How To Build A Better BRAIN (+ Ketamine, Nicotine, Alcohol & More!) With Dr. Tommy Wood.

**Ben Greenfield** (0:00)
My name is Ben Greenfield, and on this episode of the Boundless Life podcast, how we use our brains as the primary determinant of how they function.

**Tommy Wood** (0:08)
You might think that we are at the same time overstimulated, and then we're also understimulated from like a skill development. We can change our environment, and as a result, we know we can change our brains. Whatever you want your brain to be good at is what you should be doing on a daily basis, because that's what helps build and maintain function.

**Ben Greenfield** (0:28)
Welcome to The Boundless Life with me, your host, Ben Greenfield. I'm a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, and nutritionist, and I'm passionate about helping you discover unparalleled levels of health, fitness, longevity, and beyond.
Tommy Wood, you're a neuroscientist who writes big books.

**Tommy Wood** (0:53)
Yeah, I am now.

**Ben Greenfield** (0:54)
Well, I should say you're a big neuroscientist who writes big books. This is something that people might not realize. You're kind of like, like at least in my mind, you're a little bit of like a hybrid athlete.

**Tommy Wood** (1:06)
I will say that I've kind of got, I've gone back and forth. Like I've done a ton of the long distance endurance stuff, just like you have. I did off-road Ironmans, like ultra marathons, all that kind of stuff. But nowadays, I compete in strongman. I'm actually three days into a cut for competition this weekend.
So yeah, I try and do a bit, I try and work at multiple ends of that spectrum.

**Ben Greenfield** (1:32)
Yeah. What do you need to cut for strongman? Is it weight class based?

**Tommy Wood** (1:35)
Yeah. So I compete in the masters under 90 kilo category. So I have to get under 198, but I normally hang out at like sort of 215-ish. So I'll do a water cut to make weight for the weekend.

**Ben Greenfield** (1:48)
So three days, what kind of activities you can be up to in three days? Is this like dragging a semi truck with your teeth?

**Tommy Wood** (1:57)
Yeah. So events this time is going to be max weight, 16 inch like wagon wheel deadlift. There's going to be a log for reps, so like a farmer's carry and max hold thing.
There's weight, odd object over bar, so it's going to be like sandbags and Atlas stones and kegs over a bar. And then there's going to be a max bear hug carry with like a big beer keg. I think those are my five events this weekend.

**Ben Greenfield** (2:27)
Jeez, did you ever do a marathon or an Ironman?

**Tommy Wood** (2:29)
Yes. So I've done multiple marathons. I've done multiple marathons in multiple days.
I did that a couple of times. And then I did the world's first fully off road Ironman Triathlon in 2012 along the south coast of the UK.

**Ben Greenfield** (2:43)
Wait, the world's first fully, do you say fully off road?

**Tommy Wood** (2:47)
Fully off road, yes. It was sea swim, mountain bike and trail run, but Ironman distance.

**Ben Greenfield** (2:53)
Oh, wow. What's your marathon time? Like your best marathon time?

**Tommy Wood** (2:57)
My best was 327, I think. So I'm not super fast, but I can go for it. I can go for a reasonable amount of time.

**Ben Greenfield** (3:05)
Yeah, but you're big.

**Tommy Wood** (3:06)
Yeah, I probably ran that at 210 pounds or something.

**Ben Greenfield** (3:09)
Yeah, so do you actually call yourself a hybrid athlete?

**Tommy Wood** (3:12)
Yeah, do you know what? Because I've never done both at the same time. I've either been doing strength sports or I've been doing endurance. So yeah, I've never called myself a hybrid athlete, but I'd like to think that I have some capacity at both ends.

**Ben Greenfield** (3:25)
Yeah, I don't want to throw you a total curve ball here, but I'm going to anyways. Have you ever thought about the paradox of the AMP-K and M-Tor pathways being simultaneously targeted with endurance, catabolism to a great extent, and anabolism?

**Tommy Wood** (3:44)
Yes. So I think for... I've definitely looked at the concurrent training and whether those different stimuli interfere with one another. I've definitely thought about this a little bit. I think that if you want to be truly elite in one sport or the other, that's probably going to play a role, but I'm not truly elite. So I think they, to a certain extent, could help one another. We know that strength training decreases injury risk, and endurance athletes, we know that having some conditioning may make you better at recovering and coming back between bouts for even more intense work.