Beyond Training : Mastering Endurance, Health and Life

550 Pages·2014·4.69 MB·English

by  Ben, Greenfield

First Published in 2014 by Victory Belt Publishing, Inc.

Copyright © Ben Greenfield

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or
retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9781628600476

The author is not a licensed practitioner, physician, or medical professional and
offers no medical treatments, diagnoses, suggestions, or counseling. The
information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any
disease. Full medical clearance from a licensed physician should be obtained
before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or lifestyle program, and
physicians should be informed of all nutritional changes.

The author/owner claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any
liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a
result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented
herein.

RRD 0114

This book is for every high achiever, exercise enthusiast,
weekend warrior, gym junkie, biohacker, and health nut
who wants to achieve amazing feats of physical, mental,
and lifestyle performance without destroying their body,

mind, and life.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The inspiration for this book came from the readers and listeners of

BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Every day, your honest questions, creative feedback,
and committed engagement helped me realize that all of you have amazing
physical goals that you want achieve—and, to your credit, you really don’t want
to destroy your bodies, your families, and your lives in the process. You are the
reason I do what I do.

Thanks also to my wife, Jessa, who is an amazing woman, superhero mother,

pillar of support, and warm body for me to hug when I’m stressed out about
chapter deadlines or writer’s block. I am not sure if I should thank her for
cooking, because I probably would have written this book much sooner if I
hadn’t been pulled away to the dinner table by her nightly presentations of
aromatic cuisine.

Thanks to my twin boys, River and Terran, who are fully responsible for any

typos you may find in this book, as finding the proper letter on a keyboard is
more difficult when being attacked by two armed and caped villains who want to
engage you in brutal wrestling matches.

Thanks to my parents, who taught me how to read, write, and spell (literally

—I was homeschooled) and also served as chaperones and sponsors for tennis,
soccer, basketball, running, bicycling, weightlifting, and any other sport I
begged to do.

Thanks to Brock Armstrong, my sidekick on the podcast and trusted go-to

man for strange tasks; to Eleanor Pell, who helped me with research and
citations, which I’m notoriously bad at; to Trevor Parks, my Facebook and social
media ninja; to Marge Aberasturi, my right-hand personal assistant; to Jake
Perrin, my awesome web dude; and to the team at Victory Belt for making this
book beautiful.

Thanks to all the mentors, coaches, and teachers who have taught me about

fitness, nutrition, and healthy living—Rafael Escamilla, Kathy Browder, PZ
Pearce, Roby Mitchell, David Minkoff, Todd Schlapfer, Nora Gedgaudas, Phil
Maffetone, Dave Asprey, Peter Attia, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Roger
Drummer, Jeffrey Spencer, Tim Noakes—this list could go on and on. Please

Drummer, Jeffrey Spencer, Tim Noakes—this list could go on and on. Please
never underestimate the power of sharing your knowledge—it certainly made a
difference in my life.

And, of course, thanks once again to you. You inspire many, many people

when you decide to achieve your dream. And I’m one of them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD by Chris McCormack

PREFACE: Is Exercise Unhealthy?

INTRODUCTION: How I Went from Overtraining and Eating Bags of Thirty-
Nine-Cent Hamburgers to Detoxing My Body and Doing Sub-Ten-Hour
Ironmans with Less Than Ten Hours of Training a Week

Part 1. FITNESS

CHAPTER 1: A Tale of Two Triathletes: Can Exercise Make You Age Faster?

CHAPTER 2: Everything You Need to Know About Heart Rate Zones

CHAPTER 3: The Two Best Ways to Build Endurance as Fast as Possible
(without Destroying Your Body)

CHAPTER 4: Underground Training Tactics for Enhancing Endurance

CHAPTER 5: The Five Essential Elements of an Endurance-Training Program
That Most Athletes Neglect

Part 2. RECOVERY

CHAPTER 6: How the Underrecovery Monster Is Eating Up Your Precious
Training Time

CHAPTER 7: Twenty-Five Ways to Know with Laserlike Accuracy if Your
Body Is Truly Recovered and Ready to Train

CHAPTER 8: Twenty-Six Top Ways to Recover from Workouts and Injuries
with Lightning Speed

CHAPTER 9: The Seven Best Ways to Beat a Hidden Killer That Sabotages
Your Recovery

CHAPTER 10: Everything You Need to Know to Sleep Better, Eliminate
Insomnia, Conquer Jet Lag, and Master the Nap

Part 3. NUTRITION

CHAPTER 11: Forty Easy Meals for Busy Athletes: How to Fuel Your Body
with the Thousands of Calories Needed for Endurance and Extreme Exercise
without Destroying Your Metabolism

CHAPTER 12: What Two Five-Year-Old Boys Can Teach You About How to
Track Calories and Log Your Diet the Right Way

CHAPTER 13: How Much Carbohydrate, Protein, and Fat You Need to Stay
Lean, Stay Sexy, and Perform Like a Beast

CHAPTER 14: The Zen of Customizing Your Diet to Your Unique Body and
Goals

CHAPTER 15: Nine Bad Things That Happen When Digestion Goes Awry,
How to Hit the Reboot Button on Your Gut, and the Best Way to Detox Your
Body

CHAPTER 16: The Truth About Eating Before, During, and After Workouts and
Races

CHAPTER 17: The Twenty-One Best Kitchen Tools, Grocery Shopping Guides,
Cookbooks, Websites, and Local Resources for Fueling Your Active Lifestyle

Part 4. LIFESTYLE

CHAPTER 18: How to Protect Your Body from the Ten Hidden Killers in Your
Home

CHAPTER 19: The Zen of Getting Über-Fit without Neglecting Your Friends,
Your Family, and Your Career

CHAPTER 20: My Top Ten Time-Saving and Productivity Tips—Including
How to Quit Mowing Your Lawn

Part 5. THE BRAIN

CHAPTER 21: Two Ways Your Brain Breaks and Exactly What You Can Do

About It: Fixing Neurotransmitter Dysfunction

CHAPTER 22: Twenty-One Ways to Hack Your Brain: A Complete Guide to
Enhancing Your Brainpower, Creativity, Focus, Motivation, and IQ

CHAPTER 23: Ten Rules for Becoming an Ancestral Athlete

CHAPTER 24: Closing Thoughts and Additional Resources

FIGURE CREDITS

FOREWORD

I’ve had a huge passion for fitness and endurance ever since I was a young

boy. As a fifteen-year-old, I could tell you all about the brutality of the Kona
lava fields, where the legendary Ironman Hawaii takes place. I knew about the
freezing cold waters of San Francisco Bay faced by the athletes in the Escape
from Alcatraz triathlon. I could look you in the eye and tell you with absolute
conviction that Ironman Europe in Roth, Germany, was the toughest Ironman to
win because the Europeans raced so well at home.

I knew all the winners of the famous Wildflower Triathlon in California, the

bike-record times on the Chicago course, and the fact that the “big four” really
should have been the “big five,” with the inclusion of the great Mike Pigg. There
was nothing about this sport I didn’t know, and I had a thirst for information like
nothing else. I was not only a fitness fanatic, but also a triathlon geek, and no
sport in the world meant more to me.

I still have that same thirst for knowledge. From the time I became a pro

triathlete and began winning the races in all those cities I read about as a boy,
I’ve spent countless hours with the best physiologists and sports scientists in the
world, in Australian heat chambers and on the toughest racecourses you can
imagine, learning and soaking up the most cutting-edge information I could find.

And through that process I’ve discovered that what happens in the lab does

not always correlate with the realities of what happens out in the field. Many
things look great on paper (or on a computer screen), but keeping an open mind,
adapting, and spending time on the ground (or in the water!) have led me to a
path of success that has often not been supported or accepted by the sports and
nutrition powers that be.

Now, I don’t have anything against science. It’s a great place to start. But

science does not offer one-size-fits-all solutions. That’s why practical
application matters. Unfortunately, many people put all their faith in lab
numbers, but the on-the-battlefield results and trial-and-error experiences are far
more accurate, and you need to dial the science in for each individual.
Endurance racing and extreme fitness are relatively new ventures for
humankind, and we are learning amazing things about the body and mind every

humankind, and we are learning amazing things about the body and mind every
day. So it takes more than stale numbers, heart rates, and thresholds to determine
performance. It also takes paying attention to your own body, experimentation,
and the willingness to think beyond commonly accepted training or nutrition or
lifestyle practices.

Perhaps this is why, in twenty-five years of racing, I have never had an injury.

This is unheard of at the professional Ironman triathlete level. Not a knee
problem, a stress fracture, or a pulled muscle. Nada. People have diagnosed this
as good genetics, but I suspect otherwise. I think it’s because I have focused on
understanding my body, on building a solid foundation of functional muscle, on
perfecting fitness first, on not neglecting nutrition, and then building backward
into all the swimming, bicycling, and running once my body was ready for it.

It’s this kind of unorthodox, outside-the-box thinking that got me excited

about Ben Greenfield’s new book, Beyond Training. I’ve known Ben for a
while, and for the past year he’s been the nutrition and strength-training expert
of our triathlon team at MaccaX. So I’ve always respected his opinion and loved
the crucial training concepts he contributes to the field of health, fitness,
nutrition, and endurance.

But I have to admit that this book you’re holding in your hands takes

practical, real-world, time-in-the-trenches thinking to a whole other level—
above and beyond anything I’ve ever read on websites or in magazines, manuals,
and training plans. It’s not often I come across a training manual that teaches
you how to eliminate chronic pain, balance your hormones, detox your body,
maximize fat-burning efficiency, and even hack your brain waves. Most of the
time, the focus is just on performance and beating up the body—and not on all
the different components of true, whole-body fitness that Ben ties together using
simple language.

And there’s something else, too. See, as I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that

there are critical aspects of health that are often ignored in training literature—
like taking care of your digestive system, considering the antiaging capabilities
of your skin so you don’t wind up looking like an elephant from spending so
much time in the sun, figuring out which personal-care products aren’t harmful,
and even tweaking your workouts so you’re more efficient and can spend quality
time on family, friends, your career, or other hobbies. I was excited to see that
Ben takes these critical aspects of whole-body health into consideration, too.

Ultimately, as the tagline of Beyond Training says, this truly is the last book

you’ll ever need in order to master endurance, health, and life. You’re about to
take a huge step forward in learning how to achieve amazing feats of physical
performance without destroying your body. I hope you enjoy this epic read as
much as I did.

Cheers, and be healthy,

Chris “Macca” McCormack

BeyondTrainingBook.com/MaccaX

As a professional Ironman triathlete and the author of the book I’m Here to
Win, Chris has won more than 200 races around the world since 1993,
including twelve Ironman triathlon victories, more than any other male athlete.
He is a five-time International Triathlete of the Year, a four-time Competitor of
the Year, and has been named the World’s Fittest Man by ESPN.

PREFACE

Is Exercise Unhealthy?

Athletes are unhealthy.
I’m just sayin’.
Sure, on the outside we exercise enthusiasts and gym junkies may look like

pristine, spandex-clad Greek gods and goddesses dominating Ironman events,
CrossFit Games, Spartan Races, and ultramarathons, but on the inside we’ve got
depleted hormones, overstressed hearts, and damaged guts from our physically
demanding lifestyle.

I first began to realize how damaging exercise—especially endurance

exercise—can be when I attended a lecture by Dr. James O’Keefe, Jr., a
cardiologist from the Mid America Heart Institute at Saint Luke’s Hospital in
Kansas City, Missouri, at a 2012 event called the Ancestral Health Symposium.
O’Keefe reported on findings that exercise can be harmful, especially long,
exhausting cardio efforts, such as racing in extreme endurance events like an
Ironman. (These findings, along with many other resources for this preface, can
be found in the link provided at the end of this preface.)

During his talk, O’Keefe reviewed many studies of physically active people,

including those who trained for, and raced in, endurance sports, such as
marathons, triathlons, ultramarathons, and long cycling events. Not surprisingly,
the people who exercised regularly experienced significant benefits, including
living seven years longer than those who weren’t physically active.

But when the data of extreme endurance athletes was isolated, it was found

that the health benefits of regular physical activity were less pronounced and that
significant heart damage resulted.

Specifically, the completion of an event like an Ironman (or even just a

marathon) was shown to cause structural heart changes and elevations of
“cardiac inflammatory biomarkers.” These markers are a pretty dang good
indication that your heart has caught fire.

The heart generally returns to normal within a week after completing a tough

endurance workout or race. But for those who frequently compete in such events
(as most triathletes, runners, and endurance athletes do), the result can be
repetitive cardiac injury over days, months, even years. This can lead to serious

repetitive cardiac injury over days, months, even years. This can lead to serious
heart issues, such as atrial fibrosis (thickening and scarring of the heart’s
connective tissue), interventricular septum (holes in the heart), increased
susceptibility to atrial and ventricular arrhythmias (abnormal heartbeat), and
calcium buildup in the arteries (which increases the potential for plaque
formation and subsequent heart attack).

The distance-running legend Micah True—better known as Caballo Blanco in

the book Born to Run—died on a trail run, apparently from cardiomyopathy.
True is just one of many seasoned endurance athletes who have suffered sudden
cardiac events during exercise. Marathoner Ryan Shay and Ironman Steve
Larsen are in that group, and Ironman Torbjorn Sindalle was recently forced into
early retirement because of premature wearing of his bicuspid valve.

Want more examples? They abound.

Eddy Merckx, “the greatest cyclist of all time,” had a nonobstructive
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy—a genetic condition in which the heart
muscle thickens abnormally, causing shortness of breath, chest pain,
palpitations, light-headedness, fatigue, and fainting. This condition is
actually the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes.
Hamish Carter, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in triathlon, suffered
atrial fibrillation (rapid heart rate) due to heart scarring.
Emma Carney, a former professional triathlete and two-time Triathlon
World Champion, experienced cardiac arrest in 2004, was diagnosed with
ventricular tachycardia (electrical abnormality in the heart), and has a
pacemaker.
Samantha Warriner, a professional triathlete, developed ventricular
tachycardia, but, thanks to electrical ablation therapy (which destroys small
areas in the heart that are causing trouble), she is still racing.
Greg Welch, a multiple Triathlon World Champion, developed ventricular
tachycardia and underwent nine open-heart surgeries between 2001 and
2003.
Hayden Roulston, a professional cyclist, was diagnosed with a potentially
fatal heart arrhythmia, but he’s still racing.
Normann Stadler, a two-time Ironman World Champion, experienced
heart-valve failure and had an aortic aneurysm (in which the main artery
from the heart balloons and “explodes”).

Based on the data collected by O’Keefe, it appears that the cardiac

remodeling induced by excessive exercise can lead to heart-rhythm
abnormalities and, especially in extreme endurance sports, has been associated