The family and I went down to UE on Sunday for our workouts.  They were as follows:

Doug:  Chin-up, MedX Chest Press, Nautilus Pullover with SS retrofits, MedX Leg Press

Wendy:  Chin-up, Bench dips, EZ bar biceps curl, Infimetric lateral raise, Barbell Squat

Things have been very busy lately, so I will simply provide some updates.  My podcast with Dave Asprey comes out October 21st at www.bulletproofexec.com.  I also gave a long podcast/interview with Ben Greenfield that will be part of his Rev Yourself event November 17-21, 2014 (www.entheos.com/REV-Yourself/Doug-Mcguff).  Finally, I will be speaking at the 21 Convention in Tampa on Saturday October 25th (www.the21convention.com).  My lecture this year will not focus on physical training, diet or medical economics.  This year my lecture will focus on cognitive techniques for functioning and thriving in high stress environments.  It is a bit of a stretch, and I hope the attendees like it, but I felt that 25 years in high acuity ER’s have given me some unique insights, many of which have been passed on to me by the best in my field.

Post your WOW’s and your thoughts.

I went down to UE after closing to do payroll.  I was unable to workout on the weekend due to work at the ER and Monday was too booked up to get in during the day.  It is very rare for me to work out in the evening, so this was a unique experience.  This was a solo mission, so no instagram photos of this workout.

Nautilus Pullover with SS retrofits, MedX Chest Press, MedX Compound Row with SS cam, SS Systems Neck Flex/Ext, MedX Leg Press

Being the end of the month, I had a lot of errands to run throughout the day.  While sitting at an intersection, I noticed the traffic cameras sitting above the traffic light.  Later at the gas station I noticed the fish-eye lens on the gas pump and then the multiple domes in the ceiling of the store covering the cameras that watched me from every angle.  Next, a trip to the bank to make a deposit revealed a surveillance camera pointing directly at me.  Even when I dropped by a Starbuck’s for an Americano I was under the watchful eyes of several ceiling cameras.  I am fairly certain that my entire day could be reconstructed with the use of surveillance footage.

As I was setting up for my workout, I realized this was the only place I had been all day where I was not being spied upon.  I am proud of many things in my business.  We have helped enumerable clients to live stronger, healthier a longer lives.  What I never thought about until now was that Ultimate Exercise is a refuge where our clients can come and know that they are not being watched on hidden camera.  Further, my employees are not recorded or monitored and they are not subjected to drug screens or background checks.  I generally believe that if respect people’s privacy, they will reward you by being worthy of your trust.  Building an entire society around a lowest common denominator makes the bad worse, and the good resentful.  I am happy that my business is one of the last places where Big Brother is not watching.

Post your WOW’s and your thoughts.

Doug: Overhead Press, Thick Bar Biceps, Nautilus Plate Load Triceps with SS retrofits, EZ reverse Curl, Thick Bar Wrist Flex/Ext, Calf Raise on MedX Leg Press, MedX Leg Press.

Wendy: Chin-ups, MedX Overhead Press, MedX Compound Row with SS retrofits, Pushups, MedX Leg Press

I was reluctant to post a new WOW because the quality of the comments on the last thread have been so good that I did not want to interrupt.  I am hoping that you guys will simply pick up where you left off.  I am very fascinated with everyone’s thoughts on load, progression and what it all means (or doesn’t).  Joe A (welcome back!) made some fascinating comments about the 80% of physique enhancement that is not related to the actual workout protocol.  Perhaps we can expand the discussion into this area.  I think we are all doing the best we can with what we have in the training realm, and even if we could do better, there is probably a diminishing marginal utility with respect to results.  So lets talk about that other 80% a little more. Post your WOW’s and your thoughts.

I am way behind on posting.  I just took my American Board of Emergency Medicine recertification test this week.  In my specialty, once you are board-certified you are not done.  There are ongoing requirements and yearly tests based on the current literature.  Then every 10 years you must take a board recertification exam.  If you don’t pass, then you lose your board-certified status.  This is my second go-round for recertification, and it seemed much tougher and less relevant than the last time I took it.  I am glad to have it over.  My mind feels like I am in suspended animation after such a massive knowledge dump (not to mention the massive amount of memorized material that was not tested).  Now all I have to do is wait 90 days for scores.

This week I also did a podcast interview with Dave Asprey of The Bulletproof Executive (www.bulletproofexec.com).  The interview was focused on myokines, but we went off on all sorts of tangents.  One of our big topics was the use of stress inoculation training for high stress occupations such as special forces, emergency medicine etc. Watch for the podcast to be out soon.

One thing that I have always believed about high intensity strength training is that there is intrinsic value in it just because it is hard.  There is something about doing hard things that I think makes us better humans…..humans that are able to rise to challenges and to survive threats to life or limb.  This is why, at my core, I feel some affiliation with Crossfit.  They embody the value of doing hard things.  What I like about our approach is that we can invoke a similar or greater degree of hard, without the escalating risk of injury.  In any case, I recently found a lecture that articulates the value of doing hard things better than I ever could, so I offer it up here: http://vimeo.com/50273432

Finally, here are my two most recent WOW’s as well as Wendy’s.  Wendy has been doing freehand and free weight routines recently.  We have been recording them and posting short clips on Instagram.  The female contingent has gone wild over it, so there seems to be a interest amongst women of how to apply BBS principles with little or no equipment.

Doug’s WOW’s:  Lumbar Extension, MedX Chest Press, Pullover, MedX Chest Press (vertical grip), Neck Flexion, MedX Row with SS retrofit, Neck Extension, Leg Press.

MedX Overhead Press, Nautilus Plate Load Biceps, Nautilus Plate Load Triceps, EZ reverse Curl, Formulator Flex/Ext, Reclined Seat MedX Leg Press

Wendy WOW:  Negative Only Chin, MedX Chest Press, EZ bar curl, Infimetric Triceps, Barbell Squat-then free squat, Manual Neck Extension/Flexion

Post your WOW’s and let me know your thoughts on the hidden value of hard.

It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve last posted.  Our most recent WOW was performed on 8/24/14.  I was due for shoulders/arms/leg press.  After the Mercola interview, I received lots of requests for how to begin training when you have little or no equipment.  For this reason, Wendy elected to do a minimal equipment workout.  We recorded snippets of video and posted them on instagram at ultimate_exercise_.  Hopefully this will encourage newcomers to just get started and build from there.

My WOW: Thick Bar Overhead Press, Rear Delt Fly, SuperSlow Systems Biceps, Triceps Presses on the SS Systems Pulldown, EZ bar reverse curl, Formulator Flex/Ext, MedX Leg Press in reclined (squat) position

Wendy’s WOW:  Chin Up (regular cadence), Pushups (regular cadence), Lumbar Extension on SS Systems Pulldown, Thick Bar Overhead Press (slow cadence), Goblet Squat holding barbell plate (slow cadence)

Recently Chuck Spencer over at www.go2strength.wordpress.com made a post that resonates with a major component of BBS:  the contribution of skeletal muscle to cardiac function.  Chuck eloquently made a connection that cardiology researchers still have not fully realized: that the loss of skeletal muscle is a major contributing factor in the development of congestive heart failure.  Traditionally, congestive heart failure is thought to occur almost exclusively due to cardiac muscle damage that occurs from coronary artery blockages and resultant death of cardiac muscle.  Congestive heart failure (CHF) is also attributed to damage that occurs when the heart has to pump against elevated systemic blood pressure (left-sided heart failure) or elevated pulmonary artery pressure (right-sided heart failure).

The medical literature has tons of articles discussing the existence of sarcopenia (muscle wasting) in congestive heart failure.  Traditionally, CHF is thought to decrease exercise tolerance, which results in decreased exercise and thus sarcopenia.  There are even articles that show that resistance exercise increases muscle mass and exercise tolerance in those with CHF.  What the medical literature fails to do is to consider is how sarcopenia may be an independent contributing factor in CHF….that pre-existing sarcopenia may induce or make one much more vulnerable to CHF.

Skeletal muscle is “the forgotten pump” in cardiac output.  The reason that skeletal muscle is so integral to cardiac function is because of Frank Starling’s Law of the Heart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank–Starling_law_of_the_heart).  Starling’s Law states that cardiac output is directly proportional to the volume of blood that is returned to the heart.  If a larger volume of blood is returned to the right side of the heart, the ventricle is stretched and the cardiac myocytes are in turn stretched, which causes them to contract more forcefully.  Well, guess what the major determinant of venous return to the right heart is?  You got it…skeletal muscle mass and how hard it is working at any given time.  Through this mechanism, cardiac output can auto-regulate on an almost purely mechanical basis.  So when a large mass of skeletal muscle is working really hard, a large volume of venous blood is massaged and milked back toward the heart, which in turn automatically provides an increased cardiac output to fuel the very muscles that are providing the needed venous return.

Here is another cool thing about skeletal muscle’s contribution to Frank Starling’s Law:  coronary artery blood flow is directly proportionate to the volume of venous return on the right side of the heart.  When a given volume of blood arrives in the right heart, Frank Starling’s Law dictates that this is the volume of blood that will be delivered to the left ventricle, which in turn determines the volume of blood that will be ejected out of the aortic valve into the aorta during systole.  During diastole (the relaxation phase) a portion of the blood ejected into the aorta will backwash into the now closed aortic valve.  At the base of the aorta are three valve leaflets that are now closed and look like a Mercedes emblem.  Two of these leaflets have “ostia” or openings that lead into the left and right main coronary arteries (http://www.vhlab.umn.edu/atlas/aorta/coronary-artery-ostia/index.shtml). Thus we can now see that volume returned to the right heart determines blood ejected from the left heart and thus the amount of blood that will flow through the coronary arteries.  This is the basis for a type of treatment for coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure called “extracorporeal counterpulsation” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_external_counterpulsation).  This system uses air bladders on the legs that contract in synchrony with diastole to enhance venous return and thus improve coronary artery blood flow, collateralizing of coronary arteries and improvement of cardiac function in those with CHF.  Well, guess what does the same thing by the same mechanism?  You got it…resistance exercise.

Am I saying that resistance exercise will prevent coronary artery blockages.  No!  Even someone that follows a very clean diet (insert your favorite) and performs resistance exercise (or cardio or whatever) can still develop coronary blockages for reasons that are still not well understood.  (As an aside, I am becoming more convinced that other elements are at play, such as an infectious process or perhaps alterations in the gut microbiome.) However, if you have blockages, it would be great for there to be lots of large calibre collaterals and a myocardium with lots of physiologic headroom.  So next time someone asks you what you do for “cardio”, tell them that you do high intensity resistance exercise.

Post your WOW’s and your thoughts.

Wendy and I both did our workouts this week.  It has been fourteen days since I posted, so I will list last week’s WOW first.  This was the two-way split that emphasized chest and back:  Lumbar Extension on SS Systems Pulldown, MedX Chest Press, Nautilus Pullover, MedX Chest Press (narrow/vertical grip), SS Systems Neck Flexion, MedX Compound Row, SS Systems Neck Extension, MedX Leg Press.  Videos and photos are available on Instagram at ultimate_exercise_.

Wendy mixed things up a little this week.  Her workout was: MedX Chest Press, Bent Fly as pre-exhaust for, MedX Compound Row, MedX Overhead Press, TSC Adduction/Abduction as immediate pre-exhaust for, MedX Leg Press.  Photos and videos will be posted throughout the next few days at Instagram.

My workout this week:  TSC simple row as pre-exhaust for, MedX Compound Row, MedX Overhead Press, Nautilus Plate-load Biceps, Nautilus Plate-load Triceps, Formulator Flexion, Formulator Reverse Curl, MedX Leg Press. Once again, watch for photos and video at our Instagram site.

This week I am linking a full-text article that I found through Mark Sisson’s “Weekend Link-Love” (www.marksdailyapple.com).  It seems that researchers are jumping on the muscle=longevity bandwagon in a BIG way.  This article is just the latest explaining why muscle is such a good thing to have in abundance.  Apparently there is a “longevity protein” called Klotho that is strongly correlated with both lifespan and skeletal muscle mass.  In this article they show evidence that Klotho is not just correlated with skeletal muscle, but is actually produced by skeletal muscle activity, and that the degree of Klotho upregulation may be proportionate to one’s level of strength and fitness.  Here is the link to the full-text article: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2014.00189/full.

Finally, my interview with Dr. Mercola went up today.  Immediately, Body by Science dropped to #716 on Amazon, an indication of just how big of an audience he has.  Much of the interview was spent discussing my recent infatuation with all things myokine-related.  I am really pleased with how it came out (except for how my face looks on Skype video).  Check it out here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/10/high-intensity-strength-training.aspx.

Post your WOW’s and your thoughts

Wendy and I both did our workouts today.  Check out our Instagram page :_ultimate_exercise to see some photos and videos.

My WOW: MedX Overhead Press, Bent Fly (jrep halves), Lateral Raise (jrep halves), Thick Bar Curl, Triceps Press, Thick Bar Reverse Curl, Formulator Flex/Ext, Trap Bar Squat

Wendy’s WOW:  Pushups, SuperSlow Systems Pulldown, MedX Overhead Press, Barbell Squat, Manual Neck Extension, TSC Neck Flexion.

I am finally coming out of an extended period of ER work (lots of partners on summer vacation) as well as tons of activity with interviews and phone consults, so I added a few movements and did a Trap Bar squat to finish off.  I feel great tonight, but will report back in the next couple of days.

Speaking of interviews, I have recently finished podcasts with Dr. Joseph Mercola (www.mercola.com), and Ben Greenfield (www.bengreenfieldfitness.com) which should both be up in the near future.  I will try to give a heads up when they go online.  This Thursday I will be doing a live interview (also recorded) with Diana Hsieh, Ph.D (www.PhilosphyinAction.com).  We will be discussing the effects of government controls in medicine in general and emergency medicine in particular.  I am certain some exercise discussion will also take place, but for anyone interested in what the current healthcare landscape looks like from the inside out, check us out at 9pm EST live, or check out the recorded podcast at your convenience.  Finally, I will do an interview with Dave Asprey at the Bulletproof Executive (www.bulletproofexec.com) on September 11th, so keep an eye out for that podcast later in the Fall.

After our workout (and some back to school shopping) we came home and cooked some burgers on the grill.  Afterwards, Wendy and I were talking about what an incredible benefit lifting weights confers.  We marveled at some of the UE clients that were walker-dependent that are now completely independent and with amazing posture.  We have a client that worked out at UE for some time and used it as Prehab and Posthab for bilateral knee replacement and had the fastest recovery her Orthopedist has ever seen.  I marvel daily how Wendy looks better at 50 than she has at any other point in her life.

As we talked further, we discussed the broader public health implications of lifting weights and how one does not need a state of the art training facility with professional instruction to reap the benefits.  I am sure we all remember the early days when we first picked up a barbell and how quickly it changed our lives.  That is the beauty of resistance exercise…skeletal muscle is so adaptable that weight training does not even have to be done that well in order for someone to reap incredible benefits.  I cringe to think of my early form and programming in my parents’ garage with that bronze-colored Sears weight set, but I have never seen such dramatic results in such a short span of time.  The enthusiasm for those early results and the attempt to reproduce them after the early gains slowed, is what drove my study and interest up until this day.  This is why I love reading your comments so much.  There are so many variations in applying effective, safe and time-efficient exercise that newcomers can see there are many ways to garner the stimulus.  We acknowledge that skeletal muscle will produce amazing adaptations regardless of what you have available to you, yet we encourage those who blaze the trail of engineering ideal equipment and refinement in protocols.  So to anyone reading this blog who is considering getting started, all I want to say is….Just. Lift. Weights.  Go to a sporting goods store and buy a 110lb set, or just do freehand exercise.  Use the pamphlet that comes with the set.  Buy any book that appeals to you, I don’t care if it is BBS or if it is “Starting Strength”.  I would highly recommend Drew Baye’s books at (www.baye.com).  Whatever you do, just get started

Special thanks to John Little and our webmaster for fixing the “depreacate” message and updating the WordPress program.  My inability to post has actually been a blessing in disguise as I could blame it all on the malfunction rather than the fact that I have actually been too busy and preoccupied to post.   My hectic schedule has also required me to revert back to a 3 way split where each section gets trained once every 21 days.  Due to scheduling, this workout was preceded by 10 days of recovery.  Wendy was due for her workout and had 17 days since her last workout.  This was purely related to scheduling issues and not due to debates on frequency on the previous post.

My WOW (chest/back):  Chins, MedX Chest Press, Nautilus Pullover with SS retrofits, MedX Compound Row with SS cam.

Wendy’s WOW:  MedX Chest Press, SS Systems Pulldown, MedX Overhead Press, EZ bar Biceps Curl, Pushup, Leg Press, Manual Neck Flex/Ext

With all the changes going on in the medical side of my life, studying for my Emergency Medicine Board recertification (has to be done every 10 years), preparing for podcasts, and doing consults, I have not had time to research a topic for this week’s WOW, but you all seem to have no problems keeping yourselves entertained.  I recently did an hour and a half podcast with Dr. Mercola (www.mercola.com) which should be coming out soon.  On July 22 I will be be doing a podcast with Ben Greenfield (bengreenfieldfitness.com) and I will do a live broadcast with Diana Hseih on July 31st at 9pm EST (philosophyinaction.com) and it will also be recorded.

I have enjoyed the discussions and tone of the blog (for the most part) and always learn a lot from your discussions.  I have referred some of my phone consult clients and Dr. Mercola’s listeners to specific comments and some of your recorded workouts, so….

Post your WOW’s and your thoughts

I would like to launch this week’s WOW by announcing my participation in Anthony Johnson’s 21 Convention coming up October 24-26th in Tampa, Florida.  I originally spoke at this conference in 2010 and did so with some trepidation, as my understanding of this conference was limited.  To my great pleasure, the young men at this conference were after much more than trying to learn how to pick up women.  Instead, I encountered a group of young people who were intensely focused on self-actualization.  The people that attended this conference were there to learn from the experience (and mistakes) made by others so that they could get a major leg-up in their journey through their one precious life on earth.  I recall that because of my intense work schedule at the time, I felt very poorly prepared for my talk.  I had planned a talk over several weeks and had spent most of my spare time rehearsing what I would say.  For whatever reason, I was very anxious about what I would say to my audience and I generally felt that my talk was going to fall flat.  The evening I was supposed to fly out of Asheville, NC my flight was cancelled.  I was put up in a really crappy hotel to spend the night so that I could get the first flight out at 5am the next morning. It was the only way I could make it in to Orlando by noon and give my speech right after lunch.  That night in the hotel room, I scrapped my entire speech.  I jotted some notes on index cards and rehearsed the talk in my head.  When I arrived in Orlando I took a cab to the conference hotel.  I watched the end of one speech just to get a feel for the room and then met up with Patrick Diver who took me to his studio for a workout.  I had planned to wear a suit, but at the last minute decided to stay in my jeans.  When I arrived back at the hotel, I was up to speak.  As they announced my name, I again scrapped my entire talk and decided to go off the cuff.  I thought it was the worst talk I had ever given, but it turned out to be the most well-recieved lecture I had ever given.  The youtube video of this lecture has registered close to half a million views for a lecture that lasted 1 hour and 38 minutes.

This is not at all what I expected.  I also did not expect to encounter so many exceptional people with an intense interest in self-actualization and the rarest of qualities these days…the willingness to work relentlessly to achieve it.  I again spoke in Austin in 2012.  This time I spoke on the current state of American medical care and how we got where we are today.  I really didn’t expect a bunch of men in their 20′s to even remotely care about this topic, but once again I was wrong in a big way.  I was flabbergasted about the rapt attention from this very young audience (especially since every other time I have tried to explain this situation, eyes begin to glaze over in the first 30 seconds).  Once again, the Youtube video took off and ultimate resulted in a book deal that may bring this perspective to a much broader audience.

This year I am not certain what I will talk about, but it will likely be a series of lessons that a life in the ER has taught me about acting in the face of uncertainty, intermingled with connections to fitness and health.  More important is the list of speakers, each of whom will speak for a full 60 minutes on their topic of choice.  Here is the current list of speakers:

1. Anthony Dream Johnson (unannounced) 2. Socrates – keynote speaker (relationships) 3. Brent Smith (dating/lifestyle) 4. Greg Swann (philosophy) 5. James Marshall (dating/lifestyle) 6. Steve Mayeda (dating/lifestyle) 7. Bill DeSimone (exercise) 8. Skyler Tanner (fatherhood) 9. Sasha Daygame (dating/lifestyle) 10. James Maclane (dating/lifestyle) 11. Nick Sparks (dating/lifestyle) 12. Dr. Doug McGuff M.D. (health/philosophy) 13. Drew Baye (exercise) 14. Don Watkins (philosophy) 15. James Steele II Ph.D. (exercise) 16. Dr. Eric Daniels Ph.D. (philosophy) 17. Ed Aiken (self defense) 18. Dr. Ellington Darden Ph.D. (exercise) 19. Edward Druce (career/entrepreneurship) 20. Dr. Paul Jaminet Ph.D. (health/nutrition) 21. Damien Diecke (dating/lifestyle) 22. Robbie Kramer (dating/lifestyle)

My major benefit in participating will be getting to hear many of these speakers and to interact with them personally.  I originally thought that as an old married guy, the dating/lifestyle lectures would not apply to me.  What I came to realize is that if you are not dating and courting your wife, then you are not doing all you can to have a great marriage.  You really must win your wife anew every day.  No one (including your spouse) cares what you did…they care what you do.  The names related to exercise and diet will be recognized by all and represent (IMO) some of the best minds in the field.  The speakers on philosophy represent some my personal heroes that I probably could never hope to meet under normal circumstances.  I am really looking forward to this event, and would encourage any who are able to go as well.

Here is a video trailer for the conference:  : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmVjI172B08&feature=youtu.be

Speaking of unexpected:  My WOW this week was conducted in my garage.  I could not get to UE on Sunday due to a very tough shift that kept me a couple of hours late, and no open appointments at UE on a busy Monday.  Using free weights: Military Press, DB rear fly (jrep halves), EZ bar biceps curls, EZ bar lying triceps extension into close grip floor press, EZ bar reverse curl, SuperSlow close grip pushup, Barbell Squat.

Post your WOW’s and your thoughts.

For Father’s Day my wife and kids treated me to a great WOW down at UE.  Wendy did her WOW afterwards.  Images are up on Instagram/Twitter.

Doug: Lumbar Extension on SS Systems Pulldown, MedX Leg Press (seat reclined), Med X Chest Press (horizontal handles), Nautilus Pullover with SS retrofits, MedX Chest Press (vertical handles top half of movement), SS Systems Neck Flexion, MedX Compound Row with SS cam, SS Systems Neck Extension.

Wendy:  MedX Chest Press, SS Systems Pulldown, Lateral Raise (jrep halves), EZ barbell curls, bench dips, MedX Leg Press, Freehand SS Squat, manual neck flex/ext.

Discussion on last week’s WOW brought up discussion of a topic that I am embarrassed to say, I have little to no knowledge about…the topic of heart rate variability (HRV).  Skyler Tanner and Simon Shawcross have both been using HRV monitors to guide them as to their recovery status.  I have always been somewhat against the notion of “body hacking” as I think it commonly implies a hubris that overlooks the true complexity of the human body.  In regards to recovery, I have always used a simple temporal measure of recovery and have tried to verify the temporal measure retroactively by using my progress chart.  Over time I have found that this is an incredibly blunt instrument for measuring what exists (many times) on a razor’s edge.  Also, in my career as an emergency physician, I have found that the stress of the job and/or the circadian disruption seem to have much more of an impact on my recovery status than the actual workout or my proximity to it.  Many times I have also felt that my angst about my workouts themselves (issues of cognitive dissonance regarding protocol), or concern about my recovery interval (workout today or 2 days later) played a more negative role in my ability to handle the workout than any issue related to intensity/volume/frequency.

So I decided to hit up PubMed and all I can say is Holy Cow!  This has been a huge area of study with implications not only for exercise, but for my medical career.  Thinking back, I can strongly correlate patients with bad outcomes from multiple conditions that seemed to show some element of autonomic instability.  Indeed, much of what I have been reading suggests that poor HRV is predictive of bad outcomes for multiple diseases.  Dave Asprey really bent my ear at the last 21 Convention talking about HeartMath and the trainability of HRV.  Turns out there is a ton of research verifying that HRV is trainable, and when acquired through training, appears to confer the health benefits that correlate with spontaneously high HRV.  In BBS one of our definitions of health was “an appropriate balance between anabolic and catabolic states”.  It turns out that it is also an appropriate balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic state….AND, this state is trainable.  I selected the article below as just an example of many.  I selected it for the following reasons:  1)It appeared in a MAJOR journal 2) It is a good overview and 3) I found the “billion heartbeats/lifetime across all mammals” fascinating.

So in the comments section, please feel free to recommend what monitors and apps to use, as I want to give this a try.  I also wonder if it could give me some feedback regarding a question that has nagged me for the past 10 years: Is good better than perfect?  In workouts where I was meticulous in every detail and gave my best Zen-like performances, they were always followed by some degree of ROBAT, but significant degrees of irritability, depressed mood and lack of psychic flexibility.  Workouts that were good, but not perfect, leave me with a sense of well-being in all realms.  Perhaps HRV could lend some objective data to this observation.  Perhaps HRV along with measurement of critical myokines could provide some answers as well.  Maybe a dissertation idea Skyler?

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/21/2085.long

Post your WOW’s and your thoughts. (photo from last week’s WOW).