Sunday Story...Let's Get Physical

Sunday Story…Let’s Get Physical

As promised…a short treatise on exercise…

But first the disclaimers…get your physicians Ok before you start any exercise program blah blah blah. What you are about to read is radical compared to what many of us believed about exercise until just recently. Including me. But I can attest that these ideas work and work well. Mark Sisson and the Primal Blueprint is to blame for much of what you are about to read…

Remember waaay back in the 80’s? (Well some of you anyway…) Leg warmers, Jane Fonda’s exercise tapes, Richard Simmons and Sweatin’ to the oldies, head bands, Cardio was all the craze! You were supposed to exercise for 45 to 60 minutes, keep your heart rate up in the “fat burning zone” and you would be heart healthy and fit and live to be a ripe old age. This was also about the same time we all went to the low fat/no fat diets. We had to since the amount of carbs to support these workouts on a daily basis was immense.

The problems this sort of exercise causes a quite numerous but include:
Hormonal imbalances due to excess cortisol and lower testosterone and growth hormone.
Injuries are rampant and recurring. Inflammation due to muscle fatigue, repetitive impact increase the risk of injury.
You are burning sugar as fuel and that drives you to eat more sugar. The sugar comes in many forms but certainly includes excess grain consumption. As a side note…when I was running ultra marathons (anything over 26 miles is an ultra btw) I was amazed at the really bad food many people ate and drank, often in excess…warm flat Pepsi or coke, peanut butter on white bread, and boiled potatoes come to mind.
The stress of training like this is hard on the immune system and accelerates both aging and disease risk.
Because you are training in a narrow, minimally functional aerobic manner you are giving up total fitness that includes power, speed and strength.

So here are the three things you must do for total fitness:
1. Move frequently at a slow pace
2. Lift heavy things
3. Sprint occasionally

Very quickly…
Move frequently and slowly. This may appear to be too easy and too simple. And it is easy and simple. Most of us do not move very often or very far. We get up, walk to the car, park as close as possible, get out walk to our office and sit down again. We do not walk up the stairs we take the elevator. We don’t park as far away as possible and then walk to our destination. We sit back down after we get up from eating, if we get up at all. We should be walking around the block, around the office after our meal. We should be riding our bikes to run some errands instead of always taking the car. You don’t have to travel far, but you do need to travel often. I see so many people who could be walking a ½ maile or a mile to work but they don’t because they have “too much stuff to carry”. When carrying that stuff would actually help bring us to number 2.

Lift heavy things. Not go to the gym and move weight around in a limited, specific, isolated range of motion. Pick things up, carry them from point a to point b, put them down, and pick them up again. Walk a mile carrying your books and your laptop. Or get intense for 20 minutes once in a while. Use your body weight to push and pull around. Do pull ups and pushups. Spending an hour or two at the gym in a specific workout regimen is stultifying and unnecessary. Move big rocks once in awhile. Pick up tires and flip them. Tax yourself once in awhile; go crazy for 10 minutes once in awhile. Which leads us to #3.

Sprint once in awhile. You know, the all out, bear is chasing you sprint. On your bike, in the pool or on foot, go really hard and then rest. Go hard again and then rest. This is not about speed as much as it is about effort and intensity. Any one at any age can do this. Of course, you will need to work up to this level of intensity. The effort should only last up to 60 seconds and could be considerable shorter. You only need to do this a few times a month.

To review…
Move more. Slowly and deliberately but move your body more often. Think about the people who came before us…they walked across the United States. They walked miles to school. They did not have any way to get from point A to point B using mechanized transportation. They had to move themselves through time and space.
Pick up heavy stuff. Even if you are moving your own bodyweight up to a chin up bar or your chest down to the floor you want to develop the strength and conditioning to pick something up and not hurt yourself…maybe a 6 yr old child or a 5 gallon bucket of liquid without causing any damage to yourself.
Move really fast once in a while. Taxing your heart and lungs is good for them. They will get better at processing oxygen and pumping blood if you force them to work occasionally. Beside you never know when a bear might decide to chase you and you don’t want to be the slowest one in the group!

Once again the mantra is simple…
Eat Less, Move More

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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