2018 was a fantastic year because I took a chance and launched this company, thinking that I had a wellness philosophy and enough experience to put together an interesting program. The show hit over 17,000 downloads in its first year and included 43 episodes. I am excited about this accomplishment and also about what is to come in 2019.
This episode is a look back at 2018 and collating all the best wellness and fitness information I have shared in the last year. As you know, my goal with BOOST Health is to be open-minded, try new wellness tactics, and share my findings. The blog and podcast has included new wellness research I have come across, valuable tactics shared by guests, as well as tips, tricks, hacks, and my experiences new and old. I have learned so much in the process of creating this content in the last year, and I hope you have learned a lot too! If you are a new to BOOST Health, this episode should give you a little taste of what we cover here on the show. That said, let’s jump into the best tactics that were shared on the show in 2018.
1. Be Open-Minded And Try New Things
This is just as much a wellness tip as it is the very essence of my philosophy with BOOST Health and how I coach. This is the most important concept I teach, coach, share, and exemplify. I had to learn this the hard way over the years. In the beginning of my career I would learn something in a course or training, read an article, or study research and come to a conclusion and that was that. Unfortunately it is not so black and white in the science of wellness and fitness. There is always new research coming out that forces us to think critically about our previously established notions in fitness, nutrition, mental strength, gut health, wellness balance, etc. A positive and open attitude to new ideas and research, paired with acceptance of changing your mind or even admitting we were wrong, is one of the wonderful things about being human. Taking this open-mindedness and applying it to self-experimentation with new wellness tactics is extremely powerful. If I helped even just a few people realise this during 2018, then I will consider it a huge success. That is how powerful and important this concept is.
2. Do Full Body Strength Training
Just like I mentioned in my show 8 Ways To Improve Health This Holiday Season, this one is non-negotiable.
Since you can do a full body strength workout anywhere, anytime, with little or no equipment, in less than 30 minutes, there is no excuse in not getting this in. Full body training 3 times per week is preferred as you maximise recovery and volume. Full body training versus split muscle group training is still debated in the fitness industry. My article on full body versus split group training is easily my most hit page on the myboosthealth.com website on a daily basis. I included a few studies that show benefits of full body training over split group training include better hormone regulation, more calories burned, and more muscular hypertrophy. Also if you are someone who misses workouts, this guarantees you hit all your major muscle groups each week.
I have created workout videos for full body strength training with:
Check them out and get started today!
3. Mobility Is A MUST
I talked about mobility a lot this year, especially after my show with Joel.
The entire interest in mobility started when I couldn’t perform a pistol squat which my buddy Joel Lieginger schooled me on. He mentioned that mobility work changed his life as he effortlessly demonstrated what is arguably the most difficult movement in fitness. What he didn’t tell me initially, was that it took him 3 years to master the pistol squat and that mobility is a journey and discipline all its own.
Understanding that mobility is NOT flexibility was a key takeaway. Mobility requires body awareness, strength, coordination, AND flexibility! For example you may have good ankle and hip flexibility paired with strong body awareness, but you may not be able to do a pistol squat due to lack of strength and coordination.
Mobility is something to evaluate on a daily basis as new issues can pop up and goals can change. My initial trouble areas I identified were ankles and hips. I had been struggling with a knee issue for many months in 2018 and wasn’t able to run a long period. With the long rest, paired with consistent work in strength, mobility, and cool down, I am pleased to say I have been able to start running again in the last few weeks. The standout mobility moves that helped me with the knee were the squat hold and the 90/90 stretch.
The squat hold can be seen in the dynamic warmup of my full body workout with no equipment video.
The 90/90 stretch can be seen in this video update from the holiday wellness challenge.
We talked specifically about mobility again in my episode with Danny Burde.
He shared his favourite mobility movements he uses as a coach based on the areas people struggle with the most – shoulders, hips, and ankles. The one that stood out the most was the shoulder impingement mobility tactic where you balance an olympic bar across the trapezius muscle and hold in position. I have added this one to my personal regimen.
4. Fast For Short And Long Term Benefits
Different types of fasting techniques have come up on the show several times throughout the year. There are loads of benefits to fasting which is likely why it is a hot topic in the wellness space currently. Short term benefits of intermittent fasting, such as the 12-16 hour overnight fast, include increased muscle, decreased fat, and decreasing stress, as compared to a calorie restriction diet. I have been doing this overnight fasting for several years now and feel it certainly plays a role in my overall progress in health status. I have recently become really interested in prolonged fasting, which is a fast of 24-48 hours. A 2015 study in Cell Metabolism shared that this type of prolonged fasting can protect normal cells and organs from toxins and increase autophagy, which is like spring cleaning for your cells where damaged cells are removed and new ones are created.
This even happens with cancer where cancer cells are killed off! With this in mind it seems that occasional prolonged fasting certainly has some long term health benefits. As such I made it a goal to complete my first 24 hour fast during the holidays this year. I had heard that others have had success with this when doing it from dinner time to dinner time. So you would eat dinner at 6pm, for example, and then not eat again until 6pm the next night.
I decided to go for the 24 hour fast on a quiet Wednesday evening after we finished all of our holiday travels. I finished eating at 7pm that night so I would just need to make it until 7pm the next night to hit 24 hours. I typically do a an intense cycling workout on Thursday mornings but decided to skip the workout as I wasn’t sure how I would respond to 24 hours without food, let alone on top of an intense aerobic session. Felt fine all morning because I am used to fasting at this time but at around 10:30am or so, when I usually eat, was more challenging. I drank lots of water to attempt to squash the hunger pangs. The overwhelming hunger only lasted a few minutes interestingly and then disappeared. Then another wave hit at around 12:30pm but again went away quickly. I noticed a bit of brain fog during these moments and had trouble concentrating on work. By around 3pm I didn’t really feel hungry anymore and actually felt surprisingly energised and alert. I even felt like I was energetic and strong enough to go for a run or lift weights. As I mentioned previously, however, I didn’t want to add another major variable into this experiment. I wanted to make sure I could go 24 hours without food first. The high energy feeling stayed strong all the way until I at around 7:30pm. I have heard stories about people who continue to fast on for 48-72 hours that feel this euphoric feeling and find it is easy to continue on just by staying properly hydrated with water. I am intrigued to go for 48 hours sometime soon but first will try a 24 hour fast with exercise and see how I feel. At 7:30pm I ate a normal meal which for me is vegetable curry with chick peas and potatoes, an apple with peanut butter and flaxseed, b12, and a multi-vitamin. I also had some dark chocolate for desert. I felt fine eating and very satiated after. I would definitely recommend this dinner to dinner 24 hour fast method but suggest some time doing the overnight 12-16 hour fast first to build up to it.
5. Maybe Foam Rolling Isn’t So Bad
It isn’t fun to admit that I might have been wrong. In early 2018 I did an episode called 3 Reasons To Stop Foam Rolling where I talked about how I was potentially overdoing this tactic. Specifically I found that when I eliminated foam rolling entirely, I actually had improvement in an injured area. Based on research, I was worried that I was creating more scar tissue and not massing in the proper direction for muscle fibers and blood pooling. In retrospect I think I was just foam rolling too often, too aggressively, and with the wrong technique. I was doing a full body aggressive smash before and after every workout and sometimes multiple times per day. This is not necessary or helpful. Also I was rolling up and down the tissue. It seems that a better tactic is to roll into a position that feels tight and hold in that position, versus rolling up and down the affected area over and over. I have slowly reintroduced this tool using a soft roller on my hips and outer legs to help with my knee issue using this stop and hold tactic. I think it is one of the strategies that has helped my knee feel better.
6. Give Plant-Based Nutrition A Try
I talked a lot about plant-based nutrition this year on many of the episodes because changing to this type of diet 5 years ago had such a remarkable positive affect on my performance and overall health. This topic came up in most prominently in my shows with Lisa Terauchi and Rebecca Cappelli.
Lisa told her story of how she beat liver disease and how her helper reversed diabetes on a plant-diet. We also shared stories of improved gut health and energy levels on plants.
Rebecca shared her own story of moving to plant-based nutrition for health reasons, but also for the sake of the animals and our planet. She discusses her incredibly moving documentary called Let us be Heroes where she inspires us to affect change on an individual level and makes us aware that best thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is eating a plant-based diet. This based on the study by University of Oxford that concluded that switching to a plant-based diet can reduce an individual’s carbon footprint by up to 73%. Watching the documentary, and also being a part of the panel discussion for her screening here in Hong Kong, has inspired me to move beyond my own performance and health on plants and to start to think more holistically about this. I am now thinking more critically about plant-based beyond my personal consumption to what I wear and if I am doing enough to inspire others to try to change.
Maybe saving the animals and planet isn’t the right inspiration or motivation for you right now. It wasn’t for me 5 years ago. I wanted to feel and perform better. I talk about all of the benefits that I have realised by switching to plant-based nutrition including losing 10% body fat and increasing strength and endurance in my episode on going through this change.
7. Get 10,000 Steps Per Day
I made this one of the goals during the Extra BOOST Holiday Wellness Challenge because it really forces you to be active throughout the day.
I started thinking about this as I noticed there are lots of days where I get a big bike ride completed in the morning but then don’t come close to the 10,000 step goal that day. I would tell myself it is ok since I got a good workout in that morning, but I know better. A 2017 study showed that even if you exercise, sitting too long during the day will still increase mortality rate.
What does this mean? It means to sit for a little while and stand for a little while at your work station. It also means that you still need to move often throughout the day.
8. Nootropics Are Better Than Coffee
Don’t get me wrong, I love my coffee in the morning! Sometimes though, if I overdo it, I can get a little jittery and also the ergogenic effect of coffee seems to be short-lived. I had heard and seen in research that combining coffee with L-theanine and/or adaptogens could help mellow out the jittery feeling while also improving the energy and even cognitive abilities. I had also heard that nootropic supplements that use caffeine in place of coffee and combine with L-theanine and/or adaptogens had the same type of benefits. I wasn’t sure about trying them myself, though I was intrigued. Then I received an email from Firas Abdallah, founder of MX Nutraceuticals and creator of a natural cognitive enhancing supplement called Kognizen. Firas wanted to know if I would be interested in trying the supplement and providing my feedback. After thoroughly researching the product and his company I felt comfortable that it was safe so agreed to give it a try. We cover all the different scenarios I tried it including morning, afternoon, before workouts, with and without coffee, etc. on episode 40 of the show. The main takeaways were that I really felt a big difference in focus and longer lasting energy when I took Kognizen versus coffee and the best scenario for me was when I would take this nootropic in the morning and then would have coffee 3 hours later to get the best of both worlds.
9. Stick To A Morning Routine
My blog and show on the 10 Tips for the Best Morning Routine for Health and Productivity was one of the most popular of the year. I think part of the reason for this is that most people can relate. Most people have had one of those mornings where they were energized, motivated, and massively productive, and want to replicate this. Research has shown that checking things off of our to-do list provides an increase in dopamine. It feels good to get things done. It feels good to be productive. One of the 10 tips I include is getting up early. You might say getting up early is obvious. I am not talking about most days. I am not talking about Monday through Friday. I am not talking about all days of the year except when on vacation. I am talking about all days are days to get up early. We just got back from an incredible family holiday trip to Seoul, Korea. One of the mornings I thought I would treat myself to sleeping in and would just get my workout in after we got back from the activities of the day. Well that day included taking our kids to a crowded theme park. It was tons of fun and the people were wonderful, but for me, there is nothing more physically and mentally exhausting than walking around a crowded theme park, waiting in lines, keeping our kids from going crazy, etc. So when we finally got home at 8pm or so, the last thing I wanted to do was workout. My wife kindly reminded me that I should have just got it done in the morning before everyone woke up, like I normally do. I went and got it done, and actually felt so much better after I finished, but learned a valuable lesson about sticking to my morning routine. Merriam-Webster defines a routine as “habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure”. I love this inclusion of the word “mechanical” in the definition. In this sense we could think of ourselves like a machine or a robot that is programmed to wake up early and be productive. It isn’t a question. It just is.
10. Use Speed Of Implementation Tactic
The “speed of implementation” concept was introduced to me by Dr. Chris Zaino on my show this year. It has great application for wellness tactics but can actually be used for anything in life really. In general it means to jump at opportunities as soon as you are aware of them versus waiting until everything is perfect before proceeding. This is something I had historically not been very good at. I typically like to vet everything out before moving forward with projects for work, or a workout program, or even a Saturday afternoon with my family.
I mentioned in the episode that the speed of implementation tactic reminded of a type of project management I studied in school. Sometimes when you begin a project it is difficult to fully understand what the final product will look like and what changes will need to be made to arrive at implementation with high client satisfaction. This became especially prevalent as technology began changing and improving so quickly with computers and applications, and so a new type of project management was developed called Agile Project Management. According to a 2015 article on contentmarketinginstitute.com, technology companies such as Google and Facebook use Agile Project Management methods to be innovative and do this by developing products rapidly as they can, test them on real users, change the product based on the user requests, then update the product as fast as they can. You can see Agile Project Management happening each time you see an update for an app on your smartphone.
When I thought about opportunities for myself in these terms, it made sense to attempt to be more agile. Opportunities would be less likely to be missed and any mistakes that occur could be valuable lessons along the way. I am still a work in progress in being more agile and implementing opportunities with speed, but I can think of several major projects that I took on this year that I jumped into without perfecting everything ahead of time. I learned a lot from these and am glad I didn’t hesitate and miss the opportunities all together.
11. Active Commute To Work If Possible
I talked a lot about commuting to work, specifically cycle commuting, on several of my shows including the ones Jules Doyle, David Hamby, and Ryan O’Neill. The health benefits of actively commuting to work are astounding. I think part of the reason for this is most folks who actively commute will do it 2 ways, so 2 times per day. If individuals are stuck in a sedentary position at work for most of their day you can see how being active multiple times per day would be incredibly beneficial. Just in case you missed the amazing research of the health benefits of active commuting and cycle commuting I will share them 1 more time.
In a 2011 study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports did a systematic review of health benefits in cycling and found that individuals who commute to work via bicycle are at lower risk for all-cause mortality and cancer in individuals who were middle-aged and older. They also found, not surprisingly, that there is strong evidence for improved cardiovascular fitness and moderate evidence for decreased cardiovascular risk for individuals who cycle regularly.
A study that came out earlier this year in the Aging Cell journal found very exciting evidence that cycling (and likely other forms of physical activity) can drastically reduce the ageing process of your immune system. The study noted that cyclists in their 70’s and 80’s had immune systems that looked more like someone in their 20’s and because of this are more able to fight off infections and possibly even cancer!
In 2017 the British Medical Journal published a massive cohort study on active commuting including bicycle commuting. They tracked 263,450 men and women over a 5 year period that took part in regular active commuting (walking, cycling, or a combination) to work in England, Scotland, or Wales. The study found that cycle commuting was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all cause mortality versus non-active commuters.
A 2000 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine journal found that daily bike commuters have a 40 percent lower risk for all cause mortality than non-cycle commuters
If actively commuting to work, especially via a bicycle, is a possibility for you I would definitely recommend it based on these studies. Also if you can ride with a colleague it can build in accountability and community like we talked about with Ryan O’Neill.
12. Use Intra-Abdominal Pressure (IAP) When Training
Anna Woods introduced me to this body awareness concept on my show with her. She describes it as creating 360 degree pressure throughout your midsection with a muscle and breathing technique. Part of the reason this is such a critical technique is that it helps your brain feel stable in the joints of the body. I have practiced this a lot since discussing it with her and it seems to help me the most when running, especially as I have been nursing my injured knee along. I also like using this cue on weight training exercises like the deadlift, rows, squats, etc. The real trick, I think, is learning how to create this intra-abdominal pressure and maintain your breathing. Here is a nice video showing how important it is when doing weight bearing activities.
13. Train Your Brain
Mental strength and mindset came up a lot in the show in this last year. I actually did an entire episode on the topic where I focused on improving performance with different tactics including anchoring which involves attaching a positive image from previous success to a gesture, like grabbing your earlobe. This is clearly a distraction technique to “trick” the brain and body into being more comfortable than it normally would be in a stressful environment. I mentioned these tactics have worked well for athletes like Olympic gold medalist, Chris Hoy.
I have some success with these strategies when presented with something that gives me anxiety like training in heat or swimming. I wonder if something can be done that is more permanent though. Like a rewiring. For example you may believe that you are not good at _____, you are scared of _____, or you are not a ______ type of person. What if we could train our brain to not believe this? An interesting article on positivepsychologyprogrom.com talks about the neuroplasticity of our brains and this ability to rewire them. The article notes that clinician Ian Cleary says the old wiring will still exist and be waiting to be triggered, but we can create competitive wiring in our brains that is of we want to achieve. Apparently this takes a great deal of work to achieve this rewiring and can be done using adapting and changing thought patterns, through recall and memory patterning, increasing body awareness, among others. I put a few of these tactics to work on the ski lift a few days ago. In the past I would say that I am afraid of heights. I attempted to create some new neural pathways by saying that I quite enjoyed the ride up the ski lift and that is was nice to see the views up there. All the while my kids were asking if I was ok. I told them that I now enjoy the ski lift and that heights don’t bother me. They told me that I was in fact still afraid. Despite their efforts to derail me, I did feel a little better. That said it may be more effective to create new wiring of your brain when kids are not repeating the undesirable wiring in the background.
14. Join A Wellness Community
The benefits of a wellness community came up with almost every single guest on the show in 2018. Also I focused an entire episode on this topic with guests Bo Kratz and Sheel Kohli and how these communities can improve performance and accountability while fostering mentorship. We discussed a bit of research backing these benefits including a 2012 study, where researchers at Kansas State University found that people who exercised with someone they thought was better than them increased their workout time and intensity by 200 percent.
Also a 2011 study in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology found that participants were able to hold a plank longer when working with a partner and increased their plank hold by up to 24% when working out with a more capable partner.
I know some of you are thinking that you prefer to be a “lone wolf” and train just fine on your own. I can respect and understand that. I sometimes like to just put on my headphones and enjoy a training session on my own. That said it is helpful to know there is someone waiting for you early in the morning for the cycling workout, or even there to answer a question you may have about a tactic, or someone to bounce a new idea off of. You can be part of the BOOST Health community by visiting our Facebook page and joining the conversation.
15. Track Your Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
I discussed HRV a number of times throughout the year as a key metric to track to ensure you are maximizing your recovery from stressors such as exercise and insufficient sleep. I discuss it in some detail in the episode I produced called How To Listen To Your Body. You can check it out to see what tools I use to measure HRV and how to get started. If you are not already tracking HRV I will summarise why it is important to keep an eye on.
HRV is a measurement of variation in time between heartbeats. Our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is what actually controls the variation between heartbeats, along with other mildly important things such as breathing. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems comprise the ANS. The sympathetic nervous system is also known as the one that preps the body for “fight or flight”, or intense physical activity. The parasympathetic nervous system is also known as the “rest and digest” system as it helps calm the body down. Research has shown that when the body is in sympathetic, fight or flight, mode it has low HRV and when it is in parasympathetic, rest and digest, mode it has high HRV. As you might have guessed having a higher HRV is good as it shows the body’s ability to be resilient and change from sympathetic to parasympathetic mode. Once you have established a HRV baseline for yourself you will be able to fine tune your workouts and recovery tactics based on that morning’s score. For example if you had super intense strength training session planned, but your HRV score is well below your baseline, then you would know to do a much easier session and to incorporate lots of parasympathetic promoting activity like breathing exercises and meditation.
16. Take Care Of Your Gut
Gut health came up quite a few times on the show this year. Most prominently it was something that Pete Fisher and I discussed when he was on. One standout point that he made was that one of the best things you can do to promote gut health is to eat lots of high fiber foods as this will feed the good bacteria, greatly increasing proliferation. I hypothesised that when I switched to a plant-based diet that I was getting so many more high fiber foods like fruits, vegetables, and beans that this was certainly a key factor in helping me get rid of my personal gut issues.
I also brought up gut health in my show on 5 Nutrition Tips For Everyone. I mention that eating probiotic foods including high quality yogurt, sauerkraut, dark chocolate, pickles, and kimchi can help increase healthy bacteria in the gut. I also note that there are so many neurons in our gut (more than in our spine) that it is being called our “second brain”. Most of the information in these neurons is sent to our brain and can contain information on mood, stress, and feelings. We still have a lot to learn about gut health and it is becoming very heavily researched now. It seems clear, however, that taking care of your gut is very important and that if you feel unwell or stress it could be your gut trying to tell you something.
17. Know How Balanced You Are
As you may know, tagline of the BOOST Health Podcast is “Find Your Balance”. I am obsessed with searching for wellness balance on a daily basis and helping others do the same. I get frustrated when I hear people mention work/life balance because, while it is good to want your career to be balanced with the rest of your life, the life portion has lots of layers that need to be reviewed. In fact there are 7 dimensions of wellness balance that include occupational, social, intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental. Read or listen to my show on the topic to deep dive into each of the dimensions and my examples in each. It is very useful to understand what each of these areas include and to spend time considering not only how well you are doing in each dimension but to also consider which ones may require some time in improving. Pay attention to all the dimensions and put more energy toward the ones that need more work and keep in mind that this may need to flex on a daily basis when different stimuli present themselves.
Please click the link below to your favourite podcast app to listen in or watch the show on BOOST Health TV
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS
