Greenfield - Beyond Training : Mastering Endurance, Health and Life

First Published in 2014 by Victory Belt Publishing, Inc.

Copyright Ben Greenfield

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9781628600476

The author is not a licensed practitioner, physician, or medical professional and offers no medical treatments, diagnoses, suggestions, or counseling. The information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Full medical clearance from a licensed physician should be obtained before beginning or modifying any diet, exercise, or lifestyle program, and physicians should be informed of all nutritional changes.

The author/owner claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.

RRD 0114

This book is for every high achiever, exercise enthusiast, weekend warrior, gym junkie, biohacker, and health nut who wants to achieve amazing feats of physical, mental, and lifestyle performance without destroying their body, mind, and life.

The inspiration for this book came from the readers and listeners of BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Every day, your honest questions, creative feedback, and committed engagement helped me realize that all of you have amazing physical goals that you want achieveand, to your credit, you really dont want to destroy your bodies, your families, and your lives in the process. You are the reason I do what I do.

Thanks also to my wife, Jessa, who is an amazing woman, superhero mother, pillar of support, and warm body for me to hug when Im stressed out about chapter deadlines or writers block. I am not sure if I should thank her for cooking, because I probably would have written this book much sooner if I hadnt been pulled away to the dinner table by her nightly presentations of aromatic cuisine.

Thanks to my twin boys, River and Terran, who are fully responsible for any typos you may find in this book, as finding the proper letter on a keyboard is more difficult when being attacked by two armed and caped villains who want to engage you in brutal wrestling matches.

Thanks to my parents, who taught me how to read, write, and spell (literallyI was homeschooled) and also served as chaperones and sponsors for tennis, soccer, basketball, running, bicycling, weightlifting, and any other sport I begged to do.

Thanks to Brock Armstrong, my sidekick on the podcast and trusted go-to man for strange tasks; to Eleanor Pell, who helped me with research and citations, which Im notoriously bad at; to Trevor Parks, my Facebook and social media ninja; to Marge Aberasturi, my right-hand personal assistant; to Jake Perrin, my awesome web dude; and to the team at Victory Belt for making this book beautiful.

Thanks to all the mentors, coaches, and teachers who have taught me about fitness, nutrition, and healthy livingRafael Escamilla, Kathy Browder, PZ Pearce, Roby Mitchell, David Minkoff, Todd Schlapfer, Nora Gedgaudas, Phil Maffetone, Dave Asprey, Peter Attia, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Roger Drummer, Jeffrey Spencer, Tim Noakesthis list could go on and on. Please never underestimate the power of sharing your knowledgeit certainly made a difference in my life.

And, of course, thanks once again to you. You inspire many, many people when you decide to achieve your dream. And Im one of them.

Ive had a huge passion for fitness and endurance ever since I was a young boy. As a fifteen-year-old, I could tell you all about the brutality of the Kona lava fields, where the legendary Ironman Hawaii takes place. I knew about the freezing cold waters of San Francisco Bay faced by the athletes in the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. I could look you in the eye and tell you with absolute conviction that Ironman Europe in Roth, Germany, was the toughest Ironman to win because the Europeans raced so well at home.

I knew all the winners of the famous Wildflower Triathlon in California, the bike-record times on the Chicago course, and the fact that the big four really should have been the big five, with the inclusion of the great Mike Pigg. There was nothing about this sport I didnt know, and I had a thirst for information like nothing else. I was not only a fitness fanatic, but also a triathlon geek, and no sport in the world meant more to me.

I still have that same thirst for knowledge. From the time I became a pro triathlete and began winning the races in all those cities I read about as a boy, Ive spent countless hours with the best physiologists and sports scientists in the world, in Australian heat chambers and on the toughest racecourses you can imagine, learning and soaking up the most cutting-edge information I could find.

And through that process Ive discovered that what happens in the lab does not always correlate with the realities of what happens out in the field. Many things look great on paper (or on a computer screen), but keeping an open mind, adapting, and spending time on the ground (or in the water!) have led me to a path of success that has often not been supported or accepted by the sports and nutrition powers that be.

Now, I dont have anything against science. Its a great place to start. But science does not offer one-size-fits-all solutions. Thats why practical application matters. Unfortunately, many people put all their faith in lab numbers, but the on-the-battlefield results and trial-and-error experiences are far more accurate, and you need to dial the science in for each individual. Endurance racing and extreme fitness are relatively new ventures for humankind, and we are learning amazing things about the body and mind every day. So it takes more than stale numbers, heart rates, and thresholds to determine performance. It also takes paying attention to your own body, experimentation, and the willingness to think beyond commonly accepted training or nutrition or lifestyle practices.

Perhaps this is why, in twenty-five years of racing, I have never had an injury. This is unheard of at the professional Ironman triathlete level. Not a knee problem, a stress fracture, or a pulled muscle. Nada. People have diagnosed this as good genetics, but I suspect otherwise. I think its because I have focused on understanding my body, on building a solid foundation of functional muscle, on perfecting fitness first, on not neglecting nutrition, and then building backward into all the swimming, bicycling, and running once my body was ready for it.

Its this kind of unorthodox, outside-the-box thinking that got me excited about Ben Greenfields new book, Beyond Training. Ive known Ben for a while, and for the past year hes been the nutrition and strength-training expert of our triathlon team at MaccaX. So Ive always respected his opinion and loved the crucial training concepts he contributes to the field of health, fitness, nutrition, and endurance.

But I have to admit that this book youre holding in your hands takes practical, real-world, time-in-the-trenches thinking to a whole other levelabove and beyond anything Ive ever read on websites or in magazines, manuals, and training plans. Its not often I come across a training manual that teaches you how to eliminate chronic pain, balance your hormones, detox your body, maximize fat-burning efficiency, and even hack your brain waves. Most of the time, the focus is just on performance and beating up the bodyand not on all the different components of true, whole-body fitness that Ben ties together using simple language.