September 5, 2023 • 41 mins
Welcome back everyone! This week I am sharing an interview that I did on Dr. Guy MacPherson's podcast Books. Read. Thrive. Podcast about my new book Powerhouse.
Welcome to a special episode of The Dr. Greg Wells Podcast, where we dive into the groundbreaking insights and strategies found in Dr. Wells's latest book, "Powerhouse." In this enlightening conversation, Dr. Wells shares easy ways to boost your energy, fight inflammation, and optimize your health—cell by cell.
Did you know that every six months, over 98% of the cells in your body are new? At the heart of this continual renewal are the mitochondria, the "energy factories" of your cells. In "Powerhouse," Dr. Wells reveals simple yet revolutionary methods to heal and boost your mitochondria, leading to a whole-body transformation.
Join us as we explore practical techniques ranging from quick and effortless breathing exercises to strategic supplements and mindful technology usage. Drawing on his own leading research at the Hospital for Sick Children, Dr. Wells offers tangible advice to improve not just your physical wellbeing, but also your mood and hormonal health.
If you've ever felt tired, overwhelmed, or simply want to elevate your daily vitality, this episode is for you. "Powerhouse" presents a new frontier in personal wellness, giving you the tools to enhance the overall health of every single cell.
You can check out the video of the interview and other episodes on Guy's show here: https://thetraumatherapistproject.squarespace.com/the-books-read-thrive-podcast/breathe-move-energize-and-thrive-with-greg-wells-phd.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hi everyone, Welcome to my podcast where I explore the
science of health, human performance, and ultimate
potential. My name is Dr. Greg Wells and
I'm a scientist with a PhD in Human Physiology.
I've served as a professor in Kinesiology at the University of
Toronto and is a Scientist in Translational Medicine at Sick
Kids Hospital. I've also worked with dozens of
(00:22):
Olympic level athletes through the Canadian Sports Center
Network. In this podcast, I do my best to
take complex research and make it understandable and actionable
for you to improve your health and wellbeing, and perform to
your true potential at whatever it is that you care about the
most. In each show, I chat with
(00:42):
leading experts in the field of productivity, sleep, nutrition,
Physiology, and psychology, as well as some of the most
exceptional performers across all disciplines.
Together, we explore the amplifiers that propel us
towards high performance and overcome the obstacles that
challenge us. Ultimately, I want to share 1%
(01:03):
gains that can make a massive difference in your life.
Thank you for listening in and Ihope that you enjoy this
episode. Let me know your.
Thoughts and comments on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
All right, let's dive in. Hi, everyone.
Welcome back. Great to be with you.
And today I'm sharing with you. An interview that I did on the
Trauma Therapist Projects podcast called Books Read Thrive
(01:27):
and Dr. Guy McPherson interviewed me.
Fantastic Clinical Psychologist and we talked a lot about the
new book Powerhouse, but of course a whole bunch of other
topics as well. So super psyched to share this
with you. It's a little bit longer than
normal, but I think that you'll find that there's some really
great Nuggets in here. And as always, let me know what
(01:47):
you think on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
And if you're listening to this on the week that it is
absolutely actually being published and it is the
beginning of September 2023, this is when everything is
ramping up again, this is when kids are going back to school.
This is when summer is basicallyover if you're in the Northern
hemisphere. So I hope and wish that you have
(02:09):
an incredible fall. Hope that this podcast is
serving you and helping you and if you have any requests for
topics that you want me to cover.
In the coming months, to help you get through the rest of the
year, let me know on social and we'll try to dig into that a
little bit more. Anyway, enough about that.
Let's dig into my interview withDoctor Guy McPherson, all about
(02:29):
the new book Powerhouse and Breathing, Moving, Energizing,
and Thriving. Here we go.
Welcome to the Books Rethrive Podcast.
I'm your host, Guy McPherson. Each week we'll be celebrating
the books that help us grow, heal and thrive.
And talking. And incredible authors who write
them books have the amazing power to change our lives.
(02:50):
They've certainly changed mine. And I know they can change
yours, too. Thank you for being here and get
ready to change your life. All right, let's.
Do this. All right.
So 5432 and one, our folks welcome back to the podcast.
Very excited to have as my guesttoday Doctor Greg Wells.
(03:11):
Greg, welcome. It's so good to be.
Here, Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Appreciate it? So for Doctor Greg Wells, health
and peak performance are personal and professional
obsessions. Dr. Wells has a PhD in
Physiology and serves as Senior Scientist at the Hospital for
Sick Children in Toronto. As a scientist and physiologist,
he's focused on making the science of human limits
(03:34):
understandable and actionable. To that end, he's authored 4
best selling books, Super Bodies.
The ripple Effect. The Focus Effect and Rest
refocus. Recharge.
This most recent book is titled Powerhouse, which we're going to
be talking about today. Greg is the CEO and founder of
Will's Performance, a global consulting firm committed to
(03:54):
achieving the moon shot of helping teams, schools and
businesses become places where people get healthy, perform
optimally and reach their potential.
Yeah, Awesome. Welcome again.
Thanks so much for taking that to be here.
Where we can share with the listeners where you're from
originally and where you are currently.
(04:17):
Got it. So born in Montreal, Canada.
Currently living in Toronto, Canada.
Travel a ton at this particular instant.
I'm in Revel, Stoke, British Columbia, sort of the middle of
the mountains in Western Canada here for a few weeks with my
family getting ready to go. Back home very soon, but just
out here doing a little bit of mountain biking and recharging
with the family before before wehead back and unbelievably start
(04:39):
getting ready for school and andwork again.
Awesome. So as I said, we're going to be
talking about the book powerhouse and everything in
there. But how did all this start for
you? How did this cause?
Obviously you're on some mission, some you.
I mean, it's incredible. Yeah, it's, you know, when I,
(05:00):
when I go right back to the beginning.
It probably began when I was a teenager.
I was a competitive swimmer growing up and loved swimming.
I was trying to make the Olympicteam and went down to Florida on
a training camp and. Was playing in the waves with my
friends prior to a swim meet andunfortunately got picked up by a
wave dropped on my head and I broke my neck in a number of
different places at 15 years old.
(05:22):
So did three months of traction,which is, you know,
uncomfortable and frustrating asa 15 year old who's used to
being physically active. And then neurosurgery to rebuild
my spine and my neck and then obviously all the physiotherapy
required to recover after that toy fine.
Got back into swimming, swam allthe way through college.
But that really sparked my interest in the human body,
(05:43):
which is probably why I got interested in kinesiology.
In college, I coached as a as a swim coach for a number of years
after that, did my master's and PhD in human Physiology after
that, and I've just been fascinated by trying to help
people overcome really extreme challenges.
So now sick kids in Toronto leada research program called
(06:04):
Exercise Medicine. So we do a lot of research
around helping children with cancer or cystic fibrosis.
How to overcome those challengesusing exercise and healthy
lifestyle. In addition, obviously all the
medical treatments that I'm not involved with, we do the
lifestyle stuff. But then also helping other, you
know, challenge people that are doing challenging things like
either leading a company or trying to run across the desert
(06:25):
or be a special special forces soldier.
So I love working out at the extremes, whether it's on the
medical side or whether it's on the human performance side.
And that's what we're at up to right now, just trying to help
people reach their potential. So you mentioned.
Kineshesiology, which is what? And then Physiology, which is
(06:46):
what? So yeah, kinesiology is an
undergraduate degree. It's, you know, probably
traditionally was known as physical education.
But as the teaching element decreased in the more medical
element increased that enabled graduates to go into things like
physiotherapy or dentistry or medicine or chiropractic.
So it became sort of a foundation for allied health.
(07:07):
I ended up going out down the research path and in my master's
and PHDI did research on human Physiology, which is kind of
like psychology, which would be studying the brain and how that
functions. Physiology is how the body
functions. In my master's I did exercise
Physiology. So how do we train how to get
healthier? And in my PHDI did respiratory
Physiology and that was how do we use breathing to enhance
(07:30):
athletic performance. After I graduated from my
doctorate, I went to Africa for about 5 months to ride my bike.
But then I came back and tried to find a job and ended up
working in the respiratory medicine department at Sick Kids
Hospital, taking everything thatwe had learned about sports and
how to perform well in sports and applied that to cystic
fibrosis, which is a lung disease.
So I studied sports that were limited by breathing, like
(07:53):
rowing or swimming, where you can't breathe whenever you want,
you have to breathe when you can.
And that's very much sort of philosophically the same as what
goes on in. Conditions like cystic fibrosis
then ultimately leukemia as well, which is a blood cancer.
And so we just kind of took everything that we learned in
sports and applied it to the severe conditions in children.
It went really well. It was super interesting, but
that's sort of the foundation inthe the areas in which we play.
(08:17):
So your interest is on, as you said, kind of the edges of the
extremes of human performance. You mentioned Special Forces,
which got my attention. My brother was in the Special
Forces. What do you do there or what
have you done there? Yeah.
So what I had the opportunity towork with a number of operators
who were home either from Afghanistan or Iraq and were
(08:39):
sort of decompressing from deployment training, getting
back in shape, getting into thatrecovery zone such that they
could then go back and do their jobs again.
So it's just a lot of physical preparation.
And it was interesting. One of the, one of the things we
work on a lot with Olympic athletes is getting ready for
the Olympics. And funny enough, when you go to
(09:00):
the Olympics than the three weeks before you actually
arrive, you don't really train that hard.
You actually do a lot less. And that's called tapering.
You decrease the physiological stress so that their body can
hypered up, they can recover, regenerate and then perform
super well at the Olympics. And that's almost exactly what
we were doing with the number ofthese soldiers though.
They came home, they were tired,they were exhausted.
(09:20):
They were burned out, They were fatigued.
We allowed them to recover and regenerate, and then we built
training programs to enable themto get back into shape mentally,
physically, emotionally and thenstart training hard again such
that they're able to go and be able to function again in the
future. So it's very much.
Taking everything that we learned with Olympic athletes
and helping those people recovermentally, physically,
(09:43):
emotionally, and then prepare for being able to get back to
the careers that many of them really do love.
So I was a fun group to work with.
Interesting. One of my grad students that had
the opportunity to work with didsome work in nutrition for for
soldiers as well, which we triedto incorporate.
And pulling it all together was a real challenge, but a lot of
fun to work with those people. They were awesome.
(10:05):
Very cool. So let's talk about Powerhouse.
Why did you write this book and who is?
Who's it for? It's interesting, I've this was
book #5, and I'm sure that if you told my graded English
teacher that I would be writing five books, you would have a
nervous breakdown. Because it's.
Certainly not my, my, my plan, but about halfway through the
(10:26):
pandemic I was kind of looking around and doing a lot of
virtual public speaking and coaching people and.
It really felt like people were tired, they were burned out,
they were struggling, They were fatigue, like just that,
exhaustion like that languishing, that that the BLAS
that everybody was was faced with for a host of different
reasons. And as a physiologist, as a
researcher and someone who lovessort of deconstructing
(10:47):
challenges, I was like okay. So what's actually going on
here? Fundamentally, I think it's a
lack of energy. And when we're tired, when we're
burned out, when we're fatigued,when we're exhausted, we just
don't have enough energy. To be able to do what we want to
do. And I was, OK, so where do we
get energy from? Well, that's from our
mitochondria, little structures that you probably heard about in
Grade 10 biology. They're present in every single
(11:08):
cell in the body. They're in your brain, they're
in your muscles, they're in yourdigestive tractor, in your skin
or in your eyes or everywhere. And they break down the foods
that you eat to create the energy that you use to move and
think. They're also very involved in
fighting off illnesses that keepyou healthy.
Dysfunctional mitochondria, Mitochondria that don't work
(11:28):
very well are probably involved in cancer, heart disease, even
mental challenges like depression or anxiety.
So we know that they're fundamental to our performance,
they're fundamental to our energy levels, are really
important for our health. And I figured that if we could
optimize our mitochondria, then that could help us to overcome
this grand challenge that so many of us have been faced with
(11:50):
over the last few years. Which is that burnout and
languishing and and get people back to flourishing and get
people back to thriving again. And there are many different
ways in which we can do that. But that's why I wrote that
book. That's why I dug into it pretty
deeply and why I was so excited to.
Try to dig into it. Mitochondria are what?
Microorganisms? They're cells unto themselves.
(12:11):
Or what? Yeah, it's really interesting.
They're actually cells within our cells.
So probably 1.6 billion years ago, we think about that time.
There were two different types of cells on planet Earth.
One used oxygen for energy and one used sugar for energy.
The sugar burning cell 8 and oxygen using cell and instead of
(12:32):
digesting it and breaking it down, they actually started
working together. Mitochondria are the remnants of
the oxygen burning cell, and that new cell the one that
burned oxygen and sugar. Had this massive evolutionary
advantage, and it led to the proliferation of life on planet
Earth and now on planet Earth, almost every single life form
except a few different types of bacteria have mitochondria in
(12:55):
them. And that's how we create energy.
And that's how we became able toget out of the oceans and walk
around and grow and move and think and build.
And so yeah, we all have mitochondria in all of our
cells. They're cells within our cells,
and they're known as the powerhouse of the cell.
And they. Create our energy.
So you saw everyone practically just languishing and said, Okay,
(13:20):
how can we kind of give everyonea shot of adrenaline, In a
sense, Let's go to the model mitochondria.
How did things unfold? Were you like, Okay?
I'm going to write this book. How did you approach it?
Yeah. Like, it's exactly what what
(13:48):
happens when we need a little bit of a shot of energy.
And you know, it's funny. It's like it's almost like
trying to give everybody that shot of adrenaline.
And actually what adrenaline does is it supercharges your
mitochondria, makes them work stronger and faster.
So your your analogy there was actually absolutely.
So I began with a very basic so getting back to oxygen,
mitochondria use oxygen to burn the foods that we eat to create
energy. How do we get more oxygen?
Well, the answer to that is breath.
Brighten long, slow, deep breaths to get oxygen into our
lungs and into our blood. But at the same time, get rid of
(14:11):
the carbon dioxide that your mitochondria produce as waste
products from metabolism. So the first thing was digging
into breath work, and I know that's a really popular topic
right now. A lot of people have been
thinking about breath work. It's incredibly powerful.
It changes the way your brain functions, changes the way that
your body functions, if you think about.
You know, watching a child sigh,right?
(14:34):
Like, and they just relax. Or on the other end of the
spectrum, if you look at a tennis player hitting a ball
during a game, they might grunt or exhale really, really hard,
right? So when we take those long, slow
exhales, the body calms down. When we do.
Those explosive exhales the bodypsychs up so we can actually
manipulate our Physiology and our psychology.
(14:56):
By deliberately changing our breathing patterns.
The key things really being thatwe could all sort of try right
now is those long exhales calm us down, the sharp fast exhales
psych us up. It's pretty cool and it's
interesting. We can manipulate our Physiology
and our psychology deliberately just by using our breath.
It's interesting, as you were saying, that I was thinking to
myself that during the pandemic I know for me.
(15:20):
I did not find myself breathing like that.
In fact, I was doing the the opposite like very much so yeah,
yeah, so breath okay. So there there's breath.
And throughout the book you talkabout that and have ways we can
increase that and powerhouse that in the sense let's okay.
(15:43):
So what else? How else did you structure the
book? Yeah.
The next step was so you're breathing, you're getting oxygen
into your body, You're relaxing,getting yourself into that ideal
performance day, right? We've built that foundation.
The next thing was to get peopleback into and reminded of the
power of movement. And I'm an exercise
physiologist. I have coached Olympic athletes
and, you know, pushed people to the limits of climbing mountains
(16:04):
and running across deserts and all those sorts of things.
I've done the blood work and allthe heart rate zones.
But ultimately, when I just dug into it and export it further, I
realized that the foundation of human health and wellbeing is
movement. But movement in not such a way.
Like we're going to the gym and sweating and hitting our heart
rate zones, but just generally being physically active
throughout the course of the day.
(16:24):
Motion is lotion, as eleven timeIron Man traffic.
Lisa Bentley often says. We just move our bodies and we
contract our muscles when we move our bodies through a range
of motion by walking, by stretching, gardening,
housework, yoga. If you want to go to the gym,
that's fine. If you want to go to the for a
run or a bike ride, that's also incredible.
But it's just general physical movement.
(16:45):
That sparks the creation of new mitochondria, which then give
you more energy. It's almost like you have to
spend a little bit of energy in order to get so much more back.
The converse is also true. If we sit too much, if we don't
move, your body does not maintain structures that it
isn't using. It'll break down your
mitochondria and get rid of them, because they do cost
(17:07):
energy to maintain. So momentum inertia makes a
difference here if we've been sitting for a long time.
Doing that very first walk is going to require a massive
amount of energy just to get outthe door and go out for 5
minutes. But if once you've been doing it
for three weeks, everything getseasier and easier and easier
mental. It's physical and emotional
(17:27):
because your mitochondria drive not just your body, but I'll see
your brain as well. So the next step was move more.
When you're talking about movement, are you talking about
like intentional movement? Like, OK, I'm going to go out
and take a walk or the gym or whatever.
You mentioned gardening too. Or.
Are you also just talking about our daytoday, walking, going to
the store or whatever? I'm fine.
(17:49):
Yeah, and so like I and again I'm the I'm the guy that like
wrote the workouts and. Said you have to be at a heart
rate 142 for 60. 2 minutes, right?
Whatever. It was like I've done all of
that. And I realize now, in hindsight,
I mean, it's fine for trying to win a medal at the Olympics for
but for the vast majority of this?
Simply moving counts. Going and getting groceries
counts. You're getting up, you're
moving, you're carrying boxes, you're moving things up and you
(18:12):
know up and down the stairs of your house, you're carrying
bags. You may be in a different
context, running for a bus or walking up and down the stairs
at work. All of it counts.
It really interesting. We did so many studies at sick
kids on exercise, medicine or exercise for various different
chronic diseases, and the studies looked at endurance
training or strength training orflexibility training.
(18:33):
They all work. They all improve.
Outcomes in almost every single chronic disease that you can
look at cancer, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome,
you know, even mental challenge,mental health challenges like
depression, exercise works. The problem is, is when the
study is finished, the kids stopped exercising.
And so we're like, well, that doesn't really help.
And then Doctor James Schneiderman dug through the
(18:53):
data and found that the kids whoare the most generally,
habitually, physically active were the.
Ones who had the slowest. Rate of disease progression.
We've looked at cystic fibrosis and then a number of other
conditions as well. And we found that over and over
and over again, the kids who aretaking the most steps throughout
the entire day were the ones whohad the best outcomes, simply
(19:15):
like the ones who are sitting the least.
And we all know, like in this era right now, with phones and
video games and all those other things and you know, adults, we
need to sit at our computers to do work, Many of us.
It's hard to get that in. So we know this intuitively feel
better when we go for a walk. We feel so good when we stretch
a little bit, but when we now it's hard.
We need to remind ourselves to do that and build that practice
(19:37):
into our lives. And literally anything counts.
And research at McMaster University has shown that it is
the lowest 1 to 3 minutes of exercise a day.
One to three minutes will actually make things better.
So the answer is more, but doesn't matter where you are.
I don't need you getting to 10,000 steps if you're at 1000
steps. No big deal.
Get to 1200. That's what we're looking for
(19:58):
people to think about, I. Do something.
Anything right? Like just.
Do you literally do anything? If you're lying down, sit up.
If you're. If you're sitting up, stand.
If you're standing, go for a walk, right.
If just like we just nudge things up a little bit of at a
time and give yourself massive amounts of of grace and love and
support and talk to yourself as you're doing this, Encourage
(20:20):
yourself. And the other thing that really
helps is just sort of practical things we can do is getting
support from the people around you.
Go for a walk with a friend, do a walking meeting, stand during
a phone call at work. I know often if I'm at A at a
boardroom table in in a conference or something like
that, like I'll put my books down and my notes down, but then
(20:42):
stand behind the chair. So I'm not sitting for that hour
or two that I'm in that boardroom.
People like, what are you doing,Greg?
I'm like, I'm trying not to die.I'm just going to stand here.
You guys all sit where we'll we'll we'll be good.
But yeah, anything counts. Anything counts.
So again, going back to the mitochondria, what does this
movement do to the mitochondria?So what happens when we move is
(21:04):
that you breakdown molecules like carbohydrates, proteins,
fats, the foods that you have eaten to create energy that
happens inside your mitochondria, and then waste
products are created. So if you breakdown sugars, for
example, you'll create little tiny acids, maybe some
potassium. If you go for a run, you will
break down energy. There will be waste products
(21:26):
like carbon dioxide that are produced.
Those waste products then go outinto your body and they interact
with your DNA, your genetic code, and they tell your DNA,
hey, we're exercising, we're lifting weights, we're walking,
we're running, we're climbing. And your DNA then codes.
For structures that help you do those things more easily in the
(21:49):
future. So if you lift weights, you code
for more muscle tissue. If you go for a walk, you code
for better heart, lungs, blood, and mitochondria.
So we build new mitochondria in response to the waste products
that are created. They're called inductors in
Physiology. In response to those inductors,
in response to those waste products, you actually get
(22:10):
stimulated to grow new structures inside your body that
make it easier for you to do those activities in the future.
It's almost like you're stressing yourself out by doing
a little bit of exercise, but then your body notices that
stress and builds itself up to be able to better handle that
stress in the future. You stress is that positive
(22:34):
stress. Distress is that negative
stress, right? Too much stress is a problem
because you don't have the time to rebuild yourself.
You stress being EU stress, it'sa technical term, you can write
it up. I mean, negative stress is that
it's overwhelming. It's relentless.
You never get a break. You stress is that positive
challenge, the opportunity to dothings that you love.
(22:55):
You got like, you know, speakingor a meeting or writing a test
or doing something cool and interesting.
However, even you stress can become problematic.
If we never take any breaks, if you can balance stress plus
rest, that's what leads to growth.
You want to explore that idea a little bit further.
I think Brad Stolberg and Steve Magnus wrote a book called Peak
Performance and that was the foundation of that book.
(23:17):
But yeah, it's that stress plus rest equals growth.
That's magic. It's just when stress is chronic
and relentless and nonstop that we end up in this really
challenging state, which by the way, I think we've been in for
the last year or four years. We certainly were during the
pandemic. You think you just think about
the news cycle and everything that was coming at us over and
over and over again. So it's really important we
(23:38):
build in those breaks. And in many cases, exercise can
be that break. Like think about going to yoga
or think about going for a walk and leaving your phone at home
or just playing in the park withyour children for an hour,
right? Like the exercise can serve this
purpose as well. Just remind everyone, I'm
speaking with Doctor Greg Wells.We're talking about his new book
(23:59):
Powerhouse. Pause here to thank our
sponsors. Alright, Greg.
So we have breath, we have movement.
Where we have next, the next oneis thrive and energize.
So we want to have the energy tobe able to do what we love in
(24:22):
our lives. And the idea that I wanted to
share here was the idea of hormesis, which in Physiology
means a little bit as good a lotas not.
Glad you brought up the idea of eustress and distress, like a
little bit of stress helps you to be better.
Just think about a little bit ofexercise.
You get fitter, too much exercise, you get injured and
sick. Other examples of that might be
(24:42):
cold. There's so much information
right now and you know, stuff onsocial media about cold water
immersion or you know. The cold plunges and stuff like
that, right? A little bit of cold is actually
quite beneficial for you, but a lot of colds you get hypothermia
and die. Same thing for sauna, right on
the other end of the spectrum, alittle bit of sauna a few times
a week or a little bit of like 3hot baths a week is really
(25:03):
great, actually extends your life and and decreases your risk
of a host of different chronic diseases.
But a lot is not. You can get hyperthermia and
also die. Salt would be another example,
right? Fasting would be another
example. A little bit as good.
A lot is not. I'm just trying to help people
bring a little bit of balance back to their lives.
It's not sexy. It's not going to get a lot of
(25:23):
you know likes or anything on Instagram because it is the
opposite of of what extreme sortof stuff gets thrown out their
own social these days. But really we're just looking
for balances. That balance of doing something
that's good for you resting but then also getting out there and
doing what you need to do at a high level.
So a little bit of stress is good, lot is not and when we get
(25:44):
that going, when we get the. Balance in our nutrition,
Balance in our sleep. Balance in our stress.
Balance in our exercise, which admittedly is challenging to do
these days when we are so busy with so much stuff to do.
That is actually what enables usto have more energy to direct
towards the things that we care about the most in our lives.
That could be carpentry. That could be your art, Could be
(26:07):
music, Could be drama, Could be learning something new.
IT could be your job, if you're so fortunate.
Could be training for for an athletic event.
But once we have that energy, that's what enables us then to
get out of that state of languishing that we have all
been in for the last few years and into the zone of flourishing
and thriving. So just looking for people to
(26:27):
build practices that enable themto have more energy, which you
know, for example, and give yourself permission to have.
Get some sleep, get out into thesunlight a few minutes a day,
get in those workouts does not be hard, can just be a little
bit of physical activity. Eat the healthier foods.
You know, try a 32nd cold shower.
Take a warm bath a few times a week.
(26:48):
Whatever gives you energy. Let's just try to build a few of
those practices back into our lives.
You were someone who was on the Olympic trajectory, right?
This very competitive person. And it's interesting to hear you
talking about moderation in a sense.
But I I I. Well, maybe not right.
(27:10):
It's hard earned wisdom. Unfortunately I.
Think that it's very interestingto me.
I mean obviously when you're, I'm assuming when you're
training at that level, you've got to be smart about how you're
doing it. But when we think of people at
that elite level, we're thinkingabout just these powerhouse
driven people, which is not whatyou're talking about here.
(27:32):
You're talking about, right? Yeah, you know, but it's
interesting, even that group, ifI look back to, you know,
training for the Olympics in the80s and 90s, when I was trying
to do it to date myself a littlebit, it really was just about
who could train the most. It was all about volume of work.
Could you train for five, 6-7 hours a day?
(27:52):
And if you could and you could survive that, then
congratulations, you go to the Olympics.
But careers were short. Mental health was not awesome.
A lot of illness and a lot of injuries and if you think about
an old athlete at that time would be 25.
Well now the approach is quite different and the approach is
not so much volume of training, it's quality of training and
(28:16):
that world class training then gets alternated with deep rest
and recovery. So we might have two or three
massages a year. You know, you might get a
massage at the competition whereyou're trying out for the
Olympic team and like, that was it.
Now the idea would be that you're probably getting at least
one massage a week. Back then we would carb load as
(28:38):
much pasta as possible. Now it's all about plantbased
and eating the rainbow and phytonutrients and antioxidants
and. All of these wonderful
antiinflammatory compounds that we can get from a host of
different types of food to keep you healthy mentally and
physically. And then also making sure that
we have purpose and passion and mission so that we are, we are
(28:59):
mentally healthy, we are on point and there's a reason for
doing what we do. And that isn't just present.
That new approach of alternatingworld class performance and
training and preparation with deep recovery and regeneration
and rest. That idea is now also making its
way into business. It's making its way into world
(29:20):
class performers in music in a host of different.
Professions, if you will, that we're that we're pursuing as
part of our search for an incredible life.
And so yeah, that moderation nowthat that hardearned wisdom
about how to be able to have sustainable, healthy, high
performance where we actually reach our true potential as
(29:41):
humans. And that's really what it's all
about. And it's not about volume of
work. It's about doing really world
class, you know, reaching your potential.
Whatever that happens, being world class can be anything,
doesn't mean that you're top tenin the world.
Simply means that you are doing your very best as often as you
can because it's what you want to do, it's what you care about,
it's what you love. And then using the rest of your
life to enable you to do that more often at a higher level.
(30:04):
That's really what with the approach that we're that we're
recommending these days, and I think it's a lot healthier
mentally, physically, emotionally and even spiritually
to some extent. Who's the book?
Who'd you write the book for? You mentioned people in the
pandemic just numbing out, but who did you write it for?
Yeah, you know, every time that I I write a book, I end up
(30:24):
trying to write it to one specific person, actually.
And that has really served me quite well in the past.
I've written it for dear friendsand the ripple effect was
written to a couple of my reallyclose friends who are, you know,
high performers but, you know, had a family life and a career.
And I was like, how do I help them?
And that went really, really well.
(30:46):
This book I think is is for my kids.
And I've got two of them. They're 8 and 13.
I know that at some point, maybein the future might be 10 years
from now, they'll pick up, maybepick up the book and check out
what was my dad thinking 10 years ago.
But this was I just, I was so worried about the future and I
was really concerned about what I was seeing.
And although the book is writtenfor a larger audience, and
(31:09):
certainly not for an 8 year old at this point, but.
Ingrid has picked up on some of the things that we talked about.
She has been absorbing some of the information.
And I'm just trying to create that world such that when they
grow up, it's a healthy place where they can reach their
potential. And I've always been involved
with kids my entire career, either as an athlete or, you
know, as a coach and then as a physiologist and then as a
(31:31):
researcher at the hospital. And so this one was very much, I
think, written for. Now trying to create a healthier
world for my kids to grow up into, but hopefully it's a book
that my kids it will pick up andread when it's time for them to,
you know, really go after their dreams.
When you say you write it for one person or a couple people,
is that something you share withthose people?
(31:52):
Is that just a conception in your mind?
It's very much a conception in my mind.
I have subsequently told people like, hey, I actually wrote this
book to you. Like I actually typed as if I
was having a conversation. Right.
With those people, I have let them know, but it's not during
the process. It's often years later that I
will let them know that. So we have breathe, move,
(32:15):
energize, and then thrive. Thrive.
Now it's time to put it all intopractice.
Like make your life awesome and.There's a simple idea.
People, places in pursuits in order for you to action, action,
actionalize this, turn turn thisinto action.
I just made-up a word there. It doesn't exist.
Take this and turn it into action.
People, places in pursuits. I love for people to think.
(32:36):
Now as we move forwards, as we emerge from this pandemic and
navigate a world that's very uncertain still to this day and
will probably remain to some degree in certain moving
forwards, is who are the people that you want to be spending
more time with? Personally and professionally,
who are the people who elevate you?
Who are the people that bring you joy?
Who are the people that you uplift as well?
And if you can find fiveish people in your personal life who
(33:00):
bring you joy, who elevate you, then let's try to figure out how
do we spend a little bit more time with those people.
They'll probably be different from the five people who elevate
you professionally and who you also serve.
So I love that five and five right?
Five personal, five professionalpeople that we are going to
deliberately spend. More time with this might be
people that encourage you to do your workouts, or people that
(33:20):
you love just to talk to people that get you outside into
nature. People that encourage you to
take that trip or take the course or practice the skill or,
you know, submit the proposal. Like whatever it happens to be,
it's the people who elevate you,the people who challenge you,
the people who uplift you, the people who encourage you.
We want so much more of that in our lives.
Plus, we need to be working on making sure that we serve others
(33:44):
personally and professionally aswell to help them.
Elevate by doing that, almost byextension, you will have to then
choose probably who are you going to spend a little bit of
less time with and who are the people maybe that are the energy
vampires that we want to not necessarily, you know, like cut
out of your life or anything like that.
Maybe you know, you just reallocate your time towards the
(34:04):
people that elevate you and the people who that you elevate
also. That's the people part of it.
Places is another really interesting thing and it was
during the pandemic we were confined, Many of us, and
certainly where I live, we were confined and then someplace
sheltering in place at home we lost the ability to move around
and travel. It's funny when something is
taken away from you, how much you then value it when those
(34:26):
freedoms are returned to us. And I discovered that I love
being outside. Like I love nature.
I love going for the walks and the bike rides and climbing and
being around the trees. That's what truly elevates my
psychology and Physiology. My wife, Judith, discovered that
she loves being around people, and fortunately she's a
(34:49):
chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, and so that
is her job. She interacts with people all
day long one-on-one. And so we now know I need to be
in nature as often as possible. And Judith has to have those
personal contacts with people, those deep, meaningful
relationships. And so the place is part of it
is massive. And I would encourage people to
think about like what are the places that make you happy, the
(35:11):
places that give you energy? Is it your cottage?
Is it the park near your house? Is it a room in your home?
Is it a chair in your home? Like where?
Wherever it happens to be, if you know that there are certain
places that bring you to life. And let's deliberately plan on
spending some time in those places that might be daily,
weekly, monthly, annually, whenever you get a chance, might
(35:32):
be even every couple years you get to go there.
Those places are really important for us to take some
time to visit, take some time and spend there because that's
what what elevates us. And and sometimes we only learn
this the hard way. And I certainly learned to learn
that the hard way, how much I value being in nature.
Which is why I'm sitting where Iam sitting here today doing this
(35:53):
podcast. And then the final piece of the
puzzle is that the pursuits, which is what do you love?
What is it that elevates you? Where does your true potential
lie? What do, what do you love doing
that serves the world, that elevates others?
That, And if it happens to be your art, and if it happens to
be a hobby, if it happens to be your work, if it happens to be
(36:13):
your practice, whatever it is, that's totally cool.
But when we are aware. Of what our pursuits are.
Some people also often refer to this as your passion.
We craft our passion. I don't know if it's discovered
so much as crafted, right? We craft our pursuits, craft our
passions, craft our interests. And spending our time on those I
think is, again, really important.
(36:34):
So we've we we've done the breath work to get oxygen in
your body. You've moved to build your
capacity mentally, physically, and emotion.
You're energized now. You've got the energy to do what
you love. Let's allocate that attention
towards the things that are the most meaningful to us in our
lives. Because where our attention
goes, energy will then flow there and that part of your life
will grow and expand and who knows what where that will take
(36:57):
you in the future. But ultimately that's the path
that I want everyone to considermaybe moving towards, even if
it's just a tiny bit. We can all make these little
micro shifts in our lives and hopefully make our our lives a
little bit more magical every single day.
I love what you're saying. I find it very inspiring.
And one of the things I really love about it is that you're
(37:18):
kind of bringing an intentionality to what we're
doing, how we're breathing, if we're breathing, how we're
moving. And there's something very
empowering about this. You know, it's.
Yeah, we all know we need to move and blah, blah, blah.
But really, how many of us are taking those long breaths?
(37:38):
I know I have to. We have to be.
I feel we have to really be intentional about it, and I feel
your book is really a prescriptive for that.
It's like it's an inspiring invitation.
Thank you. I I like that means the world to
me that that's the way that you've interpreted it.
And I'm so psyched that that's like the that's the energy
(37:59):
that's that's coming across and it really is about that.
But the other interesting thing is it's almost like we have to
give ourselves permission that it's okay to do this.
It's okay to take the walk, it'sokay to pause for 5 minutes and
take a few breaths. It's Okay.
To make yourself the healthy lunch and bring it and have that
(38:19):
at at the office or wherever it is that you're that you're
going. And digging into the reasons why
we don't give ourselves permission to do this often
uncovers some reasons as to why we hold ourselves back or why we
don't give ourselves permission or why we find it so difficult
to build these new habits. So it's a practice and it's not
going to happen all at once. This is an ongoing process that.
(38:41):
That we go along. It is an invitation on a
journey. This is for me.
It's a 10 year project that I'm into at this point and I don't
mean to say that in a daunting way, that you're not going to
get any results for 10 years. If you go down this journey,
certainly I think that you will see some benefits right away,
but these benefits will improve consistently over time.
Sometimes they're easier, sometimes they're harder.
(39:02):
There's good seasons in life. There's difficult seasons in
life. So we're just trying to
generally move ourselves in the right direction over a long
period of time. So it's an invitation.
Let's go, let's do this, let's have fun.
And then I would encourage everybody.
Let's just give yourself permission to do one really cool
thing that elevates you, that elevates the people around you,
that makes your life a little bit better, and then see if you
(39:22):
can do that consistently over a long period of time.
Yeah, I love that idea of givingpermission to ourselves.
That resonates with me a lot because I don't.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
I don't either. I struggle with it, right.
Like, I'm like, I after this podcast.
I am. I would like to give myself
permission to go for a bike ridebecause it's beautiful, but it's
going to take me a couple hours and it's going to put some other
things on the back burner. But you know what?
(39:43):
It's okay because the other stuff can wait.
And this is really important. Health and wellbeing comes
first. But yeah, I know, I recognize
it's not easy. And give yourself that grace.
It's all good. I appreciate it.
Well, look, man, you are just one inspiring dude.
I appreciate you coming on here.What's the best way for people
to get in contact with you? Yeah, the easiest way is through
the website doctorgregwells.com.Podcast.
Is there social media is there, books are there.
Our new app called Video is there, could sends out 1% tips
(40:07):
every day. So check all that stuff out,
we'd be honored. Flip me a note through the
website. Let me know that you heard me on
this podcast. I'd be super thrilled to answer
any questions that you have. Awesome.
All right, we'll have all that linked up here.
The Show notes page at podcast Greg awesome.
Thanks so much for being here. I'm.
So honored, grateful. Thank you so much.
All right. Take care.
(40:27):
All right. Thank you so much for listening.
And if you're interested to learn more about what I do, head
on over to the books. Read thrivepodcast.com.
That's the books. Read thrivepodcast.com.
Take care. Thanks for tuning into this
(40:56):
episode of the Doctor Greg Wellspodcast.
If you found this show informative and helpful, check
out my blog at Doctor Greg wells.com for additional
insights and resources on Healthand Human performance.
I update the blog a couple timesa month to stay up to date on
the latest tips, articles, and videos.
Be sure to follow me on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
My goal on social is to keep your health and Wellness and
(41:17):
positivity at the forefront of your mind, and so I would be
thrilled to connect with you there.
If you found this episode helpful, please consider
subscribing to the podcast. That helps us out a ton and
leave a review. Your feedback is greatly
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(41:38):
Please feel free to share this episode with your friends and
community. That helps a ton as well and
that brings this week's show to an end.
I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.
Have a great week everyone.
Hi everyone, Welcome to my podcast where I explore the
science of health, human performance, and ultimate
potential. My name is Dr. Greg Wells and
I'm a scientist with a PhD in Human Physiology.
I've served as a professor in Kinesiology at the University of
Toronto and is a Scientist in Translational Medicine at Sick
Kids Hospital. I've also worked with dozens of
(00:22):
Olympic level athletes through the Canadian Sports Center
Network. In this podcast, I do my best to
take complex research and make it understandable and actionable
for you to improve your health and wellbeing, and perform to
your true potential at whatever it is that you care about the
most. In each show, I chat with
(00:42):
leading experts in the field of productivity, sleep, nutrition,
Physiology, and psychology, as well as some of the most
exceptional performers across all disciplines.
Together, we explore the amplifiers that propel us
towards high performance and overcome the obstacles that
challenge us. Ultimately, I want to share 1%
(01:03):
gains that can make a massive difference in your life.
Thank you for listening in and Ihope that you enjoy this
episode. Let me know your.
Thoughts and comments on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
All right, let's dive in. Hi, everyone.
Welcome back. Great to be with you.
And today I'm sharing with you. An interview that I did on the
Trauma Therapist Projects podcast called Books Read Thrive
(01:27):
and Dr. Guy McPherson interviewed me.
Fantastic Clinical Psychologist and we talked a lot about the
new book Powerhouse, but of course a whole bunch of other
topics as well. So super psyched to share this
with you. It's a little bit longer than
normal, but I think that you'll find that there's some really
great Nuggets in here. And as always, let me know what
(01:47):
you think on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
And if you're listening to this on the week that it is
absolutely actually being published and it is the
beginning of September 2023, this is when everything is
ramping up again, this is when kids are going back to school.
This is when summer is basicallyover if you're in the Northern
hemisphere. So I hope and wish that you have
(02:09):
an incredible fall. Hope that this podcast is
serving you and helping you and if you have any requests for
topics that you want me to cover.
In the coming months, to help you get through the rest of the
year, let me know on social and we'll try to dig into that a
little bit more. Anyway, enough about that.
Let's dig into my interview withDoctor Guy McPherson, all about
(02:29):
the new book Powerhouse and Breathing, Moving, Energizing,
and Thriving. Here we go.
Welcome to the Books Rethrive Podcast.
I'm your host, Guy McPherson. Each week we'll be celebrating
the books that help us grow, heal and thrive.
And talking. And incredible authors who write
them books have the amazing power to change our lives.
(02:50):
They've certainly changed mine. And I know they can change
yours, too. Thank you for being here and get
ready to change your life. All right, let's.
Do this. All right.
So 5432 and one, our folks welcome back to the podcast.
Very excited to have as my guesttoday Doctor Greg Wells.
(03:11):
Greg, welcome. It's so good to be.
Here, Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Appreciate it? So for Doctor Greg Wells, health
and peak performance are personal and professional
obsessions. Dr. Wells has a PhD in
Physiology and serves as Senior Scientist at the Hospital for
Sick Children in Toronto. As a scientist and physiologist,
he's focused on making the science of human limits
(03:34):
understandable and actionable. To that end, he's authored 4
best selling books, Super Bodies.
The ripple Effect. The Focus Effect and Rest
refocus. Recharge.
This most recent book is titled Powerhouse, which we're going to
be talking about today. Greg is the CEO and founder of
Will's Performance, a global consulting firm committed to
(03:54):
achieving the moon shot of helping teams, schools and
businesses become places where people get healthy, perform
optimally and reach their potential.
Yeah, Awesome. Welcome again.
Thanks so much for taking that to be here.
Where we can share with the listeners where you're from
originally and where you are currently.
(04:17):
Got it. So born in Montreal, Canada.
Currently living in Toronto, Canada.
Travel a ton at this particular instant.
I'm in Revel, Stoke, British Columbia, sort of the middle of
the mountains in Western Canada here for a few weeks with my
family getting ready to go. Back home very soon, but just
out here doing a little bit of mountain biking and recharging
with the family before before wehead back and unbelievably start
(04:39):
getting ready for school and andwork again.
Awesome. So as I said, we're going to be
talking about the book powerhouse and everything in
there. But how did all this start for
you? How did this cause?
Obviously you're on some mission, some you.
I mean, it's incredible. Yeah, it's, you know, when I,
(05:00):
when I go right back to the beginning.
It probably began when I was a teenager.
I was a competitive swimmer growing up and loved swimming.
I was trying to make the Olympicteam and went down to Florida on
a training camp and. Was playing in the waves with my
friends prior to a swim meet andunfortunately got picked up by a
wave dropped on my head and I broke my neck in a number of
different places at 15 years old.
(05:22):
So did three months of traction,which is, you know,
uncomfortable and frustrating asa 15 year old who's used to
being physically active. And then neurosurgery to rebuild
my spine and my neck and then obviously all the physiotherapy
required to recover after that toy fine.
Got back into swimming, swam allthe way through college.
But that really sparked my interest in the human body,
(05:43):
which is probably why I got interested in kinesiology.
In college, I coached as a as a swim coach for a number of years
after that, did my master's and PhD in human Physiology after
that, and I've just been fascinated by trying to help
people overcome really extreme challenges.
So now sick kids in Toronto leada research program called
(06:04):
Exercise Medicine. So we do a lot of research
around helping children with cancer or cystic fibrosis.
How to overcome those challengesusing exercise and healthy
lifestyle. In addition, obviously all the
medical treatments that I'm not involved with, we do the
lifestyle stuff. But then also helping other, you
know, challenge people that are doing challenging things like
either leading a company or trying to run across the desert
(06:25):
or be a special special forces soldier.
So I love working out at the extremes, whether it's on the
medical side or whether it's on the human performance side.
And that's what we're at up to right now, just trying to help
people reach their potential. So you mentioned.
Kineshesiology, which is what? And then Physiology, which is
(06:46):
what? So yeah, kinesiology is an
undergraduate degree. It's, you know, probably
traditionally was known as physical education.
But as the teaching element decreased in the more medical
element increased that enabled graduates to go into things like
physiotherapy or dentistry or medicine or chiropractic.
So it became sort of a foundation for allied health.
(07:07):
I ended up going out down the research path and in my master's
and PHDI did research on human Physiology, which is kind of
like psychology, which would be studying the brain and how that
functions. Physiology is how the body
functions. In my master's I did exercise
Physiology. So how do we train how to get
healthier? And in my PHDI did respiratory
Physiology and that was how do we use breathing to enhance
(07:30):
athletic performance. After I graduated from my
doctorate, I went to Africa for about 5 months to ride my bike.
But then I came back and tried to find a job and ended up
working in the respiratory medicine department at Sick Kids
Hospital, taking everything thatwe had learned about sports and
how to perform well in sports and applied that to cystic
fibrosis, which is a lung disease.
So I studied sports that were limited by breathing, like
(07:53):
rowing or swimming, where you can't breathe whenever you want,
you have to breathe when you can.
And that's very much sort of philosophically the same as what
goes on in. Conditions like cystic fibrosis
then ultimately leukemia as well, which is a blood cancer.
And so we just kind of took everything that we learned in
sports and applied it to the severe conditions in children.
It went really well. It was super interesting, but
that's sort of the foundation inthe the areas in which we play.
(08:17):
So your interest is on, as you said, kind of the edges of the
extremes of human performance. You mentioned Special Forces,
which got my attention. My brother was in the Special
Forces. What do you do there or what
have you done there? Yeah.
So what I had the opportunity towork with a number of operators
who were home either from Afghanistan or Iraq and were
(08:39):
sort of decompressing from deployment training, getting
back in shape, getting into thatrecovery zone such that they
could then go back and do their jobs again.
So it's just a lot of physical preparation.
And it was interesting. One of the, one of the things we
work on a lot with Olympic athletes is getting ready for
the Olympics. And funny enough, when you go to
(09:00):
the Olympics than the three weeks before you actually
arrive, you don't really train that hard.
You actually do a lot less. And that's called tapering.
You decrease the physiological stress so that their body can
hypered up, they can recover, regenerate and then perform
super well at the Olympics. And that's almost exactly what
we were doing with the number ofthese soldiers though.
They came home, they were tired,they were exhausted.
(09:20):
They were burned out, They were fatigued.
We allowed them to recover and regenerate, and then we built
training programs to enable themto get back into shape mentally,
physically, emotionally and thenstart training hard again such
that they're able to go and be able to function again in the
future. So it's very much.
Taking everything that we learned with Olympic athletes
and helping those people recovermentally, physically,
(09:43):
emotionally, and then prepare for being able to get back to
the careers that many of them really do love.
So I was a fun group to work with.
Interesting. One of my grad students that had
the opportunity to work with didsome work in nutrition for for
soldiers as well, which we triedto incorporate.
And pulling it all together was a real challenge, but a lot of
fun to work with those people. They were awesome.
(10:05):
Very cool. So let's talk about Powerhouse.
Why did you write this book and who is?
Who's it for? It's interesting, I've this was
book #5, and I'm sure that if you told my graded English
teacher that I would be writing five books, you would have a
nervous breakdown. Because it's.
Certainly not my, my, my plan, but about halfway through the
(10:26):
pandemic I was kind of looking around and doing a lot of
virtual public speaking and coaching people and.
It really felt like people were tired, they were burned out,
they were struggling, They were fatigue, like just that,
exhaustion like that languishing, that that the BLAS
that everybody was was faced with for a host of different
reasons. And as a physiologist, as a
researcher and someone who lovessort of deconstructing
(10:47):
challenges, I was like okay. So what's actually going on
here? Fundamentally, I think it's a
lack of energy. And when we're tired, when we're
burned out, when we're fatigued,when we're exhausted, we just
don't have enough energy. To be able to do what we want to
do. And I was, OK, so where do we
get energy from? Well, that's from our
mitochondria, little structures that you probably heard about in
Grade 10 biology. They're present in every single
(11:08):
cell in the body. They're in your brain, they're
in your muscles, they're in yourdigestive tractor, in your skin
or in your eyes or everywhere. And they break down the foods
that you eat to create the energy that you use to move and
think. They're also very involved in
fighting off illnesses that keepyou healthy.
Dysfunctional mitochondria, Mitochondria that don't work
(11:28):
very well are probably involved in cancer, heart disease, even
mental challenges like depression or anxiety.
So we know that they're fundamental to our performance,
they're fundamental to our energy levels, are really
important for our health. And I figured that if we could
optimize our mitochondria, then that could help us to overcome
this grand challenge that so many of us have been faced with
(11:50):
over the last few years. Which is that burnout and
languishing and and get people back to flourishing and get
people back to thriving again. And there are many different
ways in which we can do that. But that's why I wrote that
book. That's why I dug into it pretty
deeply and why I was so excited to.
Try to dig into it. Mitochondria are what?
Microorganisms? They're cells unto themselves.
(12:11):
Or what? Yeah, it's really interesting.
They're actually cells within our cells.
So probably 1.6 billion years ago, we think about that time.
There were two different types of cells on planet Earth.
One used oxygen for energy and one used sugar for energy.
The sugar burning cell 8 and oxygen using cell and instead of
(12:32):
digesting it and breaking it down, they actually started
working together. Mitochondria are the remnants of
the oxygen burning cell, and that new cell the one that
burned oxygen and sugar. Had this massive evolutionary
advantage, and it led to the proliferation of life on planet
Earth and now on planet Earth, almost every single life form
except a few different types of bacteria have mitochondria in
(12:55):
them. And that's how we create energy.
And that's how we became able toget out of the oceans and walk
around and grow and move and think and build.
And so yeah, we all have mitochondria in all of our
cells. They're cells within our cells,
and they're known as the powerhouse of the cell.
And they. Create our energy.
So you saw everyone practically just languishing and said, Okay,
(13:20):
how can we kind of give everyonea shot of adrenaline, In a
sense, Let's go to the model mitochondria.
How did things unfold? Were you like, Okay?
I'm going to write this book. How did you approach it?
Yeah. Like, it's exactly what what
(13:48):
happens when we need a little bit of a shot of energy.
And you know, it's funny. It's like it's almost like
trying to give everybody that shot of adrenaline.
And actually what adrenaline does is it supercharges your
mitochondria, makes them work stronger and faster.
So your your analogy there was actually absolutely.
So I began with a very basic so getting back to oxygen,
mitochondria use oxygen to burn the foods that we eat to create
energy. How do we get more oxygen?
Well, the answer to that is breath.
Brighten long, slow, deep breaths to get oxygen into our
lungs and into our blood. But at the same time, get rid of
(14:11):
the carbon dioxide that your mitochondria produce as waste
products from metabolism. So the first thing was digging
into breath work, and I know that's a really popular topic
right now. A lot of people have been
thinking about breath work. It's incredibly powerful.
It changes the way your brain functions, changes the way that
your body functions, if you think about.
You know, watching a child sigh,right?
(14:34):
Like, and they just relax. Or on the other end of the
spectrum, if you look at a tennis player hitting a ball
during a game, they might grunt or exhale really, really hard,
right? So when we take those long, slow
exhales, the body calms down. When we do.
Those explosive exhales the bodypsychs up so we can actually
manipulate our Physiology and our psychology.
(14:56):
By deliberately changing our breathing patterns.
The key things really being thatwe could all sort of try right
now is those long exhales calm us down, the sharp fast exhales
psych us up. It's pretty cool and it's
interesting. We can manipulate our Physiology
and our psychology deliberately just by using our breath.
It's interesting, as you were saying, that I was thinking to
myself that during the pandemic I know for me.
(15:20):
I did not find myself breathing like that.
In fact, I was doing the the opposite like very much so yeah,
yeah, so breath okay. So there there's breath.
And throughout the book you talkabout that and have ways we can
increase that and powerhouse that in the sense let's okay.
(15:43):
So what else? How else did you structure the
book? Yeah.
The next step was so you're breathing, you're getting oxygen
into your body, You're relaxing,getting yourself into that ideal
performance day, right? We've built that foundation.
The next thing was to get peopleback into and reminded of the
power of movement. And I'm an exercise
physiologist. I have coached Olympic athletes
and, you know, pushed people to the limits of climbing mountains
(16:04):
and running across deserts and all those sorts of things.
I've done the blood work and allthe heart rate zones.
But ultimately, when I just dug into it and export it further, I
realized that the foundation of human health and wellbeing is
movement. But movement in not such a way.
Like we're going to the gym and sweating and hitting our heart
rate zones, but just generally being physically active
throughout the course of the day.
(16:24):
Motion is lotion, as eleven timeIron Man traffic.
Lisa Bentley often says. We just move our bodies and we
contract our muscles when we move our bodies through a range
of motion by walking, by stretching, gardening,
housework, yoga. If you want to go to the gym,
that's fine. If you want to go to the for a
run or a bike ride, that's also incredible.
But it's just general physical movement.
(16:45):
That sparks the creation of new mitochondria, which then give
you more energy. It's almost like you have to
spend a little bit of energy in order to get so much more back.
The converse is also true. If we sit too much, if we don't
move, your body does not maintain structures that it
isn't using. It'll break down your
mitochondria and get rid of them, because they do cost
(17:07):
energy to maintain. So momentum inertia makes a
difference here if we've been sitting for a long time.
Doing that very first walk is going to require a massive
amount of energy just to get outthe door and go out for 5
minutes. But if once you've been doing it
for three weeks, everything getseasier and easier and easier
mental. It's physical and emotional
(17:27):
because your mitochondria drive not just your body, but I'll see
your brain as well. So the next step was move more.
When you're talking about movement, are you talking about
like intentional movement? Like, OK, I'm going to go out
and take a walk or the gym or whatever.
You mentioned gardening too. Or.
Are you also just talking about our daytoday, walking, going to
the store or whatever? I'm fine.
(17:49):
Yeah, and so like I and again I'm the I'm the guy that like
wrote the workouts and. Said you have to be at a heart
rate 142 for 60. 2 minutes, right?
Whatever. It was like I've done all of
that. And I realize now, in hindsight,
I mean, it's fine for trying to win a medal at the Olympics for
but for the vast majority of this?
Simply moving counts. Going and getting groceries
counts. You're getting up, you're
moving, you're carrying boxes, you're moving things up and you
(18:12):
know up and down the stairs of your house, you're carrying
bags. You may be in a different
context, running for a bus or walking up and down the stairs
at work. All of it counts.
It really interesting. We did so many studies at sick
kids on exercise, medicine or exercise for various different
chronic diseases, and the studies looked at endurance
training or strength training orflexibility training.
(18:33):
They all work. They all improve.
Outcomes in almost every single chronic disease that you can
look at cancer, heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome,
you know, even mental challenge,mental health challenges like
depression, exercise works. The problem is, is when the
study is finished, the kids stopped exercising.
And so we're like, well, that doesn't really help.
And then Doctor James Schneiderman dug through the
(18:53):
data and found that the kids whoare the most generally,
habitually, physically active were the.
Ones who had the slowest. Rate of disease progression.
We've looked at cystic fibrosis and then a number of other
conditions as well. And we found that over and over
and over again, the kids who aretaking the most steps throughout
the entire day were the ones whohad the best outcomes, simply
(19:15):
like the ones who are sitting the least.
And we all know, like in this era right now, with phones and
video games and all those other things and you know, adults, we
need to sit at our computers to do work, Many of us.
It's hard to get that in. So we know this intuitively feel
better when we go for a walk. We feel so good when we stretch
a little bit, but when we now it's hard.
We need to remind ourselves to do that and build that practice
(19:37):
into our lives. And literally anything counts.
And research at McMaster University has shown that it is
the lowest 1 to 3 minutes of exercise a day.
One to three minutes will actually make things better.
So the answer is more, but doesn't matter where you are.
I don't need you getting to 10,000 steps if you're at 1000
steps. No big deal.
Get to 1200. That's what we're looking for
(19:58):
people to think about, I. Do something.
Anything right? Like just.
Do you literally do anything? If you're lying down, sit up.
If you're. If you're sitting up, stand.
If you're standing, go for a walk, right.
If just like we just nudge things up a little bit of at a
time and give yourself massive amounts of of grace and love and
support and talk to yourself as you're doing this, Encourage
(20:20):
yourself. And the other thing that really
helps is just sort of practical things we can do is getting
support from the people around you.
Go for a walk with a friend, do a walking meeting, stand during
a phone call at work. I know often if I'm at A at a
boardroom table in in a conference or something like
that, like I'll put my books down and my notes down, but then
(20:42):
stand behind the chair. So I'm not sitting for that hour
or two that I'm in that boardroom.
People like, what are you doing,Greg?
I'm like, I'm trying not to die.I'm just going to stand here.
You guys all sit where we'll we'll we'll be good.
But yeah, anything counts. Anything counts.
So again, going back to the mitochondria, what does this
movement do to the mitochondria?So what happens when we move is
(21:04):
that you breakdown molecules like carbohydrates, proteins,
fats, the foods that you have eaten to create energy that
happens inside your mitochondria, and then waste
products are created. So if you breakdown sugars, for
example, you'll create little tiny acids, maybe some
potassium. If you go for a run, you will
break down energy. There will be waste products
(21:26):
like carbon dioxide that are produced.
Those waste products then go outinto your body and they interact
with your DNA, your genetic code, and they tell your DNA,
hey, we're exercising, we're lifting weights, we're walking,
we're running, we're climbing. And your DNA then codes.
For structures that help you do those things more easily in the
(21:49):
future. So if you lift weights, you code
for more muscle tissue. If you go for a walk, you code
for better heart, lungs, blood, and mitochondria.
So we build new mitochondria in response to the waste products
that are created. They're called inductors in
Physiology. In response to those inductors,
in response to those waste products, you actually get
(22:10):
stimulated to grow new structures inside your body that
make it easier for you to do those activities in the future.
It's almost like you're stressing yourself out by doing
a little bit of exercise, but then your body notices that
stress and builds itself up to be able to better handle that
stress in the future. You stress is that positive
(22:34):
stress. Distress is that negative
stress, right? Too much stress is a problem
because you don't have the time to rebuild yourself.
You stress being EU stress, it'sa technical term, you can write
it up. I mean, negative stress is that
it's overwhelming. It's relentless.
You never get a break. You stress is that positive
challenge, the opportunity to dothings that you love.
(22:55):
You got like, you know, speakingor a meeting or writing a test
or doing something cool and interesting.
However, even you stress can become problematic.
If we never take any breaks, if you can balance stress plus
rest, that's what leads to growth.
You want to explore that idea a little bit further.
I think Brad Stolberg and Steve Magnus wrote a book called Peak
Performance and that was the foundation of that book.
(23:17):
But yeah, it's that stress plus rest equals growth.
That's magic. It's just when stress is chronic
and relentless and nonstop that we end up in this really
challenging state, which by the way, I think we've been in for
the last year or four years. We certainly were during the
pandemic. You think you just think about
the news cycle and everything that was coming at us over and
over and over again. So it's really important we
(23:38):
build in those breaks. And in many cases, exercise can
be that break. Like think about going to yoga
or think about going for a walk and leaving your phone at home
or just playing in the park withyour children for an hour,
right? Like the exercise can serve this
purpose as well. Just remind everyone, I'm
speaking with Doctor Greg Wells.We're talking about his new book
(23:59):
Powerhouse. Pause here to thank our
sponsors. Alright, Greg.
So we have breath, we have movement.
Where we have next, the next oneis thrive and energize.
So we want to have the energy tobe able to do what we love in
(24:22):
our lives. And the idea that I wanted to
share here was the idea of hormesis, which in Physiology
means a little bit as good a lotas not.
Glad you brought up the idea of eustress and distress, like a
little bit of stress helps you to be better.
Just think about a little bit ofexercise.
You get fitter, too much exercise, you get injured and
sick. Other examples of that might be
(24:42):
cold. There's so much information
right now and you know, stuff onsocial media about cold water
immersion or you know. The cold plunges and stuff like
that, right? A little bit of cold is actually
quite beneficial for you, but a lot of colds you get hypothermia
and die. Same thing for sauna, right on
the other end of the spectrum, alittle bit of sauna a few times
a week or a little bit of like 3hot baths a week is really
(25:03):
great, actually extends your life and and decreases your risk
of a host of different chronic diseases.
But a lot is not. You can get hyperthermia and
also die. Salt would be another example,
right? Fasting would be another
example. A little bit as good.
A lot is not. I'm just trying to help people
bring a little bit of balance back to their lives.
It's not sexy. It's not going to get a lot of
(25:23):
you know likes or anything on Instagram because it is the
opposite of of what extreme sortof stuff gets thrown out their
own social these days. But really we're just looking
for balances. That balance of doing something
that's good for you resting but then also getting out there and
doing what you need to do at a high level.
So a little bit of stress is good, lot is not and when we get
(25:44):
that going, when we get the. Balance in our nutrition,
Balance in our sleep. Balance in our stress.
Balance in our exercise, which admittedly is challenging to do
these days when we are so busy with so much stuff to do.
That is actually what enables usto have more energy to direct
towards the things that we care about the most in our lives.
That could be carpentry. That could be your art, Could be
(26:07):
music, Could be drama, Could be learning something new.
IT could be your job, if you're so fortunate.
Could be training for for an athletic event.
But once we have that energy, that's what enables us then to
get out of that state of languishing that we have all
been in for the last few years and into the zone of flourishing
and thriving. So just looking for people to
(26:27):
build practices that enable themto have more energy, which you
know, for example, and give yourself permission to have.
Get some sleep, get out into thesunlight a few minutes a day,
get in those workouts does not be hard, can just be a little
bit of physical activity. Eat the healthier foods.
You know, try a 32nd cold shower.
Take a warm bath a few times a week.
(26:48):
Whatever gives you energy. Let's just try to build a few of
those practices back into our lives.
You were someone who was on the Olympic trajectory, right?
This very competitive person. And it's interesting to hear you
talking about moderation in a sense.
But I I I. Well, maybe not right.
(27:10):
It's hard earned wisdom. Unfortunately I.
Think that it's very interestingto me.
I mean obviously when you're, I'm assuming when you're
training at that level, you've got to be smart about how you're
doing it. But when we think of people at
that elite level, we're thinkingabout just these powerhouse
driven people, which is not whatyou're talking about here.
(27:32):
You're talking about, right? Yeah, you know, but it's
interesting, even that group, ifI look back to, you know,
training for the Olympics in the80s and 90s, when I was trying
to do it to date myself a littlebit, it really was just about
who could train the most. It was all about volume of work.
Could you train for five, 6-7 hours a day?
(27:52):
And if you could and you could survive that, then
congratulations, you go to the Olympics.
But careers were short. Mental health was not awesome.
A lot of illness and a lot of injuries and if you think about
an old athlete at that time would be 25.
Well now the approach is quite different and the approach is
not so much volume of training, it's quality of training and
(28:16):
that world class training then gets alternated with deep rest
and recovery. So we might have two or three
massages a year. You know, you might get a
massage at the competition whereyou're trying out for the
Olympic team and like, that was it.
Now the idea would be that you're probably getting at least
one massage a week. Back then we would carb load as
(28:38):
much pasta as possible. Now it's all about plantbased
and eating the rainbow and phytonutrients and antioxidants
and. All of these wonderful
antiinflammatory compounds that we can get from a host of
different types of food to keep you healthy mentally and
physically. And then also making sure that
we have purpose and passion and mission so that we are, we are
(28:59):
mentally healthy, we are on point and there's a reason for
doing what we do. And that isn't just present.
That new approach of alternatingworld class performance and
training and preparation with deep recovery and regeneration
and rest. That idea is now also making its
way into business. It's making its way into world
(29:20):
class performers in music in a host of different.
Professions, if you will, that we're that we're pursuing as
part of our search for an incredible life.
And so yeah, that moderation nowthat that hardearned wisdom
about how to be able to have sustainable, healthy, high
performance where we actually reach our true potential as
(29:41):
humans. And that's really what it's all
about. And it's not about volume of
work. It's about doing really world
class, you know, reaching your potential.
Whatever that happens, being world class can be anything,
doesn't mean that you're top tenin the world.
Simply means that you are doing your very best as often as you
can because it's what you want to do, it's what you care about,
it's what you love. And then using the rest of your
life to enable you to do that more often at a higher level.
(30:04):
That's really what with the approach that we're that we're
recommending these days, and I think it's a lot healthier
mentally, physically, emotionally and even spiritually
to some extent. Who's the book?
Who'd you write the book for? You mentioned people in the
pandemic just numbing out, but who did you write it for?
Yeah, you know, every time that I I write a book, I end up
(30:24):
trying to write it to one specific person, actually.
And that has really served me quite well in the past.
I've written it for dear friendsand the ripple effect was
written to a couple of my reallyclose friends who are, you know,
high performers but, you know, had a family life and a career.
And I was like, how do I help them?
And that went really, really well.
(30:46):
This book I think is is for my kids.
And I've got two of them. They're 8 and 13.
I know that at some point, maybein the future might be 10 years
from now, they'll pick up, maybepick up the book and check out
what was my dad thinking 10 years ago.
But this was I just, I was so worried about the future and I
was really concerned about what I was seeing.
And although the book is writtenfor a larger audience, and
(31:09):
certainly not for an 8 year old at this point, but.
Ingrid has picked up on some of the things that we talked about.
She has been absorbing some of the information.
And I'm just trying to create that world such that when they
grow up, it's a healthy place where they can reach their
potential. And I've always been involved
with kids my entire career, either as an athlete or, you
know, as a coach and then as a physiologist and then as a
(31:31):
researcher at the hospital. And so this one was very much, I
think, written for. Now trying to create a healthier
world for my kids to grow up into, but hopefully it's a book
that my kids it will pick up andread when it's time for them to,
you know, really go after their dreams.
When you say you write it for one person or a couple people,
is that something you share withthose people?
(31:52):
Is that just a conception in your mind?
It's very much a conception in my mind.
I have subsequently told people like, hey, I actually wrote this
book to you. Like I actually typed as if I
was having a conversation. Right.
With those people, I have let them know, but it's not during
the process. It's often years later that I
will let them know that. So we have breathe, move,
(32:15):
energize, and then thrive. Thrive.
Now it's time to put it all intopractice.
Like make your life awesome and.There's a simple idea.
People, places in pursuits in order for you to action, action,
actionalize this, turn turn thisinto action.
I just made-up a word there. It doesn't exist.
Take this and turn it into action.
People, places in pursuits. I love for people to think.
(32:36):
Now as we move forwards, as we emerge from this pandemic and
navigate a world that's very uncertain still to this day and
will probably remain to some degree in certain moving
forwards, is who are the people that you want to be spending
more time with? Personally and professionally,
who are the people who elevate you?
Who are the people that bring you joy?
Who are the people that you uplift as well?
And if you can find fiveish people in your personal life who
(33:00):
bring you joy, who elevate you, then let's try to figure out how
do we spend a little bit more time with those people.
They'll probably be different from the five people who elevate
you professionally and who you also serve.
So I love that five and five right?
Five personal, five professionalpeople that we are going to
deliberately spend. More time with this might be
people that encourage you to do your workouts, or people that
(33:20):
you love just to talk to people that get you outside into
nature. People that encourage you to
take that trip or take the course or practice the skill or,
you know, submit the proposal. Like whatever it happens to be,
it's the people who elevate you,the people who challenge you,
the people who uplift you, the people who encourage you.
We want so much more of that in our lives.
Plus, we need to be working on making sure that we serve others
(33:44):
personally and professionally aswell to help them.
Elevate by doing that, almost byextension, you will have to then
choose probably who are you going to spend a little bit of
less time with and who are the people maybe that are the energy
vampires that we want to not necessarily, you know, like cut
out of your life or anything like that.
Maybe you know, you just reallocate your time towards the
(34:04):
people that elevate you and the people who that you elevate
also. That's the people part of it.
Places is another really interesting thing and it was
during the pandemic we were confined, Many of us, and
certainly where I live, we were confined and then someplace
sheltering in place at home we lost the ability to move around
and travel. It's funny when something is
taken away from you, how much you then value it when those
(34:26):
freedoms are returned to us. And I discovered that I love
being outside. Like I love nature.
I love going for the walks and the bike rides and climbing and
being around the trees. That's what truly elevates my
psychology and Physiology. My wife, Judith, discovered that
she loves being around people, and fortunately she's a
(34:49):
chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, and so that
is her job. She interacts with people all
day long one-on-one. And so we now know I need to be
in nature as often as possible. And Judith has to have those
personal contacts with people, those deep, meaningful
relationships. And so the place is part of it
is massive. And I would encourage people to
think about like what are the places that make you happy, the
(35:11):
places that give you energy? Is it your cottage?
Is it the park near your house? Is it a room in your home?
Is it a chair in your home? Like where?
Wherever it happens to be, if you know that there are certain
places that bring you to life. And let's deliberately plan on
spending some time in those places that might be daily,
weekly, monthly, annually, whenever you get a chance, might
(35:32):
be even every couple years you get to go there.
Those places are really important for us to take some
time to visit, take some time and spend there because that's
what what elevates us. And and sometimes we only learn
this the hard way. And I certainly learned to learn
that the hard way, how much I value being in nature.
Which is why I'm sitting where Iam sitting here today doing this
(35:53):
podcast. And then the final piece of the
puzzle is that the pursuits, which is what do you love?
What is it that elevates you? Where does your true potential
lie? What do, what do you love doing
that serves the world, that elevates others?
That, And if it happens to be your art, and if it happens to
be a hobby, if it happens to be your work, if it happens to be
(36:13):
your practice, whatever it is, that's totally cool.
But when we are aware. Of what our pursuits are.
Some people also often refer to this as your passion.
We craft our passion. I don't know if it's discovered
so much as crafted, right? We craft our pursuits, craft our
passions, craft our interests. And spending our time on those I
think is, again, really important.
(36:34):
So we've we we've done the breath work to get oxygen in
your body. You've moved to build your
capacity mentally, physically, and emotion.
You're energized now. You've got the energy to do what
you love. Let's allocate that attention
towards the things that are the most meaningful to us in our
lives. Because where our attention
goes, energy will then flow there and that part of your life
will grow and expand and who knows what where that will take
(36:57):
you in the future. But ultimately that's the path
that I want everyone to considermaybe moving towards, even if
it's just a tiny bit. We can all make these little
micro shifts in our lives and hopefully make our our lives a
little bit more magical every single day.
I love what you're saying. I find it very inspiring.
And one of the things I really love about it is that you're
(37:18):
kind of bringing an intentionality to what we're
doing, how we're breathing, if we're breathing, how we're
moving. And there's something very
empowering about this. You know, it's.
Yeah, we all know we need to move and blah, blah, blah.
But really, how many of us are taking those long breaths?
(37:38):
I know I have to. We have to be.
I feel we have to really be intentional about it, and I feel
your book is really a prescriptive for that.
It's like it's an inspiring invitation.
Thank you. I I like that means the world to
me that that's the way that you've interpreted it.
And I'm so psyched that that's like the that's the energy
(37:59):
that's that's coming across and it really is about that.
But the other interesting thing is it's almost like we have to
give ourselves permission that it's okay to do this.
It's okay to take the walk, it'sokay to pause for 5 minutes and
take a few breaths. It's Okay.
To make yourself the healthy lunch and bring it and have that
(38:19):
at at the office or wherever it is that you're that you're
going. And digging into the reasons why
we don't give ourselves permission to do this often
uncovers some reasons as to why we hold ourselves back or why we
don't give ourselves permission or why we find it so difficult
to build these new habits. So it's a practice and it's not
going to happen all at once. This is an ongoing process that.
(38:41):
That we go along. It is an invitation on a
journey. This is for me.
It's a 10 year project that I'm into at this point and I don't
mean to say that in a daunting way, that you're not going to
get any results for 10 years. If you go down this journey,
certainly I think that you will see some benefits right away,
but these benefits will improve consistently over time.
Sometimes they're easier, sometimes they're harder.
(39:02):
There's good seasons in life. There's difficult seasons in
life. So we're just trying to
generally move ourselves in the right direction over a long
period of time. So it's an invitation.
Let's go, let's do this, let's have fun.
And then I would encourage everybody.
Let's just give yourself permission to do one really cool
thing that elevates you, that elevates the people around you,
that makes your life a little bit better, and then see if you
(39:22):
can do that consistently over a long period of time.
Yeah, I love that idea of givingpermission to ourselves.
That resonates with me a lot because I don't.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
I don't either. I struggle with it, right.
Like, I'm like, I after this podcast.
I am. I would like to give myself
permission to go for a bike ridebecause it's beautiful, but it's
going to take me a couple hours and it's going to put some other
things on the back burner. But you know what?
(39:43):
It's okay because the other stuff can wait.
And this is really important. Health and wellbeing comes
first. But yeah, I know, I recognize
it's not easy. And give yourself that grace.
It's all good. I appreciate it.
Well, look, man, you are just one inspiring dude.
I appreciate you coming on here.What's the best way for people
to get in contact with you? Yeah, the easiest way is through
the website doctorgregwells.com.Podcast.
Is there social media is there, books are there.
Our new app called Video is there, could sends out 1% tips
(40:07):
every day. So check all that stuff out,
we'd be honored. Flip me a note through the
website. Let me know that you heard me on
this podcast. I'd be super thrilled to answer
any questions that you have. Awesome.
All right, we'll have all that linked up here.
The Show notes page at podcast Greg awesome.
Thanks so much for being here. I'm.
So honored, grateful. Thank you so much.
All right. Take care.
(40:27):
All right. Thank you so much for listening.
And if you're interested to learn more about what I do, head
on over to the books. Read thrivepodcast.com.
That's the books. Read thrivepodcast.com.
Take care. Thanks for tuning into this
(40:56):
episode of the Doctor Greg Wellspodcast.
If you found this show informative and helpful, check
out my blog at Doctor Greg wells.com for additional
insights and resources on Healthand Human performance.
I update the blog a couple timesa month to stay up to date on
the latest tips, articles, and videos.
Be sure to follow me on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
My goal on social is to keep your health and Wellness and
(41:17):
positivity at the forefront of your mind, and so I would be
thrilled to connect with you there.
If you found this episode helpful, please consider
subscribing to the podcast. That helps us out a ton and
leave a review. Your feedback is greatly
appreciated and helps me to continue to produce valuable
content that's relevant to all of you.
(41:38):
Please feel free to share this episode with your friends and
community. That helps a ton as well and
that brings this week's show to an end.
I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.
Have a great week everyone.
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