🌱 Taking the Plunge — What Andrew Huberman’s routine entails

Image by Dids . from Pexels

If you know Andrew Huberman, you know his explanations of science make complicated topics seem simple & have helped countless around the world to understand their health.

That’s because he’s an acclaimed neuroscientist and a tenured professor at Stanford University School of Medicine who’s branched out to YouTube to talk about his knowledge.

So why are we talking about his routine?

Since he’s so versed in health, he has quite the routine to show for it.

This includes:

1. Waking up between 5:00–6:00 AM naturally- yes, without an alarm clock.
2. Drink an electroyte drink & a smoothie.
3. Doing “Yoga sleep”.
4. Viewing sun in his first waking hours.
5. Cold expose AKA cold water plunge.
6. Working out.
7. Having coffee after 90–120 minutes after waking (yes this is still the morning routine).
8. Fasts & then has first meal in early afternoon.
9. Cardio in the evening.
10. Evening meal.

First, we’ll talk about some of his struggles he had in getting to this point in self-discipline.

Despite struggles

According to a video, Andrew Huberman had a tough childhood — one where he often though that his life was falling apart.

It wasn’t until he worked at a lab & found a passion in understanding neuroscience & soon in visual specialization, that he started changing his life around.

Alongside his passion, he focused his efforts on YouTube to share his findings, which have helped millions to understand their brain!

Andrew Huberman makes this important statement:

“You don’t survive long unless you love it, and the same thing was with science, I was in love with retinal biology…”

Now after knowing a bit about him, how else did he solve his struggles which helped him to incorporate such a vigorous routine?

Pushing to the limit

By loving science & using that love to become disciplined in his craft, he was able to solve other’s & his own problems.

In becoming disciplined, he starting working out & then sharing his findings on cold water plunges.

What’s that?

It’s basically a cold shower or bath.

He says:

“Deliberate cold exposure causes a significant release of epinephrine (aka adrenaline) and norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline) in the brain and body.”

“While not true of every stress, cold exposure causes the prolonged release of dopamine. Dopamine is a powerful molecule capable of elevating mood, enhancing focus, attention, goal-directed behavior, etc.”

“In the short-term, cold exposure increases metabolism as the body has to burn calories to increase core body temperature.”

If you’ve ever stepped into the shower without the water warming up yet, even the slightest touch can make you jerk back.

So how does he do it?

“ Undoubtedly, during (or before) cold exposure, you will find your mind pushing back against the challenge. Your mind will say, “I really don’t want to do this,” even before getting in, or “Get me out of here.” You can imagine those mental barriers as ‘walls.’

Those walls are, in fact, the effects of adrenaline pulses in your brain and body, which in this case is what triggers the eventual adaptive response.

After all, if it were easy, then there is no stimulus for your body to change (adapt).

By maintaining top-down control of your reflexive urge to exit the cold environment, you will have successfully traversed that wall.

Challenge yourself by counting walls and setting a goal of “walls” to traverse (e.g., 3–5 walls) during the round of cold exposure. You can also go for time. Up to you. ”

Since this greatly helps the metabolism to generate its own body heat, he notes:

“Don’t huddle or cross your arms while in the cold or after getting out. Also, don’t towel off. Let your body reheat and dry off naturally.

Admittedly, this is tough. Unless doing deliberate cold exposure on a hot sunny day, admittedly, I prefer to take a hot shower and towel dry after cold exposure, but I am no doubt limiting the metabolic effect by doing that.”

He uses this method as a recovery tool after physical exercise, give him energy, and overall in health.

Lastly I want to ask, is this something that you should do?

What you can do

If you’re someone who has trouble relieving their achy muscles after exercise, has trouble keep warm, or any of the above we’ve discussed in this story…

You might want to try the cold water plunge!

As always though, don’t just plunge into it.

Take it a step at a time, especially so you don’t get a cold.

1. Prepare a shower or bath early in the day.
2. Make the temperature lukewarm, test it, & then start lowering the temperature.
3. Once it’s at a temperature that you feel you can embrace- dunk in!

You’ll start shivering, chattering your teeth — but soon you’ll feel a deep sensation in your body that makes everything better (yes, I’m speaking from personal experience).

Remember too, afterward you’ll feel energized, relaxed, and most of all warm — so don’t stress it!

As always though, only do what is comfortable — and then push the limits after a few times of doing it.

The goal is going colder & colder but not freezing to death. In the end, you’ll feel better!

Takeaway

Maintaining your health isn’t easy. But even Andrew Huberman didn’t wake up one day & decide to plunge in ice — it wasn’t until years into studying science that he found cold water plunges to be helpful.

Taking it slow is always good when acclimating your body to a new routine, so if you’re like Andrew & find any of his tasks helpful…

Take the plunge!