What does teaching my kiddos how to use the brakes on their bicycles have to do with your metabolic health & performance? 

…A LOT!  

This impromptu vlog came together during my run on Case Mountain Road a few days after spending an afternoon teaching my kiddos some basic cycling skills. It's one of those serendipitous ‘Ah Hah’ moments I often have during my long trail runs, and I was fortunate enough to articulate and capture it with the help of modern technology!

In so many aspects of our lives we have gotten so far away from the basics that we have created a need for all the protection and acute interventions. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts which begets the institutionalization of disease I talked about in a previous vlog. 

This is happening in all aspects of our lives. It doesn’t matter whether it’s riding a bike, driving a car, flying an airplane, or your athletic performance & health. And, while I may be a stubborn ‘Boomer who doesn’t get it,’ I have lived long enough to witness this cultural transition away from the basics and how it has given rise to the problem solving of problems which would largely not exist in the first place if we had a solid foundation! 

Now, I am not harkening back to the “Good Old Days” where a lot of the modern conveniences and safety features did not exist. What I am trying to say is let’s not abandon the basics in the process. That “basic” is your metabolic health & performance which comes from getting your body back to burning fat as your aerobic energy source. This needs to be cultivated first and foremost before you add in all those man-made tweaks that are there to help us perform better. 

All we have to do is look back over this past year and it is easy to see who has those comorbidities which lead to poor health outcomes. Then we can take another step back and see how before this past year, with diabetes, with cardiovascular disease, with cancer and it is pretty clear we’ve gotten away from the basics.

So, that is my message to you today. Whether you are riding your bike or dialing in your health and performance, let’s get back to the basics to gain your Metabolic Freedom!