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Speaker 1: Welcome to two percent. I'm your host, Michael Easter. Wimbledon,

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Speaker 1: the big tennis tournament, it is going on right now,

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Speaker 1: and it turns out that sports like tennis might hold

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Speaker 1: a secret to lasting long term brain health, so you

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Speaker 1: can avoid dementia, you can avoid Alzheimer's. And to talk

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Speaker 1: about that, we are bringing on the guy for all

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Speaker 1: things brain health. He's a friend of the pod doctor

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Speaker 1: Tommy Wood. He wrote the book The Stimulated Nine. After that,

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Speaker 1: we will be doing our first ever AMA with six

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Speaker 1: amazing questions that came from you, the listeners. So we're

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Speaker 1: going to take a quick break and then we'll bring

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Speaker 1: on Tommy. Story time about my very storied high school

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Speaker 1: athletic career. I did one sport in high school. I

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Speaker 1: was on the tennis team, and we were the absolute

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Speaker 1: worst tennis team in the state. We did not win

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Speaker 1: one match. I was truly awful. But I will tell

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Speaker 1: you what I really enjoyed playing tennis so great sport.

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Speaker 1: I had good friends on the team. It allowed me

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Speaker 1: to sort of like use my brain as I was

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Speaker 1: moving and as I got into my career. Now reading

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Speaker 1: health research, I found that sports where you are doing

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Speaker 1: something that has a mental challenge along with a physical

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Speaker 1: challenge like in tennis, can actually be extremely beneficial for

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Speaker 1: the brain. But I wanted to dive deeper in this

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Speaker 1: topic with someone who has really really thought about brain health,

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Speaker 1: specifically as it relates to movement. So we are going

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Speaker 1: to bring on an old friend of the show, doctor

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Speaker 1: Tommy Wood. He is a neuroscientist. He is also the

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Speaker 1: author of The Stimulated Mind, which is one of the

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Speaker 1: best books I read this year. I absolutely loved the book.

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Speaker 1: We had an older conversation with him. If you just

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Speaker 1: scroll back in your feet or on YouTube be able

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Speaker 1: to be able to find that. So with all that said,

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Speaker 1: we're going to bring on Tommy to talk about the

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Speaker 1: power of tennis and other sports that require your brain.

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Speaker 1: All right, Tommy, thanks for coming back.

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Speaker 2: On man, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be

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Speaker 2: here again.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to bring you on because I have written

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Speaker 1: about navigation the brain benefits of navigation, which you touch

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Speaker 1: on on the Stimulated Mind. But when I wrote about

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Speaker 1: navigation on Substack, the reason I was thinking about it

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Speaker 1: is because I did this crazy hike through southern Utah

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Speaker 1: where you're navigating the whole time, and it led me

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Speaker 1: down this rabbit hole of Oh, humans sort of evolved

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Speaker 1: to navigate all the time, we rarely do it anymore.

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Speaker 1: We just sort of offload everything to Google Maps, So

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Speaker 1: kind of tell us about that. Why is it that

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Speaker 1: this pairing of these two things seems to be beneficial.

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Speaker 2: When you look at big analyzes of interventions of physical activity,

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Speaker 2: interventions and cognitive function, you tend to see that the

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Speaker 2: interventions that have the biggest impact of those that have

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Speaker 2: a coordination component. And there's a lot of different ways

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Speaker 2: that that might happen. So this includes the like tai chi,

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Speaker 2: sometimes it includes yoga pilates, but some of the most

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Speaker 2: impressive studies include something that's more sort of like cardiovascularly challenging.

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Speaker 2: Plus you have a congresitive component layered on top. So

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Speaker 2: they've compared like badminton to cycling, and they've compared dancing

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Speaker 2: to circuit training in kids. They've looked at things like

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Speaker 2: executive function when they have them do jogging around a

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Speaker 2: track versus like ball skills and skipping ropes and things

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Speaker 2: like that. So you have this, particularly when it comes

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Speaker 2: to something like a racket sport. You have complex mostor skills,

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Speaker 2: but you're also like strategizing, you're thinking about how I'm

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Speaker 2: responding to this person. I don't know where the ball

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Speaker 2: is going to come from, but I'm also trying to

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Speaker 2: manipulate my opponent around the court so I can hit

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Speaker 2: the ball past them. Right. So it's this rapid information processing,

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Speaker 2: which is something we don't get a lot of in

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Speaker 2: the modern environment, like really rapidly having to respond to

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Speaker 2: the environment. Plus, you know, layering on decision making, strategizing

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Speaker 2: and the additional complex motor skills and physical challenge seems

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Speaker 2: to them results in greater changes in brain function and structure.

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Speaker 2: You can measure it on an MRI scan and then

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Speaker 2: sort of measure cognitive functions and they seem to improve

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Speaker 2: more when you're layering on this like complex motor aspect.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so when we're emailing, you use the term open

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Speaker 1: skilled sports. So that's basically any sport, like you said,

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Speaker 1: where there's obviously a lot of physical movement, but then

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Speaker 1: the strategizing movement. So we're talking tennis, badminton, ping pong, basketball, baseball.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's like any sport where you're almost having

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Speaker 1: to go against another person and there's some skill behind

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Speaker 1: it along with the physical activity.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so all the ball sports, racket sports, I think

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Speaker 2: board sports, surfing, skateboarding that also requires this sort of

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Speaker 2: you're navigating the environment responding to it. Most martial arts

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Speaker 2: are going to be like that too, Right, you're rolling

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Speaker 2: with somebody in jiu jitsu, You're, you know, try to

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Speaker 2: avoid being strang gold whilst trying to figure out how

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Speaker 2: to kind of flip them over. I think anything like

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Speaker 2: that that requires you to access multiple sort of cognitive

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Speaker 2: networks on top of the physical part seems to have. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: it seems to have these additional benefits.

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Speaker 1: It made me think about how in the sort of

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Speaker 1: modern era, we do a lot of things with our brains,

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Speaker 1: but we're often sitting so like I'm behind a computer writing,

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Speaker 1: I'm reading a study on Google. Yes, I'm using my brain,

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Speaker 1: but my body isn't moving. But then when I go

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Speaker 1: to say, okay, I'm going to move my body to

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Speaker 1: get these physical benefits, I'm often doing it in a

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Speaker 1: context where I can just totally shut my brain off.

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Speaker 1: And it's like if you go to a gym, you

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Speaker 1: see everyone's lined up on the treadmill. They might be running,

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Speaker 1: they might be walking, but they're just kind of zoned

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Speaker 1: out to whatever the screen is and there's none of that.

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Speaker 1: Meant like, we've sort of lost this pairing between these

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Speaker 1: two in the sense when we think of quote unquote exercise.

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Speaker 2: When I think about it, the activities and sort of

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Speaker 2: inputs that the brain probably expects from a physical movement

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Speaker 2: standpoint and often from a cognitive standpoint, they should kind

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Speaker 2: of come together, right. So it's navigating, it's hunting, gathering, dancing, right,

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Speaker 2: being this sort of core human activity. So I think

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Speaker 2: that we're used to our brains working and being challenged

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Speaker 2: in the setting of physical activity. But when we invented

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Speaker 2: exercise as a thing, we kind of separated them out,

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Speaker 2: and when we've brought them back together from a scientific standpoint,

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Speaker 2: we've made them really really boring. And so I think

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Speaker 2: we also talked a little bit about this idea of

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Speaker 2: something called brain endurance training. This is where you layer

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Speaker 2: cognitive training on top of physical activity. But what it

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Speaker 2: looks like from like a quote unquote scientific standpoint, is

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Speaker 2: you put an athlete on a treadmill for forty five

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Speaker 2: minutes or an hour, and then you have them do

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Speaker 2: like cognitive tasks on a screen the whole time, which

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Speaker 2: having worked a lot of athletes. They'll do it once

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Speaker 2: and they'll be like, I'll never do that again, never again.

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Speaker 2: But I think that you're going to get even more

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Speaker 2: benefit just just because the way that we naturally tend

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Speaker 2: to activate our brains while we're while we're moving our bodies. Right,

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Speaker 2: just have them go play, right. I work with Formula

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Speaker 2: one drivers. They love paddle. Have them go play paddle instead.

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Speaker 2: Where you're you're working all those same networks and skills

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Speaker 2: in a much more sort of natural, natural and an

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Speaker 2: enjoyable environment. But I think that people probably also notice

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Speaker 2: that when they allow themselves, when they when they start

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Speaker 2: to move, their thinking changes. Right. You'll often like start

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Speaker 2: to have new ideas and your maybe your mind will

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Speaker 2: will start to wander, like bring in new connections. And

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Speaker 2: I think that's as as you move, you get increased

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Speaker 2: blood flow to the brain, you start to release a

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Speaker 2: whole bunch of factors that can affect cognitive function, usually

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Speaker 2: in a beneficial way. So there's something about the way

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Speaker 2: movement changes how our brain works. It also seems to

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Speaker 2: be beneficial. And then right, if you can if you

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Speaker 2: can layer on some real focus and interaction with the environment,

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Speaker 2: that seems to kind of maximize maximize those benefits.

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Speaker 1: And in the stimulated mind you mentioned a couple studies

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Speaker 1: in hunter gatherers, specifically older people and hunter gatherer tribes.

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Speaker 1: They don't seem to have these sort of diseases of

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Speaker 1: cognitive decline at the rate we do.

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Speaker 2: And when you look.

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Speaker 1: At what are the people we would consider retirement age

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Speaker 1: in these communities, they're not like sitting around going like, well,

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Speaker 1: it's all over for me now I can just kind

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Speaker 1: of hang out around camp like everyone bring me my food.

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Speaker 1: They're actually like going out and finding food, and they're

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Speaker 1: doing all these different tasks that are physical but also

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Speaker 1: have the mental component in the sense that like you

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Speaker 1: don't know where food is, You got to navigate the environment.

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Speaker 1: You got to remember, Okay, where did I come from?

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Speaker 1: Where am I going? So I don't get lost? Are

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Speaker 1: there any animals around? Like there's all these cognit of

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Speaker 1: things that are happening with that, and that might be

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Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of things going on, but

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Speaker 1: that might be one reason why these people don't seem

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Speaker 1: to suffer from those diseases at the rate that we do.

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Speaker 2: I definitely think that that has to be a part

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Speaker 2: of it. So some of the studies are in the

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Speaker 2: Bolivian Chimane and other Amazonian Amerindians who seem to have

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Speaker 2: the lowest dementia rates in the world, at least that

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Speaker 2: have been measured. And then people ask about how do

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Speaker 2: they know whether they have dementia or not. But people,

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Speaker 2: you have to sort of go and explain what that,

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Speaker 2: what that looks like. Do they have people in the

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Speaker 2: tribe who experience these kinds of symptoms. They do have

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Speaker 2: it occasionally, it's just very rare. But they do have

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Speaker 2: people living into their seventies and eighties. That's not unusual.

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Speaker 2: It's not that people are sort of dying before they

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Speaker 2: might get dementia. But you're right, they even at that age,

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Speaker 2: they are two to three times more physically active than

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Speaker 2: the average American adult when you look at like steps

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Speaker 2: per day for example, or just like number of hours

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Speaker 2: moving per day. And it's interesting that when you're when

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Speaker 2: you're older, often you're doing more of the hunting and

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Speaker 2: gathering than your children, you know, or like individuals with

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Speaker 2: children's days because they're looking out, they're like looking after

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Speaker 2: the kids and doing other things. And so it's still

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Speaker 2: your job to go out and hunt and gather and

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Speaker 2: be an active sort of part of the community. Later on,

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Speaker 2: you might transition to more of a sort of like

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Speaker 2: an elder kind of teacher kind of role, but you're

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Speaker 2: still you know, you're still very physically active during the

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Speaker 2: day and then cognitively active, you know, as you sort

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Speaker 2: of engage in those processes of teaching. So I think

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Speaker 2: all of that is going to be part of why

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Speaker 2: they seem to have your much lower rates of dementia

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Speaker 2: than we might than we do over here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I actually went down and lived with the chimane

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Speaker 1: for a little bit from my book Scarcity Brain, and

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Speaker 1: I would tell you there are people I didn't ask

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Speaker 1: them how old they were, but I'm definitely over fifty

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Speaker 1: years old, and they are just like walking around the jungle.

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Speaker 1: They're carrying stuff all day. They're just doing stuff all day.

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Speaker 1: And it was I mean, it was very impressive because

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Speaker 1: they're also not doing it. They're not shuffling around when

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Speaker 1: they do this. I mean they're walking with intention. You're like,

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Speaker 1: if you just saw their movement patterns, you would think

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Speaker 1: as like a twenty five year old American, you know,

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Speaker 1: it was amazing. What is how do you think about

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Speaker 1: using this in your own life. Do you do any

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Speaker 1: open skill sports?

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Speaker 2: My mate, I classify a strong man as an open

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Speaker 2: skill sport. That's that's the that's the sport that I

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Speaker 2: compete in. So I like it because it's it's this,

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Speaker 2: it's this combination of where you require some kind of

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Speaker 2: cardioasca fitness but also strength. But every time you do

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Speaker 2: it there's a different skill involved, and it can like actually,

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Speaker 2: some of the lifts are quite technical, and you know,

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Speaker 2: we were pulling trucks sort lifting out the stones or

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Speaker 2: logs or something like that. It probably, you know, I

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Speaker 2: could probably benefit from some pickleball or something, or a

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Speaker 2: tango class as well. So I won't I won't pretend

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Speaker 2: that it gives me everything, but certainly it's it's it's

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Speaker 2: often a cogressive challenge in addition to a to a

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Speaker 2: physical one.

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Speaker 1: Well, there's also the social component to a lot of

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Speaker 1: these sports. So most a lot of sports you have

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Speaker 1: to have another human being you're doing it with, and

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Speaker 1: the social component seems to be big. I mean, we

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Speaker 1: used to live in this neighborhood that had these pickleball

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Speaker 1: courts and there would just be people hanging out playing

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Speaker 1: pickleball all day. They're having an awesome time. We actually

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Speaker 1: had one lady who brought she might have had a

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Speaker 1: couple too many wines while playing pickleball, and she drove

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Speaker 1: her car onto the pickleball court after, So don't go

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Speaker 1: that crazy. But that's all to say that, like, this

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Speaker 1: is not just moving around playing pickaball. This is like

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Speaker 1: a social event that's happening all the time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that the sports that seems to

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Speaker 2: consistently be associated with better cognition and better quality of

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Speaker 2: life long term do have that, do have that component

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Speaker 2: as parst of them. So one of the reasons why

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Speaker 2: I do strong Man is I compete several times a

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Speaker 2: year and like the same people show up and everybody's

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Speaker 2: cheering each other on and we're all friends and like that,

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Speaker 2: Like having some kind of outlet like that. Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: think is really important. That's awesome.

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Speaker 1: So the TLDR on this is watch Wimbledon and then

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Speaker 1: go find yourself some sort of sport. Ideally you do

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Speaker 1: it with another human, but definitely you want some sort

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Speaker 1: of cognitive challenge that comes in line with it. Absolutely awesome, man,

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Speaker 1: thanks for coming on to talk to us.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: All right, we just talked to Tommy Wood about the

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Speaker 1: benefits of moving while thinking, especially ball sports and other

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Speaker 1: sports that have a mental component. And now we are

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Speaker 1: going to roll right into our very first Ama. I'm

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Speaker 1: excited about this. We are fielding questions from people who

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Speaker 1: have sent them into either the YouTube comments, to media

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Speaker 1: at twopct dot com, or to my substack. So let's

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Speaker 1: get into the first one. This one comes from Brandon Tice.

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Speaker 1: He sent it via email. He asked, how do I

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Speaker 1: stay fit while traveling this summer? So everyone's going to

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Speaker 1: be doing a lot of traveling this summer. You got flights,

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Speaker 1: you got road trips, you're with the family. It is

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Speaker 1: a hectic time to try and figure out how am

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Speaker 1: I going to exercise? Now, there are two ways to

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Speaker 1: think about this. First, the cardio component. You want to

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Speaker 1: maintain your cardio. Cardio is most associated with better health outcomes.

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Speaker 1: And I will tell you this travel is the absolute

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Speaker 1: best time to get in your cardio because you are

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Speaker 1: in a new location. So I would advise at all

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Speaker 1: costs avoid the treadmill. You don't want to be in

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Speaker 1: some dank hotel gym getting your cardio in. No go

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Speaker 1: out and explore the city on foot. That is the

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Speaker 1: absolute best way to experience the city. Two things I'll say.

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Speaker 1: First off is go out early in the morning. I

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Speaker 1: think that's when you really get the pulse of the

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Speaker 1: place you're in. The place is coming alive, whether it's outdoorsy,

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Speaker 1: whether it's a city, people are up and moving. There's

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Speaker 1: just energy. It's fantastic. Second of all, I will say,

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Speaker 1: probably my favorite run I've ever done in my life,

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Speaker 1: it was when I was traveling. I was in New Orleans,

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Speaker 1: went for a super early morning run in the French

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Speaker 1: Quarter and I happened to run down Bourbon Street as

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Speaker 1: they were blasting away all the booze and vomit on

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Speaker 1: the street. Now that may not sound that exciting, but

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Speaker 1: there was something renewing about it. It really got me

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Speaker 1: a sense of New Orleans as a city, and you

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Speaker 1: can find that anywhere you run. Now, for strength, this

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Speaker 1: is where it gets a little more tricky. So I'll

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Speaker 1: say two things. First off, if you are road tripping,

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Speaker 1: I have a good hack for you, and that is

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Speaker 1: to put a sandbag in your vehicle. Now, the reason

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Speaker 1: for that is because, unlike say kettlebells or dumbbells, sandbags

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Speaker 1: are not going to fly around as you take turns

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Speaker 1: and destroy your items or run into your child. The

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Speaker 1: sandbag will just sit dead weight in that trunk and

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Speaker 1: it'll hang out.

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Speaker 2: It's a really great tool.

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Speaker 1: You can basically do everything with the sandbag that you

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Speaker 1: can do with dumbells and more. And then if you

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Speaker 1: are in a hotel and you have to use the

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Speaker 1: hotel gym, I'm going to give hotels a little bit

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Speaker 1: of credit because hotel gyms have gotten so much better

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Speaker 1: over the last twenty years. I remember when I used

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Speaker 1: to travel two decades ago, the hotel gym would be

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Speaker 1: a treadmill stuffed into a closet where they're also storing

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Speaker 1: brooms and mops and stuff like that. But now hotels

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Speaker 1: will have a weight rack. And so then the question is, okay,

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Speaker 1: well what do I actually do when I'm in there?

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Speaker 1: Because you know, I have some dumbbells, it's not the

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Speaker 1: exact stuff I find out my gym. I wrote a

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Speaker 1: post on my substack. It is called the Six Rules

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Speaker 1: of a Good Workout. I would advise you to check

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Speaker 1: out that. That will tell you six rules that you

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Speaker 1: need to follow in order to build a good workout.

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Speaker 1: You really just need to follow six basic movements. You

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Speaker 1: can put those together in different exercises and you will

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Speaker 1: have a killer strength workout no matter where you are.

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Speaker 1: Our next question comes from Jennifer and she submitted this

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Speaker 1: via substack, so thank you Jennifer for reading two percent.

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Speaker 1: She asked, if you could only do one exercise forever,

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Speaker 1: and it can only be one, what would it be.

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Speaker 1: Now here's how I'm going to preface this. When you

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Speaker 1: look at the research on endurance exercise for strength exercise

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Speaker 1: and which is better for health outcomes, endurance exercise seems

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Speaker 1: to win. Endurance exercise seems to be most powerful for

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Speaker 1: our health. Yes, strength is important, but not quite is powerful.

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Speaker 1: So you might think I'm going to tell you to run,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you to cross country spee or something. No,

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Speaker 1: I haven't even better answer. I am gonna say rucking,

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Speaker 1: and that is because rucking is cardio heavy. It's mostly cardio,

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Speaker 1: but it also contains a strength element. So you're gonna

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Speaker 1: kill two birds with just one stone. So to ruck

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Speaker 1: For those who are not familiar, all you got to

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Speaker 1: do is get a backpack and put some weight in it,

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Speaker 1: so you're gonna be walking you're gonna be covering ground.

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Speaker 1: That's gonna get your heart rate up. It's a continuous cardioactivity.

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Speaker 1: But because that backpack has weight in it, you are

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Speaker 1: also going to get a strength effect. It's gonna really

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Speaker 1: work your legs and it's really gonna work your core.

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Speaker 1: And when you look at research on what type of

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Speaker 1: strength is most associated with longevity, leg strength seems to

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Speaker 1: be really really important. Not to mention core strength, that

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Speaker 1: is what's really going to protect your joints and especially

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Speaker 1: your back from long term issues. Not to mention, humans

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Speaker 1: evolve to carry weight. We are the only mammal that

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Speaker 1: can pick up a weight and carry it for distance.

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Speaker 1: We did that for all of time. It shaped our physiology,

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Speaker 1: it shaped our health, Yet we removed it once. We

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Speaker 1: invented cars, baby carriages, wheeled luggage. All these different things

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Speaker 1: remove caring from our life. And I think that if

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Speaker 1: we put it back into our life, we're going to

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Speaker 1: be much better for it. So that's my final answer.

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Speaker 1: If I had to pick one thing, I'm killing two

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Speaker 1: birds with one stone, and I am choosing rucking. All right,

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Speaker 1: Next question. This one came from Harveyilbaum. This one came

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Speaker 1: in through email. The media at twopct dot com email address,

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Speaker 1: he asked, and you're going to see that. This is

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Speaker 1: a sort of follow up from our last question. He asked,

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Speaker 1: when are you restocking patches on the two percent shop?

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Speaker 1: I have good news for you, Harvey. We have completely

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Speaker 1: revamped the two percent shop is at twopct dot shop.

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Speaker 1: We've got new T shirts, we've got new hats. And

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Speaker 1: for those of you who are not in the know

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Speaker 1: about what a ruck patch even is, so a lot

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Speaker 1: of rocking backpacks they have that little velcrow piece. A

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Speaker 1: rock patch goes on those velcrow pieces. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of different ruck patches out there, but ours they are

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Speaker 1: absolutely the best. Check them out, throw them on your

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Speaker 1: pack when you're out for a ruck use that as

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Speaker 1: a reminder to maybe go a little farther, maybe a

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Speaker 1: little faster, and get more out of every step. All right,

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Speaker 1: we're going to.

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Speaker 2: Take a quick break.

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Speaker 1: Then when we get back, we got a question about

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Speaker 1: VO two Max and we'll give you some actionable takeaways.

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Speaker 1: All right, moving on to our fourth question. This one

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Speaker 1: comes from Blake Lyon. This one came in on the substack.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for the question, Blake, How often should I do

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Speaker 1: integral workouts for my VO two max. So for those

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Speaker 1: of you who aren't familiar with VO two max, I'll

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Speaker 1: try and simplify this as best as I can. It's

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Speaker 1: basically a measurement of how much oxygen your body gets

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Speaker 1: while you are exercising, and it happens to be one

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Speaker 1: of the metrics that is most tightly correlated to longevity.

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Speaker 2: Easy way to think.

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Speaker 1: About it, the higher your VO two max, the farther

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Speaker 1: you are from death, and so it's an important number

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Speaker 1: to think about. So then the question is, all right,

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Speaker 1: how do we elevate it? As Blake's question hinted at,

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Speaker 1: interval workouts do seem to really help that there's a catch.

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Speaker 1: So when I publish the Burn the Ship's workouts every month,

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Speaker 1: as I do on two percent, the idea is that

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Speaker 1: we're going to give you one really hard workout a week,

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Speaker 1: but you're only going to do it once. We tend

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Speaker 1: to do it Friday, Saturday or Sunday, all as a

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Speaker 1: big group online. Now, the reason we're doing it only

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Speaker 1: once is because, yes, although interval workouts do seem to

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Speaker 1: be one of the best ways to improve your VO

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Speaker 1: two max, you need those really high spikes and heart rate.

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Speaker 1: The problem is is that they're really taxing on your body.

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Speaker 1: So if you're doing them all the time, it starts

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Speaker 1: to take a real physiological toll. You'll get sort of

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Speaker 1: burnt out. Your recovery will suffer. And so this is

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Speaker 1: why you see a lot of people who get into

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Speaker 1: tons of high intensity work. They start to get run down,

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Speaker 1: they get irritable, restless, the recovery gets messed up. So

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Speaker 1: once a week, where did we get that figure from?

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Speaker 1: You know a lot of things. Science hasn't really studied

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Speaker 1: these things. So what I like to do is I

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Speaker 1: like to go out and I like to talk to

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Speaker 1: the smartest people working in the field who are working

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Speaker 1: with actual human beings, people who are putting hundreds and

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Speaker 1: hundreds of people through programs and really seeing what works.

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Speaker 1: And the smartest practitioners. I've talked to these different trainers

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Speaker 1: who are working with pro teams down to everyday people

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Speaker 1: like you and me. They tell me, once a week

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Speaker 1: is the sweet spot. It allows you to get enough

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Speaker 1: work to elevate that VO two max, to get in

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Speaker 1: some really tough work, but not so much that you're

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Speaker 1: going to get burnt out and beat down. And if

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Speaker 1: you're looking for a good hard workout, I suggest you

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Speaker 1: checked out burn the ships on two percent. That's at

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Speaker 1: twopct dot com. We have lots and lots of good

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Speaker 1: workouts on there. You can do the one we're doing

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Speaker 1: that month, or you can go on the backlog and

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Speaker 1: just find new workouts to try that you'll like. So

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Speaker 1: good luck out there, enjoy the hard workout as you're

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Speaker 1: doing it. You'll hate me, but guess what, you'll be

432
00:21:59,080 --> 00:21:59,639
Speaker 1: better for it.

433
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:00,360
Speaker 2: All right?

434
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:04,480
Speaker 1: Final question? This one is from Lorum Ipsum nineteen seventy,

435
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:06,600
Speaker 1: which is to say this is from a burner account

436
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,320
Speaker 1: came in through YouTube, as all comments on YouTube do

437
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:14,359
Speaker 1: via burner accounts. Question is this, if humans evolve to run,

438
00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:18,000
Speaker 1: why is there such a high injury rate? Okay, I

439
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,199
Speaker 1: think we need to set this question up first with

440
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,480
Speaker 1: a little bit of information. So the idea that humans

441
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:26,400
Speaker 1: evolved to run long distances that came from a two

442
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,320
Speaker 1: thousand and four paper in Nature that was published by

443
00:22:29,359 --> 00:22:32,400
Speaker 1: a guy named Dennis Bramble and Daniel Lieberman. These two

444
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,439
Speaker 1: guys collaborated and what they found is that when you

445
00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 1: look at the human body and why it's built the

446
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,520
Speaker 1: way it is one of the reasons seemed to be

447
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,760
Speaker 1: that we evolved to be really good at long distance running,

448
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 1: especially in the heat, so we sweat so we can

449
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:51,280
Speaker 1: cool ourselves. We move on two feet, and we are

450
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,000
Speaker 1: really unique in the animal kingdom in terms of how

451
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:57,880
Speaker 1: far of distances we can cover at a slow pace,

452
00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 1: especially while in the heat. So when that paper came out,

453
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,120
Speaker 1: it eventually led to the publishing of a book that

454
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 1: was called Born to Run, and that book looked at

455
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,760
Speaker 1: that paper argued that humans evolved to run long distances.

456
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,240
Speaker 1: Then it made an argument that because we have built

457
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 1: these overcushioned shoes, that is hurting our running and blah

458
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,359
Speaker 1: blah blah, doing all these terrible things. And so that

459
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,400
Speaker 1: author he traveled to meet a tribe in Mexico that's

460
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:28,480
Speaker 1: called the Tarahumara tribe, and he argued that these people

461
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,920
Speaker 1: run barefoot, just like humans should. They run all the time,

462
00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:35,520
Speaker 1: they're super athletes, and they never ever get injured. Therefore

463
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,159
Speaker 1: everyone else should be running barefoot and we won't get injured. Well,

464
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,080
Speaker 1: it turns out that wasn't entirely true. When anthropologists go

465
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,160
Speaker 1: down there and live with those tribes for extended periods

466
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 1: of time. They find two things. First of all, is

467
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,920
Speaker 1: that those tribes do, in fact get injured after these

468
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:54,879
Speaker 1: really long runs they do, which can be up to

469
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:58,360
Speaker 1: fifty miles. Afterwards, everyone in the tribe who's done the run,

470
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 1: they're hobbling around. They're complaining that or knees hurt, my

471
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 1: hips hurt. They're just like us. The second thing that

472
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 1: was really interesting about that is that they don't actually

473
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,600
Speaker 1: run for exercise. They're running more as a form of ceremony.

474
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:13,560
Speaker 1: There's more a mental component to the running. So there

475
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:16,159
Speaker 1: were some iffy things about that, But I think what

476
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 1: we can say is that tribe generally gets injured less

477
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 1: often per mile than we do. And then the question becomes, okay,

478
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: well why might that be. So when you look at

479
00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:30,919
Speaker 1: the injury rate of recreational runners in the United States,

480
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 1: it finds that anywhere from twenty to seventy nine percent

481
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: of runners get injured every year. Twenty to seventy nine percent. One,

482
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 1: that's an insane range. But two, I think we can

483
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 1: say that, yeah, running has a pretty high injury rate.

484
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,160
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you've experienced this yourself, if you've ever

485
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: taken up running and all of a sudden your knees hurt, Yeah,

486
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:51,400
Speaker 1: that's you. Or if you know someone who says, yeah,

487
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 1: I can't run anymore, it hurts my knees like people

488
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:56,440
Speaker 1: get injured running. We all know this. So why is that?

489
00:24:56,840 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 1: I think there are four key reasons that this happens.

490
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 1: First of is that we run on really hard surfaces.

491
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,119
Speaker 1: So when you think about it from an evolutionary context,

492
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:09,120
Speaker 1: we were running outside on dirt and on grass. Those

493
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: are much softer surfaces. So when we take our running

494
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: to concrete, that's going to put a lot more impact

495
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,440
Speaker 1: on your joints every stride, and that tends to make

496
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 1: them irritable over time. Now, the second reason, we are

497
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 1: much larger people than we were in the past. If

498
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,200
Speaker 1: you look at these tribes that do a lot of

499
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,440
Speaker 1: running and tend to have slightly lower injury rates, they

500
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:32,880
Speaker 1: weigh on average like one hundred and twenty pounds. They're

501
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,800
Speaker 1: just much smaller people people in the West. As we

502
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: started getting better nutrition, better public health practices, we started

503
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,879
Speaker 1: to get much bigger. So the average American today weighs

504
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:47,199
Speaker 1: anywhere between one hundred and seventy pounds to two hundred pounds.

505
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 1: Well even one hundred years ago, the average American probably

506
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 1: weighed one hundred and thirty pounds one hundred and forty pounds.

507
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 1: So now when you run with these bigger frames, that's

508
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:57,760
Speaker 1: going to be putting a lot more impact on your

509
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: joint every stride, and you might have some new problems,

510
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: some hit problems, et CETERA. Third reason is that we

511
00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:06,840
Speaker 1: are a lot more sedentary than we were in the past.

512
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,800
Speaker 1: So in the past, we were walking all the time.

513
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 1: We were putting our bodies in all these different positions

514
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,360
Speaker 1: like squatting, like kneeling, so our joints were moving through

515
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 1: a full range of motion. We were constantly sort of

516
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 1: giving them this low level impacts that would strengthen them

517
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 1: over time. And then we started working behind desks and

518
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: we sat in one position all day. We didn't give

519
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 1: our joints these tiny impacts they need to get stronger.

520
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:29,919
Speaker 1: And then we go out and we go you know what,

521
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,879
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run a really high impact activity and bam,

522
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,399
Speaker 1: problems tend to set in. And then fourth of all,

523
00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: this is the final part of this multi part answer,

524
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,360
Speaker 1: is that now that we sit and we decide, hey,

525
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,120
Speaker 1: I'm going to go out and run, we often pick

526
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: up marathon programs or half marathon programs that just give

527
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 1: us way too much running, way too soon. So people

528
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: will pick, say a twenty four week marathon program a

529
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: sixteen week marathon program. They have to go from zero

530
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 1: to doing a ton of running all at once. But

531
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:02,959
Speaker 1: your body takes way more time to adapt to all

532
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 1: those impacts than you're going to have for that sixteen

533
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 1: week or twenty four week program. So I think one

534
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 1: answer to that. One way to get around that is

535
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:14,879
Speaker 1: to if you're going to do a marathon, start training

536
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 1: a year in advance and only increase your weekly mileage

537
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:21,879
Speaker 1: by ten percent nas ideally five percent every week. Just

538
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 1: slowly ramp into your running, and your problems are probably

539
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: not going to arise like they would had you dove

540
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 1: in headfirst. We're done with our official serious questions, but

541
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 1: we always leave room for something real stupid around here,

542
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:39,320
Speaker 1: which brings us to our Department of ridiculous Questions. This

543
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 1: time we are answering a very important question, which is

544
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: what is the difference between a sport and a game? Now,

545
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 1: this question originally arose when I was in college. After

546
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:51,919
Speaker 1: a few drinks in a dorm room, someone asked that

547
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,679
Speaker 1: simple question, what is the difference between a sport and

548
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 1: a game. A heated debate ensued, and here's what we

549
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:02,400
Speaker 1: landed on. Sports are generally more high paced. Games are not. Now,

550
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: of course, we could probably calculate that via some scientific

551
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,640
Speaker 1: formula where we look at energy expenditure over time, where

552
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:12,760
Speaker 1: we look at all these complicated metrics. But my answer

553
00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:16,480
Speaker 1: to this question is far, far simpler, and I think

554
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,639
Speaker 1: it's more accurate. The difference between a sport and a

555
00:28:19,680 --> 00:28:24,640
Speaker 1: game is that you can play games while smoking a cigarette.

556
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 1: You cannot play sports while smoking a cigarette. So if

557
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 1: we look at sports and games, basketball that's a sport,

558
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 1: Football that's a sport, track and field that's a sport.

559
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,960
Speaker 1: You could not smoke a cigarette while playing any of

560
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: those sports. So what are games? Golf? Golf is a game, Bowling.

561
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 2: Bowling is a game. Corn hole.

562
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: Cornhole is a game. You could easily smoke a cigarette

563
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: while playing those games. Now, baseball, I would argue, is

564
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 1: mostly a game because I think you could. I think

565
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 1: you could smoke a cigarette while playing baseball most of

566
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: the time. So there's an answer that gives you nothing

567
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 1: in life, but hopefully makes you think, all right, thanks

568
00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: for listening to the episode. We're gonna have another AMA

569
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:07,200
Speaker 1: coming at you soon, so if you've got questions, send

570
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 1: them to media at twopct dot com or drop them

571
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments. You can do that with a

572
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: Burner account, just like Lauren Ibsen does. We like that,

573
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,400
Speaker 1: no judgment at all. As always, we are in your

574
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 1: feed twice a week, so please keep an eye out

575
00:29:21,560 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 1: for more. Please hit subscribe. That way you'll get those updates.

576
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:28,200
Speaker 1: You'll know exactly when those episodes hit your podcast app

577
00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 1: or your YouTube. Check out the iHeart app. It is free,

578
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: it's got a video coming to you, and as always,

579
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:37,400
Speaker 1: have fun, don't die, and if you're gonna play a game,

580
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe don't smoke a cigarette