Inhaltsverzeichnis für October 2016 in Outside

I, Lab Rat Six years ago, I volunteered to write about a popular cleanse known as the Clean Diet. The plan, which required me to blow up 36 years of eating habits for 28 days, felt like punishment. No dairy, gluten, coffee, alcohol, or refined sugar. I had to eat liquid meals for breakfast and dinner and suffer through a limited menu of whole foods for lunch. If I began the first week a skeptic, I finished the fourth preaching like a life coach: “You have to try this!” I’ve since repeated the program three times, and many of the dietary principles have become part of my everyday life. It changed the way I eat. If I’d gotten nothing else out of the ordeal, I’d be satisfied. But there was…

I’m JUST STARTING to play around with Zwift, the program that makes a game out of riding your bike indoors, when I think of a suggestion for the company’s code writers. It comes to me while I’m pedaling furiously to keep my avatar on the tail of some player from Sweden: Why not build an emoticon for coughing up a lung? It’s a Sunday morning in late fall, and I’m at home in Austin, Texas, participating— barely—in one of Zwift’s many virtual group rides. The game successfully emulates the sport of road riding in that every pedal stroke a player takes on his real bicycle, which is attached to a stationary trainer and wirelessly connected to his computer, is a pedal stroke taken by his cycling avatar. So a mile…

If it’s true that 90 percent of performance is mental, then your brain needs all the help it can get. Fortunately, a new edge has arrived: the Beats-inspired Halo Sport headphones, which emit a mild electric current. The brainchild of neuroscientist Daniel Chao and biomedical engineer Brett Wingeier, the Halo Sport employs transcranial direct-current stimulation, a technology already used to treat chronic pain, depression, and Parkinson’s disease. Yes, the headphones play music, but they also put out gentle current for 20 minutes during a warm-up session. That primes the motor cortex, Halo claims, by helping your neurons fire faster so you learn movements more quickly, your muscles get more efficient, and your brain experiences less fatigue. “Let’s say I’m struggling to do a pull-up,” Chao says, “so you give me…

MY LEGS trembled violently as I clutched the back of a chair in my bedroom, trying to polish off another hellish set of plié squats. “So this ballet stuff is a little harder than you thought, huh?” my wife said. I’ve never claimed to have flexibility or balance. I’m a reasonably athletic six-footthree and am more comfortable muscling through than using any sort of technique when it comes to my athletic pursuits—climbing, mountain biking, and skiing. So I wasn’t exactly thrilled to spend eight weeks learning ballet to see if it would make me better at them. A small comfort was that professional athletes, like New York Jets defensive tackle Steve McLendon, do ballet to improve balance, core strength, and flexibility and help prevent injury. The Dallas Cowboys even installed…

1. FitSkuad Speedure jump rope $49 Featuring a slim, adjustable tenfoot cable and light aluminum grips, the Speedure will help you master double-unders and blast your lungs. The ball bearings connecting the cable to the grips spin smoothly at speeds up to 300 rotations per minute. 2. Yogo Ultralight 2.0 mat $68 Super-grippy rubber is this 2.5-pound yoga companion’s secret ingredient, keeping you in place during the sweatiest downdogs. It’s also easy to rinse off after you haul it to and from Instagramworthy spots. A cotton-mesh inner layer prevents stretching. 3. Hummingbird folding bike $2,250 and up Billed as the lightest folding bike in the world, the Hummingbird weighs just 14.3 pounds. The wheels tuck but keep the chain tensioned, so it doesn’t drop, saving you headaches in elevators and…

SAFEGUARD YOUR SLEEP Sleep is important—we know this. Don’t get enough and we’re prone to being crabby, becoming sick, and underperforming as athletes. Worse, we now know that catching up on rest isn’t really possible. “If you lose sleep one night, there is a chance you can recover that deficit with one good night’s sleep,” says Holden MacRae, a sleep specialist and professor of sports medicine at Pepperdine University. “But if it’s more than one night, you will have lost that sleep for good—you’ve already done the damage.” For athletes, better Z’s starts with three basic steps ADOPT A KINDERGARTNER’S BEDTIME The number-one thing you can do to maximize the health benefits of sleep, no matter how much you’re getting, is go to bed earlier—a lot earlier. “That old adage…

OVER THE PAST two years, I’ve interviewed more than 100 world-class performers for my podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. The guests range from super-celebs ( Arnold Schwarze negger, Jamie Foxx) and athletes (icons of powerlifting, gymnastics, and surfing) to legendary Special Operations commanders and black-market biochemists. For most of my guests, it’s the first time they’ve agreed to a two-to-three-hour interview. Nearly 100 million downloads and two Best of iTunes inclusions later, I’m still learning more each month than I did in some previous years. What makes the show different is a relentless focus on actionable tactics and details. This is reflected in the questions: What do these people do in the first 60 minutes of each morning? What do their exact workout routines look like and why? What are…

SAMUELE MARCORA, the 47-year-old director of research at the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at England’s University of Kent, doesn’t consider himself an endurance athlete. But he’s fast becoming one of the most talked-about researchers in the field. Marcora, who is originally from Italy, started making Maverick’s-size waves in 2009, with a study showing that a tired brain can have nearly as much impact on athletic performance as muscle exhaustion. The article, titled “Mental Fatigue Impairs Physical Performance in Humans” and published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, suggested that fatigue and the role it plays in endurance sports might be mostly in your head. The implications are huge. If fatigue is grounded in perception, the logic goes, then an athlete can train to manage it, opening up new…

THE TROUBLE started right away. “I’ll send you a training plan,” said James Wilson, creator of MTB Strength Training Systems and onetime coach to downhill world champ Aaron Gwin. My problem stemmed from a simple fact: I have never trained for anything in my life. I avoid physical exertion. But this was no ordinary endeavor. My colleagues at this magazine thought it would be funny to give me eight weeks to become the sort of downhill-obsessed bro I’d often derided. I had been on a mountain bike only a dozen or so times. I needed to get in shape quickly, and Wilson is a revered coach. But I immediately regretted committing to a training program. There were stretches, exercises, and bike work—every single day. The first morning, the whole thing…

“YOU’RE NOT claustrophobic, are you?” I turn to my caving partner with a nervous smile, not sure if she’s teasing me or genuinely didn’t get the memo. We’re here—near the very back of the 60-foot-wide, quartermile-long main passage of Cottonwood Cave, in southern New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains, getting ready to squeeze through a tiny hole in the ground—precisely because I want to conquer my fear. “I’ll be OK,” I say. I wasn’t always this way. As a kid, I explored crawl spaces underneath friends’ houses and squeezed into corners of our attic for hide-and-seek. But about three years ago, while taking scuba lessons in the cold waters of Haigh Quarry, outside Chicago, that all changed. On the last dive of my certification class, thirty-something feet down in water so cloudy…

FIND YOUR OWN WAY ANGEL COLLINSON 26, BIG-MOUNTAIN SKIER As a junior ski racer, Collinson had a coach and a sports psy -chologist, and she put off college by a year to focus entirely on training. Then, at 18, she missed out on making the U.S. Ski Team. “I took it as a sign,” says Collinson, who lives in Salt Lake City. So she switched to freeskiing and diversified her approach, experimenting with a vegetarian diet, practicing visualization, and cross-training on a mountain bike. All that trial and error worked—she won the Free Skiing World Tour in 2010 and 2011, and was named Freeskier magazine’s 2015 skier of the year. Collinson now thinks of her sport as play rather than work. “That’s been the biggest change for me in performing…

In THE PAST several years, as measured by Google Trends, interest in an unusual style of eating called the ketogenic diet has tripled, and chances are you have a friend or coworker who’s tried it. Early adopters are typically people who run or ride a lot and want a food plan that doesn’t just fill their tanks but also boosts performance. Followers scarf eggs, cheese, and olive oil in hunger-killing quantities, turning their backs on just about every carb other than vegetables. They don’t use half-and-half in their coffee—they use heavy cream. Still, they’re likely to look a little lean, since the ketogenic diet turns them into 24/7 fat burners. (Even while surfing the couch.) And don’t be surprised if they report feeling better and stronger than ever. Ketones are…

MYBRIEF, blissful life as a pro begins at age 49, on a September morning at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. I arrive looking like a grayer, gimpier version of the otherathletes, many of them members of the LA Galaxy soccer team. FlashingmyIDbadgeatthesecurityguard, I head to a subterranean complex, whereacompanycalledExoswilloverseemyworkoutsforthenexttwoweeks. Exosisa high-performancefitnessoperationthatprovidessystematizedtrainingforanybodyfromcorporateworkerbeestospecial-opssoldierstoworld-championathletes. ClientshaveincludedWayneGretzky, “ LoneSurvivor” MarcusLuttrell, U. S.SoccerstarsLandonDonovanandAlexMorgan, theentireWorldCup– winningGermannationalsoccerteam, andcompanieslikeAdidas, Intel, Porsche, andTeslaMotors. Foundedin1999byMarkVerstegen, a47-year-oldcoachandtrainerfromWashingtonState, thecompanyoperatedunderthenameAthletes’ Performanceandasubsidiary, CorePerformance, until2014, whenitwentthroughawholesalerebranding. Thenewname, Verstegensays, isshortfor“ exosphere,thehighestleveloftheearth’satmosphere. That’swhatwedo, helppeoplereachthehighestlevel.” Iparticipateinalotofsports, includingskiing, cycling, climb-ing,andsoccer, andIcansaywithconfidencethatI’veneverreachedthehighestlevelatanyofthem. Undaunted, Iresolvetostriveformyhighestlevel, whichincludesunleashingsomedominationatafastapproachingover-fortysoccertournament. I’mhopingtobeinpeakshapeforit, butI’vebeensidelinedwithseveralinjuriesforweeks, watchingmyfitnessfade. Allmyactivitiescomewithchallenges, butsoccerismyoldestpassion— orobsession, tobemoreaccurate I’veplayedsincegradeschoolandstilldo, inlocalcityleaguesandtournaments, latelywithandagainstthefull-grownsonsofformerteammates. Theupcomingtournamentisahighlightofmyyear, atwo-daywarofattritionagainstteamslikeManChestHairUnitedandtheTownDrunks, theirrostersmadeupofdudeslikemewhocan’tquiteletthedreamdie. Asacenterforward, I’msubjecttoallkindsofabuse. Offthefield, myopponentsmayappeartobewell-adjusted, mortgage-payingdads, buttheymorphintoneon-cleatedsociopathswhenthewhistleblows. I’mroutinelyshoved, kicked, punched, tripped, kneed, elbowed, head-butted,shirt-tugged,andsmack-talkedbythesescragglyoldgoats, withoutremorseorapology. Realfitness, soccerhastaughtme, isn’tjustaboutstronglungsandbuffpecs. It’saboutdurability, artfullyintertwinedwithstrength, power, endurance, andmobility I’veknownaboutExosforyears, butuntilrecentlyIhadn’tfullyunderstoodwhatit’sallabout. Exosoffersvarioustypesoftrainingwithvariouspricetags, buttwoweeksofwhatIexperienced— whichincludedpersonalizedcoaching, massages, lunch, anddietarycon-sultation—costsbetween$ 3,500and$ 4,…

THE BLOODLETTING began at my kitchen table. At 8 A.M., a nurse named Kristy waved an infrared thermometer over my forehead and checked my pulse and blood pressure. Then she slipped on a pair of gloves, rubbed alcohol on the inside of my arm, and guided a 23-gauge needle into my vein. The needle was short and appeared to be wearing a pair of plastic butterfly wings—which was cute and all, but as dark red liquid curled down the attached tube and burbled into a vial, I felt a rush of wooziness. For reasons I’ll soon explain, my goal was to experience firsthand the new wave of blood tests that claim to optimize athletic performance, improve overall well-being, and increase life -span. Diagnostic testing is a $75-billion-a-year industry, but it’s…

1. Trace tracker $200 Stick this little puck on your surfboard, snowboard, or ski and get a slew of data to geek out about at day’s end. The Trace records wave count, top speed, and biggest turn when surfing, and total vertical drop, speed, jump height, and air time while on the slopes, delivering it all to your phone via Bluetooth. Sync the app (Android and iOS) with your GoPro and it can automatically edit down the footage to just the action sequences. 2. altra iQ running shoes $200 The IQ isn’t the first smart shoe, but its dual sensors give you better impact, balance, and landing-zone data than anything else we’ve tested. On top of that, a wide toe box and lush cushioning make this Altra one of the…

For many elite athletes, critiquing their performance after a training session feels like a healthy habit: identify what went right and wrong, then plan how to improve. But while post-game analysis has its advantages, every minute you spend rehashing can actually delay the body’s physical recovery process—whether you’re obsessing over a slow time or reveling in your new PR. “We can’t begin to really recover until we have physically and mentally moved on from our workout,” says neuroscientist and performance psychologist Leslie Sherlin, who has worked with Olympians and action-sports stars from beach volleyballer Kerri Walsh Jennings to snowboarder Louie Vito. “We have this misconception that while reliving a negative outcome is bad, positive thoughts are OK. The reality is, you’re still reliving it.” Sherlin’s work borrows from studies on…

THE PROPELLER looked impossibly far away. Ten feet in front of me, an eight-foot-long wooden wing spun slowly beneath a maze of metal scaffolding about 15 feet above a pool in a Las Vegas parking lot. I’d just completed the first obstacle of NBC’s 2016 American Ninja Warrior finals course—five stepping stones that tilted on hinges as runners hopped across them. Now I was supposed to run across a platform, leap onto a small trampoline, and, in a fit of acrobatic grace I doubted I possessed, grab the prop with both arms. Assuming I avoided smashing my teeth against the wood, I then had to grab the rope dangling on the far side of the propeller and swing to a mat inconveniently angled above the water. I had arrived in…

A FEW YEARS ago, James Levine, a doctor of endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic, sparked a radical change in America’s office furniture. His research had inspired a pile of viral stories cataloging the negative effects of sitting at a desk: leg muscles shut down, blood pressure increases, good cholesterol plummets, your children starve. OK, I made up that last one, but the real takeaway was no less dire. “Excessive sitting is a lethal activity,” Levine, who has studied sedentary behavior for nearly 20 years and is the most widely quoted expert on the topic, told The New York Times in 2011. And the solution—at least the one people heard— was to start standing. Cue the office makeovers. Over the next several years, workers all across America embraced stand-up desks. At…

7 A.M. Sweeney starts with a blendered combination of Mayorga Organics coffee, coconut oil, grass-fed but ter, heavy cream, and a raw organic egg. He follows that up with three baked eggs, three ounces of smoked salmon, and a few avocado slices. 10 A.M. Mid-morning, he eats a bowl of full-fat plain Greek yogurt topped with walnuts or maca -damia nuts. 12 P.M. Lunch is a large bowl of spinach with a sprinkling of blue cheese, four ounces of buttered grilled flounder, crumbled bacon (sometimes), and a tablespoon of olive-oil-based dressing. He has a few ounces of cheese on the side. P.M. Sliced cheddar or Mont d’Or cheese wrapped in prosciutto serves as Sweeney’s afternoon snack. 7 P.M. For dinner he eats three to four ounces of salmon with asparagus,…

Athos’s smart clothes monitor muscle activation, effort, balance, and heart rate on an app (iOS only), helping you coach yourself to perfect form. $547 for compression shirt, shorts, and sensors Get out of that strawberries-andyogurt rut. Greenblender delivers weekly boxes of fresh fruit, veggies, and superfood powders like antioxidant-rich maqui berry and cacao—everything you need (including recipes) to make ten nutrient-rich smoothies. $176 a month A coach from Carmichael Training Systems will custom-build a cycling, running, or triathlon schedule with weekly check-ins and analysis of your power, heart-rate, and GPS training files. $165 a month Book a one-hour sports massage online with Soothe and a therapist will arrive at your house an hour later. $99, tip included The Pear+ app offers thousands of workouts and training plans with interactive audio…