Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #23 The Very BEST Ways to Exercise, Naturally!

Flies on the rings

If you’ve been following along with Paleo Quick Tip of the Day for the past 23 weeks, you are surely seeing and feeling big changes in both your body composition, (Less fat; more muscle!), and just feeling amazing!  It doesn’t take that long- usually 3 weeks is the point where folks start to really feel and see it making a difference!  Also, this is the point when your lifelong addiction to processed foods, wheat products and sugar is broken, and you no longer feel like you are in withdrawal...  because you really were an addict!  AND NOW YOU ARE NOT- HALLELUJAH!!

This first 23 weeks has been mainly about dialing in your nutrition and sleep- walking and some exercise, especially virtual and self-resisted exercise have been added into your early morning routine, right after you make your daily paleo green smoothie.  Also, you are probably progressing on your pushups and straight-legged situps...

But now it’s time to up it a notch- add in a weekly workout to really maximize your lean muscle, and build up a real, symmetrical physique that is not only attractive, but very, very functional and healthy!

I’m not big on exercise apparatus at all- I’ve tried most of it in my mis-spent youth, and I am quite anti-weight lifting!  It is just not necessary, and builds a physique that is really quite unappealing, but most importantly is fraught with injury, and I mean injury that is UNAVOIDABLE if you continue lifting heavy weights!!

So, what can you do to really build your body in an aesthetic, healthy, classically symmetrical and pleasing way?

Get some gymnastic rings!!

I have a set in my cellar; since my farmhouse is well over a century old, and constructed of giant blocks of stone, the cellar has ceilings over 10 feet tall with exposed joists above- so, simple to hang some rings!  If you don’t have a place to hang them, it is easy to hang them from a tree branch, or a swing set, or a jungle gym in a playground- there are lots of ways to make it work!  You could take them to the park on Sunday, do your rings workout, and take them home... no big deal! And you will feel GREAT!

Here is my Sunday Rings workout:

Pushups- pushups on the rings are MUCH more difficult than regular pushups, and MUCH more productive and beneficial than a bench press with weights- your scapula rotates completely as you go all the way down, and the handles rotate with your hands, taking all harmful stress off of your joints (elbow, wrist, shoulder) and maximizing the positive stress on your chest, shoulders, triceps, abs, and especially your tendons and ligaments, that are largely ignored in traditional weight lifting since all of the stress is linear; i.e. up-and-down- here, it is all around!

I do pushups, and then flies on the rings, and then pullovers by moving forward and lifting my torso with straight arms for reps, followed by triceps extensions by lifting my torso again with bent arms... you get the idea!

Blocky, bulky, short-lived weight lifter body

Experiment!

You can easily move from exercise to exercise- do rows, chins, dips, and my favorite- chins in an L-sit position, working your lats and abs to the maximum, all at once!


What’s that?  You can’t DO a chin up?  Not even one?

Well, my friend, man or woman- now you can!

You just set the rings low enough (they are easily adjustable), and assist with your legs just enough to complete your chin- or dip- or row...

Train like a CAT!

and, if you can’t do a full, down to the ground pushup on rings (most can’t, at least at week 23!), set the rings higher- as high as you need!  And do your reps!!

Perfect Pushup device- also very effective

There is something very satisfying and primal about rings training- It’s like barefoot sprinting on grass- it brings me back to my childhood, running around with my friends, little 8 year old Jay, out in the fresh air and sunshine, having a BLAST!

Rings are like that, too- basic movement, like playing on the monkey bars when you were a kid, climbing trees, pulling yourself up on branches- just plain experimenting with moving your body, like a cat!

Cats never give up on this movement training, why should you?

Get yourself a set of gymnastic rings.  Hang them up in the playground this Sunday.  After your fun, experimental workout, go for a few barefoot sprints across the park!

Isn’t it great being a kid again?

J

Check out this episode!

PJSC #70 Put Yourself Back in Contact with Mother Earth!

Thermography Images- left- INFLAMED.....Right- GROUNDED, little inflammation!!

PJSC #70
Put Yourself Back in Contact with Mother Earth!

Earthing, or grounding- connecting the body directly to the earth- is this a vital part of healthy living, or a strange scam?

I have been researching this idea, and testing it out on my own body, for quite some time.  I noticed when I began barefoot sprinting years ago that I really enjoyed it!  I would do my usual Sunday in-the-basement workout, with my chin ups, and dips, various sorts of self-resisted squats and leg raises and assorted ab exercises, various kinds of pushups, and several sets of kettlebell swings… then, as “dessert”, I would go outside and sprint for 50-100 yards or so, for maybe 5-10 sets of sprints.

It has gotten to where I really look forward to the feeling I get doing these- it’s like I’m little 8 year old Jay again, running with my friends and brothers around the yard, barefoot, just for the fun of it!  Remember how great it felt to tear around like this barefoot when you were a kid?  Well I’m here to tell you that it feels just as good at 60 as it did at 6- and the older you are the MORE you need it!

At first I chalked this feeling up to just the barefoot benefits:  my feet were strengthened by running and walking as they were meant to- not confined in little “coffins” of stiff shoes…and that is definitely a  big part of it!  The benefits of using your feet as Nature intended are legion- the long atrophy caused by constant wearing of shoes results, eventually, in not only foot pain, but it travels up the chain of the body, and causes knee, ankle, hip, and back pain as well!

You really do need to start going around barefoot, at least inside your house!  Socks are fine- they don’t “confine” and degrade your foot like shoes do.  But, is there even MORE benefit to actually being barefoot- outside- ON THE GROUND?

I believe that there is, and it has to do with the electrical charge of the earth, with which we are meant to be in contact with!

We are electrical beings; we need to be grounded! Like everything in the ancestral, or paleo lifestyle, the more we examine the many ways in which our civilization has gradually and relentlessly set us further and further apart from nature, giving us many comforts and conveniences, sure- but also made us lose contact with those things that made us what we are- things like real, God-made food!  Ample, restful sleep!  A tribal community and family that we interacted with on a daily basis!   Pure water and air, an unpolluted environment! Daily stimulation to our muscles, and nearly constant movement!

And now, it appears: Contact with the electrical charge of the Earth itself!  That contact, which our forebears had in abundance, has been largely lost through the constant wearing of shoes, and the separation of most of us totally from the land and the soil!
There is a book, and plenty of information about this topic at www.earthing.com  You can certainly go there and check it out, and make your own decision.  They sell grounding “products”, like mats that you can sleep on, and when you are selling a product like that, somehow your research seems a little, well, shady…

But I really think they are onto something, and you can try it out on yourself, for free!

When the weather warms up, SOON I hope, go outside and walk around in your yard, or the park, or wherever- barefoot!  Sit outside with your bare feet on the ground- even on cement you will be grounded!  Get some natural sun each day as well- skip the sunscreen, and let your body make vitamin D the way God and nature intended… I’m sure there are other benefits to this we just have not even discovered yet!

See if, like me and many others, you don’t start feeling, and sleeping better!

The theory is that grounding, or earthing your body, at least some of the time, is another piece in the paleo puzzle of improving how you look, feel, and perform, by putting things back into our lives that never should have been drifted away from.  Real food, real sleep, real movement, real environment, and real contact with Mother Earth!

They all go together, and we should reintroduce them into our lives for our own good!

- and Hey- could you give me a review on Stitcher?  I'd sure appreciate it dude!
Just go to this link- stitcher review link  Thank You Tribesmember!!
J

PaleoJay Podcast# 50 Stop wearing casts on your feet and your head! And, proper breathing for wonderful health!

Listen to #50 NOW! 

Almost everyone in the modern world is fettered in their movement, and in their eyesight, by the casts they burden themselves with.  I am talking about shoes; which if worn constantly, make your feet incredibly weak and susceptible to all sorts of problems... like plantar fasciitis, flat feet, and just plain pain in the foot, which then tends to move upstream, causing pain in the knees, hips, and back!  All of these chains of movement are interrelated, and if one link in the chain is weak, it alters the gait and just screws thing up throughout the chain of movement, and real damage to joints and resulting pain can and will result through bad planes of movement!  This is all very serious stuff, long term.  You can tough it out for awhile, but eventually you will become unable to move if you don’t address the imbalances.

So, bottom line- at least for SOME of the time, your feet must be barefoot, and walking or best of all- sprinting!

NOTHING strengthens a muscle and tendons like using them; the more vigorously the better!  So, at a bare minimum, start leaving your shoes at the door, as the Asians do- do NOT wear your shoes in the house!  It’s much more sanitary as well... Socks are fine- they do not force your feet into unnatural confinement and paralysis; they just keep your feet warm.  So, that is step #1.  Your feet will gradually strengthen, thru barefoot walking about the house...

For step two, start walking barefoot around the yard, or park!  It really is crucial to gradually accustom your feet to real work- walk barefoot outside as much as you can in the warmer months!  Each step will gradually strengthen the complex tendon/ligament/muscular structure that is your foot.  If you walk in shoes, your feet are in a cast, a cement overcoat if you will, that supports the foot like walking in moon boots- think about how fast, if you have ever broken a bone or witnessed someone who had their arm or leg in a cast- how incredibly fast that limb withered and became weak when so confined!  Now, think of your feet, having been in a cast for most of your whole life-

No wonder most folks wind up with foot, knee, hip, and back problems!!

So, start at the source: fix your feet.

Walk around barefoot!  Jog around on green space (yard, park, whatever) barefoot!  Sprint barefoot!  Sprinting barefoot, which I do once per week or so, is the ultimate foot and leg and total body workout, bar none!!

Just run sprints for a short distance, “wind sprints” we used to call them in high school track in the olden days- anywhere from 50 to 400 yards or so... no need to measure, just run really hard and fast (for you, there is no measurement of competition here!), and then stop, and rest a bit.  When you have caught your breath a bit, take off the other way, back to where you started.

Repeat, for oh, 4 to 8 more times...  it’s your call, really!

You are working your entire body, musculature, tendons, ligaments, heart and lungs- the works!  Nothing in the world will lean you out like barefoot sprinting-

And it hardly takes any time at all- if you go beyond 15 minutes you’ve done WAY too much!

I always have flashbacks to little 8 year old Jay when I do my barefoot sprinting in my yard, since it makes me feel just like it did back then when I run all-out, barefoot, the wind in my hair and the grass against my bare feet...  the only difference now is that my hair is white- and really, that is the only difference, and I am 61 years old!  It really feels great!!

The other really great thing about barefoot sprinting is that it forces you to breathe properly, i.e. COSTAL Breathing!

Like most things in modern living, our breathing has also become adulterated, since most people breath shallowly, or “chest breath” a minimal amount, constantly...

Like wearing shoes constantly, which drastically weakens your feet, chest breathing in a minimal fashion drastically reduces the strength and vitality of your entire body, resulting in conditions like asthma, speech impediments like stuttering, and even just the ability to speak or sing in public effectively!  Minimal breathing is like another cast you have thrown on your body, and hampers you more than you know, and almost everyone suffers this condition!!

The proper way to breath is to gradually fill you lungs up, from the bottom, using your diaphragm...   All singers and wind instrument players learn this!! It is vital for them, but it is ALSO VITAL FOR LIFE!!

And so, it is vital for you to learn proper, costal breathing: here’s how-

You take a breath in, try to have your belly expand first.

Then,  continue the process of inhaling- after your belly is completely full of life-giving air-

Expand more into the chest- the more the better!!  This expands the rib cage (costal means relating to the ribs), and then, when you exhale, the forceful contracting of the rib cage finally results in the forceful contracting of the abdomen-

which results in the most wonderful ab exercise in the world, and so if you breath properly in this costal fashion, YOU WILL PERFORM THOUSANDS OF REPS OF THE BEST ABDOMINAL EXERCISE IN THE WORLD EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

And so, not only do you supply your body with the maximum amount of life-giving oxygen possible by breathing costally-  you also shrink your gut, automatically!

So, there is one more cast you have gotten rid of on your body- first the shoe cast, and now the shallow, improper, barely sufficient for life breathing cast!

And now, the final cast, the one you wear on your head- EYEGLASSES.

Yes, the simple eyeglass.  Just a simple way to see better, right?  No problem with that, you say, thank God we have a solution for perfect eyesight- just wear glasses, or contacts, LENSES of some type, and our vision will be perfect, right??

Untii NEXT year... and the year after that...

AND THE YEAR AFTER THAT!!

And you know what?

It NEVER STOPS- Every year, for the rest of your life, as long as you rely on these casts for your eyes, your eyes will get weaker, and weaker!!

It’s just like exercise for your body- do NOT get a stronger prescription- Now is the time you are taking back your eye health!  Try to find a behavioral optometrist if you currently wear eyeglasses or contact lenses.  They will work with you to regain your vision, which has been lost from relying on the casts of corrective lenses, which progressively weaken your eyes.  Next eye exam, request a weaker prescription!

If you have a standard optometrist, just like a standard Medical Doctor they will resist your trying to improve your actual health. But, a behavioral optometrist will gladly work with you!

The point is to gradually weaken your cast, or prescription, and thus gradually strengthen your vision. IT REALLY WORKS, and works very well-

I wore glasses for 30 plus years, and now do not need them at all!!

The eyes can be strengthened, just as can the muscles and supporting structures of the body, including tendons, ligaments and bones, through progressive stimulation through Perfectly Paleo Exercise and optimum Paleo Nutrition!!

You can exercise the eyes, by moving print away until it starts to blur, and then moving it forward until you can just make it out- hold it, and read THERE- the print will gradually come into clear focus!

Do this several times a day, and if you are nearsighted, you will slowly become less so!

If you are farsighted, reverse the process: take a printed page, and gradually move it towards you, until it starts to blur...  move it back until you can barely make it out- and it will gradually clear as well!

And so, there you have it!  Start to clear you life of casts; Self Imposed Impeders of our natural senses, and quite a bit in our lives will start to improve, rather than gradually decline, which everyone now takes as a given.

It’s not.  Our Creator did not make us to just get sick, weak, infirm and die- He wouldn’t do that!!  We are meant to be vital, strong and fit until the end!  Only MAN, with his inventions and “improvements” can get in his own way- with shoes, eyeglasses, and lazy breathing!  All of them have their place, but they need to be kept at arm’s length- kind of like using a chain saw- they’re great, but also very dangerous.

Use them carefully, and put them away as soon as you can.

We are meant to operate in our natural state, as God made us.  Tools are for only occasional use!

J barefoot sprinting

Plantar Fasciitis!

All human beings should be able to perform
basic maintenance on themselves

Above: Kelly Starrett, of mobilitywod.com


I have had plantar fasciitis.  Most people who walk and/or run a LOT eventually develop this problem!   And it is a real problem- quite debilitating, really.  Each and every step is... a pain. Not a good way to go through life!

What to do?

The first thing to understand is that the pain is caused by inflammation; this is the same inflammation causing most of the other ills in our bodies- all of the "itis" diseases-  all are inflammation of our tissues to some extent or other.

The main cause of inflammation, of course, is our diet, which is off the charts high in grains, sugars, and industrial seed oils. 


So, the first order of business is to get these out of our diets!


The next step is to add omega 3 oils INTO our diets.  Wild caught Salmon, sardines, and a good quality cod liver oil, such as Carlson's, should become staples of your diet!

I know, I KNOW-  you're in pain, and we all want immediate fixes in the modern day world.
After all, that's what drugs have always promised us!


Let's get past the "quick fix" mentality- it's too good to be true, and it's not true.  We want to correct the cause, not the symptom.


The primary cause of foot (and knee, and hip, and BACK pain is):

SHOES!

Really!  We think:

 "Oh, my foot hurts, I must need more padding/arch support/insoles/cushions etc. in shoes and around my feet!"

The thing is, our feet are meant to function barefoot; balancing our weight throughout the complex foot structure, making minute adjustments to our gait as we amble along- shifting from big toe to little, and all in between... like a cat.  Encasing our feet in shoes, while necessary in our modern world, is still like putting them in casts.  

What happens to your arm in a cast?  And Quickly, too??

Your arm withers, loses strength, and gets... really small!  

Now think of your poor feet.  They have been encased in little "casts" for most of your life!  They are almost as weak as the feet of the Chinese brides whose feet were "bound" so they could be artificially made tiny!  

Just by wearing shoes most of the time, your feet are weak, and frail, and ready to fail!  (Hey- note to self: great song lyric!)

So, that's how it happens- your weak, pampered little feet, encased in the little casts you constantly wear on your feet, finally get so weak and inflamed that they start to really hurt!!

WHAT TO DO?

Firstly, go barefoot as much as possible!  (Stockinged feet counts as barefoot!)

Start to walk around your yard barefoot!  Just like Tom Sawyer!!  Really- it's how our feet were meant to function!!  Eventually, graduate to barefoot sprinting, detailed elsewhere in this blog, (and elsewhere on other sources).

In shoes, less is more.  Less cushioning/padding is really more natural, and better for your feet than more padding is!  Go Natural!!  God made us a certain way for good reason!!
And Forget the High Heels!!  Geez...

Now, I know you wonder:

"But PaleoJay- WHAT DO I DO IN THE HERE AND NOW??"

Check out this video, pilgrim: plantar fasciitis exercise video

Some very effective, no-nonsense fixes here!  This guy really knows what he's talking about- not a fancy video (to say the least!), but if you really want to address your problem, not just be coddled (like those silly little immobilizing "boots" that physicians and others try to sell), Kelly Starrett here tells you how to really fix the underlying problem!

And all you need is a La Crosse ball or two...

OK- follow the above, and not only will you solve your plantar fasciitis foot pain:

But, following the dietary anti-inflammatory advice, 

You will cure most of the modern day diseases of civilization!  

Really!!

No (Wheat, Rye, Corn, Soy) GRAINS!  No (Corn Syrup, Cane Sugar, Agave) SUGARS! 

 No SOY, CORN, or other Industrial, (Rancid) Seed Oils!!

=

NO MODERN DISEASES!!

It really is that simple.  

J

And, for a reward for reading through all of that information, I offer you this photo of my daughter Holly (in the RED), riding her bike with her cherished, paleo cat, ZEKE, in her basket.  

Obviously, Holly does NOT need a headlamp!!

Does an all-meat and fat, paleo CAT diet lead to lambent eyes?

Possibly the subject of a future post...

Barefoot sprinting in Winter?

Obviously, barefoot sprinting is not something one would often do in Winter, at least not here in Wisconsin!  Since we just had our first, belated snowfall on December 4, and my Sunday, farmhouse basement workout was on the agenda, I needed a substitute.

I always usually do kettlebell swings on my Sunday workouts, but today I decided to... up the ante!


I did intervals of kettlebell swings, interspersed between my chins, dips, aerobic/isometric chins and dips-aerobic isometric dip  and aerobic isometric chin ups.

Just like the intervals I usually do sprinting across my acreage barefoot, the kettlebell swings tax every part of my body, for the 5 or 6 intervals I do, but in a do-able, and really kind of enjoyable way. (If your body has become accustomed to enjoying exertion!)

After you've "gone paleo" for a while, cutting the processed crap, grains and sugars from your diet, and added healthy fats, proteins, fruits and veggies (all easily done via the Paleo Quick Start Smoothie!), your body actually starts to crave exertion!  Just like our cat, Zeke craves to go outside and just run, jump, and play, even this old almost 60 year old wants to do the same!  Hard to believe, in our modern sick, medicated, under-exercised, sedentary society- but, if we become healthy again, we actually-

Feel again like we did when we were 10 years old!!  TONS of energy, and happy as a lark!!


I invite everyone to join me on the paleo journey!  Eat the way God intended us to eat- real food!
Move naturally!  Sleep LOTS!  Connect meaningfully with family and friends!  Play!  Make music, play golf, ride your bike, throw a frisbee, grow your garden, play in your yard, hike... you get my drift!

Live like you were put here by God to live a meaningful life, living up to your potential, fulfilling whatever gifts you have been given to develop, and then sharing them with others- this is what we are here for!

We are not here to watch spectator sports (we are meant to participate in sports- that's the whole point-they are supposed to be fun!) We are not here to watch TV- a little of good TVand movies is great; just think of TV and Netflix as dark chocolate- a little is great!  Too much... is heroin!  It will destroy you.

Start by eating right!  Believe it or not, then everything else will just make... common sense!
J

Barefoot Sprinting!

Barefoot sprinting!
I have to say, barefoot sprinting, in the yard here, takes me back to the way I felt when I was 8-10 years of age better than anything!  There is just something so childlike, so inherently joyous about running as fast as you can, or nearly so, just for the sheer fun of it.  Plus, you realize how great it feels on your feet, as you pass over grass, pine needles, dry crackling leaves, and then back to grass again...we are meant to feel all of those sensations!

First I did my basement workout, where I do varieties of free squats (no weights), interspersed with leg raises, pushups, hyperextensions, chins and dips.  Then, "aerobic isometrics", where I slowly do chins, then dips and military presses, assisted by my legs just enough to make me able to slowly move for a minute or so...  VERY effective!  Then, I finish up outside with the barefoot sprinting, no shirt on, for maximum vitamin D!  I really feel great right now- AND, I have a chicken and sweet potato fries on the grill.  Life is good!www.paleojay.com