Unplugged Book Review
- Samuel Stewart
- Feb 14
- 6 min read
Author Brian Mackenzie
Lao Tzu 'If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present"
The book about unplugging from technology to upgrade your fitness, performance, and consciousness that had me sitting down watching a training montage as soon as I finish reading it.
The overall message of the unplugged book is particularly relevant given the colossal growth of the wearable fitness technology industry that has not necessarily been making people healthier but is also relevant when matched up with the current popularity of ideas around mindfulness.
"We prefer to live through goals and spreadsheets and not feelings, which can be a handicap for life"
The Sports Scientist and the coach in me certainly appreciate the truth in this quote and I think the big issue around data collection for most people is not having a purpose for measuring something of making decisions off information that they don't really understand. Heart Rate (HR) is the best example here as it is so easy to record now but needs to be interpreted within the context of things such as recovery state and environmental conditions. Unplugged, also does a great job of exploring and explaining the limitations of standard max HR prediction models and how using max HR as an indication of relative intensity may seriously sell yourself short.
The self-imposing limitation this can place on training load for individuals reminds me that the prevailing medical opinion at the time when Roger Banniser broke the 4-minute mile barrier in 1954 was that the human heart would explode running at that pace. If people see their HR numbers getting into their estimated max ranges and get worried so they back off despite feeling capable of doing more they may be doing little more than leaving more gains on the table.
"If you are recording it, you're not participating and if you're capturing, you're not interacting"
There is a strong argument for the notion that we can actually learn to feel much better then we can currently measure anyway but like anything, the ability to feel gets better with training. By this, I mean telling someone to go out an run at 80% of their VO2 max based on feel can be highly repeatable and learning that sense of feel also takes in individual variations and adaptations over time and on a day to day basis that no device can yet replicate.
Allan Watts "Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence"
That all said this is not an anti-technology book, it is about smart utilization of technology which I think can be best summarised as a measure when you need to and use that information to guide your training and develop a greater understanding of your own feel and the spend the rest of the time being present and staying connected to your body and the experience.
Some Key Take Away Points
Continuous Partial Attention (CPA)
The modern impairment of CPA - coined by Linda Stone. "an always-on, anytime, anywhere, any place behaviour that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis". I personally need the mind clearing release that focused physical activity provides me and know it means I can get more out of the effort I put into exercise which is often a form of play time for me. CPA is an issue at work, home and in most aspects of our lives and I am not one to listen to music while exercising as I like to focus on what I am doing but in recent years my smartwatch has start invading that time with notifications and vibrations so now I turn my phone to airplane mode or off when exercising (most the time).
The Mack Daddy of the Nervous System - The Vagus Nerve
Have you ever noticed how panicked and anxious people and animals tend to get stuck in a hyperinflation cycle? Or if you have done much research around respiration and breathing you may have come across the idea of chronically stressed out people being in a state of chronic hyperinflation.
Alternatively, if you have ever done meditation or just some breathing drills focused on long exhales you may have noticed that relaxed feeling that can come over you. I have been vaguely familiar with the work of the Postural Restoration Institue for years and have been using breathing drills for personal relaxation and focusing as well as clinically to alter system states and in the performance, setting to alter movement and attempt to initiate the recovery cycle.
You won't have to look hard to find all sorts of different methodologies around breathing and respirations one of the key ideas behind all the different methods is that exhalation triggers a nervous system downshift - activating the vagus nerve and stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (that is our rest and digest system).
Unplugged simply suggested performing 15 diaphragmatic breaths with an emphasis on long exhales and breath holds.
The below infographic helps to understand how people can propose ideas around impacting visceral function through manipulation of the parasympathetic nervous system with breathing based interventions.
Performing vs Training
You see a lot of people that treat training like a life a death struggle that turns what should be beneficial movement and exercises into nothing more than another stressor. I particularly enjoyed the commentary on this around the phrase 'workout' could itself be interpreted as expressing that we are supposed to exercise until we have nothing left. This is obviously targeted at a particular population within the fitness community as there are also plenty of people at the opposite side of the spectrum who show up to train but actually get too little work done. Training certainly does need to be stressful, that is kind of the whole point. Being more engaged and aware of your training process should help you make better training choices and decisions rather than making random changes or blindly following a plan.
Percy Cerutty - “While work does do things, it is intelligent work that does superior things.”
Why
This is something I use more around goal setting normally but is also powerful when evaluating behaviours and its very simple. Just ask yourself WHY three times (There is also the five why system). However, many whys it takes the idea is that you keep asking why until all the bullshit lies are out of the way and all your left with is the often uncomfortable truth behind earlier whys.
Ricardo Semler gives a great talk on life but fair warning it is a 22-minute video with only a brief reference to asking why three times in a row around 17:00 minutes.
Get Scared
We need more of the right kind of fear in our lives, for this, you only have to ask why once - When we confront something that makes us afraid, it forces us to overcome our preconceptions and wrestle with reality in its starkest form.
Kai Lenny - 'exposing yourself to one scare a day is a good thing. It keeps you on your toes, keeps you humble, and keeps your mind open. Put anyone in nature and they go from the top of the food chain to the bottom of it instantly. We've become too elite for nature in our own heads, and that breeds overconfidence that can be self-destructive. Every time you go in the water it teaches you humility, and that's how you survive."
Testing for Mortality
A curious point that was raised early in the text was that some of the best measures to predict health and mortality risk are:
VO2 Max
Leg Strength
Lean Body mass
Grip Strength
I found this curious because they are such simple metrics to measure and yet they are not something I see regularly measured as a cluster for health prediction. Yet with a bit of work to make some software to track results and compare to normative data sets you could quickly have yourself a valuable assessment package.
Favourite Quote
You have probably heard this one before, I believe it is a variation of a Latin phrase that has been adopted by some of the American Special Forces. When I read it this time it resonated with me more than it has in the past so it has stuck with me and it does get referenced by Mark Walberg in Shooter.
"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast"
App Recommendations
Remember unplugged was more about utilising technology in a purposeful way so it did make some really great app recommendations along the way:
Apps
f.lux - app for screen brightness
Especially to reduce blue light exposure in the evenings
Space - phone usage tracking
Moment - track and set daily limits
Flipd - locks device at certain times
These three are basically usage and access trackers that you might use for helping understand your usage more or help make habit changes around usage
brain.fm - ambient noise tailor to task
Non-distracting noise for work, white noise to help you sleep or sounds for your meditation sessions this is a pretty cool app
Journey - Diary, Journal
Journaling can be a useful way to gain personal insight
Evernote
Most people have heard of this before as its all about list making and personal organisation
What's Next
Low-grade physical activity performed in nature with novelty, complexity and a playful mindset appear to be some of the components to best transition through the four sages of flow- struggle, release, flow and recovery. This is something I I don't get to do much of in my current life and work environment but back in Australia I loved going for long runs along the river and stopping at different structures and location such as fences, tables, stairs or trees along the way to do whatever random exercises I could make up.
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