Fitness, economics of the hunter-gatherers

So lately I've had a little more free time, enough even to get some free reading that isn't a good biochemistry journal paper on something related to beta-cell death (as per the direction of the Nutrition lab I'm working in). So, I caught wind of GoogleLabs--a digitized library of around 5 million books. Cool tool to map trends in writing and interest over the past couple hundred years, and then direct links to digitized books. I lingered for a little while, and something about a true book on hunter-gather epidemiology is in no way familiar to me. I've been following blindly(or close to it) a paleo diet for about 10 months now, and really am enjoying some cutting edge research supporting it as the closest replication of something typically in tune with ancestral diets, but I'd like to really cultivate a passion for sharing the benefits of the lifestyle choice. Perhaps giving me a more detailed relation between this diet and that of our distant ancestors to throw in with an elevator-pitch/pseudopersuasion given to friends? Anyways, found a little piece on hunter-gatherer fitness and genetics:



an interesting read with some pretty decent theory on government modeling, group-thought and the ends of the hunter-gatherer.



Yesterday's workout:
warmup: active stretches, squats, foam rollers, pushups
Bench Press 5x5, 1x2(225#)
overhead squat: 3x5, 2x3(ending at 190#)
weighted dips: 5x5(45, 55,65#)
cable flyes 5x10(for the old isolation itch)

Today's workout:

Push press 3x3x3x3x3x3(ending at 200#)
Split Jerk 1x1x1x1(ending at 225#)

3 RFT of:
10 cleans (from the deck, 135#)
20 KB swings(50#)
10 burpees

military press 4x5


First hard workout in about a week due to a slight cold. Hit a PR on the split jerk. Booyah

O-lifts, baby, o-lifts.

Been awhile since I've updated this, so I figured I'd start back with my past 2 workout's logs. I've gradually transitioned to an O-lift(olympic lift)- based scheme.

Wednesday

warmup: lunges, glute bridges, active stretching(lunges, side-squats, hamstring stretches) and some foam-roller exercises

Strength:
Push Press 3x3x3x3x3x3x3(increasing weight, ending at 215#)
Squat Cleans(from the deck) 3x3x3x3x3(all at 185#)

Metcon:
3 rounds for time of:
15 burpees
25 KB swings(50# kb)
500M row on a concept-II rower

This Morning
warmup: same as Wednesday's, with some pushups thrown in

Workout:
Bench Press 4x5(185#), 2x2-3(205#)
"Circuit" of:
Over-head squats 7,6,5,5,3(startings at 135#, ending at 185#)
Weighted dips 7,6,5,5,5(starting at 45#, ending at 75#)
Dumbell Bench Press 3x5(75# dbs)
Incline Bench Press 2x8(135 #)

Ended with a couple sets of clapping pushups.




Good week of workouts. After losing(WTF?) weight over Thanksgiving break after 3 pretty clean paleo, hypercaloric thanksgiving meals. Body weight is currently at 177lbs, so hitting 185lbs on the O-squat for 3 reps was an accomplishment.

Recently, PWO nutrition has been a can of Sardines, packed in water supplying 19g of protein and about 9g of fat(including lots of omega-3s). And then a follow up meal 1.5-2 hours later including something starchy (squash or sweet potatoes), some blueberries, and omega-3 eggs and bacon. I'll try to keep posting more regularly....

Yesterday, omega-3 compensation

After an 8 AM back workout(circuit, compound) I came home and cooked this up:

Flax meal crusted chicken tenders
Ground flaxseed meal
black pepper
coconut oil(for frying)

Served with yellow squash casserole:



The flax meal supplies a good bit of omega-3s to make up for the lack-there-of in the "all natural" chicken. Then, a healthy portion of fats from coconut oil.


After that, a friend and I decided to hike Abrams Falls. A 5 mile hike, with a waterfall you can jump off of(we did). On the way back we stopped at The Market in Maryville, TN. I can't emphasize enough how much I appreciate this farm. I buy all of my grass fed beef through this farm, and the quality is excellent. What's more they come down the street to me twice a week to sell at a farmer's market. At this stop at The Market on the way back from hiking, we decided to grab something to eat and they have a cafe. We both got "Scotty Dogs"(mine without a bun) which includes: 1/4 lb grassfed bison hot dog, coleslaw, chili, cheese, onions, and mustard. All for $4.50, which makes this unbeatable.


Today:
Another 8 AM workout, chest(all supersets) followed by a brisk 2 mile run in my Runamocs. It was way too hot to run this morning. Anyways, in the works for lunch today is a possible Meatza. Grassfed ground beef, flax meal, then probably going to top it with tomatoes, zucchini, onions, yellow squash, and whatever else looks good. We'll see. I'll call it an "Omega-threetza"

Lunch
6 oz wild-caught salmon, cooked in butter
1 medium sweet potato mashed
1/2 cup full-fat cottage cheese

In the works:

Another crustless zucchini casserole, this time with a vidalia onion not shallot.


Runamocs
Got them in the mail yesterday. Lifted in them yesterday and this morning, and as goofy as I feel and look, I love them. Lightweight, and still provide excellent barefoot feel and flexibility even though I opted for the 5mm "trail" sole. Next week I'll test them on a trail run.

Carbs or fasting PWO.

For the past 6-7 months, I've been sticking to a mainly fasted post-workout scheme. As in, waiting at least an hour after a workout to eat anything. I stuck to this because of an interesting post over at Fitness Blackbook. I shifted from the mainstay of whey protein and about 30g sugar/fast digesting carbs immediately after a workout. I fell victim to the bodybuilding theory of this necessity. Which, now, seems stupid if you look at it physiologically.

After more research on what Rusty Moore over at FitnessBlackbook had to say about increased HGH production after exercise in a fasted state, I decided that muscle growth and recovery wasn't exactly compromised by not downing that post-workout shake with carbs and protein. And, energy during workout wasn't compromised. After these past 6-7 months, I'd have to say that fasted workouts are much more intense, recovery is the same, and growth and strength gain ultimately continued to rise. PR's were broken, especially in the back exercise and short term high intensity sprints department. It's simple, if you look at it holistically; insulin and growth hormone are antagonistic--a very Caveman way to look at nutrition. Why boost insulin to ultimately compromise fat-loss in lieu of higher production of glycogen.Cavemen hunted primarily on an empty stomach, due to necessity and expended resources because of limited preservation of food. Growth hormone increase due to fasts actually spares muscle wasting, i.e. catabolism.




At an evolutionary standpoint, and sticking to what distant ancestors were required to do, this method of post-workout nutrition really has given me the best results of any other method of exercise-related nutrition.

Yesterday's workout, today's food,

Shoulder/Compound Day:
4 sets each of supersets, 30 seconds between superset:
-6 Thrusters (135 lbs.)/ 20 kettlebell swings (50lbs.)
-6 single arm Kettlebell clean jerks(50 lbs., both arms)/ 8 sumo highpulls(115 lbs.)
-10 side shrugs, shrug bar (205 lbs.)/ 8 behind the back smith machine shrugs (225 lbs.)
-12 Lateral flyes (20 lbs.)/ 10 bent over rear delt flyes (20lbs.)/ 6 standing over head barbell press(135 lbs/115 lbs.)


Most are compound and involve a lot of core stability, explosiveness. With a few isolation flyes at the end to get a little pump.


Brunch:
Mixed greens with homemade Balsamic vinegairette( 3:1, olive oil: balsamic vinegar. Minced Shallots in it as well)


Crustless Zucchini Casserole:

3 Zucchinis
2/3 lbs Grassfed Ground Beef
1 Shallot
8-10 oz mozarella cheese
4 eggs(660mg omega-3s per egg)

Zucchini and shallots were chopped and sauteed in butter, ground beef browned, added to the eggs and cheese and poured in casserole dish. Baked in oven for 25 minutes at 350. I got this recipe from my parents, who grow zucchini and yellow squash during the summer time. I just altered it from the traditional lining of the casserole dish with crescent roll dough, to just going without it.
Delicious.

Break-fast

A pretty heavy breakfast, coming off a small 14 hour fast:
2 Pastured Eggs(supposedly 660mg omega-3's per egg)
2 Small local grass-fed ground beef patties-seasoned with shallot, black pepper, and garlic powder
1 Slice deli low-sodium Muenster
1 Medium sweet potato, french-fried(but oven roasted)
1/2 cup Sauerkraut, on the side


All were cooked in/with coconut oil except the sauerkraut.


Another reason sweet potatoes are my favorite food.

Paleolympic Lifts, Run-a-mocs

Recently, much of my focus is on functional exercise. Stability, natural movement, stress relief, and a guilty obsession with some less-functional upper body lifts. I'm loving olympic style lifts, i.e. cleans, clean jerks, deck snatches, overhead squats and presses. I thought this morning when I was doing some power cleans(taken from the deck, full stand at end) about the ridiculousness of some exercises I use, and how they might fit into my whole Paleo-scheme. So I associated some exercises I do with functional movement that could be seen as an ancestral essential. Some of these are a stretch, but it's useful to examine practicality every once in awhile

-Clean and jerks: hoisting a hunted animal up over head to a ledge, hoisting rocks up to a ledge to build something
-Cleans: Lifting and holding an animal onto a roasting spit
-Barbell Row: General lifting, building, setting traps, improved strength for climbing(maybe my ancestors were mountainous?)
-Pullups: climbing, jumping in trees quickly to avoid predators
-Planks/Plank Rows: General help for heavy lifting, balance, stability, hip mobility, spine protection.


Runamocs
Ordered yesterday, got the 5mm trail sole. Booyah


Rainy days and Reading
Currently reading the protein debate outside on the porch, watching the rain. Good read, the next read is the full China Study being torn apart. And in between all this, I'm still finishing The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Ruminants, Evolution, Gut Flora

I'm currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Early on he talks about ruminants, specifically cows, and their abilities to digest grass and in turn build lean muscle out of it. This is due to the four-compartment stomach that most ruminants contain. A good comparison of human stomach and a ruminant's is here. This comparison got me thinking of the evolutionary paths humans have taken versus ruminants, and how completely botched they are today.

This article about posture evolution outlines the stomachs of humans as well as other informative tidbits about alignment and whatnot. Click on "The Gut," it speaks of how the human digestive system is much shorter than that of our primate ancestors, which, according to Richard Wrangham, is due to the process of cooking. Because cooking breaks down the food we eat, we have evolved to have a smaller intestinal system, which in turn means less bacteria, gut flora, etc. By "less" I, in no way, mean a small amount. Robb Wolf does a good job describing the relevance of gut flora, and it's importance in largely Paleo diet--especially those heavy in vegetables, plant fibers, and other non-digestibles that rely on the gut flora to be broken down and utilized.

My question is: where will evolution take us in the next 10,000 years? Will the intestinal system become more compact, with less gut flora? With processed foods(read the top processed foods responsible for high-sodium intake) taking over our diet, will we need this gut flora any more? Will we even eat plants with polysaccharides that need to be digested?



Don't be afraid of your flora. Mucous membranes are a scary place, but infection is the only scary thing about our natural microbial system. Get to know your flora, become associated with fermented foods.

most FF contain lacto-bacillus (Acidophilus) and promote good intestinal bacteria populations + very high in enzymes + reported to be pre-digested (by bacteria), hence easier for your digestion

That's all for now. I'm thinking the next post will be more in depth on gut flora, and/or BCAA's and a fasted protocol.

Back at it

After a brief hiatus, after an even briefer period of posting on this blog, I've decided to come back and trying to frequently update. Inspiration thanks to Free the Animal. Lot of interesting stuff right now in the Paleo, barefoot, and vegan communities.

There's been a lot of controversy over The China Study as of late. Much to the dismay of the vegetarian and vegan community, many studies have discredited the Campbell's findings. Exclusion of outlying data....to strengthen a hypothesis....who would do such a thing? Ancel Keys ring a bell? (Thanks for making dietary fat so taboo). Anyways, a small county inside China who threw a wrench in the gears of Campbell's "comprehensive" study.

A man of particular mention in fat-fact-finding would be Uffe Ravnskov, check him out as well as interesting research over at Hyperlipid


On the barefoot front, one I'm extremely interested in right now, some exciting new shoes have been released. Meet the SoftStar Runamoc, a minimalist running moccasin made by a company whose prime retail is baby footwear.
After reluctance to believe their worth--currently $87 USD + shipping, I decided to do research on the quality. Donald over at Running and Rambling did a comprehensive testing process for SoftStar, being able to beat to shit every prototype of their new running moccasin that they could throw his way, critiquing all along the way leading up to his ultimate belief that they have created a winner. I'll be ordering a pair soon, unless SoftStar wants a loyal campus representative at the University of Tennessee.

Workout 5/31/10

Happy Memorial Day. Gym was closed, so I figured this would be as good excuse as any to do some sprint work, calisthenics, and core.

The workout:

• 3 Mile run, brisk, barefoot
• 10 minutes of interval sprints, with box jumps throughout.
• P90x Ab Ripper X workout(15 minutes)

For being disappointed that the gym was closed upon arrival, this was an incredible improv. workout.

Now some coffee, and a meal in about an hour or so.

Meal 1:

3 Slices Bacon

4 Cage-free Eggs, fried over medium

1 Avocado

1 Grapefruit

Inspiration, 2:27 :

Workout and Meals 5/27/10

Fitness:

45 minute Back workout, 8 AM:

4 Supersets, ascending weight, of

• 4 x 10,8,6,5 medium grip T-bar row/3 x 8 close grip lever row
• 4 x 8 close grip cable row/ 3 x 6 Machine lever lat pulldown
• 3 x 10,8,8 wide grip cable row/ 3 x 8 wide grip cable lat pulldown
• 4 x 6 underhand, wide T-bar row/ 4 x 5 explosive pullups (no kip)

Then, finished off with a 1.5 mile barefoot run. Pool was closed.

Playlist:

From Ashes Rise - Concrete and Steel, Silence

Three 6 Mafia - Most Known Unknown

Meal 1 (10:30 AM):

1 Scoop Whey protein, mixed in water

Juice of 1 lemon, mixed with water

Ground Beef Lettuce Wrap:

8 oz Grass-fed Ground Beef

1 Large Roasted Red Bell Pepper, in brine, chopped

3 cloves Garlic, minced

1 tsp. ground Black Pepper

1 tsp. low sodium, Cajun Seasoning

3 Large Lettuce Leaves

Meal 2 (2 PM):

2 Strips uncured Bacon

4 Free-range Eggs, fried in bacon grease

1 Avocado

1 Grapefruit

2 cups Coffee, black

Snack (9 PM):

1 can Tuna with 0.5 oz chimmichurri and Cholula Hot Sauce

1 Navel Orange

2 oz Parmesan Cheese, Argentinean.

Meal 3 (10:30 PM)

3 cups Baby Spinach

5 oz. leftover Grass-fed from the lettuce wraps

1 tbsp. "natural" (unfortunately, still has soybean oil as primary fat source) Ranch dressing

Bedtime (1 AM)

1 scoop O.N. whey protein, in water

2 Tbsp. Peanut Butter