PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #77- Be a Physical Culturist! Forget Crossfit, Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, and Olympic lifting!!

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #77- Be a Physical Culturist!

Asian Squat!

Back around 100 years ago and more, to be interested in health and strength and physique and just the ability to do physical things was called “physical culture”.  And so it remained for many, many years- and the bottom line was always, since the ancient Greeks, the cultivation of health in it’s most extreme form!  Since the late 1960’s, this ancient ideal has been… degraded and split to the point of extremes.  Today’s world has as it’s latest fad Crossfit.

The idea was to reverse the split of physical culture into powerlifting, bodybuilding, and Olympic lifting and go back to ultimate fitness; I.e. What sounds like… physical culture!

But it surely has NOT turned out that way!

For one, there is FAR too much emphasis on the use of weights- not machines, but still WEIGHTS in a huge way!  Crossfit has turned into a huge competition- lift more, lift heavier, lift faster- with no end ever in sight!  And have fun doing it!!

This way lies madness…  it is a sure prescription for injury, overtraining and illness, and, again, extreme injury!  It’s expensive, cult-like, and seems to be elitist as well.  I say- JUST DO IT YOURSELF!   Do Perfectly Paleo Exercise- bodyweight exercise, self-resisted, ON YOU OWN, and especially Virtually Resisted Exercises ala Bruce Lee, where the BODY ITSELF generates its own resistance, cat-like, within the muscle itself.  You compete against YOURSELF only, and enjoy the

movements, like a cat stretching on a ledge in a mantra of cat stretches and virtual cat strength movements… then, you rest and socialize with your cat-tribe, eat paleo types of foods for HUMANS that replicate the foods of our ancestors, like grass fed meats and lots of veggies, and then sleep a LOT- this way lies sanity and health and a very high level of fitness that lasts a LIFETIME, not just through the next competition and then you are injured and sick and drained, and your extreme level of fitness is… gone, and you give up, and become fat and sick…

Like the founder of Crossfit himself:

Charles Glassman- founder of Crossfit!!

I don’t mean to point fingers, but you can tell a LOT about someone who “walks the walk” and someone who obviously is all TALK.

And then, there is bodybuilding, the once noble provide of physical culture through the mid 1960’s, when heroic figures like Steve Reeves, and Frank Zane walked the earth:

Steve Reeves

Frank Zane

Actually, Frank Zane STILL walks the earth!

In his 70's!

Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting?  These have been co-opted into the Cross Fit universe, and perverted still more into “speed challenges”- really, both, but especially O-lifting are extreme ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN!

Olympic Lifting

Just the load on the spine of a heavy barbell makes me wince, knowing what that is doing to the discs in your spine, even without the trauma of the moving weights making it WORSE.

Powerlifting

Really, in words from one who has done all of this, in my younger years- at least the powerlifting, and the bodybuilding, don’t do it!  The O-lifting is almost NEVER done, anyway, by anyone over the age of 50- it seems EVERYONE has too much common sense for that, even former O-lifters!

Olympic lifting!

So, even though your local Crossfit Fad Box recommends you “take it up”… DON’T!

Don’t run long distances!  Don’t Lift Heavy Weights!  Don’t Bench Press, Back Squat, or Deadlift!  If you want to be lean, fit and healthy for the REST OF YOUR LIFE, it is simple, needs little or no equipment, and will not take hours per day, and you never need to leave home!!  REALLY!!

Bodybuilding!!

Again: do Perfectly Paleo Exercise, as described in my eBook of the same name.  Check out Transformetrics.com and do the virtual exercises as shown there- very self explanatory! You provide the resistance within your own muscles, just like an animal would!

Perfect Pushup devices!

Do pushups, straight-legged sit-ups, hindu or just plain air-squats in high reps, sprint for brief “wind sprints” of 50 yards or so in sets of maybe 5-8 for ONE time per week, add in some self-resisted exercise: limb against limb training with one arm resisting against the other for curls, presses, extensions for the shoulders…

Do Virtual resistance LEG CURLS and EXTENSIONS!  ASIAN SQUATS- JUST HOLD THEM!!

You don’t need other people, or coaches to do any of this- people have been doing them with great results for thousands of years!!  You can add in small improvements like kettle bells for the swing exercise which is vastly better for you than the deadlift- and the perfect pushup device, that ensures perfect form and also protects your hands, wrist and elbows from trauma during the pushup, but the bottom line is some simple knowledge and experience, along with your own body and the information you need to properly exercise and nourish it.

Nothing more!

The Asian Squat!

90% of the battle of health and physical culture is really DIET, and lifestyle!  Really.

Eat a Paleo type of diet, of which I speak of here, bi-weekly, and at paleojay.com constantly, and on the Paleoquicktipoftheday.blogspot.com every Wednesday.  That is most of the equation!

The Exercise part is not expensive, or at least it SHOULDN’T BE!

There are lots of Crossfit marketers, Bodybuilding marketers, and Powerlifting and  even Olympic lifting proselytizers out there- but, the truth is, you don’t really need or want any of it!

If you are just a normal real person who wants to be slim, fit, strong and healthy; and I mean REALLY  strong fit and healthy as in the upper 1% for your age group-

Bruce Lee DOING Virtual Resistance Exercise!!  ALL YOU NEED!!  Man or woman!

Perfectly Paleo Exercise is ALL YOU NEED!  Not only that, but you will be so much better off by getting away from all that negative, nonsense, cultish CRAP!!

Strong words, but I believe they need to be said!  This is a crazy age, where even regular medicine has gotten “off the rails”, and DRUGS seem to be everyone’s answer to everything.

Prescription drugs and surgery are the M.D.’S answer to everything…

Steroid and other drugs, along with endless overtraining are the Physical Trainer’s answer to everything…

My answer to everything?

Be a Physical Culturist.  Do it all yourself, at home.  Eat right, eat Paleo!  Sleep a lot, at least 8 hours per night.  Have a “tribe” you connect with- at home, at church, in your neighborhood.
Raise animals, vegetables, and pets!  Work physically, challenge yourself mentally, and play when you can with your tribe and pets!  Get lots of sun, and drink a Paleo Green Smoothie EVERY DAY!!!

PaleoJay with his homemade Kettlebell

That’s it, my friend!  That way lies happiness, extreme lifelong fitness, mental equilibrium, and total wellness.  Easy-Peasy!

J