Torn Meniscus? Here’s What You Can Do To Heal It. (What I am doing)

Have a torn meniscus? So what can you do? Should you do surgery? Try to let your meniscus heal without surgery?

Before you jump to a conclusion (like I sometimes do) I would keep in mind while doing your research that everyone is biased to some extent and that definitely includes your doctor.

So…

I just tore my meniscus about 2 months ago (for the second time) so I’ve done a lot of research and in this post I’ll share with you some of the things I have learned.

I tore mine in judo/bjj two times or so…

And I hobbled around for a good 6 weeks before I began to see some improvement likely because of some of the things I did below.

Things you can do.

Surgery (partial men. or stitch)
PRP or stem cell injections
Wait for it to heal
Rehab
Peptides and lesser known options (below)

There is risk to doing everything including nothing, but probably less risk if you wait for some time like a month before giving anything a go.

I was close to signing up for a surgery, but…

My bias is that I don’t really trust doctors and I don’t like the uncertainty of knowing what the doctor will do. Or having to put my health in his hands.

Plus…

All the info out there on failed surgeries, second surgeries, etc. has me not convinced, but to be self-deprecating that could be to my detriment too.

And it might also have been that nose surgery I got in Taiwan to correct my deviated septum.

That was frightening.

I remember being tied down to a stretcher totally wrapped up in sheets with my whole face covered except for a small place for my nose and mouth.

I couldn’t see and I couldn’t move.

Then during surgery he dropped a piece of cartilage that he cut out from my nose into my mouth.

After that I had to stay in the hospital for a day or two in an uncomfortable position and then I couldn’t breath through my nose at all for like a month and to top it off I don’t think it improved anything.

So you’ve read about the red and white zones right?

Conventional medicine says that if your tear is in the red zone it can heal (or be repaired) and if it is in the white zone it can’t heal.

Is that completely true?

Before I tell you about that…

Here’s one thing you can do.

1. SURGERY (repair or partial meniscectomy)?

You have 2 basic options for surgery (depending on the surgeon).

Here’s the first.

Shall we ‘trim’ your meniscus?

BZZZZZZZ…

There goes your meniscus.

I wouldn’t do a partial meniscectomy.

This is where they remove the torn bit. It can reduce your symptoms very quickly, but…

I read very little good about this. And this is the more likely thing a surgeon will do.

Although some people can quickly return to sport and feel fine (see the Reddit thread link below), but the chance of early onset arthritis years later is high.

I remember one study that said that there was no better outcome between partial meniscectomies and sham surgeries.

If you cut it out (even a little) you alter the biomechanics of the knee. And one source said even cutting out as little as 10% increases risk of OA.

That was a Regennex (kind of PRP) video I think so they may have some self interests to say so, but other studies still said the more you cut out the greater your risk of arthritis.

If you cut it out you’ll have less cartilage where you are supposed to have it.

The other option for surgery…

Shall we try to ‘stitch’ your meniscus back together?

There seems to be a shift towards stitches when possible since the studies show that partial meniscectomy often leads to arthritis.

But it depends on the doctor.

Repair does sound better.

But it’s still not without risk.

Some doctors say that stitches and repair won’t work if the tear is in the white zone (non-vascular part) of the meniscus.

I would avoid these doctors as there are techniques out there…

Others say it can work and there are different techniques to encourage bleeding to help it heal.

And…

I saw one Youtube video (sorry can’t remember which one) of a before and after stitch (1 year later) in the ‘white zone’ that healed.

You could see a scar of the stitch mark in the healed part (scoped).

And this also suggests (to be mentioned below) that the non-vascularized part of the meniscus does have some healing potential.

Which goes against popular opinion.

Yet…

I read that in one study there is still a chance of 25% of failure or second op with repair. I saw two surgeons here in Fukuoka. One said he would go in and try to stitch it, but if the condition was bad cut it out.

I didn’t like that.

But I think a lot of surgeons will say that.

I saw a second one and he seemed against partial men. and pro stitches. But repair is like 5 months out and like 6 weeks on crutches.

And you are still placing a lot of trust in someone.

Both surgeons said PRP was like the 2nd best option but remember they are orthopedic surgeons.

Ask a surgeon what you should do he will probably say, “surgery” because that’s what he does.

There are some surgeons who will use stitches that don’t dissolve and even one guy in the linked-to thread below said he has anchors left in his knee from the surgeon that he can feel when he walks around.

I met one guy (Absenceofgoodnames) in this thread I started that had multiple surgeries on his knees and suggested that I wait. That might have affected me as there were some in that thread that had bad experiences with surgery and a fewer number not.

So I would do thorough research (and on your doctor and his methods) before trying any surgery.

Because different doctors have different methods and beliefs about what works and doesn’t.

Based on what I learned…

Maybe consider surgery especially if:

the tear is unstable
there is catching or locking

But maybe consider some other options first despite your pain and desire to ‘fix it’ now because it might not actually fix it and it could make it worse.

Yet, if you don’t do anything there is a chance that you will get arthritis too.

Unfortunately, there are 800,000 meniscus tears in the US annually, but only 10% are repaired. Source.

Learn more about surgery and how to heal your meniscus.

2. PRP (inject your own blood into the knee) or stem cells to help heal your meniscus

I would try this first before any surgery and I can now say that I have done something like this.

That’s right.

I withdrew my own blood and injected it in my knee 2 times successfully and failed two other times.

Probably not something you want to try, but I did since…

The price is high here in Japan at $1000 for one shot which may help but one shot may not be enough. Some recommend 3-4 shots.

PRP is not usually covered by insurance.

I injected my own blood into my knee (DIY PRP?)

Is whole blood as good as PRP?

I can tell you that your whole blood probably has plenty of platelets in it as one of the times that I failed injecting it was because the blood coagulated in the syringe and wouldn’t come out.

PRP or whole blood makes sense cause think about it…

If you do your research you’ll read that only 1/3 of your meniscus gets blood so the other part can’t heal.

This is everywhere on the web.

That’s what all the orthopedics will say.

Like I said everyone is biased including doctors because it’s in their interests to do surgery as that’s how they get paid (usually).

Sometimes they may get paid regardless like here in Japan with public healthcare, but it’s still their training.

Some people (including doctors) are more conventional in their beliefs and others lesser so.

Convention is likely old medicine and that’s likely what your average doctor is practicing.

Better than PRP or whole blood would be ‘STEM CELLS’

Whoa.

But those are going to cost you more. Like maybe 2-5 times as much as PRP.

Joe Rogan had them injected in his knee (mentioned in his podcast with David Sinclair) and Conor McGregor had them done for his ACL.

Another option…

Learn how to maximize your body’s ‘stem cells’ without injections here.

3. WAIT (stay off it and let your body try to heal your meniscus without surgery)

When it hurts you don’t want to wait, but chances are it will get better… if you wait. If you go back too soon you will make it worse and then you are going backwards.

Just stay off it.

Maybe even get some crutches for a while.

When it hurts more sit down or lie down and wait and rest.

Don’t push through it.

But your doctor may tell you it won’t heal…

The first tear I had in 2015.

I stopped bjj/judo for 2 months. It healed about 90% it’s original…

Then starting about 9 months ago (2019) I think I might have torn it again mildly.

Then there was a slow downward progression with it getting worse with occasional popping and a little pain probably cause I didn’t stop and let it heal.

Then one night POP, POP, POP trying a reverse triangle choke.

I went to the doctor. Got radiated with an X-Ray and then an MRI which said a medial meniscus tear.

The same spot as the first.

Hmm.

So perhaps that spot was weakened from the first or it didn’t completely heal the first time or I just re-tore it again in the same spot.

I think it probably didn’t completely heal.

Will it heal on it’s own?

I think that depends on the tear type. From what I’ve gathered it doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t heal on its own if it’s in the ‘white zone’.

But if the tear is big and open then maybe that’s harder to heal on its own.

And unfortunately I don’t think there is any way of knowing the true condition of the tear without going in with a scope.

And your doctor probably won’t go in and let you look at it to decide what to do even though that might be best.

WHAT CAN YOU DO WHILE YOU WAIT?

Learn how to heal your meniscus without surgery here.

4. REHAB your meniscus

You need to rest before the rehab so don’t push it too soon.

You can do some basic leg lifts to the front, side and back. A lot of reps and work your muscles without stressing your knees like you would in a squat.

Here’s a good gentle one…

Do this exercise as it helps lubricate the knees and helps transport nutrients in the knee. I did this daily for a year after I tore my meniscus the 1st time. And just got a reminder to do it again.

Start learning a complete meniscus rehab protocol now.

How does the meniscus get its nutrition?

So I looked at a few papers. And what I gathered is that it gets it from synovial fluid, possibly the underlying bone and peripheral part that gets blood flow.

And I read one source that says there are blood cells in synovial fluid and another that said only minimal blood cells.

The transport of solute from the joint cavity into the cartilage can take place by two mechanisms:
(1) pure diffusion due to solute concentration gradient and (2) by mechanical pumping action. Source

…vascular recession does not significantly alter nutrient levels in the meniscus, reducing at most 5% of the nutrient content in the central portion of the tissue. Therefore, our analysis suggests that reduced vascularity is not likely a primary initiating source in tissue degeneration. However, it does feasibly play a key role in inability for self-repair, as seen clinically. Source

And remember those stem cell shots mentioned above?

Well, guess what you actually have some there right now.

So that suggests that even though there is no blood flow the synovial fluid does contain nutrients although lower in number.

Although relatively uncommon, spontaneous healing from a meniscus injury has been observed even within the avascular area. Source

Also… I am looking into…

Learn more about healing your meniscus.

5. BPC 157 to heal your meniscus

As of now I haven’t made a post about this yet, but I will.

Peptides are one of the cheaper options and in my research possibly better than PRP, surgery, stem cells, etc. But there is not many studies on them with humans.

TB500 and BPC 157 as well as others have shown in animal studies that they can repair and regenerate cartilage, ligaments and bone.

I’ve been using the peptide BPC 157 and injecting it in my knee or around my knee.

It’s a peptide that is in your stomach acid originally, but is made in a lab and has 15 amino acids. I read quite a few favorable stories about this and cartilage repair.

My experience has been…

Like I said I hobbled around for about 6 weeks before I noticed much improvement.

But…

Around the 6 week mark I did my first DIY blood injection mentioned above. And then around 7 weeks I started BPC.

I have seen improvement with a decrease in pain later in the day. Previously I had more pain standing and walking later in the day after 3 or 4 pm.

Before walking felt more sketchy. Like if I wasn’t careful I could twist it a certain way and re-injure it.

It’s feeling more stable and strong. As of now I’ve been using it for about 3 weeks. Mostly injecting it 3 times a day (short half life of 4-6 hours), but recently I’ve been squirting it in my mouth.

It’s not as strong orally so you should double the dose. I had no side effects really see the post I made on BPC 157.

There are other peptides too.

Start learning more about using peptides and other methods to heal your knee injury.

GROWTH HORMONE

Read Kareem Abdul jabeer regrew part of his meniscus that was mostly gone. I probably won’t mess with this one. Read it was pricey and has side effects.

I would try a peptide that is a growth hormone secretagogue before straight HGH.

But you can look it up.

Learn how to maximize your body’s growth hormone.

TESTOSTERONE

How can you naturally increase this hormone?

Learn how here.

PROLOTHERAPY

It’s like a mix of saline or sugar injection that causes inflammation and then maybe healing. Not sure about it. Haven’t read much about this, but one doc was talking about combining it with testosterone and another with PRP.

Sounds less convincing than most other injections to me although better than something like cortisone or hyaluronic acid as the later are temporary fixes.

WHAT DOES A MENISCUS TEAR FEEL LIKE?

It effin hurts.

It feels a bit like a big cut and bruise in your knee.

Imagine if you sliced your foot open and then you walked around on barefoot on it.

That’s what it feels like.

Some people get catching and locking. Recently when I re-injured it I got some catching I think in certain positions. Although I haven’t experienced that lately that was closer to the time of injury.

Often on the ground and in newaza and BJJ sometimes. I would feel something hitting or snapping in there. It didn’t ever lock and I don’t want to push it there.

So we are chilling out until 100%. I hope I can get back to 100%.

Two tears…

I’ve had so I am being more cautious with this and feel like I have to intervene and do something. So I’ve so far done 2 blood injections and many injections of BPC 157.

I haven’t been training in almost 9 weeks.

Tell the community about your pain.

What should you do?

My advice…

I wouldn’t rush and I wouldn’t do a partial meniscectomy or if you do that definitely follow up with stem cells or peptides.

I would probably only do surgery if you can’t move your leg or it’s locked, but look for a doctor that will stitch it and make sure you clear that with your doctor.

Because maybe they will say that they will try that, but if they can’t stitch they will remove the torn part.

I don’t know about you but I don’t like that uncertainty.

You don’t want to wake up without a meniscus.

It’s up to you.

I don’t know what’s best.

It’s hard to know what’s best.

I thought about giving all these things a try that I am planning on and then going back to get another MRI ($70 here in Japan) to see if it healed the tear.

And then I could rub it in the face of conventional medicine.

Hehehe…

Some studies show that some people have tears in their knees, but manage fine and have no symptoms. Although some surgeons say they may be more likely to re-tear if untreated.

That’s why they cut it out or stitch it.

And I would also look into PRP, stem cells or peptides to help it heal.

Also waiting and resting and rehabing will likely help some.

And if you are considering surgery I’d see the Reddit thread for possible outcomes.

Oh yeah think that’s where I first heard of BPC 157.

P.S. Are you a grappler?

Both tears happened with big fat careless f*&@! (YES, I AM BITTER ABOUT IT) who tried jumping moves:

Jumping guard
Kani basami (scissors throw)

Both have a history of knee injuries. Very dangerous and stupid to do. Now illegal in judo for that reason.

You can see that post and video here (with gnarly footage).

Don’t experiment on your partner.

Do you want someone to try their flying moves on you?

If you are bigger than your opponent or partner then effin respect the difference.

RESPECT YOUR PARTNER.

Big or small.

Get out of your head.

Play the game, but play smart.

Cheesy yoga on the beach in Japan

This was a hot summer day from a few months ago. I rode my bike out to Nishijin in west Fukuoka and went to the beach. I like it out there.

I then decided to do some yoga.

Here we go.

Actually my posture doing this position in the thumbnail of the video here is not that good. My hand on the ground should be closer to my foot. Making the video was good for me because I could get some feedback and see how I looked.

This was actually the second time in the same day. Sometimes I do that. But I usually do yoga in the late morning.

I made another video here on yoga for lower leg strength, balance and flat feet.

Showing up

Sometimes all you have to do is show up. You just have to push through that doubt and negativity and get out of where you are now.

It’s hard.

Sometimes I don’t feel like doing a lot of things like:

doing yoga
doing jiu-jitsu
doing judo
working out
meditating
or starting something new

But I always feel better when I do.

That’s right, when I DO them.

Let’s take today for example. This morning I had no problem doing yoga and riding my bike to jiu-jitsu.

But the difficult part came when I realized it was Friday and I had to my workout.

Ahhh…

I didn’t feel like it.

I usually do it at Ohori park near my jiu-jitsu, but it was bit crowded today as it’s a holiday and I thought I could do it at that other park near my house.

So I got to the park and…

Ughh…

I still didn’t feel like doing pull ups and it was a bit hot in the sun. But I mustered up my courage and thought to myself we can do at least 5 or so.

I remember reading once that if something is really tough to do then you can just imagine taking the next step vs. focusing on the whole thing that you have to do.

And…

Instead of doing 5 pull ups I managed to do about 18, 19 or 20 (although they weren’t very deep as that bugs my shoulder).

They were tough, but I got the ball rolling. Oh yeah, earlier in the morning I did a little tummy workout after yoga so I didn’t really have to do any core stuff.

So I continued my workout with some jumps where I jump up on a bench and back down. Then we did some frog jumps.

And one set after another we powered through it.

I did about 3 sets of all of those which added up to about 35-40 pull ups, about 50 bench jumps and 45 frog jumps.

Then one set of planks and some toe raises.

Yay, I did it.

It wasn’t easy, but I am happy I powered through it.

It’s like the other night…

I have been going back and forth about starting to train judo at this new dojo. I thought of a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t do it. It’s far, I don’t really like that dojo, etc.

It was comfortable where I was (at home), but what are my goals?

One of them is to learn judo.

The other is to get a cultural visa to stay in Japan. I already tried getting one through my first jiu-jitsu school, but the officials didn’t like the name “Brazilian jiu-jitsu” on my school’s website.

Probably sounded too exotic to them and not Japanese enough, even though I tried to explain to them that it’s basically just judo with a focus on newaza (ground grappling techniques) and a different rule set.

So I needed to find something more traditional and this new dojo was like that.

It’s not perfect, but I kept telling myself you don’t really have another option and if you want to stay in Japan then you need to find a different school to help you get the visa.

Anyways…

So I pushed through my doubts and negativity and rode my bike 50 minutes to the new judo dojo and signed up.

And…

I had a good class and I am happy I made it.

I felt better after I did it.

And that’s what I was telling myself.

“Chances are you are going to feel better after you do this.”

And I did and that is what almost always happens. In fact I can’t think of a time when I did push through my negativity, doubt, comfort or “resistance” and actually felt worse because of it.

It’s hard, but…

You just have to do it. You have to do that exercise, project or whatever. Stop thinking about it and do it.

Sometimes you just got to start it and it will get easier once you are on your way.

I remember reading once that it’s important to make routines and I agree. And the author was referring to exercise and he said it’s not important necessarily that you reach a certain number or a quantitative result.

Some days your tired, busy or just don’t feel good.

Say you normally do 100 push ups, but you feel tired and it’s Tuesday your workout day. So he said you don’t have to hold yourself to that number just do some if you are tired.

That’s better than nothing and just remember to show up for your next routine.

I tend to gradually alter my workout routine and throw some different things or variations in to keep it not so monotonous.

If I usually do 3 sets of everything and I am tired then I might do 2.

Or…

If I didn’t sleep good and I go to jiu-jitsu I might just try to go easy or spar a bit less. But many times I went to class feeling like sh*t cursing the whole bike ride there about all of my problems until I get there.

And once I get there, things change.

I do occasionally have bad days and get discouraged, but I almost always walk out of there feeling better than when I went in.

It gives me energy.

So that’s the thing, sometimes that exercise that you are avoiding will actually give you energy.

Sometimes it’s not exercise, sometimes it’s a woman, sometimes it’s a project, sometimes it’s a class, sometimes it’s ____.

You just got to start it.

I tried Vegetarian, Vegan, Keto, Fasting, The Plant Paradox Diet & How I Lost Weight

I have tried many different diets and in this video I go over which ones I have done and which ones made me lose weight.

Vegetarian (10 years) 00:58
Vegan 03:27
The ketogenic diet 03:58
The Plant Paradox diet 05:14
The Warrior diet 08:46
Various fasting & time restricted feeding diets 09:40
My current diet and feeding schedule 11:30
KEY MESSAGE if you want to lose weight 16:08

And I wasn’t actually trying to lose weight, but that’s what happened. My intention for trying the different diets was to optimize my body and get in the best shape possible.

I think they all affected my current diet which is 95% vegetarian and that’s just my natural diet.

I was a strict vegetarian for 10 years (about 20-30 years old). In that time I didn’t eat any meat. And for much of that time I didn’t eat eggs either.

Periodically I have tried vegan diets and cutting out the dairy and eggs. But honestly I didn’t notice any changes.

I did the ketogenic diet for 6 months. It was difficult to transition to and it took like a month or so. I might have lost a bit of weight initially, but when I came off of it I weighed the same as when I went on it.

I didn’t notice any difference in performance after I had been on it for a few months either.

I tried the Plant Paradox diet too and I didn’t really notice too much of a change. However, I think I did cut back on eating night shade vegetables. I didn’t eat that many but I don’t eat any more now.

I never had problems with them.

There are foods like that.

Like wheat. I never noticed any problems from eating wheat, but I have read a lot of negative stuff about it so I rarely eat bread or pasta.

These days for carbs I eat mostly sweet potatoes and bit of rice flour in this kind of pancake that I often make with sesame flour, egg, cinnamon and sometimes raisins.

I have done different kinds of fasts too. I started with the Warrior Diet and that took off some weight, but I didn’t stick with it for very long as it was tough.

Then I did occasional long term fasts 2-3+ days which help stimulate autophagy.

And then for a long time (like a year or more) I did once a week fasting for 21-24 hours. It might have been good, but it didn’t take off weight.

Then I would also frequently not eat in the morning and do time restricted feeding.

So what really worked?

That takes me to where I am now. Fukuoka, Japan. I decided I would try some fasting and training while in a fasted state.

What do I do?

I get up, drink tea and work on my website for a few hours and then I ride my bike to jiu-jitsu which is 6km from my house. Then I train jiu-jitsu for 1-2 hours and then ride to Japanese class. Two days a week I also do a simple body weight workout usually after jiu-jitsu or sometimes after class.

After Japanese class I ride my bike home.

When I get home it’s somewhere between 4 and 5 and then that’s when I start cooking and eating. Then I’ll eat a lot of food between then and say 10pm at night.

I do that probably about 4 days a week or so.

So the bottom line is that I exercise in a fasted state. I don’t eat anything until much off my daily physical work at least is done.

It’s not that hard.

It’s the hardest in the morning sometimes when I am at home. But after I start riding my bike, doing jiu-jitsu and going to class I am usually not thinking about food.

But…

Yes, I am excited to go home and eat.

Tea helps me too. I drink matcha early in the morning and then rooibus, barley tea and sometimes others.

Anyways. I am just sharing on what I noticed to take weight off from me. My waist line feels a little tighter and there is less fat. I never had much fat to begin with, but more than what I have now.

Maybe 5-10 lbs as I used to weigh about 158, but the other day when I weighed myself I was 68.5 kg with my gi on in the morning and they say you weigh less in the morning.

The abdominal workout that I do at Axis jiu-jitsu (5 exercises & 500 repetitions)

This is at Axis jiu-jitsu in Fukuoka. On some of the weekdays we do an abdominal workout with about 5 different exercises and on this day it totaled about 500 repetitions.

The larger the class the more sit ups we do.

It’s a really awesome core workout.

I think my stomach actually got a little more cut from this, the intermittent fasting I do, and the exercise I sometimes do when I am fasting: jiu-jitsu, riding my bike 12km a day, working out, etc.

Related:

My simple 11 minute full body weight workout

My Simple 11 Minute Full Body Weight Workout

I like body weight exercises because they are simple and I can do them almost anywhere. You don’t need a gym to do push ups, squats, sit ups, planks, and/or jumping.

And those exercises right there are a basic full body workout.

If you have access to a bar or a playground you can usually do some pull ups or leg ups which I’ll show you in the video.

And remember you don’t need a gym or weights. So that’s not an excuse!

This body weight workout will work your upperbody, core and legs and it only took me about 11 minutes and nothing else other than a swing set that I used as a pull up bar and a stone wall to jump up on.

Here I do some:
-pull ups (upper body)
-leg ups (core+arms)
-planks (core)
-frog jump squats (legs)
-jump ups or box jumps (legs)

I do 2 sets of each exercise for the most part. I usually go for fatigue and stop and then do another exercise and then come back.

Here I do about 25 pull ups, 20 full breaths of planks, 15 leg ups, 40 frog jumps, and maybe 70 box jumps.

Doing another set would probably give me more muscle development, yet I can get bored doing a lot of repetition so I keep it simple. Also I don’t like to spend a lot of time doing this.

Have knee issues?

Box jumping up does not hurt my knees. Jumping rope can hurt my knees and squats can hurt my knees and if I jump down from the box that can hurt so I step down and jump up.

This was shot in Fukuoka, Japan. My current home.

Related:

The diets I have tried and what has worked

A low impact full body workout exercise

This is a modified version of the mountain climber exercise. Basically instead of jumping with sneakers you slide with socks and this makes it more of a low impact body weight exercise.

I use a pair of socks and do it on my yoga mat. But it might also work on another kind of slippery floor.

I think to get the most out of it you should sprint at some point or go as fast as you can. Of course if it is your first time then you can go a little slower.

What I do is often a 10-20 count at a medium pace and then go as fast as I can for 10-20 seconds.

If you do that you will get your heart rate up there and be breathing hard.

Then take a break until your breath calms down.

Then do it again.

And again.

As of recent when I do this I’ll often do at least 3 sets. But before this video I did 5 or 6 sets.

There are many different ways that you could use this exercise.

Here is a suggested workout with this exercise:

10-20 seconds medium pace, 10 second sprint as fast as you can. Rest for 40 seconds.
10-20 seconds medium pace, 10 second sprint as fast as you can. Rest for 40 seconds.
10-20 seconds medium pace, 10 second sprint as fast as you can. Rest for 40 seconds.

Of course you can modify this by doing more sets or longer sprints, etc.

You can also add this to your body weight workout. It also works as a good warm up. Very quickly you can get your heart rate pumping and be out of breath if you do it fast enough.

It will work many muscles in your body including arms, shoulders, core, quads, hip abductors and glutes.

I think it’s a good all around low impact exercise that works many different muscle groups and brings some of the benefits of sprinting.

Benefits of sprinting:

1. Save time
2. Improve cardiovascular health
3. Strengthen muscles
4. Improve muscle tone
5. Reduce stress
6. Improve speed and power

The con of sprinting by running is that it is hard on your joints. So a low impact way of sprinting is by doing this exercise.

I found it to be a low impact exercise for my legs. It doesn’t irritate my knees like squats do sometimes. Like it’s not a very good leg work out exercise per se, but you’ll get some and it shouldn’t hurt your knees.

“Surrender” – The Antidote To A “Bad Trip”

Here’s a new video I made. It’s based on a true story and was inspired from an intense experience with psilocybin mushrooms.

So there I was thinking I had poisoned myself. It was dark out and walking was difficult as my legs were like rubber and I felt clumsy.

It was like a 2nd wave. A few hours or maybe as many as 3 hours had passed by since I took them. I saw eucalyptus trees going up and down like a merry go round, but then I started to get this panicky feeling and my arm started to twitch.

I started feeling very sick and tried guzzling water and then throwing that up and I needed to lie down.

But where?

There I was in the Presidio walking home towards Chinatown and there was this big long stone wall that separates SF from the park.

There was this bright street lamp.

And I just had to lie down and sprawl out on this wall. To get grounded. My legs were twitching and I was freaking out. I kept saying surrender to myself like I learned in the video.

And there were these coyotes that were howling. And they got louder and louder. Then I started to think they might be howling at me.

So I said shut up and they stopped.

Trippy.

I think they thought I was dying.

It really was a near death experience, lol.

Probably looked like it as there I was sprawled out on my back on this stone wall with my arms hanging off to the side.

Twitching.

Staring up into the sky and this annoying street lamp.

Getting some spirally visuals and in another demention.

When I finally could get up off that wall I checked the clock and like 2-3 hours had gone by!

Crazy and this guy drives by and asked if I was alright.

Said yep, drank too much.

Then thought why didn’t I just tell him the truth?

Paranoid.

About the video above

It also includes some sound samples from some of the things that I have been learning about psilocybin.

I made another video that I haven’t put together and posted yet that entails the details of this experience. This video touches on the things that saved me during what some might call a “bad trip”.

Those were words that I remembered from a video I saw with Dr. Rosalyn Watts talking about some of the psilocybin research being done.

“Surrender” is what saved me.

That helped turn a really dark moment where I “felt” like I was facing death to something very cathartic.

The full story…

Here is a video that’s 44 minutes long where I talk about the whole psilocybin experience.

Here are some of the sound samples used in the video above:

“It was pretty frightening cause I was fighting it. If you are out in the open ocean and you were to fall off your boat. You turn around and the boat’s gone and then pretty soon the water is gone and then you’re gone.
“Don’t fight it”
“Surrender. That’s the one word. Surrender.”
“Your ego is dissolving and it’s scary. It’s like a death.”
“There are no bad trips…”
“We are not just dumb beasts brought here to walk in one straight path our whole lives, we are here to fly.”

Those quotes are from the following videos:

Researching Psilocybin’s Effects on Depression – Dr. Rosalind Watts
Joe Rogan Experience #1121 – Michael Pollan
Darrick May: Examining “Bad Trips” on Psilocybin – Positive & Negative Consequences
The Substance – Albert Hoffman’s LSD (rented from the library)

I did the scratching with my turntables, the beatboxing and then put together the beats with my Mac.

I had some problems editing the video as it’s a really old Mac (2009). So there were a few things that I would have edited if I could have.

And I recently broke my video camera so also I had to make this with my phone camera which seems to be lower quality.

You may also find this video helpful if you want to avoid a “bad trip” or are having one.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SCIENCE BEHIND PSILOCYBIN and why I started experimenting with it.

If you happen to find this article by search and are looking how to avoid a bad trip or survive one and aside from letting go and surrendering I’d say the following…

stay away from the city
stay away from people/strangers
be in nature
meditate
walk
lie down
breath
draw, play music or sing even

Personally I have found drawing to make me feel better. That was at least once.

I think being somewhere where you feel safe and comfortable is good to.

The Science Behind Psilocybin [Surprising Facts]

Psilocybin mushrooms (psilocybe allenii)

I fairly recently got turned on to psilocybin mushrooms after hearing about some of the psychological benefits first by listening to the clinical psychologist and professor Jordan Peterson talk about some of the studies being done.

Since then I have learned a lot about psilocybin. Here are some of the things that I have learned.

A single dose can decrease depression and anxiety LONG term

That’s long term and not short term.

John Hopkins University has been doing studies on psilocybin with those who have end stage cancer. These people are near the end of their lives with terminal cancer.

A single high dose of psilocybin gave them what was described as a “mystical” experience and improved their outlook on life and reduced their anxiety.

Psilocybin shuts off the part of the brain associated with depression

In my own experience I would add that psilocybin mushrooms can be terrifying in the short term and cause paranoia and panic attacks if you try to fight it.

The key is to “let go”.

However, that’s my own experience and despite the fact that often these experiences are partly terrifying they are rather cathartic.

It would be best to do them with someone who can watch over you like in the studies.

I think that would be ideal especially with high doses. They say you are really suggestible when you are under the influence of psychedelics. So just having someone there to comfort you, give you a hug, hold your hand or just tell you that you are going to be fine would be very helpful.

The other day there was no one around and I was in a bothered state and I saw this really beautiful eucalyptus tree and I had to give it a hug! It made me feel much better^^.

A high dose of psilocybin is a sort of “death” that you will learn more about below. And some say the secret to life is to “die before you die”.

A woman’s experience as a guide in the psilocybin studies.

Serotonin, psilocybin and DMT are structurally very similar

DMT is found in psychedelics like ayahuasca and in your body. LSD is derived from a fungus that grows on rye.

I remember one thing that Jordan Peterson said about a lack of serotonin. It was something about that if you had low serotonin you were going to have problems in regards to the dominance hierarchy (short clip on serotonin/dominance hierarchy).

And…

According to integrativepsychiatry.net:

“Low serotonin levels are often attributed to anxiety, depression, panic attacks, insomnia, obesity, fibromyalgia, eating disorders, chronic pain, migraines, and alcohol abuse. Negative thoughts, low self-esteem, obsessive thoughts and behaviors, PMS, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome are also symptoms of low serotonin.”

http://psychedelicfrontier.com/how-psilocybin-works-addition-by-subtraction/

Psilocybin deactivates the default mode network (where your EGO lies) and activates other areas of your brain

“In neuroscience, the default mode network is a large scale brain network of interacting brain regions known to have activity highly correlated with each other and distinct from other networks in the brain.” – wikipedia

Many people who have used psychedelics use the term “ego death”. I was trying to figure out what they exactly mean by this. After I learned about the DMN and that it may be where your sense of self (ego) lies it made total sense to me.

I can attest to the fact that a high dose of psilocybin feels like you are dying, however you are not actually, but possibly transforming.

In actuality part of your brain gets shut off and others not normally active become active. Remember some people say you only use 20% of your brain?

Well that may not be true, but it might be true most of the time because of the DMN. And if you look again at the picture above your brain on psilocybin is highly active.

Psilocybin floods your brain with blood also sometimes producing the side effect of clumsiness.

Psychedelics and mental health

Psilocybin is less addictive and toxic than drugs like: caffeine, alcohol and marijuana

Psilocybin’s addiction potential compared to other drugs

Despite the fact that it is powerful and what it might feel like psilocybin is less toxic than caffeine in high doses.

Learn more about it on Wikipedia.

Psilocybin will probably make you appreciate nature more

I have always appreciated nature. I grew up in the country side of Northern New Hampshire and the woods was right out the door.

“Researchers from the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College discovered that, in at least a small sample of subjects, ingestion of psilocybin was correlated with both an increased feeling of being part of nature and an increased dislike of authoritarian, political views…” – Inverse

“Human intelligence is impressive, but it’s not in the same league as nature.” – Simon G. Powell, from the video below

I recommend skipping ahead to 5:50 in his video.

Psilocybin increases one’s openness

Openness to experience is a personality factor on the Big 5 scale of personality dimensions. One of the 5 measures of personality is openness to experience.

A single high dose of psilocybin can increase this over the long term.

Psilocybin increases one’s empathy

Psilocybin affects the serotonin receptors in your brain which can affect how you emotionally relate to other people.

“Psilocybin targets the 5-HT2A/1A receptors in your brain which may have potential beneficial effects in the treatment of mood disorders or psychopathy, which are characterized by deficits in social skills and in particular in the ability to feel with other people.”

Psilocybin significantly increased explicit and implicit emotional empathy compared with the placebo

In my experience it definitely makes me feel more emotional at times during the trip. This is also interesting to me as I would say that I am introverted and probably do have some social anxiety.

Psilocybin mushrooms stimulate the growth of new brain cells

That is also known as neurogenesis and they may in fact help you get over some of your fears.

“Memory, learning, and the ability to relearn that a once threatening stimuli is no longer a danger absolutely depends on the ability of the brain to alter its connections. We believe that neuroplasticity plays a critical role in psilocybin accelerating fear extinction.” – Dr. Briony Catlow

Neurogenesis and microdosing psilocybin

Psilocybin will probably make you more creative

I have found that drawing is pretty helpful and soothing at times when using mushrooms and I will probably find out more in the future as to how using psilocybin may provide creative benefits.

I think you are going to get some insights as well. It definitely makes you more aware and you do see things that you don’t normally see sober and I am not talking about hallucinations.

It does make you more perceptive.

Some say psychedelics are the doorway to your unconscious mind.

Microdosing has become popular too for entrepreneurs in Silicon valley. Microdosing is taking a very small dose so small that effects are not really noticed in the short term, however over the long term one can see how it has affected their performance.

How do psychedelics make you more creative?

Psilocybin isn’t new, in fact it has a long history of use

There are murals done in Africa that suggest that psilocybin mushrooms were used in as far back as 7-9000 BC.

They were also used by the Mayans and the Aztecs. The aztecs referred to them as teonanácatl which means “god’s flesh”.

Psilocybin was actually isolated and synthesized by Dr. Albert Hoffman. The man who discovered LSD.

Psilocybin and LSD along with other psychedelics were used in therapy throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s until becoming illegal in 1966.

Is psilocybin the solution to all of your problems?

Psilocybin is not for everyone especially those predisposed to schizophrenia.

Personally I have found it to be very beneficial so far, however there are certain side effects especially in higher doses. Every experience will be a bit different, however in my recent experience 50% of the duration or so has been challenging.

It is more of a “mystical”, challenging and learning experience.

Experiences w/ Psilocybin – Lower vs. Higher Dose

I wrote most of this a couple of weeks ago and just finished it up…

Recently I have done some experimentation with psilocybin mushrooms that I have found in the wild. My interest in psilocybin began when I learned about the benefits of psilocybin.

I will attempt to describe some of my experiences.

A lot of people say take things like take 2 grams if you want a light experience. Or take 5 grams if you want a “heroic dose”, but I think there are problems with that advice.

First off there are many different kinds of psilocybin mushrooms and they have varying amounts of psilocybin, psilocin and baeocystin. I saw a cool chart in Paul Stamet’s book Psilocybin Mushrooms Of The World that showed the differences between some of the species.

I couldn’t find that image online, but I found this that says the psilocybin content can range from .16% to 1.73%.

According to Alan Rockefeller psilocybe cubensis is the most commonly sold magic mushroom, but it’s psilocybin content is less than half of some other species that grow around here and in the North West.

And you are unique. So if you are considering experimenting with it know that what might work for you won’t work for others and vice versa.

Anyways…

A lower dose experiment

Today I did some hiking around San Francisco mostly near San Bruno mountain. Prior to today I had a night where I didn’t sleep very well.

I got up a little early around 8-ish as I couldn’t sleep well.

I ate three medium-small mushrooms and here are some things I noticed:

My mind is calm
No negative thoughts
No anxiety
No ruminating
More in the moment
Body feels fine
Slight enhancement of visuals

I also ate about 1/3 of a 100% cacao chocolate bar. Cacao contains theobromine and a small amount of caffeine. Both are stimulants. Since I did not sleep much more than 4 hours the night before I did this.

As usual before I went hiking a did some yoga. Aside from the cacao I didn’t eat any meals. 1 or 2 days a week I will skip a meal or 2 (intermittent fasting/time restricted feeding).

Anyways I wasn’t so sure how much I would feel from those mushrooms. The last time that I ate them I had a rather intense experience which I will tell you about later, but this time I hardly noticed them.

Shortly after I arrived at the San Bruno mountain area I decided to eat the mushrooms and a little more cacao. I continued walking and also decided I should do some yoga and meditate as my body was feeling painful as I didn’t sleep much.

I found a little park area with some concrete picnic tables and did a little yoga and meditation. It’s amazing how those things can make you feel better.

I did some hiking around that area, but I never really felt the psilocybin come on like you sometimes do. I had more mushrooms, but decided I would save them for another time.

At some point I noticed which seemed like the first effects was a slight enhancement of colors. But that could have even been in my head as I have taken them before, but…

I think I become more in the moment just looking around exploring and eating blackberries!

I must have ate 2 cups of blackberries!

I saw like 3 banana slugs and then one leopard print slug. The fog started to come in and drip down drops of rain. It was quite nice.

Eventually I decided to go back and as I was on the bus back I realized just how calm I was. I wasn’t anxious to get anywhere or annoyed with the people or ruminating about something stupid like I sometimes do.

After this experience I can agree on the scientific fact that psilocybin mushrooms work in a similar way as meditation.

Meditation and Magic Mushrooms Do the Same Thing to Your Brain

I just felt in the moment and that was my experience with a lower dose of psilocybin mushrooms. I wasn’t out there and I didn’t have any side effects except for a moment of light nausea that went away when I ate some blackberries.

A higher dose experiment

After reading about some of the experiments with high doses at John Hopkins university and from some other sources I decided I would eat them at home and stay inside which would be different as I usually go outside in nature for this sort of thing.

So I made a psilocybin soup! I added about 6-7 small dried mushrooms and 1 big dried mushroom.

How I made it

ginger
nutritional yeast
water
psilocybin mushrooms
a little seaweed
a little kale
salt

The soup was quite good. After I ingested it I lied down to meditate. It wasn’t long before I started to feel the effects. It may have been 30-40 minutes or so.

This was an intense experience that lasted a good 6 hours with the first 3 being the most intense.

They say it can be hard to separate your senses. That means that seeing and hearing can become one. And I can’t actually remember or tell in one case as there was this sort of communicating sounds and or visions about insects.

I couldn’t quite determine what they were. It was like I was hearing some sort of animal or living things communication with me. It was sort of screeching like but not loud.

It was kind of like insects or something. And it was really weird as a few days later I read that one of the reasons why some scientists think that these kinds of mushrooms make psilocybin is to keep insects from eating them.

Anyways…

Here are some things I experienced…

Hallucinations
Fear of death I felt like I was going to die
Anxiety
Panic
Terror
Crying (first time in many years)
Euphoria

The kind of hallucinations I have experienced with mushrooms are distortions of things. I never really saw something that wasn’t there, however some things become more vivid, move, distort, you may see doublish momentarily and one time before this experience I saw part of a dirt road sort of animate and become fractal like in a way and move like water.

I mean it was the color of the dirt still, but it was not still. It became fractal like and moved like water for just a moment.

Death

I have experienced the sensation that I was dying several times on higher doses. This fear that I ate the wrong mushrooms and it was going to kill me. That has happened several times at a higher dose.

Panic, paranoia, terror…

All these things sound bad at a high dose so why do it?

It probably does sound that way, but there is also something going on here that is hard to explain. At a high dose you are really going to go somewhere mystical.

And despite being terrifying at times they have also been very cathartic. Since I first started writing this piece I have had another very intense higher dose experience.

I told the story with my webcam although I haven’t published it yet. More coming on that soon.

Oh and if you found this article in search and you are wondering how much should you take then I would say to start small. There are benefits to both small and high doses. And unless you are taking psilocybe cubensis then I wouldn’t go by weight and you have to also consider your body size too.

It’s pretty unpredictable until you try so that’s why I would start small.

You can learn more about microdosing psilocybin here.