Ep13 Building Endurance and Stamina

In this episode, Tim will be interviewing our Chief Psychology Officer - Dr Amanda Potter and Claire Dale, the author of Physical Intelligence, to understand the importance of Physical Intelligence in creating physical, emotional and mental stamina and staying power.

The interview will look at tips for energy maintenance and for endurance. Amanda will also touch on the role of each of the hormones and neurotransmitters in happiness, success and well being.

In this episode, Claire and Amanda are being interviewed by Tim Hepworth.

The Chief Psychology Officer website is now available https://www.thecpo.co.uk/

To contact Amanda and Claire via LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/in/amandapotterzircon
linkedin.com/in/claire-dale

To order a copy of 'Physical Intelligence', go to:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Claire-Dale/e/B07P9NWZGJ/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

If you are interested in Claire's Physical Intelligence Coaching Course please go to: www.coachwithpi.com, or for more information about Claire and her corporate work please go to www.companiesinmotion.com.

Timestamps

Building Endurance & Stamina

·       00:00 – Introduction to Building Endurance

·       00:30 – Claire Dale: Career History

·       03:30 – Why Physical Intelligence?

·       04:23 – Things to learn from this

·       04:52 – What is Physical Intelligence?

·       05:19 – Things are happening to your body…

Chemistry is the study of change…

·       06:03 – Neuroscience & Interpretation

·       06:48 – Balancing act of chemistry

·       08:08 – Visualization revisited

·       09:00 – Personal Interaction

·       09:25 – Oxytocin

·       10:18 – We all love Neuroscience

·       11:02 – Breathing seems pretty important…

·       13:18 – The Importance of regulating breathing

Fruit for the mind

·       14:07 – Nature vs. Nurture

·       15:00 – Personal Perspective

·       16:02 – Out of balance

·       16:26 – In control… In control…

·       17:16 – Neuroplasticity

·       18:02 – Hands in the air like you care

·       18:48 – Dopamine

·       19:38 – Doing this Podcast helps keeps us young

Keep on movin’

·       20:00 – What is beneficial to our lives

·       20:42 – It’s not figurative; its literal

·       21:15 – Dopamine is motivation, not reward

·       22:26 – Exercise is good for you

·       23:33 – Aerobics

·       24:04 – Our approach to Exercise

·       24:51 – BDNF

·       26:29 – Stamina & Staying Power

·       27:07 – RESISTANCE (training) IS USEFUL!

·       28:32 – Cortisol & Testosterone

·       29:35 – Myokines & Osteocalcin

·       30:26 – Summary of the links

·       31:15 – DHEA

Ways of Improving Physical Intelligence

·       32:13 – Remote working

·       32:45 – The right choices

·       35:26 – Tips for Physical Intelligence

·       37:02 – The end.

Episodes are available here https://www.thecpo.co.uk/

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Transcript

Tim Hepworth: 0:03

Hello, and welcome to this, the latest episode of the Chief Psychology Officer. This week we're going to be looking at endurance, stamina, and staying power. And alongside Dr. Amanda Potter, I'm delighted to say that we're joined this week by special guests, Claire Dale, author of the award-winning book Physical Intelligence. Thanks, Claire, for joining us. Would you mind doing the honours and giving us a bit of an introduction?

Claire Dale: 0:26

Absolutely. It's great to be here with you, Amanda and Tim. So I am the director of Companies in Motion and the founder of that organization, and also the founder and director of the Physical Intelligence Institute.

Tim Hepworth: 0:41

Physical Intelligence Institute? That sounds like a very grand title. Do you want to tell us all about that?

Claire Dale: 0:47

With both those organizations, we promote, we develop research and we think about application of the vital aspect of our physical intelligence, our ability to drive and use the amazing technology of our bodies that enables us to take charge of our performance. Whether we're working in a corporation, which is where companies in motion come in, we work with companies and organizations to help leaders, teams, and the entire organization raise their performance level. And also coaches lately through the Physical Intelligence Institute, we're working with coaches to help them start to or continue to work with the body. And the feature that we bring that is, I think, very important, is that there's scientific underpinning to embodied or somatic work that we do, and we've codified a very clear branded toolkit for coaches to use and for organizations to use the body to raise performance.

Tim Hepworth: 1:52

So that's what you do now, but I know Claire that your background is quite a bit different from that, isn't it?

Claire Dale: 2:00

It's from the world of contemporary dance. So my first career for 15 years was as director of my own contemporary dance company, touring around Europe and internationally with pieces of work made from my own resources, my own creativity, raising money, getting arts council funding.

Tim Hepworth: 2:19

Okay, so you're obviously well into the dancing world there. So how did you make that connection and that leap from dance to physical intelligence?

Claire Dale: 2:28

I worked out quite quickly that if I was moving my body every day, I was in the studio with the dancers on a regular basis. Guess what? I was far better in my leadership role. I was just more switched on, I was mentally more awake, I was more emotionally connected with people, I could read the situations more and read into what people might need or want from me. So I made that connection very early on, and that was really where I recorded this insight. This is really important, moving and leadership and not being too static in my body as a very simple principle. And I knew that I would come back to that later when I moved out of the dance world into the big wide world of people who aren't really very knowledgeable yet about they don't really have a very good operating manual for the body.

Tim Hepworth: 3:17

And I'm definitely looking forward to listening and learning a lot more about this. So, Amanda, welcome.

Dr Amanda Potter: 3:24

Thank you. Thank you, Tim.

Tim Hepworth: 3:25

You've selected the topic for this episode, as ever. What made you go for physical intelligence?

Dr Amanda Potter: 3:30

I was introduced to Claire by a mutual colleague, and he introduced to me also the concept of physical intelligence. It was one that I hadn't heard of before. Of course, we work with clients in the area of emotional and social intelligence and of course cognitive intelligence. But I was introduced to Claire's book, and I loved it particularly because of the neuroscientific approach from the very start of the book and the link to well-being and mental health. And I particularly wanted to understand how endurance, stamina, and staying power could really be impacted by the choices we make. So the point that Claire just made in her introduction about the fact that we take charge of our performance really makes me think about the concept of conscious leadership. And so I'm keen to really learn from Claire to understand how we can be more conscious in the choices we make, to have more stamina, to have more staying power, and to have more endurance in what we do and therefore be more successful.

Tim Hepworth: 4:34

Hey, I'm all for uh more success.

Dr Amanda Potter: 4:37

So for me, I'm here to learn actually today, and I found the book Physical Intelligence of Incredible Use, and it's really helped me to raise a number of questions that I'd like to ask today.

Tim Hepworth: 4:48

I'm not quite so knowledgeable as Amanda on all the psychology stuff. So, Claire, for people like me, could you tell me exactly what is physical intelligence?

Claire Dale: 4:59

Physical intelligence is the active management of our physiology. It's about learning to manage what's going on on the inside of our bodies and specifically the chemical shifts and changes that are going on. When we become frustrated or anxious or worried, what is happening inside our bodies is that cortisol levels are elevated. We feel it in our bodies, whatever sensation goes along with any of those emotions. And what we need to do is to use our bodies to be able to manage those levels of cortisol, that's the threat and stress chemical, in order to allow other high-performance chemicals to come flooding back in to get us clearer in our minds again, to be able to use our brains to the optimal, to be able to calm our emotions and focus in the way that we want to, to be able to be creative, to be able to be motivated, to be empathetic with other people. All of these aspects have a different chemical cocktail.

Tim Hepworth: 6:04

Yeah, quite often in these podcasts we uh start talking about the neuroscience aspects of things, and I've come to realise it's definitely all to do with the interpretation. So, how do you go about interpreting these things?

Claire Dale: 6:16

If we think about the body, there's so much data going on comes from the body that it's a little bit difficult to read. But actually, through identifying eight key chemicals that we can feel shift and change once we know about them, then we can do something about and regulate and develop our ability to behave and to work with others in the way that we want to, in the way that's optimal for everybody.

Tim Hepworth: 6:44

Wow, so you've got these um eight chemicals. That sounds a bit of a juggling act. How do you go about getting the right balance?

Claire Dale: 6:52

The way that we balance those key chemicals is through aspects of being a human being that listeners will be familiar with, but maybe not very skillful at using. For example, breathing pattern. There are about eight different breathing patterns in our program for different circumstances that balance chemistry in a different way. Certain types of movement, serotonin levels, many listeners will be familiar with the existence of serotonin. It's a brain and a body chemical. It's made in our gut, in what we call the enteric brain. And they release a large proportion of our serotonin, which is for our self-esteem, our well-being, a sense of having importance and value in the world. And funnily enough, when you when you twist the body, when you move the body in specific ways, serotonin is released. Whereas if you're static, stay facing forward, you don't move the abdomen in specific ways, then serotonin will not be released. So we're changing the way we feel, the way we think, the way we behave by using the body. So that I've talked about breath pattern, I've talked about movement, but there are other two other ways as well that come under the physical intelligence curriculum. The third way is visualization.

Tim Hepworth: 8:09

Here we go, Amanda. Visualization keeps cropping up. You mentioned it in several previous podcasts.

Claire Dale: 8:16

Whenever we picture something, we imagine something happening to us, we imagine ourselves as part of a scene or a future that we want. We're activating the neurology between the brain and the body that gives us a partial experience of actually being there. It is as if we are there. So that's why visualizing things that we might be moving towards actually primes the whole nervous system, the neurology to work towards those things, to do things to create that future, rather than just uh sort of moseying through life and not really having a focus. That's one of the great reasons for exploring in a very intangible way what goals might be. And the final way is that we influence chemistry is by the way that we interact with others. And this is a really the fourth, really key way. So it's a sort of cause and effect, isn't it? If I snap at you, you're going to behave not only in that moment differently with me, but uh in the future. That Maya Angelou lovely quote, you know, people will never forget the way that you make them feel.

Tim Hepworth: 9:21

And specifically, what sort of chemicals are we talking about here?

Claire Dale: 9:24

Here we're talking about oxytocin levels, among other chemicals, but oxytocin is the main social bonding and trust chemical.

Tim Hepworth: 9:32

Good old oxytocin rearing its head again. Have you got any uh good tips for increasing our levels of oxytocin?

Claire Dale: 9:39

Just this morning I primed my oxytocin. I actually stretched and opened my chest area because oxytocin is released in the pituitary gland in the in the brain, but also by independent neurons in our heart, like woven into the tissue of our heart muscle. And by stretching and opening your body and your chest area, you can release that bit more oxytocin.

Tim Hepworth: 10:05

So, like I say, then the oxytocin is definitely part of the neuroscience aspect of all this. And I know that you, Amanda, you you love the neuroscience. So I expect you're very happy to hear all this.

Dr Amanda Potter: 10:17

I am, and I love the articulation from Claire, particularly around the chemistry and how we can influence it. The four points being how we breathe, the movement that we participate in, the visualization, we've talked about the importance of visualization for habit forming in previous podcasts, and then interaction. So I think that's a brilliant way to think about it, and that really simplifies things for me. So when I am trying to influence my chemistry and feel the best I can, or be the most persistent to make sure I deliver something, I am going to think about those four things and break it down really quite clearly now. So thank you, Claire.

Tim Hepworth: 10:57

Claire, you mentioned breathing again. Breathing keeps coming up in our podcast, and I'm amazed, as a definite layman on all these things, just how important breathing seems to be.

Claire Dale: 11:09

The reason it's so good if we're talking about endurance today and playing the long game with our lives, is that our breath pattern dictates how our heart behaves, and our heart and our brain are also electrically linked. The electromagnetic signal between the brain and the heart, if we breathe well, will coincide and will be most efficient. So what happens, not everyone knows this, is when we breathe in, our heart speeds up to pump oxygen around the body. When we breathe out, our heart rate slows down to just have a little reprise before the next uh electrical current comes. And if we're breathing erratically, you know, perhaps holding the breath or perhaps breathing high and fast for a while, and then having a big sigh of relief because we've been holding our breath for a while without that regular pacing of breath or a regulation, then the heart doesn't really know what to do, the brain gets confused, and the whole system starts to function less efficiently, like a car that you're slamming the accelerator on, and then you slam the brake on, and then you go quickly between the two, the car doesn't know whether to start going or to stop. And this uses up energy and it actually sort of tires out the heart muscle. And if you then think about longevity, you know, how long we live, then you've got a great incentive to start to take care of the breath pattern and regulate the link between the heart and the brain and get everything working together.

Dr Amanda Potter: 12:35

That's so fantastic. And I've since I've started researching this area, I've been using breathing for sleeping. I've noticed by taking long, deep breaths, it really can help me to go to sleep. If I'm frustrated that I'm not going to sleep quickly enough because I like to be able to sleep, I find my breathing has such a significant impact on helping me to go to sleep. And it's it seems to be the long, deep breaths that helps the most, actually.

Claire Dale: 13:02

That's absolutely right, Amanda. Long, slow breaths are the ones that uh relax us the most. We're called kind of imitating a breath that we might sleep with, so it sends us off towards sleep. But what we're doing with those longer breaths is reducing our cortisol levels, the body gets the signal that we don't need a lot of the activation chemistry, the heart is under less pressure, everything's slowing down. And what happens then is a chemicals called DHEA come in. We improve our overall serotonin levels, which improves our melatonin levels as well, because serotonin and melatonin are sister chemicals. If we don't have enough serotonin, it's really hard to sleep well. So by lowering the cortisol, lengthening the breath pattern, you allow the recovery and renewal chemicals to come in. And if they're around in the body even during your day as you take breaks regularly, then you're much more likely to sleep well. And it's the rhythm of the breathing that gets us off to sleep because the cortisol levels are reducing.

Dr Amanda Potter: 14:05

I was wondering, Claire, about the nature versus nurture argument with physical intelligence, because as Tim knows, I'm constantly researching and listening to podcasts and reading articles to understand the molecular or neuroscientific origins of resilience, which of course is all part of endurance and stamina and staying power, because the research suggests that resilience is probably 50% heritable, that we were born with it, and 50% due to our environment or our choices. Therefore, our immune system, our autonomic nervous system, our neuromodulator hormones that we have talked about on previous podcasts, are therefore influenced in part by our genetics and in part by our environment and our choices. And I wondered what your view on that was, Claire.

Claire Dale: 15:03

My view about the nature-nurture question is that nurture, you know, the the statistics that you've given really match with both what I've read but also my sense of being in my own body. The environment in every cell in our bodies is impacted by the kind of chemistry that's around us. So emotions and neuropeptides, they are chemicals, they are often, you know, when it comes to emotions like anger, frustration, uh, worry, and so on, they are often we're flooded with the breakdown of cortisol as that I've mentioned before, and the derivatives of that can be quite damaging chemical in our systems, creating a kind of toxic environment in the cells in our body. And what we do know now, and you've just referred to it and expressed it really eloquently, is that when the chemistry in our bodies is out of balance, our immune system can't work, and also specific gene activation goes on because of the environment. So, you know, there's a lot that's in our hands to be able to manage or or create the best environment for certain genes to be switched on and certain genes for disease and certain genes to be switched off, both for disease, immunity, and and general health.

Tim Hepworth: 16:24

There's a lot there, isn't there? How much of all that is actually in our control?

Claire Dale: 16:29

A lot is in our hands, and I think that's when we talk about endurance, we're talking about sort of developing a really superior system for living where we take care of that environment inside ourselves.

Dr Amanda Potter: 16:40

That's fantastic. And how does it relate, would you say, to neuroplasticity? Because Tim and I have covered neuroplasticity on previous podcasts, and I find it fascinating that the brain has such an ability to form and reorganise synaptic connections, particularly in response to learning and experience. So, given what we've just talked about with the nurture perspective, that these choices that we make can help us with our physical intelligence. Do you think that this is all connected then? It's all related. Do you think there's a relationship between neuroplasticity and physical intelligence?

Claire Dale: 17:22

Yes, I think there's a very strong link. You know, it's not only the way that we think about things that creates that neuroplasticity, it's not about thinking differently, it's actually about behaving and doing things differently. So one of the features of endurance is to be able to create in difficult times when you might be in what we call an endurance tunnel, is to carry out behaviors that will make you carry on wanting to move towards something that's difficult. One way to create a neuroplastic approach to endurance is to celebrate every single achievement along the way of difficult journeys. The way that we do that in the physical intelligence curriculum is to use what we call a winner's pose. So every single achievement on a difficult journey is a win. And very often other people are not necessarily keeping score. So we're not only keeping score of a project that might we might be working on for a team, but we're keeping score for ourselves as well, because we're the ones that know that we're achieving. And what we would do would be to get our arms in the air right out to the sides above our heads, and maybe take a wider stance and to punch the air even or do a victory sign. It is the signifier of a winner, of a win. So why aren't we doing that with pressing send on that difficult proposal or team document that we needed to get done? Why are we not doing that with more of the microachievements through our lives? So that's one example. And what happens is then you raise your dopamine levels. And dopamine is one of the key brain and body chemicals that helps the neural connections that create change.

Dr Amanda Potter: 19:00

I think it's brilliant. I'm a slave to dopamine. I'm the sort of person who will complete a task, realize I haven't written it down, and I'll cross it off just so that I can get that sense of reward and achievement and success. So I completely understand it. What's also fantastic, just to finish off the neuroplasticity conversation, is that by talking to someone relatively new about a topic that is outside of your area of expertise, we have the greatest opportunity to reorganize and reform those synaptic connections and to create new neural pathways. And so we are here today talking to Claire Tim, helping our neuroplasticity, helping our brains to stay young.

Tim Hepworth: 19:44

Are we getting dopamine?

Dr Amanda Potter: 19:46

I am.

Tim Hepworth: 19:46

It's really good. Me too. It's my favorite chemical when we talk about these things. Dopamine always sounds like the one that you need. I'll take it where I can get it.

Claire Dale: 19:54

Well, I think, Tim, what you say is very wise, you know, because things that we need, dopamine is not always just about things that we like, it's about things that we think are going to be beneficial for us. Most people ideally want to stay alive. Therefore, the curiosity is piqued if there are things that you can do. So that's very much the dopamine cycle. And then if you can see a way that you could do that and really understand how you benefit and imagine yourself in that situation, then that's dopamine doing its role as a great motivator. It gets such a bad press as you know, the chemical of addiction, but it's such a driving force for how we grow and develop as human beings.

Tim Hepworth: 20:32

While you were talking about the little celebrations that you're doing throughout the day, then I must admit, at first I just assumed they were figuratively putting your arms in the air and figuratively sort of uh whooping and hollering, but actually you mean no, physically doing these things. You're actually putting your arms in the air.

Claire Dale: 20:49

You'll get some of the results from visualizing it because when we visualize something, it is as if we were doing it. So those nerves get switched on and it's as if we're there, but it's much better. You get the hundred percent effect if you do it and you feel it.

Dr Amanda Potter: 21:06

And I think the big point here is that dopamine is for motivation, it's not just reward. We think about dopamine in terms of reward, but actually it's the motivation chemical. It motivates us to pursue the goal because we want to feel that way, we want to achieve the reward of dopamine, but it motivates us to act, which is so important.

Claire Dale: 21:29

It is a key chemical for endurance because it also combines that motivation towards a goal, but also it combines the creativity. So if there's an apple ahead of you in the distance and you're hungry, it's dopamine that lifts your foot and gets you to take a step towards that apple. And then if you get nearer to it and you get there and you realize it's out of reach, is also dopamine that gets you to look around and think about right, how can I build a ladder? How can I invent a ladder? So it's innovation and creativity are part of endurance. It's not just about slog, it's about creating the conditions for a really powerful sort of survival, but in the best way, in the best sophisticated way.

Tim Hepworth: 22:08

This sounds like a great segue into exercise training. I know I mentioned that earlier on. When I I thought hear the word physical, I immediately think exercise, but I know it's something very dear to Amanda's heart. So shall we have a little chat about exercise training with with respect to physical intelligence?

Dr Amanda Potter: 22:24

I think that would be great because we know from the research, and I know personally, that exercise and cardio and training, for me, it's had a significant impact on my cognitive function. It truly impacts my anxiety levels in a positive way and has helped me with my resilience. And so both resistance training and cardio training for me, and now more recently walking, so extensive walking, has been really helpful in reducing my levels of anxiety, particularly during the certain stage of my life that I'm going through, because I'm I'm in my early 50s, so I'm prone to lower levels of certain hormones than I would probably want. And it's helped me with my focus and my attention because I'm finding that as I am in that perimenopausal, stroke menopausal phase of life, that I can be a bit forgetful and sometimes completely forget names and words just don't come out of my mouth in the order that I would like them to. But actually, the exercise personally has really helped me. And the research says that aerobic exercise is linked to increased volume in brain regions like the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. And so I wondered, Claire, in what way is physical intelligence helpful from an exercise perspective in stimulating the parts of the brain that enable us to be more attentive and aware?

Claire Dale: 23:56

The type of movement that we do has a big impact on brain function. And there's also a lot to say about exercise and how we approach it in terms of whether that creates a positive or negative chemistry in our bodies. If you do structured, repetitive, patterned movement, then you get more focused and able to make a decision clearly out of a range of options. Whereas if you are freer in your movement, spontaneous, you get much better at creative thinking, making connections through different areas of the brain and coming up with new range of options from one stimulus. Even that, in terms of the type of movement you do, changes our thinking.

Dr Amanda Potter: 24:41

So, Claire, that sounds truly interesting. So, how does exercise impact neural function or growth? That's something I don't know very much about.

Claire Dale: 24:52

The research tells us that when we exercise, we increase the levels of a chemical called BDNF, which is brain-derived neurotropic factor. This chemical actually actually helps to build new neurons and new neural pathways. We are literally increasing our capacity to think well when we exercise. There's also some research that shows us that actually dancing is the best form of exercise or movement to ward off dementia and Alzheimer's. So isn't that amazing too? Let's all take up dancing.

Dr Amanda Potter: 25:30

Yeah, that's really brilliant. I find that I'm definitely clearer of thought when I've been outside and I've exercised. And my morning routine is to listen to podcasts, listen to your podcasts, in fact, Claire, that you've done in the past and other notable podcasters. And I'm constantly learning, and I find that it goes in better when I'm actually walking than if I'm driving. If I'm driving, I can find my attention wanes and I can get distracted. Well, of course, hopefully by driving. But actually, if I'm walking, I'm I find that it embeds easier and I'm able to learn more easily if I'm doing exercise and I'm actually moving my body.

Tim Hepworth: 26:08

Well, I think what you need to do now then, Amanda, is not just walk, but you need to sachet and dance your way around when you're walking. I think that was Claire's saying.

Dr Amanda Potter: 26:18

I think I would get some strange looks on the South Downs. You're right, but I think it's worth it.

Tim Hepworth: 26:24

Um, Claire, the main focus for today's podcast is stamina and staying power. How can we use physical intelligence to help with that?

Claire Dale: 26:32

Gosh, there are so many ways. Uh it's all about energy, isn't it? Really having enough energy to stay the course. You know, as many people will know, you you need to you do need to use your nervous system, you do need to use your muscles in order to grow strength. One thing about stamina is that emotional and mental stamina does link directly to whatever age we are, whether we're able to produce enough testosterone, and that's for women and men. And one of the ways that we do produce testosterone, create it, synthesize it is through resistance training. So if you're only doing aerobic stuff that doesn't involve any resistance training, any pushing against something with whatever part of your body, then it's important to include that aspect. And while you're doing something that involves resistance, whether it's a little push-up against the wall or a full-on push-up on the floor or a squat where you push the floor away with your haunches, squats are very important movements, then you know, whatever it is, the fact that you do that with a positive approach to it rather than exercise that is punishing. You know that feeling? I've got to do it, you know, it's it's my rule. I've got to do it, and I won't be a good enough human being without it. But if you know that you're supporting your emotional and mental endurance by doing it, that gives you an extra dopamine boost to participate in pushing yourself that little bit further. And finally, I do want to say that it's not all about pushing yourself. That's the misguided sort of definition of endurance. You'll know from all your work, Amanda, on resilience that it's all about the recovery times in between. And so skillful recovery is as much a part of endurance as it is resilience.

Dr Amanda Potter: 28:18

That is such an interesting point because I'm not very good at recovery. I'm the sort of person that once I decide to do something, I push myself extremely hard. Your comment then is very interesting because of the point between cortisol and testosterone, because we know from the research that cortisol, which supplies the energy for mental and physical effort when we're feeling anxious or stressed, can deplete the body of nutrients. And the testosterone then repairs the damage done by cortisol, I understand. And so testosterone should be higher than cortisol to combat any physical or mental challenges and help the body to rejuvenate. So, given that, it sounds like that resistance training is something that's really critical for all of us to put in our weekly routine.

Claire Dale: 29:11

Yes, it is literally building new cells, strengthening the bones, strengthening the muscles. There's an aside here, which you know I think is so important to know, is that testosterone is the builder, you know, it does strengthen our system, our entire system. And so we need to welcome it and create it. But also, there are amazing chemicals released from our muscles that go straight to the center of the brain that are connected with hope and optimism, and they are called myokines. So immediately you move a muscle, you get this myokine release that goes towards hope and optimism. And then even our bones are secreting a chemical called osteocalcin that tells us that we're strong and goes to our mood centers of the brain to give us a sort of positive response. To hardship. So the body is just amazing. There are all these chemicals all of the time that are playing into our positive use of ourselves. And as soon as we know it, and then when we apply movement, breath, whatever it is, to our lives, we're doing it with much more knowledge and a much more defined, superior kind of system for living. And that's what endurance is all about.

Dr Amanda Potter: 30:26

So it does seem, therefore, that there is an incredible link between physical intelligence, resilience, and well-being. And it appears that people who are physically intelligent, therefore, are consciously able to focus on and pay attention to how they're feeling, which was your point at the beginning. And they are therefore able to make choices as a result of those feelings to move towards exercise to getting outside to resistance training and so on, so that we can avoid having too much cortisol, for example, but actually want to build and strengthen the amount of testosterone that we have or increase our dopamine levels through our motivation.

Claire Dale: 31:11

Is that right from your side, Claire? That's absolutely right. And the other chemical, remember, I was talking about the breath pattern. Well, that releases another performance-enhancing steroid called DHEA, dehydroepandrosterone. Actually, the the synthetic version, which we never recommend that you buy or take, is a banned substance for Olympic athletes. It is a performance-enhancing steroid. But what we know, the research tells us, is that we make that chemical every day if we pace our breath, if we're breathing well in the variety of ways that we show you how to do during the during our curriculum. Yeah, so DHEA, another chemical, there's a whole cocktail of chemicals that influence our strength, flexibility, resilience, those add up to our endurance if we put those things into a planned, persistent, repetitive, but you can be creative within your repetition system for living. And that's what gives you your endurance.

Dr Amanda Potter: 32:11

And given the fact that as a business, we are now a remote business, myself, Sarah, my co-director, and all of our team need to make much more effort to make sure we get out and get about and do exercise. It's not coming to us because of walking between client sites, which was something I did daily, constantly traipsing around different cities with my backpack to meet clients. I'm now having to actively put that exercise into my daily schedule. And I'm glad I'm doing it. So it sounds like I'm making the right choices. So thank you.

Claire Dale: 32:45

Amanda, you definitely are making the right choices. And remember, this is not only about exercise, this is about a whole way of living with your body. It's about, I guess, um, sort of using the technology of the body and inputting the right kind of things into that system for living. And energy is one of the things that we need day after day, especially leaders. People are looking to the leader for that energy. And one of the things that we could also talk about is our mitochondria, the batteries in every cell of our bodies, and what enables them to produce energy. And that goes back to that environment that we talked about. If you're breathing well, you've you've got your nutrition, you've sort of got a fairly clean diet with not too many carbohydrates and sugars, these are the real killers, and you're breathing well, and you've got a sense of worked through all the multiple things that are good for us, then you'll be able to program them and really take care of your endurance and your stamina. There's one more really important thing about what physical intelligence really is and the bigger picture. Please do. The idea about moving more, you know, Apple watches tell us we need to get up every 50 minutes. 58 minutes apparently now is the latest optimal time. But what do you do in that time? Is your awareness in your body to be able to either lower your cortisol or boost your serotonin or get yourself a bit of a dopamine hit by looking around you at some colours and some light and getting some light into your eyeballs and different textures? Or you need a really good side stretch on each side of the body to get some breath into the lungs because cortisol levels have been going up and you actually need to get sort of replaced the carbon dioxide with some oxygen. And so there are there are so many considerations about how we live our lives. Are we standing and moving at our desks now? Have we got a variety of ways of moving? And if we've been in a three-hour meeting and clearly people are not communicating as well as they did at the beginning of that meeting, are we able to raise our hands and say, I'm feeling less able to contribute now because we've been sitting down for so long? Please could we take a break and come back and perhaps do the next part of our meeting standing up with a little bit more movement? And you know, ideally, if you've read the book, you'll have some science behind that as well, because uh the static nature of our lives is uh is not very physically intelligent.

Tim Hepworth: 35:19

Well, thanks, Claire. I could listen to an awful lot more about all this, but as ever, time is catching up with us. Now, Claire, we'll normally end the podcast with a few tips for us and our listeners to summarize what it is we've been talking about. Have you got any uh nuggets that you can leave us with?

Claire Dale: 35:38

Absolutely. The first thing is to learn about your body, learn about the inside, the inside chemistry, so that when you explore what habits you really like to include and create this superior system of living, you're doing it from a basis of knowledge, um, knowing what's what you're trying to do with your chemistry. The second thing is the environment of your body is what dictates how healthy you are and how well you lead and how clear you are in your mind, how stable you are in your emotions. So take care of the environment in your body, which includes your emotional life, you know, processing the emotions, don't let them build up because chemistry in every cell of the body will start to change. So that's important, and movement helps with that. Pace your breathing so that your heart and your brain can function well together. Make your breathing not erratic but stable, regulated, nice and either slow or slightly faster if you're evolved in activity. Pace your breathing and celebrate your achievements finally. Get your arms in the air when things go right. Give yourself a dopamine boost because not everybody is keeping the score for you. You are keeping the score for yourself. So celebrate your achievements with a winner pose, arms in the air, boost your dopamine, and then that makes you want to try harder for the next thing. That's that's endurance is all about that.

Tim Hepworth: 37:02

Thanks for those. Perfect tips. Do you agree, Amanda?

Dr Amanda Potter: 37:06

I completely agree. And do you know what? I absolutely celebrate every single one of these podcasts that get released. I'm so proud of every single one of them. And Claire, thank you. You've been an absolute joy having you here and learning so much from you. You're clearly such an expert in this space.

Claire Dale: 37:22

Thank you, Amanda, and thank you, Tim. It's been brilliant talking about endurance and physical intelligence with you today.

Tim Hepworth: 37:30

I'd like to add my thanks to that, Claire. Thank you very much for your time. And thank you once again, Amanda. And thank you all for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, then please like and subscribe. If you'd like to get in contact with Amanda, then you can find her contact details on LinkedIn. If you'd like to get hold of a copy of Claire's book, Physical Intelligence, you can find it at all the usual good bookstores. Thanks once again for listening and hope you can join us again next time.