Life Hacks 210

Yusef Smith 0:00 If you have a nose like me, you might think, "Surely, the size of those colossal nostrils doesn't need more assistant."

Chris Williamson 0:06 (laughs) Cavernous. Opening them up requires you to put a land registry down so that you can walk through. (laughs)

Jonny Watson 0:11 Yeah. (laughs) Walk through.

Yusef Smith 0:11 You have to get planning permission.

Jonny Watson 0:13 Get planning permission.

Chris Williamson 0:13 Ah! (laughs)

Jonny Watson 0:15 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 0:16 Did you have to get one for Arab-sized noses?

Yusef Smith 0:19 Yeah, you have to tick, tick your ethnicity as you, uh, as you select the order, like-

Jonny Watson 0:22 I can't tell if you're joking. Are you joking?

Yusef Smith 0:24 I, I mean, how racist would that be?

Chris Williamson 0:25 (laughs)

Jonny Watson 0:27 I mean, it's, it's... I didn't think on this episode of Life Hacks I would be the only one here without a pack of nasal strips to hand.

Yusef Smith 0:35 Good face, Chris. That's the-

Chris Williamson 0:37 Come on.

Yusef Smith 0:37 ... that's the makeup face.

Chris Williamson 0:38 There it is. (wind blowing) If you're not familiar with this, Life Hacks, it's the longest series that we've done on Modern Wisdom: tools, techniques, and tactics for a productive and efficient life. We do a roundtable. Each of us proposes something that we've fallen in love with over the last few weeks about (inhales) how to create a perfect toasted sandwich, or get out of a parking fine, or a brand new seat that you can sunbathe in appropriately naked while your neighbors can't see. Whatever it is. And then, the other two will critique or go and buy it immediately on Amazon. Links to everything we talk about are in the show notes below. And as is tradition, even in 2023, uh, Jonathan, there is a (clears throat) hot potato for you there, my friend. What have you got life-hacks-wise?

Jonny Watson 1:22 Those fake life hacks that you just reeled off sound, all sounded fantastic.

Chris Williamson 1:26 We should... Well, no, you did one about toasted sandwich. You did one about how to create the perfect-

Jonny Watson 1:29 Did I?

Chris Williamson 1:30 ... toasted sandwich-

Jonny Watson 1:30 Oh, so they were real examples.

Chris Williamson 1:31 ... maybe about two and a half years ago. Yeah.

Jonny Watson 1:33 My God. I can't even remember my own life. I should maybe go back and be like, "Wow, what a great idea."

Chris Williamson 1:37 Yeah, exactly.

Jonny Watson 1:38 Um, so my first one... Well, (sighs) you might, you'll probably want to change what I say when I say this, based on an email I received from you very recently. I was gonna say, given the time of year, given what everybody will be doing, given it's the first one, it's the one everyone listens to, the, some sort of annual review process. So, we've all used the Chris Sparks annual review, but I believe, Chris, do you have your own now?

Chris Williamson 2:10 I-

Jonny Watson 2:10 Or 100%?

Chris Williamson 2:10 ... have taken a, uh, m- ménage à trois from a bunch of different, uh, productivity things.

Jonny Watson 2:17 Phenomenal.

Chris Williamson 2:17 David Perell, Chris Sparks was heavily influential. Uh, some stuff from The Six-Minute Diary, some other shit that I picked up online. Uh, and yeah, if you wanna go and get that, you can go to chriswillx.com review. Uh, it is not too late to do an annual review, even though it's the start of January. Uh, you can go and do that. It'll help you to go back over your last year and set goals for the new one. But yes, 100%, doing an annual review-

Jonny Watson 2:39 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 2:39 ... uh, super, super important. Why do you do yours?

Jonny Watson 2:44 Uh, I think the... Well, I think everybody tries to set a goal. People try to set, like, resolutions and goals and things like that. I think the review process, um, some of the questions that, that I, that I like going over the most are like, what are the... what things in the year made you most happy? What things in the year did you enjoy doing the most? Who did you like spending time with the most? And then, almost sticking those things in your calendar straight away. So like, trips away, places you went, um, hobbies you picked up, things you stopped doing. It's just such an easy way. Like, things you would maybe, if you don't have a time to sort of sit and formally look back on a period of time and think, you know, "What should I do more of, do less of? Add that back in again?" You can sometimes go years and think like, "Oh, yeah, remember when I used to... Like, remember when we did that? That was really good fun. We should do it again." So that, that sort of process, looking through your camera reel when you're doing it, looking through your calendar when you're doing it, um, looking through message history and stuff with people-

Chris Williamson 3:37 Mm-hmm.

Jonny Watson 3:37 ... all ways to bring up prompts that you would maybe just, they would just drift into your past and you'd forget. Um, and then doing that before you set any goals or targets or, um, resolutions for the year, really helpful. But I think following something that's guided specifically, that's the reason I mentioned it. So I think sitting with a blank document and reviewing your year, very difficult to do. Having kind of guided questions or prompts, very, very useful.

Chris Williamson 4:02 So there's-

Jonny Watson 4:02 So, yeah.

Chris Williamson 4:02 ... a section that I stole from David Perell that goes in the, the review that I talked about where he, he has a favorite memory, favorite new city, favorite new song, favorite live show, uh, favorite sex. Like, favorite interaction-

Jonny Watson 4:14 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 4:14 ... with an animal. What, like da, da, da, da, da, da.

Jonny Watson 4:17 Hopefully not the same thing.

Chris Williamson 4:18 Yeah, perhaps. (laughs) You'd hope not. But having that down is just a- a- especially after you accumulate a few years of those, there's things that you'll definitely have forgotten that you've done.

Jonny Watson 4:28 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 4:28 And you go back and you go-

Jonny Watson 4:29 100%.

Chris Williamson 4:29 ... "Fuck! Remember when we did that thing? And I fell in love with zoos for six months?"

Yusef Smith 4:34 Th- I think that's the key. You know, the, you said, Johnny, about things fading into the, the murky past-

Jonny Watson 4:39 Mm-hmm.

Yusef Smith 4:39 ... and then you look back and you're, "Oh, yeah." Like, this is why you just gotta write stuff down. And there's n- there's no, there's nothing that will substitute for just physically going through a process and writing it down. Otherwise, like, if you just think, "Oh, yeah, my goal's this," guarantee in a year's time, you'll have forgotten that it was even a goal and you end up with one of two situations. Either you've totally smashed the goal and you look back on it and you're like, "Wow, I can't believe that was actually something I really wanted to hit and now I've blasted straight past it," because it seems so mundane. And if you just said that verbally, you would have forgotten and you would have, wouldn't really have felt like there was much progress.

Chris Williamson 5:11 Mm-hmm.

Yusef Smith 5:11 Or you set the goal and you didn't get anywhere near it, and you look back and you go, "Oh, I'm an, a, a twat for having not done anything to move towards that goal." Right? Let's refocus. Let's do it properly this year.

Chris Williamson 5:24 The other reason that you've got to do the review first before you set the goals is, the goals manifest, they grow out of the review, right?

Jonny Watson 5:30 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 5:30 If you end up setting a bunch of goals that help you to achieve a thing, which this year you looked back on and reflected as a negative experience, like, "I hate my time working on statistics and I want to move more into the creative realm. My goal for next year is to get another statistics qualification," because you haven't realized that statistics makes you miserable. You end up circling this sort of, uh, liminal purgatory of always doing the same thing badly.

Jonny Watson 5:54 Mm-hmm. And I think, like, the whole 80/20 analysis of why things are good or why things are bad-Let's say you've had a really good year in your career, for example. One of the questions in, um, the rev- review I was doing was saying like which habits do you think ... uh, if something's gone well, which habits do you think were responsible for that? Or which actions were responsible for that? And when you really sit and think about it, it's usually stuff that you're like, "Oh yeah, it's probably just this."

Chris Williamson 6:19 What was yours?

Jonny Watson 6:21 Like a ... So things like, um, consistent sleep routine. Like th- this year, 'cause I've been over to the US a couple of times and had my sleep like forced out of a rhythm for a few times, I think realizing that, um, the days where I've struggled in general with anything, like training, productivity, concentration, anything, is just when my sleep is, um, thrown out. So just a con- ... I know it's such a ... It's like grandparents style advice, isn't it? Like get- get your eight hours in. But I think just a reminder that like when things have gone well for me this year my sleep's been really, really good-

Chris Williamson 6:58 Nice.

Jonny Watson 6:59 ... um, for example.

Chris Williamson 7:00 Thanks, man. Uh, Youcef, what have you got?

Yusef Smith 7:05 You are ... You might not be able to see it. There. See that little white box in the background?

Chris Williamson 7:11 Yes. What is it?

Yusef Smith 7:11 Leaning against the other white box-

Chris Williamson 7:13 Yes.

Yusef Smith 7:13 ... which is also a life hack. (laughs)

Chris Williamson 7:15 What i- what's the first one?

Yusef Smith 7:17 First white box is a red light therapy box. So that's from a company called Bloc Blue Light. Um, we have a, we have a discount code as well, which i- is just PROPAIN. But it's a way to offset the something you, you just mentioned before we started, Chris, which was that it's 2:30 and it's starting to get dark in December in the North of England. So this is not quite a SAD lamp. It's the other spectrum of, of red light, uh, which you can't ... Y- you only get from sun exposure. It doesn't tan you. It has a completely different mechanism of action. Uh, these boxes do both red and infrared. And I recently did a review looking at how it affected my blood parameters, my inflammatory markers, my immune markers, and all that stuff. Um, and surprisingly, 'cause it seemed really gimmicky and really biohacky, this China red light box, but the data is actually really compelling. Uh, and there's just multi-system benefits across immune, endocrine, mood, muscle recovery, just so much stuff from red light therapy. Buying a box is way more cost-effective than going to a clinic that does red light therapy for 70 pounds a session or something. 'Cause that thing costs about 3, 400 pounds and it'll obviously last you forever. So by the time you've had five treatments, you've broken even. So I think in terms of easy win, red light box is the one.

Chris Williamson 8:50 What's your protocol for using it?

Yusef Smith 8:52 10 minutes front and back. So you ... There's different protocols depending on the strength of the, the light and how far away from you sitting and how deep the tissues are that you want to treat. So there's lots of variables to play around with. I've got a, a kind of a rough guideline, um, on the video as well, but there's a book by Ari Whitten who goes deep with it, like really-

Chris Williamson 9:15 What's the TL;DR? Just tell us what we need to know.

Yusef Smith 9:16 Obsessionally deep. The, the TL;DR is 10 minutes front and back, I think.

Chris Williamson 9:20 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 9:20 Unless you've got a particular area that you're looking to treat and then, then you've gotta consider like distance and wavelength and power transfer and all that stuff.

Chris Williamson 9:29 Why use a red light lamp and not a SAD lamp?

Yusef Smith 9:35 SAD lamp, different mechanism. So, um-

Chris Williamson 9:37 Should you be using both? Can you get something ... Is there such a, a red light and SAD combina- ... For the people that don't know, that's seasonal affective disorder lamp. It's like a super bright lumen thing that's supposed to give you-

Yusef Smith 9:47 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 9:47 That's more circadian rhythm, melatonin, cortisol mechanism, right?

Yusef Smith 9:52 Yeah. So that, that's more to wake up in the morning. So if you, if you went ... I- like if you're living somewhere in like Finland or Iceland or something and you, you go out and there's just barely any sun, then you might, you might need a SAD lamp. But generally SAD is on the blue light spectrum, and I think we're already getting more than enough blue light from staring at screens all day. So personally, that's not something I would invest in. Um, and then red light therapy is less to do with circadian regulation and it's more the kind of other benefits that you get from, from ... Uh, i- it's cellular, hormesis, melatonin-mediated effects.

Chris Williamson 10:29 What did your blood markers say?

Yusef Smith 10:32 To be honest, they went from normal to normal, which I'm quite pleased about. There are people who have ... In the data, there's dysfunctional thyroid that have, that has normalized and actually people coming off thyroxine entirely, which I think is insane, from using red light therapy on the thyroid from a ... in s- sort of targeted way. Uh, my inflammatory markers went down a little bit. I think my testosterone went up slightly, but not, not enough for me to say, "Ah, yeah. It was definitely that that caused that."

Chris Williamson 11:01 I also heard that certain types of red lamps don't actually produce the right type of red light.

Yusef Smith 11:07 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 11:08 I'm gonna guess that you've checked to make sure that the particular brand that you're using isn't just a red bulb.

Yusef Smith 11:14 The ... Yeah, that's a very good point. And so there are ... There's a lot of cheap red light boxes that just shine a red light and you think, "Oh yeah, that'll do." But there's only specific wavelengths and power levels that you need. And a lot of the Chinese manufacturers will just produce something that looks, looks like it's good and sell it for cheap. The manufacturer of this guy, I had a long, long chat with him and, and podcast where he goes into the process and the, the different kind of testing kits that he's got at home to ... when he goes to China and Taiwan and, and kind of discusses the specific specifications that he wants of the, the bulbs and makes sure that they are within the therapeutic range.

Chris Williamson 11:53 Very nice.

Jonny Watson 11:54 Just to add, it's something that ... So it sounds pretty woo-woo, doesn't it? Like it doesn't ... It sounds a bit strange sitting in front of a red light. I have been doing it, but I do 20 minutes all, all on my front 'cause I can't be bothered to turn around halfway. Um, it just feels nice. So I just do it while I meditate in the morning.... like, sort of, technical benefits aside, I think if something feels nice and is a pleasant thing to do, it makes you feel good afterwards, you'll probably keep doing it. Um, just like-

Yusef Smith 12:20 Y- you know when you sat in front of an open fire?

Jonny Watson 12:23 Yeah, similar feeling.

Yusef Smith 12:23 And it just feels really, like, wholesome.

Jonny Watson 12:26 Mm.

Yusef Smith 12:26 It's, I mean, it's the same thing, like open fires radiate red and infrared as well.

Jonny Watson 12:30 Oh, fantastic.

Chris Williamson 12:31 I've got something down there, I can't see what it's-

Jonny Watson 12:34 A goose? Is it a goose?

Chris Williamson 12:36 ... actually called. No, not the fucking goose on the bed.

Jonny Watson 12:38 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 12:38 I've got a red light over there. Uh, I got a, I got a pocket one, um, which is three by four, so it's only, like, you would be able to carry it in a bag. Uh, and I really enjoyed that as well, sitting down and just having that on me. So, I'm all for trying it. Uh, what's the company that you suggested and what's the code?

Yusef Smith 12:57 Block Blue Light and the code is propane.

Chris Williamson 13:00 Cool. So-

Yusef Smith 13:01 All right.

Chris Williamson 13:01 And what's that get you off?

Yusef Smith 13:03 That's, like I see, 10, 10% off, I believe. So there's, they have a UK and a, and a US, New Zealand, Australia website.

Jonny Watson 13:10 It's the same company, a while ago, I mentioned I bought some red light glasses that-

Chris Williamson 13:14 Yep.

Jonny Watson 13:14 ... worked.

Chris Williamson 13:15 Yep.

Jonny Watson 13:15 Same, same brands. If you wanna pick some, pick up, pick up some of those that actually work as well, they are the same, it's the same manufacturer.

Chris Williamson 13:21 Cool.

Chris Williamson 13:22 All right. So my one, uh, this I used while I was in Vegas the other week, and it is remember the server's name. So-

Jonny Watson 13:30 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 13:30 ... the server will always come over and introduce themselves or they'll usually have a, a name badge on and it just makes such a difference. Being able to shout your server's name across a crowded room means ... and using it consistently as well, "Thank you, Brittany," or, "Thank you," whatever it is, means that you're gonna get served first, you're going to probably get your drinks brought over. Uh, and, and make sure it's gonna be in the nicest glasses, make sure it's going to be using ... You know, everything is going to be done to a better standard if you remember their name. It means that you can get their attention when you need to check, when you need to do whatever, and it just actually feels quite polite. So I just, it, it shocked me how much I hadn't bothered to remember the server's name, and it also shocked me how much of a difference it made in a crowded Las Vegas strip Hard Rock Cafe at 8:00 PM at night on a Saturday. It surprised me how much of a difference it made, so remember the server's name.

Yusef Smith 14:22 Nice. How, how much has your attitude to tipping changed since you've gone state side?

Chris Williamson 14:28 You're strong armed into it, frankly.

Jonny Watson 14:31 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 14:31 It's a struggle session. And I mean, I, I once went to a venue where I tipped the serving girl, I want to say 15% on a pretty large bill. So, it was maybe 15% on a 50-buck round of drinks and she looked at the paper, printed a new receipt out, turned it back around, pushed it toward me and said, "Let's try that again, shall we?"

Jonny Watson 14:52 Wow.

Yusef Smith 14:53 Really?

Chris Williamson 14:53 Like, she was quite, she was quite sassy so it was, like, funny or whatever in any case. But, uh, yeah, that, that happened, so-

Yusef Smith 15:00 Even with a high sass, sassometer that is cheeky.

Chris Williamson 15:03 Sass through the roof-

Yusef Smith 15:04 Goodness me.

Chris Williamson 15:05 ... man. Yeah. But it's, it is what it is. Like it's just-

Yusef Smith 15:07 No, it's not really a tip then, is it? If 15%, they're like, "Oh, no, that's not good enough, sorry," then why, how is it optional?

Chris Williamson 15:13 Well, they'll do-

Jonny Watson 15:13 I think that's-

Chris Williamson 15:14 ... a lot of the time now, they have these iPads that pivot two ways. So the iPad is both the till for the server to use ... And this is the same in Starbucks, in a bunch of, you know, whatever restaurant or, or quick use cafe during which the serving staff have had zero input to do-

Jonny Watson 15:32 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 15:32 ... with the creation or service of your food. They put it into a bag. It's like, "Look, if you heat up a toastie, do I, is that 5%? Is that 10%?"

Jonny Watson 15:39 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 15:39 But they'll flip it over, and on it there's preset levels, sometimes like 15, 20, 25 custom and, uh, they pre-set the numbers. So if it starts 20, 25, 30 and you go, "Well, if I go into custom," and then say nothing. And then usually there's a queue of people behind you that can all see over your shoulder at what you're-

Jonny Watson 16:00 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 16:00 ... about to press. Then you've got to sign your name.

Yusef Smith 16:02 How much of a stingy bastard you are.

Chris Williamson 16:03 Yeah, exactly. It, it-

Yusef Smith 16:04 I hate it.

Chris Williamson 16:04 ... is very much a struggle-

Yusef Smith 16:05 Just tell me how much I want, I need to pay. Like don't give me options. (laughs)

Chris Williamson 16:10 Look, it is what it is. Johnny, what you got?

Jonny Watson 16:12 Okay. Um, I was just thinking about my, my tipping experience in Hawaii. It's very, very similar.

Chris Williamson 16:17 What happened?

Jonny Watson 16:19 Well, just, just that, the, the iPad thing. Like, the fixed ... I don't remember there being a custom option. So I can remember standing in an airport in Hawaii paying $50 for two, like, paninis and two coffees in this, in a Starbucks because it was the only place to get breakfast. So you have $50 in, 50 quid in basically at that point and then they twizzle the iPad and go, "How much would you like..." Not, "Would you like to tip?" "How much would you like to tip?" You're thinking-

Yusef Smith 16:43 Getting emotionally blackmailed into paying more. (laughs)

Jonny Watson 16:46 Yeah. It's just tough. Um, so

Jonny Watson 16:51 this one is something I've been doing with training recently, um, and it's something I've just found kind of take ... my training's been very, like, bodybuilding focused, like not power lifting anymore really. Um, and I find, like, doing three, four sessions a week, the same routine every week a little bit dull. Um, so I took a four session program... And this is not really, really a life hack, but it's, it's been really interesting for me. It's made training more fun. I take four sessions a week of a training split and do... but I only train three times a week, so every week is different. Like it rotates it every week. So every, I think it's like a month to do the full cycle. Um, that's helpful. And secondly, if you've been training a while, um, like more than a couple of years, you'll have... everybody's run into that problem where you can only do an exercise for like three or four times before you're just running up against, like hitting the same reps and the same load and it's very, very hard progress. So taking something and spreading it over like eight, nine, 10 days extends that cycle and makes it slightly easier to eke a little bit more out of a training program. So you can do it out obviously with anything, right? So five days into four, four days into three, three days into two, whatever you want to do.

Chris Williamson 17:59 Are you actually compressing the days down? Or of a four-day split, are you're only doing three which means that the following week it's back, legs, and chest and then-

Jonny Watson 18:07 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 18:07 ... the week after that is arms, back and legs?

Jonny Watson 18:10 Yeah. So week one is like A, B, C. Week two is-... D, A, B-

Chris Williamson 18:15 Yes, good.

Jonny Watson 18:15 ... et cetera.

Chris Williamson 18:15 Good, good, good.

Jonny Watson 18:16 Yeah. Um, and it just keeps it interesting because it fe- every week, even though it's... Because you, you know, you kind of build that association of, like, "Well, Monday is the day when I do, like, bench and then cable fly," and then that n- no longer exists. So, each, each week you're doing a different combination. Tiny change, um, but has quite a big effect, I've found. Like, recovery progression keeps it interesting.

Chris Williamson 18:37 Nice. I like that.

Jonny Watson 18:38 Totally free as well.

Chris Williamson 18:40 Seth?

Yusef Smith 18:42 This one is from Alice, Dr. Alice the volcanologist, which is to eat the most boring meal of the day post-workout. So, the day where you, you've got the most points to spend should... The, the meal where you've got the most points to spend should, should really be, like, the evening where you can enjoy it socially. Usually your post-workout meal is kind of a... it's just a utility meal. So, have the most boring meal of the day there where you, you check all of your nutritional boxes to save some, some of the fun calories for later.

Chris Williamson 19:20 Would there not be an argument that if you're eating you should try and avoid any of the meals being boring, that you don't need to necessarily have boring nutritional meals?

Yusef Smith 19:29 S- Sometimes it's unavoidable. If you s- if you see your, your total day as like-

Chris Williamson 19:33 Give me an example of a kind of meal that is unavoidably boring.

Jonny Watson 19:37 You're sort of having to defend a life hack that isn't yours.

Yusef Smith 19:39 No, it's not. It's not even mine.

Jonny Watson 19:40 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 19:40 You submitted it, you submitted it. You want to stand up for this lady.

Yusef Smith 19:43 True. Someone who... I- if, if you've got micronutrient targets or certain vegetable intake or something, the other way to, to think of it though, as you say, is to, if you're gonna play around with the goal posts, is to say, "Just train before you go out for a social meal." And then you can have an exciting social meal with the most calories in post-workout.

Chris Williamson 20:04 Mm-hmm.

Jonny Watson 20:05 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 20:05 What are you doing with your diet at the moment, Johnny?

Jonny Watson 20:08 What am I doing with it?

Chris Williamson 20:08 Mm-hmm.

Jonny Watson 20:11 What do you mean?

Chris Williamson 20:12 Are you tra- are you tracking anything? Are you-

Jonny Watson 20:13 Oh. Uh, yeah, so I'm, I'm trying to, to get down to 89 kilos from 94. So, I've kind of done my, my weight loss in two phases. Wi- phase one was when I was like 105, took it down to 95, and I was like, "Right, I'm done with dieting for a while." So, from, like, July of this year just past, or last year if you listen to this, up to now, and then I'm gonna try and get down to sub-90.

Chris Williamson 20:38 Jesus.

Jonny Watson 20:39 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 20:40 Jesus.

Jonny Watson 20:40 Should be quite lean at, at sub-90. But, uh, that involves tracking, which actually links to one of my, one of my hacks as well.

Chris Williamson 20:46 Well, you can high five because I've got a-

Jonny Watson 20:47 I'll let you go.

Chris Williamson 20:48 I've got one that I've been playing around with since I've been in Austin, and it's have multiple gym memberships. So I'm spoiled for choice in Austin with, like, Onnit Training Center, Atomic Athlete, um, Lift ATX, tons of Gold Gyms all over the place. There's this place called Los Campeones, which is like a, a dreamland for lifting in. And most of them in big cities, at least that I've seen in America, that are quite competitive like this are about 40 bucks. So, it's maybe 40 or 50 bucks to get a good membership at one of these Spit and Sawdust style bodybuilding type gyms. And my current armory setup of gyms is, uh, one with very broad open and close times. So, that's the commercial gym usually for me, that's a Gold's. Uh, it's also the one that's got the quietest atmosphere. It means that I can go in and do listen to stuff, prep for work, usually episodes while I'm in there training. Then I've got one that I can go and train with my boys, which is Lift ATX, that's Spit and Sawdust, Gangsta Rap and Slipknot, and that's like a really cool, very social open gym. That's good. And then the final one is a gym that has group classes if I need to externalize motivation, and that's Onnit at the moment or Atomic Athlete would be another one. You don't need to have this entire, like, armory portfolio of gyms, but it is good to have at least two, I think. Dean has had this problem since he's been back in Newcastle. He's between Newcastle and Middlesbrough and he's training at Reebok CrossFit Tyneside which a year ago he loved and now he's bored of. And he wants to go somewhere new, but a year ago he really loved Reebok CrossFit Tyneside. And a lot of people, I think, have fallen out of love with their training when what they've done is fallen out of love with their gym. You just need to be in a new environment with new music, different machines, d- different people to talk to, different routes to get there, and you would be surprised how much extra energy you can inject into your training if you just train in a new location.

Yusef Smith 22:43 I like the different moods of workout as well, where you've got the set type of session where you just need to get it done, you've got other stuff on your mind, and then you've got, like, the social session. And so being able to choose that, it's a lot to coordinate, but I can see the utility in it.

Jonny Watson 22:57 What does, what does your training look like if you've got, like... It sounds almost like diff- different training modalities as well.

Chris Williamson 23:03 Yeah, it is, but I... It's just moving as much as I can, getting as much sunlight as I can. Not trying to stick to any one program too rigidly and just enjoying training and stuff. So, mostly bodybuilding style things, some high intensity stuff, and then two sessions of pickleball a week for kind of outright cardio, and then sitting on the exercise desk when I can, when I remember it.

Jonny Watson 23:26 Is the goal just enjoy it?

Chris Williamson 23:29 Be healthy.

Jonny Watson 23:29 Like, yeah.

Chris Williamson 23:30 Be healthy, enjoy it.

Jonny Watson 23:31 Cool.

Chris Williamson 23:31 Put on a good bit of size with Zach throughout the backend of this year doing bro splits in Lift, but, uh, we both started to just get a bit lethargic and training got a little bit boring. So, we've now added in these group classes at Onnit a little bit.

Yusef Smith 23:45 This is post-menopausal symptoms.

Chris Williamson 23:47 Oh, again? Yeah, well, I vacillate back and forward, you know. I become pre-menopausal again, and then I s-

Jonny Watson 23:51 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 23:52 ... go back through it all over again.

Jonny Watson 23:54 I saw you doing some incline bench with Ollie from Bring Me the Horizon.

Chris Williamson 23:58 Did do some incline bench with Ollie from Bring Me the Horizon.

Jonny Watson 24:00 I was very impressed. I think you were doing like 100, 100 kilos or so.

Chris Williamson 24:05 100 pounds.

Jonny Watson 24:07 Oh, was it?

Chris Williamson 24:08 It'll be pounds.

Jonny Watson 24:09 Was it?

Chris Williamson 24:09 Definitely not 100 kilo-

Jonny Watson 24:10 All right.

Chris Williamson 24:10 100 kilos per arm?

Jonny Watson 24:12 No, on, on an incline barbell bench press.

Chris Williamson 24:14 Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jonny Watson 24:16 So, you were doing 100 kilos?

Chris Williamson 24:17 I was, yeah.

Jonny Watson 24:19 I think that's pretty good, Chris.

Chris Williamson 24:20 Thank you, thank you.

Jonny Watson 24:22 No problem.

Chris Williamson 24:22 We have been lifting a lot this year. We've put on a lot of size this year just eating, but eating like an arsehole as well, just eating everything in sight.

Jonny Watson 24:28 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 24:28 Like constant desserts. It's not been the highest quality calories, so I'm gonna try and dial that back in this year. There's a real difficulty I have blending the mental sharpness I get from intermittent fasting with the f- lack of physical degradation that I get from having, like, regular meals that are of high quality throughout the day. I f- I find it very difficult to maintain a good physique whilst doing s- anything close to a hard intermittent fast.

Yusef Smith 24:53 Well, Chris, have you thought about having your most boring meal of the day?

Chris Williamson 25:04 (laughs)

Jonny Watson 25:05 (laughs) He's got you there ... on the checkmate.

Chris Williamson 25:05 I knew it was gonna come full circle eventually.

Jonny Watson 25:08 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 25:08 Right, Jonn- Johan, what have you got? Give us...

Jonny Watson 25:11 Uh, so it's a, it's a triple, triple pronged hack...

Chris Williamson 25:14 I love it.

Jonny Watson 25:14 ... uh, which is three things in unison. I think I've ment- ... Well, two of them have definitely been mentioned before. Uh, so the first one is something that I actually heard on Modern Wisdom, a recommendation from Derek at More Plates More Dates, which is to take, like, a standard day of eating, so a, a, a s- the setup you would normally have on a, like, a regular day, plug it into something called Cronometer, which is, uh, an app that's, that's iOS, Mac app, um, um, I'm sure it exists for Android as well. Um, and it just scores you based on your micronutrient profile, so, uh, just as a, as an RDA percentage, where are you short on, like, vitamin C, A, D, K, et cetera. It is extremely difficult to get anywhere close. I don't know whether anyone's ever tried this before. It's something Yousef and I have spoken about. Way harder than you'd think-

Chris Williamson 26:02 (laughs)

Jonny Watson 26:02 ... to do that. Um, the thing, however, it's so cool to see it, so you put in your normal food intake for the day and then it's got, like, pre-saved, it's got, um, quite a few popular supplement brands. So, you plug in an Athletic Greens serving and everything goes from being, like, 5%, 10%, 20% to, like, 300%, 300%, 300%. So, first one i- first hack is that, is, like, if you are trying to improve your diet in the new year, which so many people do, um, I do think it's important to look at the macronutrient and the micronutrient profile. Stick your diet, stick an average day into Cronometer and see where you fall. Second thing is Athletic Greens, still using it, which is a hell of a testament.

Chris Williamson 26:45 Yep.

Jonny Watson 26:45 And then the third thing, which is another tip that, um, I gave a while ago, which is something else I'm still using over a year later, is MacroFactor for tracking macros. Um, that app is getting better every s- ... I mean, they've just done another update. Um, the guys behind that really know what they're doing. And with MyFitnessPal, just adding some, making some features premium. Um, if you're finding that annoying, like, the barcode scanner being, now being a premium feature and you want something else-

Yusef Smith 27:11 Perfect storm.

Jonny Watson 27:12 Yeah.

Yusef Smith 27:12 Like, MyFitnessPal managed to, to trip over their own feet at the same time-

Jonny Watson 27:17 Mm-hmm.

Yusef Smith 27:17 ... as a major competitor stepped into the ring.

Chris Williamson 27:19 Why not use Cronometer for everything? Why have Cronometer to do micros and MacroFactor for macros?

Jonny Watson 27:26 It's just not got the best, um, like, s- database of, of popular brand items, Cronometer. Um, and MacroFactor's not ... It ... Macro, MacroFactor has micronutrient profiles, but it's not quite as good as Cronometer. Um, so Cronometer's good for, like, inserting the single ingredients once and, like, doing that process once. But if I'm gonna have, like, a, a dinner at a restaurant, the, the chances of being in Cronometer are very slim. I tested it 'cause I ... Ideally, that would be what you would do, right? But, yeah, the, the database and also the tracking, the functionality on MacroFactor's way beyond that. I- it'll even adjust your macros for you if you want it to. So-

Chris Williamson 28:02 Is that the thing when we went for a avocado salad in Heaton a few months ago, Yousef, that you just spoke it into your phone?

Jonny Watson 28:13 Oh, yeah.

Yusef Smith 28:13 He says- Yeah. There's, there's a lot-

Chris Williamson 28:14 ... "Record one avocado salad with an egg," and then it just came up and put it in.

Yusef Smith 28:20 Yeah. So that, I mean, that, that's a great feature, and I feel like we've not even mentioned it, which is-

Jonny Watson 28:24 Yeah, I haven't even mentioned it.

Yusef Smith 28:25 Yeah. So, it's got, like, an AI recognition thing, so you could say, um, you know, roa- roast chicken dinner with potatoes and whatever, and it'll, it'll generate it and it'll give you suggested servings, and you go, "Oh, yeah, yeah, that's about right."

Chris Williamson 28:36 Mm.

Yusef Smith 28:36 And you add it in. Um, the, we, I think we have a code for that as well, but it's just for an extended trial, but ap-

Jonny Watson 28:44 Yeah, they don't do any discounts, sadly.

Chris Williamson 28:46 Hmm.

Jonny Watson 28:47 Um, yeah, they do a seven or a 14-day trial. So good. Um-

Chris Williamson 28:51 How much is membership if you want to stick about after that?

Yusef Smith 28:55 60 quid a year or something like that.

Jonny Watson 28:57 Something like... Yeah.

Chris Williamson 28:58 So not much if that's gonna be the basis-

Jonny Watson 29:00 It's v- if you-

Chris Williamson 29:00 ... of your tracking.

Jonny Watson 29:01 Yeah.

Yusef Smith 29:02 Yeah.

Jonny Watson 29:02 So, if, if you've used something like MyFitnessPal or something like that in the past, um, and you want a, an equivalent and you also want it to adjust your macros for you, it also gives you, like, an estimated end date for ... So you plug in, like, your target weight. It recommends some calories for you. It tells you how long your diet's gonna be, and it adjusts your macros each week based on h- what y- what your weight changes do.

Chris Williamson 29:22 Wow.

Jonny Watson 29:23 For ... It's pretty cool.

Chris Williamson 29:24 I heard that, um-

Jonny Watson 29:26 So, yeah, it's really, really good.

Chris Williamson 29:26 ... is it Mike Israetel has got ... No, it's not. It's, uh, Zach's friend from, uh, Thingy Strength that has a, uh-

Yusef Smith 29:35 (laughs) Great name.

Chris Williamson 29:36 ... uh, I can't remember the fucking name of it.

Jonny Watson 29:38 Arpey Strength.

Chris Williamson 29:39 Maybe. Uh, that has a, an AI lifting program now.

Yusef Smith 29:45 Oh, Juggernaut.

Jonny Watson 29:46 Oh, yeah.

Chris Williamson 29:46 Juggernaut Training Systems. Thank you.

Yusef Smith 29:48 Yes.

Chris Williamson 29:48 Um, and he's basically created a s- scalable, completely leverageable, ultimately scalable personalized training platform.

Jonny Watson 29:56 Yeah. So, I've, I've given that a try. Um, it's pretty impressive. I don't use it personally. But, um, I've seen some examples of, like, of some quite high level powerlifters using it and peaking for it. And I think ... So the guy's, the, the, the, sort of the developer guy behind it, I think, is called Garrett Blevins, I think his name is, who's a US, uh, on the US powerlifting team, who's just, like, coded an app for-

Narrator 30:23 ... for a bit of a side, side giggle.

Chris Williamson 30:24 And now he's making, now he's making crazy cash.

Narrator 30:26 Mad bank. Yeah.

Chris Williamson 30:27 Right. Yussef, what have you got?

Yusef Smith 30:29 Can I just wedge in a, a post-hack for, for Jonny there, which is also, if you're struggling, if you're not very inventive with meal planning, use Eat This Much. So either an app or a website, eatthismuch.com. And you just say like, "I'm having breakfast," or dinner, or lunch. And it says, uh, "Do you, do you like blueberries? Do you like almonds?" Whatever. And it'll just generate you things that you should eat as a, as a meal plan. It's very good. Um, so

Yusef Smith 30:57 my hack is the wobbly sausage. I recently-

Chris Williamson 31:01 What are you brandishing at us?

Yusef Smith 31:03 This is my wobbly sausage.

Chris Williamson 31:05 Okay.

Yusef Smith 31:05 It's a TheraBand, I believe. It's not gonna go in focus, is it?

Chris Williamson 31:09 No.

Yusef Smith 31:10 Um, I've been plagued with elbow problems over the last few months (laughs) , and this has been the only thing that's helped to fix it. So, if you're someone who does a lot of things like weighted chin-ups and heavy rows and stuff that just really aggravates that bit of your elbow, it's possible, 'cause I'm living proof, to get golfer's elbow without having ever played golf, um, and tennis elbow without having ever played tennis. So... (laughs) . And it's so painful, and it gets to the point where, like, using your hand brake in your car or opening jars and stuff is exquisitely painful. So, the wobbly sausage is brilliant. Just something that you can then do like negatives with, you can do lots of reps, and it, it does... You, you get a pump on exactly the area that is sore. And-

Chris Williamson 32:03 So for the people that are, for the people that are listening and not able to see what it is that you're brandishing at us, you're not using this as a soft tissue tool. You're using a kind of rolling pin, flexible rolling pin, to actually do movements forward and back with your wrists.

Yusef Smith 32:21 Yeah, using it as twisty, or you can use it as actual wobbly. Like this is genuinely one of the exercises.

Chris Williamson 32:26 Uh, yeah.

Yusef Smith 32:28 (laughs) .

Chris Williamson 32:28 Yeah. Let's be, let's, let's go steady with that one, shall we?

Yusef Smith 32:30 (laughs) .

Chris Williamson 32:30 I don't want to get demonetized. (laughs)

Narrator 32:32 I also don't, I don't believe you, Yussef, that that's one of the exercises.

Yusef Smith 32:35 So, the, the guide even had like one where you, you get a band and you hold it with your right hand, stand on it with your left foot, and then you, you do that overhead to try and stabilize your shoulder.

Chris Williamson 32:46 Wow.

Narrator 32:46 (laughs) .

Chris Williamson 32:47 But I mean, I'm sure that you understand the mechanism that's going on. Why does golfer's elbow occur? What's happening?

Yusef Smith 32:54 So, it's, it's been debated 'cause it used to be the theory that it was an inflammatory process, and now we think it's to do with the tendon matrix getting disrupted. Um, but it can just... It, it's probably like a combination of tissue level and sensitization events happening at that point. But it's just so localized and so painful that anything you do starts picking the scab with it. So part of the goal is to like stretch it away, work through the pain a little bit, get, g- you know, after you've recovered, to re-desensitize yourself to the area, but then also to strengthen the area through doing lots of negatives and wobbly sausage.

Chris Williamson 33:32 Yeah, well I was gonna ask what the fucking mechanism was if you were gonna say... It looks like a miniature foam roller, right? It looks like a tiny little foam roller. I was gonna say, what are you actually doing? If you're gonna go back and then do the same exercise again, how are you expecting a different result if all you've done is loosen up the area? Like this was what I got red-pilled by Sam Spinelli, uh, The Strength Therapist, uh, about-

Yusef Smith 33:54 (laughs) .

Chris Williamson 33:54 ... a, a little while ago (laughs) .

Narrator 33:58 (laughs) .

Chris Williamson 34:00 We're gonna have to explain that.

Yusef Smith 34:01 (laughs) .

Chris Williamson 34:01 So, we're laughing because Dr. Sam Spinelli, uh, had a handle on Instagram called thestrengththerapist. Now, one of the problems, if you write out thestrengththerapist all in one word without capital letters, you can also spell the strength, the rapist. And it seems like he became aware of this after a while and changed it to @drsamspinelli. Anyway, what he told me was that soft tissue feels nice but doesn't make a massive amount of difference to long-term injury.

Yusef Smith 34:30 Mm. Unfortunately, it's, it's, it's a way to kind of get acc- temporary access to a new range of motion or a new kind of pain-free range that you then have to do something with. You can't just do the foam rolling and then be like, "Oh, I've done, I've done the work now."

Chris Williamson 34:45 What's the brand of that thing again for people that want to check it out?

Yusef Smith 34:48 It is TheraBand GRG.

Chris Williamson 34:51 They're quite a big company. They seem like, uh, they, that, that seems like an oddly brand name purchase for you, Yussef, that you would have probably tried to get from Alibaba.

Yusef Smith 35:00 I, I just thought, "I'm not, I'm not making any shortcuts with my elbow." I've, I've wrestled-

Chris Williamson 35:05 Enough is enough.

Yusef Smith 35:05 ... with this problem enough. Yeah. Um, I got the green, greeny blue, I don't know what you call that turquoise one.

Chris Williamson 35:11 You did, yeah.

Yusef Smith 35:11 Um, there's different levels. This is the medium, I believe, and I think it's just about right for rehab.

Chris Williamson 35:17 You don't regret the, not getting a stronger one?

Yusef Smith 35:20 No, 'cause you... I think if you go too hard with it, it's, you're just kind of picking the scab further with the increased-

Chris Williamson 35:27 That's such a, like, nuanced topic about when you look at resistance bands and, and other, um, the, the density of foam rollers. Do I want extra firm? Do I want firm? Do I want medium? Because there's no way, there's no gradient that you can actually test until you get it. And the number of times that you get it and go, "Oh, for fuck's sake, this is way too soft or way too light. I'm gonna have to basically just buy another one."

Yusef Smith 35:48 Have, have you ever gone too hard?

Chris Williamson 35:51 Uh, y-

Yusef Smith 35:51 I think I got the Captain of Crush-

Chris Williamson 35:52 Yeah.

Yusef Smith 35:52 ... and I got like level four or something, thinking, "Ah, this will be..." And it's like, I, I lift things with it-

Chris Williamson 35:57 It doesn't even move.

Yusef Smith 35:58 ... and you're like, "Oh, like three people in the world have ever closed it." Ah, great.

Chris Williamson 36:01 (laughs) .

Narrator 36:03 Or if you, like, accidentally get a... you know, if you're trying to get like a resistance band to do some shoulder rehab with, and you, you get something that's too much and you can't even get it past like-

Chris Williamson 36:11 Yeah, yeah.

Narrator 36:12 ... (laughs) very easy to do.

Chris Williamson 36:12 But then one that's, one that's totally pointless that, that you can basically see through is also useless. Like, I'm just-

Narrator 36:18 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 36:19 ... flinging a piece of toil- a sh- a single sheet of toilet paper around here.

Narrator 36:21 Yeah, just moving my elbow.

Yusef Smith 36:23 Like, like cling film.

Chris Williamson 36:23 Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Narrator 36:24 (laughs) .

Chris Williamson 36:24 Okay,

Chris Williamson 36:25 um, hack productivity with the Zeigarnic effect by leaving sentences part-finished. We've spoken about the Zeigarnic effect before. It, it is a psychological bias. It was discovered by this guy who was studying waiters and waitresses in-... uh, restaurants, and he was very impress- It's super impressive when you see someone that comes up and asks you your order and doesn't write anything down. They're just looking at you while you say it. This lady did it in Vegas for an entire table of 10 people, drinks, starters, and mains. Didn't write a single thing down. Nothing was wrong. And it all came out to the right people as well. I was like, "Fucking hell."

Yusef Smith 36:57 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 36:57 Like that's, that's, that's 20, 20% to 25% tip worthy. Like if you wanna do, like-

Yusef Smith 37:02 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 37:02 ... give us a bit of a flourish, do some card tricks or sing or something. But, um, what this guy realized is that the servers had an unbelievably accurate ability to recall what each table had ordered while the orders and checks were still open, and as soon as the checks had gone, their ability to remember things had completely vanished. It's the same as anyone who, (clears throat) like me at university, crammed for exams. You'll be able to remember really, really closely what it is all of the different accounting principles or whatever that you've been researching, and yet as soon as the (laughs) exam's done and that loop is closed, everything's gone. And this is the same reason that Netflix shows use cliffhangers at the end of them, to get you to watch the next one, because the human mind abhors this sort of open loop, and it likes a closed loop. So it's the open and closed loop dynamic that we've got. And the way that you can use this to hack productivity is give yourself an easier in when you go to restart a project. And this is something Michael Malice does as a writer. I know a bunch of my other writer friends do as well, that they leave sentences part finished as they close the day out, which means that when they then begin the next day, it's really easy. How hard is it to finish a sentence? Like you're already, you're basically up and running already and then, before you know it, you're writing. It also means that your open loop system is a little bit more activated throughout the remainder of the break between doing the project again, finishing it and doing it again. Uh, so you're thinking about it a bit more. You're considering what it is that you need to do. So I do that with some of the stuff that I'm starting to write now. I'm starting to do some longer form stuff and, uh, yeah, leaving sentences part finished is a nice solution.

Yusef Smith 38:34 Nice. So you're not having to start the day and kind of crack the shell of the task and it's-

Chris Williamson 38:39 Oh, fucking finishing-

Yusef Smith 38:39 ... getting over that.

Chris Williamson 38:40 ... something at the, at the end of a chapter, you know, and you go, "Oh, okay. Let's start this new chapter now."

Yusef Smith 38:44 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 38:44 Really, really difficult.

Yusef Smith 38:45 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 38:45 It's hard enough to begin a task in any case. It's just a case of making it as easy as possible for you to get going, I think.

Yusef Smith 38:51 I think we discussed the idea of, of dentists when you come in the room and they go, "Hello, sir, sit down," and then you open your mouth and they go, "Ah, Lewis, how are the kids?" Like, 'cause they recognize the particular configuration of fillings and teeth that you've got, and that's, that's what jogs their memory, 'cause that's the way that they see the world.

Chris Williamson 39:10 That's not one that I remember happening. But yeah, I mean, I'm going to see David Breton actually in a couple of weeks time before I go back to, uh, Texas. So if he starts remembering things about me as soon as I open my mouth ...

Yusef Smith 39:22 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 39:22 We'll know that that's true. Johan, there we go.

Yusef Smith 39:24 Contact specific learning.

Jonny Watson 39:26 Um, Andrew Huberman, who is a alumnus of the Modern Wisdom podcast, has a sleep cocktail. Have either of you tried it?

Chris Williamson 39:37 Magnesium L-threonate.

Jonny Watson 39:38 Chris has tried it.

Chris Williamson 39:39 L-theanine.

Jonny Watson 39:40 Yep.

Chris Williamson 39:41 Apigenin.

Jonny Watson 39:42 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 39:43 And sometimes, sometimes not-

Yusef Smith 39:46 Glycine.

Chris Williamson 39:46 ... uh, GABA.

Jonny Watson 39:48 And glycine.

Yusef Smith 39:49 GABA?

Jonny Watson 39:49 Gabri-

Chris Williamson 39:49 Whoa, the gy- So the guy, the glycine thing I haven't used. I haven't tried yet.

Jonny Watson 39:53 So I haven't tried the GABA.

Chris Williamson 39:55 Okay.

Jonny Watson 39:55 'Cause Youssef scared me about GABA.

Yusef Smith 39:56 We, we used to gabber a lot.

Jonny Watson 39:59 What, in, in Z12?

Yusef Smith 40:01 Yeah, back in the day.

Jonny Watson 40:02 But then I-

Chris Williamson 40:02 How often were you gabbered?

Jonny Watson 40:04 Sorry?

Yusef Smith 40:04 I mean, I, I got through a bottle of GABA. I got my-

Chris Williamson 40:06 Hey, stop.

Yusef Smith 40:06 I gave it to my brother and he ended up getting withdrawal. I, like, I gave it to him and I was like, "Listen, Habibi, don't take this every day. Every couple of days." And then, of course, he didn't. He ignored me. Took two every day and then at the end of the month he was like, "Youssef, I need some more of that stuff here. I can't sleep at all. I'm anxious."

Chris Williamson 40:23 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 40:23 I told, I, I told you, man. (laughs)

Chris Williamson 40:26 (laughs) I'm fucking telling you, bro. Stop taking that shit.

Jonny Watson 40:31 So, I, I remember-

Chris Williamson 40:32 It's my crew.

Yusef Smith 40:33 (laughs)

Jonny Watson 40:33 I remember Youssef realizing there was GABA in this supplement we used to take from T Nation and being like, "Whoa, that's a hell of a ... That's a sledgehammer." So I didn't add, I haven't even added that in, but the rest of it I have. And my goodness me, do you get a good night's sleep (laughs) with that, with that cocktail of things.

Chris Williamson 40:51 Have you split tested it on WHOOP?

Jonny Watson 40:55 I haven't. I haven't, but I mean-

Chris Williamson 40:57 Are you still using WHOOP?

Jonny Watson 40:59 No.

Chris Williamson 40:59 Well, that's why you haven't done it.

Jonny Watson 41:01 Well, I, I ... Maybe.

Chris Williamson 41:01 You'll be back. You'll be back, you'll be back partway through 2023, I'm sure.

Jonny Watson 41:05 Maybe. The thing that's good about WHOOP, I mean, not to sidetrack this, is like, is exactly for stuff like this. So it's, it's activating it for ... I, I don't think I get that much out of it when I do the same things day in, day out, because it just, 'cause there's a flux in your scores and you're like, "Well, I'm not gonna change my training." But if you wanna add something new in, like red light therapy for example, um, or new sleep supplements, doing it for like two months and testing it just to see, like, "Is there any move in the numbers?" is very useful. But with the sleep cocktail thing, it's almost at a point where it's like, it's as clear as day to me that it makes a difference. (laughs) Like, I, I don't know what your experience with it was, Chris, but, um, I've had a lot of sleep supplements. I've had ZMA, obviously the Z12 stuff, um, 5-HTP, MyProtein sleep cocktails. Never re- They, they kind of help, but they don't really, um ... I, I think this, I immediately fall asleep and then I just feel like I'm asleep the entire night.

Chris Williamson 42:02 It's s-

Jonny Watson 42:02 No issues.

Chris Williamson 42:03 My, my sleep's been the best that it's been, uh, throughout this year, and it's fluctuated due to all of the travel, but I'm a big fan.

Jonny Watson 42:09 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 42:09 I haven't used the glycine. So for brands, I'll let you put yours forward, but certainly in America and maybe in the UK as well, a company called DoubleTree, they are massive on Amazon. Um, everything seems to be, uh, double third party tested, comes with a-

Jonny Watson 42:25 Right.

Chris Williamson 42:25 ... bunch of credentials and stuff. Um, that's where I get my magnesium L-threonate from, my apigenin, and my ... Is that how I say it? I feel like-

Yusef Smith 42:35 Apigenin, I think.

Chris Williamson 42:36 Apigenin, yeah.

Yusef Smith 42:36 But I'm sure.

Chris Williamson 42:37 I'm definitely saying it like a, a, a pigeon in.

Jonny Watson 42:39 (laughs) Which is ... I'm pretty sure, Youssef, you mentioned that's an opiate.

Yusef Smith 42:45 ... possibly. I-

Jonny Watson 42:46 It's a thing in chamomile tea.

Yusef Smith 42:48 Oh, is it? Okay. Well, n- no, I, I don't know if apigenin is, but chamomile tea is a mild opiate. (laughs)

Chris Williamson 42:54 Well, L- L-theanine is present in green tea, right?

Yusef Smith 42:59 Green tea, yeah.

Jonny Watson 43:00 Yeah. Gives you some funky dreams.

Chris Williamson 43:02 Yeah. Well, I mean-

Jonny Watson 43:03 You know, yeah.

Chris Williamson 43:03 ... L-theanine's a really great neuroprotective, seems to be root- good for dealing with stress and anxiety. Some people take it during the morning as well, which it's-

Jonny Watson 43:11 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 43:11 ... also useful to take with caffeine to take the jitters off the edge of caffeine. Um, what's the brands that you've gone for? What's the dosage you go for? And where did you get your glycine from?

Jonny Watson 43:21 I just got it all on Amazon. Um, I can get the, the links of s- of stuff. Um, I got it, to be honest, I, I went on Amazon and I went for brands that I either recognized or had, like, really good reviews, and, like, a high number of reviews on. Um, it was a lot cheaper than I was expecting it to be, getting all the individual ingredients, and a lot of... Like, the theanine is, like, 180 days in a bottle or something like that. It's crazy.

Chris Williamson 43:45 Yeah, I've still got that, uh, apigenin from the first time I started using it, 'cause they're tiny, tiny, teeny, little-

Jonny Watson 43:53 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 43:53 ... capsules, right?

Jonny Watson 43:54 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 43:54 Um, the magnesium L-threonate is what you go through at a ridiculous rate.

Jonny Watson 43:58 The quickest. Yeah.

Chris Williamson 43:58 Yeah. So you need to get three... I've found that you need to get about three bottles of the magnesium for every one of the other two.

Jonny Watson 44:04 Hmm.

Chris Williamson 44:05 Uh, glycine, is it ju- is it any type of glycine? I, I haven't used that.

Yusef Smith 44:09 It's, it's, it's very generic and cheap, so it's just an amino acid.

Jonny Watson 44:12 Yeah.

Yusef Smith 44:12 The, the reason that they say to cycle it is the, the data shows, like, an, an increase in sleep quality on the first night that you use it, and then not so much afterwards. So, the, the rationale, Huberman's rationale will be to cycle it so that you kind of re-sensitize to it.

Chris Williamson 44:26 Are you cycling... 'Cause I don't, but should you be cycling magnesium L-threonate, uh, apigenin and the L-theanine?

Yusef Smith 44:33 Uh, personally, with, with anything like that that's going to enhance something, I just think it... A broad principle should be to cycle stuff. The only time... The only th- only thing that I maybe wouldn't is anything that's vitamin or pseudo-vitamin. So creatine, no need to cycle. But things that are, like, anti-stress, sleep, adaptogens, anything like that, I would cycle.

Jonny Watson 44:56 So, so magnesium, you wouldn't cycle then if it's a...

Yusef Smith 44:59 Magnesium, I wouldn't, yeah.

Jonny Watson 45:01 Wouldn't. But a bit... And glycine, you wouldn't?

Yusef Smith 45:03 Although I was slightly hypermagnesemic, uh, from my last blood test, which shows I was, like, scooping it in, so how you do that -

Chris Williamson 45:10 What do you, what do you use on an evening time, Yusuf? 'Cause I imagine you don't subscribe to this kind of cocktail.

Jonny Watson 45:16 Quackery.

Yusef Smith 45:17 I've been rotating magnesium sources just 'cause I know some people are proper magnesium perverts. But, um, I've just got some, currently, magnesium chloride powder that I... Or crystal that I just-

Chris Williamson 45:27 Unflavored.

Yusef Smith 45:29 Unflav- yeah.

Chris Williamson 45:29 Dry scoop.

Jonny Watson 45:30 Hang on.

Yusef Smith 45:31 That's true. (laughs)

Jonny Watson 45:31 Hang on. That you what? What do you do with it?

Yusef Smith 45:33 I just dry s... I, I put it into water or something, but-

Jonny Watson 45:36 Not your mouth?

Yusef Smith 45:36 ... I think that... To be honest, very irresponsible of me. Please don't take this as medical advice 'cause I... Like-

Jonny Watson 45:40 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 45:40 ... I just haven't been weighing it out. I just sort of eyeball it, which is a-

Jonny Watson 45:45 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 45:45 ... terrible thing to do with a mineral, and it's why I ended up-

Jonny Watson 45:48 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 45:48 ... hypermagnesemic.

Chris Williamson 45:50 (laughs)

Jonny Watson 45:50 You eyeball... That's like... You... Th- the studies where people have, like, accidentally had 30 grams of caffeine and ended up in A and E.

Chris Williamson 45:57 That was the, that was the person in Northumbria University, wasn't it?

Yusef Smith 46:01 Yeah.

Jonny Watson 46:01 Either that or someone eyeballing.

Chris Williamson 46:02 For the people around the world who don't know the, the university we're talking about, there's two unis in the city that we all live in. And they did a study on caffeine, and somebody accidentally... Was it 100 times the dose?

Yusef Smith 46:14 Yeah, it was meant to be 300 milligrams, I believe, and then he gave them-

Chris Williamson 46:17 And they gave 30 grams of caffeine.

Yusef Smith 46:18 Which, like, there's so many steps that you would realize that that's wrong-

Chris Williamson 46:23 Mm-hmm.

Yusef Smith 46:23 ... that they just managed to somehow miss.

Jonny Watson 46:25 Well, I think-

Yusef Smith 46:26 Not, not only the fact that it's so bitter. Even if you have 300 milligrams of caffeine powder-

Jonny Watson 46:30 Yeah.

Yusef Smith 46:30 ... in a pint of water, you can taste it. Like, it's really nasty.

Jonny Watson 46:33 You can taste it in three liters of water.

Chris Williamson 46:35 (laughs)

Jonny Watson 46:35 It's such a strong... But then the three of us would have seen the pile on the, the heaped protein scoop of caffeine and gone, "I think that's a bit much caffeine."

Yusef Smith 46:45 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 46:45 Fucking hell. Okay. Uh, yeah.

Jonny Watson 46:46 Nightmare.

Chris Williamson 46:47 Uh, Andrew Huberman's Sleep Cocktail, I'm completely in. I've used it throughout this year. Uh-

Jonny Watson 46:51 If you just Google that, by the way... If you just Google Andrew Huberman Sleep Cocktail, you'll find, like, all the recommendations of what to cycle, what's... And what not to cycle, all the dosages, and all that sort of stuff.

Chris Williamson 46:59 Yeah. Uh, what was the...

Jonny Watson 47:00 Very, very good.

Chris Williamson 47:01 Something else that...

Jonny Watson 47:05 Something sleepy?

Chris Williamson 47:05 Oh, that was it. So Derek from More Plates More Dates, his Gorilla Mind, Gorilla Mode, um, company has done a version of Huberman's Sleep Cocktail.

Jonny Watson 47:17 Okay.

Chris Williamson 47:18 But the one thing they did was put melatonin in it.

Jonny Watson 47:21 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 47:22 I'm like, "Mate, come on."

Yusef Smith 47:23 Come on.

Chris Williamson 47:23 Come on. Come on, son. So I think he's going to redo another version where melatonin isn't in it. The problem is the Americans are so fucking pro-melatonin.

Jonny Watson 47:37 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 47:37 It is insane because you can buy it over the counter. You can get it on Amazon. You can get it wherever. You can't get it on prescription in the UK. It's basically-

Jonny Watson 47:43 Yeah, it's hard.

Chris Williamson 47:44 ... impossible to get on prescription, and yet it's sold over the counter in America 'cause like, "Ooh, drugs." And that just means that people thr... They'll lump it in with every... Like, cake mix, you know, like...

Yusef Smith 47:53 Was it you? I think it was last Life Hacks where you were talking about, like, getting something like 500 ibuprofens in a tub.

Chris Williamson 48:00 Maybe. I mean, they, they do those... They, they don't do the blister pack thing very much. If you want to kill yourself by taking drugs in America, it's pretty easy, 'cause you just go into CVS and they've just got these-

Jonny Watson 48:09 It's a big bat.

Chris Williamson 48:09 Yeah, exactly, these protein powder sized boxes. And you're just chinkling all of these-

Yusef Smith 48:15 All the adverts, "Hey, do you-"

Chris Williamson 48:17 ... tablets, right?

Yusef Smith 48:17 "... do you wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night? Then maybe you need..."

Chris Williamson 48:21 Melatonin.

Yusef Smith 48:21 "... hydroxychloroquine."

Chris Williamson 48:22 May- maybe you need f- 20 milligrams of melatonin every day.

Jonny Watson 48:26 I-

Chris Williamson 48:26 Anyway.

Jonny Watson 48:26 I got some in Hawaii and used to... Like, they were, like, two milligram c- gummies.

Chris Williamson 48:31 Yep.

Jonny Watson 48:31 And when I asked Yusuf's recommendation for dose, he was like-

Chris Williamson 48:34 Half.

Jonny Watson 48:34 ... "Cut it into quarters-"

Chris Williamson 48:35 (laughs)

Jonny Watson 48:36 "... have one, maybe one quarter, and then slow... Maybe have a second if you need to."

Chris Williamson 48:41 What's the, what's the 30-second red pill on melatonin dosage, Saf?

Yusef Smith 48:46 So melatonin, the, the, the best effect from it is from it basically starting the lead domino of your natural endogenous melatonin production. So you shouldn't be trying to, like, substitute. It's not like-... testosterone replacement where you're, you're just, like, taking the full lot. It's just to get it going, um, and that's why it's got this inverted U curve dose response. So, there's like a midpoint where about one milligram seems to be optimal, and then more than that or less than that is less effective.

Chris Williamson 49:15 And they sell 10 milligram, 20 milligram tablets of melatonin-

Yusef Smith 49:19 Just for, for lols.

Chris Williamson 49:20 ... in CVS. You fucking idiots.

Jonny Watson 49:21 Just, yeah.

Chris Williamson 49:22 Right. Q seth, what have you got?

Yusef Smith 49:25 When you are giving a speech or dealing with a client or dealing with a patient or anything and you get lost in the middle of something, a great hack is just to put yourself in context. So, if I was drawing a blank now... "So, we're currently talking about life hacks in general. We've gone through some physical ones, some digital ones. Chris and Johnny have given their suggestions, and now we're on to mine." And often-

Jonny Watson 49:53 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 49:53 ... that alone just jogs your memory and gets you going again. So, if you're in the middle of a, a speech and you're like, "Oh," and the audience appreciate it as well. It's not as if, um, it looks bad 'cause the audience are like, "Oh, great. Like, we're back in context again." Just, "Let's just show everyone where we are in the map, and then here's where we are going next."

Chris Williamson 50:12 I really like that. I really like that. That's, that-

Yusef Smith 50:14 It's brilliant. Saved my ass a lot of times.

Chris Williamson 50:16 Alex O'Connor does something v- kind of similar. It's not... I, I don't, it may be to cover up when he loses his place, but he does, uh, he asks a rhetorical question that makes it obvious about where he's going to go next. So, let's say that he was doing some video about Jordan Peterson's views on veganism or something, and he would say something along the lines of, "So, you might ask yourself, why would it be the case, given everything that we know about Jordan's beliefs around humanity needing to be as generous and kind as possible, that he would not have, uh, decided to adopt a plant-based diet? Well, the reason for that is..." And like-

Jonny Watson 50:52 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 50:52 ... all of that, what he's done is he's created a question that he can answer himself. He's opened a loop. You want him to answer it. Like, it's a, he's, like, interviewing himself, um, uh, very much. And he does that when he's doing his YouTube videos. He'll go off script to do that to then go back on script, and it's... You can do it with all of the naturalistic language that you need. You can do all the rest of it. It's a really, really... And Zach started putting that same tactic into his videos on YouTube too. It's like, "So, you might think, like, why would someone do this? Well, the reason that you could say perhaps they might do this is..." And then you're back on script. So, you've just veered off and come back on. But i- i- it's so, it's just easy to inject. You do that one or two times per, um, talk. No one's gonna notice, but it's a really good tactic.

Yusef Smith 51:36 Nice, I love that.

Jonny Watson 51:37 Good one.

Chris Williamson 51:39 Okay, um, I guess given the fact that

Chris Williamson 51:43 Johnny's just spoken about the, uh, sleep stuff, I might as well throw this in. So, I did 500 days without caffeine. Um, I then reintroduced caffeine back into my use, but wanted to maintain the current level of sensitivity that I have to caffeine and m- most importantly, not reintroduce the dependence that I had to caffeine. Alex Hormozi has this fucking amazing quote when it comes to reliance on substances, caffeine in particular, that says, "If you can't perform without it, it's stopped conferring a benefit." And you're like-

Yusef Smith 52:14 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 52:14 ... "Look, that is the way that most people view caffeine." They don't use it to improve performance. They use it to get themselves back to zero. And it's no longer assisting you. It's no longer a performance enhancer. It's just buttressing what you do with your life. So, for me, the best way to do it is just every other day caffeine use. And the, the reason that it works as a rule is I can always remember if I had caffeine yesterday, and if I did, I can't have it today. That's it. It also means if I'm thinking about having caffeine today, I actually have to make a scarcity calculation about, how much do I need it today and how much might I need it tomorrow? If I need it in two days' time, it doesn't really matter. But if I'm going to need it tomorrow more than I'll need it today, I won't take it now.

Yusef Smith 52:53 (laughs) I do exactly that. (laughs) I'm, like, planning two, three days ahead of like, "Oh, no, if I have one today, then that's two days in a row, so I can't do..." Then I'm like, "No, no, not an odd number."

Chris Williamson 53:02 Every other day, caffeine.

Jonny Watson 53:03 Does that mean you can... You can borrow from tomorrow, then? So, if, if I'm not just supposed to have any today and I'm supposed to have some tomorrow, but I need it tomorrow, today more than tomorrow, can I borrow from tomorrow?

Chris Williamson 53:11 Not if you've had it yesterday. Can't ever have it two days in a row.

Jonny Watson 53:14 But you could go more than two days without caffeine, for example. So, like, if I-

Chris Williamson 53:17 Yes, you can go more than two days without, but you can't go more than two days in a row with.

Jonny Watson 53:21 I see. So I can-

Yusef Smith 53:22 Unless you create, like, a really complicated credit system with a spreadsheet of, like, "Okay, I'm this many in reserve and..."

Chris Williamson 53:28 Yeah, yeah.

Jonny Watson 53:29 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 53:29 "I've banked, I've banked this many days." No, but this is the reason that it's super easy, because you can't do two in a row, but you can do two without in a row. And that's it. You just hold onto that. And it's meant that I'm still taking... So, Kill Kliff, uh, looks like we might be doing some work with them next year. Massive fan of what they do. Um, natural, preser- no preservatives, no additives, no nothing else, flash pasteurized, blah, blah, blah, loads of L-theanine. Uh, they do a 25 milligram, uh, drink, which is basically ju- I mean, it's half a, half a cup of coffee, and it's just about enough to give you a little push, especially if you're sensitive with it like I am at the moment, uh, for non-physical activities, 25 mgs is about right for me, uh, to go down and do some mental work. And then if I want to train, they do a, w- a 90 and a 125, and JockoGo also is a 90 mgs. Perfect. Like, and that, I feel the hell out of that. Like, seeing people walk around with a Bang Energy that's 350 milligrams of caffeine just blows my mind. Zach will go and get a Reign Energy, 300 milligrams of caffeine before we go and train, and I can, like, I, I get caffeinated by watching him drink it.

Jonny Watson 54:39 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 54:39 So, yeah, every other day caffeine use, really, really good.

Jonny Watson 54:43 So, you mu- you must be pretty damn sensitive to it, then.

Chris Williamson 54:46 Yeah, crazy-

Jonny Watson 54:46 If it's... Yeah.

Chris Williamson 54:47 Crazy sensitive. I mean-

Jonny Watson 54:48 So if you, if you had, like, three or four coffees in a day, does that... How would you feel, the sensitivity? Is it just, in just, like, jitters, anxiety?

Chris Williamson 54:54 Never. I've never had it. I, I, since I've come back on, I've never had... I think the most I've ever had in a day has been-... two 25 milligram drinks.

Jonny Watson 55:03 But if you scoot back to, like, pre-500 day with the episode?

Chris Williamson 55:08 I can't remember 'cause my sensitivity was just so high, or r- so low, should I say. I was so desensitized to the effect of caffeine, I can't remember what it was like. But it would make me... If I overshoot it, it makes me jittery, it makes me anxious-

Jonny Watson 55:20 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 55:20 ... I can't focus, um, and I don't need it. Like, m- my energy levels are not determined by the caffeine concentration in my blood anymore. And this is the-

Jonny Watson 55:28 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 55:28 ... this is the big thing about caffeine, that it's papering over the cracks in the issues that your daily routine has created, that people are using caffeine to get themselves past the 11:00 AM slump, but never having to ask themselves, "Why the fuck am I tired at 11:00 AM?" Like, dude-

Jonny Watson 55:46 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 55:46 ... you're not supposed to be tired and fatigued and needing your adenosine system to be completely hijacked by a massive energy drink at 11:30 AM. Maybe it's because you're not sleeping enough, maybe it's because you're not getting enough daylight, maybe it's because you're not spending enough time outside, whatever.

Yusef Smith 56:03 It's, it's pathological. Um-

Chris Williamson 56:05 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 56:05 ... I'm gonna, I'm gonna bank a couple of caffeine-related hacks for after Johnny's.

Chris Williamson 56:11 All right.

Chris Williamson 56:12 Johan.

Jonny Watson 56:12 Okay, okay, cool. Um, mine's more just, like, a behavioral thing. So, um, I have found... I, I'm, I'm... Well, I think probably everybody struggles with this, like, you have a long list of boring things to do, you've got, like, something in the... like, to tidy the house or something like that, or do some admin. Um, even just if you're, if you're putting off a training session, um, it's something that, that... I've always kind of done it in some way, but the first time I really experienced the effect of just having, uh, like, a, uh, totally arbitrary deadline was actually when I was trying to do the CrossFit Open when you were there, Chris, and you were just like, "Five, four, three..." And I just found myself, even though I was shattered (laughs) , like, you're just like, "Oh, well, there's the countdown. Suppose I better get back to doing what I was doing." So you... having just this arbitrary thing that just encourages you to just get going again. So being, like, playing around with that to encourage me to do things that I'm putting off. So, um, you've got, like, a, a list of boring tasks that you've gotta do and you've got a phone call that's happening at one o'clock. Challenge yourself to do as many you n- many of them as you can before one o'clock, or even sometimes waiting until you've only got an hour to train. Like, you know your training session's gonna take you an hour, I know that at 11:30, I'm gonna have one hour exactly to train, otherwise I'll miss my training session. Suddenly, you find yourself, like, in the gym, powering through it, getting it done in 45 minutes. So kind of creating these, like... almost turning things into a bit of a game, it's a bit childish, but makes such a difference (laughs) to things that are otherwise very boring and could easily have taken all day. Um, and I know it's, it's Parkinson's laws and, and lots of other ways of kind of viewing these things, but when you've got stuff you don't want to do, turn it into a bit of a game, set a random and arbitrary deadline, and suddenly it becomes, like, even fun sometimes.

Chris Williamson 57:59 That's so... The, the pro-

Yusef Smith 58:00 Something I really admire about you, Johnny, and you... this is parallel to Parkinson's law, is... you know the effect of when, like, you're at home and you've got a train to catch at quarter past four, so... but it's, it's quarter past three, and so you're thinking, "Well, I've got an hour, but I can't really do anything proper," and then there's like half an hour before you have to leave and you're like, "Well," like, "I'm in this limbo." Johnny will always just be like, "Oh, I'll just do a thing." Like, so something... you know, even if you have to record a module or something that I would consider quite heavy project work and you'll be like, "Oh, it's fine. Like, I just need to leave at that time and I'll just do it anyway." Whereas I get very much caught in limbo mode and end up doing, like, emails or shallow work.

Chris Williamson 58:41 Well, that was-

Jonny Watson 58:42 It's like cancer.

Chris Williamson 58:42 ... that was something that you... that I still use from you, which is having a holding pattern activity. So in between... I- I've had a lot of calls over the last few months, and sitting down and waiting, and the call finishes 10 minutes before your next call. W- really what are you going to do?

Yusef Smith 58:57 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 58:57 Not even long enough for me to do a loop of the park next to where I live. That's 13 minutes and 30 seconds door to door.

Yusef Smith 59:03 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 59:03 So I'm like, "Right, well, iPad or a Kindle next to my desk means that instead of picking up my phone, I might pick up a book. Maybe I'll read for a little bit or..." Emails, I think, is actually the best use of your time for this-

Yusef Smith 59:15 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 59:15 ... because you can chip away at your emails in such an easy, bite-sized form. I'm gonna try... e- email's been a real issue for me, so if anyone has some great life hacks around emails, please send them over, um, to try and make email less of a, an entire day thing. I've currently 120 unread emails, all of which need in-depth replies that need me to get a calendar out or d- link other stuff or submit a form or do some shit. Uh, how are you gamifying common boring tasks? Like, just saying, "I've got half an hour to do these, I need to get these done." Is there anything else?

Jonny Watson 59:53 So, uh, it depends what it is, but I'll, I'll always try and pair it with something that's, um, fun or enjoyable. So, like, it d- it... Emails that require a long, complex reply, it's a little bit different, but I'll have a 30-minute batch where I'm like, "Right, I've got 30 minutes, I'm gonna call it X." I've got, like, a p- predefined list of all these things, and I know that they're, like, really bitty, like, renew my car tax, pay this thing, reset this insurance, what- whatever it is. I'll stick a... whatever I'm listening to, podcast, course, whatever on in the background, set a timer for 30 minutes and just try and get all of them done in the time. And it, it turns it into this, like... you, you've gotta do it anyway, like, you've gotta do those things at some point anyway. You either do them or you don't do them, so if you're gonna do them, you might as well try and compress it and make it take the least of your day possible, turn it into a bit of a challenge, and pair it with something that, like, takes the edge off. So, like, uh, listening to a podcast, or even just your favorite album or whatever. Um, but yeah, I think forcing yourself to... it's something I actually... I think it was, like, a Tim Ferriss tip from years ago, which was, like, create positive constraints in your day. So cre- have... like, make plans at 4:00 PM.... that force you to finish work by 4:00 P.M. or-

Chris Williamson 1:01:05 Yeah.

Jonny Watson 1:01:05 ... or set, like, set things that happen throughout your day that are fixed that mean that suddenly y- you've not got all morning to do something, you've got 90 minutes to do something. And you'll still do it, and it turns into a bit of a challenge. Or you'll still, you'll still always fit your training in multiple times a week even if you're really busy. You just kinda find the time and make it, make it, take you a little bit less time in the gym.

Chris Williamson 1:01:23 Having this-

Jonny Watson 1:01:23 So, just, you, using-

Chris Williamson 1:01:24 ... big amorphous fucking work blob-

Jonny Watson 1:01:27 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 1:01:27 ... just allows everything to bleed into everything else. Yeah, you need structure.

Jonny Watson 1:01:30 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 1:01:31 You re- you really do. I like, I like that a lot. That's good. I think, um, uh, calling people while you're doing, like, house tasks is another really good one.

Jonny Watson 1:01:39 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 1:01:39 Or listening, obviously listening to a podcast if you don't have anybody to call, or if you can't be bothered.

Jonny Watson 1:01:43 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 1:01:43 If you've gotta fold clothes, or sort shit out, or, you know, w- whatever, you're off to print some stuff and return some parcels, like, just ring someone and it's gonna make it a little bit less shit, and you've gotta do it in any case.

Jonny Watson 1:01:56 Mm-hmm. Definitely.

Chris Williamson 1:01:58 Yusuf.

Yusef Smith 1:01:59 So, we're winding

Yusef Smith 1:02:00 back to caffeine. If you've been convinced by Chris's argument there to, to just stop relying on caffeine, if you're one of these people who you're like, "Oh, actually my energy levels are dictated by my serum caffeine levels," or, um, "I, I can't function without it," the first thing you can try from probably about six life hacks ago is Johnny's decaffeination protocol. So that's, let's say you have three cap- three coffees a day, 9:00 A.M., 12:00 P.M., and 3:00 P.M., you do three weeks where you substitute the last coffee, so the 3:00 P.M. one for decaf. And then the next week you go the midday and the 3:00 P.M. on a decaf, and then you go the n- the 9:00 A.M., the 12:00 A.M., and the, the, the 9:00, 12:00, and 3:00 are all decaf. And then you reintroduce them slowly over time. So, then you've, you've managed to wean yourself off without having to go through all the caffeine headaches and withdrawals, and you, then you, you're getting the most out of the least when you reintroduce it. So, that's a good way to do it. If you need something with a little bit more fine tuning, then I've got two options for you. One of them is called Norlo lightly caffeinated coffee. So, this is some kind of Scandinavian coffee brand that is like a third of the caffeine of normal coffee. So, it doesn't have that decaf taste and it's, it, it's pretty good. It's very, i- it's all, like, minimal design and really kind of cool looking, uh, lightly caffeinated coffee. So, you could go for that and then you can play around with your protocol and maybe have that at midday as your final one or something. The other option that I've been having recently, if you're a tea fan, is hojicha. So, you might have heard of matcha, which is the, the powdered green tea that's kind of an acquired taste.

Chris Williamson 1:03:43 Hojicha is his Arabic cousin. (laughs)

Yusef Smith 1:03:46 It's, yeah, exactly. It's his Arab uncle.

Chris Williamson 1:03:48 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 1:03:50 Lightly roasted. (laughs) It is actually roasted, so it's brown.

Chris Williamson 1:03:55 (laughs)

Yusef Smith 1:03:55 And it's got more of a, um, caramelly, malty kind of taste to it. And it's beautiful. I think it's really, really nice. And you can make cakes with it. There's, there's a, there's place, there's a place all over the UK called Sujiri which does hojicha and matcha, like, soft serve ice cream or cheesecakes and all that kind of stuff.

Chris Williamson 1:04:13 We're getting increasingly Lebanese here, aren't we? (laughs)

Yusef Smith 1:04:15 Uh, yeah. So, you can get the hojicha powder. It's like £10 for a, a big bag. Well, a big-

Chris Williamson 1:04:20 How do you spell that?

Yusef Smith 1:04:22 H-O-U-J-I-C-H-A. And you can make frozen yogurt with it. It's genuinely lovely.

Chris Williamson 1:04:29 So, you would have frozen yogurt that's lightly caffeinated?

Yusef Smith 1:04:33 Yeah, but the hojicha is actually, because it's roasted, it's got lower caffeine than matcha, but it still has the theanine and all that stuff too. So, it's a really nice kind of almost green tea light, but it's got a kind of malty, wholesome flavor to it.

Chris Williamson 1:04:48 Very nice. I like it. Okay, let's get ourselves out of health and fitness

Chris Williamson 1:04:52 and get into why you should install a USB charger in your bathroom.

Yusef Smith 1:04:56 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 1:04:56 So, it's the first bathroom-

Yusef Smith 1:04:59 What a sentence. (laughs)

Chris Williamson 1:05:01 (laughs) We need to divert. Um, the first bathroom that I've ever had a USB charger in is the place that I'm at in Texas at the moment, and it's fantastic. It means that my Whoop external battery is always in the same place for if I'm taking it off, I'm getting in the shower, that's the time when I'm taking my wearables off in any case. For, uh, razors, electric shavers if they've got USB compatibility, for, um, electric toothbrushes, all of which pretty much use USB to power them if you've got a Sonicare or something similar. Um... What are you doing, Yusuf?

Yusef Smith 1:05:34 I'm just (laughs) prepping for the next... (laughs)

Chris Williamson 1:05:36 Dean, can you, can you cut back?

Yusef Smith 1:05:39 Enhance that?

Chris Williamson 1:05:40 Yeah. Can you cut back early enough so that we can see what he's doing, please? Ah.

Jonny Watson 1:05:45 Looks like we have a Mr. Bean episode.

Chris Williamson 1:05:47 It was, yeah. Okay, so, um, yeah, it's just you need a USB charger in your bathroom. So, if you're doing a, a bathroom, uh, revamp, I'm also going to guess that the same way that the double-prong shaver thing 30 years ago was sufficiently safe in terms of wattage or amperage or voltage to be able to be in a room that might have some mist, I'm going to guess 100% that a USB port is going to be sufficiently safe. Uh, check with your appropriate electrical-

Jonny Watson 1:06:16 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 1:06:17 ... loc- local, local council electrical company before doing this. However, I've got it in Texas, haven't killed myself, and all of my devices are very well charged.

Jonny Watson 1:06:25 It is the, it's the frustration, isn't it, with having so many little devices that require, like, a micro or a mini, or just a normal USB, that you have to charge them at kind of different intervals throughout the week. So, having, like, a slot where you regularly... So, is that why you're showering, or something like that, that you charge that?

Chris Williamson 1:06:42 Yeah, so especially with, uh, especially with the Whoop, I'll just take it off before I get in the shower because I don't want the strap to get wet. And I'm like, "Well, I might as well plug it into the external charger," which lives right next to the little port, so it's always in the same place.

Jonny Watson 1:06:55 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 1:06:55 It's just an extra hub, 'cause there isn't... Th- for me, the kitchen is where my phone stays and all of the phone charging stuff tends to live around there. The office would be where all of my tech-... for work would be. I don't actually have a very good location for the wearables in my life. I don't want them next to my bed, I think that that's just too messy. Um, so where is it that you would go? And it seems to make, I don't know, pretty good sense to me to have it in the bathroom. And the wearables, you can take them off. The same stuff for shaving, same stuff for cleaning your mouth, et cetera.

Jonny Watson 1:07:30 Yeah, I think having like a... It's having the, the, the time to charge them when you don't need them that happens regularly. And I think showering is the... As long as something can charge in a su- sufficient amount while you're showering, it's the perfect time.

Chris Williamson 1:07:43 Well, think of it this way. The way, the way that I do it, or you could do it with, um, your Whoop, for instance, or an Apple Watch or something similar could be, take it off to shower first thing in the morning, go downstairs, do whatever you need to do, go back up to clean your teeth, presumably, which you're going to do before you leave, grab it off the shelf. That's half an hour charge.

Jonny Watson 1:08:02 Mm-hmm.

Chris Williamson 1:08:02 During a period, you're not gonna get much low intensity steady state cardio in during that one half hour. But yeah, I, I think it's a definitely a good consideration.

Jonny Watson 1:08:13 Cool.

Chris Williamson 1:08:14 Johan, give me

Chris Williamson 1:08:15 something.

Jonny Watson 1:08:15 I want to send us back into health and fitness. Can I do that?

Chris Williamson 1:08:18 Sure.

Jonny Watson 1:08:18 Shout it out?

Chris Williamson 1:08:18 Sure.

Jonny Watson 1:08:19 Uh, one of them is a exercise technique hack, and the other one is an equipment hack. You might not have the bit of equipment in your gym, but if you do and you've always looked at it and thought, "I wonder what that does?" A safety squat bar. Have you ever tried one? Chris, you ever tried one?

Chris Williamson 1:08:34 So that's where you've got handles on the front-

Jonny Watson 1:08:38 Yeah.

Chris Williamson 1:08:38 ... and usually a padded sort of H shape up and above you and then they-

Jonny Watson 1:08:42 Yes.

Chris Williamson 1:08:42 ... goes out to the side, and then it kind of yokes down as well, right, on the outside of that?

Jonny Watson 1:08:46 Yeah, so the, the, the plates are at, like a, on a, a portion of the bar that's at an angle, typically the same angle as the handles. So they're kind of tilted forwards a little bit. It's a similar stimulus to a front squat without the kind of positional issues or having to get onto a front rack or pinching an artery or, or something nasty. Um, so it allows you to kind of push the, the lift more without the technical demands if you're not looking to be an Olympic weightlifter or whatever. Um, some... The reason I've done it is it's allowed me to basically, like, reset a, a lift. So the problem I was having with squatting was doing anything that wasn't, like, powerlifting training. It's kind of... I'm, I'm kind of too, technically too advanced in the lift for it to kind of be a... something I can train regularly. And I just feel it in my hips and hamstrings and lower back and kept getting injured with it. Safety squat bar, the loads are way lower. Um, the training effect is really high, like my quads are in pieces for days. So if you've never tried one, you don't particularly like back squatting, you don't particularly like front squatting, there's one in your gym or you got a home gym and you wanna buy one, buy one, they're fairly inexpensive. I highly, highly recommend that. Um, the second thing is, if you do lateral raises and you find yourself like... Sometimes you use like a... You swing, you swing your body around, sometimes you kinda go halfway, sometimes you go to, I don't know, random stages. Allow as much body swing, as much body English as you want, but the range of motion has to finish completely over your head with the dumbbells touching. So no-

Chris Williamson 1:10:19 Has to finish over your head?

Yusef Smith 1:10:21 Until you're doing star, like star jumps. (laughs)

Chris Williamson 1:10:24 Just to get it going.

Jonny Watson 1:10:25 But I think if you try... Like try experimenting with an amount of body English and you'll find it kind of polices itself. 'Cause doing star jumps actually makes it harder. (laughs)

Yusef Smith 1:10:33 It's funny because we... I feel like we've all converged at trying to get the most out of the least weight recently with, with training. So I've, I, I've gone the opposite way with lateral raises where I do like chest supported ones. So you-

Chris Williamson 1:10:46 Okay.

Yusef Smith 1:10:46 ... sit back and bench up. Almost vertical.

Chris Williamson 1:10:48 Mm-hmm.

Yusef Smith 1:10:48 Lean forward onto it and... Honestly, doing like five kilo dumbbells, it's embarrassing, but it's a lot harder.

Chris Williamson 1:10:55 I really want to be a part of the movement but I can't pretend like I haven't just been throwing stupid heavy weight around for the last few months.

Yusef Smith 1:11:01 (laughs)

Chris Williamson 1:11:02 I've just... It's been idiocy 2008 lifting with Z.

Yusef Smith 1:11:08 I feel like you're living with Zach. It's-

Chris Williamson 1:11:09 Yeah, I mean, he's 260 pounds and 6'4", so he... I've got to try and catch up with him and his weight and his strength but... Yeah, uh, I definitely see the advantage of, um, increasing the like mechanical difficulty of a movement in order to stop yourself from being too stupid with it. That makes a ton of sense.

Jonny Watson 1:11:32 Well, it's just like the... So, Mike Israetel talks about the stimulus fatigue ratio. So like it depends why you're training. If you're training to... for health, as he mentioned, or like for muscle gain, it does kinda make sense to get the stimulus you need while accumulating the least fatigue possible. Like without over accumulating-

Chris Williamson 1:11:51 The least danger.

Jonny Watson 1:11:51 Yeah, danger is a big one. So like, you have to train your legs, you have to load up a leg press, or you're, you're deciding to load up a leg press with as many plates available in the gym and doing quarter range motion. This is like a fifth of that or a tenth of that and doing full range of motion. You're probably less likely to get injured but you might actually-

Chris Williamson 1:12:09 Will you get the same training stimulus though? Because presumably you could over shoot it on lightness.

Jonny Watson 1:12:14 You could. You definitely could. But as long as you're like progressing your training you'll eventually find the point where you're no longer doing that. But if you maintain the range of motion, you should in theory get a better, better training