Stress can be a good thing.

Yesterday we talked about nutrition, our foundation for everything.
So today I would like to talk about the next step to our healthier and more productive lifestyle.
It’s putting yourself under a stress situation. Most of you will be like:
” Fine, I’m stressed out because of work, does that mean that I’m getting healthier?”

HELL NO!

I am talking about the good kind of stress (yes, it exists!)

The good and the bad stress

The bad stress is called “distress”
Here’s a example for distress :

You’re sleeping well and deep, the bed was feeling so comfy before going to sleep, but suddenly a loud and nasty BEEP BEEP BEEP is pulling you out of your sweet dreams.
You look at the clock, the alarm has rang like 5 times before and you haven’t heard it.
Now you’ve got like 15 minutes to brush your teeth, shower and get to work. You know you will never arrive at time and your boss will release some stress in you too when you get there.
This would be distress.

But now let’s talk about this smooth, good stress -> EUSTRESS

How eustress can make eu stronger

The best example for eustress would be a good and healthy workout (yes working out can be pretty unhealthy, if you’re doing it wrong).
You’re putting your body under a pressure situation you created yourself.
You rep out on the squats, do a little bit of core work and maybe you’re up to a quick cycling session.
Now you’ve damaged your muscles, activated your cardio vascular system, but somehow you feel great after moving the weight’s.

First, you had enough will to conquer the workout, so you feel good because you have achieved your goal.
Second, your body releases endorphins after exercise (good ol’ runners high), so your own biochemistry is making you feel good because of them.

There are so many other benefits of working out like : better absorption of nutrients, minimzing the chance of cardio vascular diseases, increasing physical and mental strength, sleeping better, and and and.
Just ask our buddy google, you could create a long list when you write all the benefits down.

Other examples for eustress would be :
Cold showers, sauna, learning new skills you would like to achieve, doing something you are afraid of (sometimes)

So please tell us the science behind getting stronger!

I’ll try to keep it short.

With your workout, you’re doing damage to your body. In phases of recovery, your body will repair itself and come back even stronger (more muscle cells, more efficient nervous system). This process is called supercompensation.
If you are sleeping like 4 hours at night and only eat junk food, your body will not have energy and right substances to repair correctly.
So working out like there is no tomorrow will do nothing good, if your foundation is not on point, remember that.

How to get started

We BioHackLifestylers try to do everything in a smooth manner.
So please don’t look up for Phil Heath’s workout program, if you are just getting started with working out or sports in general.
I’m saying that, not because I think you can’t handle this, I’m saying it because it would do more damage than good (too much volume for a beginner and even too much for a experienced natural athelete)

I would recommend you to go to the gym or buy some equippment for your home.
Sports are great too, but for example, if you are a quarterback and only playing football, sooner or later you will develop imbalances ( only throwing the ball with one arm, same movement patterns over and over again, so you overtrain some muscles while others wouldn’t even be affected).

In the gym you could balance out your workout and even focus on imbalances to get rid of them.

Start off with a full body workout ( please do your self a favor, and book a personal trainer, or at least watch videos on youtube how to perform the exercises correctly).
Something like this :

Chestpress                    4×10-15
Rowing machine         4×10-15
Side raise machine     2×10-15
Facepulls                      3×10-15
Legpress Machine      4×10-15
Planks                           Max out 3 times

Go to workout again, when you are fully recovered.

Pick weights you can handle (10-15 CLEAN reps, full range of motion)

Why only machines, I want to throw them dumbbells around!?

Free weights could be dangerous for beginners. Most newbies don’t have enough body feeling and core strength to do something like deadlifts correctly.
So start smoooooth, adapt your body to the new stimulus it’s receiving. Build your core strength,posture and mobility before starting with free weights.

Oh and please don’t be the kind of guy whose starting to work out and wear stringers and is posting “progress” pics every day.

Thank you for checking in

Best wishes,
BioHackLifestyle

 

 

The foundation

Where it all begins.

Today I’d like to talk about food. Everbody knows the saying “you are what you eat”, and well, this is very true. The problem with nutrtion is, that the average human doesn’t know s*** about it.

We like to eat garbage because it tastes so delicious, but why it tastes so good if we are not supposed to eat it ? Have you ever read a nutrition label on the backside of the products you buy? You do? I bet you don’t know what 90% of the ingredients are. And there lie’s the problem (or the blessing for our junkfood lovers).

Know your enemy

I would recommend you to reduce food that has a periodic system like nutrition label. The industry is putting these chemicals into our food because they make more money with them.

For example:
the food lasts longer before it’s getting bad, the production costs are lower and they can enhance the taste (more adddiction potential)

The number one enemy: SUGAR

there are different varieties of sugar, but most of them are not healthy for us. Sugar increases the release of insulin (the hormone that stores fat) dramatically. So if you’re eating loads of junkfood, your cells be like : “Hey, there’s a lot of insulin, let’s open up for those nutrients and energy to come in” The only problem: Junkfood contains a lot of chemicals and unhealthy fats. So your cells soak up that bad stuff and get damaged.

there are a lot of unhealthy factors in our food, but I don’t want to dive to deep into them in this blogpost, I will discuss them more intensively in the future. This post should only give you a overview.

Help! There are so much diets out there!

Oh yeah, them diet debates …

if you are getting started with your new healthy and productive lifestyle, then don’t overexert yourself.

Please do not try to eat ketogenic, if you don’t even know what omega fatty acids are.
Don’t do the vegan diet, if you never informed yourself about possible deficiencies and problems.

What I am trying to say is, start slowly or you will f*** up and lose motivation,maybe do some harm to yourself and then you will switch to your old bad eating habits again.

So please BioHackLifestyle tell me how to start!

Don’t worry! We will start it all of in a smooth manner.

A good beginning would be to cut out all (or at least reduce gradually) processed sugars and fast carbs ( white pasta,white rice, white bread,etc.) out of your diet.
These kinds of carbs will lead to cravings and the cravings will lead to more cravings and so on. You simply enter a downspiral of energy.

Substitute with slower digested carbs like brown rice, legumes and whole wheat products.
For myself, if I reduce carbs in general (not too low if you are eating a “normal” diet), my wellbeing and cognition seem to get better. That’s why I am following a ketogenic at the time.

Try to eat mostly non processed food.
For example :

Chicken breast -> not processed
Chicken nuggets -> processed

You remember the periodic system food? Yeah, that’s processed food most of the time.

Oh, and don’t forget to get your good old H2O in. I would recommend you to drink a big glass of Water right after you get out of bed (yeah, maybe you should drink one glass if you are getting out of bed because of other activities then sleeping, could be dehydrating too)

Get to the other end of the spectrum

Most people live on the “bad” end of the nutrition spectrum their whole life.
They think it’s normal to feel how they feel, because they never felt a other way.
You have to be persistent till you feel the positive effects coming.
A whole life of bad eating habits can not be undone in 2 days ( but you will feel surely better after 2 days of strict “clean” eating).

When you are reaching the “good” end of the spectrum, you will start to notice how your mood is getting better, your energy levels are rising, stress resistance is getting better, …
And trust me, if you get these benefits, you will always remember the feelings and energy you have when you are eating like a human being should eat.
So it will be easier for you to get the motivation for a healthy lifestyle, if the bad habits take over some day again.

Please feel free to comment and tell me what you want to hear about next.

Yours
BioHackLifestyle

What the “hack” is BioHackLifestyle?

First and foremost, I am not a native english speaker, so there could be some grammatical flaws, so don’t be harsh on me dear Online-Professors ;P

So what are you trying to tell us through this blog ?

Short : I just want to give you the most efficient tips to boost your vitality, fitness and mental power.

Long: I am a Personal Trainer who likes to experiment. I’ve tried a lot of things to get the best out of my body and mind ( all kinds of diets,supplements,meditations,etc.). There were some things on my path i wouldn’t do ever again and some things i couldn’t go without anymore.

I want to talk all about them GOOD experiences, so you could save your time looking for the holy grail of biohacking. This blog will offer something to everbody.

Are you trying to gain muscle as fast as possible but you don’t want to gain fat in this process? You want to boost your mood? Wanna be more effective at work but the only thing you know is caffeine ? Do you want to learn about the most amazing superfoods and bio synergies ? GREAT! We talk about all of this and even more

more? OH MY GOD! I’m so excited !!!

Your excitement is justified. I will try to give away my best tips and secrets I’ve learned and I will learn. The only Problem is that I have so much in my head, so i don’t know where to start ( do you know where to start, if you don’t know a thing?)

Thanks for reading my first post and I hope I can boost somebody’s life out there with this blog.

Yours,

BioHackLifestyle