🧊 Do You Even Cold Plunge, Bro?

In this week's P.O. Box:

We are in a golden age right now for wellness trends, biohacks, and general optimization tips and tricks.

I can't even make it through a couple of Instagram stories of friends' babies without getting bombarded with ads for $10,000 cold plunge tubs. Yes, for those of you not criminally online, the wellness grifters have indeed found a way to charge 5-figures for a fancy trough.

You know we are all desperate for health and wellness shortcuts when there's a market for bathtubs that aren't your bathtub.

A few years ago I read the book Good To Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery in which journalist Christie Aschwanded investigated a bunch of trendy (and very expensive) recovery "hacks" like cryotherapy, supplements, and even Tom Brady's goddamn infrared pajamas.

Her scientific research pokes holes in the loose pseudoscience behind those recovery marketing fads and highlights why sports science trials can't always be fully trusted. Her biggest takeaway (surprise surprise!) is that simply getting more (and better) sleep is by far the best thing an athlete can do for recovery.

But that isn't sexy. That doesn't feel like a quick shortcut or a fun hack.

It's the same thing with Intermittent Fasting. There's a reason none of the biggest health and fitness pods are sponsored by BIG INTERMITTANT FASTING. There's nothing to sell when the pitch is:

"Don't eat breakfast and shorten your daily eating window so you can realize some of the fat-burning benefits of autophagy and better control your daily caloric intake."

Instead we get hawked Athletic Greens (use promo code Pe—jk), probiotics, and the latest and greatest multivitamins because those are actual products that can generate affiliate dollars for influencers.

I don't want to fully throw the baby out with the cold plunge water, though. I do actually think there is one concrete benefit to integrating some of these "hacks" (back on my scare quote bullshit) into your life.

If one of these fads or trends helps you develop a sustainable habit that results in other positive habits, fucking go for it.

For years, I've tricked myself into going to the gym with more regularity than I otherwise would simply because I dangle a sauna "carrot" at the end of my workout as a reward. Do I think I can live forever with perfect health because I'm using the sauna a couple times a week? No. I really enjoy it, though, there is some compelling research regarding its health benefits (do you even heat shock protein, bro?), and most importantly, it's a habit that I can stack with a far more beneficial habit, exercising regularly.

James Clear talks about this dynamic in his book Atomic Habits.

Fwiw, I don't even have any strong taeks on the cold plunge stuff. I enjoy taking cold showers every now and again—it really does offer a nice adrenaline rush—but the research seems to indicate the actual benefits of cold water immersion are primarily for athletes looking to reduce post-workout muscle soreness.

There's a huge temptation to over-evangelize the hacks that work for us. I remember telling wayyy too many people about the massive benefits and changes I had experienced when I first implemented Intermittent Fasting.

I've since realized it isn't for everyone and I'm far more cautious about overselling something that perhaps uniquely works for me.

It's similar to how I've received truckloads of unsolicited baby advice over the past six months. Everyone has lined up to tell me what worked for their baby and how I could use their one simple trick for getting my baby to sleep through the night.

Most of them have been completely useless (especially whoever told me to pretend like I'm sleeping whenever the baby cried). What I very quickly realized is that I had to become an expert on my baby, not run the playbook for other people's babies.

Everyone needs to become an expert on their own bodies and what works for them. And if for some reason slapping on a pair of Tom Brady's infrared jammies sets you up for a great, healthy and productive day, by all means...

🍳 Can you punt QB in Superflex? Underdog dropped their newest best ball tournament and I immediately thumbed my nose at the scoring settings by going Zero QB in back-to-back best ball breakfast drafts. The people did not like this.

💪 Big Board Superflex strategy. Speaking of Sflex, wrote up a strategy guide for Fantasy Life. Don't show up to a gunfight with a knife.

💡 Which QBs should you double stack? The Best Ball tips keep rolling, including why you should get weird at the end of drafts.

🚢 Uncovering hidden values. My co-host on Ship Chasing Ben Gretch shared some cool research he did on TPRR (which does not stand for "Target, Punt, Return & Rush" despite what Chat GPT says).

🏀 Andy8052 probably shouldn't be sharing this alpha. Tips and tricks for Underdog daily drafts.

🎭 DFS drama? People say this is what LOLz is built for, so who am I to deny the people their tea.

We also apparently live in the golden era of fantasy football and fantasy football-adjacent newsletters. Check out my buddy Davis Mattek's new one, AutoMattek Absolutes, where he's still coping with missing on Odell Beckham 9 years later...

Got two streams on tap this weekend...

Drafting a team with Chris "Not Spaghetti" Spags on Splash Play shortly...

And then on Saturday night at 8:00pm, I'm firing up another Best Ball After Dark stream for VIPs. I'll be joined by Mike Leone for a few drinks, a draft, and to discuss his latest best ball data deep dive on the benefits of stacking. Become a YouTube member here for access.

Shout out to our Deposit Kingdom March Madness winners and Run The Sims for the prizes. UCONN was the guy you needed in Week 17...

I believe Jokah might swing by Best Ball Breakfast on Monday to gloat...

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