Optimize Performance & Life

| MY WIFE THINKS I'M CRAZY BUT IT WORKS

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

by 2 Comments

deadlift max

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.

[Read more…]

Part 4 Recovery Series: Supplements to Heal the Gut, Accelerate Wound Healing, Counteract Radiation Damage & Detox

by 6 Comments

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

In Part 3 of my RECOVERY SERIES, I went over the food I consumed to help bounce back faster. But food alone wasn’t enough. Yes, there are A LOT of supplements listed below but keep in mind, my body went through a lot. It required many additional nutrients above and beyond what I could get from whole food alone – I needed concentrated doses of certain nutrients.

Now, you don’t have to go all in and get every supplement on this list. But review the list and decide what goals you’re trying to achieve and use that to make a decision with what you should use.

Here’s what my supplement routine looked like for 60 days following my surgery and hospital stay:

[Read more…]

Part 2 Recovery Series: My Strategy to Mitigate the Damages of a Hospital Stay, Surgery & Radiation Exposure

by 2 Comments

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

Staying confined to a hospital for this long brings with it many mental and physical challenges — antibiotics (I had some of the strongest like vancomycin) and other drugs, being stuck indoors all day (no nature, circadian rhythm disruption, and no sunlight on my skin), limited to one visitor so I couldn’t see my kids, the stress from surgery, many, many x-rays and CT scans (according to a physicist at the Mayo Clinic, I received around 20,000 millisieverts* of ionic radiation over three months) and poor sleep (how am I supposed to recover when I’m woken every two hours for vitals, blood draws or something else???).

Needless to say, there were many things fighting against me.

But I had a plan and I hope it can help you if you need surgery, have an extended stay in a hospital or just need to bounce back from a stressful event.

I started with the basics — these are the things I’m going to address over the next few posts in my RECOVERY series:

  1. Proper food
  2. Supplements
  3. Movement & exercise
  4. Fasting
  5. Sleep
  6. Nature, stress management & breathing
  7. Social connection & companionship
  8. Biohacks & other advanced mitigation strategies
[Read more…]

Part 3 Recovery Series: Food – The Secret Weapon to Bounce Back Faster from Surgery

by Leave a Comment

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

Proper nutrition can make a world of a difference on how fast you recover from surgery, exercise or any stressful situation placed on the body.

I prioritize certain nutrients to recover properly:

  1. High Protein
  2. Modified ketogenic (high fat, low carbohydrate) which can be muscle sparing
  3. High Fiber
  4. High Antioxidants
  5. Anti-inflammatory
  6. Gut support
  7. Hydration
  8. Carb intake

Based on this criteria, here are some of the foods I’m using to support my recovery from surgery (along with all the other nasty stuff that comes with a hospital stay). All of these foods should be part of your diet anyway because that all have been shown to promote health and longevity.

[Read more…]

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

by Leave a Comment

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.

[Read more…]

Find Your Topic of Interest

Recently Published