What is Brahma Mherta and could you

describe your personal morning routine?

>> I do have a very strong and very

disciplined morning routine and I

studied love and happiness. So it's not

as if I'm, you know, doing going deep

into the physiology of actually how I

can have the best amount of muscle mass

and minimum amount of body fat.

>> I want to have more love and happiness

in my life and it's not easy. So I'm a

>> specialist in human happiness because

it's hard for me. That's the first thing

to I know everybody who does research on

happiness in the psychology behavioral

science world, they're doing it for a

reason.

>> Yeah, it's sort of me search more than

research, but one of the things that I

found is that discipline and an

understanding of your own human

physiology, the biology and neuroscience

is critical for actually becoming a

happier person.

>> So, I have a morning routine that I

dedicate to being both more productive

and having higher well-being. So I'm

managing mood because high negative a

effect is characteristic of my

personality and I also need to be really

productive because the morning hours are

when you're most productive especially

in creative stuff almost everybody

experiences this and that starts with

what you just mentioned which is called

the brahma mhorta and I've studied a lot

in India I go to India every year I have

spiritual teachers but also I'm very

interested in behavioral science in the

vadic tradition they came to a lot of

truths way before western social science

actually came upon this and one and one

of the ideas was Brahma Mahorta which in

Sanskrit means the creator's time. Now a

mahorta is is 48 minutes long. So two

mahortas the Brahma mahorta is an hour

and 36 minutes before dawn. And the

whole idea going back thousands of years

is you get up an hour and 36 minutes

before dawn and you'll be more creative,

more in touch with the divine, more

productive and happier.

>> This was always the contention. So, of

course, it's been put to the test in

modern behavioral science research. And

sure enough, we don't know if it's two

mahortas is the right number of

mahortas. But the whole point is getting

up before dawn has incredible impacts on

productivity, focus, concentration, and

happiness. If you're getting up when the

sun is warm, you've lost the first

battle for mood management, and

productivity is what it comes down to.

So, my days always start before dawn.

Now I usually set the clock for 4:30 in

the morning which is a lot before dawn

in who knew that Jaco Willink was such a

fan of Vadic traditions. He also wakes

up at 4:30. Please continue.

>> 4:30 is a good time for a lot of

different reasons. You try to retrofit

your schedule to what you need to do for

sure. And that's a long time before dawn

in the winter and not that long before

dawn in the summer. And our our

listeners in Helsinki are like what do I

do in July? I mean, okay, you know, you

have to tailor the routines to what

you're doing, but it's very clear that

this is good for productivity and very

good for happiness. And then the most

important thing is what do you do right

after that?

>> Yeah. What do you do?

>> I pick up heavy things to run around.

>> Okay.

>> So, what does it look like?

>> Well, the most important room in my

house is the gym.

>> Mhm.

>> And I've always had a good gym in my

house. Down in the basement of my house.

Now, down in the basement of my house is

also living one of my kids and his wife

and their two sons. So, I have to be

real quiet. Lift heavy things. kept

clanking around down there because like

I don't want to wake up my

grandchildren. But, you know, I do

generally speaking 2/3 resistance, one/3

zone 2, but I tailor that to what my day

is going to look like. So, if I have a

sedentary day, I'll do more zone 2 to

start the day. And if I know I'm walking

around, I'm walking around campus or

whatever I have to do, I know I'm going

to be walking seven or 10 miles that

day, I'll do all resistance. And so,

that really depends. Or if I'm going on

a hike with my wife on Saturday or

something, but that's seven days a week.

I do an hour in the gym seven days a

week.

>> What would the let's just say

prototypical

2/3 resistance 1/3 zone 2 or whatever

the the ratio might look like as a

template.

>> What would that look like? Like what are

the what type of exercises, free weights

equipment, kettle bells? What type of

zone two do you like?

>> Because for instance, like with zone

two, it's like I travel a lot.

Stationary bikes can be a real hassle

because of the fitting. But then, all

right, maybe you use a treadmill with an

incline with a ruck sack or something

like that. I'd just love to know the

specific.

>> Yeah, for sure. I'm very old school. So,

my resistance training actually I

learned the routines that I do when I

was in my 30s. I really started lifting

when I was in my 30s and you know, my

dad died and I and I I changed a lot of

the things in my life. I quit drinking

alcohol in my 30s and and I did a lot of

things differently that I hadn't done

before because I wanted to not have the

future that I saw in the windshield of

my life. And one of the things that I

did was I started getting serious about

my fitness and going to the gym. And I

thought to myself, you know, what's my

goal? My goal is not to, you know, turn

into a statue and, you know, be admired.

I mean, I've been married for a long

time at that point. I mean, that was

sort of done. And besides, my wife

doesn't care. She just wants me to be

happy and healthy.

I wanted to be doing that in my 70s. I

wanted to be healthy in my 70s. I wanted

to be hanging out with my wife and, you

know, dandling my 11th grandchild on my

knee when I was 78 years old. So, what I

did was I've always been on tour. I've

always traveled constantly all

throughout my career. Every city I'd go

to, I'd find the oldest iron gym I could

find. Why? Because that's where the old

dudes train.

>> That's where like the the shredded guys

train. And now I'm the old guy, right?

So my wife says that that you know

sleeping with me is like holding a

leather sack of ropes

which is I think it's a compliment. I'm

not sure you know but I've been married

decades to him. Decades. But I would go

to these iron

>> better than a leather sack of lard.

Right.

>> Yeah. For sure. For sure. It's like

ropes.

>> And it's a So we I go to these gyms for

78-year-old guys who are completely

shredded. M

>> they look like you know old roosters and

they're they're working out and I would

say teach me teach me maestro you know

the sensei teach me what you do and they

would give me this advice and I followed

that advice deciduously and so what it

is is I'm old school push pull legs

>> don't use a bar

>> and is it push pull legs every workout?

>> No it's push pull legs on different

days. So, it's kind it's not a pure bro

split, but it's near on, right?

>> Making sure that you're not getting

heroic with the amount of weight. You're

making sure that you're using dumbbells

and not bars because you can get full

range of motion. Be super careful about

your joints. If you have any pain in

your joints, you back off. You do for

volume, you do more reps as opposed to

more weight.

>> And always be doing it that way. And

dial it down the actual weight, dialing

up the reps as you get older.

>> And these are these basic ideas. So,

it's push pull legs and then I'm doing

usually somewhere between 20 minutes and

40 minutes of zone 2 cardio which I have

an elliptical machine because it's super

easy on the joints.

>> Yeah.

>> And every place, every hotel's got an

elliptical machine. I've got a nice

elliptical machine at home and that's

what I'm doing. And this is an hour. A

lot of the time I'm doing it without

headphones. It's important because you

need to concentrate for

>> to begin with. That's your most creative

time. That's like taking an hourong

shower. You get your best ideas if you

work out without headphones. There's a

lot of good neuroscience on that as

well. And that's 4:45 to 5:45 in the

morning every single day. That's the one

thing I can really count on that's

always going to be good. Always going to

be good.

>> Do you record your workouts, videotape

my workouts?

>> No. In any type of like workout journal,

or is it so intuitive at this point that

you're like, I really know since I'm

using dumbbells and dumbbells should be

consistent from place to place.

>> I can tell you what I did on this day in

2001.

>> Meaning you remember it.

>> No. Or meaning it's written down. Okay.

Like, wait a second.

>> No, no, no, I'm not.

>> There's some people who are like that.

>> Sort of a Rainman deal.

>> Well, for instance, people you wouldn't

expect. Arnold Schwarzenegger loves

chess. And when I first interviewed him,

I was talking to his right-hand man. He

said, "Oh, he plays chess daily with X

number of people over the course of a

week or two, and he keeps track of every

game and every score in his head."

>> That's amazing. So, no, I'm not doing

that. But I can tell you, I mean, I've

got I have journals that go back, you

know, I write it down and so I know, you

know, what's on what day and what I did.

There's a whole lot of things that I

keep records of for sure, just so I

understand my own progress in life,

>> making sure I'm not making regress in

life. And for some reason, I got into

the I got into the pattern of writing

down every single workout going back,

you know, until back to my 30s.

>> Yeah. The same.

>> And now I was 61 years old. So that's a

lot of date books.

>> Yeah. Yeah, I have workouts going back

to 16 and I still

Yeah. I don't know why I keep them, but

I have them.

>> I can tell you behaviorally why people

do that. I mean, what you want is record

of progress because that's one of the

great secrets to human happiness. You

never arrive. Arrival gives you almost

nothing. But it's progress toward the

goal.

>> And this is a record of Tim's progress

going all the way back to 16 is evidence

that you're a better man than when you

were 16 years old. Let's hope. Certainly

not as strong as I was when I was in my

20s, but still zone two, not dying.

>> Nothing like this. No, it's fantastic.

It's really a great way to start the day

and there's a lot of research once again

on on this is especially important for

mood management. So half of the

population is above average in negative

>> a effect.

>> Negative a effect is strong negative

manifestation of mood.

>> Yeah.

>> And obviously if it's the median, half

has to be above that and half has to be

below. And I'm way above average in

negative a effect. I'm above average in

positive e. Yeah. I mean, you're a mad

scientist, which is typically

>> You're a poet. We talked about this

last.

>> Oh, we did this. You are a poet. So,

you're below average positive.

>> Below average positive, high peak

negative.

>> High peak negative. So, I'm at the 90th

percentile in negative mood.

>> Yeah.

>> And there are ways, typical ways that

people self-manage negative mood that

are really, really bad for you. Like

drugs and alcohol, like internet use,

like pornography, horrible negative mood

management. workcoholism. Awful. People

distract themselves because they're, you

know, the the amygdala

>> of the brain is what largely manages

fear and anger, but the amydala also

manages attention. And so if you can

distract yourself with something you can

count on like your work, what you're

effectively doing is you're managing

your anger and fear by by redirecting

the activity of the amigdula, right?

Checks out.

>> But there's good ways to do it like

you're working like developing your

spirituality and picking up heavy things

and running around.