Breathe MTHRFKR
Savage / Zen Newsletter | No. 79
Injuries are as challenging as they are inevitable. They are physical limitations and setbacks as well as psychological challenges to our identity and lifestyle.
For the past month, I’ve been dealing with a rib/diaphragm injury. Nothing is broken or needs surgery, but there isn’t anything I can do to accelerate the healing process either. Nor is there any movement that doesn’t involve some sort of core engagement.
For at least two weeks I couldn’t cough, sneeze, yawn, clear my throat, and still can’t sleep on my side. Olympic Lifting, grappling, and even endurance work have been out for a while — the latter just being added back this week.
Before that, I somehow managed a half-marathon relay at a cookin’ pace for myself. I have to give credit to Shift//Adapt for helping me lay a breathwork foundation earlier this year and of course to NonProphet for their endurance program that I completed last fall.
I’m more disappointed about interrupting my Olympic Lifting training because I felt like I was hitting a stride. Needless to say, that kind of compression and explosion is going to be on hold for at least another week or two.
In a couple of weeks I’ll be presenting on a men’s mental health panel. The reality of what I’d been researching hit like a lightning bolt earlier this week. The sensation of hopelessness, purposelessness, isolation and aimless apathy became vivid.
This is how the snowball of nihilism starts. There is a huge difference between how unemployed men and women spend their time — men tend to check out of society, religion, and family and turn to various drugs of abuse and are more prone to “deaths of despair.”
Fortunately, none of that happened to me; this time. My imagination only caught a sliver of the possibility. Times of injury and transition often present as opportunities for introspection and building awareness. However, that’s only useful if it remains action-oriented towards the future and grounded in the present.
While injured, I’ve tried to move what / how I could — a little extra breathwork and a few more walks with the dog. I tried to take advantage of the opportunity. I realized that since I couldn’t train at full volume and had time on my hands, it wouldn’t kill me to go out for a beer.
Apparently, some folks have developed a skill called “socializing” — which I hear is a significant determining factor in quality of life. Maybe that’s a habit I ought to take up.
Movement is life. Stagnation is death. Breathing is fundamental. Unironically, my biggest challenge as of late has been breathing. Even when I can move, a few contractions leave me sucking rapid, heavy, half-breaths.
What do craft beer, breathwork, and ice baths have in common? They are vectors for the community I’ve created in and around my life. They’re transitions between the people and pillars I call home. It’s come to my attention that they need more intention and cultivation.
Seek what is seeking you. Open mind for a different view. Your attention dictates your environment which, in turn, shapes you.
Stop. Breathe. Move.
“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.”
~ Alan Watts
What’s New:
Misconceptions about Aerobic and Anaerobic Energy Expenditure
“The measurement of gas exchange has played an invaluable role in metabolic interpretation…. This article demonstrates both the importance of such a conversion and the potential for misinterpretation. Oxygen uptake during heavy and severe exercise will also be discussed.”
Contribution of anaerobic energy expenditure to whole body thermogenesis
“This manuscript incorporates contemporary bioenergetic interpretations of anaerobic and aerobic ATP turnover to promote the independence of these disparate types of metabolic energy transfer… An estimate of anaerobic energy transfer supplements the measurement of oxygen uptake and may improve the interpretation of whole-body energy expenditure.”
“Compared with the (aerobic training) group, the group undertaking 6 weeks of aerobic training combined with slow, deep breathing exercises and mindfulness meditation showed significantly lower levels of (fasting blood glucose)(p = 0.001) and cortisol levels (p = 0.01) than the (aerobic training) group.”
New Sponsor!
Animal Pak:
Is owned by Universal Nutrition
Founded in 1977 during the “golden age” of bodybuilding
Is American-owned and made
Offers a 90-day “Iron Clad Guarantee”
Third-party tests their products (though data isn’t public, I asked).
Offers a military discount
Is FDA and GMP certified
They’re traditionally a bodybuilding brand, but boast being “family and pack oriented.” Animal Pak has also built their branding around the hashtag #builtnotborn — which I’m definitely on board with.
I also have to admit that their visual branding is iconically sick. Plus, the namesake is on point with my own branding — Animal?!
Previously I reviewed the use of creatine on a carnivore diet and will have a pilot study coming out (and follow up) on Animal’s STAK supplement for testosterone support.