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Welcome to the Carbon Newsletter!
This monthly update keeps you informed about the latest happenings at the gym and provides insights to help you build a high-performing, healthy lifestyle.
Today at a Glance
- March Row Challenge: Kick off 2025 with our first gym-wide challenge!
- Endotoxins Demystified: Explore how these gut disruptors impact your health and discover strategies to combat them.
- Lovely Meal Prep Partnership: Convenient, organic meal prep is now just a pickup away at Carbon.
March Row Challenge
As our gym and community continue to grow, we have an opportunity to define our training identity. As a team, we aim to center that identity on developing exceptional work capacity and strength—building these qualities well beyond the ordinary. Yet work capacity/endurance is an often overlooked aspects of fitness, but just as vital to our overall health.
To remedy this, we’ll host challenges throughout the year to help us focus, train, and test ourselves. First up is a Concept2 Row Challenge from March 10th to April 5th.
Here’s how it works: Each Tuesday at 6:00 AM, we’ll release a new workout. You’ll have until Saturday at midnight to complete it and submit your results, along with a photo of your Concept2 monitor as proof 😉.
No shortcuts—just honest effort.
This is meant to be a challenge. The workouts will be tough, but they’re designed to push you and maybe even surprise you with what you can achieve. If you’re interested, let your coach know, and we’ll get you all the details.
Endotoxins: The Hidden Saboteurs of Your Gut Health
Unexplained digestive discomfort, persistent fatigue, and chronic inflammation frequently come up during our health consultations. Often, the root cause isn’t as intricate as it might seem—it’s much closer to home, hiding right there in your gut.
Meet endotoxins, microscopic disruptors officially known as lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Released by gram-negative bacteria, these troublemakers can breach your gut barrier, triggering a cascade of health problems that ripple through your body.
The Science of Sabotage
Endotoxins are not passive. They light a match to your body’s inflammatory pathways, particularly through the Toll-like receptor 4. Once ignited, the chain reaction is relentless:
- Systemic low-grade inflammation
- Insulin resistance
- Metabolic instability
- Liver dysfunction
- Cardiovascular risk
- The slow creep of fatty liver disease
What sets this process in motion? Poor gut integrity.
Hypothyroidism, stress, or a suboptimal diet can weaken your gut barrier, letting endotoxins slip into the bloodstream. The result? A state called “metabolic endotoxemia,” where chronic inflammation quietly undermines your health.
Building Your Defense Arsenal
The battle against endotoxins isn’t a single-front war. It’s a strategic campaign, leveraging science-backed compounds and lifestyle shifts to reinforce your defenses.
Essential Vitamins and Minerals
- Vitamin E: Tames endotoxin-driven inflammation.
- Vitamin D: Fortifies the gut barrier, holding the line against invaders.
- Vitamin C: Lowers inflammation, plugging leaks in your gut wall.
- Vitamins K1 & K2: Shield reproductive tissues from endotoxin damage.
- Zinc: The cornerstone of gut barrier repair, with zinc L-carnosine regenerating damaged tissues.
- Benfotiamine (Vitamin B1): Cuts off endotoxic inflammation at its roots.
Nature’s Secret Weapons
- Citrus flavonoids (like naringenin): A potent counterstrike against endotoxin-induced inflammation.
- Coffee: A double-agent that blocks endotoxin absorption while boosting gut motility.
- Glycine (from collagen and gelatin): A multi-tasker in the fight against inflammation.
- Well-cooked mushrooms: Detoxify endotoxins and calm the storm of inflammation.
- Raw Carrots: Binds and eliminates endotoxins.
Hormonal Allies
Your hormonal balance is a critical partner in gut health.
- Progesterone: Binds endotoxins and dials down inflammation.
- Thyroid function: Ensures your gut barrier and motility stay strong.
Tactical Interventions
Sometimes, you need reinforcements:
- Probiotics: Specific Bacillus strains (e.g., B. indicus, B. coagulans) directly counter endotoxin buildup.
- Sleep patterns: Guard your gut by safeguarding your sleep schedule.
Lifestyle as a Line of Defense
Fighting endotoxins isn’t just about what you take—it’s about how you live.
Sleep Hygiene
- Consistency in bedtime routines matters.
- Prioritize adequate, restorative sleep.
Dietary Strategies
- Choose foods rich in insoluble fiber and glycine.
- Drink coffee (strategically)
- Focus on anti-inflammatory meals.
Gut Health Practices
- Maintain regular meal times.
- Stay hydrated.
- Manage stress.
- Support thyroid health.
The Bigger Picture
Endotoxin control isn’t a quick fix—it’s a reorientation of how you treat your body. You’re building a fortress, brick by brick, strengthening the barriers that protect your system. These invaders are more than a gut issue; they’re a systemic threat capable of disrupting metabolic health, cardiovascular resilience, and beyond.
Understanding their pathways means taking deliberate, multifaceted actions to shield your health. You’re not just fighting endotoxins—you’re fortifying your health.
Lovely Meal Prep
Carbon is now a pickup location for Lovely Meal Prep. This is a local, fresh, organic meal-prep service all of us coaches use. We can't stress how convenient and wonderful it is. If you haven't met Korynn yet, she is a Carbon client and the owner of Lovely Meal Prep. You can catch her lifting ALL the weights Mondays and Wednesdays with either Mada or Madeline.
Korynn is offering 20% off your first order with code: carbon20.
Ordering happens weekly on Wednesdays HERE.
Pick-up is Monday or Tuesday inside the Carbon fridge.
Be well,
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