8 Week Brain Cross Training Program Update

In the first week of August I committed to these weekly training goals for an 8 week program.

There were some early refinements / substitutions which settled quickly on the following:

CORE PROCESSES: x2 full Sessions (20 blocks) and x2 half sessions (10 blocks) of executive function & working memory brain training. Desktop app: i9 Mindware – IQ Prime program.
SKILL SETS: x2 20 minute sessions of logical reasoning training, combined with the half-sessions of i9 brain training. Mobile app: Brilliant.
EXERCISE:: x2 10k runs per week, x3 15 minute HIITs per week, x7 yoga/stretching (15 minutes) per week. Apps: MapMyFitness, and Sworkit personalized workout app.
NUTRITION – Phytonutrients:: x5 Turmeric+Cacao+Black Pepper hot soya drink per week (1 teaspoon turmeric, 2 teaspoon cacao, 1 drop black pepper essential oil, soy milk). Green tea x7.
NUTRITION – Supplements: B12 and Omega 3 (since I am on a primarily vegetarian diet). I am also supplementing with Zinc and Magnesium.
INTERMITTENT FASTING:: x3 8pm – 12pm (16 hour) fasts.
HRV COHERENCE BREATHING: x7, 10 minutes. App: HeartRate+ (set to 10 second cycles, with 4.5 seconds in-breath, 5.5 seconds outbreath).
MEDITATION: x4 20 minute sessions. App: Headspace – as well as my own practice.
SLEEP MANAGEMENT: Stop work by 10pm. In bed by 11pm.
MINDSET: CBT techniques to reduce stress and anxiety and improve mood. 5-10 minutes per day. App: Moodnotes – soon replaced by my own diary taking.

Habit Trackers

I have been tracking my progress consistently with a habit tracking app called Way of Life that gives clear visual feedback on progression. Here is a montage of my efforts since I began the Psi-X program:

Way of Life provides nice habit streaks and training efficiency data. Here is my overall habit efficiency in terms of percentage of scheduled training sessions attained. This week’s is lower because there are two days remaining. Overall a good level of efficiency.

It’s easy to see what training practices I’m struggling with – for example, stopping work by 10pm and going to bed by 11pm (to read mostly). For me, this is actually an unrealistic training goal at this point.

More recently I have also been using an excellent habit building app called Productive which I’ll be using more consistently over the coming weeks. It’s very highly rated in the app stores, and a great concept with simple listings, swipes and taps to keep track of what you’ve been doing. Check it out!

You can set your training practice to specific days (morning, afternoon or evening or unspecified), and you can also set it to number of times a week or month – where you leave the specific days unspecified. I use the weekly option for most of my training practices.

Biometrics and Psychometrics

I have been recording a bunch of physiological and psychological metrics as I’ve been going along, including the following (it’s way too much to sustain for more than 8 weeks max, but it’s a good experiment, and I’m looking for correlations.) –

Biometrics

Weight and BMI

Systolic blood pressure
Diastolic blood pressure

Sleep Quality

Sleep Hours

Wake Time
Heart rate

Measures of Heart Rate Variability (RMSSD, pNN50, VLF, HF, LF:HF, VLF:HF)

(I use HRV4Training for iOS for HRV baseline tracking, and also use a Garmin chest strap with Kubios for detailed HRV analysis).

Behavioral (Productivity) & Psychometrics

Hours Worked (using the desktop app Rescue Time – which is highly recommended)

Minutes doing workouts (using the MapMyFitness app)

Miles covered doing workouts (using MapMyFitness)

RT Productivity (using the desktop app Rescue Time)
Goal Satisfaction (In addition to the Productive app I’m using the Swipes ‘to do list app’ which is excellent)
# Creative Ideas (using the Today app)
# Problems Solved (using the Today app)
Mental Sharpness (using the Reporter app)
Stress Level (using the Reporter app)
Mood (positivity level) (using the Reporter app)
Motivation (using the Reporter app)
Burn Out – Psychological (using the Reporter app)
Burn Out – Physical (using the Reporter app)

Executive functioning (attention, perception, executive function and memory) (Using Cognitive Fun)

i9 Brain training working memory performance

I will provide a detailed summary of my metrics as they have improved over time, as well as any insightful statistical analysis once I’ve got a bit more data.

Injuries

Concentrating too many new physical practices at too high a volume into a week – can quickly result in injuries, as I found. First I got blisters, and then pulled muscles in my back which forced me to greatly reduce the intensity of my training for a couple of weeks.

The Red Zone of the Hormesis Response

Many of the training practices are hormesis-based – they are intended to be ‘good stressors’ that trigger a host of beneficial ‘vita-gene’ responses, including an improved immune system, growth hormones for new neurons and enzymes for DNA repair.

The hormesis response curve is an inverted U, and has an optimal ‘sweet spot’ for physiological and mental stressors such as exercise, fasting or mental work. It is critical to challenge the body to the right extent, and not overdo it which can quickly result in diminishing returns followed by actual harm to mind and body. Feeling bad, burned-out and wired – and having difficulties sleeping – can be a symptoms of over-training. Overtraining may also be measured by reduced heart rate variability over several days. It’s critical to rest and integrate recovery days into your schedule to ensure you have an overall intensity level that suits you.

While I’d been experienced in all these training practices, I’d not combined them all together in such a volume, and I believe I spent some time in the ‘diminishing returns’ and ‘harmful dose’ region of this curve – as reflected in my biometric and psychometric measures at the time.

The key here is slow and steady! Build in entirely new habits to your routine in pairs and ensure they are stable before incorporating more practices that are hormetic stressors. Recovery time can take ages!

This is especially true if you have had issues with anxiety or depression or other related conditions.

A useful app for staying out of the hormesis red zone and ensuring you are training at the right intensity is HRV4Training. Essentially, if your heart rate and HRV take a leap up past base-line, you should probably rest. Lack of sleep can exacerbate/accelerate the risk of ‘burn-out’ due to overtraining – both physically and cognitively.

Recovery Practices

Good recovery practices – during times when you should not be training intensely due to potential overtraining – include LIGHT aerobic exercise (where you are not higher than Zone 2 in your HR: this is a fantastic destressor), as well as coherence breathing, yoga, meditation and good sleep. Also 2 litres of water and good nutrition helps a lot.

What is good nutrition? Vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, while cutting down on sugar, salt, refined foods, trans fats, dairy and animal products that are not grass-fed or game. Here is a good diagram from US dietary guidelines showing which nutrition practices result in the highest mortality risks.

Phytonutrients – Cacao

For many months I’ve been an avid turmeric and cacao drinker. My doses kept increasing, and I realized part way into this program was that I had become fairly addicted to Cacao. When I didn’t have it I wouldn’t sleep and would feel anxious, most likely on account of its theobromine – a stimulant.

I have since switched to organic Turmeric, organic Carob, black pepper and almond milk drinks – another experiment.

Phytonutrients – Green tea

When I started the Psi-X program, I was drinking Twinings green tea. Researching around a bit, it soon became obvious that anyone wanting to get into the benefits of green tea phytonutrients should be taking Matcha green tea! I’ve been using a brand called ‘Pure Chimp‘ which is excellent. Matcha tea is made by taking the green tea leaves and grinding them down to form a fine powder which is consumed mixed into hot water or a smoothy. Half a teaspoon may be equivalent to 10 cups of regular green tea, and you certainly notice the difference!

I would strongly recommend anyone considering nootropics to first try Matcha tea for its cognitive benefits. I certainly noticed enhanced cognition, as well as an improved mood Matcha tea has high levels of both caffeine and the amino acid l-Theanine. Theanine increases the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. The combination of theanine and caffeine has been shown to promote faster simple reaction time, faster numeric working memory reaction time and improved sentence verification accuracy.

Having said this, my partner’s reaction to Matcha green tea and mine were quite different. Essentially I got unwanted side effects (sleep and mood related) and she did not. For this reason, I’d recommend starting at lower doses (a quarter of a teaspoon or even less), and waiting for 2 or 3 days to see if you get any side effects before slowly increasing the dose to half a teaspoon if preferred.

I’d strongly recommend experimenting with Matcha tea in combination with your brain training and other cross-training strategies.

Enjoy your training!