Noetic License

There is something noetic about the paleo model. Make no bones about it. You might tell somebody that you don't eat bread, rice, pasta, cereal/grains, potatoes and dairy - and they may well roll their eyes and mutter the dietary millstone of "Atkins".

If you talk of very short, high intensity training based around sprints, basic lifts and so forth, and they look at you with a degree of incredulity under the misapprehension that 'lots of cardio is the only way to burn fat'. You might also receive a caution about being 'muscle-bound' with HIT.

Our friend will undoubtedly continue on a their theme of health, exercise and nutrition which will share a platform with that held by the wider public, namely to 'eat less, do more', or 'cut fat and run distance'. These are reflex answers from decades of social conditioning.

But, as soon as you ask them what they would eat if stranded away from civilisation - the shackles of twentieth century diet and exercise dogma fall away and the paleo model appears clear and well formed.

Some cannot see, and will not, and may never see this innate beauty in the paleo model. Or, may be unable to transfer it to their present day condition. Otherwise will gape in awe at how easy it seems. Too easy? Possibly. But then how did health and fitness ever come to arrive at a place where it wasn't easy? We have had two million years to practice with mother nature drawing us on and the skilled knife of evolution cutting away at the inadequate and unsuited.

We think of ourselves as a single self - a whole entity. In reality we are a coalition. Billions of cells have risked all to become specialists, depending on each other as much as other cells depend upon them, to build YOU- thus resulting in a 'greater than' sum of parts. In the game of survival, freeloading is a heavy burden and is poorly tolerated. The result? Efficiency. An organism tailored to the environment. You.

With modern advice to get fit there always seems to be lots to remember. There is both a complexity to the information and copious amounts of it. All the while there seems to be an emphasis on counting and measuring, be it calories, grams of fat, reps and weights, distances and time. In stark contrast, I like many people reacted to the paleo model with the sound of KFC (kerr-fucking ching), and an audible "Aha!".

Ultimately the modern concept of exercise and nutrition are conceptually unsatisfying answers for us, the paleo crowd, and are physically unappealing drivers even to those who espouse them. They are repeated mantra-like, but never strike a chord within us. Have you ever thought about that?

My own epiphany is recorded here and detailed further here. As soon as I was asked what I would eat to sustain me if stranded on a desert island, all became clear. I was shaking with the revelation. KFC indeed!

In the comments to this post Marc offers an extract that similarly expresses how profound was his 'conversion':

• If you look at nature, it expends a big time effort in sustaining itself, but it does not struggle.Does the tiger get up in the morning and say "I'll struggle like crazy today and hopefully by dinner time I'll get something to eat? No Way! It just rises, has a little sniff under it's tigers armpits or does whatever tigers do at breakfast time, and heads out.At noon there on the path is lunch, provided courtesy of the great spirit.
  

We often look for confirmation bias. We often see patterns where there are none. We can be tricked and mislead by our minds. In light we see something in the shadows and in the dark we see phantoms. But, with considered experiment, we can verify. By adopting a paleo model I found living proof of 'the way'.

This year I feel a transition from a position of knowledge to that of wisdom. There is still much for me to learn but there is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom out there to draw from (see the links to the right of this page).

Various factions of the scientific community also seems to have shifted their position slightly this year. Science is discreetly shuffling in its seat, moving ever closer to advice based upon our ancestral patterns and practices. I really like Bertolt Brecht's opinion on the objectives of science in 'Galileo'. He says,

• "The chief cause of poverty in science is imaginary wealth. The chief aim of science is not to open a door to infinite wisdom but to set a limit to infinite error"

This is a noble objective for all of us. Be careful of the goals you set yourself in 2009!

Weekend Climbing Workout

I have still felt my shoulders are a bit sore from recent training so have cut back a bit more. I completed four sets of the main routine:

Warm Up (5 mins)

Main (mini circuit of about 15 minutes)
1) Sprint (8s, 9s, 10s, 11s)
2) Basic Ring Routine (2xMUs on the first two sets and then 4xMUs on the final two sets)
3) Ring Splits (5:20s, 6:15s, 7:10s, 8:5s)
4) Fingerboard

Extended Kill Carry with +10kg (9.5 mins)

I am really enjoying the Kill Carry training. I extended the original route to take in a big hill and it gave me a good test! The Muscle Ups (MUs) felt hard but the levers in the ring sequence felt pretty easy.

I am currently looking at revising my training slightly. I need to balance my specialised climbing and gymnastic training in light of my broader paleo goals. I am distilling the exercises down to those with broad functional application. I will post that up as and when I complete it.

Thought for Food

I try to keep an eye on the news for anything with a 'paleo' angle.....I think it is called confirmation bias!

I read today that Blueberries can reverse memory loss. No doubt we will see cereals and other foodstuffs with added blueberries (I think you might already be able to get this), or blueberry drinks. Marketing will want to drive blueberry health your way - principally adding blueberry to processed foods. You will also get blueberry pills in time.....and I firmly predict the blueberry cash cow will result in one of two headlines:

1) Blueberry cereals/drinks/pills do not protect against memory loss
2) Excess blueberry consumption causes illness 'x'

Also, there has been a story about the benefits of nuts in the diet. Now bar the hazard of choking on nuts, nuts probably cannot kill you. Before someone mentions it, I should add that peanuts are legumes - trivia fans and pedants take note! Nuts in the paleo diet (Pecan, Brazil, Hazelnut, Almond and Walnut), are both fruit and seed.

No doubt there will be a redoubling of efforts to get us to eat more nuts. As always this will come from a marketing effort to place nuts in to processed food - and eventually to bottle 'nut goodness' with the aim of making a pill. 'Pill-ation' of nuts will then undoubtedly lead to a scare and thus it will be found that:

1) Nut cereals/drinks/pills do not protect against whatever they are currently held to do,
2) Excess nut consumption causes illness 'y'

Finally, in the news is this story linking circadian rhythms and diabetes. (I have just finished reading 'Lights Out' and hope to blog about it soon - save to say that if you ever think you have found a new angle on Paleo living, visit Conditioning Research first as Chris is a Paleo-Amundsen and will undoubtedly have found some useful stuff about it already! You may also want to check out Dr Briffa's site for similar broad content.)

The long and the short of it is that the media latch on to a variety of health revelations. These revelations appear to have their roots in a paleo concept and are subsequently verified by 'science'. But the underlying driver of these revelations are implicit in paleo living. Blueberries? Check! Nuts? Check! Cycling with our circadian rhythms? Check!

And that is what I want to reaffirm. Paleo would appear to put us ahead of the health curve. The best that science can do is play 'catch up'. The best that marketing can do is shoe-horn this benefit in to some processed offering and trumpet the news. The best the meeja can do is sensationalise each health item as a revelation....until such time as they can perform an about turn and sell another load of papers to an increasingly confused and worried readership. This will come on the back end of a particularly un-paleo implementation of whatever health benefit was originally proposed.

For the rest of us, de-industrialise your diet and exercise. Go low-tech. That real food and primal activity is of benefit is indeed a revelation - but only amongst those who have forgotten their animalistic roots.

Finger Strength

I ventured out for a quick workout last night. It was another cold and clear winter evening. I placed emphasis on the climbing aspect - particularly finger strength.

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (mini circuit of about 15 minutes)
1) Sprint (8s, 9s, 10s, 11s)
2) Fingerboard
3) Ring Splits (5:20s, 6:15s, 7:10s, 8:5s)
4) Fingerboard

Kill Carry with +10kg (4 mins)

I completed a total of four sets the exercises above, one each of 1-4 counting as one set/circuit. The fingerboard routines were based around laddering. I use a variety of hand positions including open and closed positions and crimps. I also vary the width of rung I pull on.

For each pass through I increased the sprinting by a second. I addition I incremented the number of ring splits but reduced the 'time under tension' of the 'hold' (I always hold the last split for time).

I finished with a kill carry wearing my weight vest - which is my new favourite exercise.

Max Strength

As I suspected, I needed to roll back a bit today. I was messing around with some handstands on Wednesday night and could feel a bit of fatigue in my shoulders.

I nipped out at lunch for a quick workout thus:

Warm Up (usual 5 mins)
Main (10 mins)
Sprint (10s, rest 1min)

Dumbbell Squat to Press
One Arm Dumbell Row

The dumbbell work was performed as a mini-circuit at 'max-strength' for the given number of reps. I did four sets (8, 6, 4, 2) with little rest between exercises. (So I did 8 of Dumbbell Squat to Press, then 8 of One Arm Dumbell Row, then back to 6 of Dumbbell Squat to Press, then 6 of One Arm Dumbell Row and so forth).

I walked back in the winter sunshine - knowing that I need to lay off hard exercise for a few more days.......

Negatives Routine

I think I might be over-doing it a bit but I headed to the gym at lunch for a quick workout. I took it hard on the training last night so today's session was rather easy and involved some skill work.

I performed my usual warm up followed by a pyramid as follows, with an emphasis on lowering the weight SLOWLY:

1) Two Dumbbell Split Snatch (8, 6, 4, 2) - increase the weight by 2kg each rep.
2) Pull Up Lowers (12, 8, 6, One arm)

Notes: As noted above, the snatch involved a 2kg increase in weight with each set. Also, the pull ups involved +3kg for the second set, and +4kg for the third set. The last set involved lowering on one arm (alternating the arms accordingly) rather than adding weight.

I complete all the sets for one exercise before moving on to the next. The rest between sets should be around 10s! This is quite exhausting and takes under 10 minutes to complete - including the warm up.

I finished off with some optional extras - headstands, planches, levers, back bridges and cuts work. All skill based and below 'max' levels.

I am off to Lau Gar tonight, but will take it easy. Tomorrow I will rest completely.....although Captain Kid will be wanting to wrestle as soon as I get home from work! No rest for the wicked eh?

;)

Kill Carry

So last night I headed out for another quick workout. Again it was designed towards climbing strength - fingers and upper body but with two notable additions.

The first of these was some sprinting. I work out in and around my garage and at 2000hrs last night when I began my workout it was sub-zero. The prospect of pulling on small holds without being fully warmed up is pretty frightening. After my usual round of joint rotations and limb swings (full warm up here), I progress to sprinting. Sprinting is something I have found to constitute THE most effective phase of warming up extremities and thoroughly preparing my fingers for some small-edge action! Make sure you have performed quality rotations and limb swings before lighting the afterburners - and take the first sprint at 75%.

The second addition was what I call a 'Kill Carry'. After finishing my workout I shouldered my punch-bag (all 35kg of it) and went for a walk around the block! This is meant to replicate the carrying of a kill back to camp.

When performing Kill Carries I imagine that other hunters (both human and animal), might be after my prize. Carrying a load makes you vulnerable and some predators might see an opportunity of getting two meals for the price of one! Speed is of the essence.


Warm Up - (5 mins)
Main (20 mins):
1) Four-Way Sprints (Running for five double-steps sidewards, backwards and then forwards)
2) Retreat to garage and do a simple ring routine (muscle-up, skin the cat, levers) - which takes about 30 seconds (Adding an extra muscle-up for each set)
3) Ring Scissors (reducing the number by one each set but increasing the hold time)
4) Fingerboard Laddering/Dead hanging sequence

Extra
5) Kill Carry (4min 30s) - done after four 'cycles' through 1-4 above.


Notes: I complete four sets in total . The sets comprise of one each of exercises 1-4 above (as a mini-circuit).

The first time through I start off with one muscle-up when starting my ring routine. The second time through I perform two muscle ups prior to starting the ring routine, for the third set, three MUs and four MUs for the fourth.

The Ring Scissors involved a dropping pyramid. The first time through I did 5 ring scissors, the last one I held for 5 seconds. Next time through I dropped to 4 ring scissors and held it for 10 seconds. Set three comprised three ring scissors and a 15s hold, whilst set four was also of 3 reps but with the last one held for 20s.

After the main workout I shouldered the punchbag (35kg) and went for a walk round the block. I switched shoulders and moved quickly in the cold night air - looking extremely dodgy in the process! I intend to add weight and increase speed in future. I came back and did one more lap on the fingerboard (a bit of plyometric work).

Job Done.

The whole workout was a bit longer than I had anticipated, but the 'Kill Carry' was a fun way to end and a brisk walk under the cold and starry sky was invigorating. If you don't want to do the splits nor have strong fingers, then simply substitute an alternative skill and/or choose an alternative exercise. But, make sure your alternatives don't exhaust the same muscles used in sprinting or ring work.