Ever Onward Podcast

Get Fit in 2025: Kris Gethin’s Unmatched Health Strategies | Ever Onward - Ep. 49

• Ahlquist. • Season 1 • Episode 49

Share episode

Ready to crush your health goals in 2025? Join us on Ever Onward as Kris Gethin shares his UNMATCHED strategies for fitness, biohacking, and living your healthiest life!

In this episode we discover the transformative journey of Kris Gethin, a renowned health guru and former bodybuilder who swapped the adrenaline-fueled world of extreme sports for a life dedicated to health and wellness. Kris’s inspiring story takes us from his roots in Wales, through personal battles with addiction, to finding a purpose in bodybuilding. He shares his passion for helping others achieve both physical and mental transformations and reflects on how a positive mindset and gratitude have shaped his path to success.

Kris also reveals the secrets behind optimizing sleep and morning routines, offering insights into the significance of light management and hydration. He emphasizes the critical role of biohacking practices such as meditation and Brain Tap in regulating circadian rhythms, while the benefits of avoiding caffeine in the afternoon and waking up early are discussed. We delve into how small changes in your daily routine can lead to improved health and increased productivity, from wearing blue light blocking glasses to starting your day with hydrogen-rich water.

The episode ventures into innovative nutrition and supplementation strategies, discussing the importance of a balanced diet rich in colorful vegetables and high-quality proteins. Kris introduces groundbreaking supplements like Longevity EAAs and CreGAAtine, which blend health span with sports performance to enhance cognitive and muscle health. Toward the end of the episode, we explore cutting-edge healing techniques such as stem cell therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which offer promising avenues for rejuvenation and recovery. Kris’s journey provides not just a blueprint for health optimization but an invitation to a more balanced, fulfilling life.

Learn more about Kris Gethin here: https://www.krisgethin.com/
Get Unmatched Supplements here: https://www.unmatchedsupps.com/
Kris Gethin Instagram: instagram.com/krisgethin/?hl=en

Follow Ahlquist on Social Media:

LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ahlquist/⁠⁠⁠

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ahlquistdev/

TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@ahlquistdev

X (Twitter): ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/ahlquistdev

Meta (Facebook): ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/ahlquistdev/

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ahlquistdev?si=ejOXPKRqQjtsdVFE


Speaker 1:

Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have a special guest, chris Gethin, who lives here in Boise, but he is an international star. He is on podcasts everywhere. He is a guru on all things health. Chris is originally from Wales, spends most of his time here in the United States but does travel internationally almost every month. He is a former bodybuilder and then founded his own supplement company, along with other companies, gyms and personal training companies. We are very excited to have him on today. We're going to talk all things health and wellness and supplements. I hope you enjoy Chris Gethin. Chris, thank you for coming on. I'm really excited. Matty's told me about you for a while. He's like you've got to get Chris on. You've got to talk to this guy.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, thank you, buddy, got you to thank.

Speaker 1:

Well, we appreciate it, because I know you do a lot of this and you're traveling internationally.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but this is what I do. You know, this is the part of my job that I really enjoy, is where I can be present and we can discuss things that could potentially help some listener one listener, so of course, I'm all down for it.

Speaker 1:

I love that. You've got such an incredible background that this could go a lot of different places. So what I was going to start with is what do you like? You've got this and we'll do a formal intro before this thing started, but what do you enjoy most about your life right now and making a difference in the world? Because it seems like that's very authentically what you're up to right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So there's a few things. Some of it is going to be selfless and others will be selfish. But the one thing that I really do love about my job and the opportunities that I've had is to help people transform, and usually we will see a transformation, a before and after picture, but that's just surface level of what that person actually experiences. Sometimes they influence their loved ones, their family members. Sometimes you know they were suicidal or they dealt with PTSD, alcohol problems, and seeing that change within them is what's really really satisfying to me. You know, getting that feedback, the testimonial, that's what I love.

Speaker 2:

The other part, what I really enjoy, is just being able to work from home. You know there's my own hours to a certain degree but, as you know, if you're a business owner or an entrepreneur, it's difficult to actually take time off. So you know we may go to Ketchum this weekend. Well, we are going to Ketchum Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'll be a beautiful little break, but to ensure that I'm able to relax and chill out that I'll have to work for a couple of hours in the morning. But that's okay, that's a very small sacrifice to make. Every time I get on another flight I'm like okay, you have to remind yourself that person who you were 20, 25 years ago only would have dreamed of this. So don't complain about it. So I'm very careful not to moan and whinge, because I know there's a lot of people out there that would love that opportunity, and I was that person.

Speaker 1:

And it is about changing people's lives. I mean, I love how you've been able to scale that and talk a little bit about that, because your background and how you started, and then talk about that 25 year ago guy, what you were thinking life would be like and how you've morphed into what it's become, I mean it's pretty incredible, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I got into the fitness industry from extreme sports. I raced motocross for many years, downhill mountain biking, just dealt with a lot of injuries and through rehab I was able to alleviate myself of some of the pain that I was dealing with. I'd completely lost my identity because from the age of six I was racing and that was my identity. That's the one thing that gave me thrill, gave me purpose, a sense of belonging, and when I lost all that, it felt like I lost everything. And uh, you know, I turned to alcohol and drugs for about five years there, like pretty heavy. And where'd you grow up? In Wales, in Wales.

Speaker 2:

So I've spent exactly half of my life overseas from the age of 25. And my first 25 years was in Wales. You know, I grew up on a farm and you know, after I left I just went from city to city city this is the closest to country for me now um, but when I started alleviating myself of the pain that I was dealing with from motocross physically, I was alleviated of the mental issues that I was dealing with at that time, at that time as well, and I just felt that I had a sense of purpose just slightly again. So that fed me a little bit more and I'm very goal orientated. So I thought you know what? I don't know anything about this bodybuilding stuff. I've read a lot about it in magazines because that was like my comic book. I wasn't really interested in comic books, but I used to love looking at bodybuilding magazines way before I even got into bodybuilding. So when I fixated myself on this I decided, okay, I'm going to look to see if there's a bodybuilding show here in Wales. And then I found one.

Speaker 2:

So it was one and a half years after I picked up a weight for the first time. I competed in my first show, not knowing that there was natural and enhanced shows. I had no idea. So I went and competed in an enhanced show, not knowing that there was natural and enhanced shows. I had no idea. So I went and competed in an enhanced show, but completely natural. I was definitely the smallest by far but I got absolutely shredded and I managed to get second place. So that's when the bug really really hit me and knowing how it helped me when you fast forward a little bit, you know I worked on cruise liners as a personal trainer, moved to Australia, and it was when I was in Australia and I had my own gym. That's when I realized OK, I have got to tell other people about this. This is how it's changed me. Life would have been a white knuckle ride. I could have been locked up, but I'm not, because I found this.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to ask you a question. I don't know the answer to this, but back when you go in for motocross and then before you found fitness as your therapy, essentially drug addiction yeah, Was that any opiate related from your injuries? No, nothing whatsoever.

Speaker 2:

Was that any opiate related from your injuries? No, nothing whatsoever. No, pharmaceuticals aren't really heavily influenced in the UK, not in Wales anyway. I remember when my grandfather passed away a couple of years ago at 93 years old. They'd asked him just before have you taken antibiotics? And he's like what's an antibiotic? We just don't do that stuff.

Speaker 1:

So it's not like over here, right, far from it. Far from it.

Speaker 2:

This was this was just other drug use, but not related injuries. I just no, no, no, it was just because I'd lost my way and now I was seeking, uh, a thrill. Still, I was still thrill, uh, seeking adrenaline, and I was getting that from drugs, yeah, you know, and, um, I, I, I didn't feel completely at home with it because on a Monday I'd be like there's no way I'm doing that again, this is the time, nope. And then come Thursday or Friday, get a couple of phone calls and I'm influenced. I was very, very easily influenced.

Speaker 1:

How do you teach people how to train? I mean you were definitely goal-oriented, focused. I mean, a year and a half into it, you're in your first competition. How do you encourage others to find passion like that?

Speaker 2:

It all depends on the individual. So if that person is a mother or father, then that's great, because then they have some form of accountability and responsibility to take care of themselves. Because, as we know, children learn by observation. Whatever they observe is what they're probably going to mimic. So I make it very important to them that they need to prioritize their health for the health of their family.

Speaker 2:

But for other people, like I said, it could be like some mental issue. For other people, like I said, it could be like some you know, mental issue. You know they're dealing with some sort of uh, mental irregularities and you know working out will help release good, feel good hormones, your dopamine, and help you sleep better. And then, obviously, if you're starting to live a healthier lifestyle and you're not only feeding what people think is just your body through food, you feed your brain through food. So you know we get these chemical reactions every time we eat something that's pro-inflammatory, that can lead to a chemical reaction in the brain and a lot of people just don't feel good. They're dealing with brain fog. They don't have energy. As soon as they start eating better, they start feeding the brain, the brain is functioning as it should and then the blood flow from working out or doing cardio in the morning. That will enhance the blood flow to your brain so you can think better.

Speaker 2:

Like when I went to school, I failed everything. I did not like school, I hated every minute of it and I felt very, very frustrated because I couldn't retain any of the content. But then, when I got into the bodybuilding I later went to college for three years to study international health and sports therapy I realized, you know that, the power of really honing in on that nutrition, because I felt it, and then, while I was at college, I was able to retain all the content I passed, easily, you know, and that's when it made me realize okay, well, this is something that interests me Number one. Number two I'm actually feeding my brain with the fuel that it requires, cause when I was racing motocross and downhill mountain biking, there wasn't really any information about nutrition and I was just trying to get the calories in. I was burning through so many calories, so I was eating a lot of junk.

Speaker 1:

Um, talk, talk about nutrition. I have a lot of things I want to get into with you. Yeah, for sure. But uh, you're, you're, probably. I can't wait to hear your answers to a lot of this. But um for, uh, we have a lot of business people that listen to this.

Speaker 1:

Business leaders that are, you know, you know you balance stress and life and bad food and fog.

Speaker 1:

You brought it up already, I think just the American diet and just kind of what processed foods and what we do, and then you have kind of just you're just getting by right, so you're just taking in calories and not making good choices, probably don't have time to exercise, so you get into this metabolic you know situation where it's just not good and then it goes into sleep and I don't, you know, so you're in this negative cycle. When you're getting people out of this cycle, talk about the importance of nutrition and exercise, what do you? What do you do? First, do you do it all together? How do you? How do you? How do you? What do you? Noticed as the first thing that makes a difference in people to really cause it's almost like coming out of fog when you start eating well and you like go, oh I, I feel better. Well then I'm more likely to work out, then I'm more like you. You kind of get them spinning in the right direction.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so the the first thing that I usually do because, especially in this day and age, like my answer is different today than what it would have been 10, 15 years ago is sleep, Because that is the thing that you know, entrepreneurs, business owners, kind of put to the side Sleeping's for wimps. I'll do that when I'm dead, and you know. And then they made bad decisions. Usually because the brain is fatigued, they start reaching for food. That is not good for them because they just want to feel better, because they're so tired. And you're not going to make the right decisions at those times when you're fatigued and you're probably not going to get up and do your cardio or go to the gym because of the source. So I always tell people look at the source. I will. If they do wear like a whoop or an aura ring or anything like that, I'll check their scores and get them to utilize that as their accountability to improve this, and then I will give them the information on nutrition and hydration workout.

Speaker 1:

Can we stay on sleep for a minute? I'd love to, because I want to get your recommendations. Lots of devices out there right now. What's your recommendation and why?

Speaker 2:

So I like the aura ring because you can switch that off Bluetooth so it can track throughout the night. You know, when you've got the Apple Watches and the whoops and whatnot, it does have to stay on Bluetooth the entire time. I don't like that. I try to keep as much radiation out of the bedroom as possible, you know, and make sure that no phone is near, and I'll always ask clients to bookend their day for an hour before bed and an hour after waking so they're not reactory all the time. And the more that they release dopamine throughout the day trigger, trigger, trigger the body will expect that during the night as well. So a lot of these people wake up in the night, like constantly.

Speaker 1:

When do you stop caffeine in relation to the night because it's got a long half-life yes, for some people.

Speaker 2:

Some people are slow caffeine metabolizers, other people are very, very fast um, remind me to get into this.

Speaker 1:

Do you recommend doing the metabolism tests and knowing what kind of uh metabolizer you are? Do you do that with all your? With caffeine, you mean with just just the general, like there's the test you can take that says hey, this is how my liver functions and how I metabolize. Do you do that up front with everybody? I'll do blood reports.

Speaker 2:

I'll do blood tests yeah, blood test dna and we'll do like a glycan age, which is a biological age test to see what age they are biologically okay so then then then you kind of know how do I metabolize, but for but.

Speaker 1:

But in general you stop caffeine because you have this transition period before melatonin hits in. Right, yeah, dopamine going, you got, if you any supplements you took during the day with with uh, caffeine or a stimulant, and then you got this kind of wind down period. How important is light during that yeah.

Speaker 2:

So number one with the caffeine. I usually don't allow people to consume that in the afternoon. Okay, morning, fine, try not to do it first thing in the morning because your cortisol is at its highest peak anyway. You don't want to raise it even more. I don't do caffeine. I drink decaf coffee like I don't drink. There's no caffeine in this energy drink. My supplements don't have caffeine because it raises cortisol and can have a diuretic effect and it can have a long half-life, yeah, in it. So you know, that's a, that's one, that's one thing.

Speaker 2:

When it comes to yeah, I will always wear blue light blocking glasses about an hour before bed if I'm watching TV or something like that, because I don't want that to penetrate my retina to say, okay, we're going to release dopamine because we're wide awake and it's daylight, or cortisol because you cannot release your serotonin, melatonatonin, oxytocin at that time sufficiently, so that's always a good hour to two hours before bed as well.

Speaker 2:

Upstairs in my bedroom it looks like a brothel anyway, because I've got the red lamps everywhere, the non-flicker red lamp again, because I don't want it to stimulate me if I wake up to go to a pee or anything like that. I've just got the, the soft red lamps. So light is very important, extremely important, yeah, especially for me, because I travel so much so I'm constantly flying into different time zones. I don't have time to have jet lag because usually I'll land somewhere and the next day I've got a talk to do, okay. So I need to be on point. So I'll make sure that I'm wearing the blue light blocking glasses, dependent on the time zone i'm'm going to. So if it's nighttime there, I'm wearing the glasses. I'm not eating. I'm fasting during that time to help me regulate to the new time zone that I'm going into.

Speaker 1:

Temperature Any advice on temperature during the night?

Speaker 2:

It's going to be different for different people, like, for instance, mostly women like to have it warmer, guys maybe 65, 66 degrees, but my wife cannot sleep in anything less than like 68 at the absolute max. That's stretching it. So I have something called a chili pad. So my side is cold, her side is warm, warm, so that really helps regulate. Making sure got blackout blinds as well. Uh, we have a weighted blanket. That helps, because I think that sends you back maybe to your childhood, where you feel nurtured and having that weight really does help for some people definitely helps with me. Um, yeah, and making sure that you've obviously got a very, very, very good mattress. A lot of people will skimp on that. Knowing, knowing that you spend nearly half your life in bed, you should have a very, very good mattress.

Speaker 2:

So sleep is foundational before you start anything else Of all the biohacks that I've done over the years that helped me is going to be sleep. Okay, yeah, you can buy all the technology you know the hyperbaric oxygen, the red lights and all that sort of stuff and that's where a lot of people, unfortunately, put value. They don't put any value in their free stuff, like the meditation or the sleep, et cetera.

Speaker 1:

Okay, right, I love it. Okay, so then you're starting your day. Yeah, Take us through the perfect day. Kind of mixing in what would you recommend to anyone listening today? Kind of the key elements after sleep.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, usually, like I said, I go to bed pretty early, like 7.30 in the evening, like that early, so I'm not the most sociable person to ask out and whatnot. I will break that every now and again, but I go to bed early, so I wake up early, usually between 4 and 5 am. I will break that every now and again, but I go to bed early, so I wake up early. Usually between 4 and 5 am I will wake up.

Speaker 2:

But when I go to bed, just one thing I want to make note of is I read for about 45 to 60 minutes because that is something like a James Patterson novel, ian Rankin, just to escape all the deadlines, all the calls, all the meetings that I've had throughout the day and all the things I've got to do the next day. So it helps shut that off so I can just lose myself in an alternative reality. So that helps. And then I usually wake up at that time and I'll hydrate myself, I'll drink some hydrogen-rich water and usually straight after that I'm getting into the sauna or the ice bath. I try not to pack all my kind of biohacks in the morning because I found myself getting stressed that I couldn't fit them all in. It was kind of counterintuitive.

Speaker 1:

Before you move on, hydration is the key, Because you're dehydrating over the night, right, and then usually that first thing just getting hydration back up where it needs is a critical thing that a lot of people just don't do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's even worse in other countries, like in Europe, that I find, because no one will come out and ask you for water in a restaurant. They'll look at you like if you're from another planet when you ask for it. But as a whole, because especially in the US, we've become such a caffeine culture and it does act like a diuretic that dehydrates us too. But during the night our brain loses about 40% of its hydration. It shrinks, really, really shrinks throughout the night, about 40%. So it's essential, as soon as we wake up, to have that cognitive function is to hydrate as much as possible. But it isn't just the volume of the fluid. You have to look at the quality of the fluid as well, so making sure you've got electrolytes in it. So if you do have a home water system, it could be a reverse osmosis, so it completely cleans the water, but then a remineralizer, so you're mineralizing the water as well and getting electrolyte function, magnesium, uh, throughout the day. Any comments on quantity?

Speaker 2:

a typical adult how much they should drink everyone's going to be different when it comes down to how much they're working out, how much they're perspiring and where they live. If it's a humid, yeah, humid, but it could be a gallon, it could be three quarters of a gallon, could be half a gallon. If it's a smaller person, okay, but, but a significant amount, yeah, significant yeah I mean you just went from quarter gallon.

Speaker 2:

I mean like yeah, so what I encourage people to do as well is add some electrolytes that are flavored naturally, flavored naturally sweetened. You don't want all the sucralose recommendation on that.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm gonna give you my brand. I know that's where I'm going yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's ElectraShred, but the reason.

Speaker 1:

We're going to start pulling this up. If that's okay, chris, for all those watching on YouTube, we're going to start pulling this up. So your website is Unmatched. Unmatched, we're going to get into this, but you've got your own line of really great products, chris. That's fantastic. Thank you On unmatched. So here you go.

Speaker 2:

Electroshed, electroshed, yeah, so you have electrolytes in there. You also have a spectra blend of, like fruits and vegetables, a serving of fruits and vegetables in there. So you have an antioxidant throughout the day, because we deal with a lot of free radical damage, whether it be in air conditioning, pollutants, whatever.

Speaker 1:

So free radicals. Let's just define that for everyone listening. So free radicals are are. We all have chemicals in our body. These free radicals are precursors to cancers. They're cleaned up all the time by our bodies, by our lymph system, by our spleen, by everything else. But if your immune system is not strong, if you're not doing the right stuff, these free radicals can cause all sorts of take over.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, autoimmune diseases, etc.

Speaker 1:

Yeah so, so big big thing and and and it's been shown that if you do the right kind of pre-treatment for that you can reduce those levels down and so that you're you know it's a big deal right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, for sure. That's why it's very important to have, you know, your fruits, your vegetables, your antioxidants. Now you see people, you know consuming glutathione yeah, more than vitamin c, because that's a master antioxidant. You can have hydrogen rich water, you can have carbon c60 all these really, really strong, potent antioxidants. And I take them all because I know I go through a lot of free radical damage through working out and training and traveling as well, so I always stay on top of that and so a good way to do it is morning with the water, putting this in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, get you, get you kind of that. That's like the starting the perfect day, right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, because like if you're having too much fluid, by itself it can dilute you of the essential minerals that are found in the body, so it can flush them out. So you've got to make sure that you replenish, okay, great okay, keep going.

Speaker 1:

I love this man. Okay, I'm already feeling healthier but I was.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the fluid is the number one thing a lot of people deal with, like headaches. You know they're fatigued, they don't have the energy and a lot of it isn't because of maybe they didn't eat well the day before, it's because they're lacking in hydration. You know, when I have my clients to write down, you know what their sprint was, how much weight they pushed on a certain exercise or anything like that.

Speaker 1:

And they have to tell me their hydration every day. If the hydration is down, usually the day before, the day after, their performance is down, I love it. I love it. Okay, so we just did hydration, um, any any any other morning. You mentioned meditation. I want to hit kind of, if you, if you had to do your perfect morning, what does that kind of starting the day you've, you've got up, and then talk about light in the morning and hydration, and then we hit hydration and then what's next?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so, um, I don't mind light in the morning as long as it's non-flicker, because that's going to raise my cortisol a little high. So I use a biohack for that, which is, um, basically a glasses that you wear and they have a light below so you can still see what you're doing, but it's a non-flicker blue and green light to help set your circadian rhythm for the night. Usually, because I do so much, I like to stack my biohacks. So if I'm in the sauna, that's when I'm usually stretching or meditating.

Speaker 2:

If not, I've got another device that helps me get into a meditative state more efficiently. And you know, it's like listening on, you know on an app, uh, that has like binaural beats. It's a guided meditation and it's also light therapy as well, through the ear canals and the eyes. It's it's called a brain tap and I spoke to dr Patrick Porter, who's the inventor of that, and it's absolutely fascinating how it works. And I've gone away and done 10-day vipassanas, you know, silent retreats. I find this is the easiest way for me to fall into a meditation, because I'm going to give myself 15 to 20 minutes to meditate. That puts me in, really, really quick.

Speaker 1:

Can we look this up, Matthew, just to make sure. Brain tap.

Speaker 2:

Brain tap puts me in really, really quick. Can we look this up, matthew, just to make sure, and maybe we can put the brain tap, brain tap, yeah, it's a fascinating device. Now some people are okay to be in a room, like I know a couple of people here in boise, and they're phenomenal meditation practitioners and they can get straight into that zone without guidance. You know, they're just in it. I'm not one of those guys.

Speaker 1:

I'm not one of those people as well there was a time I I had a heart problem and I had uh open heart surgery and my physician, who was a good friend, she's like, you've got to start meditating you got you got it.

Speaker 1:

You just stress is the biggest killer and I'm going to teach you how to do it. So I said, I said and I've tried, I can't. So she came to my office like two times. And it's a great story because she comes in the middle of the day first of all, like I'm sitting there, she's like, hey, we're gonna practice right. And after two times she's like I'm giving up on you. So that was kind of like they think. So I'm very interested in this because this might be for you. So so here's the device think, sleep and perform better brain tap yeah, wow.

Speaker 2:

So, like I said, it works with various sounds. So they were. It's kind of like a quadraphonic sound. Well, it goes from one headphone to another. So, dr Patrick Porter, if he is actually doing the meditation because there's probably about 500 of them on there they will start talking in one ear canal.

Speaker 2:

And then, just before it starts shutting off here, it will start in this one, so it's always a crossover. I find it fascinating how that works, because you are able to listen, to do two different types of instruction at the same time. How it works, yeah, and, like I said, the light therapy shines into your eyes as well, along in coordination with the light therapy in the ear canals. That goes with a specific beat, the b binaural beat, and the wavelength of sound and the guided meditation. It seems to work. I used it for the first time just before I had to do a talk at the Health Optimization Summit in UK and I'm in the middle of an expo and I just lost myself, all sense of reality and I felt so refreshed. They say a deep meditation, like like 20 minutes, can be like two hours of sleep or something like that. Don't quote me and I honestly feel that way. You know I never have energy issues.

Speaker 1:

I love it okay well, hey we're, we're already clipping along here and and we're feeling better already. So you said cold and light, so talk to to me about sauna and cold plungers.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So it's been shown in studies that you can decrease your all-cause mortality by about 50%. Some say 43%, but you know around 43, 50%, let's call it that if you're in a sauna five days a week for at least 20 minutes, okay, and you know that means that you know your chances of dying is decreased that much. You know. They've done a lot of these studies in Finland. We're in the UK after work they just drink alcohol. You know very different.

Speaker 2:

So that helps your body produce heat shock proteins, which helps repair damaged DNA, folded proteins etc. So it helps with your longevity and your health span in a very big way and, of course, your detoxification at the same time, because we have a lot of heavy metals in our food supply, in pollutants, so you're able to kind of bind and collate some of these heavy metals when you're in a sauna I always encourage people to use a binder that could be activated charcoal, that's a little bit harsh and can collate some of your minerals. But I usually do chlorella, chlorella. Take that about 30 minutes before a sauna and help release a lot of the toxins that our body… and then do you have a?

Speaker 1:

protocol with sauna and cold plunge together If I have time, if you have time.

Speaker 2:

So if I have time, I do the sauna first, but I'll always finish with cold. Okay, so if I have time, I do the sauna first, but I'll always finish with cold, Always finish with cold. So I've got an ice bath at home. That's cold 24-7. It also has hydrogen. It filters hydrogen through it and it's grounded and I usually spend like 25, 30 minutes in a sauna. I did 30 minutes this morning in a sauna and I spent about three minutes in the ice bath and at the moment it's cold. It's cold, it is cold.

Speaker 1:

Roughly what temperature?

Speaker 2:

32. Wow, yeah, it's super cold it's super cold.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's a phenomenal guy called Ice Plunge Cam. You should look him up. He's here locally. I can make that introduction. He's a fascinating guy. Ice Plunge Cam. His name's Cam. Ice Ice Plunge Cam. His name's Cam. Ice Plunge Cam. Yeah, yeah, cameron, and there he is. There he is, well, he's on Instagram. I haven't seen him on YouTube, but anyway, he travels around the world and he does these ice baths and he's in rivers everywhere. He got in my ice bath and he suffered, he suffered. I was thinking, well, if he thinks it's cold, it must be super cold. Because I think when you're in the water, you build a thermic layer, yes, where you know um, on like the front of the body, the back, you know, wherever the water isn't always filtering, so you have that thermic barrier where you don't necessarily have that in the ice bath, because I've got a hose in there that's pumping water too that sounds cold yeah, it's nasty.

Speaker 2:

It's nasty, but this is why I really like it and it isn't because, oh, it knocks out inflammation, it helps with joints and aches and pains, it gives me so much mental stability and it makes me resilient, makes me harder to kill, because there's not one single morning I want to get in there never. But of course we have to get used to doing things that we don't want to do, especially on the mornings that we don't want to do them, so it can have a transcendence effect in other areas of our life isn't the data like the clearly you can feel better from inflammation and other stuff, because that's been done for a long time, but the mental and brain changes that happen with this are.

Speaker 1:

We're just starting to plumb the depths of just how good it is for us. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's the number one priority for me yeah. Helps tone the vagal nerve, and that vagal nerve that takes you into that fight or flight response gets toned. So you have more mental stability throughout the day. And sometimes I'll wear a 24 hour blood glucose monitor and what I notice is, if I do the ice bath in the morning for a few minutes, my blood sugar levels are so much more stabilized as well. So mental stability and blood glucose stability Okay. So there's a lot of benefits.

Speaker 2:

Exercise yeah, exercise, so exercise. I do encourage it on a daily basis, dependence on that person's lifestyle. If it's very stressed, they're lacking in sleep, they've got a lot going on, then maybe I'll give them an entire day off, you know, just to fully recharge and recover. But cardio is usually, you know, five days a week and some form of weight training, dependent on the individual, three to five times a week, 45 minutes a session. It doesn't have to be for hours like a lot of people spend in the gym. It has to be quality over quantity. You go in there just like it's the office, no distraction, get it done and get out.

Speaker 2:

But I think it's very important that people prioritize the most important muscle, which is, like you said, the heart, and we look in the mirror, we just think, okay, I want the abs that this person on Instagram has, I want the pecs, the delts, not knowing that the absolute health comes from the cardiovascular function. So make sure that you're doing I don't know, it could be running, it could be cycling, it could be swimming Just scratch that itch on a daily basis. We're not supposed to be sat on our asses all day.

Speaker 1:

How many minutes?

Speaker 2:

Cardio 20?, 20?.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 20 minutes cardio 20, 20.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 20 minutes. That's absolutely fine. You know it could be hit work, it could be. If it's tabata, it could be as low as, like, eight minutes.

Speaker 1:

If it's hit work, could be as low as 15 minutes so you really want to get, get, get your heart going and recovery and back and forth, okay, yeah and it actually helps you recover from your workouts as well.

Speaker 2:

The better blood flow that you get from the cardiovascular exercise, the better it will transfer.

Speaker 1:

Your body will transport nutrients and oxygen rich blood to those muscles to help recovery um, diet, what's your like for your clients that you talk to and say, hey, sleep, foundational. There's all these life hacks that you, you can and can't do. Hydration in the morning um, we've talked about cold and sauna Diet. What are your recommendations, and I can't wait to hear this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so of course, there's a lot of fads that are out there and some of them have merits. You know it could be like the carnivore diet, keto, paleo, etc. I think the diet that has the most variety of healthy single ingredient foods is the way to go. You know, making sure that you've got, like the rainbow on your plate, different colors of vegetables, making sure that you've got healthy fats in there it could be olive oil. You know, staying away from refined vegetable oils. It could be like nuts, seeds, fish, et cetera. You know, making sure that you're having the first class proteins and single form ingredients of your vegetables and complex carbohydrates. You know potatoes, rice, etc. The one big thing so you know, making sure that you have variety is staying away from processed foods. But whenever you can, if you can afford it, grass-fed, humane, raised, well-caught, organic is the way to go, because the transition that I made in 2014, going from mass-produced food because I was like I just want to get the meals in I didn't really know much about the sourcing of the food back then.

Speaker 2:

As soon as I transitioned over to grass-fed, well-caught, etc. Within about a month I was reduced of all inflammation in my joints that I thought was just a byproduct of working out. I just thought okay, this is it. This is why I'm sore. It's fine, it's part of the sacrifice that I'm going to make, but I was eliminated of all of that discomfort within about a month is there any truth to lectins and their inflammatory?

Speaker 1:

Those are like found in beans and some of those things. If you look at lectin rich foods, you stay away from those.

Speaker 2:

No no, because, like I think, you know these plant defense mechanisms such as lectin. I think that, of course, that causes an inflammatory response in your gut and it creates a more diverse microbiome to deal with that, but you have to consume it in order to create that diversity. A lot of people stay away from it, so now they don't have as much diversity and are going to become more sensitive to it.

Speaker 1:

So clean like non-processed. Non-processed yeah.

Speaker 2:

If you can't pronounce the ingredient, your body's probably not going to recognize it either. I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1:

I love that. What supplements should take an average 30, 40-year-old person working busy family? What are your kind of can't-miss supplements you would do every day?

Speaker 2:

Sure Again, I usually get people to do blood work because I like to see their deficiencies and I don't like to guess, I like to test. Because I like to see their deficiencies and I don't like to guess, I like to test. But the usual is a lot of us spend time indoors at this time of the year that we're going into winter now, so people aren't getting as much vitamin D. And vitamin D isn't a vitamin, it's a hormone. It actually helps regulate your hormones. It's a precursor to testosterone. So vitamin D with K2 to help with the absorption, that could be as high as 10 000 for a lot of people. I had my mother on it for 20 20 000 iu for a while because she had a major deficiency, but now, once it was stabilized, we're able to bring that down.

Speaker 2:

The other thing is, uh, omega-3 oils, you know, help with brain function, help with testosterone as well, help with joint lubrication, so it helps with testosterone as well. Help with joint lubrication. So it helps with synovial fluid to help lubricate those joints. So fish oil is always at the top of that list and then I usually look at okay, if that individual that I'm working with is eating now five to six meals and it's always it's probably inconvenient because they're working out. Then it could be a protein shake in there as well to fill in those gaps, if needed. Of course I always prioritize food first, but if it means that food is going to be an inconvenience, let's quash that inconvenience with a shake.

Speaker 1:

Do you have a recommended type A?

Speaker 2:

grass-fed whey isolate. Grass-fed whey isolate yeah, so you need to stay away from foods that could be possibly pro-inflammatory. So it's the same with the whey isolate. It shouldn't come from cows that have been filled with antibiotics and fed on glyphosate et cetera. And if you have the grass-fed, try to ensure again that it doesn't have any artificial sugars, any artificial sweeteners in there. It should be a very, very clean product, and going for an isolate means that it's probably lactose-free as well. Magnesium yeah, magnesium is a good one. Yeah, I didn't mention that one. Yeah, about 60% of Americans I think 63% are deficient in magnesium, so it is an essential supplement for most as well. So I supplement with magnesium.

Speaker 1:

And isn't there one variant that's the best?

Speaker 2:

It all depends on the goal. Specifically, I take all seven. I take all seven. I have a supplement that and it's not my own supplement, but I have a supplement that I take from a company called BiOptimizers and they have all seven types of magnesium within their caps.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's a good fail-safe.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I guess that does Multivitamin. No, do you think most people need a multivitamin it?

Speaker 2:

all depends Some people. For me, for instance, I'm not a huge veggie eater I wish I was so I will generally take a multivitamin and sometimes a green powder just to help fulfill that. But I would suggest people just eat all their fruits and vegetables. You know fruits I'm good. It's the vegetables because I eat so much. I don't have room for the vegetables Once I've eaten my protein and my carbohydrates. I'm like I don't really room for the vegetables Once I've eaten my protein and my carbohydrates. I'm like I don't really have much more room for this now, so I prefer to just go for more convenient way. As I'm getting a little bit older, my appetite has decreased a little.

Speaker 1:

Do you have a green supplement you recommend?

Speaker 2:

There's probably a few out there. I'd say Organifi is a good one. It's not cheap, but that's a good one.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what do you think about AG1?

Speaker 2:

AG1, I'm not really into that because it doesn't come from an organic source. So you know you have to be careful when you know products don't come from an organic source so they could be very high in heavy metal contaminants. So that's a neurotoxin and we don't want any issues with our brain.

Speaker 1:

Talk about some of the other supplements that you provide through your company.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we talked about glutathione earlier. So I have a product called Longevity EAAs. So the reason why I started this company is because I wanted to merge the health span sector with the sports performance sector, because the majority of the talks that I do around the world is all on anti-aging and increasing your health span and biohacking, etc. So I wanted something that could sit in an expo at like the Mr Olympia, but also fit at like A4M, the longevity summit, you know. So we could merge and marry those together. So this longevity EAAs is a fermented source.

Speaker 2:

Would you believe it that if it doesn't say fermented, those aminos are usually derived from human hair, animal fur or bird feathers, no joke. So you know the industry doesn't really talk about that, but we in the industry know about it. So we use a fermented product that is plant derived but you still have the same nitrogen balance. Within that we have glutathione, which is that body's master antioxidant, and we have something called spermidine, which is like a fasting mimicker, mimica. So the qualities and benefits that you get from fasting you can, from a much, much smaller amount, get it from spermidine, which helps with DNA repair. Basically, that's great and that's once a day.

Speaker 2:

So I ask people to consume that during their workouts and extensive cardio sessions just to keep them anti-catabolic. So the majority of my clients want to burn fat, so they're going to be in a calorie deficit, but I still want them to get the amino acids to maintain or build muscle during that time. And you're also dealing with a lot of free radical damage when you're working out as well. So that's why I ask people to take it during workouts.

Speaker 1:

Great so. Longevity, eaa, longevity, eaa. What's the next one?

Speaker 2:

What have we? Longevity eaa, longevity, eaa. What's the next one? What we got here next? So we got bh2k, we got isolate we could talk about the kregatine if you want to talk about kregatine kregatine, so this is a.

Speaker 2:

We're the only people in the us actually selling this. Um, it's sold in europe, it's sold in australia and it's a combination of creatine monohydrate with guanidinoacetic acid. That's what the GAA is. So when you combine those together, it gets absorbed through four different pathways, as opposed to one with just straight monohydrate, and it also crosses the blood-brain barrier much more efficiently.

Speaker 1:

So can you, can you hit on Because I think up until I think? For me, like the last year and a half, I always associated creatine with muscle. I mean, it was like your muscles needed it. But now the brain benefits of creatine and the anti-aging, and they're even talking about preventing and helping prevent dementia yeah, yeah, it's very neuroprotective. Yeah, talk about the neuroprotective benefits of creatine and specifically how this would compare to just creatine monophosphate.

Speaker 2:

Yeah for sure. So creatine helps the mitochondria. It helps with ATP addison, triphosphate. So our body's ability to utilize energy and our brain obviously functions on energy. All of our organs function on energy and our brain obviously functions on energy. All of our organs function on energy. However, it can be difficult for certain amino acids to cross the blood-brain barrier. That combination of GAA allows it to absorb that much more efficiently. You'll get creatine into the brain anyway if you're just taking straight monohydrate, which is still neuroprotective. So yeah, they've found in studies that it can help decrease the onset of degenerative diseases of the brain and become neuroprotective and also act as a nootropic to give you better brain function, memory recall reaction time.

Speaker 1:

Why isn't that more wildly talked about or known?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, because a lot of people will frown and mainstream media will frown upon creatine, even though it is the most studied amino acid ingredient out there bar none. People will say, oh, you'll get liver or kidney stress, because that's happened, I think, in a baseball player 25 years ago but they were dehydrated.

Speaker 2:

That probably took 25 grams a day or something grams, and they were dehydrated yeah, a lot of people back then were loading as well, where there's taking 20 grams a day. You don't need to do that. You you know, at the end of 28 days studies have shown you still reach the same saturation point, so you can just take a maintenance dose daily which is five, five milligrams yeah, be five, five milligrams in this.

Speaker 2:

Uh, well, five grams, uh like twice a day for the active person. Yeah, five grams, uh, twice a day for the active person.

Speaker 1:

Uh, ours is a microdose, so it's two grams twice a day, okay, wow, yeah, interesting stuff that's I mean you think of, uh, you know I'm 56 now almost 57, and you think of it. You know I'm 56, now almost 57. And you think about the things that are starting to be important to me. Once I heard about that a year ago. I'm like, oh man, I'm taking that double the dose.

Speaker 1:

I've done it. I just like why wouldn't you? And if you're doing some sort of weight training and it protects your brain and it's cheap and it's everybody should say I cheap and it's Everybody should take it. I mean, this is something that should be out there, and I just don't hear much about it at all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what else, Chris? This is fantastic.

Speaker 2:

We got immuno-IgG. If you want to look at that, because we're talking about the brain Now I spent like six weeks in a clinic in Oldsmar, florida, with a gentleman called Dr Spanaug and he is a brain specialist. You know he looks at the brain when people have had mold toxicity, lyme disease etc. And the one thing that he always used to say to me is that the gut is the first brain. You know, a lot of doctors will say it's the second brain, but he was like no, it's the first brain, will say it's a second brain, but he was like no, it's the first brain.

Speaker 2:

Because one of the reasons I said, this pro, pro-inflammatory response that a lot of us people gives to our guts can lead to that chemical imbalance in the brain. Now if we're consuming artificial sugars, colors, glyphosate, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, all this crap trans, then we're causing like some type of gut dysbiosis. We're, you know, we're screwing up the integrity of our gut microbiome. So I came out with this product, immuno-igg, and a white paper has just been put out last week actually showing the superiority of Immuno-IgG over colostrum. Colostrum is great, there's no doubt about it, but you only have about 55% 58% of immunoglobulins. This is double that, and immunoglobulins are the part that helps with the healing of your gut and feeding your gut microbiome with good bacteria.

Speaker 1:

So, for everyone listening, igg immunoglobulin is what it stands for, and so this is all about protecting that, assuming the gut, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So a lot of people, as I've said, you know, if they've had a past of like, maybe they did a course of antibiotics, or a courses of antibiotics that will screw up the gut microbiome, or the artificial sweeteners, whatever it may be. So a lot of people have dealt with some type of problem with digestion or bloatedness, you know. They just don't feel good. They think it's gluten intolerance or whatever it may be. We have found that when people have started taking immuno IgG for about two to four weeks, they notice a complete heal in their gut issues that they were dealing with before. Wow, yeah, and remember, a lot of our hormones are created in the gut as well. So you know, we know that testosterone levels have been decreasing year after year. They've even lowered the standard of it, you know, would you believe it just a few years ago? And you know it's no wonder that we're eating a really, really bad diet, we're sleeping late, we're exposed to so much more stress, so of course something's going to give, and testosterone is usually the number one.

Speaker 1:

Wow, fantastic. Any of the other ones there before I ask you the next kind of topic here.

Speaker 2:

There's a few supplements here, but we can move on if you want.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to miss anything, Chris.

Speaker 2:

I've got you here for this podcast.

Speaker 1:

We'll go to BH2K, you've got the damn world expert on all this stuff.

Speaker 2:

So BH2K, so this stands for Be Harder to Kill. That's kind of my slogan, I love that.

Speaker 1:

Be Harder to Kill. Be Harder to Kill.

Speaker 2:

BH2K. I love it. We should all be harder to kill. So this doesn't have any caffeine. None of my products do, because I don't want to have that cortisol spike.

Speaker 2:

What we do have is what's a metabolite of caffeine called parazanthin. So my friend and biochemist is known as the world's leading formulator was able to extract and isolate this metabolite and it gives you more of a euphoric feeling. It doesn't have any of the negatives of caffeine being slow. It's got very short half-life of about three hours. You could literally take it before bed and you can sleep. You know it's it's, it's crazy, but you have this euphoric feeling like you want to work out, you want to hit the gym, you want to do something you know.

Speaker 2:

So that is the main ingredient that we have in that. We have like cogni, iq, which helps with cognition. We've got several like nootropic ingredients in there, because I always tell people if I'm looking at the physique, it's usually the transformation comes from above. So you need to be focused, you need to be on points you know, you need to have that memory recall and, uh, reactive. Reactive points need to be quicker as we get a little bit older as well. So I made sure that we put a lot of focus into the nootropic aspect as well. And then we have the beta-alanine, the citrine that helps with the pump and lower the lactate acid buildup, so you can push endurance a little bit more as well. So yeah, it's a pretty stacked formula. Again, no artificial anything in them.

Speaker 1:

And talk about a name there buddy, Be harder to kill. How can you go wrong if you're taking a little bit of that every morning? I love it. Talk a little more about anti-aging, because I know I read somewhere that your biological age you're big into calculating that and what is it for you 26, 26.

Speaker 2:

I'm chronologically 50, but my biological is 26. When I first had it tested, 2014, I was two years older biologically than I was chronologically. So I've been able to reduce it year by year, and I think the biggest part has been focusing on my sleep, because up until that point, I wasn't sleeping. You know, I was one of those entrepreneurs burning a candle at both ends. You know, thinking, yeah, sleeping's for wimps, I'm still going to outwork you, I'm still going to out train you.

Speaker 2:

It was just egotistical, but as soon as I started to focus on that, that helped. You know. I got rid of a lot of the metal that was in my mouth implants, fillings, etc. So you know that can act like a neurotoxin and cause stress to the body as well. I had all that taken out.

Speaker 2:

And then you know what, focusing on meditation and stress, you know, really bringing myself down to be a little bit more present, as opposed to stressing about the future, worrying about the past, about the past, and just really focusing on, you know, being in a parasympathetic state, as opposed to that sympathetic, dominant, dopamine filled state that I, that I fed myself on for so many years.

Speaker 2:

And then, like I said, you know controlling light, looking at the sources of the ingredients that I'm consuming, and then you know I have done some other things, like stem cells. I'm sure that helped and that contributed to the reduction of my biological age too. Tell us a little bit more about that. Stem cells yeah, so I had set stem cells first in 2017. I was getting ready for an Ironman and you know I was having problems in the swim. I was basically, if I didn't have a line to follow, I'd be swimming to the right all the time and I knew that I'd torn a couple of muscles in my shoulder, so had stem cells put in there to help with the healing of that, and it was just absolutely life-changing you know it helped everywhere my, my knees, my elbows, everything.

Speaker 2:

It was just, it was crazy. I felt like a teenager again and I had to fly to the first time I went to Colombia. The last two times 2020 and 2024, I went to Mexico. It's a place called CPI Institute. They're the sponsors of the UFC now, so all the UFC guys go down there. Absolutely phenomenal facility and that's been life-changing Like. I tore 68% of my tricep off the bone a few years ago snowboarding man. It just healed. So good, so good, and I'll probably go there every couple of years because I have no, no, I'm not going to slow down anytime soon.

Speaker 1:

You mentioned hyperbaric oxygen. Yeah, I'm involved with a clinic that treats um ptsd traumatic brain injury and veterans great for that and we have a two. We we just built a world-class facility in southeast boise. I'd love to show it to you sometime. That's two chambers um eight person chambers. Oh wow.

Speaker 1:

And then our protocol is diving these vets um 40 days, two dives a day, an hour, each time at 1.8 atmospheres. Yeah, but we just had our first cohort go through, chris, and it's it, was it. Honestly, I think about it gives me chills, it's it. It's so effective, um, it just is. And so, um, when you see what it does for these folks in a relatively short period of time as far as kind of a reset and regeneration of of you know it's got to be just like it does for tissue for your brain and your, your and your nerve endings and everything but where, when it where does it fit in your anti-aging kind of fitness side? Because I'm more familiar with kind of the treatment of PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I've used it extensively, especially after like surgery or stem cells, because it'll help proliferate and stabilize stem cells as well. So I think it's absolutely phenomenal for healing. There's no doubt about it, and I also have some athletes that are football players, motocross riders, boxers or MMA fighters where they're dealing with a lot of trauma to their head, but they're not going to slow down, they're not going to stop. So HBOT is definitely a part of that protocol. I just wish more and more people knew about it, because not many people know about it that are participating in, like Boise State, for instance, in a lot of these sports where they're just you know, they're coming into contact or they're in a contact sport and they know nothing about the benefits of like hyperbaric oxygen or going on a keto diet, on how that can actually help the brain.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, that's, that's incredible. I can't believe our hours up. Um what? Where can we learn more of of you? What would like? I know you have a book out, right, um tell us a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

Do you have a website that has all of your information? I've got so many different sites. I've got a gym site, I've got the supplement sites, I've got a small personal site. Anyway, it's best to just go to my Instagram and try to find everything from there.

Speaker 1:

What's your Instagram?

Speaker 2:

It's at K-R-I-S Gethin, g-e-t-h-i N oh there it is.

Speaker 1:

This is great. Well, I mean, and your boy, your well, finish on this. How did you, how did you end up in Boise?

Speaker 2:

So I got the job opportunity of being editor in chief of bodybuildcom in 2007. That's when you know it wasn't really that old. I think there was only like 30 of us in the office back then. So that's why I moved here originally. And then when Ryan DeLuca left the company, I kind of thought, well, I'm leaving too, because you know he's a good friend of mine. And that's when I become a vendor with bodybuildcom with my first supplement company and we're about to introduce that to this company with Unmatched. But I've absolutely fallen in love with Boise. You know I love the four seasons. I love taking advantage of the winter and summer, sports, the camping, the mountain biking, so it's a perfect spot for me. My hair grows back every time I come back.

Speaker 1:

Well, hey, this was amazing. I really appreciate you taking the time to be here.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate it too, Thank you.

Speaker 1:

With your international travel and all your speaking stuff, and I know a lot of people are going to get a lot out of this and hopefully get a lot healthier. Let's hope so. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it. Thank you, thanks everybody.