PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe #90 Very Best exercise equipment, and the ONLY way to deadlift!

I know, I generally say you don’t need equipment to work out- after all, if you are doing virtual resistance training (flexing as you move through a muscles range of motion) and then holding isometrically...  your own body is the resistance.  And this is the most efficient and safe of all forms of exercise!  It should be your warmup, and the core of your fitness regimen for the rest of your life.  Nothing else even comes close in terms of totally working your entire physique!

But it is also great to include other tools in your bodyweight arsenal.  The first one I would recommend to you is the rebounder, or mini-trampoline.

I have mentioned this piece of equipment before in a podcast, and it is a wonderful addition to virtual resistance training- I often do my virtual moving “poses” on the rebounder, usually in front of the TV...This kind of “doubles your pleasure, doubles your fun” in a good kind of way- you are working aerobically and your musculature at the same time.  A really time efficient way to work out!

I am also a great fan of the pushup!  And while the “hands flat on the floor” version is good, using a perfect pushup type of revolving handle is even better- not only does it raise your hands up off the floor, giving you a greater range of motion and more muscle engagement, it also protects your wrists and shoulders from damage by rotating along with the motion.  This protects your joints even as it makes the exercise more productive.

Ab Roller

Perfect Pushup

P bars, or parallette bars are another great option for pushups, giving you a VERY low extension below parallel.  They are also great for L sits, a top notch ab exercise you can

My homemade P bars!

do.  In a pinch, the perfect pushup device mentioned before can also be used for L sits!  Just make sure you get the heavy duty version of the perfect pushup, as the other lesser version will wear out quickly supporting your body weight in the L sit, and doing pushups with your feet raised off the floor and resting on the back of a couch or chair while you do your leg raised of “Atlas 3” pushups.

An ab roller is wonderful, and actually another kind of pushup!  Wonderful ab exercise, and it also simultaneously works the arms, chest, back and shoulders- also, it’s a great party trick, as most men cannot do even one without gradually working up to it.  To begin, get an ab roller (they are quite cheap!) and do them from your knees.  Next, you can do them from the top as a negative, going as slowly as you can downwards, and just stop at the bottom.  Eventually you will get one full, top to bottom and back up again rep, and then you will add another, and another until you get to a set of 6 or 7.  That’s all you really need in terms of reps- then, just do multiple sets for a very high level of fitness!  I like to “superset” ab roll outs with my sets of pushups.

Of course, a pullup/chinup bar is a necessity, but a tree branch of piece of pipe will do in a pinch.  I use my old power rack in the basement for this, back from my old weight lifting days of long ago, and a power rack or “cage” is a very versatile piece of equipment indeed- it is much more productive without weights, as it is ideal for isometric work, utilizing its pins to press against with empty bars or wooden dowels.  It is also great to use the power rack for squat variations- you can use the side supports to hold on to as you do a one legged or “pistol” squat.  It helps to lean back as you do this, because that really takes the strain off of the knee joint and puts it right over the quadricep muscle where you want it.  You can duplicate this upstairs, too, by doing these pistols in a door frame!

Another wonderful training adjunct is a set of gymnastic rings!

Now they are mounted on the ceiling joists!

very advanced!

Mount these in your basement as I have, and you will find them to be among the most satisfying, versatile and productive pieces of equipment you could possibly own.  They are wonderful to do pushups on!  You can do Atlas 1,2,and 3 pushups quickly and conveniently, just by moving a little forwards or backwards to adjust the grips to be parallel to the floor (Atlas 1), angles halfway up (Atlas 2), or angled up high (Atlas 3).

They are also great for pullups, L sits, and dips; also rows, and as assists for pistols!

Really- find a place for rings in your house, garage, basement or yard!  They are just fantastic to train on.

I am saving the most crucial for last- an Exergenie is the ONLY way I recommend to do a deadlift, or a heavy squat!

Exergenie

I know, this is controversial within Paleo Land, but it is also undeniable when you really look into it- just as gluten, and the other anti-nutrients in wheat and other grains are undeniably very harmful to human beings in their nutrition- so is lifting a heavy bar from the ground and standing up in a dead lift harmful to your back and other joints.

Also, putting a heavy barbell across your shoulders, and squatting, will compress your spine, inevitably damage your knees, and set you up for serious, long-term injury.

Also, it just gives you a fat butt, bulging abdomen, and blocky thighs- avoid these exercises!

High rep hindu squats, the aforementioned pistols, and the exergenie can give you anything these exercises can, BETTER!  I have an old exergenie that I bought off of Ebay- it has wooden handles, but they sell new ones too,  and you can use it to do maximum effort deadlifts, squats, military presses, curls, and many other exercises.  You feed the rope (that supplies the resistance) out with your fingers, and you can make the resistance as hard as you want throughout the whole range of motion.  You can make it so hard that 3 reps is all you need for the squat and deadlift.

The best thing about the Exergenie is what you can do for your shoulders!  You can mount it in a door frame, closing the door on it 1/2 way up or so, and really lean into it, stretching out your shoulder girdle in every way possible.  Then, you can pull back using just enough resistance to really work the entire shoulder region in every way- this is the very best way that I have found to really work the shoulders and protect the joint by strengthening both the muscles, tendons and ligaments gradually, from the inside out!

Along with a proper diet, and adequate sleep, these small pieces of training equipment can do far more for your health, strength, and physique than any gym membership you can name.  And, you will have them forever, right in your living room or basement or garage, and can make maximum  use of them for a lifetime!

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!

Restricting calories IN, won't make you THIN! Just ask Hercules...

That's right- the whole notion of calorie restriction is founded on lies-

The lie that calories are all the same.


The lie that if only you eat less calories, just a few less each day, and exercise more- just a little, to create a deficit...


Over time, you will gradually lose weight, and become lean and fit!!

I think the simplicity of this notion is what makes it appealing!

But it is a big, FAT, LIE!! 


 Do you really think someone like Hercules restricted calories to be lean and defined???


The human body is a chemical factory, not a machine like a car.  Food has numerous hormonal responses, it doesn't just burn fuel like a car.

If you eat fat, it doesn't turn to fat on you- if it is a good, saturated fat, like coconut oil or grass fed butter, it triggers signals in your body-

Satiety!  You do not feel hungry!  You are not starving!  Your body says "Thank you very much!"
Your body does NOT signal an insulin "spike" from good fats; quite the contrary- happiness reigns!

If you eat calories from a processed food meal- say, pizza?  HUGE insulin spike, and your body scrambles to store those "precious" calories from the dough, in the form of bodyFAT.  


As Gary Taubes has stated in his excellent book:  "Good Calories Bad Calories", that is about it-

There are calories that are good, wonderful, eat-all-you-want calories...

And then there are Bad, Horrible, spike-your-insulin-and-make-you-fat-and-sick-calories...
and never the twain shall meet!

Trust me- Hercules/Herakles ate copius amounts of good, nutritious food to fuel his physique- LOTS of meat, lots of fat, loads of vegetables, and some fruits.

He did NOT eat buns, bagels, bread, donuts, and drink "big gulps" of sugary soft drinks!  Wine, sure...and, although he occasionally lifted heavy things, like when he cleaned the Elysian stables and carrried around draft horses, slayed a horrible giant lion, and killed the 9 headed serpent HYDRA, he mainly trained with bodyweight exercise!


How do I know this?


Because BODY WEIGHT exercises are timeless- they preserve the body like nothing else!


If Herk had trained with weights and machines, he would have looked really bulky and impressive, but his actual fighting, strength and real-world power would have been... lackluster.
Bodyweight exercise, or self-resisted and virtual, visualized resistance has the ability to transform your body; just as "calories in and calories our" does NOT define how the human body deposits fat, so too does "overload the muscle with weights or bodyweight" really actually does define how the body develops in response to exercise stimulus!


Weight training will stimulate bulk muscle gains, true.  But it will not trigger tendon and ligament strengthening, nor will it build the strength of your "core", your spinal muscles, abs, and the many unseen "minor" muscles that are foundational for our overall health and fitness.


There is an innate body "wisdom" that infers from bodyweight training-

"Hey"  says your body.  "We are working really hard, and weight, i.e. FAT is really getting in the way of our pushups and chins and situps...  I guess we'd better finally lean out big time so we can do this stuff!"

This is how our body's think!  Our bodies are still 100% Paleolithic, since that has worked forever.


If YOU want to be Paleolithic, and in tune with what your own body wants for you
-= maximum health:



Perfectly Paleo Exercise eBook