Kirk Parsley: Why Sleep Impacts Every Aspect of Life and How You Can Improve and Protect Yours
The Ready State Podcast
Kelly Starrett & Juliet Starrett
4.9 • 623 Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2024
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Kirk "Doc" Parsley completed SEAL training as a teenager and served on SEAL Team Five for 6 years. After leaving to attend college, Kirk received his medical degree and returned to the military as the physician for the West Coast SEAL teams. It was while helping the world's most elite warriors optimize and maintain their performance after years of sustained combat that he noticed a significant gap between "healthcare" and true "health." Kirk was compelled to delve into extensive alternative medical literature, synthesizing and applying plans that relied minimally on pharmaceuticals, supplements, or gadgets. His unparalleled success led him to become a sought-after medical human performance expert, not only for Navy SEALs but also for various military special forces commands. Kirk firmly believes that 80% of health is derived from focusing on Sleep, Nutrition, Exercise, and Stress mitigation, with a strong emphasis on Sleep.
Doc Parsley was the first person in our universe that helped us understand the importance of sleep. In this episode, we learn the mechanisms by which sleep impacts every aspect of life, and it is filled with practical and actionable information on what you can do to improve and protect yours.
SPONSORS
This episode of The Ready State Podcast is brought to you by Momentous, a leading high-performance lifestyle company making the best supplements and sports nutrition products for individuals looking to optimize all parts of their lives. Based on some advice from Stacy Sims, Juliet consumes protein within 20 minutes of working out. But not all proteins are created equal and Momentous Chocolate protein is tasty! To check it out, go to livemomentous.com/TRS and use code TRS for 20% OFF your first purchase.
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This episode of The Ready State Podcast is brought to you by LMNT, a tasty electrolyte drink mix with everything you need and nothing you don’t. That means lots of salt — with no sugar. If you are like Juliet and work out first thing in the morning, try chugging an LMNT before training instead of just coffee. You'll be surprised how much it will improve how you feel and perform. Go to DrinkLMNT.com/TRS and check it out!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Kelly Starrett. |
| 0:06.8 | And I'm Juliette. |
| 0:08.3 | And you're listening to The Ready State Podcast. |
| 0:15.6 | On this episode of the Ready State podcast, we are excited to welcome Dr. Kirk Parsley. |
| 0:21.4 | Doc Parsley completed SEAL training as a teenager and served on SEAL Team 5 for six years. |
| 0:27.5 | After leaving to attend college, Kirk received his medical degree and returned to the military |
| 0:31.9 | as the physician for the West Coast SEAL teams. |
| 0:34.5 | It was while helping the world's most elite warriors optimize |
| 0:38.1 | and maintain their performance after years of sustained combat that he noticed a significant |
| 0:43.0 | gap between health care and true health. Kirk was compelled to delve into the extensive |
| 0:48.2 | alternative medical literature, synthesizing and implying plans that relied minimally on |
| 0:53.4 | pharmaceuticals, supplements, or gadgets. |
| 0:55.9 | His unparalleled success led him to become a sought-after medical human performance expert, |
| 1:01.0 | not only for Navy SEALs, but also for various military special forces commands. |
| 1:05.9 | Kirk firmly believes that 80% of health is derived from focusing on sleep, nutrition, exercise, and stress |
| 1:12.7 | mitigation with a strong emphasis on sleep. We should just underline sleep. So you'll hear this, |
| 1:18.8 | but I got to meet Doc Parsley when I was doing some work with Naval Special Warfare, and he was |
| 1:25.1 | the physician of record. And he was just starting to |
| 1:28.7 | uncover what you'll learn to see was one of the dirtiest secrets in professional sports, |
| 1:34.0 | in the military, and that's Ambien. Yeah, and he was really, I think, the first person to come |
| 1:39.1 | into our world and really show us and was, you know, the first person really talking in the universe |
| 1:45.7 | we were in about the importance of sleep and prioritizing sleep in our lives. I think that was |
... |
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