Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. All right.
Speaker 1: Just got off doing a podcast myself, being a guest
Speaker 1: on a podcast. I don't do that that frequently. I
Speaker 1: know I should, we should. I just there's it's got
Speaker 1: to be the right one and it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be a super popular I gotta agree with with what
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about. I mean, I know what I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about, but you know, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And there's only so many hours in the day.
Speaker 1: But but let's listen that whole pr promotion thing. I
Speaker 1: hopefully I am going to let the show's content speak
Speaker 1: for itself and push it that way. But yes, I'm
Speaker 1: going to do other podcasts. Uh. And so I just
Speaker 1: literally just ended it and I'm like, know what, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ride this energy? Uh well, that was an hour.
Speaker 1: That's a long time, and I'm going to do this show.
Speaker 1: And it's just another fantastic study, another fantastic topic in
Speaker 1: the sports psychology realm or just psychology. But you can
Speaker 1: absolutely and I will apply it to the sports psychology
Speaker 1: realm as well. And it's something that I want almost
Speaker 1: every episode to have take away that you can utilize
Speaker 1: right away. You can utilize it right away. And so
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about pain and nostalgia and this study,
Speaker 1: and there's been a bunch, but this was a recent
Speaker 1: one that added to this body of research into nostalgia.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have trouble saying that. I think I say
Speaker 1: that word very frequently. Nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia and pain and
Speaker 1: the perception of pain. And this goes to the mind
Speaker 1: body connection, obviously, and how powerful that is. And if
Speaker 1: you've listened to prior podcast, you know that this was
Speaker 1: a huge part and is a huge part of my studies.
Speaker 1: But when I said I'm going back to school for
Speaker 1: the master's program, it was had to be exercise science,
Speaker 1: but I also wanted to sports psychology. So I found
Speaker 1: a program that had both. And so within that program
Speaker 1: there was the exercise science exercise physiology courses, and then
Speaker 1: there was counseling courses and psychology those three buckets. And
Speaker 1: it was amazing because I said, I need to figure
Speaker 1: out this connection. Because I had worked for so many
Speaker 1: years in the industry already as a trainer group exercise instructor,
Speaker 1: all of these you know, different aspects of the industry,
Speaker 1: and I realized, like, yeah, a huge part of this
Speaker 1: is motivation. A huge part of this is behavior, human
Speaker 1: behavior and all of the associated issues they're in. And
Speaker 1: so this study, this recent study that you know, plays
Speaker 1: on the body of work prior, is awesome and it's
Speaker 1: a little unique in that they added another element, another
Speaker 1: layer to the studies that had come before. And it's
Speaker 1: about nostalgia and pain and basically controlling the mind and
Speaker 1: what you can do and how you can do it
Speaker 1: in your everyday life in sports performance. And it's what
Speaker 1: I say at the end of every show, we control
Speaker 1: three things, how much we move, what we put into
Speaker 1: our mouths, and our attitudes, and our attitudes is just
Speaker 1: our state of mind, our mental state, what we think.
Speaker 1: And so awesome new study quick break when we come back,
Speaker 1: and to jump right into it, I want to hear
Speaker 1: the title of study or is this gonna are people
Speaker 1: gonna are you gonna say? I'm not waiting for that.
Speaker 1: The study title is is a mouthful as well as
Speaker 1: they usually are. Thou a mo cortical, turning down, turning
Speaker 1: it off already, thou a more cortical mechanisms for nostalgia
Speaker 1: induced analgesia. I'm going to break this down. Trust me,
Speaker 1: Trust me, you want to hear what this is all about.
Speaker 1: All right, quick break. I will be right back all right,
Speaker 1: checking the news, reading articles. The other day this popped
Speaker 1: up without hesitation, said, this is a show. This is
Speaker 1: such a perfect show. It's the mind body connection. It's
Speaker 1: all about psychology, you know, I say frequently and wrote
Speaker 1: in many of my books when it comes to performance
Speaker 1: sports performance. Let's take anything a marathon. The top athletes
Speaker 1: male female are pretty darn close physiologically, pretty darn close.
Speaker 1: They've done the training, they have similar attributes VO to
Speaker 1: max and all that kind of stuff. It's who wants
Speaker 1: it more? Oversimplification maybe, but not really. Who wants it
Speaker 1: more that day? Who's more in control of their perceptions
Speaker 1: of pain? Who's more willing to suffer that day? But
Speaker 1: then the interesting caveat twist is are they suffering as
Speaker 1: much as we think? Where are they managing? That's suffering?
Speaker 1: And that's what today's shows about. And I love everything
Speaker 1: about this because it does apply to endurance events that
Speaker 1: I do. And one of the reasons I do One
Speaker 1: of the many reasons I do them is this is
Speaker 1: learning about coping, about controlling discomfort, about learning how to
Speaker 1: do that mentally alright, mental training, mental control. And I've
Speaker 1: done podcasts on visualization and self talk. Self talk one
Speaker 1: of my favorite. So there's many different ways I should say, too,
Speaker 1: control our thoughts, control our perception of pain. Self talk
Speaker 1: is one of them. I've talked about association and dissociation.
Speaker 1: Quick refresher for those people who are running and you
Speaker 1: throw your music on and you need your music to
Speaker 1: run or whatever exercise, whatever cardio you do, you need
Speaker 1: the music. That's because you want, by and large, to dissociate.
Speaker 1: You want to think about anything other than what you
Speaker 1: are doing, and quite often that's running for many people,
Speaker 1: and for me it's swimming. When they invented or perfected
Speaker 1: the waterproof iPod at the time and headphones changed my
Speaker 1: life because I wanted to think about anything other than
Speaker 1: going back and forth in this pool for an hour.
Speaker 1: Just saying it out loud is torture to me, and
Speaker 1: I apologize to all you swimmers out there. We can
Speaker 1: still be friends, but I need my music if possible, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: So that is a huge difference in the approach to performance,
Speaker 1: and top athletes can't afford to disassociate or dissociate. Who's
Speaker 1: going to add that a in there dissociate the way
Speaker 1: the average person can write, because they need to monitor
Speaker 1: their breathing and their foot strike if you're running, and
Speaker 1: all the different you know, attributes that add to their performance,
Speaker 1: all the mechanisms and biomechanics and physiology and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. All right, but a huge part of
Speaker 1: life is coping, right, and control and stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1: You know a few more of my favorite topics because
Speaker 1: they're all connected, and you know, association and dissociation, their
Speaker 1: attentional strategies broad attentional strategies for or coping, and that
Speaker 1: can be external stimuli, right, events, effort performance, sports, performance
Speaker 1: of musical performance, you know, a lecture. So there's different
Speaker 1: ways to cope, right, and those are within our control.
Speaker 1: Quite often people want to say it isn't right, and
Speaker 1: you know, stress is a choice. Stress is not a thing.
Speaker 1: It's our what it's how we perceive that event. It's
Speaker 1: the thoughts in our head. Okay, And so now we
Speaker 1: have a new way or you have a new way
Speaker 1: to potentially cope in times of discomfort, and that could
Speaker 1: be this study was about physical pain, but I would
Speaker 1: and will add in mental right, mental discomfort, physical discomfort.
Speaker 1: All right? So what is nostalgia? Sounds like something on
Speaker 1: a Seinfeld episode, all right. One definition is a sentimental
Speaker 1: longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a
Speaker 1: period or place with happy personal associations. For me, because
Speaker 1: I'm in my fifties, that's the seventies and the eighties,
Speaker 1: more the eighties when I was in high school. Right,
Speaker 1: seventies though, a lot of nostalgic thoughts and memories, I
Speaker 1: should say for me, all right. And one great line
Speaker 1: in these articles I read about this study talked about
Speaker 1: fuzzy feelings about bygone days. Right, you think of those
Speaker 1: TV shows or music, Oh my gosh. Right, that's another
Speaker 1: reason listen to the music. It elicits feelings in our body, crying, happiness, anger,
Speaker 1: the depending on what you associate that music too. Right.
Speaker 1: So nostalgia is so many different things, but it reminds
Speaker 1: you of bygone days, Happy days, happy days. It's a
Speaker 1: show it was on when I was a kid, and
Speaker 1: that brings up nostalgic feelings, all right, So this study
Speaker 1: so interesting looking at the perception of pain when people
Speaker 1: are shown nostalgic images. Now, as I said in the opening,
Speaker 1: it's not new. Bunch of studies, including one set of
Speaker 1: two thousand studies two thousand twenty where people looked they
Speaker 1: had writing assignments that were meant to bring up nostalgic feelings. Okay,
Speaker 1: and they had one group that were chronic pain sufferers
Speaker 1: and another that were healthy individuals who were given physical
Speaker 1: discomfort lab generated similar to the one I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: about in this study, and what they found us uh well,
Speaker 1: let me not let me similar findings to what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you. But it's not new. These studies are
Speaker 1: not new, different ways to do it. But what they
Speaker 1: say is with this new study, they are still looking
Speaker 1: at how it affects the brain. Right, so they know
Speaker 1: the perception of what people are saying, the perception of
Speaker 1: pain when they are experiencing it different ways, But what's
Speaker 1: the brain doing And that's what this study looked at specifically. Okay.
Speaker 1: So in this study, they not only induced pain physical
Speaker 1: pain not really bad. I'll tell you how they did it,
Speaker 1: but they put an m r I headset on the
Speaker 1: participants as well, so they're gonna ask them the perceptions
Speaker 1: of pain as they experience nostalgic images that I will specify.
Speaker 1: And then they also looked at what's what's lighting up
Speaker 1: in the brain, what's going on? All right? So that
Speaker 1: great title again, let me see if I can say
Speaker 1: it thalamo cortical. There we go, make is ms for
Speaker 1: nostalgia induced analgesia. Okay, what's going on in the brain
Speaker 1: for feeling better when you look at things that make
Speaker 1: you feel good. Ridiculous oversimplification of it, okay. And this
Speaker 1: was a bunch of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Okay,
Speaker 1: they recruited thirty four people between eighteen and twenty five.
Speaker 1: That's going to be one of the limitations I will
Speaker 1: get to. But eighteen years old with no particular sensitivity
Speaker 1: to pain. So in some of those prior studies I mentioned,
Speaker 1: they had people with chronic pain. Nothing here right there,
Speaker 1: going to induce the pain themselves, the which is which
Speaker 1: is obviously pun intended a touchy subject when it comes
Speaker 1: to research, all right. And they had m ri I
Speaker 1: headsets put on to monitor their brain activity. So this
Speaker 1: is interesting how did they induce pain in these participants
Speaker 1: where they use something called CHIPS right, which is an
Speaker 1: acronym for contact heat evoked potential stimulator. And this is
Speaker 1: a device with the metal surface that you put on
Speaker 1: the skin. And for these participants, they had them on
Speaker 1: the forearm and the researchers can gradually make this metal
Speaker 1: plate hotter, increasing feelings of pain, but as they say,
Speaker 1: and not so much as to seriously harm the participant.
Speaker 1: This is a great example two of why certain types
Speaker 1: of research is problematic. Right, you can't hurt people, you know,
Speaker 1: you can't do harm to people, So that actually goes
Speaker 1: to the findings. This was moderate discomfort, which is also
Speaker 1: one of the limitations. Will look at right, Okay, so
Speaker 1: thirty four people eighty five no particular sensitivity to pain,
Speaker 1: had this CHECKS device on their forearm and the researchers
Speaker 1: are going to make it hotter. But what are they
Speaker 1: going to do at the same time, were they're gonna
Speaker 1: be shown one of two sets of images right on
Speaker 1: a projector they're going to show them images. The first
Speaker 1: set are gonna be photos that bring up nostalgic feelings
Speaker 1: things from their childhood, like toys, chewing gum package they used,
Speaker 1: or a cartoon. I don't know about you, but, like
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes when cartoons from uh my childhood come up,
Speaker 1: just brings back crazy feelings, right, especially when you haven't
Speaker 1: seen them in a long time. You know, I have kids,
Speaker 1: they're out of the cartoon age, but every now and again, right,
Speaker 1: and yeah, you know what I'm talking about, that feeling,
Speaker 1: it's powerful, It's super powerful. So those are the first
Speaker 1: set of photos and then the second set, same exact
Speaker 1: or categories. Right, they're gonna do toys, chewing gum packages
Speaker 1: or cartoons, but they were from present day. Such a
Speaker 1: cool study, right, simple but like you get it. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of studies we talked about here they could
Speaker 1: be really complex. This one's pretty darned straightforward, and I
Speaker 1: would argue with you know, just some great concepts going on.
Speaker 1: That's what they find. What did they find? Well, let
Speaker 1: me say this though. As they were showing them the images,
Speaker 1: the heat that they were being exposed to increased gradually,
Speaker 1: so the researchers would gradually turn up the heat and
Speaker 1: then they would be asked to rate their feelings of
Speaker 1: pain on a scale of one to ten. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: zero to ten, so zero being nothing tend being like
Speaker 1: ridiculously bad. What were the findings When we come back
Speaker 1: from the break, I'm going to give it to you
Speaker 1: and then the takeaway which you probably guess it, and
Speaker 1: that's exciting, right, Okay, quick break. When we come back
Speaker 1: the results from this study, we'll be right back all right,
Speaker 1: talking about how nostalgia can decrease your perception of pain.
Speaker 1: Bunch of research into this already, but I didn't give
Speaker 1: you where. This article is study Journal of Neuroscience, and
Speaker 1: this was March of onet, so just came out really exciting.
Speaker 1: And so again this research had been done before, but
Speaker 1: this was one that truly started to look at the
Speaker 1: brain activity right to see what was going on and
Speaker 1: what did they find. So the group that looked at
Speaker 1: the nostalgic images, in addition to having different brain activity,
Speaker 1: which I'm gonna give you in a second, rated their
Speaker 1: pain levels as what we're than the ones when they
Speaker 1: were shown photos of the present day, same amount of heat,
Speaker 1: the same amount of moderate low to moderate discomfort, but
Speaker 1: they perceived it as being less. And some of you
Speaker 1: may be going big deal it is. It is one
Speaker 1: thing I keep saying about this podcast is bringing you
Speaker 1: all the different concepts and then all the different empirical
Speaker 1: studies and articles and research that corroborate slowly over time.
Speaker 1: The associations. Sure, but when we have so many in
Speaker 1: so many different ways, start to go, do I have control?
Speaker 1: Do I have control over what I think? And do
Speaker 1: those thoughts in my head make a difference self talk,
Speaker 1: visualization association versus dissociation. I love this. I love the
Speaker 1: control that we have according to this research. Okay, uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then and I'm just gonna read this to you
Speaker 1: because it's interesting, and for those of you who want
Speaker 1: to know more, go to the go to the study itself,
Speaker 1: the research. Um. But what was unique about this study
Speaker 1: was the m r I headsets right, that they're looking
Speaker 1: at what's lighting up, what's going on in the brain
Speaker 1: when they're looking at the nostalgic images, what's going on
Speaker 1: in the brain when they're not when they're looking at
Speaker 1: the images from the present day. So when they viewed
Speaker 1: the nostalgic images, there was reduced activity in the left
Speaker 1: lingual gyrus and para hippocampal gyrus to brain regions implicated
Speaker 1: in pain perception, okay, and activity in the thalamus, a
Speaker 1: brain region involved in laying information between the body and
Speaker 1: the cortex reading directly from it here was linked to
Speaker 1: both nostalgia and pain ratings. That's what they're saying is
Speaker 1: the thalamusts may integrate nostalgia information and transmit it to
Speaker 1: pain pathways. All you need to know, all we need
Speaker 1: to know at this level is that different things happened
Speaker 1: in the brain. They saw it. They saw different things
Speaker 1: happen when people controlled their thoughts, when they felt good,
Speaker 1: when they thought about and saw So you gotta go.
Speaker 1: It's visual here, happy images, happy thoughts. And the takeaway
Speaker 1: at the end of this summary is that these findings
Speaker 1: offer implications and perspectives for the further development and improvement
Speaker 1: of non drug psychological analgesia. In other words, let's try
Speaker 1: to control what we think first before we medicate. Let's
Speaker 1: do and control as much as we can naturally. And
Speaker 1: this again is low to moderate, but just really cool findings.
Speaker 1: And another way of putting this is viewing nostalgic images
Speaker 1: of items and scenes associated with childhood can help to
Speaker 1: reduce pain perception. Okay, I'm going to use this as
Speaker 1: I do and have before. Even more this is even
Speaker 1: more proof that we have this whole arsenal of mental tools. Right,
Speaker 1: So if i'm you know it, got an iron man
Speaker 1: coming up in Brazil, getting ready to go across the
Speaker 1: Grand Canyon and back, two things that are gonna take
Speaker 1: a long time, going to be in moderate too, depending
Speaker 1: on where and when. Then the race of what's going
Speaker 1: on discomfort, and so I use all of those tools
Speaker 1: that I talk to you about, the self talk, the visualization.
Speaker 1: So since I can't bring a projector with me and
Speaker 1: watch images projected onto a screen, I can combine what
Speaker 1: visualization and then this concept of nostalgia, so in my
Speaker 1: mind I will think about happy thoughts from my childhood
Speaker 1: to help decrease my perception of pain discomfort. We're already
Speaker 1: doing this, and anyone who has competed has done anything
Speaker 1: like this at any level. You have a lot of time, right.
Speaker 1: The the joke I used to give at pre race
Speaker 1: lectures is, you know, you start the race, you go
Speaker 1: this greatest thing I ever did. Ten minutes later you're like,
Speaker 1: why am I doing this? This is the worst thing.
Speaker 1: Why why do I? And then that goes on for
Speaker 1: the rest of the race. However many hours you're doing it.
Speaker 1: So we need to control those thoughts and so this
Speaker 1: is more exciting, should be more exciting news. You know,
Speaker 1: I talked about all the different workouts and ways to
Speaker 1: work out that you should add to your exercise arsenal. Right,
Speaker 1: body weight workouts, micro workouts, you know, jim workouts, cardio workouts.
Speaker 1: I want as many options as possible. And now to
Speaker 1: learn how you can do the same thing right with
Speaker 1: your psychology Arsenal, of tools to control your thoughts, your emotions.
Speaker 1: You're perceived perception of pain and this is physical pain, right,
Speaker 1: this is this is listen thirty four people right, and
Speaker 1: they always and these studies by saying more research needs
Speaker 1: to be done. Of course, what's the downside? That's? Does
Speaker 1: it always love to go to rite? So many people
Speaker 1: take supplements where you're spending a ridiculous amount of money.
Speaker 1: There's little to no research at all, usually none at
Speaker 1: all into them, and the downside is you're wasting your
Speaker 1: time and your money. Well, we're all gonna be in
Speaker 1: times of discomfort and pain, whether it's chosen activities where
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen or just everyday life. What's the downside
Speaker 1: to going You know what? When I'm stressed out and
Speaker 1: I don't know. Pick some activity of daily living where
Speaker 1: you have to do something for a couple of hours
Speaker 1: where you know, maybe you don't want to be doing it,
Speaker 1: and you're in if nothing else mental, but maybe a
Speaker 1: little physical discomfort. Now you can start thinking about who
Speaker 1: watched chips back in the day. I just hurd the
Speaker 1: theme to that, whatever your happy thoughts are, you go
Speaker 1: to your happy place. Top athletes are doing this all
Speaker 1: the time. Back to what I said at the beginning,
Speaker 1: basically the same physiologically, who's in better control of the
Speaker 1: psychological and what tools are they using at what point
Speaker 1: in their performance to maximize their performance? And this can
Speaker 1: be pre event, this can be during the event so
Speaker 1: often and should be both. Let me read you the
Speaker 1: significant statement significance statement which is significant from this UH research.
Speaker 1: Nostalgia is known to reduce individuals perception of physical pain.
Speaker 1: The underlying brain mechanisms, however, are unclear. Our study found
Speaker 1: that the thalamus plays a key role as a functional
Speaker 1: linkage between nostalgia and pain, suggesting a possible analgesic modulatory
Speaker 1: mechanism of nostalgia. These findings have implications for the underlying
Speaker 1: brain mechanisms of psychological analgesia use the power of your mind.
Speaker 1: I get excited every time I bring you more research
Speaker 1: into control. I get excited because it benefits me even more.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been doing this in different ways, but
Speaker 1: it gives me different ideas for competition and for enjoyment,
Speaker 1: to control what happens in my daily life as well
Speaker 1: as those competitions and just activities. When I run across
Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon again and back, it's not a competition,
Speaker 1: that's just chosen insanity with a friend, and it's challenging
Speaker 1: and like one of the most amazing things I've ever done.
Speaker 1: Surprised I'm going back. But because when you learn how
Speaker 1: to manage the discomfort, the chosen discomfort, the payoffs are enormous.
Speaker 1: We control our thoughts. Stress is a choice. I've learned
Speaker 1: not to say that to stress out people right away.
Speaker 1: You want to wait till a happier time. It's our perception.
Speaker 1: Do I have the tools necessary to get through this?
Speaker 1: Have I experienced it before? If so, was I successful?
Speaker 1: If not? Do I have the tools necessary? And the
Speaker 1: more challenges you take, the more obstacles you overcome, the
Speaker 1: less scary it all becomes when you don't and you
Speaker 1: you give up that control, that perceived control, everything is
Speaker 1: much scarier. Everything is a much bigger hurdle. So there
Speaker 1: you have it. I love it. Can I read you
Speaker 1: the title one more time? What's see if I can
Speaker 1: do it without getting tongue tied fallow? More Cortical Mechanisms
Speaker 1: for nostalgia induced analges a Journal of Neuroscience March. People,
Speaker 1: you have another tool in your mental toolbox. You're welcome
Speaker 1: fuzzy feelings about by gone days that now research shows
Speaker 1: it shows up on an m R. I that's exciting,
Speaker 1: at least for me. All right, enough, thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: Tom h Fit, Instagram and Twitter. I love hearing from
Speaker 1: you guys, and you're you're reaching out much more. Questions
Speaker 1: and comments, keep them coming. I will answer them and
Speaker 1: shows I will answer them directly. UM and I love
Speaker 1: your success stories. Oh my gosh, so thank you. Thank
Speaker 1: you for reaching out. Follow the show, Rate the show,
Speaker 1: rate this show? Have you rated the show? I haven't
Speaker 1: looked into that in a while. Please do greatly appreciated.
Speaker 1: The newest book is The micro Workout Plan, and if
Speaker 1: you have read that, I always appreciate Amazon reviews. Huge
Speaker 1: to authors, but thank you, super excited to continue to
Speaker 1: bring you the best information so you can live your
Speaker 1: best life. And now you can use this today when
Speaker 1: you're stressed out, Start thinking about that barbied all you had,
Speaker 1: or your that I have Big Jim, who is the
Speaker 1: guy's equivalent Back in the day we had everything. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, just thinking about it makes me nostalgic right
Speaker 1: thinking back to those times. But that's good news. Control
Speaker 1: what you can, let the other stuff go, and we
Speaker 1: control on which we love, what we put into our mouths,
Speaker 1: and are mental tape recorders what we think, and that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted, Believe in Yourself.
Speaker 1: Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.