In the last post, we discussed the general attributes of exercise. In short:
1. It should be hard
2. It should be consistent
3. It should be varied
Now you might be asking "So, Jacob, how do I translate this into actual exercise?" I'm glad you asked. Here are my 4 principles for Devolving your exercise:
1. Make Time Every Day- Cavemen did not get days off. It is that simple. It's not like your stone age ancestor could say "I don't think I'll try and get food today. I'd rather just lounge on the beach and read my granite tablet." Getting food was an all-day, daily activity. There were no rest days. Now, this is the modern world, and we do have the luxury of being able to rest occasionally, so I am not saying that you can NEVER take a rest day, but they should be the exception, not the rule.
2. Push Yourself- Just like with the vacation days, Thag, your stone age ancestor, was not really able to say "I don't feel like running after that rabbit. I'll just walk instead. I'm sure it will wait." Survival was often hard, and required their full capacity. If you want to be fit like them, you'll use yours as well.
3. Do Things a caveman Would Have Done- Cavemen did not have stability, but they certainly had variety. They never knew what they might have to do in the struggle to survive. They might have to run, jump, climb, crawl, or swim. Unlike us, they did not perform the exact same routine day in and day out. This is why they were not overtrained, even though they "exercised" all day, nearly every day. If you want your body to be able to take anything, then you will do a wide and varied spectrum of exercise.
4. Be Patient, Don't Give Up!- We in the modern world like a nice linear progression. We expect to invest a little every day, and see a return in nice regular intervals. At work, we get paid by the hour, and get regular deposits to our bank account every two weeks. The natural world does not function like our social structure. You may work hard for months, and see no gains, then all of a sudden make vast improvements in a week. That is just the way of a natural system. The bottom line is be patient. You didn't become fat and sedentary in a day, and you will not retain fitness in a day. If you aren't making visible progress, just trust the process You will see results eventually, if you stick with it.
Overall, pretty common sense, yet most of us tend not to follow these principles when it comes to our exercise, and fitness suffers for it.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Caveman Exercise 102
In the last post, I talked a lot about what exercise isn't. Now it's time to address what it is. As I said last time, most people have differing ideas when it comes to exercise, but almost all can agree that by and large, we don't do enough of it. Given our country's obesity epidemic and the fact that the average American watches four hours of TV a day, that conclusion is obvious.
In order to understand what exercise should be, we should spend some time thinking about what exercise does. Simply put, the human body requires physical activity, the way a car requires gasoline. Unlike your car, however, the more you use your body, the stronger it becomes. When we take people and force them to sit or lay in bed without exercise, many bad changes occur. They lose energy and get depression. They get blood clots, pneumonia, and other bad diseases. Even their cholesterol levels change, whether or not their diet changes.
From this we can see that the first purpose of exercise is to maintain, strengthen, and refresh the body. Exercise also helps to strengthen and maintain the cardiovascular system, improving fitness and treating such diseases as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Finally, exercise helps stabilize mood and promote mental well being. Exercise is a far more powerful antidepressant than any pill made today.
To reap these benefits, there are certain things that exercise must be:
1. It must be hard- It is not a coincidence that the word "exercise" and the word "exert" have the same root. In order for exercise to mean something, it must be difficult. That being said, what is difficult for me might not be for a pro football player. No matter what level you are at, exercise must challenge your limits. If a certain routine gets to the point where it is easy, then it is time to step the level up.
2. It must be consistent- Cavemen did not get days off, or rest days. They had to fight for survival and look for food every day. If you want exercise to give you maximal benefits, then you need to do it nearly every day. I'm not saying that you can never take a day off, but that should be the exception, not the rule
3. It should be varied- We say that variety is the spice of life. For cavemen, it WAS life. They never knew what they would have to do in their search for food and struggle to survive. Running, jumping, climbing, crawling, carrying, pushing, pulling. Nothing was impossible. This is why they never got "overtrained." Overtraining is really just doing the exact same routine too many times, until the repetition injures the body. To avoid this, you need to vary your routine, so that the body can't adapt.
In the end, just remember the guiding principle when it comes to exercise: some is good. More is better. You can never really get too much.
More about exercise in the next post.
In order to understand what exercise should be, we should spend some time thinking about what exercise does. Simply put, the human body requires physical activity, the way a car requires gasoline. Unlike your car, however, the more you use your body, the stronger it becomes. When we take people and force them to sit or lay in bed without exercise, many bad changes occur. They lose energy and get depression. They get blood clots, pneumonia, and other bad diseases. Even their cholesterol levels change, whether or not their diet changes.
From this we can see that the first purpose of exercise is to maintain, strengthen, and refresh the body. Exercise also helps to strengthen and maintain the cardiovascular system, improving fitness and treating such diseases as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Finally, exercise helps stabilize mood and promote mental well being. Exercise is a far more powerful antidepressant than any pill made today.
To reap these benefits, there are certain things that exercise must be:
1. It must be hard- It is not a coincidence that the word "exercise" and the word "exert" have the same root. In order for exercise to mean something, it must be difficult. That being said, what is difficult for me might not be for a pro football player. No matter what level you are at, exercise must challenge your limits. If a certain routine gets to the point where it is easy, then it is time to step the level up.
2. It must be consistent- Cavemen did not get days off, or rest days. They had to fight for survival and look for food every day. If you want exercise to give you maximal benefits, then you need to do it nearly every day. I'm not saying that you can never take a day off, but that should be the exception, not the rule
3. It should be varied- We say that variety is the spice of life. For cavemen, it WAS life. They never knew what they would have to do in their search for food and struggle to survive. Running, jumping, climbing, crawling, carrying, pushing, pulling. Nothing was impossible. This is why they never got "overtrained." Overtraining is really just doing the exact same routine too many times, until the repetition injures the body. To avoid this, you need to vary your routine, so that the body can't adapt.
In the end, just remember the guiding principle when it comes to exercise: some is good. More is better. You can never really get too much.
More about exercise in the next post.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Caveman Exercise 101
When I say exercise what do you think of?
Almost everyone I talk with has a different answer to this. They range from the ludicrous (100 steps on the treadmill = cardio workout) to more than adequate (100+ miles running per week). Most people probably have the picture in their minds of people on machines at a health club. All of these (except the first one, that's just crazy) can qualify as exercise. So, when we say "exercise," what should we mean?
I like to think about it in terms of the desired outcome. In the end, what are we trying to get out of exercising? The answer is fitness. The purpose of exercise is to keep the body fit and healthy, and able to perform whatever actions we require of it. Aside from that, exercise has many beneficial side effects: it is a potent antidepressant and mood stabilizer, it treats many diseases, such as high blood pressure, type II diabetes, heart disease, chronic pain, and high cholesterol (even if you don't change your diet too much). That being said, for exercise to do this, it needs to be done right.
Cavemen did not exercise per se. Their exercise was a part of daily life. They had to run down food, forage for food, and evade predators. To do this, they had to run, jump, climb, crawl, and possibly swim. Since probably 80-90% of their waking hours were spent in the search for food, They didn't really have to worry about exercising in addition to daily activities. Their daily activities WERE what kept them fit and healthy.
Fast forward to today. In the information age, most of us have desk jobs. That means that we wake up, get into our cars, drive to work, walk into the office, sit at a desk for eight hours, walk back to the car, drive home, and walk into the house. That's about it for walking. Depending how close to your job and house you park, that could be as few as 500 steps or so. Given our modern lifestyle, there is no doubt that we need additional activity in order to maintain the health of our bodies.
The government and health organizations try to address this by putting a time on it. They say things like "exercise for 30 minutes daily." In order not to scare people off, however, they lower the bar so much on what activities they recommend that that thirty minutes is mostly wasted time. Walking at a moderate pace, which the federal government considers adequate, barely qualifies as activity, let alone exercise. It can be a good starter when you are sedentary (that is how I started when I was 350 lbs), but unless you increase the intensity, you are doing yourself little good as far as the benefits of exercise are concerned.
More on what exercise should be like in Caveman Nutrition 102
Almost everyone I talk with has a different answer to this. They range from the ludicrous (100 steps on the treadmill = cardio workout) to more than adequate (100+ miles running per week). Most people probably have the picture in their minds of people on machines at a health club. All of these (except the first one, that's just crazy) can qualify as exercise. So, when we say "exercise," what should we mean?
I like to think about it in terms of the desired outcome. In the end, what are we trying to get out of exercising? The answer is fitness. The purpose of exercise is to keep the body fit and healthy, and able to perform whatever actions we require of it. Aside from that, exercise has many beneficial side effects: it is a potent antidepressant and mood stabilizer, it treats many diseases, such as high blood pressure, type II diabetes, heart disease, chronic pain, and high cholesterol (even if you don't change your diet too much). That being said, for exercise to do this, it needs to be done right.
Cavemen did not exercise per se. Their exercise was a part of daily life. They had to run down food, forage for food, and evade predators. To do this, they had to run, jump, climb, crawl, and possibly swim. Since probably 80-90% of their waking hours were spent in the search for food, They didn't really have to worry about exercising in addition to daily activities. Their daily activities WERE what kept them fit and healthy.
Fast forward to today. In the information age, most of us have desk jobs. That means that we wake up, get into our cars, drive to work, walk into the office, sit at a desk for eight hours, walk back to the car, drive home, and walk into the house. That's about it for walking. Depending how close to your job and house you park, that could be as few as 500 steps or so. Given our modern lifestyle, there is no doubt that we need additional activity in order to maintain the health of our bodies.
The government and health organizations try to address this by putting a time on it. They say things like "exercise for 30 minutes daily." In order not to scare people off, however, they lower the bar so much on what activities they recommend that that thirty minutes is mostly wasted time. Walking at a moderate pace, which the federal government considers adequate, barely qualifies as activity, let alone exercise. It can be a good starter when you are sedentary (that is how I started when I was 350 lbs), but unless you increase the intensity, you are doing yourself little good as far as the benefits of exercise are concerned.
More on what exercise should be like in Caveman Nutrition 102
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