we're thankful for the opportunity to sponsor blaze trails events. a special thanks to tyler flately for getting us connected. we have a growing reputation in the technical & endurance athlete communites for our focus on addressing nervous system tension and inflammation to improve recovery, front brain control, longevity and overall wellbeing. i hope you enjoy the functional awesomeness of our products. im personally excited to be a part of the blaze trails community because trail running is a powerful therapy for me. i love it. poke around our site and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

be happy. be healthy.

- jordan park. founder / owner

jordan@rootsapothecary.com

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athletes who understand “flow state” will likely appreciate the importance of stress management during and after training. they understand the importance of being able to process information in training. being able to connect mind to body to identify small mechanical adjustments. when the mind- body is under high stress / in a reactive state during training, it’s more difficult to stay connected and recognize opportunity for adjustment. mental and physical stress can choke the connection between your thinking upper brain and reactive lower brain. these two regions of the brain need to stay connected to learn. when you have a highly successful session, can you identify why it was successful? can you recall the finer points of your movement and mental state? etc? can you do the same for your failures? adaptogens buffer stress response to keep the mind-body out of deeper sympathetic states. helping maintain efficient resource and energy allocation towards growth and reparative processes.

acute stress can be a healthy motivator, but if you can’t consciously identify opportunity for improvement, learning is seriously limited. you often hear highly technical athletes like elite mma fighters talking about maintaining a “playful” mindset when sparring to keep the mind calm and pliable. this is when learning occurs. informed upper brain training becomes a part of your intentional programming. when its time to compete, those programs are called on reactively (sometimes described as muscle memory). if you’re constantly amped up in training, your physical performance will exceed your mental performance / learning. if you can remain calm and composed in training, there is more bandwidth for mental development and connection to the body. elite success is a balance of the two. cbd and other herbal modulators can help maintain this balance by keeping the mind and body out of the erratic state of high stress during training that chokes the connection between the lower and upper brain. stress reduction allows for better integration of the body, limbic system and frontal lobe.

ongoing stress and inflammation is a large roadblock to recovery. most importantly, elevated stress and inflammation diverts energy from efficient reparative processes that happen in the parasympathetic. you know rest is critical to recovery. rest doesn’t just mean taking it easy, it means putting your mind-body in a biological state of rest-digest-repair. the higher your stress and inflammation, the less resources your mind-body has for recovery.

the goal is not to address fatigue in acute. acute options typically come with “biological debt” meaning they “cost something”. For example, leaning on caffeine for improving energy has many short term attractions, but consistent use can chip away at your fundamental recovery processes and your “adaptive capacity / reserve” ( a term used to describe your mind-body’s ability to adapt. The stronger your adaptive capacity / reserve, the more resilient you are to physical and mental stress. This is why people with high baseline stress (physically or mentally) don’t process additional stressors or change efficiently. the higher your baseline stress levels, the easier it is to tip you into a reactive state where actions are more controlled by your lower brain than your higher processing upper brain. caffeine pushes the mind – body into a elevated state of stress, there is no arguing this. For some, it’s a welcomed feeling that kicks things into gear. For others, its uncomfortable pressure in the chest and it causes a “crash”. regardless of your experience in the short term, leaning on stimulants will only reduce your adaptive capacity. This is just one example of biological debt. over training without taking the time to rest and stretch is another form of biological debt. most athletes have to repay this specific debt at some point in their career. high intensity training is stress and if that stress is not balanced with parasympathetic.