Ulisses Abbud spent 13 years competing as a professional cyclist. Today he is a high-performance coach, researcher, endurance athlete, and physiology thinker working with athletes, executives, and people trying to understand how performance and longevity actually work.
In Episode 002 of Augmented Wellness, we go deep on recovery: why it is not a luxury, why it is not the reward, and why it may be the missing operating system for founders, executives, and anyone whose mind never really shuts down. We talk about HRV, cortisol, resting heart rate, overtraining, metabolism, nutrition, gravel cycling, Girona training camps, community, and the difference between training from fear and training from love.
We also turn the episode into a public artifact: a Cycling + Recovery AI Interviewer. It is a markdown system you can use with Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, a local agent, or any LLM to understand the person behind the training data before reacting to HRV, sleep, fatigue, or training load. Connect Betterness when you want that context enriched by permissioned wearable, training, lab, goal, and lifestyle data.
Full episode page: betterness.ai/augmentedwellness/002-ulisses-abbud
Build the artifact: Cycling + Recovery AI Interviewer
(00:00) Cold open: recovery, longevity, HRV, and the agent
(01:01) Brand reveal: Augmented Wellness
(01:20) Meet Ulisses Abbud
(02:45) From professional cycling to riding for love
(04:13) Thirteen years as a pro cyclist
(05:24) Road, gravel, speed, risk, and why gravel feels different
(10:22) The diet trap: why eating less can make the body hold on
(12:12) From engineering to physiology
(14:21) Breathing, HRV, and simple nervous-system tools
(15:53) Why executives think like athletes but skip recovery
(18:54) Chronic sympathetic mode: the founder and vibe-coding problem
(21:09) Recovery is not the reward — it is an adaptation mechanism
(24:13) Cortisol, HRV, resting heart rate, and overtraining signals
(26:13) Longevity: dying young as late as possible
(28:38) Bett-i turns known basics into daily action
(33:56) Girona training camp, stress with intention, and community
(38:22) Recovery routines: cold plunge, sauna, yoga, reading, and mental shutdown
(40:40) Live demo: a breathwork agent reads Demian's HRV
(45:19) Final advice: routine, nutrition, breathing, and sleep
Web: betterness.ai
Instagram: @betterness.ai
Disclaimer: nothing in this episode is medical advice. This is educational conversation about training, recovery, HRV, breathwork, nutrition, and longevity. Work with qualified professionals for personal health decisions.