Do you know about Dr. Jack Kruse? I found him on YouTube. He was on one of the podcasts where the host wears his hat backwards and talks with that lilt at the end of every sentence, yeaahhh. You know what I'm talking about. Rogan has it now too. Yeahhh, at the end of the sentence. They trail off their sentences so strangely. Effeminately. It's accepted now, guys talking like women on some housewife reality show. I can only take so much. Crossing their legs and shit.
The good thing was that Jack Kruse dominated the conversation, and his voice didn't trail off. So it wasn't the usual host trying to show how much he knows about the subject. Now, back to Kruse. He's a neurosurgeon. Smart as hell. Totally sure of himself. Comes off as a dick unless you have been around someone so smart that they don't even realize the way that they come off; smart people are just different, and sometimes dicks. I can't understand a fucking thing he is talking about science-wise, not a bit. Deuterium water and shit. I do understand his message: the sun is the key to everything. He believes this and paints a compelling case, lots of research and real-life stories, too.
I will tell you that when summer comes, it's almost impossible for me to go to the gym on a sunny, hot day. I train outside every single day, sometimes twice a day. My mood is elevated after my first good sun exposure of the day. And that is sometimes when the sun is coming up, but usually the most intense and longest time during the day is when I train outside. I do rounds of one of the Bas Rutten audio programs (fightingmachine.com), usually five three-minute rounds, but sometimes a little more. Sometimes I do one-arm kettlebell rows in the rest period of the rounds; sometimes I do twenty push-ups or hammer curls. Most of the time I do Bas's new fighting machine program. It's an eight-week program: videos, stretching, cable stuff, and then the tons of combos that you better pay attention to when you get tired. Bas himself does ten three-minute rounds of the boxing tape and does opposite knees after each combo. So if you finish with a right-handed punch, you follow it with a left knee. And in between rounds, he does continuous knees or does continuous leg swings above his head. With the ten-pound ankle weights on. Amazing. He is sixty-two. This is crazy; hard to imagine such hard training without collapsing. The first time I did one of the five-minute sessions, I threw up and then returned in the afternoon and did it again and threw up again.
So I do my measly workout on the deck of my house, where it is hot- so hot that your feet burn right away. Poor Black Labs. They tap dance while I race to open the sliding glass door. It is at least ten degrees hotter on the deck. How I love it. The heat draws me in. And when I am done and sweaty as all get out, my mood is as high as it can be; I feel wonderful and feel this way for hours. And sometimes when that high begins to decrease, I repeat the same workout as the morning, and then the high usually lasts me until bedtime. It's like being a drug addict, but the drug is the hot sun. So I am glad that the science is strong and espoused by the good doctor, but I have known it for years; I just didn't know why, or that one day it would be scientifically proven.
I remember training for football in the summer, running on the motocross trails behind my house. I would get in shape much faster than in the winter. The last two weeks before football camp at Boys' Club and all through high school and college, I would go to Ocean City, Maryland. While there, I'd wake up, go to the gym to train, then spend the day at the beach riding waves, and sprint in the street next to the Sinepuxant Bay on Ninth Street in the evening. Everything improved with being in the sun and being in the ocean; the intensity of the sun there was different, and the salt water seemed to play a role also.
Check out Jack Kruse. I really like that guy. He confirmed what I am sure many of us have figured out on our own: The Sun has magical powers for our well-being and health. Being out in the sun was demonized for so long; can you imagine? Even my sons were lathered in sunscreen as infants. At least it was zinc and had no shit in it. Now they barely wear clothes outside. They figured out the magic, whether they know it or not. I understand that super pale genetic people have to take it in doses, but Jack Kruse says if you just watch the sunrise every morning, you will add years to your life. So, no excuses. If you haven't noticed that your mood improves on sunny days, make yourself aware of it. I guarantee it'll make a difference.