Women bulking up?

On Warped Beauty Standards, and Embracing the Buff
-by Kristin Darguzas

I resisted the larger weights. I didn’t mind sweating, but I’d read in Self and Fitness and all of the other magazines with the cayenne pepper maple syrup diets and concave-bellied glamazons that in order to tone, you must do high repetitions of light weights. Sure, it was obscenely boring to lift 10-pound dumb bells over my head six hundred and twenty times, but that’s why my iPod existed, to relieve the mind numbing boredom.

I wanted my belly to look like this….

I wanted my legs to look like this….

If eating only collard greens and suffering endless boredom were the only means to a shiny abdomen and skinny legs of doom — I at least wanted to give it an honest go.

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But tolerance of the mind-numbing boredom only lasts so long when you’re an adrenaline-chasing Type A personality. Thank the Universe that we found Crossfit when we did, because I had run out of good music and was beginning to unwittingly enjoy songs whose lyrics centred around sunglasses making you cooler than me (side note: have you listened to the lyrics of the songs at the top of the charts right now? Are they infuriatingly dumb or am I just a crotchety old lady?)

Anyway, we discovered Crossfit moments before I might have thrown myself in a ditch in frustration and boredom. I totally enjoyed flinging wall balls and jumping on boxes and firing mad kettlebells in the air. But I worried about the heavy backsquats, the push press that might turn my arms into huge quivering beasts of flesh.

“I’m worried I’m bulking up,” I whispered to Corey after my first week of cleaning 100 pounds, back squatting almost 200. I could see veins bulge in my neck, under the bar, and I imagined myself with tree-trunk legs and a stumpy She-Ra neck, terrifying gas station attendants and maitre ds who worried secretly that I’d crush them with my dangerous girth. I was worried my muscles would take away my femininity, I’d be totally bereft of any womanly appeal.

“It is hard to bulk up,” he said.”It takes forever, and you have to concentrate on it, so don’t worry. You’re not going to bulk up.”

But he is a man and therefore knows nothing about these matters, so I disregarded his assurance as blessed male ignorance and continued to be scared of the heavy weight and its potential to fuck up my relationship with my skinny jeans.

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Six months into Crossfit and I stepped on a scale for the first time in ages.

The scale was up 14 pounds, and I said to Corey, “I’m worried I am definitely bulking up.”

I think he said nothing, because as a relatively intelligent man, he must have known there was no correct answer to my slightly frantic (and very obviously true) observation.

I ran home and hauled all my skinny jeans and pencil skirts out of the closet.& One by one, I tried them on. Or rather, my legs tried them on a la carte, because there wasn’t a single garment in my closet that could fit over my ass.

At first I felt like crying — ripped off, because I’d put so much work into exercise and eating spotlessly. And I had believed for so long that the reason I exercised was so that I could look like a slightly older houselady representation of that girl on the cover of Self.

And then it came to me in a rapid hurtling swoosh: A concave stomach and matchstick arms are stupid reasons for lifting a five-pound dumb bell sixty million times in a row. Aspiring to look like an undernourished teenager is more than slightly insane. The definition of fit needs an overhaul in the mainstream media.;

I had developed a booty, nurtured muscular thighs and created a bit of a muscle maze on my back. There was no evidence of starvation anywhere on me.; I put my skinny jeans in a large black garbage bag and dropped them down a vent in the clothing donation box down the street.

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“I’ve heard about Crossfit,” says the young mom outside my son’s kindergarten class.

She has just asked me where I work out, and I am suddenly realizing that I never wear anything but spandex and sweatshirts at drop-off and pick-up.

“But,” she says,”I don’t want to bulk up.”

I have to fight hard not to sigh brokenheartedly. I was her a year ago; I have only just stopped thinking like her.

I want to say: It’s effing ridiculously hard to get buff. It takes concerted effort over time and attention to your diet and maybe you will get “bulky” if you eat like a maniac and throw around heavy weight five days a week for a year or so. But if you do get bulky at that point, you’ll also likely to be amazed at the transformation of your body and proud of the hard work you’ve put in at making it a lean, mean, effective machine.

Some might call me “bulky” at this point into my fitness journey: I am 16 pounds heavier than I was a year ago. My thighs are too big for a lot of my old pants, and I can see muscles in places I never knew muscles existed. Skirts fit me better now, because my waist is much smaller. I can haul a tire up a mountain for you if you ever need it and overhead squat your back-talking seven-year-old.

I am more confident in my abilities and willingness to try new things.

If you’re a woman who refuses to lift heavy weight because you fear the bulk? I think you should give it a try anyway: This terrified line of thinking interferes with your capacity to do so much more than what you think you can do right now. Your fear of the bulk and adherence to the twisted media perception of ideal feminine body proportion is ripping you off. It’s preventing you from kicking ass in a monumental way.

I think (admitting fully that I know nothing in particular) that you should give those heavy weights a try. Back squat, deadlift, load up bars with weights heavier than your cat. You can always stop trying so hard if you are afraid of the sleek new muscles that will appear after months of hard work, but my best is that you’ll be surprised by your appreciation of them and all that they mean. If we all lost a bit of the fear, we’d maybe see women like this on the cover of Fitness Magazine:

(Mothereffing BULKY. And also: completely hot, elite Crossfit Athlete and Competitor Crystal McReynolds, photo from Facebook group.)

Maybe if strong women started gracing magazine covers and helping to define feminine, we’d stop making excuses to take it to the next level. We’d maybe understand what really fit and healthy really looks like, and aspire to the beautifully possible rather than the absurdly unattainable.

A Case Against Cardio Taken From Marks Daily Apple

A Case Against Cardio (from a former mileage king)

We all know that we need to exercise to be healthy.

Unfortunately, the popular wisdom of the past 40 years – that we would all be better off doing 45 minutes to an hour a day of intense aerobic activity – has created a generation of overtrained, underfit, immune-compromised exerholics. Hate to say it, but we weren’t meant to aerobicize at the chronic and sustained high intensities that so many people choose to do these days. The results are almost always unimpressive. Ever wonder why years of “Spin” classes, endless treadmill sessions and interminable hours on the “elliptical” have done nothing much to shed those extra pounds and really tone the butt?

Don’t worry. There’s a reason why the current methods fail, and when you understand why, you’ll see that there’s an easier, more effective – and fun – way to burn fat, build or preserve lean muscle and maintain optimal health. The information is all there in the primal DNA blueprint, but in order to get the most from your exercise experience, first you need to understand the way we evolved and then build your exercise program around that blueprint.

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Like most people, I used to think that rigorous aerobic activity was one of the main keys to staying healthy – and that the more mileage you could accumulate (at the highest intensity), the better. During my 20+ years as a competitive endurance athlete, I logged tens of thousands of training miles running and on the bike with the assumption that, in addition to becoming fit enough to race successfully at a national class level, I was also doing my cardiovascular system and the rest of my body a big healthy favor.

Being the type A that I am, I read Ken Cooper’s seminal 1968 book Aerobics and celebrated the idea that you got to award yourself “points” for time spent at a high heart rate. The more points, the healthier your cardiovascular system would become. Based on that notion, I should have been one of the healthiest people on the planet.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t – and that same mindset has kept millions of other health-conscious, nirvana-seeking exercisers stuck in a similar rut for almost 40 years. It’s time to get your head out of the sand and take advantage of your true DNA destiny, folks!

The first signal I had that something was wrong was when I developed debilitating osteoarthritis in my ankles…at age 28. This was soon coupled with chronic hip tendonitis and nagging recurrent upper respiratory tract infections. In retrospect, it is clear now that my carbohydrate-fueled high-intensity aerobic lifestyle was promoting a dangerous level of continuous systemic inflammation, was severely suppressing other parts of my immune system and the increased oxidative damage was generally tearing apart my precious muscle and joint tissue.

The stress of high intensity training was also leaving me soaking in my own internal cortisol (stress hormone) bath. It wasn’t so clear to me at the time exactly what was happening – in fact it was quite confusing, since I was doing so much of this so-called “healthy” aerobic exercise – but I had no choice but to give up racing, unable to train at anywhere near the intensity required to stay at an elite level.

To make ends meet…

…I became a “personal trainer” and I refocused my attention on training average “non-athletic” people to achieve reasonable levels of general fitness and health. Of course, we lifted weights as part of the overall plan (and I will go into greater detail on that important aspect of fitness in a later post), but for the aerobic component of their training, I started doing long walks or hikes or easy bike rides with them. My many clients got the benefit of me actually working out right along side them and I got the benefit of 3 to 5 hours a day of very low intensity aerobic work (well, very low for me anyway). It was refreshing and really didn’t take much effort on my part, but I knew I had to be deriving at least some small benefit from those hours.

Since I didn’t have much time left in the week for my own workouts, once or twice a week I would do a very short but very intense workout for my own benefit, usually sprints at the track or “hill repeats” of 2-3 minutes each on the bike. Lo and behold, within a year, my injuries were healing, I was rarely sick and I was even back to occasionally racing – faster than ever. Something “primal” was happening and it made total sense in the context of the DNA blueprint. I was training like my hunter-gatherer ancestors, building my aerobic capacity slowly and steadily without overstressing my adrenals or my immune system, training my body to derive more energy from fats (and not glucose), requiring far fewer carbohydrate calories from my diet, and building muscle with occasional quick bursts of speed and intensity. I was suddenly both fit AND healthy. My Primal Health system was kicking in and it all made perfect sense.

Humans, like all mammals, evolved two primary energy systems that powered the skeletal muscles of our hunter-gatherer ancestors 40,000 years ago and that would keep us all well-powered the same way today, if we weren’t so bent on circumventing them with our ill-fated (literally) lifestyle choices.

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The first energy system relied heavily on the slow burning of fats, keeping us fueled while we were at rest or sleeping, yet also allowing for continuous or intermittent low levels of aerobic activity (think of our ancestors walking across the savannah for hours foraging for roots, shoots, berries, grubs, insects and the occasional small animal). It makes sense. Fats are very efficient fuels that are stored easily in the fat cells and burn easily and cleanly when lots of oxygen is present (as when we are breathing normally). Even if there’s no food in the immediate area, a well-trained fat-burning hunter-gatherer could continue walking and foraging for days without compromising his or her health or efficiency.

The second major energy system we developed through evolution was an ATP-fueled system that allowed for intense loads of work to be done in very brief bursts (think of our hunter-gatherer ancestors sprinting to the safety of a tree to avoid being eaten by a lion). ATP is always sitting right there within the muscle cells, available in a split second, and it is the highest octane fuel we have. In fact, it’s ATP and adrenaline that allow the little old lady to lift the front end of the Ford Fairlane off her husband when the jack fails. Unfortunately, the muscles can only store about 20 seconds worth of this precious fuel to complete life-or-death tasks. If our ancestors survived that quick sprint to safety, their ATP reserves were filled again within minutes using the other energy systems.

Furthermore, that brief burst of intense energy sparked a small “growth spurt” in the muscle, making it even stronger for the next encounter with the next lion – a true survival adaptation.

(Note: While our energy systems are actually quite complex, varied and interrelated, I have simplified things here to make it easier to “digest”.)

Bottom line: Fats and ATP were the two primary energy sources for locomotion: we either moved slowly and steadily or “fight or flight” fast, and we became stronger and healthier the more we used only those energy systems.

But here’s the real take-home message for us: We did not evolve to rely heavily on a carbodydrate-fueled energy system, and yet, carbohydrate metabolism seems to rule our lives today. Yes, carbohydrate (in the form of glucose) can play a major role in the production of energy in skeletal muscle, but it turns out that the heart and skeletal muscle prefer fatty acids (fat) as fuel over glucose.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t regularly ramp their heart rates up for over an hour a day like so many of us do now. Even when the concept of organized hunting came along, it would appear that our hunter-gatherer ancestors relied more on superior tracking ability (using our highly evolved and exceptionally large brains) and walking (using our superior fat-burning systems), rather than on actually “chasing down” their prey. In fact, squandering valuable energy reserves (and increasing carbohydrate [glucose] metabolism by a factor of ten) by running hard for long periods of time was so counterproductive it would have likely hastened your demise (imagine chasing some game animal for a few hours and – oops – not succeeding in killing it. You’ve spent an incredible amount of energy, yet now you have no food to replace that energy. You have suddenly become some other animals prey because you are physically exhausted).

So, what does all that mean for us in the 21st century seeking to maximize our health and fitness?

Well, we know that this current popular high intensity aerobic pursuit is a dead-end. It requires huge amounts carbohydrate (sugar) to sustain, it promotes hyperinsulinemia (overproduction of insulin), increases oxidative damage (the production of free radicals) by a factor of 10 or 20 times normal, and generates high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in many people, leaving them susceptible to infection, injury, loss of bone density and depletion of lean muscle tissue – while encouraging their bodies to deposit fat. Far from that healthy pursuit we all assumed it was! What, then, is the answer?

Knowing what we know about our hunter-gatherer ancestors and the DNA blueprint, we would ideally devise an aerobics plan that would have us walking or hiking several hours a day to maximize our true fat-burning systems and then doing intermittent “life or death” sprints every few days to generate those growth spurts that create stronger, leaner muscle.

However, since allocating a few hours a day to this pursuit is impractical for most people, we can still create a plan that has a fair amount of low level aerobic movement, such as walking briskly, hiking, cycling at a moderate pace, etc a few times a week and keep it at under an hour. Then, we can add a few intense “interval” sessions, where we literally sprint (or cycle or do anything intensely) for 20, 30 or 40 seconds at a time all out, and do this once or twice a week.

If you are willing to try this new approach, but haven’t sprinted for a while, you may want to ease into it. Start with maybe three or four the first time, resting two minutes in between and, after a few weeks of doing this, work your way up to a workout that includes six or eight all-out sprints after a brief warm-up. An easy few minutes of stretching afterwards and you’ve done more in less time than you could ever accomplish in a typical “80-85% Max Heart Rate” cardio” workout. That’s exactly type of the plan I do myself and that I give all of my trainees now.

Let’s recap:

The benefits of low level aerobic work (walking, hiking, cycling, swimming):
- increases capillary network (blood vessels that supply the muscle cells with fuel and oxygen)
- increases muscle mitochondria
- increases production of fat-burning and fat-transporting enzymes
- more fun, because you can talk with a partner while doing it

The benefits of interval training (sprinting in short intense bursts)
- increases muscle fiber strength
- increases aerobic capacity (work ability)
- increases muscle mitochondria (the main energy production center in muscle)
- increases insulin sensitivity
- increases natural growth hormone production

The costs of chronic (repetitious) mid- and high-level aerobic work
- requires large amounts of dietary carbohydrates (SUGAR)
- decreases efficient fat metabolism
- increases stress hormone cortisol
- increases systemic inflammation
- increases oxidative damage (free radical production)
- boring!

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Biggest break through in over 30 years!

You ever wonder why there are more options for healthy eating and exercise than ever before yet so many of us seem to be getting fatter? There are countless articles, exercise programs etc. out there telling us how to lose weight when our bodies already know how.

As we eat our bodies turns our foods into glucose a simple sugar which is the primary food for our cells. Our brain, muscle and heart all feed on glucose. When glucose moves through our bloodstream our pancreas produces a hormone called insulin. Insulin is what opens the door and allows glucose to enter and be used for our energy needs. Without insulin our cells can not be fed. What happens if we need more than we need? Our body also has fat cells and the brain, muscle and heart cells never eat more than they need so the excess is store in our fat cells. Once the glucose is all out of the bloodstream with our cells being being fed and the surplus stored in our fat cells then insulin closes the doors to our cells and slowly leaves our bodies. When our bodies need more energy or glucose and there is no food available it turns to the fat cells and the free fatty acids stored inside of them. The free fatty acids leave our fat cells and go right into the blood stream to feed all of our other cells. Free fatty acids do not need insulin to open the cell doors, that is why there called free fatty acids. This natural process of storing fat when you have to much glucose and burning fat when you don't have enough glucose is how our bodies were designed to work.

The problem arises from not living in a perfect world eating a perfect diet. As a result we don't benefit from this natural process very often. In fact we suffer from storing to much fat and rarely if ever burning fat. Let's take a typical breakfast which usually consist of foods fairly high in sugar and processed foods, cereals, breads etc. This kind of food is rushed into the bloodstream quickly and the more sugary the food the faster and higher that our blood sugar or glucose level rises. Our pancreas realizing this quickly releases insulin creating and insulin spike to correspond with the fast rising glucose. Insulin does it's job opening the cell doors all our working cells are fed and the excess glucose is stored in our fat cells. This process happens fast and once insulin arrives our glucose goes back down fairly quickly however the insulin hangs around much longer. This can pose a problem because as long as there is insulin in the body we can not access the free fatty acids stored in our fat cells. Free fatty acids do not need insulin to enter the cells but they do need it to be gone before they can leave our fat cells. Our bodies need to eat continually but the free fatty acids can't leave the fat cells. This creates the cravings and irritability so we eat. Once again or glucose levels spike right back up and the body releases even more insulin the cells are fed and the access glucose is stored in our fat cells. With our insulin level remaining high our bodies are still not able to release any fatty acids so we continue adding to the fat storage but never taking any out. This cycle continues through lunch mid afternoon snacks, diner and so on. We literally end up bathing our bodies in insulin all day long and for much of the night. After a while all that insulin takes a toll, we age much faster than normal and many develop type 2 diabetes.

There is a way to break this cycle. The product is called Bios Life Slim. A safe natural way to restore our bodies natural fat burning process. Instead of the spike in glucose and insulin we typically see, when taken before or during meals it allows for a more mild release of these two elements. This mild release allows the insulin levels mirror the glucose levels therefore burn out about the same time as the glucose. Our bodies are now able to release fatty acids and we enter the fat burning zone. This is the period of time in which our bodies burn off the access fat stored in our cells. No more craving, no more irritability. After a couple of hours in the fat burning zone we are ready to have Bios Life Slim before our next meal and we start the cycle again storing less fat and burning more of what was already stored.

There are 5 adjustments that you can make starting today in conjunction with using the Slim that can speed up the fat burning process.

1. Eat a high protein breakfast each morning. There are several ways to do this including meal replacement drinks.

2. Along with the Bios Life Slim eat 3 healthy meals which include lean protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates.

3. Space your meals appropriately. Allow 3-4 hours between each meal and 12 hours between supper and breakfast allowing to burn fat even while you sleep.

4. Increase physical activity. You do not have to become and exercise junky just find ways to do a little more each day.

5.Decrease amounts of sweets and process foods you eat especially avoid sodas and sports drinks which can be full of sugar and cause a huge increase in insulin.

Does Bios Life Slim actually work? In my experience it does. It comes with a 90 day unconditional money back guarantee. I have had a huge amount of success with this product. No stimulants no jitters, no negative side effects! This product can also be found in the Physicians Desk Reference. For more information visit www.pgdnews.com Contact me with additional questions or to order this product.

Jim's Gym to host Empire State Games Weightlifting Tryouts

We will be hosting weightlifting tryouts for the 2010 Empire State Games here at Jim's Gym on Saturday May 1st.

Weigh-ins are at 8, lifting starts at 11.

Anyone interested in trying out can either contact Jim Wheaton at Jim's Gym or follow this link

http://www.empirestategames.org/summer/tryouts/sched/default.asp?region=central&division=open.

I would like to encourage anyone interested in just supporting the lifters to attend. You do not have to be a member of Jim's Gym to attend.

Look forward to seeing you!

Jim Wheaton
607-735-9789

Naturally increase testosterone and burn fat!!

This is a great article I found. Everyday people are on the lookout for the latest and greatest supplement to increase testosterone, build muscle or lose weight. Doing the things in this article is probably the single most important thing you can do to help with those processes and it doesn't cost anything!!

The Definitive Guide to Sleep

Sleep 1Sleep Awareness Week (as sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation) technically ended March 13th, but somehow I’m guessing there are just as many sleep deprived folks milling about this week as there were a few days ago – just like our good reader Monday. Maybe a few of us feel better adjusted to the time change these days, but probably just as many stayed up late to watch the NCAA games this weekend. Or maybe it was a late St. Paddy’s Day party. Somehow it’s always somethin’, isn’t it?

Even if we’re good and diligent and never sacrifice sleep for entertainment purposes, life too often pokes holes in our most worthy intentions. Babies wake up in the middle of the night. Flights leave early. Deadlines, projects and bills keep us up later than we’d planned. Maybe we even burn the midnight oil to get a jump on the next morning’s tasks! Nighttime too often becomes a default slush fund for the day’s chores. Still others of us might deliberately stay up to bask (however groggily) in what seems like the only time we have to ourselves. The house is quiet, the kids/partner are asleep. The world is hushed, and the deep solitude is too much to resist.

But there’s always a price…. The next morning has us clutching our pillows in fervent denial. Cruel, callous and relentless as it is, the alarm tolls for thee and you’re suddenly reeling in regret. However much you enjoyed or appreciated the previous night’s extension, you now see the error of your ways. Your bed is suddenly the most wonderful, restful place in the world, and you couldn’t possibly tear yourself away. Snooze button it is.

When the necessities of life (or an incredible bracket-busting game) strike, it’s good to keep ye olde 80/20 Primal Principle in mind. Nonetheless, let’s give shut eye its due. I’ve done Definitive Guides on all manner of Primal priorities. It was high time, I thought, we offer the same deference to our non-waking Primal efforts.

The “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” overachiever mindset assumes our bodies aren’t doing anything useful when we’re buried beneath the covers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sleep is an incredibly active time for our bodies and brains when we undergo all manner of growth and repair processes through a dynamic biochemical orchestration. When we know the facts on sleep, we’re more likely to give it our full respect – and wholehearted Primal commitment. Let’s begin….
What’s Sleep Done For Me Lately?

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. ~Irish Proverb

Sleep is key, essential, absolutely downright necessary for our basic physiological operations – with special support for neurological performance, endocrine balance, immune system functioning, and musculoskeletal growth and repair. For one, you wouldn’t be half the man or woman you are without the physiological feats sleep achieves. I mean that both literally and figuratively, since sleep spurs the release of human growth hormone (HGH), an essential player in cellular regeneration.

Before you stay up for your favorite late night host, consider the fact that a solid night of shut eye bears all kinds of gifts. A full night of sleep will enhance your memory performance and creative problem solving skills the next day, not to mention make you a better person to be around by helping you see the positive in your interactions. Oh, but there’s more of course. A good night’s sleep will further boost your athletic performance, including speed, accuracy, mood and overall energy.

Then there’s your immune system. Hate getting sick? How about cutting your risk for the common cold and other basic illnesses? Your immune system is, in fact, most active during sleep. (So, that’s why the flu leaves you in a coma-like state…) To boot, adequate sleep makes you more resilient to daily stress, which supports your immune functioning that much more.

Finally, there’s the big picture. Solid, consistent sleep over the long-term has been linked to self-reported “successful” aging.
The Ugly World of Sleep Deprivation

Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds. ~JoJo Jensen, Dirt Farmer Wisdom

Now consider the flip side. Believe it or not, you’ll die of sleep deprivation before you will starvation. Of course few people ever venture that far into the insomniatic tunnel, but the fact underscores the damage done when we skimp on sleep. When you pull that all-nighter or drag yourself through multiple months of newborn-induced sleep deprivation, you feel like crap because, well, you’re body is legitimately struggling. Every system suffers in some regard. Make no mistake: even a single hour of missed sleep takes its toll, as the research on daylight savings time shows. If you continue down the path of scarcity, you build up what experts call a sleep debt – one that the body tries desperately to repay.

In the short term, you find a full spectrum of unsavory impacts. On the cognitive side, you sacrifice all manner of memory abilities, including short-term and working memory. Over time, even long-term memory and the generation of nerve cells are impaired. Of little surprise is the impact on emotional mood and well-being. Sleep deprivation has been shown to increase the risk for conditions like depression and exacerbate pre-existing psychological illnesses. However, even a single night of sleeplessness can throw our emotional regulatory abilities out the window. Sleeplessness causes our emotional selves to revert to their more primitive roots, effectively shutting down the reasonable prefrontal cortex and putting the primally defensive amygdala in the driver’s seat. One study even linked sleep deprivation with a corresponding increase in people’s dissatisfaction with their primary relationships. (An important bit of perspective to cranky new parents…) Finally, the physical self pays a price of course. A single night of sleep loss increases systemic inflammation, and (as I shared Monday) impairs the body’s ability to handle the kind of moderate oxidative stress we deal with every day.

When you graduate to the extended – however “minor” – levels of sleep deprivation, you’ll enjoy the above experiences (magnified of course), all the while putting significant strain on many of your body’s systems, including your neurological and cardiovascular systems. One study found that skipped sleep led to a shrinking brain. Bye, bye gray matter! The heart and kidneys also take a beating as does your blood pressure. You, in fact, put yourself at continually increased risk for a whole host of lifestyle diseases, including obesity and diabetes. The logical extension of this pattern? Numerous studies link partial sleep deprivation/disruption and increased mortality risk!
Not All Sleep Is Created Equal

“An hour before midnight is worth 2 after.” ~Sleep Proverb

Although it might feel like it some days, it’s not an instantaneous plunge into cataleptic nothingness. Sleep fills a progressive spectrum of sorts. The process and pattern of sleep reveals the complex, dynamic experience it is. We likely all recall the REM and non-REM designations gestured to in our middle school health classes. The picture is a little more complicated than that, but those categories represent the bones of it. Essentially, the body moves through three stages of non-REM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep that are called N1, N2 and N3, proceeding eventually to REM sleep (typically with a N1, N2, N3, N2, REM pattern) and then back again through numerous cycles throughout the night.

Phase N1 represents the initial switch in brain wave frequency. It’s the stage in which you feel like you’re mostly under but can still see the light above the water. It characterizes most surreptitious office naps that people think no one will notice – until your head slips off the hand that was holding it up. (Hmmm…forgot about that N1 relaxation of muscle tone, I guess.) Most notably, it’s the stage in which you scare the crap out of yourself and your spouse with those annoying sudden jerks. From there, N2 takes you down enough that any residual awareness of your environment is gone. Finally, N3 takes you into deep, slow wave sleep. Those of you who walk or talk in your sleep tend to begin performing now.

If you recall from your textbooks, REM sleep hosts most of our dreaming, particularly those memorable bits in the early morning that confound us for hours throughout the day. Although muscle tone was progressively relaxed in non-REM sleep, it’s generally non-existent in the REM stage.

REM sleep constitutes about a quarter of the typical adult’s sleep. The N2 stage of non-REM sleep makes up an additional half. The remaining quarter is split between the initial N1 stage and the deep sleep of N3. We experience most of our deep sleep early on in the night – hence the instructive proverb about going to bed early.

What moves us to sleep in the first place, however, is our circadian rhythm, the physiological clock responsible for putting in motion temperature changes and hormonal releases associated with sleep and waking. As we approach sleep, our body reaches its highest concentration of adenosine, a sleep promoting neurotransmitter. Simultaneously, the body begins to kick out melatonin and begins reducing our core temperature, which will hit its lowest point in the second half of our normal sleep schedule – around the time when melatonin will incidentally be at its highest. Our best sleep, not surprisingly, results from staying on consistent course with our natural circadian rhythm and – if we nap – not napping too late in the day. Speaking of which…
Closed for Siesta

There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than in all the alcohol ever distilled. ~Edward Lucas

I’m a big believer in naps, and I consider them one of the most useful (and pleasurable) of the PB sensible vices. Research supports the benefit of inducing the relaxation response each day, and one study showed that even the anticipation of a nap can lower your blood pressure. Following a truly bad night, naps can help us recharge our cognitive and physical stores. Longer naptimes following sleepless nights tend to include more REM sleep for better restoration. Although some “authorities” might balk at the healthiness of daily napping, I think long-time tradition (as well as the natural circadian rhythm) shoots that one down sufficiently. Problems can arise when naps signify symptoms for an otherwise unhealthy lifestyle or when they become a consistent, necessary stand-in for good sleep quality and adequate hours each night. Nonetheless, for those with young babies or swing/night shift jobs, sometimes the best Primal choice we can make is doing the best we can with the reality in front of us. Naps can be part of that effort.

Our Need for Sleep

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one. ~Leo J. Burke

Of course the need for sleep varies by individual. Though most of us fall into the pot of the seven-eight hour average, others of us genuinely can’t get by without nine or ten. A few lucky ones among us hit our optimum with only six or so hours of shut eye. (These folks are honest to goodness mutants, as science has confirmed.)

However, the majority of our sleep differentiation is determined by age. Babies, no surprises here, need the most (however patchy it is), while adults require the least. The notion that older adults need less sleep is actually hogwash. Although sleep patterns become more fragmented as we age, we still need the same good old average. Sleep still fosters critical hormonal secretion (like growth hormone) necessary for healthy aging. One study in particular linked solid sleep with higher levels of testosterone in older men.

Children, however, are especially susceptible to the ravages of sleep deprivation. Sleep is essential for babies to learn and retain new information. Sleep deficits have been long been linked to an increased risk of ADHD, depression and behavioral problems in children.
Getting Some Good Primal Sleep

There is no hope for a civilization which starts each day to the sound of an alarm clock. ~Author Unknown

In Grok’s world, of course, there were no alarms, no clocks, no trains to catch or appointments to make. Likewise, there were no lamps or computers, T.V.s, smart phones and all the other technological gadgetry that tests our circadian rhythm and tempts us to stay up instead of hit the sheets. Although Grok and his tribe didn’t turn in the second the sun fell below the horizon, they undoubtedly slid into a hunkered down, lower key mode. On a typical night, the darkness – even with a central fire or bright moon – would’ve been enough to impose a quieter sense of consciousness. The stars, the flames would’ve been enough to inspire calm, maybe meditative stillness if not sleep. What would our experience of night be – how rested and composed might we feel – if we spent ten to twelve hours in relative darkness?

Although I suspect most of us have at least several hours to trudge through before we can call it a night, maybe some of you are already planning a clandestine nap this afternoon. (There’s always our Primally approved plan for selling your boss on the siesta idea….) Looking forward to sleep is the first step to taking back bedtime, I’d say. Not only is it an essential investment for your health, it’s one of life’s best luxuries. You wake up looking better and feeling like a million bucks. How much better can it get? Now take the money you’ll save on extra coffee and buy yourself a nice set of sheets or the pillow you’ve always wanted.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our past tips for a great night’s rest!

P90X Review

I have decided to review the P90X workout regimen and give my honest opinion of it only after being asked several times about it. I want to make it clear that this is my opinion only and is not to meant to undermine the program or anyone who has had success with it.

Pros:

It is a well put together program that offers some variety. It comes with a diet plan and exercise log that are probably the 2 most important keys to the success of this program. In other words just doing the workout set before you is not enough. You need to track workouts in order to improve and you will not meet your weight goals without the diet program. It is able to be done for the most part in the privacy of your own home with vary little equipment. There seems to be a pretty decent sized community on the internet for support.

Cons:

Not enough variety. Although there is some variety, most people will either peak or get bored in about 60-90 days. There is no where near enough load bearing exercise (use of weights). There is so much to be said for resistance training in regards to fat loss, bone building, core strength and a whole list of things. The diet plan is not the lifestyle change that I can see people sticking with. It has to be realistic or else your setting yourself up for failure. Working out at home though it sounds nice but is often a challenge. There are many distractions and many excuses not to exercise at home. Sometimes people do better in an actual exercise environment.

In summary I would say that this workout is certainly better than nothing. People who have been doing nothing will most certainly see some progress if they are pushing themselves and eating right. It is in my opinion not the answer for a long lifestyle changing exercise program.

“Is It Really That Important to Warm-Up?”


One of the most neglected ingredients to many athletes’ training program is proper warm-up prior to training. Many athletes don’t even consider performing a warm-up beforehand or if they do it is generally done very poorly and more often than not, incorrectly. For example, athletes can be found warming-up without wearing shoes, the wrong kind of shoes such as flip-flops or unsupported shoes, immediately stretching without any sort of prior warm-up or just simply poor execution of the warm-up exercises in general. All of these prevent the athlete from accomplishing the true importance of a warm-up, which must not be done just because you are told to; it has a purpose and multiple benefits such as:



• Increased core body temperature

• Increased muscle and connective tissue elasticity

• Improved movement patterns

• Increased proprioceptive awareness

• Strengthened stabilizers of joints and spine

• Increased dynamic flexibility

• Readied nervous system for athletic movements

• Prepared better, psychologically for activity




The two most important benefits are lessening of chances for injury and maximized performance from a properly completed warm-up. Once completed, the body and mind are now primed to act within the necessary parameters required for the sport. Remember, one way to tell if you have done an adequate warm-up is that you will have a little perspiration, which means the body is truly warmed-up and ready for more strenuous activity.



When developing a warm-up program for an athlete, it is imperative it follow the needs of the sport as well as the athlete in regards to any possible areas of soreness and/or past injuries they may have or had in the past as well as any weakness in motor skills. The warm-up should utilize many varying dynamic exercises physically preparing the athlete, be it a workout, practice or competition. As stated before, most athletes simply feel it is enough just to stretch before working out, which is known as static stretching. The problem with this is the athlete’s body is not properly warmed-up to stretch creating a situation similar to placing a rubber band in the freezer for a couple minutes, then pulling it out and attempting to stretch it. It doesn’t take much to hypothesize that the rubber band simply snaps under these conditions, which is the same thing that happens to an athlete’s muscles when just stretching is performed without prior warm-up. However, it is appropriate to statically stretch following a training session, especially for any problematically tight muscles or muscular imbalances since the body is properly warmed-up at this point. Instead of utilizing static stretching, athletes should incorporate dynamic exercises into their initial warm-up; exercises that incorporate range of motion through movement. The reason for this is they better prepare the body for movement, increase flexibility, can be more specific to sport and can increase overall conditioning level.



A warm-up can be designed to last anywhere from five to thirty minutes depending on needs of the athlete, discipline, time available and reason for warming-up. Most warm-ups will generally last five to fifteen minutes before practice with the longer warm-ups being utilized at competitions. If you start warming-up consistently for two weeks before training you will see a dramatic improvement in your ability to start the session since the readiness of your physical and mental states will be dramatically enhanced. This is especially true for those athletes who probably just rolled out of bed with very little if any breakfast and expect to complete their workouts. On the other hand, you have athletes who rush to skate after work, have been sitting at an uncomfortable desk all day and now expect to move through a full range of motion without a proper warm-up. From these few points, I hope everyone is now saying “point well taken” and are willing to start a proper warm-up before training.



Because of all of these benefits, when you think about it, nobody really has an excuse not to warm- up prior to activity. While there are many more, these are just some of the exercises utilized on a daily basis in our warm ups.



Warm-Up Exercises:

Butt Kicks


Leg Cross


Pistol Squat

High Knees


Prone Scorpion


Split Squat

Back Pedals


Mountain Climbers


Soldier

Side Slides


Frogs


Sumo Wrestler

Grapevines


Supine Leg Raise


Knee Grab

Side Steps


Front Body Bridge


Box Checkouts

Skips (distance/height)


Ab Bridge


Jump Walk-Throughs

Lunge


Jump Jacks


Jump Rope

Reverse Lunge


Vertical Jumps


Torso Rotation

Squat-G.M.-Calf Raise


Long Jump


Opposite Knee-to-Elbow



By utilizing any of these exercises in a structured format every athlete is able to warm-up their body appropriately before practice or competition. However, it is essential that all of the exercises be done correctly and with substantial effort to achieve their maximum potential towards warming-up the athlete. Now is the time to begin implementing a warm-up into your daily routine if you haven’t already and with all of the benefits how could you not?