{"id":7775,"date":"2018-09-17T15:58:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T15:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/?p=7775"},"modified":"2021-03-31T15:39:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:39:29","slug":"a-conversation-with-scott-carney-by-mark-hatmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/17\/a-conversation-with-scott-carney-by-mark-hatmaker\/","title":{"rendered":"What Doesn't Kill Us..."},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Conversation With
Scott Carney<\/h4>\nScott Carney, author of the provocatively titled What Doesn't Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength<\/em> was kind enough to have a lengthy conversation regarding aspects of his book and his thoughts on similar subjects since its publication.\n\nI read Scott's book upon its publication over a year ago and I'll admit that I was initially leery. Was this going to be yet another tome with overreaching and unsubstantiated claims telling us to \"train like this to be a bullet-proof superman!\"<\/em>?\n\nRefreshingly, no.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Meet Scott Carney<\/h4>\nScott is an author, anthropologist, and skeptic, all of which are evident in one of his previous works titled The Enlightenment Trap<\/em> (later released under the title A Death On Diamond Mountain<\/em>) where he ably dissects a fatal case of pseudo-religious charlatanry. His skeptical credentials brought me to the book and personal immersion admirably kept me there.\n\nIt is one thing to sit and snipe from the sidelines, but being an anthropologist, Scott placed himself squarely in the center of the situations he was examining and as a result got a first-hand account of the tragic events that transpired on Diamond Mountain.\n
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What Doesn't Kill Us<\/h4>\nIn a nutshell, the premise of his most recent book is not so much \"how<\/strong> to train to reclaim your potential.\"<\/em> Honestly, we've got enough unsourced and unjustified claims on how to accomplish such a thing running wild in the world and Scott makes no such argument. Instead, the premise of the book is that the reader should take their physical training to natural environments and it gives solid, well-founded reasons as to why.\n\nI'll allow Scott to explain the general idea behind this in his own words:\n
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Weak circulatory muscles are a side effect of living in a very narrow band of temperature variation. The vast majority of humanity today\u2014the entire population that spends the bulk of its time indoors and\/or whose only experience when it gets too cold or too hot is wearing state-of-the-art outdoor gear\u2014never exercises this critical system of their body.<\/p>\n

Even people who appear physically fit with lean muscles and chiseled abs might be secretly hiding weak circulatory muscles, and the stakes are huge. In the long run, circulatory diseases contribute to almost 30 percent of the world's mortality.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Breaking It Down<\/h4>\nAs we might imagine, this narrow band of comfort is relatively new to humanity, but even in times-past when the only climate control humans had at their disposal was a good fire, there was a long and wide tradition of myriad cultures actively engaging in cold and hot acculturation.\n\nScott provides more than a few examples and they call to mind the observations of a scientific icon\u2014 Charles Darwin. This is Darwin filtered through the pen of Henry David Thoreau within the pages of Walden:\n
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Darwin, the naturalist, says of the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, that while his own party, who were well clothed and sitting close to the fire, were far from too warm, these naked savages, who were farther off, were observed to his great surprise, 'to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing such a roasting.' So, we are told, the New Hollander goes naked with impunity, while the European shivers in his clothes. Is it impossible to combine the hardiness of these savages with the intellectualness of the civilized man?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

This observation matches Scott's exploration. Thoreau also sums up the bifurcated stance that man is a modern cultural creature, but he is physiologically indistinguishable from the natives observed by Darwin:<\/p>\n\n

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For the improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man's existence; as our skeletons, probably, are not to be distinguished from those of our ancestors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\nThis return to prior conditions, or, at least embracing of some prior conditions, is also echoed in the advice of renowned scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb when he urges people to move away from gym equipment, get outdoors, lift unwieldy objects, and run on uneven terrain, saying, \"nature is not smooth.\"\n

Introducing the Iceman<\/h4>\nScott's entry point into the world of environmental training came through the idiosyncratic Wim Hof, also known as \"the Iceman.\"<\/em> Wim's feats and exploits in the extreme temperatures and altitudes are well-known, and it was under his tutelage that Scott saw first-hand the efficacy of this type of training.\n\nBut Scott doesn't simply accept Wim's word as gospel, nor does he simply scoff. He puts his money where his mouth is and joins Wim and crew for stripped-down exploits in snow-covered terrain, ice baths, and in grueling paces atop Mount Kilimanjaro without the aid of oxygen or what many of us would call sensible clothing.\n

The Results Spoke
For Themselves<\/h4>\nScott finds that there is indeed a method to Wim's madness\u2014a method that can be taught, learned, and used in day-to-day life.\n\nBeing a good skeptic, he doesn't simply give us Wim's side of things and call it a day. He tests Wim's claims further, meeting with scientists who study human responses to extreme conditions and ventured with other self-experimenters who used their own bodies as laboratories.\n\nScott is able to effectively walk us through the \"here's how to do it\"<\/em> aspects of such training, but I don't want to give any of that away here as the curious among us should do as Scott did\u2014put their money where their mouths are and put these methods to the test while also financially supporting the great work Scott has done by purchasing his books.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

The Take Away<\/h4>\nWhat can be offered is this: We can be hotter than we think, we can be colder than we think, and we can thrive under such conditions.\n\nThe process Scott describes is similar to beginning a running program. Initially, a trot around the block may be tiring, but with a little effort and discipline, you're having thoughts of running a 5K, and after a while that initial trot around the block seems like a leisurely walk in the park. And after running a 5K or two, some of us might even set our sights on tackling a marathon, and so on and so forth.\n\nEnvironmental training is no different. Small exposures to this type of training can enhance our standard existence, just like running can make climbing the stairs at work easier. In the same vein, scheduled exposure to the cold can make what you might currently consider to be chilly weather not only bearable, but perhaps even a bit closer to the tropical heat the Tierra del Fuego natives felt that they were experiencing at that campfire all those years ago.\n
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Wisdom From the Iceman<\/h4>\nMuch of the ballyhoo around Wim's feats are because of the extremes he is willing to undergo\u2014swimming beneath river ice, extended stays in ice baths, etc. But Scott emphasizes that such wild extremes are not necessary to gain the benefits of the environmental training method.\n\nWim himself explains in his TED Talk that he is an extreme athlete and that he does these extreme feats because it is just who he is. In our running analogy he is an ultra-marathoner. When someone first begins a running program, no one in their right mind would tell them that they have to run an ultra-marathon to gain the full benefits of running.\n\nThe same goes for environmental training. We don't need to trek across Antarctica naked to see the benefits of such a method. A regularly scheduled cold shower may be quite enough for our \"5K\" lives.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

Does Scott Still Practice
Environmental Training?<\/h4>\nWhen asked if he still used the Wim Hof method, Carney said that he undoubtedly did, but that he focused more on the breathing exercises it covered, such as \"the Wedge\" (more on \"the Wedge\" in Scott's next book). He still uses the cold training occasionally, but he has found that for his own practice the breathing method (which is covered in great length in this book) is where the rubber meets the road.\n

A Mistake You Should Avoid<\/h4>\nScott stresses that the breathing exercises are more internal processes than athletic feats. That is to say, that because some are able to acquire a lengthy breath-hold using these techniques, that a longer breath-hold can become the primary focus for some. Scott urges us to avoid falling into the subtle trap of mistaking the terrestrial breath-hold as being practical for aquatic use. Scott, Wim, and free-divers will all tell you to NOT USE THIS METHOD FOR SWIMMING.<\/strong>\n

The breathing exercises here are not about stopwatch bragging rights, but as an adjunct to everyday health. Scott's book advocates for more direct contact with the world, and the best way to accomplish this is to better understand our own physiology.<\/p>\n\n

\n\t[dfads params='groups=290&limit=1&orderby=random']<\/div>\nI'll allow Scott to close with this provocative observation:\n
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Even though our nervous systems crave connection to the world they evolved in, the tendency in the modern era is to think of humanity as fundamentally different than everything else. We insist on being bound by our bodies, our property, our kinship network, and our social media profiles; and so we hold the rest of the planet at arm's length.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\nThanks for the conversation and provocative read, Scott!\n

What do you think? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments section down below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Click here for more training by Mark Hatmaker<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Conversation With Scott Carney Scott Carney, author of the provocatively titled What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength was kind enough to have a lengthy conversation regarding aspects of his book and his thoughts on similar subjects since its publication. I read Scott’s Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[140],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7775"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12811,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions\/12811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}