October 19, 2021 • 44 mins
As much as you may shudder at the idea of running outside in the dead of winter, there are a lot of reasons why it’s better for your body than you may think. Sports Neuroscientist and triathlete Louisa Nicola explains the amazing things your body can do with the help of cold temperatures.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When we go out into cold temperatures, our body releases
these things called cold shock proteins, and when they get released,
they actually help mitigate the effects of inflammation and we
can actually feel better. So not only when you go
outside and start running in this cold weather, you're not
just going to feel better, but you're going to also
(00:20):
increase your immunity by decreasing your inflammation. This is Sweat
the Details, a collaboration with Under Armour and I Heart Radio,
a sports and training podcast made for women by women
and Monica Jones, a fitness coach, boxer, business owner and
(00:40):
u A athletes And I'm Meg Bogs. I'm a powerlifter, author,
body positivity advocate and mother. Every episode, Monica and I
will talk to athletes, trainers, and experts and learn more
about how the body and mind work together in training
and competition. Fit fam get ready for a truly enlightening
episode because our guest is a nerve scientist, ed Louisa Nicola.
(01:01):
Luisa specializes in the neuroscience of athletic performance and has
worked with NBA, NFL, and MLS players alike. It's a
lot of letters, but they are elite. She's also the
host of the podcast The neuro Experience, where she discusses
brain health, neuroscience and athletics. And on top of all this,
Luisa is also a former triathlete who's raised for Australia
(01:22):
at some of the highest levels of competition, including the
two thousand eleven Beijing and two thousand twelve Auckland Triathlon
World Championships. So not only is she a brilliant neuroscientist,
she also has the experience of being a top athlete. Yes,
Luisa is goals. So where do we begin? What do
you even ask a neuroscientists? Well, one of Luisa's areas
(01:44):
of expertise is the impacts of cold temperatures on the
training experience. Now I'm no stranger to training in cold weather,
but Meg, being in the South, how do you feel
about the cold? Does it get really cold where you are, girl? No,
it's definitely doesn't get very cold down here. I mean
cold to me is like in the fifties and sixties.
(02:05):
That's like freezing tempts for me. So anything below that.
I am someone who if I'm going to be working
out in the cold, I probably am going to be
struggling because I'm not used to it. I haven't really
prepared for it. So I'm just like, let's talk about
the cold and how I can do a better job
of training in it, because I know there's got to
be benefits to it, right. I just cannot. I can't.
(02:27):
I'm just not I'm not built for it. Actually, I
trained for a half marathon some years ago, back when
I was primarily a runner and I was outside in shorts,
But once I got to be an individual athlete, I
avoided the outdoors. But you do feel great after, So
I'm really interested to know the true effects going into
(02:47):
that cold training, going into that cold recovery, and seeing
what the difference is exactly. So before we get to
the interview, I want to take a quick second to
share an important VOCUAB term with our listeners that can
help them as they listen to Louisa share all of
her knowledge. Yes, we want to break down a term
you'll hear Louisa use a few times throughout the interview,
and that's HRV. HRV stands for heart rate variability. And
(03:11):
while Megan I could totally do a great job explaining
what it is and what it tells experts about our
body performance, we're gonna let Louisa explain it. So heart
rate variability is the measure of your beat to beat
of your heartbeats, so it's measures if you're wearing a
whoop watch or an horror ring. Your HRV is actually
(03:31):
measured during deep sleep, so I think to be exact,
it takes takes your HRV over a four minute period,
so it basically can tell you how ready your body
is for the following day. Now, for those of you
who think, well, I've got a low HRV or I've
got a high HRV, it's very individualized. So the higher
(03:55):
is it's suggestive of the more healthier you are, the
more recovered you are, the better you're going to be
able to perform. So if you wake up and you're
in the green zone, for example, that's where your HRV
is almost at its maximum or is at its maximum,
you know that that day you can put in maximum
effort into your mental work, whether that's at work or
(04:16):
into your training. When your HRV is low, it could
suggest that hey, you're under recovered, you may be getting sick,
or you're just not going to perform that well because
you've got a low HRV. Some of the things that
kick you out of a high HRV is alcohol. You know,
I'm not a very big drinker, but if I have
(04:36):
a glass of wine, my HRV the next day reads
as if like I'm dying. It's so so low. So
what I know for sure is that stress and alcohol
and poor sleep are contributing factors to a low HRV.
I think that was a good commne But what do
you say? We get our questions on training and the
(04:57):
called answered by neuroscientists. Louis any caller, Yes, bring on
the neuroscience. Let's go. All right, We've got an exciting
day on Sweat the Details. Y'all were so excited to
have Luisa Nicola on the show. She is a neuroscientist
(05:17):
and she specialized in athletic performance, working with athletes in
the NBA, NFL, and MLS. She's also host of a podcast,
The Neural Experience, which discusses brain health, neuroscience, longevity and athletics. Welcome, Luisa,
Thank you so much. I am so excited to be
on here to talk to you both. This is this
is really exciting. We're so excited to have you. I'm
(05:40):
really excited to dive into this because I know we're
going to talk about training in different temperatures and how
that can change our performance. What does your job as
a neuroscientist in sports actually entail. That's a great question.
So I first came from a medical background, so I
was working in neurophysiology. Actually, so if you've ever seen
those caps, you know that they put new and they've
got all these leads and they're coming from your brain
(06:02):
and they're kind of, you know, looking at the electrical
pathways in your brain. That's where I come from. So
it wasn't until around two thousand and fifteen that I thought,
why are we not doing this on athletes. So around
two thousand and fifteen, I was in Australia, that's where
I was born and raised. I decided to go and
do a study on athletes where I wanted to measure
what was happening in their brain. We usually do this
(06:24):
in a medical setting with epilepsy patients. I thought, imagine
if we could find out what's happening in the brain
of an athlete. That's how I got into working with
elite athletes. And it's just marvelous the things that we
don't know yet about the brain and how the brain
really controls absolutely everything we do, from the way we
think to the way we moved, to how fast our
(06:44):
brain process is the gun that goes off for you
to start at the start line of a race. It's
absolutely incredible. So my company and your athletics, when we
actually go and work with athletes, we're going we do
a full on assessment. We look at their brains, we
do a brain scan, and we find out what areas
are they deficient in, and then we put together protocols
(07:05):
to really correct those to make them be able to
think better and perform faster. Wow, that's so interesting. That
has to probably do with every aspect of everything, every
part of your life. Can you just tell us about
like your current research. What are you working on right now?
So I'm doing sleep studies with athletes, especially runners. Um,
(07:26):
I'm doing a number of different brain optimization studies. And
another thing I'm using is cold thermogenesis, which we'll get
into later on too. This is going to be I mean,
I'm going to have to inspect your time. I'm so curious.
You know, you yourself were an elite triathlete before you
became a neuroscientist. Can you tell us about your journey
(07:47):
into fitness and how was your experience competing at a
professional level. So that was quite you know. I always
say if I knew back then what I know now,
I'd probably be a much better triathlete. So as we know,
triathon is I call it a four sports series. It's
you know, swim, bike, run, and transition. So you have
(08:07):
to become the best in all of those three things.
And it takes so much energy, it takes so much time.
I was training five hours a day. I don't really
agree with that now, just given what I know about
science and the body. But back then, gosh, I think
that's where I really learned what it takes to be
an athlete from the mental side, from waking up training
in the cold weather, going out into the freezing cold,
(08:28):
no matter if it was hailing, you know, we'd have
to get on the bike. We never missed a session.
Back when I was competing, I finished. It was all about, okay,
just sleep six hours because you've got to get up
at five in the morning. You know, you've still got
I still had to go to university, I had to
do so much and just given the amount of like training,
well doing, I don't think that would serve me today
(08:49):
if I was a triathlete, Right, what made you decide
to start studying neuroscience? Like? Where did? Where did that
passion come from? So it came from sports, I always
you know. I started off. I went into a sports
science degree as my undergrad and then I actually moved
into a Masters of mathematics. I really loved math, and
(09:10):
it was during that time that I was introduced to
algorithms within a neuroscience setting. So I was put together
with a director of a lab who was working on
action potentials and looking at the ways that our brain fire.
So we've in our brain, We've got neurons their nerve
cells or brain cells, and the way that they communicate
(09:31):
with each other is via this thing called a synapse.
So when we have a thought, when we produce an action,
we have a synapse and that all together produces our actions.
So he was looking at the algorithms to which they fire,
and it's when I first got to see a brain
and I thought, oh, this is absolutely beautiful. I want
to dedicate my life to it. So I started working.
(09:51):
I went and studied medicine and then I went into
neurophysiology and that's when I found out that, oh, there's
a lot of overlaps between what's happening in sport and
what's happening with the brain, and it was very underlooked.
We weren't really looking at the brain ten years ago
in a sports setting. So let's take the NFL for example.
We know with the NFL, one of the biggest things
(10:12):
that happened in the NFL is a concussion, and the
NFL has a concussion protocol. But what they weren't really
looking at two or three years ago was the fact
that when you scan the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients,
you can see a very clear correlation between Alzheimer's disease
and the concussion states. So that's when I started to think, oh,
(10:33):
there's a big overlap here. This is really beautiful. I
want to keep exploring this. I want to keep exploring
how the brain intersects with sport. You are an absolute hero,
So can you tell us why it's important for athletes
to take into consideration their neurology in their training. We
talked about the concussions and how that correlates, but you know,
(10:54):
why else is it important to consider neurology and training.
So I'll break it down and for you in a
in a really easy way. So you and I possess
something really beautiful every human does. It's called the nervous system,
and that is our brain, our spinal cord. And then
we have this other thing called the peripheral nervous system.
So this is all of those things that come off
(11:16):
the spine and they connect, Okay, and it's a really
beautiful thing because when you really understand it, you know
that it governs everything we do. So let's say, for example,
we want to increase or we want to increase muscle size,
or we want to have a better immune system, or
we want to be able to run faster. A lot
(11:38):
of the times, what do we know about sport? We
know that, Okay, I have to meet this time, I
have to go to track, I have to train this way.
We're hardly ever looking at the neurology. Okay. Now, our
neurology dictates everything our brains. As an athlete, especially as
an endurance athlete, you need to be able to have
not just physical endurance, you need to have men to endurance.
(12:01):
Brain endurance. What is that, well, that comes from your
brain being able to use so much energy and not
fatigue quick. So what do we need to know about that? Well,
we need to know how to hydrate correctly. Right, It's
not just about water. Your brain is actually made up
of electrolytes. Your nerve cells cannot physically work if you
don't have the correct balance of electrolytes. That's another reason
(12:24):
why neurology is really important. This is so fascinating. Oh
my goodness. You work with a lot of elite athletes
and the NFL, NBA, and MLS. Could you tell us
about the work that you're doing with them. What are
some of the issues that they have that they come
to you with and how are you helping them? Yeah,
So there's this really big phenomenon called brain fog, and
(12:47):
so one of the major complaints, it's a chief complaint
I would say from a lot of my athletes, is
you know what, my thinking when I wake up is clouded.
You know, I get up and I'm a bit groggy.
And you've probably felt that, right. Have you ever felt
you when you wake up? Absolutely? One of the biggest
biomarkers to elite athletic performance is an athlete's ability to
(13:09):
think fast and in order to be able to really
have those clear thinking patterns. We need to really take
into consideration things such as what we're eating, how we're sleeping,
how we're hydrating. So when an athlete comes to me
and says, Louis, I don't know what's going on. I
feel like I'm sleeping good, I feel like I'm eating good,
but I just wake up and my brains all foggy. Well,
(13:31):
obviously we do a brain assessment with them. We do
a questionnaire. We actually have a sleep questionnaire. It's made
up of over a hundred questions. And then a really
great part of all of this process during the nero
athletic method is we put our protocols into place, so
we do full on sleep studies with our NBA players.
So all of our athletes are equipped with a thermal
(13:52):
regulation mattress. So then I can actually say to them,
this is the temperature you should be sleeping at. We
have them, you know, set up to you know, a
whoop band or an orto ring, and I'm able to
track that on the back end and look at the
HRV and figure out, oh HRV is down and that's
going to be a predictor of poor performance. So I
(14:13):
don't want you training today, or I don't want you
going and doing you know, a hundred jump shots. I
just want you to take it easy. Things like that.
It's very scientific. That kind of support means the world.
I think it really reinforces our understanding of oh, I'm
not crazy. I'm not waking up feeling this way for
no reason. And I really love my whoop. I love
(14:33):
fitness tracking my recovery more than anything else. And how
I strained my body. Yes, so many things just underlie that,
so important facts. I like, this sounds all very familiar,
and I needed this talk right now. So of course,
you know, when we train, we aren't training in a
vacuum or training in an environment that has certain characteristics
like a specific humidity or a temperature, etcetera. So what
(14:55):
are some ways that environmental conditions affect the body while
doing physical exercise. So environmental conditions affect us in all
different ways. So one specific example is we're moving into winter.
If you're in if you're in America, we're soon about
to get smacked with winter. I say that because I
(15:17):
feel like New York City especially, we've only got two seasons,
and it's summer and winter. Um. So I'm like, Okay,
I'm already preparing for it, um, but I really like
training in the winter because the cold gives you so
many benefits. So I'm going to start off with cold
and some of the benefits that training in cold can do.
(15:39):
One of the most robust benefits of training in cold
is this a massive release of Nora pnepherin. So you
guys have probably heard of adrenaline. So adrenaline and Nora
proneffer are the same things. Adrenaline is just secreted in
the body. Nor a proneferin is secreted in the brain
from an area called the locus ceruleus. Now, nor a
(16:01):
pernefferin in the brain acts as two things. It acts
as a hormone and a neurotransmitter. So when you go
out into the cold and you are exposed to cold weather,
you get this increased release of Nora perennefern and nor
pernefferent is involved in focus, visilance, and attention. So you
(16:21):
have an increase in these three things as a euro
transmitter when you're in the cold. Okay, So that's the
first thing. As a hormone, a hormone is released in
the bloodstream. Nor a perneffer also acts as a hormone,
and it does so many different things as a hormone.
So we can already see that when we go out
into the cold that just the release and all the
(16:43):
benefits that we get comes from Nora panephren. Interesting, there
was a study done that showed that when you go
out into cold temperatures. They did a group of athletes,
male endurance runners, when they were training in sixteen degree
celsius weather for six hours, you know, just at a
moderate pace, just walking around for six hours in cold temperature,
(17:05):
they increase their nor prenefferent by two hundred and six
so that is huge. But then they thought, well, everyday
people aren't probably going to be outside running for six hours.
So then they redid the study and they put these
athletes in four point four degree celsius weather, which is
pretty cold, um and all they did was put them
(17:28):
in there for twenty seconds and it increased their normal
prenefferent by two hundred to three percent. So that is
so huge. Four point four degree whether you know, you
can mimic that by going into a cryer therapy chamber,
but I mean just going out into the cold weather
here during winter in New York City is pretty much
(17:48):
the same thing, right, So that's a really great thing
of training in the cold temperature. That is so cool.
The next thing that I wanted to talk about was
when you go into cold ambient temperature, and I'm talking
about not cold immersing yourself into a bath. I'm talking
about when you just go outside and you go for
a run. We also get an increase in another molecule
(18:09):
hormone called dopamine. And I'm sure we've all heard of dopamine.
It is that goal orientated drug, if you will. It's
that molecule of that tells your brain and tells your
body that you've achieved something great and you want to
strive for more. So it's that motivation molecule I call it.
So whenever anybody is lacking a bit of motivation and
(18:32):
they're thinking, oh, I don't want to go out, I
don't want to put my sweats on and go out
in the cold. It's too cold out there. I tell you,
if you can just get past that moment of that
that tiny five seconds of self doubt, if you just
shut that off and get outside, all your worries will
go away because you'll get that increase in dopamine increasing
nor pronefferent, which those two molecules alone work really well together,
(18:56):
you'll be able to go through your run with ease. Wow,
that is so enlightening because now I'm almost wishing it
was cold outside so I can achieve some deeper results.
Tell us, you know, we we talked about dopamine, and
we talked about neuropenefern what else happens to the body
when athletes train in cold conditions? It goes from brain
(19:17):
production and then how about the rest of the body
in the nervous system. Well, another good thing that training
in cold does, well, let's just say immersing yourself in
cold ambient temperature is we have this dramatic decrease in inflammation.
So inflammation I call it the Goldilocks theory because too
(19:38):
much of it is bad, not enough of it is
also bad. So you want that kind of sweet spot.
And I think there's a lot of misinformation in the
world where people are like, I don't want I don't
want too much inflammation. But inflammation is good. It's it's
there to serve, Like we get this rush of cyto
kinds to help us build and repair and adapt. Now,
(19:59):
too much of it obvious is bad. So when we
go out into cold temperatures, our body releases these things
called cold shock proteins, and when they get released, they
actually help mitigate the effects of inflammation and we can
actually feel better. So not only when you go outside
and start running in this cold weather, you're not just
(20:19):
going to feel better, but you're going to also increase
your immunity by decreasing your inflammation. So that's one thing.
Another thing I wanted to point out is this thing
called mitochondrial biogenesis. So what is that we have cells Okay,
and you've probably heard of the mitochondria. Mitochondria is those
batteries within our cells. We call them that powerhouse within ourselves.
(20:42):
It gives us our energy. Mitochondrial biogenesis means the formation
of new mitochondria. How does this happen. This happens in
response to stress. So it's an adaptive thing that we've
all had throughout our lives. So when we experience a
bit of stress, once we overcome that stress, we produce
(21:05):
new mitochondria because our mitochondria is kind of fighting saying
I'm gonna grow and I'm going to be a bit
more powerful and and have more energy. Next time the
stress comes around when we go into a state of shock,
when we cool our core body temperature down, our body
has to fight to keep us warm. So as it's
fighting to get to that that homeostatic standpoint, it's creating
(21:27):
new mitochondriaus so it can fight back. And I think
that's a really beautiful thing. That's our powerhouse of our bodies.
That is so cool. So what is the key to
maximizing athletic performance and cold environments? Really great thing to
maximize your performance and taking the cold into consideration is
once you get outside, go outside with layers on. You know,
(21:48):
we call this under armor for a reason. You know,
it's the armor underneath your clothes. You want to go outside,
you want to go out, You want to warm up
in the cold temperature and start to take layers off
as your body, you know, gets warmer and warmer as
you start to get you into your training. I think
I've named so many benefits. Okay, but everything comes with caution.
(22:08):
You know. One thing that happens in the cold is
we get vaso constriction. So when we get really cold,
our vessels they narrow and they constrict. Okay, so that's
that's one of the good things. But if we don't
keep moving and warming up, that will just keep stiff,
so we're going to get more prone to injuries. So
I would say, if you are going to go outside
(22:29):
and train in the winter, especially in cold weather such
as New York City, you really want to make sure
that you're maintaining that thermal control. You want to make
sure that you're training at a speed that is going
to be increasing your internal core temperature so you don't
get injured, so you don't get sick. So definitely rise
(22:50):
to the occasion of your training in the call to
prevent that. Do you have any other watchouts people should
be aware of when they're training the cold, So in
terms of injury prevention, you always want to really thoroughly
warm up as you're going outside. You also really want
to protect your airways because when you go outside and
you're you know, you're breathing in that cold air, it
(23:12):
can obviously get to you. So you know, and depending
on some of the medical conditions that people have, obviously
taking all of that into consideration, UM, I would just
say that having a thorough warm up, having the best
type of clothing on board, and making sure that you've
got something as in, you want to go outside and
(23:32):
you don't want to muck around. You know, like right
now the weather is really beautiful, maybe I'll walk to
the gym, or maybe I'll walk to the track and
do my main set there and they maybe walk home.
That probably wouldn't work for me in freezing temperatures because
on the way home, I'd probably become hypothermic. Very true.
Is there a two cold? Then? Is there a two
cold that exists? Well, yes, there are limitations to cold weather.
(23:56):
One thing that I forgot to point out is I
think a really interesting consideration and apparel to be wearing
during contemperatures is protecting your hands, okay, protecting your head,
and protecting your feet. The reason being is because if
you want to dramatically cool somebody down, if you go
into an icy you and you think, oh gosh, there
(24:17):
temperature is so raised, I want to cool them down.
The best way to cool somebody down is where the
largest surface area exists in your body, and that is
on the palms of your hands, the bottoms of your feet,
and actually back of your net and your stomach. So
if that's where I'm going to cool somebody down, we
want to make sure that those areas are really protected
in these cold weathers. So if you really want to
(24:38):
take extra precaution in really really really cold weather, you
want to go outside and wear those things to protect yourself.
That is an incredible segue into more actionable items that
our listeners can take away into how to maximize their
performance in those cold environments. It seems that cold is
such a recurring, an official just temperature to train in
(25:03):
and to recover in. So I see a lot of
athletes use ice baths after intense performance. What is the
impact in the cold temperatures on recovery. Well, here's the thing.
You actually there's a very known phenomenon called the hormetic response,
So that is how your body adapts to something that
(25:24):
you've done. So let's just say somebody has gone and
they've exercised really intensely and then they're going to go
and take a cold shower or a cold bath. Now,
we touched on earlier that when you go out into
the cold or when you immerse yourself in cold water,
you dramatically decrease inflammation. So it's actually been proven and
(25:44):
shown by scientists that if you go into a cold
bath within a two hour time frame after exercise. You're
blocking the hormetic response. And this study was done on
athletes doing hypertrophy chaining on their quads, so they actually
blocked the response. So you're actually taking away all the
(26:05):
training benefits by taking a cold bath immediately after training.
So I would suggest you know, nobody do that. If
you want to really maximize on the benefits of training,
you want to try and have that window, the two
hour window post exercise or post training. But you do
want to adopt a cold thermogenesis practice, and that could
(26:26):
be getting into a cold bath three or four times
a week and staying in there for a minimum depending
on the temperature of the of the water. You want
to try and get in there and for a minimum
of twelve minutes. I think that seems to be the
sweet spot. And obviously get out and do that for
four or five times a week just to keep with
(26:47):
that consistency. So what about hot temperatures, like on the
opposite end, can they can that contribute to recovery as well?
Oh yes, so I actually love um, I love the
area of hot temperatures. Because I mentioned earlier this protein
called cold shock proteins. So we also have heat shock
proteins and they are released in ambient temperatures that are
(27:11):
very hot. So, for example, if you go into a sauna,
um or a steam room, or you know, even an
infrared sauna, all the sauna, if you want to go,
if you go in there, your body starts to release
heat shock proteins. And there's been so much research in
that area to show how beneficial the hot weather is.
One clear example is and you guys are gonna love this, well,
(27:31):
I love it. Is it mimics cardiovascular exercise, so you
can get the same effects, okay from doing a twenty
minutes sauna session as you would by doing a one
hour run. And I love this because that's like, oh great,
instead of running, I'll just go in and doing I think, yeah, exactly.
(27:53):
So there's so many different effects. And my father, for example,
I got him a sauna to go in and do
these because he had a stroke two years ago and
some of his limbs are just not all there. And
instead of you know, I want him to keep getting
the benefits of the cardiovascular fitness, so I got him
a sauna. But it plays really well for anybody who's
(28:13):
going through injury, a killers injury, and you really want
to be able to rest that thing. You can get
into the sauna and have the same effects. That is
incredible and I'm really loving how you are presenting not
only the benefits to elite athletes, to endurance runners, but
also to those who are elderly or those who may
have gone through you know, any anything from a stroke
(28:36):
to an injury. On your website, you describe yourself as
a neuro hacker, and clearly this is you know, neuro
hacking for many different demographics and types of people. Can
you tell us more about what that means? Yeah? So, look,
I um, the word hack is a is a word
that I've been using for a long time, and it's basically,
how can we go in and get the most beneficial
(28:57):
effects from certain protocols. So when I say hack the system, okay,
like a coder is going to go and hack a website,
I think, how can we go and hack our body?
This world of human optimization is growing. We're now becoming
more aware of different scientific protocols to enhance our longevity,
to enhance our thinking and our brain performance. And when
(29:19):
I'm saying neuro hacker, it's like mainly saying how can
I have a better performing brain by doing different things?
And some of the things that I've experimented on is
obviously cold immersion. In terms of nutrition, I've worked with
a number of different brands and a number of different
companies to see what our supplements, what our new tropics,
how can certain things in our diets have a beneficial
(29:41):
effect on our brain. And I've come to many conclusions
from my own experience in that field and also things
that are deep rooted in the literature. So that's amazing,
And just figuring out anything that science suggests that we
can do to better our performance from a neurological perspective,
That's how I would consider brain hacking. On euro hacking,
(30:01):
that's so interesting. So if you're wanting to, you know,
take that first step to hacking you know, your own mind,
like you did that first step someone should take to
hack their own mind. Step number one is perfecting your sleep.
Having good sleep hygiene is by far the most single
most important thing that you can do for your brain,
(30:23):
your body, and your longevity. So increasing your lifespan that's
the first thing. The second thing is you want to
look at your nutrition. Nutrition plays a huge role in
how we think, how we act, how we perform, how
our body is recovering things such as refined sugar, as
we know obviously that they're not good for us, they're
(30:46):
not good for our waist sign but they also have
detrimental effects on inflammatory bio markers in your brain and
in your body. So if you're waking up feeling a
bit groggy, you want to look at did I have sugar?
I have things that are just not in line with
you know, having a clear thinking mind. And then the
third thing that I would suggest is it's interesting to
(31:10):
me when people tell me that they don't go and
get regular blood work, And here's why you can't possibly
know what's happening in your blood without getting a blood test.
Getting a regular blood test and checking on a few
things that can help you with your performance is probably
going to be key and paramount to training. One thing
(31:32):
that I really don't like um is when coaches put
together protocols that are not based on the individual. In
order to really have a good sounding training program, it
needs to be fit to you and your body. And
the only way to really know you and your body
is obviously with time and experience, but with also understanding
(31:54):
what's happening from a molecular level, So going and getting
a blood test, going and getting maybe a microbiome test,
but for females, I really would suggest looking at any
type of hormonal tests. We know that training dips and
peaks in response to our menstrual cycle, so training around that,
training around your hormones is going to be really key
(32:15):
as well. Oh yes, now you're absolutely talking my language.
So neurology is not one size fits all. Sounds like
a huge misconception that a lot of coaches and athletes
have had in the past. What are some other common
misconceptions people have when it comes to their neurology. I
think another misconception is certain drugs, for example, or caffeine.
(32:38):
Let's let's le's look at caffeine. It's a it's a
wonderful drug that a lot of people are addicted to,
myself being not included, but things like caffeine. It's like, well, okay,
if we look at the starting point of peak performance.
I mentioned that sleep, I think sleep is the you know,
the number one key driver to ultimate performance. That means
we want to be maximizing our sleep from the moment
(32:58):
that we wake up. Thing is that mitigate sleep are caffeine.
Caffeine has a half life of twelve hours, so if
you're going to have caffeine at midday or past midday,
you're really going to be disrupting the RAM and non
RAM sleep cycles. So that's one thing that I think
is a misconception. Another thing is the way that we're
training per se. So I put my training programs in
(33:20):
for my mother and my father. My mother is sixty five,
my father is seventy. Obviously has some health consideration to
take into place. The way they train is going to
be different to somebody who wants to train to compete.
And what I think that there's a misconception is around
how we should be training. I think we're living in
a world that is governed by overtraining. We must do this,
(33:41):
we must do that. But really, if you look at
the science, to get the maximum benefits for longevity, for
heart health, for brain health, you really don't have to
be training more than one fifty minutes per week, and
you really don't need to be training at maximum benefit
in order to train the mitochondria, we only really need
to be training in zone two, which is a really
(34:03):
easy rate. So I think there's a misconception around how
we should be training. What we should be training, that's
one misconception, and then obviously what we should be eating.
I would love to see people, you know, really exploring
this as coaches, really exploring the science behind what we
should be eating in order to better our performance. There's
(34:23):
a lot more to take into consideration, um, but what
I really love is the amount of at home testing
that it's being done. You know, there's we've got tech now.
We're back when I was a triathlete, which makes me
sound old, but back when I was a triathlete, we
didn't have heart rate variability to show hey, Louisa, you're
not going to be able to produce good results today
(34:44):
because your HRV is though we didn't have sleep metrics.
I wasn't able to, you know, look at my sleep data.
I just had to go by what I felt. So
I love the tech side of things. I love the
ability that we can take at home testing. You know,
I wear a sea GM right now, continuous glucose monitor.
There's so many things now to show hey, this is
(35:06):
how you should be training based on your data. So
if we're you know, trying to do all of this
at home, because I know you mentioned you know some
of the stuff you can do at home. This is
something I personally really really want to ask because I
you know, mentally in my training, it's very difficult for
me just in every area. So I'm curious, what are
(35:27):
some mental fitness exercises that our listeners can put in
practice at home to improve their athletic performance. So the
first thing that you want to do if you are
at home, you want to go outside. That's the first thing. Okay,
whether you've got a balcony or whether you just want
to go outside in your yard or on the road.
You want to be able to get twenty to thirty
(35:48):
minutes of sunlight in your eye. Okay, this is going
to kick start your circadian rhythm the twenty four hour o'clock.
You want to kick start that to be able to
tell your body, hey, I'm ready. Basically wakes up your
entire system. If you don't do this, you're going to
really throw off your entire day. So that's the first start.
The second thing is what I do with a lot
(36:09):
of my athletes when it comes to mural firing and
getting them ready for a game. I get them doing
a number of different reaction training drills. And if you
look at my Instagram or any of my my posts
that I put up, you'll see me training some of
my athletes using lights. And you don't have to do this,
but if you're at home and you have a tennis ball,
a really great thing to really wake up your nervous
(36:31):
system is getting the tennis ball, putting one hand behind
your arms, standing in front of a wall and throwing
the tennis ball and seeing how many touches without dropping
at how many touches you can do to the wall
in a minute, then changing to the opposite hand, and
then once you've got the minute downpacked and you haven't
dropped the ball, maybe picking one leg up the opposite
(36:51):
legs so you're working the contralactual movements of your brain
and body. It's such a simple at home exercise that
can reap massive rewards. Wrote that down. Yeah, it's so great.
It's amazing. Under armours, Sweat the Details will be back
after a short break. Welcome back to Sweat the Details,
(37:20):
all right, Louisa, Well, I think it's time we get
to shake it out. Um, this is a part of
the show. We like to play a little game with
our guests. And today's game it's called hot or cold.
It's at this or that game. So Monica and I
are going to take turns asking you if you prefer
this or that, just about things like your lifestyle, athletic routines, preferences,
and then you're just gonna answer as quick as you can.
(37:42):
Sound good, Okay, Okay, I'm scared, it's okay, okay, just
depressed ready, okay, okay, okay, I'll go first, going for
a run in Sydney or New York. Sydney, Oh why Sydney.
So Sydney is much more or easier and picturesque to run.
(38:03):
When you're running in New York City, I live right
in the middle of Manhattan. I'm having to dodge a
lot of things, um and so it just makes it
a lot harder to run around the city. Albeit there
are some nice running tracks on the East River, not
the West Side Highway. However i've had to choose, it
would definitely be the East coast of Australia where you
can run through Bondai, run through could d and it's
(38:23):
just beautiful. Okay, I'm convinced. Now sounds like a dream. Yeah,
I'm ready to go hold brew or hot coffee, hot coffee,
early bird or night owl early bird, training in the
gym or outdoors outdoors? Why the outdoors? Okay, I'm gonna
be really honest. I've probably never actually openly admitted this anywhere.
(38:47):
I hate training in a gym. It takes so much
of my mental fortitude and motivation to get me to
a gym. I think it's because I grow, but I
never trained in a gym as a triathlete. We just
trained in the water on a bike and we just ran.
So now that I actually have to go to the gym,
(39:09):
I hate it. So I try and do everything I can't. Yeah,
it's terrible. I've I might hire a personal trying to
actually come and get me and take me down there.
I still do it, but I just want to be
open and transparent. It it upsets me. Oh, I can imagine.
That's that's relatable. It's very really cycling or swimming, swimming
(39:31):
summer or winter summer. All right, very nice. That was fun.
I got to know a little bit more about you, Luisa.
You are a fountain of knowledge, and it is so
refreshing to hear you speak about just brain function, athleticism
(39:51):
and sleep, how we can really maximize things that we
are looking in today's society. So I want to thank
you so much for being in with us and giving
us this great talk. Can you let us know how
we can find you, guys, Thank you so much for
having me. Yes, definitely, I'm very active on Instagram and
on Twitter. So on Twitter I'm Louisa Nicola. On Instagram,
(40:15):
I'm the Diamond Boss. So you can find me on
both of those platforms. And if you want to know
more about the brain, you can. You can listen to
my podcast as well. That is just over two episodes
dedicated to the brain, and that's called The neuro Experience.
Thank you so much, Louisa. Thanks guys. I am absolutely
(40:41):
taken aback by everything that Louis has said. For someone
to be so versed and educated in neuroscience and to
still say that one of the basic principles that we
should lean on is creating goals, I really appreciated that.
What did you enjoy the most? Meg? I mean, my
(41:01):
notes are like everything according to what I wrote down.
I am going to do the tennis ball thing that
she did mention um because I'm you know, the next
couple of weeks, I'm going to be trying to work
on my mental fitness instead of physical fitness, and so
that's something I could actually do to have her information
reinforced that, oh my gosh, you could do some cold training.
(41:23):
You can, you know, you can look at your goals
differently and be kinder to yourself in that regard. That's
really bringing me back to a motivation too. I really
feel like it was definitely fate for both of us,
and that's what happens when we get these you know, educated, purposeful,
powerful women in our conversations and you know, in our corner.
So I'm definitely feeling really fulfilled from this conversation and
(41:46):
very inspired. I'm kind of inspired to work out in
a cold weather, right. I've never excited for that. I've
only done it maybe a handful of times, and it's
always been very excruciating for me. So I don't know
if maybe I just need to take her tips. I mean,
obviously the layers probably was something I've never been good at.
I'm from the South, We're not used to layers, So yeah,
(42:09):
I think I don't know. Have you do you work
out in cold weather ever? Do you enjoy it? Back
when I was a runner, I was running in shorts outside,
but as long as I had gloves and like an
ear or hat or something, I was good. And that
you know, that was like you, I was pretty actively running.
(42:29):
And we got back to it because of the stay
at home order, and you know that's what the pandemic
brought back into our lives. Is. Okay, we really need
to rely on getting some time outside, and so now
I can step into it, and I'm sure you can too.
Really feeling motivated to know that it's extra beneficial if
we do it the right way. Yeah, I might wait
(42:50):
a little bit to do an ice path, but may.
I don't know if that's gonna have anytime soon, but
but it's good to know, you know, the benefits of it.
So this is such an awesome conversation. I'm taking away
so many things today, me too. Thank you so much
for joining us fit fam. If you like what you
heard on the show, subscribe for free or follow the
show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
(43:11):
wherever you listen, and don't forget to leave a five
star rating and review. Until next time, Stay inspired, stay motivated,
and remember to always Sweat the Details. Bye. If you
(43:32):
liked what you heard on the show, subscribe for free
or follow the show on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen and don't forget to
leave a five star rating and review. Sweat the Details
is a collaboration with under Armour and I Heart Radio.
Our show is hosted by me Monica Jones and me
Meg Box. Our executive producers are Jess strip Stein, just Sell,
(43:52):
Louis are Told, Molly Sosha and Maya Cole. Our producers
are Kelly and Tole Laylakdrain, Emma Osborne and Alejandra Arivalo,
and our sound editor and engineer is Sarah gibel Laska.
Keep up the latest news in women's fitness by following
under Armour at under Armour Women and at under Armour
When we go out into cold temperatures, our body releases
these things called cold shock proteins, and when they get released,
they actually help mitigate the effects of inflammation and we
can actually feel better. So not only when you go
outside and start running in this cold weather, you're not
just going to feel better, but you're going to also
(00:20):
increase your immunity by decreasing your inflammation. This is Sweat
the Details, a collaboration with Under Armour and I Heart Radio,
a sports and training podcast made for women by women
and Monica Jones, a fitness coach, boxer, business owner and
(00:40):
u A athletes And I'm Meg Bogs. I'm a powerlifter, author,
body positivity advocate and mother. Every episode, Monica and I
will talk to athletes, trainers, and experts and learn more
about how the body and mind work together in training
and competition. Fit fam get ready for a truly enlightening
episode because our guest is a nerve scientist, ed Louisa Nicola.
(01:01):
Luisa specializes in the neuroscience of athletic performance and has
worked with NBA, NFL, and MLS players alike. It's a
lot of letters, but they are elite. She's also the
host of the podcast The neuro Experience, where she discusses
brain health, neuroscience and athletics. And on top of all this,
Luisa is also a former triathlete who's raised for Australia
(01:22):
at some of the highest levels of competition, including the
two thousand eleven Beijing and two thousand twelve Auckland Triathlon
World Championships. So not only is she a brilliant neuroscientist,
she also has the experience of being a top athlete. Yes,
Luisa is goals. So where do we begin? What do
you even ask a neuroscientists? Well, one of Luisa's areas
(01:44):
of expertise is the impacts of cold temperatures on the
training experience. Now I'm no stranger to training in cold weather,
but Meg, being in the South, how do you feel
about the cold? Does it get really cold where you are, girl? No,
it's definitely doesn't get very cold down here. I mean
cold to me is like in the fifties and sixties.
(02:05):
That's like freezing tempts for me. So anything below that.
I am someone who if I'm going to be working
out in the cold, I probably am going to be
struggling because I'm not used to it. I haven't really
prepared for it. So I'm just like, let's talk about
the cold and how I can do a better job
of training in it, because I know there's got to
be benefits to it, right. I just cannot. I can't.
(02:27):
I'm just not I'm not built for it. Actually, I
trained for a half marathon some years ago, back when
I was primarily a runner and I was outside in shorts,
But once I got to be an individual athlete, I
avoided the outdoors. But you do feel great after, So
I'm really interested to know the true effects going into
(02:47):
that cold training, going into that cold recovery, and seeing
what the difference is exactly. So before we get to
the interview, I want to take a quick second to
share an important VOCUAB term with our listeners that can
help them as they listen to Louisa share all of
her knowledge. Yes, we want to break down a term
you'll hear Louisa use a few times throughout the interview,
and that's HRV. HRV stands for heart rate variability. And
(03:11):
while Megan I could totally do a great job explaining
what it is and what it tells experts about our
body performance, we're gonna let Louisa explain it. So heart
rate variability is the measure of your beat to beat
of your heartbeats, so it's measures if you're wearing a
whoop watch or an horror ring. Your HRV is actually
(03:31):
measured during deep sleep, so I think to be exact,
it takes takes your HRV over a four minute period,
so it basically can tell you how ready your body
is for the following day. Now, for those of you
who think, well, I've got a low HRV or I've
got a high HRV, it's very individualized. So the higher
(03:55):
is it's suggestive of the more healthier you are, the
more recovered you are, the better you're going to be
able to perform. So if you wake up and you're
in the green zone, for example, that's where your HRV
is almost at its maximum or is at its maximum,
you know that that day you can put in maximum
effort into your mental work, whether that's at work or
(04:16):
into your training. When your HRV is low, it could
suggest that hey, you're under recovered, you may be getting sick,
or you're just not going to perform that well because
you've got a low HRV. Some of the things that
kick you out of a high HRV is alcohol. You know,
I'm not a very big drinker, but if I have
(04:36):
a glass of wine, my HRV the next day reads
as if like I'm dying. It's so so low. So
what I know for sure is that stress and alcohol
and poor sleep are contributing factors to a low HRV.
I think that was a good commne But what do
you say? We get our questions on training and the
(04:57):
called answered by neuroscientists. Louis any caller, Yes, bring on
the neuroscience. Let's go. All right, We've got an exciting
day on Sweat the Details. Y'all were so excited to
have Luisa Nicola on the show. She is a neuroscientist
(05:17):
and she specialized in athletic performance, working with athletes in
the NBA, NFL, and MLS. She's also host of a podcast,
The Neural Experience, which discusses brain health, neuroscience, longevity and athletics. Welcome, Luisa,
Thank you so much. I am so excited to be
on here to talk to you both. This is this
is really exciting. We're so excited to have you. I'm
(05:40):
really excited to dive into this because I know we're
going to talk about training in different temperatures and how
that can change our performance. What does your job as
a neuroscientist in sports actually entail. That's a great question.
So I first came from a medical background, so I
was working in neurophysiology. Actually, so if you've ever seen
those caps, you know that they put new and they've
got all these leads and they're coming from your brain
(06:02):
and they're kind of, you know, looking at the electrical
pathways in your brain. That's where I come from. So
it wasn't until around two thousand and fifteen that I thought,
why are we not doing this on athletes. So around
two thousand and fifteen, I was in Australia, that's where
I was born and raised. I decided to go and
do a study on athletes where I wanted to measure
what was happening in their brain. We usually do this
(06:24):
in a medical setting with epilepsy patients. I thought, imagine
if we could find out what's happening in the brain
of an athlete. That's how I got into working with
elite athletes. And it's just marvelous the things that we
don't know yet about the brain and how the brain
really controls absolutely everything we do, from the way we
think to the way we moved, to how fast our
(06:44):
brain process is the gun that goes off for you
to start at the start line of a race. It's
absolutely incredible. So my company and your athletics, when we
actually go and work with athletes, we're going we do
a full on assessment. We look at their brains, we
do a brain scan, and we find out what areas
are they deficient in, and then we put together protocols
(07:05):
to really correct those to make them be able to
think better and perform faster. Wow, that's so interesting. That
has to probably do with every aspect of everything, every
part of your life. Can you just tell us about
like your current research. What are you working on right now?
So I'm doing sleep studies with athletes, especially runners. Um,
(07:26):
I'm doing a number of different brain optimization studies. And
another thing I'm using is cold thermogenesis, which we'll get
into later on too. This is going to be I mean,
I'm going to have to inspect your time. I'm so curious.
You know, you yourself were an elite triathlete before you
became a neuroscientist. Can you tell us about your journey
(07:47):
into fitness and how was your experience competing at a
professional level. So that was quite you know. I always
say if I knew back then what I know now,
I'd probably be a much better triathlete. So as we know,
triathon is I call it a four sports series. It's
you know, swim, bike, run, and transition. So you have
(08:07):
to become the best in all of those three things.
And it takes so much energy, it takes so much time.
I was training five hours a day. I don't really
agree with that now, just given what I know about
science and the body. But back then, gosh, I think
that's where I really learned what it takes to be
an athlete from the mental side, from waking up training
in the cold weather, going out into the freezing cold,
(08:28):
no matter if it was hailing, you know, we'd have
to get on the bike. We never missed a session.
Back when I was competing, I finished. It was all about, okay,
just sleep six hours because you've got to get up
at five in the morning. You know, you've still got
I still had to go to university, I had to
do so much and just given the amount of like training,
well doing, I don't think that would serve me today
(08:49):
if I was a triathlete, Right, what made you decide
to start studying neuroscience? Like? Where did? Where did that
passion come from? So it came from sports, I always
you know. I started off. I went into a sports
science degree as my undergrad and then I actually moved
into a Masters of mathematics. I really loved math, and
(09:10):
it was during that time that I was introduced to
algorithms within a neuroscience setting. So I was put together
with a director of a lab who was working on
action potentials and looking at the ways that our brain fire.
So we've in our brain, We've got neurons their nerve
cells or brain cells, and the way that they communicate
(09:31):
with each other is via this thing called a synapse.
So when we have a thought, when we produce an action,
we have a synapse and that all together produces our actions.
So he was looking at the algorithms to which they fire,
and it's when I first got to see a brain
and I thought, oh, this is absolutely beautiful. I want
to dedicate my life to it. So I started working.
(09:51):
I went and studied medicine and then I went into
neurophysiology and that's when I found out that, oh, there's
a lot of overlaps between what's happening in sport and
what's happening with the brain, and it was very underlooked.
We weren't really looking at the brain ten years ago
in a sports setting. So let's take the NFL for example.
We know with the NFL, one of the biggest things
(10:12):
that happened in the NFL is a concussion, and the
NFL has a concussion protocol. But what they weren't really
looking at two or three years ago was the fact
that when you scan the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients,
you can see a very clear correlation between Alzheimer's disease
and the concussion states. So that's when I started to think, oh,
(10:33):
there's a big overlap here. This is really beautiful. I
want to keep exploring this. I want to keep exploring
how the brain intersects with sport. You are an absolute hero,
So can you tell us why it's important for athletes
to take into consideration their neurology in their training. We
talked about the concussions and how that correlates, but you know,
(10:54):
why else is it important to consider neurology and training.
So I'll break it down and for you in a
in a really easy way. So you and I possess
something really beautiful every human does. It's called the nervous system,
and that is our brain, our spinal cord. And then
we have this other thing called the peripheral nervous system.
So this is all of those things that come off
(11:16):
the spine and they connect, Okay, and it's a really
beautiful thing because when you really understand it, you know
that it governs everything we do. So let's say, for example,
we want to increase or we want to increase muscle size,
or we want to have a better immune system, or
we want to be able to run faster. A lot
(11:38):
of the times, what do we know about sport? We
know that, Okay, I have to meet this time, I
have to go to track, I have to train this way.
We're hardly ever looking at the neurology. Okay. Now, our
neurology dictates everything our brains. As an athlete, especially as
an endurance athlete, you need to be able to have
not just physical endurance, you need to have men to endurance.
(12:01):
Brain endurance. What is that, well, that comes from your
brain being able to use so much energy and not
fatigue quick. So what do we need to know about that? Well,
we need to know how to hydrate correctly. Right, It's
not just about water. Your brain is actually made up
of electrolytes. Your nerve cells cannot physically work if you
don't have the correct balance of electrolytes. That's another reason
(12:24):
why neurology is really important. This is so fascinating. Oh
my goodness. You work with a lot of elite athletes
and the NFL, NBA, and MLS. Could you tell us
about the work that you're doing with them. What are
some of the issues that they have that they come
to you with and how are you helping them? Yeah,
So there's this really big phenomenon called brain fog, and
(12:47):
so one of the major complaints, it's a chief complaint
I would say from a lot of my athletes, is
you know what, my thinking when I wake up is clouded.
You know, I get up and I'm a bit groggy.
And you've probably felt that, right. Have you ever felt
you when you wake up? Absolutely? One of the biggest
biomarkers to elite athletic performance is an athlete's ability to
(13:09):
think fast and in order to be able to really
have those clear thinking patterns. We need to really take
into consideration things such as what we're eating, how we're sleeping,
how we're hydrating. So when an athlete comes to me
and says, Louis, I don't know what's going on. I
feel like I'm sleeping good, I feel like I'm eating good,
but I just wake up and my brains all foggy. Well,
(13:31):
obviously we do a brain assessment with them. We do
a questionnaire. We actually have a sleep questionnaire. It's made
up of over a hundred questions. And then a really
great part of all of this process during the nero
athletic method is we put our protocols into place, so
we do full on sleep studies with our NBA players.
So all of our athletes are equipped with a thermal
(13:52):
regulation mattress. So then I can actually say to them,
this is the temperature you should be sleeping at. We
have them, you know, set up to you know, a
whoop band or an orto ring, and I'm able to
track that on the back end and look at the
HRV and figure out, oh HRV is down and that's
going to be a predictor of poor performance. So I
(14:13):
don't want you training today, or I don't want you
going and doing you know, a hundred jump shots. I
just want you to take it easy. Things like that.
It's very scientific. That kind of support means the world.
I think it really reinforces our understanding of oh, I'm
not crazy. I'm not waking up feeling this way for
no reason. And I really love my whoop. I love
(14:33):
fitness tracking my recovery more than anything else. And how
I strained my body. Yes, so many things just underlie that,
so important facts. I like, this sounds all very familiar,
and I needed this talk right now. So of course,
you know, when we train, we aren't training in a
vacuum or training in an environment that has certain characteristics
like a specific humidity or a temperature, etcetera. So what
(14:55):
are some ways that environmental conditions affect the body while
doing physical exercise. So environmental conditions affect us in all
different ways. So one specific example is we're moving into winter.
If you're in if you're in America, we're soon about
to get smacked with winter. I say that because I
(15:17):
feel like New York City especially, we've only got two seasons,
and it's summer and winter. Um. So I'm like, Okay,
I'm already preparing for it, um, but I really like
training in the winter because the cold gives you so
many benefits. So I'm going to start off with cold
and some of the benefits that training in cold can do.
(15:39):
One of the most robust benefits of training in cold
is this a massive release of Nora pnepherin. So you
guys have probably heard of adrenaline. So adrenaline and Nora
proneffer are the same things. Adrenaline is just secreted in
the body. Nor a proneferin is secreted in the brain
from an area called the locus ceruleus. Now, nor a
(16:01):
pernefferin in the brain acts as two things. It acts
as a hormone and a neurotransmitter. So when you go
out into the cold and you are exposed to cold weather,
you get this increased release of Nora perennefern and nor
pernefferent is involved in focus, visilance, and attention. So you
(16:21):
have an increase in these three things as a euro
transmitter when you're in the cold. Okay, So that's the
first thing. As a hormone, a hormone is released in
the bloodstream. Nor a perneffer also acts as a hormone,
and it does so many different things as a hormone.
So we can already see that when we go out
into the cold that just the release and all the
(16:43):
benefits that we get comes from Nora panephren. Interesting, there
was a study done that showed that when you go
out into cold temperatures. They did a group of athletes,
male endurance runners, when they were training in sixteen degree
celsius weather for six hours, you know, just at a
moderate pace, just walking around for six hours in cold temperature,
(17:05):
they increase their nor prenefferent by two hundred and six
so that is huge. But then they thought, well, everyday
people aren't probably going to be outside running for six hours.
So then they redid the study and they put these
athletes in four point four degree celsius weather, which is
pretty cold, um and all they did was put them
(17:28):
in there for twenty seconds and it increased their normal
prenefferent by two hundred to three percent. So that is
so huge. Four point four degree whether you know, you
can mimic that by going into a cryer therapy chamber,
but I mean just going out into the cold weather
here during winter in New York City is pretty much
(17:48):
the same thing, right, So that's a really great thing
of training in the cold temperature. That is so cool.
The next thing that I wanted to talk about was
when you go into cold ambient temperature, and I'm talking
about not cold immersing yourself into a bath. I'm talking
about when you just go outside and you go for
a run. We also get an increase in another molecule
(18:09):
hormone called dopamine. And I'm sure we've all heard of dopamine.
It is that goal orientated drug, if you will. It's
that molecule of that tells your brain and tells your
body that you've achieved something great and you want to
strive for more. So it's that motivation molecule I call it.
So whenever anybody is lacking a bit of motivation and
(18:32):
they're thinking, oh, I don't want to go out, I
don't want to put my sweats on and go out
in the cold. It's too cold out there. I tell you,
if you can just get past that moment of that
that tiny five seconds of self doubt, if you just
shut that off and get outside, all your worries will
go away because you'll get that increase in dopamine increasing
nor pronefferent, which those two molecules alone work really well together,
(18:56):
you'll be able to go through your run with ease. Wow,
that is so enlightening because now I'm almost wishing it
was cold outside so I can achieve some deeper results.
Tell us, you know, we we talked about dopamine, and
we talked about neuropenefern what else happens to the body
when athletes train in cold conditions? It goes from brain
(19:17):
production and then how about the rest of the body
in the nervous system. Well, another good thing that training
in cold does, well, let's just say immersing yourself in
cold ambient temperature is we have this dramatic decrease in inflammation.
So inflammation I call it the Goldilocks theory because too
(19:38):
much of it is bad, not enough of it is
also bad. So you want that kind of sweet spot.
And I think there's a lot of misinformation in the
world where people are like, I don't want I don't
want too much inflammation. But inflammation is good. It's it's
there to serve, Like we get this rush of cyto
kinds to help us build and repair and adapt. Now,
(19:59):
too much of it obvious is bad. So when we
go out into cold temperatures, our body releases these things
called cold shock proteins, and when they get released, they
actually help mitigate the effects of inflammation and we can
actually feel better. So not only when you go outside
and start running in this cold weather, you're not just
(20:19):
going to feel better, but you're going to also increase
your immunity by decreasing your inflammation. So that's one thing.
Another thing I wanted to point out is this thing
called mitochondrial biogenesis. So what is that we have cells Okay,
and you've probably heard of the mitochondria. Mitochondria is those
batteries within our cells. We call them that powerhouse within ourselves.
(20:42):
It gives us our energy. Mitochondrial biogenesis means the formation
of new mitochondria. How does this happen. This happens in
response to stress. So it's an adaptive thing that we've
all had throughout our lives. So when we experience a
bit of stress, once we overcome that stress, we produce
(21:05):
new mitochondria because our mitochondria is kind of fighting saying
I'm gonna grow and I'm going to be a bit
more powerful and and have more energy. Next time the
stress comes around when we go into a state of shock,
when we cool our core body temperature down, our body
has to fight to keep us warm. So as it's
fighting to get to that that homeostatic standpoint, it's creating
(21:27):
new mitochondriaus so it can fight back. And I think
that's a really beautiful thing. That's our powerhouse of our bodies.
That is so cool. So what is the key to
maximizing athletic performance and cold environments? Really great thing to
maximize your performance and taking the cold into consideration is
once you get outside, go outside with layers on. You know,
(21:48):
we call this under armor for a reason. You know,
it's the armor underneath your clothes. You want to go outside,
you want to go out, You want to warm up
in the cold temperature and start to take layers off
as your body, you know, gets warmer and warmer as
you start to get you into your training. I think
I've named so many benefits. Okay, but everything comes with caution.
(22:08):
You know. One thing that happens in the cold is
we get vaso constriction. So when we get really cold,
our vessels they narrow and they constrict. Okay, so that's
that's one of the good things. But if we don't
keep moving and warming up, that will just keep stiff,
so we're going to get more prone to injuries. So
I would say, if you are going to go outside
(22:29):
and train in the winter, especially in cold weather such
as New York City, you really want to make sure
that you're maintaining that thermal control. You want to make
sure that you're training at a speed that is going
to be increasing your internal core temperature so you don't
get injured, so you don't get sick. So definitely rise
(22:50):
to the occasion of your training in the call to
prevent that. Do you have any other watchouts people should
be aware of when they're training the cold, So in
terms of injury prevention, you always want to really thoroughly
warm up as you're going outside. You also really want
to protect your airways because when you go outside and
you're you know, you're breathing in that cold air, it
(23:12):
can obviously get to you. So you know, and depending
on some of the medical conditions that people have, obviously
taking all of that into consideration, UM, I would just
say that having a thorough warm up, having the best
type of clothing on board, and making sure that you've
got something as in, you want to go outside and
(23:32):
you don't want to muck around. You know, like right
now the weather is really beautiful, maybe I'll walk to
the gym, or maybe I'll walk to the track and
do my main set there and they maybe walk home.
That probably wouldn't work for me in freezing temperatures because
on the way home, I'd probably become hypothermic. Very true.
Is there a two cold? Then? Is there a two
cold that exists? Well, yes, there are limitations to cold weather.
(23:56):
One thing that I forgot to point out is I
think a really interesting consideration and apparel to be wearing
during contemperatures is protecting your hands, okay, protecting your head,
and protecting your feet. The reason being is because if
you want to dramatically cool somebody down, if you go
into an icy you and you think, oh gosh, there
(24:17):
temperature is so raised, I want to cool them down.
The best way to cool somebody down is where the
largest surface area exists in your body, and that is
on the palms of your hands, the bottoms of your feet,
and actually back of your net and your stomach. So
if that's where I'm going to cool somebody down, we
want to make sure that those areas are really protected
in these cold weathers. So if you really want to
(24:38):
take extra precaution in really really really cold weather, you
want to go outside and wear those things to protect yourself.
That is an incredible segue into more actionable items that
our listeners can take away into how to maximize their
performance in those cold environments. It seems that cold is
such a recurring, an official just temperature to train in
(25:03):
and to recover in. So I see a lot of
athletes use ice baths after intense performance. What is the
impact in the cold temperatures on recovery. Well, here's the thing.
You actually there's a very known phenomenon called the hormetic response,
So that is how your body adapts to something that
(25:24):
you've done. So let's just say somebody has gone and
they've exercised really intensely and then they're going to go
and take a cold shower or a cold bath. Now,
we touched on earlier that when you go out into
the cold or when you immerse yourself in cold water,
you dramatically decrease inflammation. So it's actually been proven and
(25:44):
shown by scientists that if you go into a cold
bath within a two hour time frame after exercise. You're
blocking the hormetic response. And this study was done on
athletes doing hypertrophy chaining on their quads, so they actually
blocked the response. So you're actually taking away all the
(26:05):
training benefits by taking a cold bath immediately after training.
So I would suggest you know, nobody do that. If
you want to really maximize on the benefits of training,
you want to try and have that window, the two
hour window post exercise or post training. But you do
want to adopt a cold thermogenesis practice, and that could
(26:26):
be getting into a cold bath three or four times
a week and staying in there for a minimum depending
on the temperature of the of the water. You want
to try and get in there and for a minimum
of twelve minutes. I think that seems to be the
sweet spot. And obviously get out and do that for
four or five times a week just to keep with
(26:47):
that consistency. So what about hot temperatures, like on the
opposite end, can they can that contribute to recovery as well?
Oh yes, so I actually love um, I love the
area of hot temperatures. Because I mentioned earlier this protein
called cold shock proteins. So we also have heat shock
proteins and they are released in ambient temperatures that are
(27:11):
very hot. So, for example, if you go into a sauna,
um or a steam room, or you know, even an
infrared sauna, all the sauna, if you want to go,
if you go in there, your body starts to release
heat shock proteins. And there's been so much research in
that area to show how beneficial the hot weather is.
One clear example is and you guys are gonna love this, well,
(27:31):
I love it. Is it mimics cardiovascular exercise, so you
can get the same effects, okay from doing a twenty
minutes sauna session as you would by doing a one
hour run. And I love this because that's like, oh great,
instead of running, I'll just go in and doing I think, yeah, exactly.
(27:53):
So there's so many different effects. And my father, for example,
I got him a sauna to go in and do
these because he had a stroke two years ago and
some of his limbs are just not all there. And
instead of you know, I want him to keep getting
the benefits of the cardiovascular fitness, so I got him
a sauna. But it plays really well for anybody who's
(28:13):
going through injury, a killers injury, and you really want
to be able to rest that thing. You can get
into the sauna and have the same effects. That is
incredible and I'm really loving how you are presenting not
only the benefits to elite athletes, to endurance runners, but
also to those who are elderly or those who may
have gone through you know, any anything from a stroke
(28:36):
to an injury. On your website, you describe yourself as
a neuro hacker, and clearly this is you know, neuro
hacking for many different demographics and types of people. Can
you tell us more about what that means? Yeah? So, look,
I um, the word hack is a is a word
that I've been using for a long time, and it's basically,
how can we go in and get the most beneficial
(28:57):
effects from certain protocols. So when I say hack the system, okay,
like a coder is going to go and hack a website,
I think, how can we go and hack our body?
This world of human optimization is growing. We're now becoming
more aware of different scientific protocols to enhance our longevity,
to enhance our thinking and our brain performance. And when
(29:19):
I'm saying neuro hacker, it's like mainly saying how can
I have a better performing brain by doing different things?
And some of the things that I've experimented on is
obviously cold immersion. In terms of nutrition, I've worked with
a number of different brands and a number of different
companies to see what our supplements, what our new tropics,
how can certain things in our diets have a beneficial
(29:41):
effect on our brain. And I've come to many conclusions
from my own experience in that field and also things
that are deep rooted in the literature. So that's amazing,
And just figuring out anything that science suggests that we
can do to better our performance from a neurological perspective,
That's how I would consider brain hacking. On euro hacking,
(30:01):
that's so interesting. So if you're wanting to, you know,
take that first step to hacking you know, your own mind,
like you did that first step someone should take to
hack their own mind. Step number one is perfecting your sleep.
Having good sleep hygiene is by far the most single
most important thing that you can do for your brain,
(30:23):
your body, and your longevity. So increasing your lifespan that's
the first thing. The second thing is you want to
look at your nutrition. Nutrition plays a huge role in
how we think, how we act, how we perform, how
our body is recovering things such as refined sugar, as
we know obviously that they're not good for us, they're
(30:46):
not good for our waist sign but they also have
detrimental effects on inflammatory bio markers in your brain and
in your body. So if you're waking up feeling a
bit groggy, you want to look at did I have sugar?
I have things that are just not in line with
you know, having a clear thinking mind. And then the
third thing that I would suggest is it's interesting to
(31:10):
me when people tell me that they don't go and
get regular blood work, And here's why you can't possibly
know what's happening in your blood without getting a blood test.
Getting a regular blood test and checking on a few
things that can help you with your performance is probably
going to be key and paramount to training. One thing
(31:32):
that I really don't like um is when coaches put
together protocols that are not based on the individual. In
order to really have a good sounding training program, it
needs to be fit to you and your body. And
the only way to really know you and your body
is obviously with time and experience, but with also understanding
(31:54):
what's happening from a molecular level, So going and getting
a blood test, going and getting maybe a microbiome test,
but for females, I really would suggest looking at any
type of hormonal tests. We know that training dips and
peaks in response to our menstrual cycle, so training around that,
training around your hormones is going to be really key
(32:15):
as well. Oh yes, now you're absolutely talking my language.
So neurology is not one size fits all. Sounds like
a huge misconception that a lot of coaches and athletes
have had in the past. What are some other common
misconceptions people have when it comes to their neurology. I
think another misconception is certain drugs, for example, or caffeine.
(32:38):
Let's let's le's look at caffeine. It's a it's a
wonderful drug that a lot of people are addicted to,
myself being not included, but things like caffeine. It's like, well, okay,
if we look at the starting point of peak performance.
I mentioned that sleep, I think sleep is the you know,
the number one key driver to ultimate performance. That means
we want to be maximizing our sleep from the moment
(32:58):
that we wake up. Thing is that mitigate sleep are caffeine.
Caffeine has a half life of twelve hours, so if
you're going to have caffeine at midday or past midday,
you're really going to be disrupting the RAM and non
RAM sleep cycles. So that's one thing that I think
is a misconception. Another thing is the way that we're
training per se. So I put my training programs in
(33:20):
for my mother and my father. My mother is sixty five,
my father is seventy. Obviously has some health consideration to
take into place. The way they train is going to
be different to somebody who wants to train to compete.
And what I think that there's a misconception is around
how we should be training. I think we're living in
a world that is governed by overtraining. We must do this,
(33:41):
we must do that. But really, if you look at
the science, to get the maximum benefits for longevity, for
heart health, for brain health, you really don't have to
be training more than one fifty minutes per week, and
you really don't need to be training at maximum benefit
in order to train the mitochondria, we only really need
to be training in zone two, which is a really
(34:03):
easy rate. So I think there's a misconception around how
we should be training. What we should be training, that's
one misconception, and then obviously what we should be eating.
I would love to see people, you know, really exploring
this as coaches, really exploring the science behind what we
should be eating in order to better our performance. There's
(34:23):
a lot more to take into consideration, um, but what
I really love is the amount of at home testing
that it's being done. You know, there's we've got tech now.
We're back when I was a triathlete, which makes me
sound old, but back when I was a triathlete, we
didn't have heart rate variability to show hey, Louisa, you're
not going to be able to produce good results today
(34:44):
because your HRV is though we didn't have sleep metrics.
I wasn't able to, you know, look at my sleep data.
I just had to go by what I felt. So
I love the tech side of things. I love the
ability that we can take at home testing. You know,
I wear a sea GM right now, continuous glucose monitor.
There's so many things now to show hey, this is
(35:06):
how you should be training based on your data. So
if we're you know, trying to do all of this
at home, because I know you mentioned you know some
of the stuff you can do at home. This is
something I personally really really want to ask because I
you know, mentally in my training, it's very difficult for
me just in every area. So I'm curious, what are
(35:27):
some mental fitness exercises that our listeners can put in
practice at home to improve their athletic performance. So the
first thing that you want to do if you are
at home, you want to go outside. That's the first thing. Okay,
whether you've got a balcony or whether you just want
to go outside in your yard or on the road.
You want to be able to get twenty to thirty
(35:48):
minutes of sunlight in your eye. Okay, this is going
to kick start your circadian rhythm the twenty four hour o'clock.
You want to kick start that to be able to
tell your body, hey, I'm ready. Basically wakes up your
entire system. If you don't do this, you're going to
really throw off your entire day. So that's the first start.
The second thing is what I do with a lot
(36:09):
of my athletes when it comes to mural firing and
getting them ready for a game. I get them doing
a number of different reaction training drills. And if you
look at my Instagram or any of my my posts
that I put up, you'll see me training some of
my athletes using lights. And you don't have to do this,
but if you're at home and you have a tennis ball,
a really great thing to really wake up your nervous
(36:31):
system is getting the tennis ball, putting one hand behind
your arms, standing in front of a wall and throwing
the tennis ball and seeing how many touches without dropping
at how many touches you can do to the wall
in a minute, then changing to the opposite hand, and
then once you've got the minute downpacked and you haven't
dropped the ball, maybe picking one leg up the opposite
(36:51):
legs so you're working the contralactual movements of your brain
and body. It's such a simple at home exercise that
can reap massive rewards. Wrote that down. Yeah, it's so great.
It's amazing. Under armours, Sweat the Details will be back
after a short break. Welcome back to Sweat the Details,
(37:20):
all right, Louisa, Well, I think it's time we get
to shake it out. Um, this is a part of
the show. We like to play a little game with
our guests. And today's game it's called hot or cold.
It's at this or that game. So Monica and I
are going to take turns asking you if you prefer
this or that, just about things like your lifestyle, athletic routines, preferences,
and then you're just gonna answer as quick as you can.
(37:42):
Sound good, Okay, Okay, I'm scared, it's okay, okay, just
depressed ready, okay, okay, okay, I'll go first, going for
a run in Sydney or New York. Sydney, Oh why Sydney.
So Sydney is much more or easier and picturesque to run.
(38:03):
When you're running in New York City, I live right
in the middle of Manhattan. I'm having to dodge a
lot of things, um and so it just makes it
a lot harder to run around the city. Albeit there
are some nice running tracks on the East River, not
the West Side Highway. However i've had to choose, it
would definitely be the East coast of Australia where you
can run through Bondai, run through could d and it's
(38:23):
just beautiful. Okay, I'm convinced. Now sounds like a dream. Yeah,
I'm ready to go hold brew or hot coffee, hot coffee,
early bird or night owl early bird, training in the
gym or outdoors outdoors? Why the outdoors? Okay, I'm gonna
be really honest. I've probably never actually openly admitted this anywhere.
(38:47):
I hate training in a gym. It takes so much
of my mental fortitude and motivation to get me to
a gym. I think it's because I grow, but I
never trained in a gym as a triathlete. We just
trained in the water on a bike and we just ran.
So now that I actually have to go to the gym,
(39:09):
I hate it. So I try and do everything I can't. Yeah,
it's terrible. I've I might hire a personal trying to
actually come and get me and take me down there.
I still do it, but I just want to be
open and transparent. It it upsets me. Oh, I can imagine.
That's that's relatable. It's very really cycling or swimming, swimming
(39:31):
summer or winter summer. All right, very nice. That was fun.
I got to know a little bit more about you, Luisa.
You are a fountain of knowledge, and it is so
refreshing to hear you speak about just brain function, athleticism
(39:51):
and sleep, how we can really maximize things that we
are looking in today's society. So I want to thank
you so much for being in with us and giving
us this great talk. Can you let us know how
we can find you, guys, Thank you so much for
having me. Yes, definitely, I'm very active on Instagram and
on Twitter. So on Twitter I'm Louisa Nicola. On Instagram,
(40:15):
I'm the Diamond Boss. So you can find me on
both of those platforms. And if you want to know
more about the brain, you can. You can listen to
my podcast as well. That is just over two episodes
dedicated to the brain, and that's called The neuro Experience.
Thank you so much, Louisa. Thanks guys. I am absolutely
(40:41):
taken aback by everything that Louis has said. For someone
to be so versed and educated in neuroscience and to
still say that one of the basic principles that we
should lean on is creating goals, I really appreciated that.
What did you enjoy the most? Meg? I mean, my
(41:01):
notes are like everything according to what I wrote down.
I am going to do the tennis ball thing that
she did mention um because I'm you know, the next
couple of weeks, I'm going to be trying to work
on my mental fitness instead of physical fitness, and so
that's something I could actually do to have her information
reinforced that, oh my gosh, you could do some cold training.
(41:23):
You can, you know, you can look at your goals
differently and be kinder to yourself in that regard. That's
really bringing me back to a motivation too. I really
feel like it was definitely fate for both of us,
and that's what happens when we get these you know, educated, purposeful,
powerful women in our conversations and you know, in our corner.
So I'm definitely feeling really fulfilled from this conversation and
(41:46):
very inspired. I'm kind of inspired to work out in
a cold weather, right. I've never excited for that. I've
only done it maybe a handful of times, and it's
always been very excruciating for me. So I don't know
if maybe I just need to take her tips. I mean,
obviously the layers probably was something I've never been good at.
I'm from the South, We're not used to layers, So yeah,
(42:09):
I think I don't know. Have you do you work
out in cold weather ever? Do you enjoy it? Back
when I was a runner, I was running in shorts outside,
but as long as I had gloves and like an
ear or hat or something, I was good. And that
you know, that was like you, I was pretty actively running.
(42:29):
And we got back to it because of the stay
at home order, and you know that's what the pandemic
brought back into our lives. Is. Okay, we really need
to rely on getting some time outside, and so now
I can step into it, and I'm sure you can too.
Really feeling motivated to know that it's extra beneficial if
we do it the right way. Yeah, I might wait
(42:50):
a little bit to do an ice path, but may.
I don't know if that's gonna have anytime soon, but
but it's good to know, you know, the benefits of it.
So this is such an awesome conversation. I'm taking away
so many things today, me too. Thank you so much
for joining us fit fam. If you like what you
heard on the show, subscribe for free or follow the
show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
(43:11):
wherever you listen, and don't forget to leave a five
star rating and review. Until next time, Stay inspired, stay motivated,
and remember to always Sweat the Details. Bye. If you
(43:32):
liked what you heard on the show, subscribe for free
or follow the show on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen and don't forget to
leave a five star rating and review. Sweat the Details
is a collaboration with under Armour and I Heart Radio.
Our show is hosted by me Monica Jones and me
Meg Box. Our executive producers are Jess strip Stein, just Sell,
(43:52):
Louis are Told, Molly Sosha and Maya Cole. Our producers
are Kelly and Tole Laylakdrain, Emma Osborne and Alejandra Arivalo,
and our sound editor and engineer is Sarah gibel Laska.
Keep up the latest news in women's fitness by following
under Armour at under Armour Women and at under Armour
Hosts And Creators
Monica Jones
Meg Boggs
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