Natural Anti-Aging Lollapalooza: HIT, HOP, & DECAF

If you are skeptical of the many “unnatural” substances promoted promising anti-aging, you are in the right place. Personally, I aim to keep things as natural as possible. Is there a natural way to look younger, feel younger, and generally kick butt at life? I believe we can input a few simple activities that will activate a younger and stronger you. This is my natural anti-aging Lollapalooza.

What the heck is a Lollapalooza?

If you’d like to explore the Lollapalooza in depth Read Page 57 of “Poor Charlie’s Almanack” by Charles T. Munger as he originally coined the term.

This quote by Henry Emerson nails it down well… “Of course, the term Munger has coined for factors which reinforce and greatly amplify each other is “Lollapalooza Effect.” (Page 57 of "Poor Charlie’s Almanack” by Charles T. Munger.)

To put it simply, in my mind the “Lollapalooza” definition is when many different factors come together in a favorable way to produce astronomical results. It is interesting that in any endeavor multiple factors play a role in your final results. Surely, you have experienced a favorable or unfavorable “Lollapalooza” or two during your life.

Through the years you start to piece things together and experiment. You observe and study the results. You toss out many ideas and concepts as they don’t pass the acid test. For years, I have been obsessed with physical strength, performance, and conditioning. In the last few years, I have noticed becoming more interested in natural anti-aging in addition to human performance.

In a nutshell, how do we feel amazing, look younger, and operate like a high performance machine without introducing any synthetic substances to help us along. I believe that through many fortunate interactions that the natural anti-aging Lollapalooza formed. I’d love to share my thoughts on this with you today. These solutions have proven successful for many and are not terribly expensive to employ. Let’s dive in!

HIT

The first thing that helps with looking and feeling better is working out. I know your thinking “of course” a fitness guy would say that. Most importantly is not that we should workout, but how. How you are working out makes all the difference.

Many times in the gym I feel like the only sober person in a room full of drunks. The well-meaning masses read a couple magazines or get on the internet and think they have the master plan to fitness. They go into the gym and by a comedy of errors train in a manner that severely overtrains them and they eventually reach burn out and quit. Don’t believe me? Research gym retention rates and you will see this is a mainstream phenomenon.

The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) proposed by Hans Selye shows how people are smoking themselves in and out of the gym. I will aim to put the real world example next to it for better comprehension.

GAS = Alarm Phase -> Resistance Phase -> Exhaustion Phase

Phase 1 Alarm Phase - Alright I found it! The most HARDCORE training program that the Hollywood actors use. It promises a drastic change in a few weeks. I am going to get so fit! I’m ready to crush it in the gym! This is peak motivation and hubris.

Phase 2 Resistance Phase - Motivation started out sky high and now it begins to dwindle. Overtraining is starting to rear it’s ugly head. Aches and pains are appearing out of nowhere. Excitement turns into dread. Since the stressor (too much exercising) is too high get ready the collapse is near!

Phase 3 Exhaustion Phase - Overtraining fully sets in. The weights feel heavier as the person is actually getting weaker at this point. They fool themselves thinking that doing more lighter sets will do something. It doesn’t and makes it worse. Motivation plummets to a new low. They are experiencing a weakened immune system and multiple aches and pains. The body and mind knows that something must change and motivation disappears no matter how much caffeine they drink. They are losing lean muscle mass and the ugly body fat sticks and stays. Their stress hormone Cortisol is chronically elevated which cascades into many major problems. Finally, they give up and quit. The problem was not the person it was the method they chose.

Don’t fret! There is a much better way! Let me introduce you to HIT aka High Intensity Training. This is resistance training done right and is edified by Exercise Science. I often quip to my clients "we aren't reading tea leaves here" since there is no guesswork in productive exercise. The concept is simple to grasp and agrees with common sense.

Principle #1: Threaten

Your body is a very smart organism. It does not want to add metabolically expensive lean muscle mass. This is because lean muscle mass burns Calories (i.e. energy) around the clock. When I say “Muscle is Metabolism” I ain’t kidding! The body knows this so it does not really want to add muscle unless it deems it vital for future survival. The optimal way to build lean muscle mass and strength is to severely THREATEN the body. If you never train at a sufficient intensity, your body laughs off the event and does not signal it needs the muscle and strength to tackle that event again. This is similar to thinking you’ll get a beautiful tan sitting under the moon all night slathering tanning oil on. It won’t work because you don’t have the required intensity.

Principle #2: One Set To Failure

The best way to guarantee you have properly threatened the body enough to actually change is to perform ONE SET TO FAILURE. This can be done very safely after a few warm-up sets and by utilizing a slow and controlled rep cadence. By performing every rep in a slow and controlled manner this makes your training a High Intensity, Low Force endeavor which is an extremely safe way to workout. A win-win: optimal results and very low risk of injury.

Principle #3: Full Recovery & Supercompensation

You don’t get stronger while in the gym working out. You actually get stronger during the recovery and supercompensation phases outside of the gym. Naturally, if you are training with a high intensity your workouts will be short, brief, and infrequent. You hit it hard and get out of the gym to let the magic happen. Magic = Full Recovery & Supercompensation. By eating a sufficient, balanced diet and giving your body time is the only way to fully adapt from the stressor of a productive training session. Never cut your recovery time short or you will go backwards and slip into overtraining.

“High-intensity exercise is necessary to bring about the foregoing positive metabolic adaptations. Fortunately, the intensity level of high-effort muscular work requires only a brief duration of such exercise.”

Quote from "Body By Science" by Doug McGuff & John Little, Page 34

Your mantra for productive HIT resistance training: Get in the gym, hit it hard, get out of there and fully recover. Once or twice per week is sufficient for most.

The vast majority of people experience a more youthful appearance, better attitude, and improved body composition after introducing High Intensity Resistance Training performed in the correct manner. As the Lollapalooza builds, you will see the multiple models work together for your benefit.

HOP

This next major player in the Lollapalooza I learned from my personal training client. The first few weeks I worked with her I realized something was different. Despite being a senior citizen, she was extremely sure-footed and looked much younger than her age. I took notice and starting asking questions about her activities. She had done high intensity resistance training in her past. Check. But there is another thing I had never considered. She said she hopped and jogged on a little trampoline. For about a year, I put the idea on the shelf.

I mentioned this to my dad and he had a story about a lady in her 90’s that was physically fit enough to participate in a promotional helicopter ride. Kind of cool considering many don’t see age 90 and she was getting to ride around in a helicopter. Dad and his friends wondered what her secret to aging was and she said she hopped on a little trampoline for exercise. Interesting. A double witness should have been suffice.

I know God loves me, but He knows I can be a little stubborn and thick headed at times. So he sent me yet another client that is a sharp, intelligent lady with a background in human performance and she told me again the MANY benefits of hopping on a little trampoline also called rebounding.

Finally, I said what the heck is all this about! I put on my investigator hat and starting looking around and reading all I could on rebounding. I found a study NASA did for astronauts and many other enlightening experiences people had utilizing hopping on a little trampoline. I ordered a little trampoline and started “Health Hopping” to gain a personal experience.

The main thing that put me over the edge was how the simple act of hopping helps stimulate your Lymphatic system to drain/circulate to help boost your immune system. This helps your body to quickly fight infections and other troubling attacks by having Lymph circulating optimally. When you hop up and down on the trampoline this action and g-forces help to stimulate your Lymph circulation. Who doesn’t like the idea of a potentially stronger immune system in this day and age of rampant sickness?

I have very long legs and I discovered how your calf muscles serve as a second heart by helping the body to pump the blood up and out of your legs back towards your heart. The hopping helps to boost full body circulation which can help prevent varicose veins and lower leg swelling amongst other things.

The mini trampoline aka rebounder is a superb tool for improving your balance and proprioception. Your feet strengthen and your awareness of your body’s movements in space climbs drastically. This explains the sure-footedness I witnessed with my client.

Last but not least, the act of hopping stimulates the muscles in your face (which is hard to do leading a normal life) and this can serve as a natural face lift. Your face will appear more youthful due to this combined with improved circulation.

The greatest thing about the mini trampoline is that you can receive these monstrous benefits and do so in a very low impact manner. Personally, I do my health hopping for about 3-5 minutes once or twice a day. I love doing it first thing in the morning as it has replaced my morning coffee (more on that later) and makes me feel fantastic and energized ready to tackle the day.

The mini trampoline serves as a low impact, active recovery so it does not interfere with your HIT resistance training. If you don’t overdo it you won’t need to worry about it hampering your recovery reserves.

Hopefully, you can grasp how exceptional this is faster than I did and start health hopping right away. Health hopping on a little trampoline aka rebounder is a pillar in the Natural Anti-Aging Lollapalooza. I can tell you that you will notice a difference.

DECAF

This last pillar is a tough one as it took me years to finally take the leap off of the stimulant bandwagon. In America, caffeine is part of our culture. Many people cannot quit caffeine. I first became addicted to it when in high school I would drink a highly caffeinated pre-workout drink before lifting weights. It was like a ritual. Somewhere in college I tried coffee and other energy drinks. I was a promotor of many caffeinated products for about a decade. It’s weird, but when you are in your twenties you can get away with using lots of stimulants. Caffeine became a part of my life just like so many people I know.

It wasn’t until I heard from a reputable person that it can take up to 5 cups of mineralized water to rehydrate your body for every one cup of coffee. 5 to 1. Wait, what? I started to realize that most of the water I drank was “catch up” water for my caffeine habit. “Catch up” water does not hydrate you it is undoing the damage from the diuretic effects of the stimulant, namely caffeine. It is getting you back to the baseline.

A few years ago, I read a nutrition book called the “Mormon Diet” by Earl Updike as I wanted to know why most Mormons do not drink caffeine. I noticed that the majority of Mormons looked young, energetic, and healthy. Not being a Mormon, I was curious of their thoughts on the subject. Oddly, the book did not go into the depths of why they avoided caffeine. However, there were many good ideas and thoughts in the book. Many of which Nancy and I utilize today with our own nutrition.

Another reason I wanted to explore why most Mormons don’t drink caffeine was because I noticed that there are a good amount of Mormons who excel in athletics despite making up a small percentage of the population. I wondered if living without caffeine could increase sports performance through improved fine motor skills.

In the past, I had a very reputable putting instructor for golf and he told me way back then I needed to quit caffeine as it was messing up my putting stroke. I thought I couldn’t quit and didn’t at the time. I know now, he was 100% correct!

All these past experience factors were lingering in the back of my mind. I was also wanting to sleep the best I could as sleep is the very best medicine.

Finally, I took the plunge by slowly drifting my caffeine consumption down over time. I was too chicken to go cold turkey (nice bird pun). When I completely stopped I had an enormous headache for three days. Day two and three were the worst.

It turns out that caffeine restricts blood flow to the brain by roughly 30% and that headache was my veins returning to normal size and flow. I like to think I am 30% smarter too, but who knows.

Within a few days I noticed a nice, daylong energy without any ups and downs. My skin felt much more hydrated. I am happy to report, my sleep has transformed from a circus of tosses and turns to extremely deep and sound sleep.

It’s a self-fulfilling cycle: Deeper Sleep -> More Energy -> Deeper Sleep -> More Energy.

This winning strategy helps reduce stress and Cortisol which compliments the other two pillars HIT & HOP. An unstoppable synergy builds forming the Lollapalooza!

This is my personal experience and everyone should do what is best for their situation. I can confidently state that ditching caffeine for good is the final pillar of my Natural Anti-Aging Lollapalooza.

DECAF Benefits:

• Better skin with less fine lines

• Increased blood flow

• Enhanced full body hydration

• Deeper sleep

• Sustained natural energy

• Reduced blood pressure

• Improved nutrient absorption

• More precise fine motor skills

• Financial savings from not buying caffeinated products

HIT, HOP, & DECAF Lollapalooza

The Natural Anti-Aging Lollapalooza is born! HIT, HOP, & DECAF. These independent, life-changing models combine and work together forming a powerful anti-aging regimen. Anyone over the age of 30 can consider these ideas, consult with your physician to get the green light, and start living optimally! Expect to feel energized, strong, and vibrant by employing these ideas into your life. I hope you found something that will add value to your life from this blog post.

Thank you for reading! Until next time!

Beau Bradbury CSCS, CPT