Episode #181: Why Your Back Hurts

Brock (0:00)

In this episode, Why Your Back Hurts.

Also, a functional obstacle course. Is hot yoga good? Fueling for a midday race. Drinking only when thirsty. How to know when to end a workout. Help for nerve damage, lifting with scoliosis, and training for wilderness first aid.

SPEAKER_2 (0:20)

Welcome to the Ben Greenfield fitness.com podcast. We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlon, and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the nation.

So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you're just trying to shed a few pounds, get ready for non-run-of-the-mill, cutting-edge content from bengreenfieldfitness.com.

Brock (0:54)

Hello, there, podcast listeners. This is Brock welcoming you to episode 181 of the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast, recording live somewhere between the Pacific Northwest and Atlantic Canada, somewhere on the internet, somewhere.

And here is the man himself, the reason we're all here, Ben Greenfield. Ben, how's it going?

Ben Greenfield (1:17)

Is there actually a city in Canada called Atlantic?

Brock (1:22)

I don't think so.

Ben Greenfield (1:23)

Oh, it's a region?

Brock (1:24)

Yeah, yeah, man, like the Atlantic Ocean.

Ben Greenfield (1:28)

Hey, you know what that is?

Brock (1:31)

Something delicious, I'm sure.

Ben Greenfield (1:33)

Yeah, it's coconut water.

Brock (1:34)

Something I'm not allowed to have while I'm on the Rev Diet, I'm sure.

Ben Greenfield (1:38)

This is crazy. This is a Tuesday afternoon podcast recording. We usually do Wednesday morning. Should be interesting. We're gonna find out if we're dumber or brighter in the afternoon versus the morning.

Brock (1:50)

I am so on the ball, you wouldn't even believe it.

Ben Greenfield (1:54)

Trial by fire. We'll find out.

Brock (1:56)

And I actually meant that I'm sitting on a yoga ball.

Ben Greenfield (1:59)

Ah, nice.

That's fantastic. I am in my low back destroying chair that I think my wife made out of wicker and plastic and little sticks. She just makes furniture and all sorts of stuff. And I don't know if that's ergonomically sound, but.

Brock (2:20)

If she decides to sell it, don't call it that.

Ben Greenfield (2:23)

What?

Brock (2:24)

The back destroying.

Ben Greenfield (2:26)

Oh, the back destroyer. Yeah, probably not. We get a lot of masochistic customers.

So, oh, speaking of masochism, we should put a link in the shown hoats. I totally destroyed my body yesterday and put it up on YouTube. Did a commercial kind of for Timex and rode my bike into the Spokane River in the freezing rain.

And then snowboarded essentially on sticks and boulders on this hill that I had no business being on.

And went out onto the hockey rink and had a bunch of guys in hockey skates decimate me against the wall and then staged me getting hit by my buddy's Yukon. So let's put a link to that in the shown hoats.

Brock (3:12)

Absolutely, I think everybody needs to witness you injuring yourself in the name of comedy.

Ben Greenfield (3:19)

Nice, well what do you think? Should we move on to the news flashes?

Brock (3:21)

Let's do it.

All right, so what's going on? What kind of new exciting stuff is happening?

Ben Greenfield (3:33)

I wanted to mention a couple of tweets that I did about eating a lot and eating a little. So first of all, I came across a really good infographic about how much you actually need to eat in terms of carbohydrates prior to an endurance event, if you want to actually get the benefits of increased carbohydrate intake the day before, in terms of like maxing out your body's storage carbohydrate, your body's storage glycogen. I'll put a link to it in the show notes, but it comes out to about 10 grams per kilogram.

And to put that into perspective, based on the infographic and adding up what 10 grams per kilogram would actually be for the average person, we'd be looking at for breakfast, the equivalent of about five pieces of toast, or if you're going gluten-free, you could say the equivalent of right around two and a half potatoes, and about a thousand milliliters of a sports drink, like a sports sports drink, like a Gatorade, Powerade, full of sugar type of sports drink.

Lunch would be the equivalent of, and I'm reading this right off the infographic, one can of baked beans, two cups of cooked rice, and another thousand milliliters of sports drink. And then dinner, dinner would be eight cups of cooked pasta and 500 milliliters of a sports drink. That's a lot of carbohydrate. But, and that may shock people, but how many people who listen in do a triathlon, like an Ironman, or do a marathon and find themselves hitting a wall and running out of energy? And I've done that.