Unplugged: Evolve from Technology to Upgrade Your Fitness, Performance & Consciousness

In the first quarter of 2016, Americans bought 19.7 million fitness wearables, an increase of 67 percent over the previous year. By 2020, the global market for fitness-focused apps and devices is expected to grow to $30 billion. This means that more than ever, we’re looking at our wrists not only to check the time but also to see how much we’ve moved, monitor our heart rate, and see how we’re stacking up against yesterday’s tallies. As a result of our fitness tech addiction, we’ve lost awareness of what we’re doing, how we’re feeling, and what’s going on around us. This is bad enough in the gym, but when we get outside, the constant checking of a tiny screen truly wreaks havoc, downgrading what should be a rich experience into yet another task we need to complete to meet our daily goals. And if we fall short, we feel inadequate. There’s also the issue of data inaccuracy, with many device makers now admitting that their gadgets provide only estimates. So why do we continue to obsess over data and treat it as gospel truth? It’s time to stop, take a breath, and hit the reset button in a big way.

Unplugged provides a blueprint for using technology to meet your health and performance goals in a much smarter way, while reconnecting to your instincts and the natural world. In addition to sharing the performance expertise of Brian Mackenzie and the scientific insight of Dr. Andy Galpin, Unplugged features exclusive stories and advice from elite athletes and world-renowned experts like Laird Hamilton, Tim Ferriss, Kai Lenny, Kelly Starrett, Steven Kotler, Erin Cafaro, Lenny Wiersma, Dr. Frank Merritt, and Brandon Rager. Reading Unplugged will enable you to

• Understand both the value and the limitations of technology in athletic performance, fitness, health, and lifestyle situations
• Know how and when to utilize physical activity technologies in your everyday life—and when not to
• Avoid the common mistakes that most people make with wearables and tracking apps
• Understand which technologies and tests are most effective and which are a waste of money
• End your addiction to fitness technology and start utilizing it as a tool for cueing, learning, and sensing instead of as a taskmaster that stresses you out
• Improve self-awareness and increase self-reliance
• Re-engage with nature by spending less time indoors and more time outside
• Rediscover the value of coaches’ expertise, curation, and intuition, which technology can’t replace
• Take back control of your health, fitness, and performance with the Unplugged training protocol

Brian Mackenzie is the author of the New York Times bestseller Unbreakable Runner, as well as the book Power, Speed, Endurance and the program that inspired it at PowerSpeedEndurance.com. He is a world-renowned strength and conditioning expert and a co-founder of XPT Life. Mackenzie and his program have been featured in Runner’s World, Men’s Journal, The Economist, Tim Ferris’s New York Times bestseller The 4-Hour Body, and many other leading publications. Brian works with several CrossFit Games athletes, including champions Rich Froning, Jr., and Annie Thorisdottir. He also has coached and is married to Erin Cafaro-Mackenzie (a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist in rowing – W8+) and has guided world and Olympic champions and performance innovators like Laird Hamilton, Taylor Ritzel (2012 Olympic Gold Medalist – W8+), Sara Hendershot (2012 Olympian – W2), Jamie Mitchell, Koa Rothman, Koa and Alex Smith, Nathan Florence, and Elliot Sloan. Dr. Andy Galpin is a professor of kinesiology at the Center for Sport Performance at California State University, Fullerton. He has a PhD in human bioenergetics and is the founder and director of the Biochemistry and Molecular Exercise Laboratory. Galpin works directly with professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, and UFC and played a major role in Helen Maroulis’s run to gold in wrestling at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He is a co-host of the popular training podcast Barbell Shrugged, which has more than 300,000 followers, and has been featured in countless magazine articles, television shows, and other podcasts. One interviewer called him “the Tony Stark of human performance.” Phil White is an Emmy-nominated writer and the coauthor of the books Waterman 2.0 with Dr. Kelly Starrett, and Game Changer with Fergus Connolly. He is also a frequent contributor to The Inertia and SUP the Mag.