The Science & Practice of Movement | Ido Portal

(uptempo music) Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, my guest is Ido Portal. Ido Portal is somebody who truly defies formal definition. He is, however, credited by many to be the world expert in all things movement. Movement is one of the more fascinating and important aspects of our nervous system. In fact, it was the great Nobel Prize winner Sherrington that said, "Movement is the final common path." And what he was referring to is the fact that so much of our nervous system is dedicated to movement and, in particular, that the human nervous system can generate the greatest variety of forms of movement. We can run, we can jump, we can crawl, we can move at different speeds. Far more variation in movement and different types and speeds of movement than any other animal in the animal kingdom can perform. My interest in bringing Ido Portal onto this podcast stemmed from a discussion about just that, about Sherrington and the enormous range of movements that humans can engage in. Ido is both a practitioner and an intellectual. We all know what a practitioner is. It's somebody who walks the walk, who actually performs the thing that they are knowledgeable about. And indeed, Ido has studied Capoeira, a number of other martial arts, dance, gymnastics, various forms of sport. He's trained top athletes like Conor McGregor, and he has many, many other credits to his name as a practitioner and teacher. However, he is also a true intellectual of movement. I define an intellectual as somebody who can both think about and talk about a subject at multiple levels of granularity. That is, with exquisite detail and with exquisite simplicity depending on their audience and depending on the topic at hand. And as you'll soon hear from my discussion with Ido, he is both a practitioner and a true intellectual of all things movement. Today, through our discussion, you will learn how the nervous system generates movement and the different forms of movement, the different speeds of movement. You're also going to get an incredible insight through Ido's mind and eyes of how movement can serve us in the various contexts of life. Not just in sport, not just in exercise, but in every aspect of our lives from the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to sleep at night, how we engage with others, how we engage with ourselves, indeed, how movement even informs relationships of different kinds. I found our discussion to be one of the most enlightening and interesting discussions that I've ever had, not just about movement, but about the nervous system. I can assure you that by the end of this episode, you will not only learn a tremendous amount about movement through the eyes and mind of the one and only Ido Portal, but you also will learn a tremendous amount of neuroscience, about how the cells and circuits and hormones and neurotransmitters of your body assist in creating the various forms of movement that you can generate, that you're trying to learn and generate, and that perhaps you should think about trying to learn and generate. And indeed, you'll learn some protocols and tools for how to do that. In science, we have a phrase, actually it's a title, that's reserved for only the rarest of individuals. We say that somebody is an N-of-one, meaning a sample size of one, and as you'll soon learn, Ido Portal is truly an N-of-one. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin mineral probiotic drink that also has adaptogens and digestive enzymes. I started taking Athletic Greens way back in 2012, and so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. In fact, when people ask me what's the one supplement they should take, I always say, "Athletic Greens" because it covers all of those essential nutritional bases and the probiotics, adaptogens, and digestive enzymes are vital for things like the gut microbiome. Your gut microbiome is trillions of little microbacteria that live in your gut and that support your immune system, your endocrine system, and the so-called gut-brain axis, which is important for mood and neurotransmitter production, a huge number of biological systems in your brain and body. Athletic Greens also tastes great. I mix mine with water, and I like a little bit of lemon juice or lime juice in there. As I mentioned, I drink it twice a day, usually once in the morning during the phase of the day in which typically I'm fasting or around breakfast time and then again in the afternoon or even in the evening. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs, which make it very easy to mix up Athletic Greens while you're on the road, and they'll give you a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2. Vitamin D3 and K2 are important for endocrine health, for cardiovascular health, for calcium regulation, and so on. Again, that's athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim this special offer. Today's episode is also brought to us by ROKA. ROKA makes eyeglasses and sunglasses that are of the absolute highest quality and practicality. I've spent a lifetime working on the visual system, and I can tell you that your visual system has to contend with an enormous number of challenges. For instance, when you move from a shady area to a bright area, your eyes have to adapt to that. ROKA understands the various challenges that the visual system has to face, and they've developed sunglasses and eyeglasses with all of that biology in mind. Their glasses were developed by two all-American swimmers from Stanford, and initially, ROKA sunglasses and eyeglasses were for athletes. They designed eyeglasses that then and still now will stay on your face if you get sweaty. You can wear them running. You can wear them cycling, et cetera. They're very lightweight, so lightweight, in fact, that most of the time you don't even remember that they're on your face. But ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses also come in a terrific aesthetic, so you can wear them anywhere. So unlike a lot of so-called performance glasses out there that make people look like cyborgs, you can wear ROKA eyeglasses and sunglasses when exercising, to dinner, to work. Again, the aesthetics are really terrific and really adaptable to all those different environments. If you'd like to try ROKA glasses, you can go to ROKA, that's roka.com, and enter the code "Huberman" to get 20% off your first order. Again, that's roka.com, enter the code "Huberman" at checkout. Today's episode is also brought to us by Helix Sleep.Helix Sleep makes mattresses and pillows that are customized to your sleep needs. I've talked a lot on this podcast, and on other podcasts, and on social media about the essential need for sleep. Put simply, sleep is the foundation of all mental health, physical health, and performance. Just a few nights, or even one night's poor sleep can really hinder your mental health, physical health, and performance in all aspects of life. Helix has customized sleep products, that is, mattresses and pillows that are designed to your sleep needs, and you can figure out what those sleep needs are very easily by going to the Helix website. They have a quiz, it takes just about two minutes, and asks you questions like, "Do you sleep on your back, your side, or your stomach? Do you tend to run hot or cold during sleep?" Et cetera. Or maybe you don't even know the answers to those questions, that's fine too, that's an option that you can answer as well. You take the brief two-minute quiz, and then Helix will match you to the ideal mattress and pillow for you. I matched to the so-called Dusk mattress. I started sleeping on that well over a year ago now, and it's the best sleep I've ever had. I'm sleeping much longer and much better through the entire night, and as a consequence, I'm feeling much better, more clear, more physically alert, et cetera, throughout the day. If you're interested in upgrading your mattress, go to helixsleep.com/huberman. You can take that two-minute quiz, and they'll match you to a customized mattress for you, and you'll get up to $200 off all mattress orders and two free pillows. Again, if you're interested, you go to helixsleep.com/huberman for up to $200 off and two free pillows. And now for my discussion with Ido Portal. Ido, thank you for coming here today. I've been looking forward to sitting down with you to talk for a very long time. I was first exposed to your work from a post or a podcast, I believe, of, you had a group of people walking down handrails, literally the handrails along stairwells, and as a, I don't want to say former skateboarder, once a skateboarder, always a skateboarder, as a skateboarder, uh, handrails have a particular meaning, but I was really struck by, first of all, uh, the incredible range of skill that people had, and yet their willingness to do this, right? I think of handrails and walking on handrails or skateboarding on handrails as a potential hazard, and yet some of the incredible proficiency that some of the people there, including yourself, had. So like many people, I was drawn to your practice and your work initially through a, a wide-eyed, "Wow," you know, they're doing some incredible stuff on natural objects, much as skateboarders or parkour folks do. But over the years we've been in communication, and I've come to realize that you're a true intellectual of the topic of movement, and I define an intellectual as somebody who can understand a topic at multiple levels of granularity. Detailed, general, specific, connections, et cetera. So, to start off, could you share with us your conception of this idea of movement? You know, w- obviously movement involves translation through space, but when you talk about a movement practice, what are you really thinking about? What are you, what are we talking about when we talk about a movement practice?