Kelly Starrett is a coach and physical therapist who has trained athletes for more than tenĚýyears at . His clients include Olympic gold medalists, Tour de France cyclists, professional ballet dancers, and elite military personnel. Starrett is also the author of multiple books, including , a New York TimesĚýbestseller. His blog, , was once named one ofĚýşÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř’sĚýtop tenĚýfitness blogs.

In an episode of the , Starrett and Ferriss talked about the habits, strategies, and training of top CrossFit athletes. Below isĚýan excerpt of their conversation, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

Ferriss: What are some common mistakes of CrossFit instructors or trainees?ĚýĚý
Starrett: I see people offering excusesĚýwhen looking atĚýhuman physiology: Oh, the reason you can’t squat all the way down is your hip structure. Oh, some people just don’t have long femurs, so they can’t take a poo in the woods and squat all the way down.ĚýAnd I’m like, What are you talking about?ĚýYou should be able to squat with your feet together, ankles together, all the way down—that shows full hip function, full ankle function. You should be able to keep your back flat and legs straight and hinge over and pick up a barbell. But people are coming into the gym basically as demihuman. They have big aerobic engines, because that’s what someone said they should have. But they don’t even have 50 percent of the range of motion they should have.

We have to start a conversation. Yeah, you can squat with your feet turned out like a duck. You totally can. You can set a world record in powerliftingĚýlike that. But you know what you can’t do? You can’t run. You can’t jump and land. It really causes all these problems.

Let’s talk about the training-versus-athleticism conversation.
If you look at the original , by [CrossFit founder] Greg Glassman, in there it says, “Regularly learn and play new sports.”

So that’s saying, OK, you have this skill set; let’s go challenge it in new domain.ĚýCrossFit is, for me, the single best integrated way of training I have ever come across. I’ve seen it refined. But I haven’t, to date, seen something that looks better at general physical preparedness. Like, I want my daughters to have a skill setĚýand a base fitness and strength, and this is the model.

Would I have all of my NFLers do something that looks exactly like CrossFit? No. But I can still keep the tenets there. The problem is, sometimes we confuse the ability to perform a lot of work with the ability to be athletic. And one of my definitions of who is the best athleteĚýis: Who picks up the new skill the fastest?Ěý

Do you think too many CrossFitters focus on working out and not practicing?
Well, totally. But let’s take it out of CrossFit for a second and look at running. Running is a very technical skill that we should be developing from a very early age. It is one of the tenets of being a good athlete. In fact, look at the NFL Combine. They jump,Ěýthey have to bench press, which is a joke—that’s the one piece that’s a joke—but everything else is a run drill, change-of-direction drill. It’s about fluency, and economy of running, and changing mechanics. SoĚýif we look at most people’s running, how much actual skill development do they do in running? I meanĚýbesides tying their shoes.Ěý

If you had to remove three common exercises from CrossFit gyms in the interest of safety, what would they be?
First and foremost, all the movements in the training language are inherently safe if you have full range of motion and the motor control to do them. But the number-one most dangerous skill, though, is bench press, because people don’t have any internal rotation in their shoulder. You can press all day long: standing overhead military press, strict press. You’re going to fail safely. But when you fail in a bench press, that shoulder is going to translate forward. There’s your labrum tear.

I would also pull the rings out. What we see is that people can do movements that look like ring dips—they go up and down. But they don’t lock out.ĚýTheir shoulders are in terrible positions.

If I had to pull out one more movement, I would say the , only becauseĚýif you asked me to do a bunch of pull-ups, guess what I’m going to do? Butterfly kip. But I understand the principles, and I have good range of motion. It’s a completely safe position. But what we see is that people do not have range of motion—I ask them to put their arms over their head, for example, and they can’t do it—and they compensate.

Are there commonalities that you’ve observed in elite CrossFitters that people can borrow, emulate, or incorporate?
Most of them are obsessed with mechanics and really spend a lot of time refining those mechanics. Their positions are more effortless. People aren’t spending enough time working on full position, because we know you can get by at 80 percent. But show me you have full capacity—that’s the thing that these top athletes have.

I always use this example: Squat down with your feet together. Keep your heels on the ground, knees together. Can you do that? If you can’t do that, knees together, all the way down, chilling out on the bottom, like we’re at a campfire, then you are missing full-hip range of motion,Ěýankle range of motion. One of those things is missing. And that’s the mechanism for your hip impingement. That’s the mechanism for your plantar fasciitis, for your bunion, for your torn Achilles, for your pulled calf. That is the fucking problem. And you should be obsessing about this. CrossFit, or any good modern strength and conditioning system, they force us into the shapes that are diagnostic.

The post The Training Secrets of a Top CrossFit Coach appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

is a world-champion obstacle racer, an elite ultrarunner, and a full-time corporate lawyer. She has won over 30 races, including the three times, and has made more than 50 podium finishes. She is also a three-time finisher of the Death Race. The ultimate weekend warrior,ĚýBoone deftly juggles the demands of being an attorney and a sponsored athlete.

Not long after she became the breakout star of obstacle racing, she was a guest on the , where sheĚýspoke candidly about her training, nutrition, prerace routines, and recovery. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

Ferriss: What does your prerace routine look like?
Boone: SoĚýI always get up super early. I generally use the distraction technique and try not to think about the race, because I can sit there and make myself miserable over and over, picturing the race. I find it helpful to do a lot of my work; I’ll catch up on e-mail, I’ll do things from my attorney life.

In terms of body prep, I do a lot of foam rolling, mobility, things like that. The older I get, the more I realize that I can’t just jump out of bed in the morning and be spry as a chicken. I’m really focused on loosening up hips, loosening up hamstrings. I use different balls—the golf ball is for the foot, the lacrosse ball works well on the glutes, and the softball is great for the hamstrings. I have little physical-therapy routines that I always do, too, like activating my glutes with this fantastic exercise called the Jane Fonda’s, and variations, like fire hydrants.

What food do you consume during a 24-hour race?
I try and fuel every 30 minutes to an hour, get something in, but in little bits. If I’m running, as I’ve learned from dabbling in ultramarathons, my body isn’t gonna handle solid food as well. SoĚýthere’s a lot of liquid. Tailwind is good and easy on your stomach. But I actually really love chewing on things, so I’ll have some Clif Bloks, too, and I carry small mustard packets for cramps. But then, I’m telling you, I had a Krispy Kreme doughnut during the World’s Toughest Mudder, and it was the most phenomenal thing I’d ever had. Ěý

What does your self-talk during training and races sound like?
So, especially with long races, you’re always going to hit a low part, and there’s always going to be a part where you want to quit. For meĚýit generally comes early. It’s like four hours in, and I’m like, “God, I got to do this for 20 more hours.”

But I think it’s hard, because people ask me about self-talk, and I generally just shut my brain off.ĚýI don’t really think about anything, but I do use different coping techniques—I sing to myself a lot when I’m out there.

What actions do you take in the hours following a race?
You have to stay moving. People wanna finish a race, and especially a long one, and just lay on a couchĚýor go to sleep. That is the worst thing you can do, because you’re gonna wake up and not be able to move anything. SoĚýI generally try to stay walking, I try to stay active.

Are you a proponent of ice bathsĚýor anything like that?
So look, I’m not a scientist. All I know is what works for me. If I can get into an ice bath, I will, but it needs to be immediately after a race. There have been races where there’s been a lake right next to me, and I’m like, “If it’s cold enough, then I’ll just go jump in the lake.” ButĚýif you’re waiting four or five hours, I don’t think it’s gonna end up helping you in the end.

What supplements do you use on a daily basis?
I have really bought into the hype and the science behind beets. I remember the first time I ever had beet juice—it just tastes like death, like dirt. ButĚýyou feel this weird head rush after drinking it, and it delivers the nitric oxide to help with breathing during training. SoĚýI think for endurance athletes,Ěýit helps with breathing and keeping the heart rate low.

I’m also a big believer in turmeric and anything to help with bones and joints, things like bone broth and gelatin. Bone broth is an expensive habit, though, until I bite the bullet and make my own. But then I have to handle chicken feet, and I’m not really into that.

What exercises do you do to prevent injuries?
Jane Fonda’s are the gold standard. It’s also a lot of stability and single-leg work. You see CrossFitters do pistols all the way, ass to the ground, but you don’t need to do that kind of stuff. You just do smallĚýlittleĚýmini single-leg squats. Whenever I’m standing around, I also try to stand on one leg and balance.

I also do a lot of physio-band walks, like monster walks. And thenĚýa lot of work on the transverse abdominis,Ěýa lot of exercises that will engage that, like bird dogs. They’re not super fun, just little tiny movements, and I think most people would rather go squat 200 pounds.

Do you deliberately expose yourself to different types of pain or suffering as a practice? OrĚýis it limited to your races?
I always try to train in less than ideal conditions if I can, because I think that adds a lot—it’s super easy to go out for a run when it’s 70 degrees and sunny. ButĚýwhen I was living in Chicago, if there was a windstorm or a thunderstorm, I was like, “Let me out.”

The post How Amelia Boone Trains, Eats, and Wins appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Pavel Tsatsouline is the founder of StrongFirst, which offers strength-training courses and certifications in multiple countries. Born in the former USSR in the city of MinskĚý(now part of Belarus), he was a physical-training instructor for Spetsnaz, the elite Soviet special-forces units, in the 1980s. He later became a subject-matter expert for the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Navy SEALs. He’s also widely credited with introducing the now ubiquitous kettlebell to the United States in the late 1990s.

In an episode of theĚý, Tsatsouline and Ferriss discussed tips to improve strength, power, and endurance, as well as the importance of balancing performance with rest. In a follow-up episode, Tsatsouline . Here’s an excerpt of their conversation, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

Ferriss: People looking to improve their fitness can easily find themselves taking a very scattershot approach, where they’re fed a lot of recommendations from many different people. What should be their priority?Ěý
Tsatsouline: As long as the person has their required ability and symmetry, the priority is always strength. But the first step is to assess your mobility with a functional movement screen (FMS), which is going to find out how mobile you areĚýand also how symmetrical you are. So as long as that’s dialed in, that’s in place, then you have to get strong. Strength is the mother of all physical qualities.

What would be the best training method to build strength and overall fitness?
The answer, without any doubt, isĚý. When one tries to develop all fitness components, like strength, endurance, flexibility, and power, using the same modality, usually they end up with a whole lot of compromises. But the kettlebell, when used correctly, allows you to avoid this problem and develop all these components to a high level.

We even have an expression in the kettlebell world:Ěýthe what-the-hell effect. Let’s say that you’re doing kettlebell exercisesĚýand suddenlyĚýyou go out and test yourself at something you’ve not been practicing. And it turns out you can do more pull-ups, you can walk with a heavier weight much faster, you can lift a heavier weight off the ground. That’s the what-the-hell effect.

For a specific training program, I recommend three high-yield exercises that also have the steepest learning curve. They are: the one-arm swing, the get-up, and the goblet squat. Just do these three exercises, and I guarantee that you’re going to get a great return on your investment.

I once called you for some training advice, and you told me, “When in doubt, train your grip and your core.” Could you elaborate on that? Because it’s not advice that many people have received.
Well, there is such a thing called irradiation. What it really means is that if you contract a muscle, the tension from that muscle’s gonna spill over to the neighboring muscles. SoĚýtry this:ĚýMake a fist, and feel the tension in your forearm. Now make a tight fist. You’re going to feel tension in your biceps and triceps. Now make a white-knuckle fist. You’re going to find that tension is spreading into your shoulder, your lat, your back, and so on. Certain areas of the body have this great overflow of tension, and the gripping muscles are amongĚýthem. We have special techniques where you increase that pressure and maximize your power. That’s one way that we can increase your strength.

What are the most counterproductive misconceptions about strength training?
Well, number one is that idea that you have to go to failure every time you train. I’veĚýdone a very thorough analysis of the Soviet weightlifting methodology from the sixtiesĚýthrough the eighties, the glory days. And I found that they typically did one-third to two-thirds of maximal repetitions per set. So what does that mean? Let’s say that you’re using a weight that’s your ten-rep max. Ten is all you could do if you pushed yourself very hard. They would do three to six reps, consistently.

Any tips for developing conditioning?
Let’s start with efficiency. That means posture and relaxation. If your head is sticking forward, for example, your running speed and endurance is going to be compromised. So work on your posture.

In the Soviet Union, it was a standard practice for all kids in grade school to practice relaxation exercises. And it’s the same practice that has stayed with all the athletes all the way to the Olympics. These exercises are very simple—they pretty much mean shaking your muscles out. So start shaking your arms, shaking your legs, vibrate them, and imagine that you’re trying to shake water off your limbs. Practicing this exercise regularly between sets of your strength exercises is going to go a very long way towardĚýendurance and making you faster.

The next item would be strengthening your respiratory muscles or breathing. In our kettlebell practice, we do something called the biomechanical breathing match. SoĚýsay we’re performing a set of swings. On the way down, we sharply inhale into the abdomen through the nose, so you’re inhaling against the resistance of your muscles and against the resistance of the weight. AndĚýon the way up, you’re forcefully exhaling, as if you’re striking. That’s how we strengthen our breathing muscles.

You talk about how important it is in exercise, sports, and life to be able to switch yourself on and off. What are techniques that make this possible for anyone?
It’s true that most people exist between the on and the off switch. They’re unable to really turn on, and they are unable to really switch off and enjoy some rest. One old technique for doing this is called . It involves lying down and progressively tensing all your muscles and then relaxing them in a particular order that makes you aware of the tension and the release ofĚýtension.

Throughout the day, and during your training, you should also be particularly aware of your facial tension. Meditation andĚýbreathing exercises from yogaĚýare also definitely helpful.

What habits allow people to have balance with priorities? What are the things they do that other people don’t do?
Well, I think one thing is calm. These people are calm. Because people who are hyper, they get so trapped in their reactive modes. They get too trapped in the everyday minutiae of their work and their existence, so they just do not pause, and they do not think. Calm is contagious. So when a person is calm, then he or she has the time to meditate, reflect, set the priorities, and set the balance.

The post Performance-Boosting Tips from Pavel Tsatsouline appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Michael Pollan is the author of seven books, including The New York Times bestsellersĚý, , and . A longtime contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Pollan focuses on the intersection between nature and culture, be it on our plates or in our farms and gardens. In 2010, TimeĚýmagazine named him one of the .

Pollan’s most recent bookĚýĚýexplores how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are used in therapy for conditions ranging from depression to addiction to anxiety. In an episode of that Ferriss said might be the most important podcast he’s put out in the past couple years, the two talked about these applications as well as the reemerging field of psychedelic research. Below is an excerpt of the discussion, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

Ferriss: For people who have heard the terms psychedelic or psychedelics, but are unclear on exactly what they refer to, can you define them? What are psychedelics?
Pollan: At first, psychedelics were called psychotomimetics in the early fifties, soon after LSD was made available to researchers. And psychotomimetic meant that it was a psychoactive drug that mimicked psychosis. Other people called it a psycholytic, which means mind loosening.ĚýAnd they were using them in your typical talk-therapy session as a way to loosen people’s defenses and allow them to get in touch with subconscious thoughts and emotions. Psychedelic, as a term, was coined in 1957 by a key figure named Humphrey Osmond. It means mind manifesting—that these are compounds that help the mind manifest its deepest qualities. And it caught on.

I tend to not think of MDMA or cannabis as psychedelics, even though some people do. But the group of chemicals that includes mescaline, DMT, psilocybin, magic mushrooms, and LSD, that are unified by the fact that they work on similar receptor networks in the brain and have similar effects—when I talk about psychedelics, that’s what I’ve got in mind.

What new insights or theories on psychedelics have caught your attention in the scientific realm?
The neuroscience is absolutely fascinating. But that said, the brain is still very poorly understood. SoĚýit’s important to understand that everything I’m about to tell you is hypothesis. We know LSD or psilocybin links to a certain kind of brain receptor, the H25AR receptor, which is the same one that SSRIs, a class of antidepressant drugs, engage with. But what happens downstream of that, we don’t have a clue.

One of the most interesting clues has come from imaging the brains of people on psychedelics. The biggest takeaway from that work is that the brain was actually depressed by psychedelics, particularly in the default-mode network, called that because this is where the brain goes when it’s not busy. It’s where you go to ruminate, worry, daydream. And how interesting that this particular network, important as it is, goes off-line or at least is activity diminished by psychedelics. When it does, other parts of the brain that don’t ordinarily talk to each other strike up conversations. And soĚýyou have, for example, a motion center talking directly to your visual cortex, which, low and behold, could allow you to see things you’re feeling. It could result in hallucinations.

Also, when researchers at Yale started scanning the brains of really experienced meditators, their scans look very similar to the people on psychedelics. Meditation is another way to quiet the default-mode network, and my guess is there are several others, too, like fasting or when you go into sensory deprivation. My guess is that all of these powerful experiences may well involve alternate modalities for shutting off or quieting the default-mode network.

Those new connections may manifest as new perspectives, new ideas, new means, new metaphors. And that’s what we need to get into right now. What happens with those new connections? Do they endure or not? And are there ways to help them endure longer?

Which studies of psychedelics have shocked you or surprised you the most?
Well, the first one is a 2006 study. It was an attempt to see if psilocybin could be used to occasion profound, mystical experiences in people. In a way, this was the predicate of all of the research to come since, because, first, they proved that you could safely administer these drugs in this environment. And second, with a very high percentage, you could induce an experience that people would report as one of the most meaningful experiences in their lives, comparable to the birth of a child or the death of a parent. The fact that you could induce such an experience in a laboratory reliably, with a mushroom, that kind of blew my mind.

In a follow-up, they discovered that a statistically significant percentage of people who had had these psilocybin experiences actually had changes in their personality that were enduring. Openness, which correlates with tolerance for other people’s points of view, the ability to take in lots of surprising information, and creativity, actually, wereĚýincreased. And it’s very rare that personality changes in adults at all.

Now, this has yet to be reproduced, this particular result. But whether there are lasting changes in personality of people who take psychedelics, I think, is a really rich topic to explore and definitely deserves more work.

What are the risks of these compounds?
There’s no known lethal dose of psilocybin or LSD. If it kills you, it’s not going to be because it’s toxic. I think that the risks are more psychological in origin. They are incredibly disruptive. They disarm your usual defenses, and defenses can be very helpful as well as hurtful. Some people, without their defenses, get into real trouble. And thenĚýthere is a small subgroup of people at risk for serious mental illness, things like schizophrenia, for whom psychedelics can be the trigger and push people into that first psychotic break.

SoĚýI think that there are people who should not take these drugs, and it’s people at some psychological risk. That said, you’ve got to compare it with other drugs, and they all have risks. The risks, in this case, at the biological level, are minor compared to drugs we take routinely—even over-the-counter drugs that are more toxic than psychedelics, as far as we know. SoĚýI think that’s definitely worth keeping in mind.

The post Michael Pollan Talks Psychedelics with Tim Ferriss appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

has gained a massive following by exploring ways we can make ourselves happier. Her books, including , , , and , have sold three million copies worldwide in more than 30 languages. On her popular weekly podcast, , she discusses good habits and happiness with her sister, Elizabeth Craft.

In an episode of , Rubin and Ferriss talked about New Year’s resolutions, pre-bedtime rituals, and Rubin’s personal tactics for when she’s feeling overwhelmed. Below is an excerpt of the discussion, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

Ferriss: I’ve read that one reliable, small change that people can do to make them predictably happier is making their bed every day. Are there other small changes that you would recommend to improve one’s well-being?
Rubin: Something that seems to work for a lot of people is the . This is the rule that if there’s anything you can do in less than a minute, you do it without delay. SoĚýif you can print out a document, scan a letter and throw it away, hang up your coat instead of dumping it on a chair, do it. And what this does is just getĚýrid of that kind of scum of stuff on the surface of life. For a lot of people, they say just doing this makes them feel like they’ve got the little things out of the way, and so now they’re ready to tackle the big things.

And getting enough sleep, of course. That is a huge one. Most adults need seven hours of sleep, and they know what time they’re gonna get up in the morning. Do the math, and give yourself an alarm so it’s not like, Oh, I go to bed when I’m tired. It’s like, My bedtime is 10:30 P.M. Another habit that can help with this is to get ready before your bedtime. I realized that I was staying up late because I was too tired to wash my face and take out my contacts and change my clothes. It’s clearly a very stupid approach. Now I get ready much earlier, so when I’m actually sleepy, it’s easy to turn out the light.

In other words, you do your pre-bed ritual well before you need to go to bed.
Yes. I’m a sleep zealot. But if you’re looking for a habit that will make you more energetic andĚýmore immune to illness, give you higher focus and function, a better temper, and just feel better, get more sleep. We really adjust to not getting enough sleep. People think that they’re fine. They’re like, “Oh, I’ve trained myself to get by on four hours of sleep. That’s no problem for me.” But when scientists study these people, they’re quite impaired.

What are some of the changes you’ve made that have had the greatest impact on your level of happiness?
Well, one thing that I did was, four years ago, I quit sugar and, basically, carbs. SoĚýI don’t eat sugar, pasta, flour, starchy vegetables. And this, for me, was the greatest thing. I had always had a really terrible sweet tooth, and I hated the feeling of, like, Can I have this? Or, It’s just a bite. That whole thing. It’s easier for me to have none than to have a little bit. I just gave it up. For me, it was just the most freeing, energizing positive change.

Do you set New Year’s resolutions for yourself? Is that a practice that you have?
Kind of my job is to have resolutions, so I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions in the same way. One thing I’ve done many times is pick a one-word theme for the year, which is a different take. In 2018, my word was delegation. My sister’s one year was hot wheels, because she wanted to get a new car. But I don’t really make traditional New Year’s resolutions anymore, partly because I make so many resolutions as part of my ongoing experiment in happiness and good habits. If something occurs to me, I usually try it right away.

On your Happier podcast, you always offer a “try this at home,” which is a concrete thing people can do in everyday life to be happier. Which “try this at home” has had the strongest response to date with your audience?
Oh,Ěýmy gosh. There are just many. One thingĚýthough, which we didn’t actually do as a “try this at home,” was suggested by my mother. She was like, “If you see somebody every day, you have tons to talk about with them, but if you see people once every six months, it’s hard to make conversation.” So my mother said, “Let’s e-mail each other with just, like, the boring details of everyday life.” In our family, we now send these updates maybe every four or five days. And it’s just the most boring things. My mother will be like, “I’m getting my hair colored later today.” Or I’ll be like, “Eleanor’s really annoyed because Barnaby tracked snow all over her bed.” It’s the most mundane stuff, but we find that it dramatically increases our feeling of connection with each other. And nobody ever responds to updates, so there’s no guilt.

We thought it was just our idiosyncratic family, but over time, it’s the thing where people are like, “Tell me again, what’s the update? Because I want to do that.” People do it all different ways—group texts, private groups on Facebook—but the idea is that it’s better to have frequent, boring, mundane communications than to save it up for when there’s something big to report. Because that’s not how relationships work. Relationships thrive when people are really in touch with each other. Ěý

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocusedĚýor feel like you’ve lost focusĚýtemporarily, what do you do?
Oh, I reread a children’s book. For sure.

Is there a go-to?
I’ve got a million go-tos. In fact,ĚýHarry Potter,ĚýI have to hold back Harry ±Ę´ÇłŮłŮ±đ°ů—do not let myself reread it, reread it, reread it—I have to hold it for a moment of need. When I got the edits back from my editor for my book Better Than Before, I’m like, And now I’m gonna start rereading Harry Potter. I need it now. This is the time. Because I’m processing all of this stuff.

I love rereading adult books, too. I reread adult books all the time. But there’s something very comforting about a children’s book, particularly. C.S. Lewis. How many times have I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe? Easily could be 40. Could be more. Sometimes it’s how I know I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m like, Oh, I’m reading The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper again. I wonder if I’m feeling a little bit stressed out.ĚýMy reading choice tells me more about my emotional state than I’m even aware of.

That’s your divining rod.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s like my psychiatrist.

The post Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Habits appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

, PhD, is an American biochemist who has done extensive research on aging, cancer, and nutrition. Her groundbreaking work includes studies of how vitamin and mineral inadequacies impact metabolism, inflammation, DNA, and aging, and whether supplementation can reverse the damage. In addition, she has investigated the role of vitamin D in brain function and behavior. Her stated goal is to “encourage the wider public to think about health and longevity using a proactive, preventative approach.” She is the host of the podcast.

In an extended conversation for an episode of the , Dr. Patrick took questions from listeners about the best practices for fasting, the minimum effective dose for the benefits of sauna, and much more. Below is an excerpt of their discussion, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

Can you summarize the best practices for time-restricted eating?
Time-restricted eating is the idea that by constraining our eating within a certain window ranging from eight to 12 hours per day—usually earlier in the day to align better with our circadian rhythm—we stand to benefit in a variety of ways. On the more extreme end, you’re engaging in what’s well known in fitness as 16:8 intermittent fasting. But simply maintaining a slightly more conservative time window for eating than you usually do has started to show advantages as well. Animals that have been limited to a nine- to 12-hour window in which they can eat have attained some pretty amazing benefits, including decreased fat mass, increased lean muscle mass, reduced inflammation, and protection from obesity.

How you choose to act on this information is ultimately dictated by life circumstances. The flexibility of my schedule has made implementing time-restricted eating easier. I aim for a ten-hour eating window and a 14-hour nighttime fasting window. I follow the same procedure on days I sleep in, even though some animal research shows that this pattern has benefits even if you cheat on the weekend. I chose a ten-hour windowĚýbecause it’s a sufficiently tight window of time to likely confer some of the advantages of time-restricted eating without being unduly burdensome. Stretching for the nine-hour or even eight-hour window, however, may appeal to some people. Animal research has shown an aerobic endurance benefit for time-restricted feeding in the nine-hour range, but not for shorter fasts. But, I think there’s still a lot of room for more emerging research in this area to teach us things that may be important.

Can you share your thoughts on benefits of saunas?
Some of the positive benefits of sauna use on heart health are similar to the benefits seen with regular physical exercise. Heart rate can increase up to 100 beats per minute during moderate sauna bathing sessions and up to 150 beats per minute during more intense warm sauna use. And 150 beats per minute corresponds to moderate-intensity physical exercise, which, as we already know, has a positive effect on cardiovascular health.

As for the types of saunas, we have a few options available. Infrared saunas don’t get quite as hot and are often limited to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit or 60 Celsius. For reasons of practicality and because I believe that benefits from the sauna are primarily conferred directly by heat, I tend to prefer a hotter sauna. But it seems reasonable that making other adjustments, like preceding the sauna session with light cardio, for example, might help make up for the differences. It’s hard to know for absolute certain, but I’m optimistic.

All of that said, try to exercise good judgment. Even if you don’t think you have a medical condition that could increase your risks to heat stress, it’s worth checking in with a doctor before becoming some mega sauna enthusiast. Heat is no joke and it’s important that you don’t hurt yourself.

Besides a low-carb diet (which reduces inflammation), what is the most effective non-pharmaceutical pain reliever for people suffering from arthritis or sports injuries?
Many NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) that are used for mild pain relief are actually not especially safe to take on a daily basis. This is even more true for people that tend to take them in larger-than-recommended doses, which is why the FDA recently strengthened their warning that NSAIDs, with exception to aspirin, significantly increase the risk of heart attack or stroke even with short-term use. As an alternative to the use of NSAIDs, however, I’ve found the compound curcumin is actually very helpful. It exhibits a pretty diverse array of potentially beneficial properties, but its activity can be limited unless you try to make it more bioavailable. There are a few formulations that attempt to do that, but the one I’ve found to be the most interesting is known asĚý, which has been shown to exhibit certain pain-relieving properties.

How can we identify trustworthy supplement brands?
One thing you can do is make sure that the product is certified by, which independently tests and certifies dietary supplements and nutritional products, and ensures that they don’t contain undeclared ingredients or contaminants. While being in the NSF database is a good sign, not being in it isn’t a deal breaker. So, here’s another option: Look for products that are USP-certified. The USP, which stands for theĚý, is a scientific nonprofit that sets standards for the quality and purity of dietary supplements that are manufactured, distributed, and consumed worldwide. In the United States, the FDA relies on standards the USP has developed.

What small lifestyle change leads to the biggest impact on health and wellbeing?
I think for people starting from ground zero, one of the easiest change to make with the biggest impact is to cut out refined sugar. The second easiest thing you can do is to begin doing time-restricted eating within a nine- to 12-hour time frame, in accordance with circadian rhythm where, unless you are a night shift worker, you try to eat your meals earlier in the day as possible.

The third huge lifestyle change that can make a big, big difference is simply doing whatever it takes to triple the amount of vegetables you take in on a daily basis. Finally, number four, which I think can have a potentially big impact for many people, is taking a vitamin D supplement.

The post A Biochemist Breaks Down Wellness Fads appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Ěýis the author of four books, including the New York Times best seller . Once a young scaredy-cat, she decided that fear got in the way of the life she wanted–one of excitement, confidence, and self-reliance. She has since rafted big rivers, climbed tall mountains (including Alaska’s Denali), and flown Ěýultralight aircraft (making one intense emergency landing). In the late 1980’s, she became one of the first female members of the San Francisco fire department.

In an extended interview for , Paul spoke about her experiences as a firefighter and tactics for minimizing and overcoming various types of fear. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

When did you begin to think about becoming a firefighter? And how did you get the job?
When I graduated from Stanford, I wanted to be a documentary filmmaker or journalist. I was volunteering at KPFA, a sort of radical public radio station in Berkeley. They throw you right into doing stories and at the time, in the 80s, there were reports about racism and sexism at the San Francisco Fire Department. I thought, I'll take the test to become a firefighter and do an undercover story. I went through the process and of course, racism and sexism doesn't show up in the ways we expect. You can't just encapsulate them in a two-day test. So I had no story, but I passed every part of the test, which surprised me. All of a sudden, they said, “You're in.”

What makes a good firefighter?
That's a great question. The firefighters I respected often were not the strongest ones. They were fit, but they were smaller and had a lot of street smarts. You need to understand your physical limitations because everybody has them—even the strongest guy. I remember one time being on a smokey stairwell waiting for the firefighter up top to gain entry to the building. He was a big guy and whaling on the door with an axe, but it just wasn't giving way. I said, “Take my pry bar.” He's like, “No!” And he kept whaling at that door. It took so long for that door to come open because he thought, as a big guy, he could do it. Someone else would have just stuck the bar in there, given it a hit on the head, and the door would've popped open. Women and smaller guys, we know our limitations and we're going to compensate.

When you think of being terrified, what moments from your life come to mind?
When I was a firefighter, I was in a building with three others crawling down a hallway. We had a hose line and were looking for the seat of the fire, which can be awesome. It's super smoky hot and kind of quiet in this weird way. And then all of a sudden a huge explosion pushed us all out of the hallway into a garage. Later, we realized later there had been a flashover—when it gets so hot that even the particles in the air ignite—close enough by to blow us all over.

I was discombobulated and my friend Frank goes, “Where is Victor?” Victor was my crewmate and I look around there were just three of us instead of four. I remember thinking, I have to go back into that hallway? The fear was paralyzing. Frank, who is a really great firefighter, catapulted himself towards that door to find Victor. For me, it was only a millisecond, but I was scared. I recognized that fear, and it scared me more than the fire itself. When you're paralyzed as a firefighter and your friend is missing, that's the worst. Of course, I was right on Frank’s heels, but that feeling of overwhelming fear was really sobering.

I learned that you can be scared but still take action if it's necessary. My friend was fine. He had been blown out, but had taken shelter on the other side. It was a moment I'll never forget.

You've written about your ability to put fear behind your other emotions. In one story, you described doing this while climbing the Golden Gate Bridge—which, by the way, is illegal. How did you learn to place courage, desire, or enthusiasm in front of fear?
Fear is important—it’s there to keep us safe. But I do feel like some people give it too much priority. It's just one of the many things that we use to assess a situation.

When we climbed the bridge, it was five us deciding we wanted to do it in the middle of the night—please don't do that. But we did. Talk about fear. You're walking on a cable where you have to put one foot in front of the other and you get higher and higher until you're basically as high as a 70-story building holding onto these two thin wires. It's just a walk, technically. Nothing's going to happen unless an earthquake or catastrophic gust of wind happens. You're going to be fine as long as you keep your mental state intact. Don't panic. It's just a walk.

In those situations, I look at all the emotions I'm feeling, which are anticipation, exhilaration, focus, confidence, fun, and fear. And then I take fear and say, “Well, how much priority am I going to give this? I really want to do this.” I put it where it belongs. It's like bricklaying or making a stone wall. You fit the pieces together.

To someone who hasn't practiced this, can you suggest an exercise? The next time they’re feeling fear, what would you advise them to do?
I actually want them to partition each emotion as if it's a little separate block and then put the blocks in a line. Once you assess your own skill and the situation, often things change. I hear people say, “I'm so scared of picking up an insect.” Really? What is really so scary about an insect? Is it going to eat you? No.

As long as you stop and really look, I think people's lives will change radically. Women especially are very, very quick to say they’re scared. That's something I really want to change.

You wrote an op-ed in 2016 titled, ĚýIn one passage, you said that books on female empowerment reach women far too late in their lives. Can you elaborate on that and also explain what caused you to write the op-ed?
I wrote The Gutsy Girl as a sort of antidote for what I see happening now and maybe has happened for a long time, which that we acculturate our girls to be fearful. I was really curious about how that started after I wrote the book, so I looked at some studies. It turns out that parents—both moms and dads—caution their daughters way more than their sons, basically telling them, “Watch out. That's dangerous. You're going to get hurt.” They discourage them from trying something.

With boys, there is active encouragement, despite the possibilities that they could get hurt, as well as guiding the boy to do it, often on his own. When a daughter decides to do something that might have some risk involved, after cautioning her, the parents are much more likely to assist her doing it. What is this telling girls? They're fragile and they need our help. So of course, by the time we're women and in the workplace or relationships, that's going to be a predominant paradigm for us: fear.

What would you say to women thinking, My god. She's totally right. I was raised in a bubble and I don't want to have this default anymore. I want to condition myself to be able to contend with fear and put it in line?
I would say it's time to adopt a paradigm of bravery instead of a paradigm of fear.

The post How a Firefighter Learned to Combat Fear appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Long before there were meditation apps and resorts offering mindfulness packages, there was Buddhist teacher . After training as a monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, he was one of the first people to introduceĚýBuddhist mindfulness practice to the West. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974.

Kornfield, 72, also holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books—including , , and —have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies.

During a conversation for the that lasted more than two hours, Kornfield spoke about his inspiring personal journey and shared tips for developing a mediation practice and more mindful approach to life. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

How can you get a busy person hooked on mindfulness practice? What would be a first step?
It’s really helpful to have guided meditations at firstĚýbecause we have a very short attention span in modern society. We are multitasking with our devicesĚýand we’ve forgotten how to tend our own hearts and forgotten how to be present for one another, and more importantly, for our own lives. So getting guided meditations is tremendously helpful. And doing these little mini practices—one minute, two minutes—several times a day can transform you. Ěý

So don’t white knuckle in the beginning. Make it as easy as possible.
The game is to do whatever naturally opens the gateway. For some people, it’s their dog. You come home and the most nonjudgmental being in their life wags your tail and loves you, and it doesn’t care what’s going on in your head. So, you take the avenue that most naturally opens your heart, and then you do this just a little at a time and it doesn’t take long. Ěý

You studied for years in Thailand with a teacher named Agin Cha. What was he like?
He was a little bit like the Dalai Lama. He was funnyĚýand wiseĚýand very warm-hearted, but also very strict and very demanding. I visited him a number of times and told him I was gonna become a monk. And then I ordained in the village where I was living in the Peace Corps. It was a beautiful ritual. After some days, I made my way down to his temple. I’m walking into the gates and I see him, and I bowĚýand I say, “I’m here.” And he looks at me and kind of leans back, a little skeptical, and he says, “All right. I hope you’re not afraid to suffer. Welcome.” Ěý

What was the suffering that he alluded to? Ěý
The big suffering was being alone with my own mind. Having to do hours of meditation when I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. When you sit and you get quiet, anything unfinished in your heart will come up. My friend Danny LaMa, a humorist and writer, says, “My mind is like a bad neighborhood. I try not to go there alone.”

And then there’s the outer suffering. Picture a day where you get up at 3:30 in the morning, sit for a couple of hours in meditation on a stone floor, then do an hour of chanting. At dawn you walk barefoot, three miles, five miles, ten miles, with an alms bowl and a handful of other monks, get your food and come back, whatever you’ve been offered. That’s the food for the day. And then you go back to your meditation or to the work of the monastery, of sewing robes or drawing water from the well.

For a lot of people, setting aside even just ten days for meditation retreat is really hard. How does someone decide when to do that kind of deep, extended work versus being in the world?
First, my answer is that most wise cultures encourage human beings to step out of their ordinary roles and their ordinary routine, whether you go to the mountains, or the ocean, or a temple, or change how you’re living so that you can open up to the mystery.

But how do we live in the world and at the same time connect with something deeper? Part of it is just intuitive. If you have a newborn or young children, it’s not the time to go out on a long retreat. Your kids are your practice. You can’t get a Zen master who’s going to be more demanding than an infant with colic, right? Ěý

If you think, If only I could be in the great Zen temple of Kyoto or an ashram in India, or down in the Amazon with taking ayahuasca—well, your kid can be like ayahuasca on steroids. What makes it work is that you have that intention to say, Let this be a place where I awaken the possibility of presence, and pleasure, and pain, and joy, and sorrow, and gain, and loss.

But even even if you have a family or own a company, there might be a period of a week or some days where you can in fact get away and step out of those roles and turn inward. And that can be tremendously valuable. You just have to listen to when the time is right.

You’ve said that Americans are in need of a particular mediation practice called loving kindness. Why is that and can you describe what the practice looks like? Ěý
In our culture, when we begin to meditate and turn inward, it’s very common to encounter self-criticism, self-judgment, even self-hatred. You’re sitting there saying, I’m not doing it right. I’m no good. And you turn meditation into one another thing that you don’t do right because you can’t control your mind.

There’s a different way of approaching your mind, which gives you tremendous capacities. It’s not, Oh, I have to stop my thinking, or I don’t want to have these feelings. Instead, the mindful loving awareness says, This is the judging mindĚýand it’s been trying to protect me. Thank you. I don’t need you now. All of a sudden, there’s a distance from the self-critical thoughts simply by acknowledging them with loving awareness. This becomes the gateway to the practice of loving kindness and self-compassion.

Very often, people can’t do this for themselves. So, the way this practice begins is to picture someone you really care about and feel the well-wishing you would want for them. You do this for a time and maybe you also let yourself also tune into the measure of sorrows they have, and it tenderizes your heart because you don’t want them to suffer. You feel a kind of rising in compassion and care. You do that with one or two people that you care about for a time. And then you can imagine these two loved ones looking back at you with the same kindness, and saying, You too. May you be safe and protected. May you be filled with tender compassion for yourself.

Finally, as you feel that from these loved ones, you begin to realize that you can wish this for yourself. And little by little, like water on a stone, it starts to soften the places that are holding your lack of self-forgiveness, your lack of care. Loving kindness starts to grow in you. It’s a very beautiful practice. Ěý

If you could put a short message on a billboard that got out to millions of people, what would it be?
One thing that comes to mind is a question that many people I’ve sat with at the end of their life ask of themselves, silently or out loud: Did I love well? Because in the end, what matters, really? So the billboard would have a question like, How could I love myself better? It will remind those who read it that there is something that’s asking to be awakened in them. Ěý

The post Jack Kornfield Wants You to Love Yourself appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

Alex Honnold is a big-wall climber whose audacious free solos—no ropes, no partner—of America’s iconic rock faces have made him one of the most recognized and followed adventure athletes in the world. He is distinguished for his uncanny ability to control his fear while scaling cliffs of dizzying heights without anything to protect him if he falls.

Honnold’s achievements include the first free solos of 1,200-foot Moonlight Buttress in Utah’s Zion National Park and the 2,200-foot Northwest Face of Half Dome, in Yosemite. In 2012, he achieved Yosemite’s first so-called Triple Solo: climbing, in succession, the park’s three biggest Ěýfaces—Mount Watkins, Half Dome, and El Capitan—alone in under 24 hours. InĚýJune, he and Tommy Caldwell became theĚýfirst people to climb the Nose route on Yosemite’s El Capitan in under two hours. Ěý

He is also the founder of the , an environmental non-profit. To this day, he maintains a simple dirtbag climber existence, living mostly out of his van and traveling the world in search of his next great vertical adventure.

During a long interview on , Honnold discussed his relationship to fear, risk, and other mental challenges in sports and life. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

When you are getting ready for a challenging climb, what does your self-talk sound like? Do you have any anything you ritualistically say to yourself before you get going?
No, I don't really. I don't self-talk like that. But normally if I’m planning on doing something challenging, I spend the time visualizing what the experience will feel like. With climbing, there’s a component of memorizing the actual moves. So I’ll think through the sequences and make sure that I remember which foot to move in which order and like how to do everything. And then if I’m climbing ropeless, then I’ll think through what it’ll feel like to be in certain positions. Because some kinds of movements are just scarier. It’s important to to think through how that will all feel when I’m up there, so that when I’m doing it I won’t suddenly be like, Oh my God, this is really scary. I know that it’s supposed to be scary, I know what it’s going to feel like, and I just do it.

So do you climb hard routes in an absence of fear? Or is it something you have to overcome while climbing?
I generally climb hard routes in the absence of fear. Though it’s important to differentiate fear and risk. If there is a high level of risk, you should be feeling fear. It’s a warning that there is real danger. Typically if I’m feeling a lot of fear, then I wait and prepare more, do whatever it takes to mitigate that, and then do the climb when I feel comfortable.

Do you have a checklist you go through before a free-solo? Like, I have to do this X number of times and then do this Y number of times first?
I don’t have a checklist, but I definitely have a degree of comfort that I need to feel on the route before I’m willing to free-solo it.

What does that feel like?
I need to have a certain amount of reserve. I need to feel like I can climb the route in a variety of conditions and have some extra in the tank just in case. If I can climb the route only by the narrowest of razor thin margins, that’s not good enough for free-soloing.

As the first superstar of free-soloing, do you ever have concerns about the influence you could have on young climbers?
So, two things. One, I’m definitely not the first superstar, because there are a bunch of European climbers who are well known for free-soloing who came before me. And even in the U.S. somebody like John Bachar was well-known in the 1970s. I was a kid who was influenced by earlier free-solo climbers and I’ve thought a bit about influencing kids and wondering if that’s a bad thing. Soloing is self-regulating in a way. Anybody can watch a video and think, I want to do that. But as soon as they climb 15 or 20 feet off the ground they start to have a very frank discussion with themselves, like, Do I really want to do this?

In general, you just don’t really see copycats like you see in gravity assisted sports or action sports. In kayaking or skiing or something, anybody can just stand at the top of the cliff and say, “I’m gonna hit this cliff and I’m going to stick it and it’s gonna be sick.” Once they commit, they’re going of the cliff one way or another. But with climbing, each move you make is a decision that you’re going to continue upward. You have to decide over and over, I want to keep going, I want to keep going. And at a certain point you’re like, I don’t really want to keep going. I think I wanna go down. And then you’re just like, Mommy!

Are there lessons you’ve learned or skills you’ve developed in climbing that translate to other parts of your life?
From the actual climbing itself, the most useful thing I’ve learned is how to differentiate risk and consequence and fear, and how to separate my feelings from what’s actually happening. When you're really hungry you’re not like, Oh God, I’m hungry, I’m hungry! You're just like, Oh, I’ll eat lunch in two hours. Fear to some extent should be the same way. You can register, Oh, I’m feeling fear right now, but know that sometimes that doesn’t matter. Sometimes it does, and you need to watch out for that. But a lot of times, you should be able to set that fear aside and do exactly what you're supposed to be doing.

Do you ever see a point where you’ll feel like you’ve accomplished all that you can in climbing?
In climbing, compared to most other professional sports, you can have quite a long career because there’s always more you can do with trips and expeditions and first ascents. And there’s a really creative process to it. I come up with interesting challenges and things that nobody’s thought of before. There are professional climbers in their 50s that are still getting after it like that.

But I can definitely see a point where I wouldn’t continue pushing. There is always a “what’s next?” in climbing. You can always try to improve in some way. I can see a point at which I’m like, OK, I’m satisfied, I’ve done what I needed to do.

The post Alex Honnold Talks to Tim Ferriss About Fear and Risk appeared first on şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Online.

, the founder and chairman of The Virgin Group, is a world-famous entrepreneur, adventurer, activist, and business icon. His new autobiography, , which he considers a sequel of sorts to his 1998 book, , shares the candid details of a lifetime of triumphs and failures, and provides an intimate look at his never-ending quest to push boundaries, break rules, and seek new frontiers.

In an extended conversation for an episode of the , Ferriss asked Branson about the lessons he learned from his parents, how he maintains his super-high energy levels, his tactics for managing risks, and much more. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited by şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř.

I read a story about you some years ago that said you might hold the record for the number of highly publicized near-death experiences. It cites experiences like being pulled from the sea by helicopters during your attempts to circle the globe in a hot-air balloon, crashing into the Algerian desert, and on and on. When you are in circumstances like that, or in a basement during a hurricane like you were when Irma struck your home on Necker Island, what do you say to people who are panicking? What do you do?
I think humor is important. Putting on a brave face, cracking jokes, plenty of hugs. Hugs are important. But I think when you’re all down in the bunker, just to try to reassure them that even 200-mile-an-hour winds are not going to bring a concrete bunker down. With some of the other adventures where we were in a capsule flying around the world, many things went wrong. There were just two of us, generally. Both of you have got to keep the spirits of the other person up.

The only way you’re going to survive is by keeping focused, by staying positive. Even if you’re facing almost certain death. You’re definitely going to die unless youĚýfight to the bitter end. There have been circumstances where on paper we had a well over 90 percent chance of not coming home. I think by staying focused, by staying positive, and with a big dose of good fortune, we made it all the way back.

You seem to exercise a lot. I’ve seen you just go for hours and hours skiing, swimming around Necker Island, kiteboarding. What are the practices or habits that help you keep your level of energy and output as high as it is over so many years? Ěý
Looking after yourself is obviously absolutely key. Everything stems from how healthy and well you are, both physically, mentally, and so on. I generally do it through sport. I wake up early in the morning on the island and play a very hard game of singles tennis against somebody who is better than me. I might go kite surfing and then have breakfast and the day begins. I’ll repeat that most likely later on in the day and maybe swim around the island as well.

As a family, my kids are now taking my adventurous streak on board. Every year, they set us a challenge which we do together. In 2016, we started at the Matterhorn, in Switzerland, and did an eight-day hike across the mountains. We then got on bicycles and rode 100 miles a day all the way from the north of Italy to the southernmost tip. Then swam to Sicily. Then we did another bike ride, a marathon, and ended up at the top of Mount Etna. It took us a month. I was shattered about halfway through it. But by the end of it, I felt like a 25-year-old. Ěý

Your mother wrote a book called , which includes stories about her disguising herself as a boy to take glider lessons, joining the Women’s Royal Navy Service, and working as a hostess on British South American Airways. What was she like when you were growing up?
First of all, I’m lucky. I have a very extraordinary mother and a lovely father. We’re a very close-knit family, which gave me a fantastic foundation. My mother’s approach in bringing up her children was one where she would’ve been arrested today. In those days, she could get away with it. When I was age four or five, she would shove me out of the car two or three miles from Grandmother’s house and tell me to make my own way there. She would put me on a bicycle at age seven or eight and tell me to ride many miles in the pouring rain, again, to Grandmother’s house. Her attitude was if we survived, we’d be the stronger for it.

She wouldn’t allow us to watch television. We had to get out there and do things. So she pushed us out of the house and told us to come back in the evening: “Get out there and climb trees, rescue cats, and I’ll see you tonight.” We lived in the countryside and it was a fun upbringing. A very loving upbringing. It may not sound like it. She wasn’t actually trying to kill us. She did love us as well.

Many people see you as an entrepreneur who throws caution to the wind and bets the farm on many things. But you’re actually a master of risk mitigation, something that comes through clearly when you describe how you got into the airline business. Can you tell the story of launching Virgin Atlantic in the 1980s?
Well, I was in my 20s. I’d been away from my girlfriend for three weeks and I was coming back to see her. I was in Puerto Rico at about 6:00 in the evening, heading to the Virgin Islands. American Airlines announced that they were going to bump the flight to the next morning because they didn’t have enough passengers. I was damned if I was going to wait that long. So I went to the back of the airport and I rented a plane, hoping that my credit card wouldn’t bounce. Then I borrowed a blackboard and, as a joke, I wrote, “Virgin Airlines, one way, $29 or $39 to the British Virgin Islands.” I went out amongst all the people that had been bumped and I filled up my first plane. When we landed later that that night, one of the passengers tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Sharpen up your service a bit, Richard, and you could be in the airline business.”

That got me thinking. Most airlines don’t look after people. The staff generally don’t smile. The food is dreadful. The next morning, I was on Necker Island and I rang up Boeing. I asked to talk to the sales department. A wonderful man, who I got to know very well, called R.J. Wilson answered the phone. The call went roughly like this. I said, “My name is Richard Branson. I’m interested in buying a second-hand 747.” R.J. Wilson said, “Look, would you mind telling me what you do?”

I said, “I’m in the record business. I’ve got the Rolling Stones. I’ve got the Sex Pistols. I’ve got Janet Jackson and lots of wonderful artists.” I could sort of feel that he thought I was wasting his time. He said, “And you’re based in?” I said, “Our companies are based in England.”

I later learned that he carried on talking with me because Boeing was fed up with British Airways always legging it over them because they had no competition. He was thinking that maybe by having a competitor to British Airways, they’d have a bit more leverage. So he said, “We do happen to have one second-hand 747. But I really feel you should change the name. With a name like Virgin, people will think you’re not going to go the whole way.” I said, “Thank you for your advice. I’ll think about that.”

I then talked to my record company team. They went into complete panic mode. I mean, what on earth is Richard doing thinking of taking us into the airline business? We have the most successful independent record label in the world. He’s going to put everything at risk. What I said to them was, “Look, I promise that I’ll only go into the airline business if I can persuade Boeing to let me hand the plane back at the end of the first year to protect the downside.” I knew the worst that could happen would be that Virgin Records would lose six months of the profits. Boeing agreed to it.

When the end of the first year came, instead of handing the plane back, we ended up buying a couple more second-hand 747s. Over the years since, we’ve bought hundreds of planes for three or four different airlines.

How has a failure or an apparent failure set you up for later success?
I think on the adventure side, the first time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat. We were trying to break a record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. We sank. Then we built another boat and we were successful. The British people love people who are underdogs. It taught me that actually failing and then being successful was mostly better than just going out there and being successful the first time around. Ěý

What belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
When I was a kid, if I ever said anything ill about anybody, my parents would sit me in front of the mirror for ten minutes in order to let me know how badly it reflected on me. So I’d like to think I’ve generally never spoken ill about other people. I think that’s been one of the best bits of advice that I’ve ever received, and obviously then given.

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