The Biohacker’s Guide to Spiritual Bodybuilding
How Nahum Vizakis blends muscle, mind and plant medicine to build true strength
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Watch On YouTube 〰️
TL;DR
Why chasing aesthetics and external validation leaves so many lifters burnt out, injured and empty.
How to balance “contraction” (hard training, structure) with “expansion” (rest, introspection, nervous system work).
A practical six‑month reset framework you can adapt without extreme plant medicine work.
How identity, ego and attachment quietly drive your training, career and relationships – and how to evolve instead of self‑sabotage.
Simple tools (breathwork, journalling, nature, honest reflection) to start “spiritual bodybuilding” today.
🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Introduction
What happens when a jacked, medal‑winning bodybuilder, who used to defuse bombs in Iraq, realises that all his muscle and discipline still haven’t brought him peace?
That’s the story of Nahum Vizakis; athlete, former U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) operator, fascial stretch therapist, astrologer, healer and author of The Biohacker’s Guide to Spiritual Bodybuilding and The Indigo Flame. In this episode, we dive into how his life blew apart (sometimes literally), and how he rebuilt himself from the inside out using bodybuilding, plant medicine, nervous system work and radical honesty.
From the outside, Nahum was the perfect “fitness success story”: shredded on stage, obsessed with his pro card, pushing performance‑enhancing drugs and training volume as far as they would go. On the inside, he was dealing with PTSD, 16 prescription medications at one stage, identity crises and a nervous system stuck in fight‑or‑flight. His turning points came through a mix of breakdowns and breakthrough, from a violent somato‑emotional release on a massage table to surrendering for the first time in an ayahuasca ceremony.
In our conversation, we explore what he calls “spiritual bodybuilding”: using training, biohacking and plant medicine as tools not just for aesthetics, but for consciousness, healing and purpose. If you’ve ever chased numbers or aesthetics, only to feel flat and lost once you “get there”, this is for you.
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Listen On Spotify
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Lesson 1: Stop Chasing Aesthetics – Train for Alignment and Longevity
What It Is:
Spiritual bodybuilding is the shift from training only for looks or external validation to training as a way to align your body, mind and spirit over the long term.
Why It Matters:
Many people in gyms and competitive sports are running on the same script: more volume, more restriction, more stimulants, more gear. Nahum shares how this mindset took him to 255 pounds, sleep apnoea, constant anger and a 33rd‑place finish after years of sacrifice. The body looked “elite”, but his health, relationships and inner world were crumbling. When we only chase aesthetics, we often ignore our nervous system, emotions and purpose, and that’s where burnout and self‑sabotage creep in.
How To Apply It:
Audit your “why” for training. Write down why you train today. If the reasons are all external (looks, likes, proving someone wrong), add at least one internal reason (energy, calm, presence, resilience).
Check your health non‑negotiables. Ask: am I sleeping well, digesting food, recovering, and generally happy, or am I wrecked but shredded? If basic health is poor, looks are costing you too much.
Shift from outcome to process. Instead of “I must hit X weight or body fat,” focus on “I show up 4 days a week, move well, and leave feeling better than I arrived.”
Include one “expansion” session a week. Swap one brutal session for yoga, mobility, a long walk or breathwork to balance your nervous system.
Use feedback from your body. Track mood, libido, sleep and joint pain alongside your lifts and metrics. Treat them as equal data points.
Pro Tip:
If you “win” (PB, comp, physique) and feel nothing, that’s a sign it’s time to shift from validation to alignment.
Try This Today:
After your next session, rate it out of 10 not on pump or load, but on “Do I feel more or less like myself right now?”
Lesson 2: Balance Contraction and Expansion in Training and Life
What It Is:
Contraction is the push: heavy lifting, grinding, structure, discipline, doing more. Expansion is the softening: rest, introspection, breath, nervous system down‑regulation, connection. Nahum argues that bodybuilding culture is stuck in contraction, while some spiritual circles are stuck in expansion, and we need both.
Why It Matters:
Too much contraction leads to injury, anxiety, emotional shutdown and addiction to intensity. Too much expansion can lead to passivity, lack of structure and never following through. Nahum found his sweet spot by blending fascial stretching, breathwork, plant medicine and biohacking with targeted bodybuilding, and by deliberately stepping back every six months to reset. That rhythm kept him in the game at 47 without repeating the same destructive loops.
How To Apply It:
Map your default mode. Are you a “go hard or go home” person, or a “floaty and reflective but struggle to execute” person? Be honest.
Pair every push with a release. Heavy lower‑body day? Add 10-15 minutes of stretching or breathwork after. Big work week? Book a quiet weekend walk instead of another social bender.
Schedule mini off‑seasons. You may not do Nahum’s full plant‑medicine reset, but you can schedule 1-2 lighter weeks every 8-12 weeks where you reduce load, caffeine and external noise.
Use breath as a bridge. After a stressful session or day, do 3-5 minutes of slow nasal breathing (in for 4, out for 6-8) to tell your nervous system it’s safe.
Track your nervous system, not just your workouts. Notice if you’re stuck in fight‑or‑flight: racing thoughts, shallow breathing, constant urgency. That’s your cue to add expansion.
Pro Tip:
If you can’t stand the idea of taking a lighter week, that’s exactly when you need one. Resistance is data.
Try This Today:
Do 10 slow, deep breaths lying on the floor after your next training session. Focus on relaxing your jaw and belly on every exhale.
Lesson 3: Use a Regular Reset to Break Old Patterns
What It Is:
Every six months, Nahum runs a full “reset” stepping away from normal life to detox his body, calm his nervous system and re‑align his direction for the next chapter. His version includes frog medicine (kambo), ayahuasca, fasting, breathwork, nature and re‑building training slowly.
Why It Matters:
Patterns build silently. Over six months, you can drift into more stimulants, more gear, more scrolling, less sleep, more reactivity. Without a circuit‑breaker, you wake up burnt out or injured and call it “out of nowhere”. A planned reset interrupts that spiral. You don’t need to fly to the jungle or use plant medicines to get the benefits, the principle is stepping back on purpose, before your body forces you to.
How To Apply It (No Plant Medicine Required):
Pick a reset window now. Choose 3-7 days in the next 3-6 months where you can minimise work, social commitments and training load. Block it out like a holiday.
Simplify inputs. During that window, reduce stimulants (less caffeine/pre‑workout), alcohol and ultra‑processed food. Aim for basic whole foods and plenty of water.
Move gently, not zero. Swap heavy training for walking, light mobility, yoga or easy cycling to keep the body moving without smashing your CNS.
Daily introspection. Spend 20-30 minutes each day journalling or sitting quietly, asking: Where am I out of alignment? What am I forcing? What am I avoiding?
Design your next six months. At the end, choose 2-3 focus areas (e.g. sleep, knee rehab, starting a new project) and sketch a simple structure to support them.
Set safeguards. Like Nahum, surround yourself with 1-2 people who will call you out when you drift back into self‑destructive extremes.
Pro Tip:
A reset isn’t “quitting training” it’s changing gears so you don’t blow the engine.
Try This Today:
Open your calendar and block out a 3‑day “reset” in the next few months. Treat it like a non‑negotiable appointment with your future self.
Lesson 4: Heal Stored Emotion and Fascia, Not Just Muscles
What It Is:
Somato‑emotional release is when stored tension and emotion in the body finally discharge, often through movement, shaking, crying or unusual sensations. Nahum’s first big one happened when a classmate in massage school gently pressed at the base of his skull, he ended up flopping around like a fish for two hours while years of suppressed survival mode left his body.
Why It Matters:
Many high‑performers and lifters live with a nervous system stuck in “on”. Years of bracing, grinding and “just pushing through” can lock trauma and stress into fascial tissue. Nahum realised he’d been sympathetic dominant for decades, on Adderall, pre‑workout, Ambien, steroids, with no idea how to down‑regulate. When that tension finally released, his food preferences, training desires, relationships and sense of self shifted overnight. You don’t need an extreme episode to benefit from soft tissue and nervous system work; small, consistent practices can slowly unstick that tension.
How To Apply It:
Add fascia‑friendly movement. Include stretching, gentle mobility or yoga 2-3 times a week, focusing on slow, relaxed breathing rather than forcing range.
Explore bodywork. If it’s available and safe for you, try massage, myofascial release or other hands‑on therapies with practitioners who understand stress and trauma. (Note: Specific modalities beyond massage and fascial work are not fully detailed in the episode.)
Notice emotional spikes in training. If a simple cue or setback makes you irrationally angry or shut down, that may be stored stuff, not just “today’s mood”.
Pair release with integration. After a big cry, shake, or intense bodywork session, give yourself time to rest, hydrate and journal. Don’t just rush straight back to max‑effort training or work.
Be patient with identity shifts. After his release, Nahum suddenly didn’t want to lift heavy, eat the same foods or stay in the same relationship – and that was confronting. Expect some internal reshuffling.
Pro Tip:
If you always respond to pain or discomfort by adding more tension (clenching, holding your breath), you’re reinforcing the pattern you’re trying to heal.
Try This Today:
Spend 3–5 minutes lying on the floor with a rolled towel under your upper back, breathing slowly and noticing any sensations, without trying to “fix” them.
Lesson 5: Evolve Your Identity Instead of Clinging to Old Labels
What It Is:
Identity is the story you tell yourself about who you are: “I’m a bodybuilder”, “I’m a CrossFitter”, “I’m Jack the PT”. Nahum describes his life as a series of chapters, soldier, bodybuilder, healer, author, each with an apex, a fall, a learning phase and a reintegration. The key is to see each phase as evolution, not failure.
Why It Matters:
A lot of people stay stuck in painful situations because their identity is tied to them. Influencers cling to diets or training styles that are harming their health because that’s what their followers expect. Athletes keep pushing through injuries because “this is who I am”. Nahum’s wake‑up calls came when he failed to go pro, placed poorly, or realised he felt nothing after finally winning again, the self he had built no longer felt true. Letting go of those identities hurt, but it opened the door to work that felt deeper and more aligned.
How To Apply It:
Name your current labels. On paper, list the identities you cling to most (job, body, achievements, roles).
Ask what each identity costs you. For each one, write: “What do I sacrifice to keep this alive?” Sleep? Relationships? Health? Creativity?
Find the transferable skills. Just as Nahum carried discipline from the military into bodybuilding, and empathy from healing into authorship, identify which qualities you can take into your next chapter.
Allow grief. When an identity falls away, being the strongest in the gym, the leanest on IG, the company workhorse, it’s normal to feel sad, lost or even “like a failure”. Don’t rush it.
Practice small acts of authenticity. Share one honest story, set one boundary, or change one habit that better reflects who you’re becoming, not who you were.
Trust there’s a “bigger teddy bear”. Nahum uses the image of letting go of a small teddy bear so you can receive a bigger one you can’t see yet – you often need to drop your old role before the next, better one can land.
Pro Tip:
If you only feel valuable when you’re performing at your old peak, your identity needs updating more than your program does.
Try This Today:
Finish this sentence in your journal: “The part of me I’m most scared to outgrow is…” and see what comes up.
Lesson 6: Let Faith and Stillness Reveal Your “Next Level”
What It Is:
Rather than forcing the next level through more hustle, Nahum talks about becoming a “vibrational match” for it, slowing down, listening and letting clarity arise once the noise settles. In plain language: stop trying to think your way to the next chapter and let it show up as you clean up your patterns.
Why It Matters:
You shared in the episode that after letting go of a lot of ego‑driven goals, life is good. But, the old fire and thrill of winning aren’t there in the same way, and you feel stuck on what “next level you” looks like. That’s a common place for people who’ve done some inner work. The trap is trying to recreate the old fuel (ego boosts, grind culture) instead of allowing a deeper, steadier motivation to emerge. Nahum emphasises patience: journalling, breathwork, time in nature and faith that the clear next step often appears when you’re not chasing it.
How To Apply It:
Stop hunting for the answer. Limit podcasts, books and “how to” content for a short period so you can hear your own thoughts again.
Create a stillness ritual. Even 10-15 minutes a day of sitting quietly, breathing, or journalling about what feels heavy vs what feels light can shift a lot over time.
Write without editing. As Nahum did when drafting his books, let yourself write freely about what you’re feeling and wanting. Come back later and notice where you sound like a victim, or where you’re still triggered, that shows you what’s not healed yet.
Follow one small pull. When something keeps nudging you (a project, a style of work, a person to contact), take one tiny step instead of waiting for a full blueprint.
Let others hold a mirror. Keep a small circle of people who will kindly call you out on your blind spots and patterns. Listen, even when it stings.
Pro Tip:
The next level rarely feels like a dopamine hit; it usually feels like a quiet, solid “of course” once you’ve cleaned up the noise.
Try This Today:
Set a 10‑minute timer, put your phone in another room, and handwrite: “If I stopped forcing it, what do I secretly want next?” Don’t judge what comes out.
Mini Case/Example
“I feel like I’ve lived five lifetimes in this life. Each chapter there’s been an apex, there’s been a fall, then there’s been a learning period, then there’s been an adaptation period to reintegrate and bring that stuff back in.” - Nahum Vizakis
At one point, Nahum was 255 pounds, chasing his pro card, running heavy gear, barely sleeping and increasingly miserable. After placing 33rd at a national show, he spiralled into depression and stepped away from bodybuilding altogether, eventually ending up in massage school.
A simple hands‑on technique at the base of his skull triggered a two‑hour somato‑emotional release in front of the whole class, followed months later by his first ayahuasca experience, where he says he felt real love in his body for the first time, and realised much of what he’d called love before was actually attachment.
Years later, he returned to the stage as a masters competitor and won. This time, he felt nothing from the victory, no high, no ego rush. That was the moment he knew the old game was over, and his work was now to help others stop chasing external validation and start building strength from within.
Quick Wins Checklist (Do These Today)
Write down your current training “why” and add at least one deeper, internal reason to keep showing up.
After your next session, spend 3-5 minutes on the floor doing slow nasal breathing to shift from fight‑or‑flight to calm.
Put a 3‑day “reset” block in your calendar sometime in the next 3-6 months. Treat it like a holiday.
Make a list of two identities you’re attached to and one skill or quality from each that you want to carry into your next chapter.
Do a 10‑minute, distraction‑free journalling session on the prompt: “Where am I forcing something that no longer feels right?”
Closing Insight
Spiritual bodybuilding isn’t about abandoning heavy lifting, performance or aesthetics. It’s about putting them in their proper place – as tools for growth, not measures of your worth. Nahum’s story shows how easy it is to drift into extremes: more gear, more sacrifice, more noise, all in the name of “discipline”, while your nervous system and relationships quietly fall apart.
The real flex is being able to step back before you break. It’s choosing to breathe when your old self would double down, to rest when your ego wants to grind, to let an identity die so a more authentic one can be born. Spiritual bodybuilding means you can still love the iron, but you also respect your fascia, your gut, your sleep and your soul.
You don’t need plant medicine or a near‑death experience to start. A notebook, some honest reflection, a few deep breaths and a willingness to listen to your body are enough to begin. Over time, those tiny choices compound into a different kind of strength, one that doesn’t disappear when the comp is over or the algorithm moves on.
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