that you need to optimize your hormones to lose weight, but we're showing you the relationship between your lifestyle habits and the response that you have in hunger and how to manage your cravings. via lifestyle change. So it kind of pairs nicely with a lot of what we're seeing now with like DLP-1 agonists and these new modern classes of weight loss medication, weight loss drugs, like semaglutide, Wigovie, Ozempic, et cetera. And then when I'm working with someone on one-on-one, I do have them test regularly. So they get blood tests, they get genetic testing, they get food sensitivity and gut testing. And my team interprets that and relays the information to me. They also meet regularly with my clients. But I'm also looking at biometric like wearable data. So I have, you know, clinical grade wearable devices. I'm looking at people's trends on a daily basis. So I use everything from like a whoop to an aura. I've used, you know, bio strap in the past, cardio mood, polar devices, Garmin, but really primarily what I'm working with right now is aura and whoop. Those are really scientifically sound. They have a great user interface. Some of the other devices that I'll use are more like They're more on like the, you have to be more like a physiologist to like, you know, really understand and relay the information. I really want to have the perfect blend between getting a lot of information on the backend, but also having a user facing app that the client actually likes to use and enjoys logging their stuff with. So yeah, it's a perfect, well, not, not always perfect, but it's a blend between the daily biometric scores and the weekly trends with regular testing and then always, you know, working with my team to stay up to date to make sure that everything that we stand for and everything that we approach is like scientifically sound and also combining that with the expert guests that have on the show who have their own teams and their own passion for understanding what's the best, what's the latest and what do people need to know about their physiology? So yeah, that's a long
Tyson:
Yeah,
ap:
winded answer to your question,
Tyson:
no,
ap:
but
Tyson:
it's
ap:
I think
Tyson:
a
ap:
that's
Tyson:
great
ap:
kind
Tyson:
answer
ap:
of
Tyson:
man, it's a great
ap:
a scope
Tyson:
answer
ap:
of
Tyson:
there's
ap:
what we
Tyson:
a
ap:
do and how we do it.
Tyson:
No, it was a awesome answer One thing I like that you said and actually reminds me a lot of myself and your nurse plays the role of my wife In my life. I'm the kind of guy. I
ap:
Ha
Tyson:
think I'm
ap:
ha.
Tyson:
like you I'm that big picture person I come out and I go babe. We're taking the family around the world. She goes Ty sit down We've got to find out the flight prices. Like what's the
ap:
Oh
Tyson:
best
ap:
my gosh.
Tyson:
route? I go, don't worry about it. Let's just get there. She goes, hey, well, we've got no place to stay. So she's that person and we work together as a team. Well, based on the fact that my old throw the vision, but she does the practical steps. If you get me to do the practical steps, the whole thing falls apart. It's
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
a little power team. But I had a guest on here a couple of weeks ago and I've heard more and more frequently. about the aura ring and it's something that I'm really interested in because I've had a lot of experience. I still run with a Garmin. I'm not looking so much at heart rate as much as I'm looking at distance and pace. I just like it and I like to post it on Strava to get a little bit of love for the runs
ap:
Oh my gosh
Tyson:
that
ap:
Strava. Strava's fun.
Tyson:
I'm doing. But in terms of what you like about the aura ring and you mentioned that you get really up and about the bio hacks and I'm really interested in that and I'm keen to delve into that with you next. But before
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
we do, tell us a little bit about the Aura Ring. What is the data that you're looking at there and why is it that that's been really helpful for clients of yours who are trying to optimise their health?
ap:
Yeah, yeah, great question. I would say that right now, my two favorite devices, I mean, I have to say three because it just really depends on the use case. My top three devices in no specific order are Whoop, Aura, and CardioMood. And those vary in terms of the complexity of the app and the complexity of the data, but they're all really good devices. So when I work with someone that is like obsessed with data, like they don't care about the user experience, I mean. because it's a relatively new company. So I don't want to completely shit on their user experience, the UI, but cardio mood is definitely more data heavy. And if you're just like the average person, you're not even going to go on the app because you're like, I don't even know what any of this means. You'll see the basics, but like to really get the value out of that, you want to have someone that knows what they're doing to kind of guide you through. Whoop is, I would say somewhere in the middle, has a lot of data. There's so many different things that you can do in the app. Honestly, sometimes I think it's overwhelming. So if you get like, your average health nut, that's a really good kind of compromise between data complexity and UI. Then if you want something that really offers everything and is super, super clinical grade, it's an incredible device. Honestly, probably the funnest platform to be on, I would say Aura. The metrics that I'm looking at, it's like if I'm working with an athlete like yourself, I would rather have them wearing a garment and a chest monitor to see what their heart rate looks like during activity because if you have something on your wrist or on your finger, you're not going to get very high fidelity data. It's very difficult to get those metrics just with your finger or your wrist. Things move around, they slide. It's not the best. Heart rate monitor is the best in that case. But primarily what I'm looking at, there's a couple of metrics. So I'm looking at all kinds of sleep metrics that I'll get into. And I'm really, really big on HRV heart rate variability, which is a measure of your autonomic nervous system function. So it's really in a way like how you handle the stress in your environment and your ability to adapt to, um, have, you know, if you look at, you want me to dive into heart rate variability, I can do that.
Tyson:
Please man, it was
ap:
I can
Tyson:
gonna
ap:
absolutely
Tyson:
be my
ap:
do
Tyson:
follow-up
ap:
it.
Tyson:
question
ap:
All right, cool. So I'll actually give you an analogy that I think will help a lot of folks tuning in to make sense of HRV. So. First of all, HRV, before I get to the analogy, HRV literally is the variability in milliseconds between your heartbeats. So if you take like an average resting heart rate, like 60 beats per minute, you're assuming then that it's like one beat per second. But there's actually a small amount of statistical variability between those heartbeats that reflects your nervous system function, because as you inhale, every time we inhale, we actually accelerate our heart rate slightly. We put this in a bit of a sympathetic state of your body. wants to use up oxygen. And then as we exhale, we have more parasympathetic activity. So our heart rate will kind of slow down slightly. So maybe the one second, one beat per second is the average, but there's a small amount of variability. And that really reflects what the nervous system is doing. The more variability that you have, which doesn't change the average, but the more variability that you have, typically the better and the more adapted your nervous system is to meet the ever changing demands of the environment. So the analogy goes like this. Imagine if you have a yogi, okay, in a lotus pose. So, you know, legs crossed, hands at the heart center, eyes closed, deep meditative state. And all of a sudden, a lion appears. And the yogi has to like snap out of it and run away, like start running immediately to save his life. All of a sudden, these zookeepers come and they get the lion and they put it away in this cage. And now the yogi is asked to return to this meditative state. So someone that has very, very high HRV, which is again, the measure of the nervous system function. So someone that has really, really good nervous system function can really effectively manage that stress. So they can immediately run away. And then as soon as the stressor's gone, they can effectively return to that baseline with ease. Someone with very poor HRV, they're very bad at managing stress. They become overwhelmed. They don't know how to make decisions. They kind of freeze. They don't really take action when that stress happens. And even if the stress is gone, even when the stress is gone, they're still like stressed out about it. They're still hanging onto it. And I'm sure as I take you through this, a lot of people can kind of think back and reflect on either themselves or people that they know that kind of experience either one or the other end of the spectrum. And it is a spectrum indeed. And it's actually a way to train that. And you can measure that through HRV. So that's in a nutshell, HRV. You know, the different ways that you can improve HRV, is by- making it a consistent theme in your life to add in hormetic stressors such as things like exercise as a hormetic stressor, which I can define in a second, cold exposure, fasting. What do all these things have in common? Even like sauna or like extreme heat exposure as well. What do these things have in common? These are all environments where you have relative control over the chaos and you can kind of dial that to your... standard, right? So you can choose the level of stress that you wanna engage in. And in that process, you get to practice your ability to manage that stress. So it's like a safe way to practice your stress response. So like, if you, for example, take a cold shower, like most people hate the idea of taking a cold shower, but like, you can just put it back on hot water, step out of the shower, like you have so much control. Most of the stress that we engage in on a day-to-day basis, we have no control over. And so if you can effectively, in small doses, Practice this stress response and over time build it up. Then it's a hormetic stressor. It's a form of eustress It's stress that is designed to make you stronger Now what's the problem is a lot of people they start to see you know the ice baths on Instagram in the sauna for 30 minutes that Joe Rogan does on that like 200 degrees and The successive exercise and they think that that's gonna make them healthier But in fact if they're not recovering properly if they're not getting enough sleep if they're not managing stress properly They're not managing their breathing properly, which is huge and I'll get into that because it's the most accessible way to influence your physiology, I'll get to that in a second, then you're doing more harm than good. So with a lot of my clients, I really focus on HRV because I want them to improve their ability to tolerate stress. I want them to improve their decision-making in stress. I want them to improve their performance in stress. And I know that if I help them create the right lifestyle and the right habits, the right systems, then they're gonna be more energized. They're gonna be more fulfilled. They're gonna be happier. They're gonna be achieving things beyond they could ever imagine. So it's a great way to kind of see that trend. And another thing to take it a step further is based on the daily and weekly trends, I can help people make decisions about what kind of exercise they're gonna do, the duration, the intensity, and essentially what they can afford, the level of hormonic stress they can afford according to the recovery that they're getting and whatever's happening in their life. So that's where it really gets super nitpicky and where in a way you can say I'm micromanaging their health, but again, I have a lot of clients who aren't just trying to get healthy. They're trying to achieve insane levels of performance. And this isn't a brag or anything, it's just to show you the kind of people that I work with and why this is useful. I'm working with some of the finalists for the World Series of Poker. I just had a guy that got second place at the biggest race in the world, the Le Mans 24-hour race. I'm working with one of the top five best tennis players, female tennis players in the world right now. I've worked with all kinds of billionaires, Fortune 100 companies, venture capital CEOs. one of the, believe it or not, one of the founding members of, well, board members of Airbnb. I've got guys and gals that are really at their peak and they want to either take it a step further or they've reached the point where performing at such a high level, it kind of, in a way, takes away from other areas of their life that they don't want to continue to sacrifice. So maybe they're performing that high or they're getting to that level at a cost. And there's always a cost, right? And so they want to improve their health. They want to improve their performance, either increase it or maintain it while simultaneously investing in these other areas of their life, having more time, having more joy, more fulfillment, more health. So in a nutshell, that's what I do. That's how I do it. That's why I use HRV. Sleep, I mean, we can go crazy with sleep, right? Like I look at sleep efficiency primarily. So of the hours that you get, are they really working for you? What's the quality of those hours? Um, which is huge, you know, it's, it's a lot of simple saying, all right, you need to get seven to nine hours of sleep. It's like, all right, with the hours that you can afford tonight, what's the best, what's, how can you get the most out of every single hour that you put in? And there's a number of, you wouldn't believe the amount of strategies. Breathwork tends to be like one of the best and most accessible ways. It's literally the most accessible way to influence your physiology. Like right now, for example, I have to be mindful of all the talking that I'm doing because I'm constantly mouth breathing. since I'm speaking and that's putting me in a more sympathetic state, a more activated state. So I'm using more oxygen. I have my heart rate at a higher level. I have my cortisol at a higher level. Every time that you're talking and I'm listening, I'm just nasal breathing. I'm pausing slightly between inhale and exhale. I'm spending about twice as long exhaling versus inhaling. I'm breathing into my face with my diaphragm rather than up into the nose or with my mouth and seeing a rise and fall in my shoulders and in my upper chest. And these are all very, very small. cues that make a big difference because they help your body relax immediately. And the biggest changes that I've seen in my clients, like quality of life and sleep, I mean, I can say it's always the biggest, but especially with sleep, one of the biggest things that's so easily dismissed, so it's so often overlooked, is the breathing. Like how are you breathing, either in anticipation for stress, or during stress, or even after stress? You can immediately change your breathing to... feel better and manage stress and improve your HRV. I've done a number of podcasts on that with all kinds of experts, Patrick McKeown, the author of The Oxygen Advantage, a number of his disciples and students, I mean all kinds of amazing people. So there you
Tyson:
Man,
ap:
have it.
Tyson:
I'm real. Nah, the nasal breathing's one that I'm really fascinated by. There's so much in what you just said that I'd love to unpack with you. I think we're gonna have to do a number of podcasts to get through all
ap:
Yeah
Tyson:
of it, but I mean, I feel every one of these things that you mentioned is a podcast in itself, but I'm really familiar with Patrick McCowen, I had him on my
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
running podcast that I told you about.
ap:
Oh, no way. That
Tyson:
Yeah,
ap:
guy's a
Tyson:
man,
ap:
legend.
Tyson:
James,
ap:
That guy's a living legend.
Tyson:
he's a living legend. James Nestor as well,
ap:
Oh yeah,
Tyson:
who's
ap:
I haven't
Tyson:
the
ap:
had
Tyson:
author
ap:
James
Tyson:
of
ap:
on
Tyson:
Breath.
ap:
yet. Yeah.
Tyson:
Unreal guy. And both of them, I was listening to for health, but I was also fascinated because I coach a number of middle distance runners. And I was just curious about the way that nasal breathing could be of benefit to these particular athletes. And... That was my introduction. I think my introduction to breath work in general, like a lot of people, was just being exposed to the great man Wim Hof and hearing what he said
ap:
Mm.
Tyson:
about the power of breath. And just due to how engaging he was and how funny he was that he shared the message,
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
I went down that rabbit hole. But I had a number of sinus surgeries growing up. I had two sinus surgeries. I was getting ready for a third. The long
ap:
Wow.
Tyson:
story short is, it turned out I had an allergy to dairy or I was just having way too much dairy. I cut that
ap:
Oh
Tyson:
out
ap:
yeah.
Tyson:
of my life and never had to have that third sinus surgery. And now,
ap:
Wow.
Tyson:
as taught by Patrick McCown and James Nestor, I'll often sleep with my mouth taped up trying to tape, trying to train those nasal passages and trying to, I do it more for, I don't know if you would say the health benefits. Why did I start doing it? I think I was curious just to see how beneficial it was to the actual. Nasal structure if I take my mouth
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
shut Patrick McCown explains that pretty much your sinus tissue It's like your ab muscle with training. It can become a little bit more strength and not so floppy You're not gonna snore
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
you're gonna breathe more clearly I've got quite a narrow nose So I started to do that quite a lot But I also notice outside of all of that to touch on and to go back to what you said Whenever I'm stressed and I'm actually aware of my breath and what I'm doing with it. There's always a much more thing going on. So it seems as though breath work, it's become a really popular topic and rightly so because people have realised how much control they have over their mental state, their physical state when they actually become conscious of it. So with that and to dig into this one a little bit more, what are some practical breath work strategies or breathing strategies that people who aren't necessarily training to be world-class athlete, they just might be under the pump at home or at work or feeling the stress in traffic? What are some helpful ones that you recommend that people can tap into?
ap:
Yeah, that's a great question. And what I'll say, as far as the benefits of like mouth taping, you do a couple of things. Like you definitely dilate the sinuses because you have more of the nitric oxide, it's a vasodilator, but it really helps dilate the sinuses and that's anti-material, anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, like that stuff is really good at filtering the air. So automatically, if you have more filtered cleaner air, you're putting yourself in a more parasympathetic and more relaxed, stress-free state. You're also over time, it's difficult to nasal breathing if you're not used to it, especially like when you're sleeping or trying to go to sleep or when you're exercising because it's a slower way to breathe and a lot of people don't have that high tolerance to CO2, which is acidic. So we use oxygen and we convert it to CO2 and we see this buildup in CO2, we get the urge to breathe. That's really what drives the urge to breathe. It's not so much being low in oxygen, it's more so accumulating CO2. And so nasal breathing, it takes more time to offload that CO2. So when you first start doing these strategies, it's gonna feel uncomfortable. You're gonna have this air hunger as Patrick McKeown describes, but that's something that you'll overcome within a few days or weeks. And automatically you're gonna have everything from like a higher lactate threshold to so you can go harder for longer to even an increased VO2 max. You will increase your HRV. You know, you have all these amazing performance benefits and yeah, like I work with a lot of these elite performers. Some of them are mental, some of them are physical, some of them are both. But I'm really passionate about making this accessible to everyone. Like I have the pleasure of working with these people. Whenever I work with them, all the time, I'm always thinking and wishing that more people had access to this information because that's exactly why I felt along my fitness journey. I got into this because, and I don't want to go too far down the tribal hole, but I got into this because I needed to improve my health. And I went to study physiology, psychology and nutrition, and I'm doing a master's in neuroscience. And I would go into every single class and I would learn things about my body that I was almost offended that I had to be in class for. Like I learned things about my body that I think everyone should know. And through the podcast and all the content that I make, I hope to make it more accessible because it's what I wish I had even earlier on in my journey. So I'm always thinking about that with these clients and yeah, what I can recommend right now for the folks tuning in, notice how you're breathing. Like no matter what you're doing right now. Notice how you're breathing, you know, bring that awareness to your body. Are you using your nose or are you using your mouth? You know, like you said, you had to have multiple surgeries. And by the way, I noticed that dairy also leads to a lot of this like mucus buildup in my sinuses. I didn't really realize that until I got really into spear fishing and free diving because you have to have super clear sinuses to equalize. And the days that I had dairy, I just, I couldn't even hold my breath for like a minute. And my breath hold with training has gone up to five minutes. So it's like, I, it made a massive impact. Um, so I, you know, I'd still have dairy, but I typically have dairy that's lower in lactose. So like Parmesan cheese, for example, or Greek yogurt, if I have whey protein, it's always whey isolate. Um, so all of these are like virtually lactose free, uh, or very, very low lactose because like the Greek yogurt it's fermented, um, so anyway, like that's helped a lot, surrounding dives. I don't eat any dairy at all. And, um, Anyway, going back to what people can do, notice how you're breathing. Nasal breathing is your best friend. Try to nasal breathe as much as you can. Start by nasal breathing right now. Then you can start to do maybe nasal breathing as you walk up steps. Maybe with a light jog or just for a few seconds. You can try nasal breathing if you are totally unaccustomed. You can just do it maybe between telephone poles if you're walking around or every intersection you nasal breathe and then you kind of. you know, catch your breath, et cetera. But over time, you know, you want to do nasal breathing, let's say during your training. So like now, and again, I don't recommend that anyone tuning and does this immediately because it can actually be in a way sort of toxic if you have too much of this buildup and you can't effectively clear the CO2. But like I do all my training now, I would say 90 to 95% nasal breathing. I only mouth breathe. And like, if I do like a full out sprint and I'm like totally winded, but even now most of my sprints are 100% nasal breathing. I've even gone as far as to do sprints while holding my breath. So like there's a whole range and a whole spectrum. I recommend that people start very, very small and slowly build that up. Anyway, breathe through your nose as much as you can. The next thing, well, you're gonna be, you know, better filtering the air, better humidifying it naturally as you breathe through your nose, you're gonna have more of this diaphragmatic activity. So you're gonna be breathing with the belly, with the diaphragm, and that's tucked up right near the vagus nerve. When you innervate or activate the vagus nerve, you get more of this parasympathetic activity. So that's already really calming. But the next thing is not just nasal breathing, but breathing into your face. And I learned this from David Jacko Jackson, who I just had on the show. He's a student of Patrick McKeown. And he's really big on this. He says, breathe into your face rather than up into the nose. So if you notice right now, like you can almost pull your... breath back into like the back of your, of your face, rather than up, because anytime you breathe into the nose, but you breathe up, you're automatically gonna have more of this like upper chest and upper lung. And that's gonna take away from the parasympathetic activity in the lower lungs and in the diaphragm that you could otherwise be getting to help you relax more effectively. So breathing into the face. I like to pause slightly between inhale and exhale to really slow myself down. You'll notice if you're tracking your heart rate, you can do this live. You can actually slow your heart rate very, very quickly, very effectively. If you do a little bit of a pause, it could be a couple seconds. And again, over time as you train yourself, you can expand that pause. So you know, really kind of nice standardized way to approach this is like box breathing. You know, you do a slow, shallow four second count, inhale, hold for four seconds, exhale for four, and then hold that for four. So it's four, four. Inhale, four, hold four, exhale, four, hold four. So that's a really nice kind of way to get started. And then you can do like, you know, the four, seven, eight. So it's like you inhale for four, hold for seven, exhale for eight, hold it at the bottom for like a second or two and then repeat. And this is a super effective, it's actually so effective that Navy SEALs use it, paramedics use it, you know, doctors and nurses. I actually believe if I'm, you have to fact check me here, but I think it was actually developed by like Navy SEALs or something similar. And nowadays it's like, Honestly, it's like a secret weapon for me because I mean, I'm obviously in the health space and most people that I deal with, they're pretty self-aware and pretty physiologically aware and they can kind of manage and tailor their stress response in this fashion. But with like the average person, when they're in a moment of stress or chaos or like when I'm in an emergency situation that I've been multiple times, I'm able to just snap out, like I'm able to kind of get that perspective, modify my physiology and make effective decisions in that moment because I'm aware of how my body is responding and I can... modify that response. I think the biggest takeaway here is you have agency over your body. You have so much control, so much power about what your body is capable of. And it takes that kind of awareness and it takes building that awareness. And the breath is the most accessible way to build that awareness with your body. So you can make the most effective decisions and you can perform optimally no matter the situation. So yeah, so again, coming back. nasal breathing, pausing, inhale and exhale, spending twice as long exhaling, something that I've mentioned now a couple of times, again, that just more parasympathetic activity. If you're getting with every breath, more parasympathetic activity, you're naturally gonna be calmer. So I spend about twice as long exhaling to get more of that activity. And so I think this is a pretty nice little strategy here. I recommend doing this before you go into a big business meeting or a stressful conversation with your spouse or a friend or business partner. Um before bed like as soon as you've put your phone down doing some of this with the eyes closed Putting your hand on your belly or your diaphragm to kind of feel that expansion and contraction of your of your diaphragm and uh Yeah, just making this Practicing this and making it consistent so that it becomes Something that you do without even noticing so like if you look at psychology and you look at like the stages of procedural knowledge I believe is what it's called Once you do something enough and you become very experienced with it you get to the point where you are unconsciously, uh, confident where you're like, you apply without even knowing. It's like right now I'm talking to you and I already know that I'm doing certain cues that are helping me relax, even though I'm talking and mouth breathing, I'm still modifying what I can. And it's almost like second nature now. So if you do this over time, imagine the compounding effect of that over the years, like it has a massive impact on your blood pressure, on your state of mind, your decision-making, everything.
Tyson:
Yeah, it's like I guess it's like any habit at the time you start to learn how to play guitar You're trying to be aware of where your fingers are going. It seems overwhelming You don't know what chords what it seems like it's never gonna click and then you watch someone who's been practicing for years And things are just flowing they're jamming that they're doing random riffs. They've they've really mastered it. So subconsciously now You're a bit of a guitar star in the sense of the way that you handle your body I always remember Tony Robbins would say and I remember this because I studied it for a little while He talked about changing your state. And he often spoke about one of the most effective ways or some of the most effective ways to change your state is to change your focus, to change your physiology, change your language and change the story. Um, and if you're
ap:
Mm.
Tyson:
an athlete or whatever, you might want to change the strategy. Or I guess that applies anywhere. Uh, each of those are really interesting to delve down the rabbit hole of as well. But we've touched deeply on breath, but say, for example, you're stuck in traffic. You're starting to feel stressed. You're getting annoyed. Um, you've, you've taken
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
control of the breath. What else is changing in your body just to give you a little bit more calm, clarity and peace of mind in that particular situation?
ap:
Well, beyond the fact that you're literally engaging more of this vagus nerve and parasympathetic activity, calming your heart rate and offloading more CO2 and creating a cardioinhibitory response along your heart rate by accumulating some CO2 and effectively letting it out. You're also, since you're nasal breathing, you're also upregulating nitric oxide, that vasodilator. And that's not just true to the sinuses that we described, but also for the rest of your body. You're producing more of this molecule. that is the most potent basal dilator in your body. So it quite literally dilates the blood vessels and the arteries. So it's like, you have more blood flow, you lower your blood pressure. So now you're gonna be less impulsive, less reactive. You're gonna be more relaxed. And that alone is enough to change the course of your day. Like think about how many times you've had, let's say, I don't know, a difficult time in traffic or maybe you have some road rage, like that carries into the rest of your day. You know what I mean? Like you look at home and you're like exhausted. You feel like your nervous system is fried. You just want to take a break. And now what's more likely? It's more likely that you're going to maybe make poor decisions about what you're going to eat or what you say to your spouse or your kids or your friends. Maybe you're like, you feel like more burnt out, you know? So like, again, breathing is something that we do thousands of times throughout the day. If we have a little more, if we realize that we have a little more agency and we actually get familiar and, and modify our breathing, then everything is the foundation for life. It's like everything is automatically a little better and a little easier in a way. So yeah, like notice this the next time you have road rage or you're just sitting in traffic. Now, of course, if you're someone that's prone to falling asleep, you have to find the right balance because it will relax you and you don't want to completely fall asleep. But yeah, just being mindful of it is enough to it goes a really long way.
Tyson:
Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned the fact that your Stress levels that you might take from one situation into another situation during your day Causes you to make poorer decisions in that and I think I mentioned this last podcast So I had a friend who he'd been going through a whole heap of stress his kids aren't sleeping He's up pretty much at the moment from 1 a.m. To 5 a.m. Almost every night He said and he said last week he reckoned he had one of the worst weeks of diet that he's ever had in his life and he goes I just I
ap:
Yeah,
Tyson:
had no conscious
ap:
no doubt.
Tyson:
control over it he's like I just can't be bothered I'm just gonna he ordered pizza on the sunday he said we had heaps of leftovers so it was pretty much lunch and dinner on the monday a little bit of breakfast on the wednesday he said it was just and it's so out of character for him like if you knew this bloke could have made more sense but you're gonna he's a relatively healthy guy uh but to see him under that physical stress that comes with a lack of sleep a little bit of work stress why is uh, fatigue and stress lead directly to a seemingly dumber person. I don't really understand because so
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
many
ap:
Poor
Tyson:
smart
ap:
decision
Tyson:
people
ap:
making.
Tyson:
I know have. Yeah,
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
they have a bad night's sleep and then you catch up with them for co, uh, for coffee and you go, Oh, you're, you're a very dumb person. I thought you were, I thought you were a lot smarter
ap:
Yeah,
Tyson:
than this.
ap:
yeah. No, that's a great question. That's really good. And I can actually take through some of the mechanisms and how that sort of effect influences downstream decision making. I mean, and before I get there, I want to kind of reference how this really has so much overlap with the analogy that I gave. You know, like if someone has very poor HRV and poor autonomic nervous system function, even after the stressor's gone, they're still hanging on to it. Their body is still being influenced by it. You have high HRV and good ANS function, autonomic nervous system function. Then when the stressor is gone, you can effectively return and make proper decisions and the yogi can return to that meditative state. We are the yogis. Right. So it's like, all right, so how does it actually lead to poor decision making? It's like, all right, number one is, um, you're pro if you're stressed out, one of the first thing that goes is your logic. You're gonna start to exhaust this kind of logical decision making. You're gonna be making more emotional decisions. And when you're stressed out and you're in a more emotionally vulnerable place, which is great. And I think a lot of men tuning in need to be more emotionally vulnerable, by the way. But it's more likely that you're gonna look for very calorie dense foods, because in nature, one of the biggest stresses that we have is surviving and our stress response is linked to like food. Like one of the biggest stresses that we had for much of our evolution was finding food. And so oftentimes when we get stressed, it almost takes us back to that kind of like prehistoric, a like ancient way of living where it's like, oh my God, like I need something that's gonna give me energy right now, or it's a combination of that, but also like feeling so depleted. and so anxious that you just want to get something that immediately satisfies your craving. Like you don't want to, you don't want to go through the stress of like cooking something or like choosing a healthy meal. You just want to get what your body needs immediately. Or the stress response has either, you know, has led you through a cortisol spike and then a drop in cortisol, now you're hyperglycemic. So now you're going to want something like super processed, something super sweet, something that's really devoid of nutrients. And that leads you through a whole glucose roller coaster throughout the day. Right. So it's like with a lot of people that I work with actually monitor their blood glucose as well. They're either like a freestyle Libre or super sapiens. And some of them are shocked by all these peaks that they have. They have nothing to do with the times with like what they ate. It's like the stress. So I work with a lot of these CEOs, right? And they have like crazy schedules, crazy decisions, a lot of risk that they take and you on the surface level, they look fine, but you see their blood glucose and it's like all over the place. And then they wonder, you know, why do I have all these health problems? And it's like, okay, well, number one is if your blood glucose is going all over the place, because as we become stressed, our body kind of shuttles out all this glucose, it goes into our bloodstream, it gives us a glucose spike. And like, all of a sudden you feel like, you can feel euphoric, you can feel more energized. It's your body preparing you to deal with that stress. But then all of a sudden you use that up very quickly and you're dealing with the stress. And now you've, now you're depleted. It's now you're hypoglycemic. You're relatively below baseline. And being hypoglycemic, even if you just ate something, makes you feel hungry again. So now you're like ravenous, you know? And so that can lead to another very processed food decision, it can lead to burnout, it can lead to just like feelings of overwhelm. And when your body's overwhelmed, when you're feeling burnt out, you want things to be easy. So you choose the easy foods, the convenient foods, the cheap foods that are always there, that are always sitting on the shelf, ready to grab. And now you've created vicious cycle because then that's going to create further stress in your body over time chronically and You're going to make worse decisions and at the same time you're dismissing your body's response You don't realize that you have agency and you're reinforcing that because you're getting what feels good in the moment But you're dismissing what feels good in the long term Which is a healthy quality of life that you deserve to enjoy as long as you're aware of what's happening in your physiology
Tyson:
Yeah, that's
ap:
And
Tyson:
really
ap:
if you actually
Tyson:
well said.
ap:
look at like hunger hormones like ghrelin for example, like when you get poor sleep when you're stressed out, you're upregulating ghrelin. You tend to see, let's say, an increase in your triglycerides, which can interfere with leptin signaling. Leptin is a hunger, it's a satiety hormone, and it has a lot to do with your body weight set point. And folks that have a lot of stress and a surge in their triglycerides, they're eating processed foods and they're stressed out, because they have such a surplus in triglycerides, it interferes with leptin signaling. and other body has difficulty regulating that set point. And so now you may be super hungry or not hungry at all. Like it really depends on the individual. Most of the times it leads to this like vicious cycle of overeating and underspending because you're stressed out. So people freeze in stress and they don't know what to do. They don't wanna go exercise. It's like, it's just this crazy vicious cycle. And that's like I said, it's the downstream habits are plenty. And I think if you wanna look at the habits and... and these health systems and these pillars of health from like an upstream to downstream perspective, I think sleep is way upstream of everything else. If sleep is the best opportunity your body has to repair, to recover, to remember, to refine skills, to rebalance neurotransmitters and hormones, if you're not sleeping properly, if you're not getting deep, efficient sleep consistently, then all of a sudden... you're going to feel like you have to go so much more against the grain with your fitness. You're not going to derive as many benefits because you're not recovering the nervous system. You're not allowing your body to develop this new muscle fiber. Um, because again, exercise is a stressor, right? You have all these inputs. Um, you're working, but not you're free getting the details. You're, you're not gaining as much or refining the skills as much because your body doesn't have that opportunity. Uh, your neurotransmitters are out of whack. Maybe you have now less dopamine, less serotonin. um, acetylcholine, like all of a sudden you're just totally taking your body out of whack and everything that you want to kind of stack onto your life that is relatively healthy is going to be compromised because you're not giving your body the best opportunity that it has to regulate itself. Your body is so intelligent. You sleep properly. You're giving it the opportunity to return to baseline and give it and, and give yourself everything that you want out of your life.
Tyson:
Yeah, man, I can testify to this. I think I said or people listening would know I've got two boys one to three One to nine months old sleep is a beautiful concept in this house
ap:
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
Tyson:
Not a lot of it taken place on a regular basis. I mean i'm half joking I've got the most beautiful boys and we've been so lucky in the sense that they're relatively good sleepers In fact, i'd say they're fantastic sleepers usually for the first couple of years both of them And i'm sorry to parents out there who have the opposite My boys pretty much they slept from seven to seven my oldest boy did at the moment the last couple of weeks for Whatever reason Charlie's my older boy. He has been waking up at five and a couple of times through the night and Man to emphasize your point I would hate to know what my memory is right now in comparison to what it was Even six weeks ago when you're sleeping through the night more than that man. I've got an awesome wife We've been together now for like 15 years. We got married
ap:
Wow.
Tyson:
young We've had a good foundation of not arguing. Like we've got a reputation amongst our friends for just getting on well. And it's not a show, we do, we get on well. I like her, she usually likes me most of the time.
ap:
Nice.
Tyson:
But one of the things that I've realised is like our fuse with each other at the moment, dude, the last week,
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
we were laughing last night cause the last week, I reckon we've butted heads more than we ever have in our marriage. And I'm like, all right, it was 15 years, we did well. Or is this where it's
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
stuck? But... I think a lot of that is, I mean, there'd been a few stresses. There'd been the lack of sleep. We just moved house, which felt like a, my wife, as I said, small picture person in terms of details, she takes care of all of that. So all I had to do was lift the boxes mentally. Wasn't that biggest stress for me, but for her, it was just a big
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
thing. So I feel as though we've been biting heads and it's interesting. I've done a little bit of Googling just to settle my nerves around this subject because I assumed that part of my, uh, I get a bit, I get a short fuse. I get impatient. I get. Maybe like a little bit a little bit lippy we call it over here where you just snap
ap:
Lippy.
Tyson:
back
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
Yeah, a little bit too quickly And and I put a lot of that down to a lack of sleep But even more than that I think one of the things that I'd been wrestling with a bit is With kids and man parents or you might have I don't know if you've got kids of your own or nephews
ap:
Not yet.
Tyson:
or whatever But
ap:
I'd love
Tyson:
yeah,
ap:
to someday,
Tyson:
not yet man.
ap:
but
Tyson:
Some
ap:
not yet.
Tyson:
lucky ladies out there just waiting.
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
Yeah Yeah, one of the things that I've noticed is there's just, there's such a shortage of free time. And I used to hear parents talk about this and they go, Hey, parenting is the best thing. And it's the hardest thing ever. And I was like, dude, you don't sound very grateful to have kids. And now I'm like, Oh no, I get it. Like it's exactly how you describe it. And so a buildup of a lack of sleep and none of your own time. I've found those to be a little bit of a stressor in my own life. And, and my go-to isn't so much junk food. I notice if I start watching documentaries and I've noticed that this week I've watched seven, I go, okay, something's up. What are you ignoring? What are you trying to get away
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
from? Because I usually like to invest my energy into something that I feel is always productive, whether it's like a self-help book or just a field that I'm interested in. But if I'm just switching off, sitting on the couch and going, all right, what's on Netflix? I go, all right, there's something going on here. So do you have anything like that in your life or are there any common go-tos? I know we touched on diet being a... a poor choice. Mine is technology in a big way. My screen time on my phone also goes up. Is
ap:
Mm-hmm.
Tyson:
there anything else like that you notice is directly correlated to whether it's stress, poor sleep, all of the above?
ap:
Yeah, thank you for the context and for the question. I think this will really kind of help people appreciate what I'm sharing in a way that kind of fits their unique context, because a lot of what I've shared is accessible, and it's even more so if I make the point that it doesn't have to be perfect, you have to do the most with what you've got. And if you can modify your breathing, I mean, we're doing it throughout the entire day, then when you have to be the best father that you can be, which you're obviously, you're doing that. it's something that is relatively accessible. Like if I told you, all right, man, you're having a tough time, like go to the ice plunge or like start meditating every morning for 30 minutes. It's like these things are like, oh my gosh, like that's so much time, it's so much more effort. The breathing alone is a lot. And then as far as like the sleep goes, and I'll get into like, I'll actually answer your question in a second, but when you look at this like, you know, being a dad and and having your sleep kind of interrupted, you wanna make sure that your environment is optimized for sleep, meaning you wanna make sure that your room is as dark as possible and as cool as possible. So, you know, either blackout curtains or I travel a lot now, so I always, always have a really high quality sleep mask. I use a Manta to completely black everything out so that you really produce as much melatonin as possible. Also, keeping your room cool. So anywhere between 16 to 19 degrees Celsius, like tops. Um, like seven, 16, 17. So I think in Fahrenheit, that's like 62 to like 68. You want to make sure
Tyson:
I'm
ap:
the room
Tyson:
impressed
ap:
is cool. Like
Tyson:
you
ap:
you
Tyson:
knew
ap:
want to.
Tyson:
Celsius, brother. I
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
appreciate the Celsius.
ap:
Oh my God. If there's anything, uh, that I want you to be impressed by on this show, it's that because that takes some thinking. Everything
Tyson:
Sorry
ap:
else is
Tyson:
to
ap:
just
Tyson:
interrupt,
ap:
second
Tyson:
man.
ap:
nature. No, no, but that's a good, that's a great one. I appreciate it. I could, if we go back to freediving, I'll describe my depth in meters too, if you'd like.
Tyson:
Hahaha!
ap:
That's great, man. So anyway, so yeah, so you wanna make sure the room is cool enough where you actually feel kind of cold and so you have several layers that you can kind of either add in or remove just to kind of like regulate the temperature, but you wanna feel kind of cold. You wanna have to, you wanna be able to like snuggle into that blanket because you know, there's all these different drivers for sleep, right? Like if you do high intensity exercise, if like, if you really stretch that over a band of sleep, the biggest stretcher and therefore, drive to sleep is something like high intensity exercise. Like that will really put you to sleep unless you're like exercising super late in the day and now you have like this sympathetic or stress response kind of carrying into the night. Like it's gonna be a very, very good way to sleep. So the point here being that you wanna make sure that you're getting a decline in your core body temperature and you wanna have your room really, really cold because It's that drop in your core body temperature that actually initiates sleep. So it's not as simple as looking at, you know, melatonin production. Like, yeah, like nowadays in these modern environments, it's super hard to get a melatonin to accumulate as we get into the night and by accumulation, I mean, you know, we are designed to get sleepy and get tired as the sun kind of, you know, goes down in nature. That's how we evolved. Nowadays is the sun goes down and. As the sun goes down, it has to cross through more atmosphere, and that filters out the blue light, which is a stimulating light that diminishes melatonin, blocks that melatonin production, and stimulates cortisol to rise. So as the sun starts coming down, and it penetrates relatively more and more atmosphere, you filter out more of that blue light, and you see more of that red light. Same thing happens in the morning. So as a result, you start to accumulate melatonin in nature. But what do we do now in this modern day? We turn on the lights, we go on our phones. after a long day of work, we go on our laptops, and now we're telling our body, no, stay awake, stay awake, stay awake. And so we don't accumulate the melatonin. So one of the best hacks that I have here is investing in a high quality pair of blue blocking glasses. So I love raw optics, I'm affiliated with them because they are the best. We can maybe link to it in the show notes. Raw optics, R8 optics, these are the best quality blue blockers in the world. And they help you in a way. Literally what they're doing is it's simulating the sun a setting so They're like red tinted like a lot of people will say oh, no, but I have you know like I have these right here Oh, I have the blue light filter. That's so funny. Look at my eyes. I Look like the guy from the Ice Age Seth or whatever
Tyson:
And yet you're still a good looking unit.
ap:
I appreciate that. That's so funny. So anyway, these have a blue blocking filter It's trash. It doesn't work. If you look at the research the systematic reviews that have been done on these fake blue blockers, it doesn't work. It doesn't even reduce eye strain. But if you have amber, if you look at the research, the systematic reviews are on amber colored blue blocking glasses, so like the orange or red tinted ones. Those simulate the sunset, and they're gonna give you high quality sleep. And you can in a way get away with using your phone, even though I would still recommend, you know, having a really good routine around putting your phone down, putting the screens down, making your room as dark as possible. And again, making it cool, so you can see this declining of your core body temperature because it's not as simple as just like accumulating the melatonin. So that there is really, really helpful. And then as far as, I think your question was like, what other activities or decisions am I prone to making if I'm getting bad sleep? And like, what do I use as an escape? And how do I kind of monitor that? Is that, am I getting your question right?
Tyson:
Yeah, yeah. And
ap:
So.
Tyson:
I was just interested to know, yeah, so for me I was trying to say that I'll notice that I go to documentaries and things when I have poor sleep, but I was more interested to know like what are some of the other factors that cause people to make those poor decisions. So I guess,
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
yeah, sleep, poor breath work.
ap:
Yeah, yeah. So it's like a lot of folks, I mean, so many people, I see so many people mouth breathing throughout the day. And it's just, I wish that I could stop everyone on the street when they're mouth breathing and tell them politely not to mouth breathe,
Tyson:
Hehehehe
ap:
because it's just like, dude, you're wasting oxygen. You're just like, you're in a chronic, in a stress, in a relatively stressed state. It doesn't make a big difference in that moment, but over time it really does. And you're also not getting the benefits of training your body to accumulate. and to shuttle out more of the CO2. And so it's like, you're missing out on so much. So it's like, and a lot of people are also prone to mouth breathing while they sleep, which is again, why mouth tape is awesome. So like, if you wake up in the morning, you feel like your mouth is super, super dry, you have a really bad breath, you feel like you just, maybe you were in bed for eight to nine hours, but you got completely trash sleep. All right, look at, is your room really as dark as it can be, or are you wearing a sleep mask? Are you... Eliminating blue light exposure. Are you managing stress before bed? So like are you breathing properly doing breath work or mindfulness or meditation whatever? and Are you treating your sleep environment like a sleep environment or like a work environment a lot of folks nowadays? And I'm guilty of it from time to time. I'll be honest with you bringing your phone into the bedroom It's like the worst decision you can make for a number of reasons It's the worst decision because all of a sudden that environment your body learns quickly your body learns that now it's not the most relaxing and restoring environment that it can be. Now, if you bring your work into the bedroom, now your bedroom isn't the bedroom anymore. Now the bedroom is the workstation in a way
Tyson:
Mm.
ap:
and your mind is in a state. Now you're going to walk to the bedroom, your mind isn't going to want to relax you because it actually anticipates this and it keeps you up, it keeps you working, it keeps the brain moving. So I work with a ton of CEOs and guys that they are constantly thinking about what they have to do for work and I make the point. through the data, through the research, through their data and their research, that in fact, it's counterproductive. They think they're getting more done, but because they take away from the sleep response, they are making an unsatisfactory contribution to the real productivity generator, which is good sleep. So it's like, they kind of like, no, but like I have to send these emails. And I'm like, dude, get higher quality sleep. You're gonna be a more effective leader, decision maker, communicator. You're going to have so many of these pros and not as many of these cons. And you're going to get more done because you're giving your body the restorative effect that it needs that it's craving. So anyway, um, yeah, like in my case, sometimes look, I, I definitely will watch Netflix or documentary, but when I'm winding down, if I want to kind of get that fixed to kind of put aside the day and really just kind of have that I try to find an even compromise where it's like, I'll read a book and I'll read fiction. So instead of reading like a self-help book, like you, I love reading self-help books. I can't get enough of like, it's a self-improvement. I love it. But like that keeps you thinking because you have to, you know, you read the book and then you consider, right, how does this fit into my life? How can I, you know, schedule into my calendar the next day? How can I share those with my friends? It's like, no, read fiction, read the fake stuff and it'll, it's like the best sleep aid because it takes your mind off of everything else. And or if you're watching a show like watch something that isn't like super violent or super stimulating watch something That's a little more relaxing and always Wear blue blocking glasses like a really high quality pair. So like i'll watch netflix. I'm watching dexter right now Which is a little more intense with my girlfriend And we both have a rule blockers. It's like no matter what we put those on if i'm going out with friends late at night I have another pair of blue blockers that are called the daylight lenses on the raw optics website. They're like yellow. They're not totally red. So they actually look really, really cool. No one really knows that you're like trying to accumulate melatonin, to put it that way. You can kind of get away with like a nice cool look while still like helping your body kind of wind down and relax. So in a way that again, that's how I kind of find going back to like the first question you asked me, how would define optimal health? It's like, how do you elicit these evolutionarily preserved mechanisms that we've evolved with? in the modern day. Well, you can use these modern technologies and what we call biohacks to sort of simulate what we'd otherwise be getting in nature. And yeah, blue blocking glasses, your environment, making sure that it's a really calming environment. The bedroom is for two things, man. You know what those two things are?
Tyson:
I got two kids, brother. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ap:
Well, you've got two kids, so they're three things. You've already done the two things. Okay? Now you've got three things you got to do. I think most people can imagine what I'm talking about. The bedroom is not for work, it's not for productivity. Literally, you can still use your phone at night. Just do it anywhere but the bedroom. Anywhere but the bedroom. When you walk into the bedroom, your body should know, all right, it's time to sleep. And by the way, another really cool benefit that I found with the Blue Bacons glasses is not just that they literally help you accumulate more melatonin and provide more restorative sleep, but it's also, they become the conditioned stimulus. So if you look at the famous Pavlov experiment with the dogs, right? Where it's like they would ring a bell, they would feed the dogs. So over time what would happen was just by ringing the bell, the bell became the condition stimulus and just ringing the bell over time, the dogs started salivating because they knew they were going to get their food. So it's like I put on the blue-blocking glasses and my body knows that I'm getting ready to go to bed. So it automatically starts to orchestrate the mechanisms necessary to get deep restorative sleep. That's something that happens over time. So that's... in a way, how I kind of find that even compromise and how I can still kind of unwind without creating additional stimulus that, you know, goes against what I'm really looking for and, you know, still getting that kind of joy towards the later evening.
Tyson:
Dude I could talk to you all day. I could talk to you all
ap:
Hahaha.
Tyson:
day, but I know it's evening there now You've got things to do. You don't have your blue blockers on I
ap:
This
Tyson:
reckon
ap:
is my
Tyson:
it's almost
ap:
favorite
Tyson:
time
ap:
thing
Tyson:
to
ap:
to
Tyson:
uh
ap:
do, man. This is
Tyson:
Man,
ap:
my favorite
Tyson:
and
ap:
thing to
Tyson:
it
ap:
do.
Tyson:
comes across it comes across and it comes across in a really good way I love speaking to anyone with passion And to back it up with clarity and data and research is even better man that hour just flew by for
ap:
I
Tyson:
me
ap:
can't
Tyson:
I really
ap:
believe
Tyson:
appreciate
ap:
it's been
Tyson:
you
ap:
an
Tyson:
coming
ap:
hour.
Tyson:
on
ap:
It's
Tyson:
Seriously,
ap:
unbelievable.
Tyson:
dude, like well, I'd love to I'd love to have you back on here for another time That was it. That was a really fun conversation for me. I hope
ap:
Yeah.
Tyson:
I hope you enjoyed it Thanks again for coming on man. I'll let you go and enjoy your evening
ap:
Thank you so much for the opportunity, man. And I'll tell you what, I think the way that you, the energy that you bring to the show, I know it comes from a place of passion. And I think that having this in common with you has really given me that, not to say that other folks that I have or that interview me don't have this passion, but just the way that you are connecting with me here, even online, it's really allowed me to tap into this flow state. And I can't thank you enough for that. I think this is one of the best interviews that I've ever had. And you have been the... most amazing host. So I can't wait to see who else you bring on the show and the incoming conversations that we'll have moving forward. And I hope to have you on my show someday as well.
Tyson:
Oh, man, no, that's awesome. It means a lot, brother. Thanks again. I'll leave you to it. We'll do it again.
ap:
Awesome. All right, take care you guys. And you can find me on my website, undressprashell.com, A-N-D-R-E-S, P-R-E-S-C-H-E-L.com. That's also my Instagram handle. And for Know Your Physio, it's K-N-O-W-Y-O-U-R-P-H-Y-S-I-O.org. That's where you can find me, podcast is Know Your Physio, or just look up my name and you'll have access to me.
Tyson:
Yeah, I'll make sure I link those in the in the show notes for anyone interested. Thanks
ap:
Awesome.
Tyson:
again, brother
ap:
Thanks so much, man.
Tyson:
Dude.