Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Summary
On episode 111 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Eric Langshur, a corporate executive and entrepreneur and founder of Abundant Venture Partners, and Dr. Nate Klemp, a Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton-trained former philosophy professor, co-founders of Life Cross Training and authors of the book Start Here.
They explain “life cross training,” the idea that well-being, like physical fitness, isn’t built by any single practice but by combining several, structured in the book around three stages: train, be, and do.
The conversation covers why modern stress has reached epidemic levels, how meditation and exercise physically change the brain, and the practice of “inquiry,” questioning the validity of a stressful thought instead of automatically believing it.
Links
- https://starthere.life
Key Takeaways
- Life cross training applies the fitness concept of cross training to well-being. Just as combining different physical exercises maximizes fitness, the authors argue combining different mental and emotional practices, rather than relying on one, is what actually builds holistic well-being.
- Modern stress has reached epidemic levels. The percentage of Americans on antidepressants roughly doubled from 6.8% in 1999 to 13% in 2012, about one in seven people has a sleep disorder, and the average person checks their phone around 150 times a day, evidence that always-on technology has outpaced our biology.
- Well-being is a trainable skill because the brain is neuroplastic. Contrary to the old belief that the brain is fixed from birth, the authors point to neuroscience showing the brain can be reshaped, which is the foundation for structuring Start Here around trainable practices rather than fixed traits.
- Meditation physically changes the brain, even for beginners. After four to eight weeks, brain activation shifts from the right to the left prefrontal cortex, a marker linked to greater well-being, and long-term meditators show thicker gray matter that appears to buffer normal age-related brain shrinkage.
- Movement benefits go beyond the physical. A single yoga session raises the calming neurotransmitter GABA by about 20% in beginners and up to 80% in experienced practitioners, while a landmark 1999 Duke study found aerobic exercise matched Zoloft for improving mood and reducing anxiety and depression.
- Small movement changes count. Standing at your desk, parking farther away, taking the stairs, or pacing while on a phone call all reduce sedentary time without requiring a trip to the gym.
- The practice of “inquiry” means questioning the validity of a stressful thought. Because the brain carries a built-in negativity bias that prioritizes storing bad news, isolating a stressful thought and testing whether its opposite is equally true frees up energy that anxiety would otherwise consume.
- The mind wanders roughly 47% of the time, and that makes us less happy. Harvard research by Matthew Killingsworth found this correlation directly, reinforcing why the book’s “train” practices focus on attention.
- Good practices, repeated, become good habits, and habits form the foundation of well-being. The authors’ underlying premise is that consistency turns these techniques into something you can draw on automatically, rather than something you have to consciously will yourself into each time.
“Well-being is a skill that can be trained.”
Eric Langshur
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 112 – 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain with Dr. Gary Small