Paleo 2.0

Kurt offers a new level of precision and clarity to the whole paleo paradigm in an attempt to drag it in to the neolithic!  Having recently come across a thread about paleo-vegansim, it is clearly high-time to "[leave] the tent to erect a proper building".

I speculated a while ago that 'paleo' (or rather Paleo v1.0), was eating itself -  becoming just another worthless term for narcissistic self-indulgence. Commodified.

If, like me, you keep it simple (the most you need to read is ADV's 'Essay on Evolutionary Fitness'), you should be running with Paleo 0.0.  But as with all human endeavour paleo is becoming Balkanised and if it is to have real impact in the places it NEEDS to have impact (academia, medicine, business, politics, pharma), we need something like Paleo 2.0.  We need to focus both on what Paleo is in terms of nutrition, and also on what it addresses - the Diseases of Civilisation.

Putting diseases of civilisation under the lens of (robust) scientific scrutiny may offer a form of redemption for the whole 'paleolithic' concept.

RTK Wk8 W/O2

This is the last workout of an 8 week training cycle.  I have enjoyed it.  I think I have looked forwards to most of the workouts and certainly I finished the majority of them feeling much the better.

Depletion:

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (45 mins)
1. Frog Planche (2x30s)
2. Tuck Lever (2x30s)
3. Squats, Asymmetric Leg Extension (20, 15)
4. Chin Ups/Pull Ups (15, 15)
5. Handwalk, ('for time'x2)
6. Inverted Row, Bent-Over Row (15, 15)

RTK Wk8 W/O1

So here I am at week 8. The final week. The clocks has just gone forwards meaning lighter evenings. My injury list is as follows:

1. Left elbow 'tweak' - healing nicely, but usually 'aware' of it. It originated from before this phase of training IIRC.
2. Left hip 'tweak' - came from an intense Lau Gar session of 'low walks'.  It coincided with some hard DLing so I guess the two may be related.  But again, healing to the point of only being noticeable with my thigh in certain extended positions.

My general lifting numbers have gone up.  My weight has remained stable around 84/85kg despite lots more (starchy) carbohydrate.

It is time to give myself a week or two off.  Perhaps mix in some active rest.

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (30 mins)
1. Stairgators (1)
2. Barefoot Sprinting (1x10, 1x10, 1x10, 1x10)
3. 3xMU to L-Sits to Ring Routine (1, 1, 1)
4. Scissor Splits/Cuts (3x1)
5. 321 (7:3x8 A4, 7:3x8 B3, 7:3x8 F3)
6. Barefoot Kill Carry

How Western Diets Are Making Us Sick

Hat tip to ADV.  An interesting interview and article with physician Kevin Patterson:

• In an essay published last November in Canada's Maisonneuve journal, physician Kevin Patterson described his experiences working as an internist-intensivist at the Canadian Combat Surgical Hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
  
  One detail he noticed: The Afghan soldiers, police and civilians he treated in Kandahar had radically different bodies from those of the Canadians he took care of back home.
  
  "Typical Afghan civilians and soldiers would have been 140 pounds or so as adults. And when we operated on them, what we were aware of was the absence of any fat or any adipose tissue underneath the skin," Patterson says. "Of course, when we operated on Canadians or Americans or Europeans, what was normal was to have most of the organs encased in fat. It had a visceral potency to it when you could see it directly there."

Patterson also blogged about his experiences:

• For someone used to the life and the pathologies of the rich and settled, much about practicing medicine in Afghanistan felt unfamiliar. One of the striking differences was the way gunshot victims’ abdomens looked in CT scans. Back home, I was used to seeing organs stand out with some prominence from the abdominal fat. In fact, in Canadians, the state of the kidneys can be partly assessed by the degree of inflammation in the perinephric fat that envelops them. It’s the same with the pancreas, and the liver often looks like it belonged to a French goose fattened for foie gras. Indeed, the idea of “normal” in a Canadian body proceeds from the assumption that it might be normal to spend one’s days tied to a grain spout, beak pried open, being filled with cracked corn.

Interesting to get an 'insiders' view - literally!

RTK Wk7 W/O3

Because of my 'day three' rest protocol, this is actually my last DL and OAC workout in this training cycle!  Next week is the final week of my RTK approach - but not sure I can discern much of a difference in my physique.  My numbers are still going up.  The Six Nations beer frenzy cannot help - and the fact that sometimes my eating (in terms of timing, quantity and quality), has not been as fixed as the CKD protocols require.  I might need to give it another go to do it justice, but TBH it is such a bore to have to eat to a program.  It might work for some, but I don't think I am that person.

Consolidation will be the word today for the DL.  The OACs will get pushed a little higher....

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (35 mins)
1a.Deadlift (4X137kg , 5X123kg)
1b. One Arm Chin Ups (3/4x62, 5x55, 6x50)
2. Wall Walk/Back Bridge to In-L-Sit (2r, 15s, 15s)
3. HSPUs/Lowers/Dumbell Press (3lwrs/1+, 6x16kg, 6x14kg)
4. Ice Cream Makers (6, 5, 4)
5.Four-Way Rotator Cuff (10)

The Aurora

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Beyond Hamster Fitness

There are some great ideas that bubble up under the paleo framework.  Recently I have come across a few threads and posts discussing 'information' and 'signalling'.  The idea that the meta-data around how the dose is delivered is as important as the payload itself.

I try to incorporate these ideas in to my training with mixed degrees of success.  By substituting exercises and changing reps and sets - all within a broader structure, I try to 'inform' my body and stimulate it, rather than trying to 'hammer it' in to improving.