Pre-Workout Tips to Quickly Improve Your Workout Energy | Dr. Andy Galpin & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Summary

In this insightful conversation, Andy Galpin and Andrew Huberman discuss strategies for acute state shifting to enhance performance and recovery. They explore techniques such as physical movement, breathing exercises, and motivational stimuli to quickly improve mood and energy levels. The importance of using these 'parlor tricks' judiciously to avoid diminishing returns is highlighted. Additionally, they touch on the impact of external distractions like phones during workouts and the benefits of engaging brain games to reset mental state.

Takeaways

• 🏋️ Physical movement like yoga or jumping jacks can quickly improve recovery metrics and mood on a bad day.
• 💪 Even on days when feeling awful, pushing through with a hard workout can sometimes lead to a surprisingly good performance.
• 🌪️ Breathing exercises, specifically hyperventilation strategies, can be used as acute state shifters to alter one's state quickly.
• 🎶 Music and motivational quotes can be effective tools for an immediate mood boost, but should be used strategically to avoid diminishing returns.
• 🌟 Finding one's 'why' or purpose can be a powerful motivator during tough training sessions, but should be used sparingly to maintain its impact.
• 🚫 The use of stimulants like caffeine can have a strong immediate effect, but consistency is key to avoid crashes in the catecholamine system.
• 🍽 Consuming food or comfort foods can help change one's mood and act as an acute state shifter.
• 🔆 Increasing light exposure, either through brighter indoor lights or spending time outside, can have a positive effect on mood and performance.
• 🚫 Creating a physical barrier before starting a workout can serve as a mental checkpoint, ensuring readiness and commitment to perform.
• 📵 The presence of a phone during workouts can be distracting and may hinder performance; establishing a set playlist beforehand can help minimize this.
• 🧩 Engaging in brain games or puzzles before a workout can help reset the mind and prepare for better focus during training.

Q & A

What are 'acute state shifters' as mentioned by Andy Galpin?

Acute state shifters are quick tricks or techniques that can change heart rate variability (HRV) or other recovery metrics within seconds. They are used to improve immediate feelings of well-being or performance on a bad day, rather than providing long-term solutions.

How does physical movement affect acute state shifting according to the transcript?

Physical movement, such as yoga, jumping jacks, or starting a workout, can significantly change one's state of mind and recovery metrics quickly. It's a common experience where one might feel awful before a workout but end up performing exceptionally.

What is the significance of breathing techniques in acute state shifting?

Breathing techniques, specifically up-regulation breathing where one accentuates the inhale or restricts the exhale, can be used as an acute state shifter to alter one's state quickly. This is the opposite of down-regulation breathing.

Why are music and motivational quotes considered as acute state shifters?

Music and motivational quotes can be effective acute state shifters because they can influence mood and motivation. However, they should be used strategically to prevent them from losing their impact over time.

What role does the 'why' play in coaching tactics as discussed by Andy Galpin?

The 'why' refers to the underlying reasons or motivations that drive an individual, such as personal goals or life experiences. Discovering and leveraging the 'why' can be a powerful tool to shift one's state during training or performance.

How does Andrew Huberman describe the concept of 'signal to noise' in relation to the nervous system?

The 'signal to noise' concept refers to the nervous system's, particularly the dopamine and adrenaline systems, preference for high signal relative to noise. Overstimulation or constant reliance on external motivators can lead to a crash in the catecholamine system and diminish their effects over time.

What is the potential downside of using stimulants like caffeine for acute state shifting?

While stimulants can provide a strong performance-enhancing effect, their overuse or inconsistent application can lead to a crash in the catecholamine system, causing feelings of lethargy or a lack of motivation in the subsequent periods.

What is the role of light in acute state shifting as per the transcript?

Light, especially bright light, can be an effective acute state shifter. Increasing light exposure, either by adjusting indoor lighting or going outside to see the sun, can help improve mood and energy levels.

Can you explain the concept of drawing a physical line as an acute state shifter mentioned by Andy Galpin?

Drawing a physical line serves as a mental barrier and a commitment device. It represents a boundary that one must cross only when they are ready to give their best effort during training, helping to focus the mind and prepare for performance.

How does Andrew Huberman view the phone's impact on workout motivation and performance?

Huberman compares the phone to a twin with severe attention issues, constantly interrupting and distracting. The phone's rich sensory data and connectivity can impede focus and performance if not managed properly during workouts.

What are 'brain games' and how can they be used as acute state shifters?

Brain games, such as puzzles or simple challenges, can engage the brain in a task that requires focus, potentially helping to shift one's mental state away from distractions or negative thoughts and into a more focused and ready-for-performance state.

Outlines

00:00

💪 Acute State Shifters for Immediate Recovery

Andy Galpin discusses the concept of acute state shifters, which are quick techniques to improve heart rate variability (HRV) and recovery metrics within seconds. These are not long-term solutions but rather 'parlor tricks' for bad days. Physical movement, such as yoga or jumping jacks, can significantly impact mood and performance, even on days when one feels unwell. Galpin emphasizes that these tricks should be used sparingly to maintain their effectiveness. Breathing techniques, music, motivational quotes, and coaching tactics like finding one's 'why' are also mentioned as methods to shift one's state acutely. Andrew Huberman adds that the nervous system, particularly the catecholamine system, responds best to high signal-to-noise ratios, cautioning against overuse of stimulants and other methods that could lead to dependency or diminishing returns.

05:01

🏋️‍♂️ Strategies for Enhancing Workout Performance

The conversation continues with strategies to enhance workout performance, even on days when one is not feeling their best. Galpin suggests using acute state shifters like stimulants, breathwork, and consuming more calories or comfort foods to alter mood and mental state. Light exposure, either through bright indoor lighting or natural sunlight, is also recommended. Galpin shares personal tactics such as drawing a physical line on the ground to symbolize commitment to performance. Andrew Huberman discusses the importance of signal-to-noise ratio in the nervous system and the potential distraction of using a phone during workouts. He advises establishing a playlist beforehand to avoid the impulse to check social media or messages. Galpin introduces the idea of 'brain games' or puzzles to engage the brain and shift mental state before a workout, suggesting activities like playing a quick game or engaging in a challenge as part of the warm-up routine.

Keywords

💡Acute State Shifters

Acute state shifters refer to a collection of techniques or 'tricks' that can be used to quickly alter one's physiological or psychological state. In the context of the video, these are employed to improve recovery metrics or overall well-being within a short time frame, such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV). The concept is introduced by Andy Galpin as a way to combat a bad day or feelings of low energy, with examples including physical movement like yoga or jumping jacks, which are mentioned as effective in changing one's state rapidly.

💡Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Heart Rate Variability is a measure of the variation in time between successive heartbeats. It is an indicator of the body's ability to recover and adapt to stress. In the video, HRV is discussed as a metric that can be influenced by acute state shifters, suggesting that changes in HRV can reflect the effectiveness of these techniques in altering one's state. The term is used to highlight the importance of objective assessments in understanding and improving performance and recovery.

💡Physical Movement

Physical movement is any form of body activity that involves the use of muscles, such as yoga, jumping jacks, or lifting weights. In the script, it is presented as a powerful acute state shifter that can significantly change a person's mood and recovery metrics within seconds. The discussion emphasizes the surprising phenomenon where individuals may feel awful before a workout but end up performing exceptionally well, illustrating the potential of physical movement to positively influence one's state.

💡Breathing Techniques

Breathing techniques are methods of controlling the breath to achieve various physiological or psychological effects. In the video, Andy Galpin contrasts 'up-regulation breathing' with 'down-regulation breathing,' suggesting that the former can be used as an acute state shifter. The script mentions hyperventilation strategies where one accentuates the inhale or restricts the exhale to achieve the desired state change, emphasizing the role of breathing in performance and recovery.

💡Motivational Tools

Motivational tools encompass a range of stimuli designed to inspire and energize individuals, such as music, motivational quotes, or coaching tactics. The video discusses these tools as part of the acute state shifters, which can be used to quickly improve one's mood or mental state. Examples include listening to music that motivates or engaging with motivational content on social media, although it is noted that these should be used strategically to maintain their effectiveness.

💡Catecholamine System

The catecholamine system includes neurotransmitters like dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, which are involved in the fight-or-flight response and the regulation of attention and motivation. Andrew Huberman mentions this system in the context of using stimulants and high-intensity activities, which can lead to a temporary boost in performance but may also result in a subsequent crash, highlighting the importance of balance in the use of acute state shifters.

💡Stimulants

Stimulants are substances that increase alertness, energy, and attention, such as caffeine. In the video, stimulants are discussed as a category of acute state shifters that can rapidly change one's state but should be used with caution to avoid dependency or diminishing effects over time. The script provides an example of using 200 milligrams of caffeine to quickly alter one's state on a rough day.

💡Light Exposure

Light exposure refers to the amount of natural or artificial light one is subjected to. In the video, it is mentioned as a method to improve mood and possibly recovery metrics by increasing light levels in the environment or going outside to see the sun. The script suggests that brighter light can be an effective acute state shifter, especially when multiple people are struggling with their state.

💡Brain Games

Brain games are activities designed to engage the mind and potentially distract from immediate concerns or stressors. In the context of the video, they are presented as a tool for acute state shifting, where engaging in a game or puzzle can help reset one's mental state. Examples given include playing a round of dodgeball or thumb wars as a form of warm-up or mental reset before training.

💡Phone Usage

Phone usage during training is discussed in the video as a potential source of distraction and interruption that can impede workout motivation and performance. Andrew Huberman likens the phone to a 'twin with severe attention issues,' emphasizing the importance of managing phone interactions during workouts to maintain focus and avoid the negative impact on performance. The script suggests establishing a playlist before starting a workout and avoiding the impulse to check social media or messages during training.

💡Physical Barrier

A physical barrier, as mentioned in the video, is a tangible line or boundary that serves as a psychological tool to signal readiness for an activity or commitment to a task. Andy Galpin describes drawing a line on the ground and not crossing it until one is prepared to give their best effort during training. This concept is used as a method of mental preparation and focus, illustrating the power of physical symbols in influencing one's state of mind.

Highlights

Acute state shifters are temporary fixes for immediate recovery metrics improvement.

Physical movement such as yoga or jumping jacks can quickly change HRV and recovery metrics.

High-intensity workouts can sometimes turn a bad day into a great performance despite initial poor feelings.

Breathing techniques, specifically hyperventilation strategies, can be used as acute state shifters.

The use of music and motivational quotes can provide a temporary boost in mood and performance.

Finding one's 'why' or motivation can be a powerful tool for immediate mental state change.

Stimulants like caffeine can have a strong performance-enhancing effect when used sparingly.

The concept of signal-to-noise ratio is important in the nervous system's response to stimuli.

Consistent use of stimulants can lead to a crash in the catecholamine system, affecting performance.

Light exposure, including sunlight, can have an acute positive effect on mood and recovery.

Creating a physical barrier before training can serve as a mental checkpoint for readiness and commitment.

The phone can act as a distraction during workouts, affecting focus and performance.

Brain games or puzzles can help shift mental state and engage the brain in a different task.

Playing simple games before a workout can serve as an effective mental warm-up.

The importance of using acute state shifters strategically to prevent diminishing effects over time.

The discussion on how dopamine stacking can lead to dependency and decreased internal motivation.

The idea that the nervous system adapts quickly to constant stimuli, reducing their effectiveness over time.

The strategy of not doing two consecutive workouts with high stimulants to avoid overstimulation.

Transcripts

ANDY GALPIN: If the answer is no, we're in a peaking phase,

then we're actually going to use what

I call acute state shifters.

So this is a whole host of little tricks

that I have that can change HRV or any recovery

metric within seconds.

Again, these are not chronic fixes.

This is just I'm having a bad day today.

I feel like crap.

Can I make myself feel better right now?

And so I kind of call these parlor tricks a lot

of the times.

And there's a thousand of them.

We were certainly not going to go over them.

But I'll give you some examples.

You can pull out-- first of all physical movement will do it.

You'd be stunned how just doing some yoga,

moving around, doing some jumping jacks,

starting your workout I mean, you've

probably experienced this.

It's sort of cliche in our world at this point.

But if you ever do any serious lifting over a serious amount

of time, there will be days when which you walk into the gym

and you feel awful.

And somehow that day you saved a lifetime PR ANDREW HUBERMAN:

Yeah, that's a strange phenomenon.

I experienced that more than a few times.

The inverse is rare however.

You feel great you have have a horrible workout.

It happens, and it can happen for any number

of different reasons.

But yeah, I think the former when

one isn't feeling very good and then somehow it's

a terrific workout does set a kind of a seed of doubt

as to how good our subjective assessments really are,

which I guess is why we were talking

about objective assessments like HRV.

ANDY GALPIN: And remember, if it's a single day here,

you can even do hard training.

People sort of have this idea like well if you get up

and your recovery score's down, do a lighter day.

I'm probably never making that choice

to be honest not in this situation.

Remember this is one bad day and we

are in a phase of even trying to improve performance right now.

Like we're probably still training hard.

You will again, often see I felt terrible

when I trained super hard and it totally changed my day around.

This all can happen.

So exercise is my first love here.

Absolutely breathing.

Any sort of up regulation breathing.

So we talked a lot about down regulation breathing.

Just do the opposite.

And so this is when hyperventilation strategies

can work.

Instead of accentuating the exhale,

you accentuate the Inhale or you restrict the exhale.

This is working on the exact opposite situation.

You can also play little-- this is where things like music,

motivational quotes.

If you're the type that follows people on Instagram

that motivates you or can work with these things.

Coaching tactics.

These can be things like finding out or talking

about that person's why.

You shared something that a mantra

you use when you're training hard to keep you go better.

I'm not going to ask you to share that now,

but people have this sometimes.

Or you may have this conversation with your athlete.

We call this finding out your why.

So finding out like why are you really here?

What are we doing here?

And a lot of times you'll hear things like,

it's because I grew up poor and I don't ever

want to be poor again.

OK, great.

This is for my children, or like any number of things.

And you can pull that out on these days.

You need to be really careful.

This is why I call these parlor tricks

because when you play that card too often

it starts to lose effect.

And you can only dig to a hole so often

before it's sort of the--

The same thing is with music.

If every time you go to the weight room

it's blasting death metal at level 10.

Well, eventually, it's no longer motivating.

It's no longer helpful.

So you want to deploy these things strategically ANDREW

HUBERMAN: Yeah, the phrase that comes to mind

is signal the noise.

The nervous system, especially the dopamine system

and the adrenaline system, which are a part of this larger

system called the catecholamine system,

so that has dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine.

The get up and go, focus on external goals, movement

associated and on and on, that system

responds best to high signal relative to noise.

So if you're as you point out listening to music every time

drinking a ton of caffeine, energy drinks preworkout

nootropics and then stacking all those things,

sometimes refer to this as dopamine stacking,

informally referred to as dopamine stacking,

you're doing all those things.

And then first of all, then you're

wondering why later that afternoon

or the next day you're feeling like you're under a cloud.

It's obvious your catecholamine system crashed.

But it's also that you don't necessarily

become dependent on it.

It's just that you start to wonder whether or not

you have the internal mechanisms and motivation to train

without those things.

And so one tends to use them more and more

and then they have a diminishing effect over time.

The rule that I've been sort of applying has been I

never do two workouts in a row where

I'm stacking in stimulants, loud music and any kind

of high potency inspiration.

However, every set in the gym or when I run,

I really try and be diligent about form and attention

to what I'm doing.

The one exception would be the long duration endurance work.

Part of the reason I do that work is to let my mind

go into states of drifting.

I'm not trying to think in complete sentences

or even close to it.

Just let my brain kind of idle at a low hum.

And for that reason generally listen

to something that's more of a story

or don't listen to anything at all

and just let my thoughts spool through.

Anyway, I don't want to take us too far off track,

but I think this idea of signal to noise

will resonate with the engineers out there.

But since most people are likely not engineers.

It is the way that the nervous system

works evidenced by the fact that whatever area of your body

right now is in contact with a chair or any other surface

that it's been in contact with for more than a few seconds,

you forget that it's in contact with it

because there's low signal to noise at that point.

ANDY GALPIN: Similar note, you actually mentioned stimulants.

Basically whether you're talking caffeine or any other stimulant

any other cortisol modulators or adaptogens, any of these things

fall in the category.

If you're not using them consistently

and you're having a rough day and all of a sudden,

you throw down 200 milligrams of caffeine.

It's going to change real fast--

ANDREW HUBERMAN: That's strong performance enhancing effect.

ANDY GALPIN: Yeah, absolutely.

And for these reasons.

So we mentioned a couple of them, breath work, food,

more calories, just eating some food.

Sometimes we'll give people like what we call comfort foods.

So this is just like, hey you're from Georgia

and we know you love grits so we're having grits

for breakfast Oh, great, like just something to change

your mood, acute state shifters to alter it.

The other couple of tricks here are light.

So if we know that maybe say multiple people are struggling

that day, maybe we'll put on the lights extra bright.

We'll bring in some extra things and just

get it more light in there.

And that even counts actually going outside and seeing

the sun, but perhaps we'll do that.

And then other little tricks that I've

learned over the years is one particular thing

I love is literally drawing a line, a physical line

on the ground.

And you look at that line and you

say like I'm going to train today

and I'm going to accomplish this effort.

I'm not going to walk past this line

and into that training space until I'm

ready to give that effort.

And that may take a minute or 10 or whatever.

But the physical barrier is very important to saying

like I'm not just going to get through it.

I'm going to actually perform the way I want to perform

or I'm not going to do it.

And I'm not going to cross this line until I'm

ready to make that happen.

ANDREW HUBERMAN: I really like that tool.

It also brings to mind the importance of,

at least thinking about how your relationship with your phone

during training can perhaps help but also impede workout,

motivation and performance.

In an earlier episode you mentioned

that if people are using their phone

to play music during their workout,

that they establish the complete playlist prior to initiating

the workout and then not deviate from that playlist

as opposed to changing it in the middle

because there's just too much of an impulse

to also check social media, check email, check

text messages.

I mean, the way I think about the phone actually

is it's a bunch of little brain areas.

It's got a memory system for you.

It's got lookup tables for-- lookup tables.

It's got websites to look things up on the internet.

It's got photos.

I mean, it is so rich with sensory data

and it's so closely linked to our own brain architecture.

The algorithms are designed for those

to be that way, that I always think about it

as bringing in a second person with me,

but that person is my twin that has severe attention issues.

And for those that already have attention issues,

just think about this as a twin that would then compound you

by tapping on your shoulder, talking to you all the time,

interrupting you.

Somebody that you like a lot, but that

frankly is a little bit irritating in that they're

interrupting your ability to really show up.

And also your ability to show up for them.

So I started to think about the phone as an entire individual

and that it represents me and certainly not the better

version of me.

ANDY GALPIN: Exactly.

You actually mentioned something else

that we'll use occasionally, what we call brain games

or puzzles whether this is a crossword puzzle

or something where you actually lose your thought of self

for a second, and your brain gets engaged in a task

that you weren't regretting or even thinking about.

These can be stupid little games.

It could be little challenges, especially

if you're in like a group or a team setting.

Like we're going to play one round of dodgeball

or we're going to play one round of Thumb Wars.

ANDREW HUBERMAN: So you do encourage this?

ANDY GALPIN: Yeah.

ANDREW HUBERMAN: I see.

ANDY GALPIN: So you would play like a thing instead

of warming up.

It's like all right.

Get in there.

Everyone get going, get your foam roller or your dime

or whatever thing.

This is like, all right, everyone line up

and we're going to play Thumb Wars to see who wins.

Just like whatever.

And all of a sudden you snapped into a new mental shift

or literally playing brain games,

playing Tetris on your phone, any of these things

can work in this acute setting.

[MUSIC PLAYING]