Heart Rate Variability and Stress Management

Right. And so since we're talking about some of Joel Jamison's methods, I've noticed that you're a big proponent of Joel's BioForce HRV system recently. Can we just go into a little bit more detail about autonomic nervous system function and how you guys monitor and optimize your training and nutrition protocols based on things like heart rate variability? Yeah, absolutely. So like we discussed before, we do a waking heart rate variability. So that's, for me, the best time to take it because you're not affected yet by getting out of bed and doing things. So a lot of the guys that we get, because they only do anaerobic training because they're all scared shitless of aerobics, they're all scared shitless of carbs, so we have to completely reprogram their thinking. I've had guys that they've been strength coaches for five years. they come to me and their heart rate's 85 when they wake up. That's ridiculous. They feel like it's very high. Even resting heart rate, you look at resting heart rate, maybe 65, your waking heart rate really should be in the low to mid 50s, in my opinion, if you're really balanced. When we look at that, we say, okay, your heart rate's too high. That shows that you are epinephrine and norepinephrine dominant, you're sympathetic dominant, you need to be parasympathetic dominant. Again, that sympathetic system is primarily there to get you out of danger. So if it's keyed up all the time, your body thinks you're jacked up all the time, you're not going to get the benefits of the parasympathetic system, which is rest and digest. So a lot of these guys, they complain about gut issues. They've got diarrhea, constipation, bloating. They've got tons of they can't eat anything because i've got food intolerances right all of this stuff is related to stress and what's gnarly is that the brain has that direct link to the gut and it can it can stimulate permeability in the gut because of stress you don't really need cortisol to make that happen your brain can make that happen so