Boundless Health, Fitness and Energy: Ben Greenfield Explains How

As January comes to an end, plenty of people who set a New Year’s resolution to get in shape have abandoned their goal. This is unfortunate and often a consequence of unrealistic goals and fitness routines that don’t deliver on their promises for the individual.

Ben Greenfield’s lifelong pursuit of a joyful, adventurous and fulfilling life is packed with knowledge from the trenches and the lab. For the past three years, Greenfield has been working tirelessly to create the book he always wished existed: a complete guide to optimizing the mind, body and spirit—written with no stone unturned and no fluff.

Fitness professionals and enthusiasts alike will be happy to discover Greenfield’s new book, “Boundless” (Victory Belt Publishing, January 2020), makes that knowledge instantly accessible to the layperson, health professional and extreme athlete. In “Boundless,” he pulls together the most current, cutting-edge research on every strategy, tool, biohack and resource he has tested and uses in his own regimen—as well as his clients’—to enhance performance, fat loss, digestion, recovery, immunity, cognition, hormones, sleep and longevity.

24Life Editor-in-Chief Lashaun Dale caught up with Greenfield to discuss what it means to be boundless, his advice for people just getting started and his top tips from the book.

Lashaun Dale: “Boundless” is more than 600 pages, and it’s like a 21st century bible for fitness. What inspired you to write it?

Ben Greenfield: I wanted a comprehensive blueprint for the human body and for energy. I wanted to write the last book someone would ever need to read to optimize their energy levels—I call that being boundless. And I wanted to write the kind of book that I like to read: entertaining, fun and a big adventure that you read over and over again.

LD: How did you write it?

BG: I sit down and ask a question and dive into the research until we have an answer—let’s say, How can you fix your gut?

I try to map out in my research all the different issues that could be causing a compromised gut. Typically, I’m writing with two to three research assistants to find the research-proven strategies that will address each of those issues. I’ll do that test and I’ll repeat it, talk to doctors about it and get as much information as I can, and then weave the personal experience, the actual practical stuff, into the book.

LD: Have you always been into your health and fitness?

BG: Well, I’ve always been passionate about physical culture and grew up in North Idaho playing outdoors. I got a master’s degree at the University of Idaho in exercise physiology and biomechanics. I opened a series of gyms and personal training studios in Washington and Idaho. We had an exercise physiology lab, had doctors on staff and chiropractors, massage therapists and physical therapists, and created one-stop shops for sports medicine. Eventually, I pivoted toward speaking and teaching others, started a podcast and a blog, and began to write books.

When our twin boys were born 11 years ago, I began to do a lot more online consulting. Now I travel around the world speaking, and I invest in different companies in the health and fitness and nutrition sector. I own a nutrition supplements company called Kion, and I help to formulate supplements for it.