Wired Interviews Tim Ferriss

Ferriss apparently did some pretty hardcore self-experimentation.

Wired: What do you think is the most dangerous experiment that you tried for The 4-Hour Body?

Ferriss: I had a chemical cocktail injected to reverse injuries. It included BMP, bone morphogenetic protein, and there’s a risk of it fusing your vertebrae. In retrospect, I probably wouldn’t have included that.

Wired also summarized a bunch of Ferriss' conclusions in the form of a handy-dandy table (click the image below to embiggen):

More on The 4-Hour Body here.

(Source: Wired)

The 4-Hour Body: Who Cares If It's Overhyped?

Author / record-breaking dancer / yabusame archer / fighter / speaker / relentless, cocky self-promoter Tim Ferriss is one of my heroes. And he's about to release a new book: "The 4-Hour Body."



This is a follow-up to his bestseller -- "The 4-Hour Workweek" -- and Ferriss has been hyping his new tome for months now. While the pitch comes across as a little (okay, a lot) over-the-top, I couldn't resist buying it. I pre-ordered a copy (along with Gary Taubes' upcoming book) a while back, and can't wait for it to show up on my doorstep.

Why? Because if even a fraction of what Ferriss is advertising is possible, this will be all sorts of awesome. Here's a description Ferriss posted on his blog:

YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each):

• How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails.
• How to prevent fat gain while bingeing (X-mas, holidays, weekends)
• How to increase fat-loss 300% using temperature manipulation
• How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time
• How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested
• How to produce 15-minute female orgasms
• How to triple testosterone and double sperm count
• How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks
• How to reverse permanent injuries
• How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months
• How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 50 topics covered, all with real-world experiments, many including more than 200 test subjects. You don’t need better genetics or more discipline. You need immediate results that compel you to continue. That’s exactly what The 4-Hour Body delivers.

Granted, I have serious doubts about the whole "sleep 2 hours and feel fully rested" thing. I am not about to ditch my Paleo approach in favor of "odd combinations" of "chemical cocktails." And I'm really uninterested in tripling my testosterone or doubling my sperm count, as (1) I am already super-manly (obviously), and (2) we're done pumping out kids. (We refuse to be outnumbered by our children.)

But increasing the weight on my lifts? Boosting my endurance? Reversing injuries? Sign me up.

(By the way, I asked M: "what do you think he means when he says we can learn 'how to produce 15-minute female orgasms'?" Her response: "That's why YOU need to read the book.")

Check It Out: Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, author of the bestselling self-help book, The 4-Hour Workweek, is full of himself -- a trait I don't appreciate in most people (besides myself), but for some reason, it totally works for Ferriss. Yes, he brags a lot (check out his book for self-glorifying anecdotes about his phenomenal successes in business, martial arts, ballroom dancing, learning Japanese, etc.), but unlike some people, he's not all talk -- he's the real deal. Here are some snippets from his Wikipedia entry:

Ferriss founded BrainQUICKEN, a San Jose-based online company that sells sports nutrition supplements. He sold the company in January 2009 to an unnamed private equity firm. He is now a full-time angel investor and has invested in the following companies: Twitter, Posterous, DailyBurn (formerly Gyminee), Reputation Defender, Foodzie, Badongo, Rescue Time, and SimpleGeo. He also acts as an advisor to StumbleUpon and Shopify, which he has alluded to in interviews with Kevin Rose are in exchange for equity.

He holds the Guinness Book of World Records' record for the most consecutive tango-spins in one minute. Ferriss and his dance partner Alicia Monti set the record live on the show Live with Regis and Kelly. Prior to his writing career, Ferriss served as an advisor to professional athletes and Olympians and was a National Chinese Kickboxing Champion, a title he won through a process of shoving opponents out of the ring for which he was nicknamed "sumo." In 2008, he won Wired Magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" prize and was named one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Business People of 2007." Ferriss has also spoken at the EG Conference.

His show "Trial By Fire" aired on the History Channel in December 2008. In the show, Ferriss had one week to attempt to learn a skill normally learned over the course of many years and in the pilot episode he practiced the Japanese art of horseback archery, Yabusame. 

And the guy's only 33. God, I'm a slacker.

I picked up Ferriss' book some time ago and have been slowly adopting some of his productivity tips (using Evernote to organize my cluttered life, for example). But I only recently started checking out his blog, which contains some useful information about personal fitness and nutrition. For example:

• Preeminent kettlement guru Pavel Tsatsouline posted a guest article on Ferriss' blog about maximizing gains and efficiency in powerlifting:

• Ferriss has also invited Dr. Michael Eades to discuss why calorie-counting is a pseudo-science, and how counting carbs is the key. (One of the reasons I'm a fan of Ferriss is that he's solidly in the Gary Taubes low-carb camp.)

• I'm a terrible swimmer, so it was eye-opening to read about how Ferriss quickly (in ten days!) became a strong swimmer after a lifetime of being afraid of the water.

• Ferriss shares how he gained 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks using something he calls "Four-Hour Fitness."

• He writes about how to figure out what the labeling on meat products really mean.

• Ferriss is into Vibram FiveFingers.

• And most importantly, he describes how to properly "peel" a hard-boiled egg: