63 replies to this topic

[drobEk]

Hi,
I just thought I would share a great exercise routine that was recently posted on Mark's Daily Apple blog (if you haven't visited the website yet, I highly recommend to do so). It is an e-book he's giving away for free, you just need to subscribe and then you'll get the password for the e-book download.
I like his fitness program so much, because it makes total sense. He tries to imitate the way our primal ancestors moved as much as it is in our modern world possible and he does so in a very efficient and fun way. If you're browsing the Holistic HEALTH Board, you should know that keeping our bodies in shape and staying fit is crucial to attaining good HEALTH.
Please take your time and skim through the book, I promise it will change the way you view the concept of exercising. Here is the link to the subscription:

http://www.marksdail...eprint-fitness/

Your friend
Rob

Edited by drobEk, 11 August 2010 - 01:47 PM.

[Ozay]

Before I subscribe to see what the program exactly entails, can u give us a heads up to some basics about it?

[Agent Acne]

If you look in the Paleo Diet thread Mark's daily apple is mentioned there. A good blog indeed.

[drobEk]

Sure, I'll use the text Mark posted with the releasing of the program:

What is Primal Blueprint Fitness?

* Primal Blueprint Fitness (PBF) is a strategy that will help you build or maintain lean muscle mass, reduce your body fat, increase your energy, improve your strength, agility and power-to-weight ratio, reduce your risk of getting injured, improve insulin sensitivity, boost immune function and increase organ reserve.
* Primal Blueprint Fitness is a 92-page eBook with a weekly workout schedule, logbook for tracking results and detailed instructions on how to develop functional, diverse athletic ability and lean, proportioned physique.
* Primal Blueprint Fitness is borne out of The Primal Blueprint, the concepts illustrated in the Primal Blueprint Fitness Pyramid and the movement patterns of our ancient forebears.
* Primal Blueprint Fitness is all about identifying hacks and shortcuts that produce maximum results with minimal time-commitment, pain, suffering and sacrifice.
* Primal Blueprint Fitness is infinitely scalable. No matter your fitness level, age or experience, PBF is for all skill levels.
* Primal Blueprint fitness is a sustainable. It’s not a 30 or 90-day crash course. Instead, Primal Blueprint Fitness is for life.
* Primal Blueprint Fitness is a central part of the Mark’s Daily Apple community, with reader-submitted Workouts of the Week (WOWs) and user feedback playing an integral role in the program.

for further info and feedback about the Primal Blueprint Fitness visit:

http://www.marksdail...eprint-fitness/

hope this helps!

And, I meam, the subscription is not a big deal, you can cancel it once you have the e-book and you don't like the e-mails that you're getting(which I do!). I just don't want to post a straight download link to the e-book, Mark might not like it

Your friend,
Rob

Edited by drobEk, 12 August 2010 - 12:21 AM.

[alternativista]

Everyone here should subscribe. The blog is a great source of recipes, work habits, physical activity, sleep and all kinds of healthy lifestyle ideas. I've used many recipes and posted them in the many recipe threads and as a general resource in the Food and Recipe Index.

You don't have to agree with everything or find everything feasible. I don't. And you can always unsubscribe if you don't like it.

Also, physical activity is the best thing you can do for your blood sugar and many other health factors which affect acne. This does not mean prolonged intense workouts like running 5 miles or more or hour long workouts which are actually bad for you causing oxidative stress and inflammation. And mostly wasted effort.

You also need to be active, as in not sedentary, everyday. Working out 3 days a week is not enough. Especially if you, like most, spend the rest of your days avoiding walking anywhere, climbing any stairs or avoiding any physical labor.

Edited by alternativista, 10 January 2011 - 09:15 PM.

[drobEk]

bump

[alternativista]

Another method to borrow from for those that want to stick with 'conventional' workouts is Body for Life. In this you work out 6 days a week, but workouts are fairly brief. On alternate days, you weight train or do cardio, but always starting out very easy and finishing with brief intense physical exertion. With weights you do fewer reps in the first set. This is your warmup. Do 3-4 sets in which the last set should require intense effort to fatigue the muscle. One day you do 3 exercises for the upper body. The next time you do lower body. And I don't remember about the 3rd day. With the cardio, you start out slow and finish with a sprint or some equivalent.

Also, Mark's Daily Apple exercise recommendations have many variations all with the idea that you do the best you can to mimic the kind of activity most animals and early humans engage in. This means roaming about foraging for food, traveling from place to place and doing chores much of the day, everyday. With occasional brief extreme exertion as in escaping danger or charging after prey. He offers a workout pyramid involving a rare sprint or some equivalent like just once per week. Low intensity activity every day as in walking, chores, etc., (which is what I believe and do) and do some moderate resistance training 3 days a week.

Edited by alternativista, 11 January 2011 - 11:05 AM.

[alternativista]

Bits of info scattered throughout my Good Things tread, which I recently began compiling into a section on exercise at http://www.acne.org/...p...t&p=2661867:

-Regular low to moderate physical activity, like the type Mark recommends, is anti-inflammatory. Links to studies in the inflammation section of the Good Things thread:
http://www.acne.org/...p...t&p=2574309
Exercise section of Good Things, but it's mostly a summary of info from MDA and a link to here:
http://www.acne.org/...p...t&p=2661867

-Short bursts of very intensive activity is good for blood sugar: interval training such as sprinting, stairs, or hills. Or weight/resistance training. Any short bursts of intense exercise will help blood sugar, so take the stairs!!

-Short bursts of very intensive activity also stimulates the release of HGH. Anti-Aging.

-Cells in muscles pull glucose out of the blood stream. Good for stable blood sugar.

-Regular, daily, low to moderate physical activity helps with fat metabolism.


And of course, exercise is good for stress and adrenal health (the low to moderate activity combined with brief exertion only. Chronic cardio or hours long weightlifting elevates cortisol) the lymph system and circulation therefore the immune system, sleep, etc.

Here are some links to some good Mark's Daily Apple articles:

This one is anti-chronic cardio in which he illustrates how these long boring workouts most people do a few times a week are, as I've always felt, mostly wasted time and effort.
http://www.marksdail...ronic-cardio-2/ (just like crunches and sit ups are mostly wasted effort, especially for women who should do leg lifts instead).

Case against cardio:
http://www.marksdail...against-cardio/ in which the below recap appears:

The benefits of low level aerobic work (walking, hiking, cycling, swimming):
- increases capillary network (blood vessels that supply the muscle cells with fuel and oxygen)
- increases muscle mitochondria
- increases production of fat-burning and fat-transporting enzymes
- more fun, because you can talk with a partner while doing it

The benefits of interval training (sprinting in short intense bursts)
- increases muscle fiber strength
- increases aerobic capacity (work ability)
- increases muscle mitochondria (the main energy production center in muscle)
- increases insulin sensitivity
- increases natural growth hormone production

The costs of chronic (repetitious) mid- and high-level aerobic work
- requires large amounts of dietary carbohydrates (SUGAR)
- decreases efficient fat metabolism
- increases stress hormone cortisol
- increases systemic inflammation
- increases oxidative damage (free radical production)
- boring!

Also, Sisson illustrates how our systems are designed to fuel lots of low to moderate intensity activity and intense activity in short bursts. Not prolonged extreme exertion. Perhaps this is why such exercise burns more muscle than fat, (which is why I think it's mostly wasted time and effort).

I hope all you who insist on working out so much you eat enough food for 5 people take note. This also applies to hour long weight lifting sessions, even though this article is about chronic cardio.

Edited by alternativista, 24 May 2011 - 05:33 PM.

[Ariventa]

I definitely agree with the interval training. Long sessions of steady state cardio has always made me feel terrible afterwards, very drained. Interval cardio (HIIT) makes me feel great for the rest of the day and much of the next day.

[alternativista]

I definitely agree with the interval training. Long sessions of steady state cardio has always made me feel terrible afterwards, very drained. Interval cardio (HIIT) makes me feel great for the rest of the day and much of the next day.

Yeah, sprinting is fun and exhilarating. Jogging is boring and gives me a headache.

Also, I have this stair climbing thing which I try to get on several times a day when I'm working from home, simulating climbing several flights of stairs throughout the day. And when I'm starting out slow I often feel fatigued and sluggish and start thinking maybe I'll just climb 100 steps rather than 200 this time, but then once I start to 'sprint' for about 60 steps/30 seconds, I find I easily do the 200 or more before I know it.

Edited by alternativista, 12 October 2010 - 04:45 PM.

[alternativista]

Bumping a better exercise thread since so far, there isn't any bad advice in this thread.

[Ariventa]

Here is a good video to support HIIT (with a focus on athletes, but applicable to everyone)

[alternativista]

Link directly to MDA's archived Workouts of the Week aka WOWs. New ones added frequently.

http://www.marksdail...e-week-archive/

Note that some of them are posted by blog participants and may be too advanced for some. Others, nearly anyone should be able to do.

Great example: Do a 50 yard/meter sprint, crawl half way back (good for shoulders and more) then stand up and do walking lunges the rest of the way, repeat the sequence.

Also, if you download the primal fitness e-book, he has variations for any ability level of each of key exercises: pull ups, push ups, etc that everyone should be able to do. Not that they need to be part of your regular workout because of the boredom (not to mention the isolation of muscles), just things you should be able to do. Do them once a month or so as a test of your progress.

Edited by alternativista, 11 January 2011 - 11:09 AM.

[Ozay]

Since drobEk and Alternativista introduced me to MDA I've become a HUGE fan of Mark's work. I've since bought his book to get a more thorough understanding (even tho u can pretty much get the basic info for free on his site) and have been following the Primal diet and exercise ever since. All I can say is...WOW!!

My background prior to switching over: Fitness/diet enthusiast for 8+ years, alternative/holistic advocate, nature/animal lover.

I always seek the best when it comes to health, and I thought I had a very solid understanding until I went Primal. Now my workouts are MUCH less, yet I've gained more core strength and look like an MMA athlete with half the effort from before. Diet is top notch ever since I dumped grains and now totally pig out on sweet potatoes without shame Now I actually have FUN when I exercise, whether they be a 30 minute weight HIIT or a 20 minute cardio HIIT. I'm back baby now better than EVER!!! Super thanks for making me a Grok, ROCK ON!

Edited by Ozay, 08 October 2010 - 10:23 PM.

[Jërëmÿnör]

If you look in the Paleo Diet thread Mark's daily apple is mentioned there. A good blog indeed.

Miscer?

[Ozay]

Just wanted to add info about 'Fiber Menace.' I'm surprised that no one on this board had ever brought it up, considering how closely related it is to many of the highly favored diets here. If you go to the website you can read pretty much all the necessary info for free

[alternativista]

Link to Wikipedia entry on High Intensity Interval training HIIT, including links to studies demonstrating how much more effective this method is:

http://en.wikipedia....terval_training

Edited by alternativista, 10 January 2011 - 09:22 PM.

[mds-pi]

The best type of exercise is that which you can enjoy. Find a sport you love, practice it regularly. I don't think you should be restricted to certain types of exercise.

[alternativista]

The best type of exercise is that which you can enjoy. Find a sport you love, practice it regularly. I don't think you should be restricted to certain types of exercise.

That is true. But it is not contradictory to the topic of discussion here. MDA specifically says that. His weekly high intensity activity are things he enjoys such as ultimate frisbee, an activity that involves a lot of moderate physical activity with many moments of extreme exertions. Many sports would qualify as would all kinds of hobbies, chores and daily activities. 'Workouts' are not even required if your activities mimic the kind of physical exertion we, and all other mammal, are meant to make.

Mark Sisson's book and blog provides all kinds of workouts because so many people seem to need that. They want to be told what to do. Which is why I named some other workout programs that people may want to look at, provided they stick to the basic principles.

The primal fitness ebook also names some abilities that people should be capable of doing such as pullups, and variations for different abilities to help you work towards being capable of doing pullups. Not because they should be your regular workout, but because you should be capable of doing them.

Edited by alternativista, 12 October 2010 - 11:34 AM.

[alternativista]

I thought I'd post this, since in other threads, people are always concerned about what to eat post and pre workout and are struggling about eating carbs when they for whatever reason don't want to:

The costs of chronic (repetitious) mid- and high-level aerobic work
- requires large amounts of dietary carbohydrates (SUGAR)
- decreases efficient fat metabolism
- increases stress hormone cortisol
- increases systemic inflammation
- increases oxidative damage (free radical production)
- boring!

See, if you don't insist on these unnatural long, prolonged intense workouts during which your body uses the carbs you've recently eaten for fuel, and when that's gone burns muscle, you won't have that problem.

And here's another excerpt, for quicker reference or for those that won't click on the previously provided links:

Humans, like all mammals, evolved two primary energy systems that powered the skeletal muscles of our hunter-gatherer ancestors 40,000 years ago and that would keep us all well-powered the same way today, if we weren’t so bent on circumventing them with our ill-fated (literally) lifestyle choices.

The first energy system relied heavily on the slow burning of fats, keeping us fueled while we were at rest or sleeping, yet also allowing for continuous or intermittent low levels of aerobic activity (think of our ancestors walking across the savannah for hours foraging for roots, shoots, berries, grubs, insects and the occasional small animal). It makes sense. Fats are very efficient fuels that are stored easily in the fat cells and burn easily and cleanly when lots of oxygen is present (as when we are breathing normally). Even if there’s no food in the immediate area, a well-trained fat-burning hunter-gatherer could continue walking and foraging for days without compromising his or her health or efficiency.

The second major energy system we developed through evolution was an ATP-fueled system that allowed for intense loads of work to be done in very brief bursts (think of our hunter-gatherer ancestors sprinting to the safety of a tree to avoid being eaten by a lion). ATP is always sitting right there within the muscle cells, available in a split second, and it is the highest octane fuel we have. In fact, it’s ATP and adrenaline that allow the little old lady to lift the front end of the Ford Fairlane off her husband when the jack fails. Unfortunately, the muscles can only store about 20 seconds worth of this precious fuel to complete life-or-death tasks. If our ancestors survived that quick sprint to safety, their ATP reserves were filled again within minutes using the other energy systems.

Furthermore, that brief burst of intense energy sparked a small “growth spurt� in the muscle, making it even stronger for the next encounter with the next lion – a true survival adaptation.

(Note: While our energy systems are actually quite complex, varied and interrelated, I have simplified things here to make it easier to “digest�.)

Bottom line: Fats and ATP were the two primary energy sources for locomotion: we either moved slowly and steadily or “fight or flight� fast, and we became stronger and healthier the more we used only those energy systems.

Edited by alternativista, 12 October 2010 - 10:59 AM.