Why we practice circadian fitness
CHD Interview | The Gold Gym
“Exercise is labor without weariness.”
~ Samuel Johnson
Last Friday, Bohdanna and I had the honor of being interviewed byBernadette Pajer and Lisa Templeton of Informed Choice Washington on Children's Health Defense TV! During our talk we discussed how we apply the core tenets of circadian fitness in our daily lives, along with our health journey, from newlyweds, to the couple we are today. We gave a presentation on some new insights we’ve had into melatonin, which we’ll also touch upon in this article.
fitness (n.)
"state or quality of being suitable"
Fitness for our ancestors meant being suited to living with Mother Nature. Today our environment has radically shifted. While many of us work indoors, outdoors we’re all exposed to an alien environment, as electrosmog and wireless radiation rain down on a previously pristine ocean of blue sky. To be fit today means more than having a slender physique. Being fit today means having a body, mind, and soul that can weather the storm of our technocratic future, while having the stamina to outlive mediocrity. Fitness in the twenty first century means flexing our humanity in the mirror of freedom.
Ever since I was in my teens, I looked forward to going to the gym. The musty smells of the lockeroom were a welcome parfume, compared to the rank of stale beer emanating from the pore soul of my stepfather, and the living room walls that marinated my youthful soul with their mature tar. The pressure of cold iron dumbbells against my chest paled in comparison to the strain of having to defend myself at a moments’ notice. My real homework I completed away from home, in the study halls of the heart, forged with steel.
Decades later, the gym remained a refuge amid the pressures of adulthood, serving as a community where I could connect with like minds. From meatheads to skateboarders to classical pianists, all of us had something in common - the will to dig deep, and find out how far we were willing to enter our personal pain cave.
Rippling biceps and a six pack were only by-products of a larger body of inner peace that I was building. Like any personal adventure, it had its ups and downs, and was a wild ride. Many of the friends I met along the way were wild ones, and knew how to live life just as extremely as they lifted weights. In my twenties - work hard, play harder - was the motto, as I tried to escape the pain I had run from as that teenager long ago. Fitness became unhealthy once it turned into a vain quest for vanity as I soaked in UV tanning beds, long before I knew anything about light. I’d wear sunglasses thinking they were protecting me, but really wearing them to look cool. Health took a back seat to looking fit.
The gym that was originally my solace had become a place where I would crave stimulation. Surround sound speakers blasting Van Halen were replaced with flat screen TVs and bluetooth blaring techno, and Sony walkmans were replaced by iPods. The grit of hairy man grunts were substituted for perfectly tanned bodies and too much cologne. The morning of the rockstar had been eclipsed by the night at the Roxbury’s, and I was left wondering what fitness truly meant.
Was fitness just a place where we could look good, and still feel hungover? Or was fitness a long-forgotten past time where we embraced nature’s gymnasium? The Greeks, Romans, and Arnold all exercised outdoors. Instinct pushed them outside, and kept them there. Our ancestors intuitively knew: they felt better in the Sun. It’s only recently that media’s repetitions have trained us to fear it.
Eventually I became discouraged with the modern gym scene of over-chlorinated towels and spandex fashion shows, and decided to go back to the basics of the Golden Gym - where I could work outdoors, where no one would judge me but the errant neighbor who secretly watched through the fence. In 2017 my suspicions around modern gym culture were confirmed, as I researched the work of Jack Kruse, where I discovered that the main muscle we need to work is our mitochondria - our daily power multiplier of energy. Compared to gorillas, who have most of their mitochondria in their skeletal muscle, the mitochondria of humans is buried in our hearts and brains. These are the organs that we need to grow - not with processed whey protein, but with raw, unfiltered sunshine.
When we exercise, we build the body of our mitochondria. When we exercise outdoors, we tone our mitochondrial muscle even more finely as we receive copious amounts of a pro-growth hormone more potent than any steroid - subcellular melatonin. It turns out that melatonin from our brain’s pineal gland represents only a small fraction of the melatonin produced by the rest of our body, which we get during the day under the hormetic (beneficial, acute) stress of Sunlight.
Another form of positive stress is exercise, which also increases levels of melatonin in our bloodstream. We can also think of sunlight and exercise like a fever, which gives our immune system good practice, so all our organs work optimally. Yes - you read that right - exercising increases the melatonin we have in our body! If you’re not getting a good night’s sleep - try exercise:
In the modern day, we don’t have enough positive stressors like exercise, sunshine, or cold showers (my personal favorite) - instead we have sunscreen, sunglasses, and office chairs that make for cushy bottoms.
How can we ensure that our brains shine on like a crazy diamond, forged in the fire of Gold’s Gym?
By staying present - and having a routine that we can embrace daily.
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
~ Zig Ziglar
Even though we were born into bondage, into a world that seeks to harvest our soul - the eternal now is ours to reap.
Thank you to all our lovely readers, listeners, and those of you who have sent letters of support. We appreciate each and every single one of you.
We are more powerful than we know,
Roman & Bohdanna
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Additional Resources:
For an entertaining, deep dive into the archives of what old school fitness used to look like, and how we can apply it in the new school of today, check out:
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Tomorrow I'm moving my home gym into the sun.
Sunlight is my only pre-workout supplement. ;)
Thank you for the shoutout, Roman!!!!