Ben Greenfield Life w/Peter Wasowski
Stack cold thermogenesis blood flow restriction & grounding with high intensity interval training for massive cardiovascular & hormonal gains with [founder] Peter Wasowski from VASPER.
VASPER (8:30)
Simply put, its an exercise machine that combines blood flow restriction, cold thermogenesis and full body high intensity interval training into one single 21 minute workout.
Origins (10:35)
Peter Wasowski previously founded a company called GameReady alongside Bill Elkins (who helped design cooling parts for NASA). They developed a piece of equipment called GameReady that produced a rest, ice, compression, and elevation (RICE) effect for recovery purposes. It was especially useful for pro athletes that travel frequently. When you fly, you tend to retain water, which is horrible in terms of post-athletic performance recovery. GameReady provides the ability to treat injuries mid flight. The device specifically applied the RICE effect on the joints of the body. All the athlete has to do is put it over the joint and turn it on, once the battery powered device is filled ice and water. Wasowski states that there’s a big difference between just icing your joints and GameReady. His machine combines cooling (at a specific temperature) and compression (at a specific pressure) to produce recovery results.
Evaporative Cooling (26:33)
Each one of us have a specific volume of blood, around 8% of our body weight. If a person is participating in an intense workout a significant amount of blood will go to their skin in order to sweat. Skin is the largest organ in the body. Shunting a significant amount of blood to the skin, leaves you with less blood in the muscles. That’s part of the reason why soreness occurs after a hard workout.
Scientific Reasons for VASPER (27:22)
-lateral restriction exercise (very mild)
-temperature control (cooling)
-electrical earthing (grounding)
The Grounding Effect and VASPER (28:53)
The rubbing of the modern day synthetic clothing creates massive amounts of static electricity which goes inside the body, but because of our rubber soled shoes there’s no way to discharge. It has been suggested this may lead to auto immune “craziness” (illness). When barefoot and wearing cotton clothing, whatever static charge has built up, it is discharged into the ground. In return, negative electrons are attracted or absorbed, providing electrical balance. This idea/research was used to design aspects of VASPER. Your feet rest on brass plates. Between the plates are copper tubes with water that take the static charge to the ground and brings back negative electrons. Both brass and copper have very unique properties. They’re both good conductors and germs cannot grow on them.
Vascular Compression and VASPER (41:00)
Vascular compression is typically approached just like cooling/icing. It’s used extremely loosely and people don’t understand the details that are involved in making it optimal/efficient. When using vascular compression/blood flow restriction bands, they’re applying a significant amount of compression. You’re able to do some anaerobic exercises but not aerobic. In Peter’s opinion, it’s too much and not as optimal/efficient. He believes that there are subtle nuisances to compression. Anything that goes over a 100mmHg compresses peripheral venous return, compresses deep veins and compresses some arterial flow. VASPER’s default pressure is 65mmHg on your legs and 40mmHg on the arms. Allowing you to be anaerobic in your arms and legs and aerobic in your chest, all at the same time.
Cooling Element of VASPER (47:24)
When significant amount of blood goes to the skin in order to sweat:
-core body temperature drops
-blood vessels dilate
-heart rate goes up
-blood pressure goes up
-efficiency of exercise goes down significantly
The idea of the cooling behind VASPER is to prevent sweating. So your body feels the effects of the exercise on a bio endocrine system level but your core body temperature is normal, blood pressure is normal and heart rate is normal. Which all leads to a significant amount of efficiency in recruitment of the endocrine system to trigger hormones designed to rebuild muscles back to pre-exercise conditions. With VASPER there is no muscle damage.
Endocrine Response (1:01:19)
Studies were done with VASPER on a baseball team which showed significant increases in testosterone. Another study was done on pararescue and it lead to:
-an overall significant increase in their well being
-energy levels and performance increase
-nigh time cortisol decreased by about 48%
-had no need for coffee in the morning
Ways to Use (1:13:35)
Since there is no muscle damage done with using VASPER, you can do it everyday. If you use VASPER in conjunction with traditional weight lifting exercises, it is even more effective.
Products Mentioned and/or Podcast Sponsors:
“Stack Cold Thermogenesis, Blood Flow Restriction & Grounding with High Intensity Interval Training for Massive Cardiovascular & Hormonal Gains.” Open.spotify.com, 26 Aug. 2023, open.spotify.com/episode/7czooWMzn9Vz74KYxhXxUI. Accessed 2 Sept. 2023.