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Part 5 Recovery Series: Become Harder to Kill with Movement & Exercise

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I mentioned in Part 1 of my RECOVERY series that I had been hospitalized for 14 days and had thoracic surgery. In my RECOVERY series, I layout my blueprint for accelerating recovery and coming back stronger from a setback.

Movement and physical activity had a big part in my speedy recovery.

Not only does movement help maintain muscle and keep the body strong, it’s essential to keep the lymph system flowing which helps with the detox process.

Needless to say, maintaining an active day (and “active ” was very relative to my current circumstances) was important. I approached my movement and activity in three progressive phases which can be used by anyone wanting to get into strength training or just looking for a good workout routine:

  1. Walking…a lot.
  2. Movement basics…mobility, body weight exercises and natural movements
  3. Strength training
  4. Used sauna

I had been regularly exercising prior to all of this so starting back to the basics was very humbling but very important.

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Part 1 Recovery Series: A Blueprint for Coming Back from a Major Setback

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This series of articles will layout a complete blueprint on how I accelerated my recovery from a major setback. It’s something I wish I had access to as soon as I needed it. Instead, I spent many hours of research and self experimentation to put this together.

I hope it saves you time and accelerates your path to optimized health and performance.

2020….I was 41 years old and in the best shape of my life. I felt great, I set personal records in physical feats, exercised regularly and had a great routine to optimize my health and performance.

Coronavirus, a heated election, murder hornets, racial tension and now an extended hospital stay and surgery. When will you end 2020????

Then in July, I felt a weird sensation on my left side. It progressively turned to a pain so I saw my doctor. After a chest x-ray and a CT scan (which I almost declined because I am not a fan of being exposed to radiation but more on that in a little bit), I was diagnosed with pneumonia. I had no other symptoms other than the pain…no fever, shortness of breath, etc.

So I went on ten days of antibiotics (again, not a fan of killing off my good bacteria too), but I completed the round and felt better.

In fact, August and September I felt great. I even PRed a daily measure measurement I take — I do 10 minutes of breathing exercises, then completely exhale and do as many push-ups on the breath hold as possible.

57, my best ever! (BTW, as of January 2021, I am now up to 72)

Then, in early October, I started to feel a weird pain in my side. It progressively got worse and on October 24th, I woke at 5am, barely able to breathe so my wife rushed me to the ER. I saw two doctors leading up to this moment that had both reassured me the asymptomatic pneumonia I had in July had resolved and the pain I was feeling was due to scaring from the pneumonia.

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Excel at Your Sport and Life by Training Less through Fitness Hacking

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Conventional wisdom about improving physical performance like endurance and maintaining good physical health has rested on the twin pillars of volume and intensity (along with diet). While those are no doubt vital, there are a number of equally important, but completely ignored, ”fitness levers” you can pull to improve health and performance.

In fact, there’s MUCH more you can do beyond what traditional workouts offer while REDUCING the amount of time you exercise.

You don’t have to put in hours of training a week to build endurance, strength, or speed. You also don’t have to commit to an extreme amount of hours of exercise a week to improve body composition (muscle and fat) and health.

In fact, focusing on just volume and intensity can actually have the reverse effect and lead to over-training, burnout and injury.

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My Experiments – August Log

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DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE ANY DRUGS, SUBSTANCES OR DIETS WITHOUT CONSULTING A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

My August experiments —

5-Day Water Fast (Aug 1-5)  – I listened to an interesting Tim Ferriss podcast about the benefits of longer (5-7 day) fasts which inspired me to complete my first 5-day fast in January of this year. From the existing research, something like this twice a year may bring the most health benefits. So I decided to do my second fast in August. This time around I allowed myself black coffee, unsweetened tea and water with lemon, which added some flavor (January was strict water only) and made it a easier. I didn’t find it that difficult overall. After the fast, I felt almost “reset” with an optimistic view on life. I plan to write a full article on this soon. Stay tuned.

Supplementation with PQQ (Aug 1-31) – Pyrrolloquinoline (PQQ) has research to support that it can help rebuild and restore mitochondria, your cells’ power plants, increasing performance of physical workouts. I tried it for the past 30 days and I think it really helped. Fatigue was slower to set in and I was able to get more out of my body than I normally could. I will be adding this to my morning workout stack. Here it is if you’re interested.

Competition and Recovery (Aug 27-28) – I competed in my first CrossFit competition which gave me a prime opportunity to put all of my recovery techniques to the test. The competition involved four intense workouts which included weight lifting, plyometrics and gymnastics in addition to a 5k run. I posted all of my techniques on Instagram – techniques included nutrition, grounding, and infrared contrast showers. My recovery was spot on…I felt great on the second day, soreness was almost non-existent and I even had a really good workout two days after the competition. And if you’re interested in what I used to fuel my performance, check out this picture.

This month:
SISU Comfort Challenge begins – Anything that makes us uncomfortable often causes us to grow. Are people interested in stepping out of their comfort zone to grow as an individual? I am and we will see if other are as well. Let’s see how large this group gets and how interactive it becomes. Every Monday I will post a daily comfort challenge on this private facebook group. I kicked the challenge off Sept.1 with a 5-day event, each day with a new challenge. Check it out here.

40/50 Challenge – I’ve developed a simple protocol that (might) allow you to eat whatever you want at dinner (including dessert!), and still lose weight, build muscle and stay fit. I’m testing it out along with several other folks. Here are the rules…

For 30 days…

  1. Eat whole foods (no processed food or anything with added sugar) for breakfast, lunch and snacks. This includes healthy fats (coconut, avocado, olive, yolks, nuts/seeds, whole dairy), veggies, fruits and protein.
  2. Do 40 air squats and 50 Russian kettlebell (KB) swings As Fast As Possible (AFAP) before dinner. Break it up into multiple sets if you have to but have the goal to do all 50 in one set.
  3. Eat whatever you want for dinner. You must eat within a 2-hour window following 40/50. NOTHING AFTER (that includes midnight snaking).
  4. Once a week do 100 KB swings AFAP. Keep track of time (baseline to track progress)
  5. DO 40/50 EVERY DAY BEFORE DINNER!

For proper weight, I recommend men start with 35lbs and women 18lbs. You can purchase a kettlebell here. Or make your own – here’s how.

What Does Success Look Like

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When I say the word “success“, who is the first person that comes to mind?

Be honest, you thought Bill Gates.

That is until you step back and unpackaged what success looks like.

If you ask a person that is nearing the end of their life, they would give you a different perspective.

You wouldn’t hear anything about expensive cars or a big houses.

It wouldn’t be someone rich in wealth but rather someone who lived a rich life.

Someone who was surrounded by people who loved them
Someone who always knew how to laugh
Someone who never missed a day of shaving
Someone who lived an interesting life
Someone who valued family above all
Someone who lived by a set of values
Someone who wasn’t afraid of hard work
Someone who lived a life true to themselves, living out their dreams
Someone who enjoyed life until their last breath
Someone who left a legacy that will forever be remembered and passed down

I hope I can be as successful as you, Opa (September 15, 1925 – June 25, 2016).

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