Reduced-rate pre sales are now underway for this fine collection of Ancestral Wellness awesomeness; truly a study in the  Theory to Practice of living in accordance to our ancestral past.  Make sure to run over and check out the rockin’ good preview trailer and, while you’re there, make sure to place your order for the best compilation of theory-to-practice-based Paleo information anywhere to date.  Michelle and I are proud to have been a part of this fine get-together of Ancestral Wellness luminaries, and we’re stoked to be able to offer this knowledge to the world.

And knowledge is empowerment.  Empower yourself — or someone you love — today.

In health, fitness, and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith

So this bad-boy is the so-called “three bars of death” — a three-ring-circus of bodyweight bench presses, .75 bodyweight power cleans, and 1.5 bodyweight deadlifts done in descending rounds of 10, 9, 8, 7….1; completed as fast as possible.  CrossFit has a similar WOD, though I’m not sure if it goes by the same moniker.  Now, this little beast is for sure a fun change of pace, a nice test of strength-endurance and, well, for me, just a good indicator of all-’round brass-balledness and will to endure.  The 8 and 7 round is just friggin’ murderous, as the fatigue/volume intersection is at its peak.  Anyway, in a Facebook discussion I was asked what the “purpose” of this particular workout is, which caught me rather off guard.  Purpose?  Does every physical exertion have to have an intended purpose?  What about “play”?  And what about the other side of the continuum — the competitive event itself?  I don’t want to wax philosophical/existential here, but is there any life-or-death point to winning a competition?  To be sure, “competition” meant an entirely different thing to our evolutionary ancestors, and modern competition is lasting vestige of that — but is there really any point, now, to “winning”?  Especially from a health/longevity prospective?

Note: no doubt an entire PhD dissertation could be written on this subject, so I’ll cut the discussion here.  Also, if my 20 year-old self had read this he’d friggin’ shoot the guy who wrote it

Of course I know what the “what’s the point?” guy was getting at, even though it wasn’t explicitly stated in his comment.  And I agree that the answer to whether or not one should partake in this particular 3-bar-circus is predicated upon that person’s goals.  In the midst of training for a competition of some sort?  Then this type of endeavor probably wouldn’t fit into your plans.  In this scenario, every workout does have to have a particular focus/purpose.  If you happen to be an open-ended generalist like myself, however, sessions like this can be an exciting way to test your mettle – against friends, or against yourself.  And the intensity can be a variable as well; for example, a good-natured competition is a hell of a lot less taxing (mentally and physically) than a regional-level finals.

But do yourself a favor — if you’re not a competitive athlete, there’s no absolutely need to train like one.  That kind of training is a grind — it’s exhausting, not just physically, but mentally as well.  And, I would argue, it’s not healthy in the long haul.  Nor is training in an athletic fashion in any way necessary for health.  Are you a generalist?  Lighten-up, and have some fun with your training.  Of course you can still be smart about the whole endeavor.  Notice for instance that power cleans were chosen here as the explosive movement as opposed to, say, a more technically demanding snatch movement.  Heavy fatigue means we want to avoid anything too technically demanding.

Here’s another fun test of met-con mettle – Corben Thomas’s 300:

Any “purpose” to this little beast?  Not one that I can think of off-hand.  It was a hell of a met-con burst, and a fun challenge among friends — but would I do this as a workout designed to make me a better performer?  Well, it certainly didn’t set me back, that’s for sure.  But the point is that sessions like this push the risk-of-injury envelope and, if strung together too closely packed, increase the chance of burnout.  In light of that, I consider bouts like this “events” as opposed to a “workout”.  In other words, “workouts” are (or ought to be) designed so as to make you better at “events”.  ”Events” are every now and again expressions of the effectiveness of your “workouts”.  And what the hell — they’re just fun to do.

To stretch this analogy just a bit, during my collegiate football career, we rarely practiced in full pads and with full contact during the season.  Why?  Because there’s a huge difference between training for an event, and the event itself.  Events are extremely taxing — again, both mentally and physically — and there’s a much greater possibility of getting injured due to the combination of all-out effort and fatigue.  Prepping for an event by performing the event itself is one of the most basic of all training fails.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when considering your training regimen is to maintain a proper balance between “workouts” and “events”.  All workout and no play leads to stagnation, whereas to0 many “events” strung together with inadequate recovery leads to injury and/or burnout.

Of course, one’s “workout” is another’s “event”; the ability to generate intensity and the ability to fully recover are highly individualistic traits.  Know thyself and know thy goals are appropriate dictates here.  Also note that, by necessity, an athlete has to push the envelope in his/her training in order to compete at a high level.

Spencer, over at the BodyHack Fitness Blog, recently interviewed OPT’s James Fitzgerald, and I thought the link inclusion fit nicely with the discussion here.  Enjoy.  James is a great guy, and we were stoked to have him as a presenter at PFX12.

In health, fitness, and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith

I’m a Christian, I believe in Creationism and yet, I know that Evolution is an absolute fact.  I know this well because I trust and believe in the science but also because my daughter Brittani, a Worship and Ministry Major at the time of her death, (so yes, ironically, she was a Minister) was absolute living proof of evolution. Brittani was born without molars, or what most people refer to as wisdom teeth, although I will say in her defense she was instilled with far more wisdom than most people, well beyond her years. Yeah – I realize I’m opening up a huge can of worms here — but it seems that so many people get caught up in the “Evolutionary” aspect of “Paleo” and can’t seem to see the forest for the trees. I really don’t understand that. To me, Creationism and Evolution are not mutually exclusive, I don’t have to believe one without being able to have faith in the other. Evolution answers questions that Creationism leaves as a mystery and I’m okay with not knowing those answers, in fact, I don’t have to have those answers.  I’m happy not having those answers and letting my God be in control of those things in my world. For me, my faith is flexible enough to allow for that. My belief is that the Bible is not meant in it’s entirety to be taken literally, I believe it’s written with a lot of symbolism, a lot of allegory and much of it is meant to be perceived in conceptual reality to circumstantial evidence. If your faith isn’t flexible enough to accept scientific fact then your faith is going to be open to attack far more than those of us that can accept that scientific evidence exists and it doesn’t have to be denied or disregarded in order to accept faith in the existence of God or that we were created. Standing staunchly on fundamentalism will leave you on a lonely mountain, with little dirt beneath your feet, my friend.

So here is what I believe, in the most simple and basic terms to attempt to uproot some of the trees and allow those to see the forest —- for lack of better terms. The Ancestral, Paleo, Primal way of living/eating is the way our bodies were intended to consume our nutrients and food in the best, most effective and efficient way for our bodies to utilize those nutrients. While the agricultural revolution brought changes to our food supply that our bodies have not yet adapted to and brought western diseases into the fold because of these foreign food sources we have been consuming in the aptly named SAD lifestyle (Standard American Diet) and now we need to eliminate those food sources from our diets to promote optimum body performance and health.  So, I don’t believe you have to believe in Evolution in order to benefit from this realization of optimized lifestyle programming and eating.  However, I also don’t believe it means you have or that you have to abandon your religion or faith if you do decide that this is the optimized way of living or trust in Evolutionary science.  To say I am not Christian because I choose an Ancestral/Paleo/Primal lifestyle is like saying because someone “sins” makes them satan. It’s ludicrous.

To break down things for those of you that may have come to this post just out of curiosity and might not even know what Ancestral/Paleo/Primal is, it is a lifestyle based on the nutrient dense foods that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have possibly had access to, it is not a reenactment of caveman living, rather we leverage our modern technology in order to optimize our health now based on those precepts. So we should be eating meats of animals raised in their natural habitats, not in feedlots, wild-caught seafood, pastured eggs, organic vegetables, fruits and berries. Minimal seeds and nuts. No grains or legumes.  Simple, very simple.  Healthy, too.

Further, I want to place a disclaimer on this posting, I did not write this posting to debate Christianity or Evolution, I am not an expert in either, I’m an avid student in both. I’m an aspiring Christian (borrowed from my friend, Orleatha Smith, thank you, girl) and I have no desire to argue with anyone about whether I should or shouldn’t believe in God. I believe in God, period. I believe in Christ, period. I love everyone, I pray for everyone, even people I don’t particularly like or care for. If you don’t like me praying for you as an atheist, I’m sorry that’s your problem. I do and I will continue to. It’s what I do, not to be mean but I pray for everyone. I believe that as a Christian this is what I am called to do.  My daughter Brittani lived a very short life, she lived a very beautiful life, she lived it fully for Christ and for that, I am very proud. She wasn’t perfect, she made lots of mistakes, she could be a real pain in the butt, but she got up every day trying to fully live out the day in the direction that God wanted her to live. I believe if someone lives their life this way, religion aside, why should anyone fight that, say that it’s wrong, stupid or try to change their mind about believing in God? This is an honorable way to live. It’s not for everyone but it’s what worked for B, it works for me and I recommend it highly  to everyone but you do what works for you. Comment on this post, however you like, I won’t argue Christianity, Fundamentalism, Creationism, or any of it. You believe what you want, I just wrote this to say being a Christian shouldn’t keep you away from living a healthy lifestyle because it’s called Ancestral Wellness, Paleo, Primal or because it has an Evolutionary slant, this isn’t a religion, a cult or any dogma, just get healthy for health’s sake. Set the Ancestry and evolution aside, God says your body is a temple, so get healthy because that’s what Jesus would do.

“Let all that you do be done in Love.” 1 Cor 16:14

B...the Beauty on the bridge - daily, contemplating life walking with God.

Wow, has Dr. Jack Kruse ever kicked-up a firestorm with his Cold Thermogenesis hypothesis, and the associated claims.  Even to the point that I’m beginning to field questions about it from clients who are well outside of the Paleo “inside”, as it were, wanting to know if I think it “works”.  And of course what I have to tell these fine folks is that it depends heavily upon what they mean by “works”.  Training, diet — and hell, life in general — just seems to orbit around that little “it depends” clause.  Problem is, most people don’t want to entertain that notion; soundbite-free moderation just ain’t sexy enough for most.  But back to Jack and his firestorm — damn!  I haven’t seen this level of mouth-foaming-vengence vs. fervent apology since back in the Dr. Scott Connelly days.  Remember the heady Muscle Media 2000/MetRx era my friends?  How about the ol’ Cybergenics craze?  Yeah, well this just feels like 1991 redux to me.  Different magic and mojo, maybe — but damn if it doesn’t have that same ol’ WWF feel.  Let’s look at a couple of things.

Cold Immersion vs Core Cooling

So here’s the deal: I certainly do not claim to be an expert on Jack’s version of Cold Thermogenesis (CT from here on out).  I have been a time or two around the ol’ S&C block, though, and I am a former athlete who’s used cold immersion and cold contrast quite extensively as a post-workout recovery aid.  I’ve also received intravenous cold saline drips (old school core cooling) at a few points during my career as an immediate, during-competition, recovery tool.  To the extent that these interventions ”worked” for their intended purpose, I’d have to say that, hell yes, indeed they did.  Enough so that I still partake in cold immersion/contrast when the opportunity presents itself, and I would certainly employ new-school core cooling methodologies (as opposed to a saline drip; see below) if I had access to such a device.   But did those interventions work to the point of bestowing superpowers?  No, certainly not…but then again nothing in-and-of-itself does.   At least, these interventions pale in comparison to the longer-term effects of performance enhancing drugs, namely (and if we’re talking enhanced recovery), testosterone, with  Winstrol and Deca being the most common in this class.  But I diverge…

I’m also looking at this from the point of view of a person who is (1) not metabolically broken/leptin and/or insulin resistant and/or (2) not overfat to begin with.  From what I can deduce, Jack’s CT protocol primarily centers around restoring normal metabolic function to those who are, at least in some form or fashion, “broken” to begin with.  Fair enough, and a topic (if we’re concentrating on Jack’s CT approach) that’s well above my paygrade.  My approach to someone in this condition would be to first establish a base of smartly programmed resistance exercise and proper diet, followed by medical/hormonal intervention if necessary — but only after the base has been solidified.  However, Jack does delve into the performance realm now and again, a realm in which I do feel competent to comment on, both as an observer and as a long-time practitioner.  So here it goes:

Cold immersion (and it’s kissing-cousin, cold immersion contrast) is an ages-old, S&C recovery tool.  Now, there’s a very simple reason why these techniques have been around for so long, and that’s because they work.  At a minimum, they work a hell of a lot better than doing nothing at all.  Or sitting idle on the couch, nursing a beer.  Do they work better than pharmacological intervention?  Yeah, right.  As to the whys and hows behind these intervention’s efficacy, well, that can be debated, but my guess is that they simply go a long way toward arresting localized (and systemic, too) inflammation.  And like I say, I’ve spent much more cumulative time up to my neck in ice baths than I ever did at frat parties (and that’s saying a hell of a lot!) during my college days, so I feel somewhat qualified to opine on it here.

First off, I can say that cold immersion (or contrast therapy) results in a totally different feel, and produces a decidedly different result than does core cooling.   Cold immersion/contrast produces a relaxed (after the fact, of course  ) feeling of pending and enhanced recovery (maybe totally psychological?), whereas core cooling produces a “refreshed”, “yeah man, I’m ready to hit it again” feeling (definitely not ”all in the mind”).  Fresh legs and a clear mind, as it were.  I can say this about core cooling: the effects are real, noticeable for sure, and quantifiable (see the linked clips below).  Halftime of a football game bestows no favors upon the players, as that 15 minutes of idle time simply serves to initiate the shutting down of a body in serious recoil from the trauma of the previous two quarters.  Weather extremes just exacerbate this problem, with extreme  heat and extreme cold both adding their own special brands of misery to the mix.  Most of my experience with a cold saline drip was during halftime of hot weather games.  And though I didn’t necessarily feel like superman coming out of the tunnel for the 2nd half, I damn sure had some new spring in my legs, and my body didn’t have that “just blottoed by a locomotive”, systemic ache that is natural after the first half.  My head was relatively clear, and I was, well…in a word – fresh.  Not first half fresh mind you, but not too damn far off that mark either.  The few cold weather drips I took still “worked”, though I don’t remember the effect being nearly as pronounced.  This lead me for for a long time to speculate that the positive effects of the intervention were due mostly to rapid and more adequate re-hydration.  There was definitely something else going on, though.  Placebo, maybe?

Now I’ve always been fascinated as to why the phenomena of core cooling worked, and I’ve often wondered, too, if it was by any means a “safe” (not that that would have dissuaded me from employing it at that time in my life) thing to do.  Does the cooling effect short-circuit some built-in, natural protective system designed so as to keep dumb-asses like myself from driving our bodies over a cliff?  I’m not sure, and after a good bit of following and researching this phenomenon, I’m still not exactly sure what mechanisms are at work (or are blunted?) here, and I’m not so sure that anyone really knows either.  That an intervention is field-proven is good enough proof for those in the S&C trenches; that said, this would seem to me to be a very cool (heh…) area of study for an up-and-coming exercise physiology PhD to latch onto.

This Stanford Alumni article speaks to the positive effects of “new school” core cooling.  I find the physiology behind how the body shunts heat via the palms and soles of the feet utterly fascinating, and the override mechanism — effectively, forcing the body into a continual “heat-dump mode” – employed in the design of  the Avacore device super friggin’ intriguing as well.  I think that Skyler Tanner ought to take a break from his foray into Molecular Gastronomy and help a bro design a ghetto version of this device.  I mean, seriously — how much can a vacuum pump, a cuffed sleeve, and a couple of cold packs run?

These Core Control videos (part I, part II, and part III) are certainly worth the watch.  One thing that is really interesting is that the performance gains realized over a succession of “cooled” training sessions seem to stick.  In other words, these PRs then become the new normal for “un-cooled” sessions — at least for the short term.  Notice how the differentiation is made between the performance effects realized by core cooling vs CT.  Something I can attest to as well.  Again, these are two totally different interventions.

As far as weight loss attributed to CT, well, I just never witnessed it — certainly not in my self and, maybe more telling, not in any of my “in the trenches” teammates.  I can tell you that the last thing a coaching staff would allow to happen is the wasting away of prime offensive and defensive line beef, and these beefalos spent some serious time dunked like a herd hippos in stainless steel therapy tanks.  Not a pretty sight, mind you — not at all.  And come to think of it, I’m still a little scarred from the experience.

So I don’t know.  Maybe the weight loss Jack attributes to CT has more to do with following a Paleo diet, utilizing the high-protein in-the-AM “leptin reset”, and the cold immersion winds-up being simply a red herring.  Or just another (of the many possible) ways to increase NEAT.  One way or the other, it would be interesting to see before and after DEXAs to see just how much fat vs muscle is lost during one of these interventions.  That these folks apparently don’t workout makes me think that they must be shedding muscle as well during the process, a condition that would be easily fixed with some moderate resistance exercise.  But hibernating animals don’t do this, though, so why should we?  Ugh, here we go down that rabbit hole…

Now admittedly, a hibernating animal does emerge from its winter hidey-hole come springtime all jacked and lean.  True, at least as far as I comprehend the phenomena.  Ergo, (and if I’ve got this right), if humans are looking for the same swole/ripped body composition, we too need to subject ourselves to periods of intense cold, preferably in a seasonal-appropriate manner.  One contradiction I see here, though, is that these same animals also spend all spring and summer getting fat as all hell so as to be able to endure that long, cold winter.  Kinda like their close relatives, the off-season bodybuilder.   And this is the problem I have with the types of anthropomorphism that would have humans mimic selected animal characteristics.  One of the things I’ve never bought into, for instance, was the idea that athletes shouldn’t have to warm up before working out because, hey, has anyone ever seen a lion “warm-up” before walking-down a wildebeest?   Exactly.  Now, head out to your nearest track immediately and bust out your best hundred meters.  That searing pain you feel?  Yeah, that’s a pair of pulled (if you’re lucky) hamstrings.  Have fun walking on those polio legs the next couple of weeks.  Cheer up though, bro!  You’re a friggin’ lion.

Problem is, of course, we are not these species, even though I agree that we did have some common distant ancestor.  However, we evolved, as such, to fill distinct and independent niches.  That I evolved from the same distant ancestor as the buffalo does not make me a herbivore.  Yeah, my Indian “spirit guide” may be a bad-ass cheetah, but my ass, in fact, needs to warm up a bit before I sprint balls-out.  Just sayin’.

So where does this leave me with respect to Jack’s version of CT, and it’s purported benefits?  Essentially, I remain an open-minded skeptic on the question of weight loss and health improvement.  Recovery enhancement?  Sure, along the lines of deep-tissue massage, eating sensibly, and seriously containing the other stressors in one’s life.  Looking for superhuman recovery?  Sorry, you’re gonna have to go the pharmacological route for that, my friend.  Core cooling on the other hand, is an intervention that I’d like to explore in much more depth, as I believe this is something that can seriously boost an athlete’s overall performance.

In a recent Fat Burning Man podcast interview of Dr. Kruse, host Abel James brought up the idea of “directional accuracy”, a notion that I always try to keep in mind as it’s the essence of being an epistemocrat.  That is, the totality of the message (theory, etc.) might be flawed, but there may just be certain nuggets within the message that do have validity.  Essentially, this means that if you’re in the business of panning for gold, you can’t effectively do so with a backhoe and an indiscriminate — or worse yet, a seriously biased — eye.  This is just another way of stating Bruce Lee’s maxim “absorb what is useful, discard what is not”.

Arthur Jones, of Nautilus fame, was mad as a hatter, and yet he did develop one of the most effective resistance training machines that I have ever used — the Nautilus pullover.  And though I never agreed with his single-set-to-failure idea, what Jones brought to the table regarding intensity in one’s training regimen I have found invaluable in my own journey as an athlete and Physical Culturalist.  So it may very well be that Jack has missed the mark on CT, but has inadvertently drawn attention to the core cooling phenomenon. Oh, the irony.  Time will tell.

In health, fitness and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith

A question from reader Eli Bailey:

I was wondering if you may be able to clarify and expand on your listing on the website that says ” the individual components of the workout – as well as the workout itself, when considered in total – should be constantly variable.”  Is it possible to program constant variety into workouts without  becoming “random”?  Or is random the goal?  Thank you for any information you may be able to provide.

Like all things, Eli, the real answer lay somewhere between the continuum of “totally random” and “static/unchanging”.  Much also depends here upon one’s ultimate goal.  For instance, there is a huge difference between altering the hand position or degree of incline in a press, workout to workout (a good thing), and in alternating that same horizontal pressing motion with something totally out of left field; let’s just use Indian club swings as an example.  Clubs being not a bad exercise tool in and of themselves, so long as they’re programmed correctly according to one’s goals.  But would they be a good choice here?  In a word, no.  In the press-variation example, we have a sort of…let’s call it, “directional accuracy”, and in the other, we have an exercise seemingly drawn from a hopper.  Remember the old Sesame Street ditty, “which one of these is not like the other one”?  Yeah, it’s much like that.  We want randomness, yes…but randomness with borders and direction.

And this is just one example of the many points at which we have to leave template training schemes behind, and become artisans (or “chefs”, as I’ve sometimes said) within the gym.  Painting by numbers and cooking from a recipe will get you only so far.  I absolutely love the old Bill Star 5 x 5, or Wendler 5/3/1 using basic lifts, but these will only get one so far.  The point is that the body will adapt to a given movement pattern, implement and tempo, then go no further.  Actually, this is probably due to a CNS/mind limiting factor, but the real-world result is the same — stagnation.

Two PFX12 participants checkout the ARXFit horizontal machine.  Some variations here might be tempo/speed of movement, foot position, number of reps, rest between reps, and utilization of pre-exhaust techniques, just to name a few.

Let’s take overhead pressing as an example of weaving “randomness” into an overall program.  Once or twice a week a vertical pressing session will make an appearance in my training.  Now, vertical pressing is a pretty wide-open category, and that’s the point.  I might choose from any of a number of vertical press options — front presses, BTN presses, push-presses, or jerks.  The implement may be a barbell, dumbbell, ARXFit or Nautilus machine.  I may utilize pre-exhaust or I may not.  You get the idea.  One thing I won’t do though, is repeat a method or modality the next time I vertical press.  Except that sometimes I do.  I’m not trying to be purposely cryptic here, but this is where the artistry comes into play.

For most folks it’s enough to know that once a base level of strength is established with the basic lifts, it’s time to start adding subtle variations/permeations within that base workout routine; from shoot to branches, as it were.  It keeps the body guessing and the mind fresh.  It also helps keep one on the road to continued improvement, and out of the bar-ditch of overtraining.

In health, fitness, and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith

So how do we, as a national (world-wide?) movement position sensible Paleo more firmly into the mainstream consciousness?  This is a question that continues to vex those of us who sincerely wish to bestow the many blessings of Ancestral Wellness to the masses.  Or, in a less-than-philanthropic sense, those of us who wish to avoid going down with the ship of SAD-eatin’ fools on which we happen to be marooned.

Take a look at the following Google Trends chart, a comparison of “vegan diet” (in red) vs “paleo diet” (blue).  The full chart with associated number breakouts can be viewed here.  Also, notice (the linked view) that Austin far and away leads the pack in Paleo inquiry.  Epicenter of Physical Culture, anyone?

Robb Wolf brought up this rapidly-approaching-critical-mass idea in the PFX12 Affecting the Future of Healthcare and American Food Policy MasterMind panel discussion.  As an interesting aside, checkout the disparity between “search volume index” and “news reference volume”.  People are searching for information that the “news” is not, as of yet, up to the task in providing.  And maybe that’s good “news”, if we in the movement are able to credibly fill that information void.

Attempting to nudge the mainstream in the right direction is, if one is to listen to the hardcore Paleo-gensia, an anathema to the very soul of the movement.  If Paleo were a religion, it certainly would not be evangelical Christian.  And as a card-carrying libertarian, I get it.  Let them eat cake (quite literally) if they’re too frackin’ lazy to figure this out for themselves.  Down-the-rabbit-hole biochemistry aside, who cannot see the elegant simplicity (and truth) behind going grain, dairy and legume free?

The problem is, we can’t just load up our self-righteous, Pilgrim-Paleo asses and drift to some new, pristine shore.  There are no pristine shores remaining, as this crappy SAD diet (and it’s wicked mistress, diseases of modernity) are wrecking the entire planet.  Go off-the-grid if you want — and I’m cool with that mind you (because for any other of a myriad of reasons, I’d do the same) — but the repercussions of this insidious infestation will hunt you down and, in some way, reek utter havock over your hard-fought-for quality of life.  You won’t be riddled with diabetes, but you can bet your sweet ass you’ll be paying in some form or fashion for those who are.  No, this is one thing I’m willing to burn precious life force fighting against mainstream ignorance for.

For me, that vehicle for this broad outreach looks to be the Paleof(x) entity, or some branch thereof.  Efficient Exercise has also initiated a concerted, like-minded push, bringing Dan French (the doctor of rhetoric!) on board to help craft a palatable and digestible, mass-media-acceptable message.

Does a watered-down, mass-media-friendly message somehow taint the “purity” of the Paleo message?  I don’t think so; no more, in my way of thinking, than does popular discussion of string theory dilute the purity of the hardcore science.  There will always be those of us who geek-out on the biochemistry behind why any of this stuff works to keep people healthy.  The masses, though — and we have to realize and accept this — just need to know (from legitimate sources) that this diet is effective, and how to effectively implement that diet alongside smartly-programmed resistance training.

In health, fitness and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith

…or, I’d add, to change his fitness habits…or lack thereof.

Here’s an interesting and timely ad that I ran across, from AmmoLane:

The message is simple and to-the-point.  But by “guts”, though, I’m pretty sure they weren’t meaning this -

Yeah, yikes…and which leads me to this:

So on Thursday night, following the day’s PFX12 festivities, Michelle and I had the distinct pleasure of having dinner with Mark Alexander (president of Efficient Exercise and ARXFit), Robb Wolf, Charles and Julie Mayfield (of Paleo Comfort Foods), Erwan Le Corre (of MovNat fame) and his lovely wife Jessika, and a friend of Charle’s and Julie’s, a guy by the name of David Duley.

Come to find out, David has written a very cool and thought provoking book titled, I Can Fix America – 52 common sense ways you can make America great again.

Of particular interest to me — and, as it turns out, to David — is the leveraging of Ancestral Wellness to cure what ills the American healthcare system.  No small task, to be sure.  But guess where David decided to do his due diligence investigative work?  Yeah, you guessed it, PFX12.  David is convinced that Ancestral Wellness is the cornerstone to righting the American healthcare debacle, and what better place to rub elbows with the best and brightest within the movement?

But can obesity — or even simply being pathetically out of shape — be couched as an “unpatriotic” act?  Well, let’s for a moment look at the flip-side of this; let’s look at the fundamental rights side of the equation.

We all know the stereotype: a sloppy, 300 lb militiaman raging about the abridgment of 2nd amendment rights.  Now, I don’t want to get into a 2nd amendment flame war here — I happen to believe that the right to arms offers protection against a tyrannical governess, foreign and domestic — however, I also believe that a citizen granted that right also has a responsibility to the government offering such protection.  Namely, that citizen should do all in his power to not only be an asset to his fellow citizens, but to certainly do all in his power not to be a burden.  And let’s face it, obesity, diseases of modernity and pitiful fitness (all preventable conditions) are crippling the nation financially.

Do I think that the “obesity is unpatriotic” mindset is one that any law can mandate?  Of course not; attempting to legislate morality, at any level, shape, or form, is a fool’s errand.  However, I do believe we can eventually nudge the populace to accepting this “morality” in the same way that victory gardens were seen, on a national level, as the right and moral thing to do during WWII.  With this in mind, checkout David’s chapter on righting the American healthcare ship – Cure Ourselves and Our Healthcare System.  Spot-on, in my opinion.

But would this kind of campaign work in the fight against obesity?  Hard to say.  Changing entrenched mindsets and habits is, of course, no easy, single-solution task.  Like all epic wars, the greater battle must be waged on multiple fronts.

PFX12, in pictures

Did you make the trip to the epicenter of Physical Culture for PFX12?  Or, were you living vicariously through the #PFX12 Twitter hashtag?  Either way, you can get your snapshot jonze on by checking out the awesome Paleo f(x) photo gallery.  Be sure to check it out!  Lots of behind the scenes shots that are just fantastic!

Data…or Knowledge?

In an interesting post by NPR science blogger, Robert Krulwich, the idea of truly “knowing one’s self” is investigated.  Is it the “quantified self”, or the self as “part of the larger, environmental whole” that is our true being?

In a post I wrote last year, I mentioned the three Sanskrit words for “truth”; scientific “truth” spiritual “truth”, and empirical “truth”:

…now I’m no linguist by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s my understanding that there is no single Sanskrit word for “truth”, but rather a number of words that hint at the truth of  an idea as colored by the strengths and limitations of the approach.  In other words, ideas can have “truths” revealed in a philosophical/emotional sense, a spiritual sense, and, yes, a scientific sense.  We in the west tend to put a premium on the scientific “truth” behind and idea at the exclusion of all else.  This, of course, leads to a dead-end trap of stagnant thought.  Again, quoting Richard Feynman:“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” Good words to live by, from a brilliant man…

So it’s a balance of all three, yeah?  And depending upon the question, one “truth” may carry more weight than another.  The trick, of course, is in making that determination, and in keeping an open mind to the voice of the “other” truths.

And a plug for Steve’s Original Paleo Kits:

I know I must have eaten my weight’s worth of PaleoKits during the Paleo f(x): Ancestral Momentum – Theory to Practice Symposium week! So thankful that such a product exists and that I can help a kid even while taming a nagging hunger. Thanks for your support of PFX12, guys!  And thanks, Steve, for producing such a great, Paleo product!

More S&C related MP3s than you can shake a stick at…

Three Efficient Exercise amigos (left to right — your’s truly, Skyler Tanner and EE and ARXFit president, Mark Alexander), fueling-up with awesome Live Oak BBQ prior to recording for Laree Draper’s Movementlectures.com.

Laree Draper has put together the mother load of S&C related, downloadable MP3s. Boring commute, you say? No longer, my friend!  Register (“like”) on Facebook by Tuesday, 3/27, and Laree with give you a $7-off coupon. How cool is that?  Win-win!  And make sure you use that coupon to download the Three Amigos’ MP3 (search for “Norris”), once the website goes live (after Wednesday?).  Then sit back and have empathy for what our poor wives have to endure

Sure, they’re smiling now.  Just wait ’til we get on a tear!  :)

You know the yahoos; from left to right, their (much) better halves — Shauna, Michelle, and Sarah.

In health, fitness, and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith

So here are some of  the Paleo FX Stars of the Show…

Registration Tribe hard at work

Rob Mathews was invaluable to several tribes, here he's hard at work for S & C.

Registration Tribemates welcoming PaleoFX guests

Speakers, Vendors, Sponsors Registration Table Tribemates made these special guests feel right at home

Judith, our Project Coordinator speaking with Nick & Nina, 2 of our Tribe Leaders & a Paleo FX guest

Part of the Speaker Support Tribe waiting to welcome their Special Guests

Registration Tribemates welcoming more Paleo FX guests

One of the Paleo FX Angels...Orleatha

Paleo FX Tribemates Kara, Claire & Raul know how to have fun!

Volunteer Tribemates standing for recognition during closing remarks at Paleo FX

Paleo FX Tribemates were always smiling...we have the best people on board, for sure.

One of the Paleo FX Angels & Sponsor Tribe Leader...Emily, in a word...INCREDIBLE

Kara...my right hand...kept me sane through it all...couldn't have done it without her, she is seriously the best! The Tribe Leader for Food & Beverage, an Awesome Assistant & I pray I didn't scare her off & she'll come back & help us again next year! She's A-MAZING! Next to her is Claire, a Paleo FX Angel & the Tribe Leader for Leader Support such incredible spirit & determination - a true inspiration! We seriously had the best people as Tribe Leaders & Tribemates at Paleo FX, they are second to none! We are truly blessed to know you all!

In closing, we believe these people did an amazing job & hit the benchmark goal of creating an event that had everyone uttering, “I can’t wait to come back next year!” They did it! This is their victory & their success! We owe it all to them, they are the REAL STARS OF PALEO FX!

Photo credit – Christopher Lozano photography — a high school friend whose heart is genuine, and whose talent is beyond description.

Pictured, left-to-right:  Mark Alexander (President, Efficient Exercise, ARXFit), Skyler Tanner, Robb Wolf, Michelle “child bride” Norris, your’s truly, Mark Sisson.

Why the big smile?  Because our crack team of awesome PFX12 volunteers had everything firmly under control.

Yeah, PFX12 was a rockin’ good time and I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world.  But as I sit here decompressing, I more and more agree with Jane; my one on-going regret is not having the time to read more Cormac McCarthy.  Ah well…one day…

But, I have had some time to peruse industry-related stuff.  Anyone read Dan John’s and Pavel’s Easy Strength yet?  If not, and if you’re an athlete (apart from an Oly lifter or bodybuilder, that is), you’re really missing out.  This is one of the best S&C books for non-iron game athletes that I’ve come across in a hella long time.  Not often will you hear S&C coaches (in public, anyway), tell athletes that the path to becoming better at their chosen sport is to practice the technical aspects of that particular sport, and that strength is — although highly important — relatively easy to acquire.   And that the acquisition of that strength doesn’t require (if programmed correctly) much dedicated time to achieve.  It’s that “if programmed correctly” caveat, though, that’s the real ass-biter, and that’s where a good S&C coach is worth a king’s ransom to a trainee.

The reason I bring up Easy Strength in this post though, is that for the last couple of weeks I’ve been on one of my 28 (ish)-day “grease the groove” cycles.  This is very similar to the 40 day program Dan and Pavel cover in Easy Strength.   I move into one of these phases when (1) I’m stressed to the max from things outside of the gym,  (2) I feel overtraining creeping up on me, or (3) I’ve just hit a new circa-max in a particular exercise that has taken a bit of a toll on me.  Right now I’m in the land of #1 and #3 — We’re just coming out of the PFX12 craziness, and I just hit a solid 115 lb x 5 rep dip circa max.  Time to glide for a bit.

Now, on paper this program seems pretty damn easy — 5 or 6 exercises completed for a total of 10 (ish) repetitions per exercise and using approximately 50 to 80% of the particular exercise’s 1 rep max.  The base set/rep scheme would look like 2 sets of 5; 3 sets of 3 if I get itchy, or 6 – 8 “heavy” singles if I’m about to pop out of my skin.  I perform the same exercises as many days in the week as I can — sometimes twice is all I can get in, sometimes it’s seven in a row.  And I let “feel” dictate the rep scheme and loading.  I hardly break a sweat in these sessions, however, by the end of the 4 or so weeks that I’m on it, I usually hit a new max in those target movements.  And if I feel like ditching the gym in lieu of sprints (or whatever), I do.  Or, if I’m in another studio and feel like a change of pace, I’ll let ‘er rip.  But then I’m back on plan…more or less.  Does it work?  Hell yeah it does.  But as Dan says, there’s no magic to it, and it seems too damn easy, so you’re likely not to stick with it.  All I can say is, do yourself a favor and give it a shot.  Here’s my current scheme:

Back squats: 2 sets of 5 at 225

Front press (strict/military): 2 sets of 5 at 135

Cheat curl: 2 sets of 5 at 135

Clean from the floor: 2 sets of 5 at 155

Deadlift: 2 sets of 5 at 275

Standing Ab wheel roll-outs: 2 sets of 5

Seriously, that’s it.  And it only takes about 30 minutes to complete.  The key is to strive for as near to perfect execution in each repetition as possible.  Now, am I likely to throw an ARXFit blow-out in there somewhere in the next month in lieu of my 28-day “base”?  Yeah, probably so.  There are no hard rules here — only sign posts, and a general direction.

Safe Starches vs Exercise?

I can’t tell you how many side conversations and panel questions I fielded during PFX12 that essentially boiled down to debating minutia that would, in my opinion, be rendered completely inconsequential if adequate and appropriate exercise were added into the equation.  I’m using “safe starches” here, of course, as a proxy for any of the multitudes of minutia that are debated within the larger Paleo community.  And while I love to geek-out on this stuff just as much as the next paleo aficionado, my day-to-day reality in working with the “rubber-meets-the-road” public requires me to aggregate and distill all of this information into palatable and usable chunks for a time-strapped mainstream public.

My point here?  The positive effects of exercise (check this out as well) render these minutia inconsequential.  Can one exercise away a totally crappy (SAD) diet?  Not on your life.  But if you are exercising properly, the issue of whether one does, or does not, consume moderate amounts of “safe starches” (for example) becomes an irrelevant thread within the overall tapestry of health.  My point now is as it always has been — our species evolved as obligate physical beings, and opportunistic eaters.  Physicality is, in fact, the single commonality of our species regardless of environmental pressure affecting each individual culture.  As such, we need to put more — much more — importance on the physical aspect of Ancestral Wellness.  Again, I don’t want to discount these “minutia” discussions (hey, I dive-in to these head first, too!), but I just don’t ever want the idea (even if implied) that even a pristine diet can correct for lack of movement to ever be perpetuated.

In health, fitness, and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith

Photo credit

My good friend Andrew Badenoch, of 77Zero.org can certainly attest to this notion.  To be prepared is one thing; to think that you have ultimate control?  Heh, this makes the Gods of chance and chaos chuckle.

Much of what I write about, and talk about with my peers, is geeked-out, Ancestral Wellness minutia.  As an in-the-trenches trainer, though, I deal with real-world questions like the following on a weekly (daily?) basis.  This is where the rubber meets the road, and this is where I can really make a difference in some one’s life:

I’m in Illinois and just listened to your talk on the Paleo Summit…I’m a mess.  I have a crp of 4.7, my cortisol is a flat line (saliva test), post-menopausal, history of compulsive exercise.  Now that I’m fat and unhealthy, what type of exercise can I do to fix myself?  I am eating gluten-free (paleo and have the gene for celiac) and have developed a ton of food allergies.  I was in great shape until I got breast cancer in 2005.  I’m 6 years cancer-free but I don’t want to get sick again.  Please tell me what type and how much exercise I should be doing.  I have gained 30 lbs since my cancer episode and have been unable to lose it.

Thank you for any wisdom you can share,

Rita

The thing is, whether I’m dealing with an accomplished athlete, or someone in Rita’s circumstance, the first step to dealing with a new or potential client is to define that client’s end goals against my Four Ts -

• Time
• Tools
• Techniques
• Tenacity (temperament)

And, especially so for someone in Rita’s circumstance, it must be made perfectly clear that this is going to be a lifelong journey that, if it’s ultimately going to be successful, must begin from a solid-footed, based-in-reality beginning.   What do I mean by “solid-footing” and “based-in-reality”?  The basics, of course; good food, and consistant, smart exercise.  That’s it.  The 30,000 foot view; no majoring in minors here.

Reading into this question we see obvious signs hormonal disregulation, systemic inflammation, and gut disbiosis.   An internet dissection and “fix” here would run reams of printed material, with no two “gurus” ever agreeing on any ultimate course of action — because, of course, agreement with another completely and forever after removes one from said “guru” status .

But Rita has to live in and navigate the real world, and probably has to juggle a full time job, family issues, house work and, well, you get the idea.  She needs an action plan that can be implemented in small, doable chunks.  If not, the change is overwhelming, and she’s sunk before she’s had a chance to gain traction.

Of course I’m making an assumption here.  And maybe Rita can chime in and let us know a little more about her circumstance, and of her temperament for undertaking challenge (the 4th T).  Most need to “on-ramp” into any big lifestyle change.  I have had clients, though, who are for sure willing, ready and able to undergo a total, stem-to-stern lifestyle remake.  Those folks, it should be noted, are few and far between indeed.  Kinda like Sasquatch sightings.

First things first?  Let’s strive to get the diet under control, moving as quickly as possible to a full-tilt, Whole-30-like gig, if not a full-on, immune-compromised (no night shades, no eggs), “clear the decks”, Paleo diet.  When I hear “gluten free”, that’s usually code yammer for “I still eat a crap-ton of simple carbs”.  Gluten free, yes (and good start) — but we’ve still got the excessive carb flux to deal with.  Let’s strive to begin each day with a high-protein kick-start; a nice hunk of last night’s steak, maybe.  The basics, right?  Nothing overwhelming, nothing over-complicated; nothing…uber-sexy.  And that’s generally a problem.  Because we like complicated, we like to be bowed-over with detail, and we for damn sure do not want moderation — until, that is, we have to actually implement that wow-factor tactic in day-to-day practice.  That route, my friends, is a straight path to failure.

So how much and of what kind of exercise?  Not much, really.  And nothing overtly complicated.  A lot of walking (or similar) – daily, if at all possible — punctuated with intermittent (every 3 or 4 days) bouts of high-intensity resistance training.  A nice related post on this subject, here.  Not nearly as daunting as it sounds.  30 minutes, twice a week, if you have access to an Efficient Exercise-like facility.  No access to such a facility?  A T-Bar — and the associated T-bar swing — is about as effective, efficient and as return-on-investment (both in terms of time and money) positive as you can get.  I’d need to better know Rita’s circumstance, relative to her access to tools (equipment; the 2nd T), to better design a tack for her.  But damn, one can sure get a hell of a lot of mileage out of a lot of walking and punctuated bouts of T-bar swings.  Sexy?  Not on your life.  Effective?  Hell yeah.

So, does this deckplate, simpleton stuff really work?  Yeah, I know people are burnt-the-hell-out on all the fitness-related hype they’ve had heaped upon them over the years.  But just check out these results from last year’s Efficient Exercise Project Transformation.  These folks were a lot like Rita coming in, and at the end of the 10 week program, they were all well into life-altering transformations for the better.  No cherry-picking of results here, as we reported all of the participant’s before and after numbers.  And many of those folks have stuck with us for the long haul, and have continued to improve.  So yes, it can certainly be done.  What’s tough for people to wrap their heads around, though, is the fact that it simply does not require all that much in the way of time investment to make that wholesale change in one’s life.

In fact, we’re going to run a Project Transformation 2012 in the weeks immediately following PFX12.  If you’re in the Austin area, and you want to participate, be sure to shoot me an email and I’ll get you on the list of potential participants.  More details of this year’s event will follow, but one thing we do know is that we’ll team with the Fitness Institute of Texas to document results of this year’s transformation with “before” and “after” DEXA scans.  And if you want a prelude to what this might look like, be sure to get yourself down to PFX12, where I’ll unveil the results of the three people I’ve been working with since late December, 2011.  Roughly 10 weeks of lifestyle change in, and their results in that short of a time span are nothing less than stunning.  Again, no cherry-picking here — you’ll see all of their “before” and “afters”.  All backed, of course, by “the numbers don’t lie” DEXA.  Should be interesting, especially since PFX12 attendees will have the opportunity to listen to these three folks discuss their trials and tribulations during the event.  Not just hard numbers, but real life stories.  And the opportunity to ask these folks pointed questions about their transformation experience.

And I’d be seriously remiss if I didn’t put in a shameless plug for our Physical Culture Immersion Experience here.  For some folks, this is the best option.  Immersion, quite simply, works.  Whether it’s learning a new language, or learning to implement any cultural/lifestyle change.  Want a sampling of the fitness side of what such an immersion will offer?  Come check-out our post-PFX12, Leveraging Modern Technology for Ancestral Wellness workshop on Saturday, March 17th, from 3 to 6 PM at Efficient Exercise’s Rosedale location.  $95 will get you a front row seat to a rockin’ Keith Norris/Skyler Tanner fitness fest.  Both mind and body will be zapped by days end at this one

Oh, and one other thing as it pertains to PFX12 — we now have day passes available.  Wanna take in the awesome happenings at this year’s Paleo f(x) Ancestral Momentum – Theory to Practice Symposium, but don’t have the time, or maybe the coin, to take in the full (paleo, of course) enchilada?  No worries.  You can now purchase an event day pass for $99.  Just visit the PFX12 registration page and enter code 1DPFX.  Limit one per customer.  A perfect option for all of our central Texas peeps, or those visiting the ATX to take-in the SXSW festivities!

One last item before I sign-off for today.  If you know little else about me, I hope that you know that I believe in the transformational power of knowledge; its ability to free one from intellectual bondage, and reliance upon others to make decisions for you.  I hope that many of you had the chance to partake in my good friend Sean Croxton’s Paleo Summit last week and, if you liked what you saw, I hope that you do consider purchasing the entire package.  Knowledge is lasting.  It is ever mutable of course, and must change in the face of irrefutable evidence if it is to survive.  This package, though, is a great place to start — or refine — your Paleo knowledge.  Never stop learning, and never stop challenging yourself.

In health, fitness, and Ancestral Wellness -

Keith