1 Cheap & Easy Underground Training Method For Growth Hormone Release, 5 Biohacks to Increase Strength in 60 Seconds, 7 Exercises for the Eyes to Radically Enhance Stamina & Speed

Ben Greenfield (0:01)

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.

Kusha Karvandi (0:04)

I'm a big believer that chronic stress is probably the root of a lot of issues in America. And I think that if you can, you know, reduce chronic stress with some intentional recovery, like hot sauna therapy or cryotherapy, these things can really make a profound impact into your performance.

Because you're limiting the energy supply, the oxygen supply to your slow twitch fibers, which require that to really function, it forces your fast twitch fibers, which don't require oxygen, to kick in, even though you're using light weight. Those fast twitch fibers, under normal circumstances, wouldn't really do this if you were training with light weight without the strap.

SPEAKER_3 (0:36)

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition.

Voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness. His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

Ben Greenfield (0:54)

Power. Mobility. Balance. Whatever it is for you that's the natural movement.

When you look at all the studies done, studies that have shown the greatest efficacy.

SPEAKER_3 (1:11)

All the information you need in one place, right here, right now, on the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

Ben Greenfield (1:33)

Thank Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield, and I think it was last December that my friend Kusha, Kusha Karvandi, was at my house for this annual entrepreneurial mastermind retreat that I host. And on the last day of the mastermind, he whisked me away into my basement gym and showed me how to strap on these special bands that he created, he called them BFR bands. And then he led me through this workout that was really unique and a little bit painful slash uncomfortable, I'll admit. But it was designed to enhance things like neural function and lactic acid tolerance and growth hormone release. And the whole time I was wearing these special tight BFR bands that restricted blood flow to my arms and also to my legs.

So anyways, though, Kusha isn't just a masochistic trainer who cuts off blood flow to your limbs and has you do barbell squats.

I also discovered in those few days he was at my house that he's actually pretty wicked smart, especially when it comes to stuff like neuroscience and the neurobiology of exercise. He actually has over 20 different exercise-related certifications with a unique specialty in the field of neuroscience, which gives him the ability to be able to kind of tap into the nervous system during exercise in a way that I hadn't really seen someone talk about much before. And he also has some really, really cool ideas in terms of things like decreasing reaction time and improving the health of the nervous system and even doing things that a lot of trainers don't talk about like training the eyes and biohacking strength very quickly. And so I figured it was high time I actually had him on the show to talk about this stuff, because I love to get nerds on the show. So Kusha, welcome to the show, man.

Kusha Karvandi (3:36)

Yeah, thanks for having me on the show.

Ben Greenfield (3:38)

Yeah, no problem. And I think a perfect place to start here would be to ask you why the heck you actually attach these crazy devices to my arms or my legs, these bands.

Because if I'm not mistaken, BFR bands, that stands for blood flow restriction bands, is that right?

Kusha Karvandi (3:56)

Yeah, that's right.

Ben Greenfield (3:57)

Okay, so how do these things actually work? Why is it that one would strap the equivalent of a tourniquet around one's arms and legs prior to exercise?

Kusha Karvandi (4:07)

Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, it works in a few different ways. I became really interested originally with blood flow restriction training. When I first started seeing the research, probably must have been three or four years ago, and I actually didn't know anything about it at the time. I was looking through the journal, Strength and Conditioning, and I started seeing these studies. And like most people, I thought, this seems kind of crazy. Why would you want to cut off blood flow? That seems kind of like the antithesis of everything I had seen up till that point for performance and strength. So it really kind of caught my eye, and I started doing more research into it.

And I found it actually wasn't anything new. It was a type of training that has been around for a long time. It's been around probably for 50 years, but it's become more popular in the bodybuilding community probably in the last 10 or 15 years, and probably just more mainstream in the last few years.