The Original Primal Workout

With all of the new buzz going around of the paleo lifestyle lets not get caught up in the glitz and glamour and examine what a true paleo workout was. There are tons of scenarios that our ancestors could have faced, fights, chasing one another or animals, swimming, climbing, jumping, traveling long distance, traveling long distance with a load, building structure, gathering fire wood, hunting and many more.

Lets discuss the last one a little more in detail, Hunting. I am a hunter out of passion and for sustenance. Now most hunters go walk down a trail and climb a ladder into a tree, sit, wait, shoot, and go get there truck or atv and drive up to the animal and haul it out. There are tons of hunters that do things differently, I do both. The paleo hunter most likely would have stalked most of the time. Not to ruin romanticism but a true hunter is also an opportunist taking what he can when he can, but for sake of arguement lets say our hunter is full and happy and is looking for big game to full his storage of life giving food.

On a hunt our hunter will most likely travel to an area known to hold animals (running, jogging, traveling). When he reaches his area he is going to slow down to make his presence as unknown as possible. Stalking through the landscape moving slowly holding his weapon is hard work ( air squat holds, slow lunges). If he is in an open area he might travel in between areas at a rapid pace (running) or he might climb rock or a tree to get a better vantage or even hang out in a good transition area in hopes game will travel by ( climbing, pull ups, dips). When his game comes we will say perfect clean kill, now the work begins. If its a deer it could be 100#'s plus which means one or more trips back to camp (heavy lifting, long distance travel with load). I have drug and carried many deer out of the woods by hand, through swamps knee deep in mud, under trees, over trees and your tired, sweating, your muscles are tired and sore, its a workout and a half a lot of times.

So lets go over what we have for a workout , running, jogging, long distance travel with our without loads, pull ups, dips, lunges, squats, heavy lifting which would include all kinds of different muscles in use. Thats how our bodies have developed over time to function. That should be the best way our bodies will respond to physical activity. Thats why if you want to get strong you lift heavy weights in small amounts of reps with lots of rest. Your body is responding to the demand and is growing to cope. Thats why p90x and workouts like it are successful in shedding fat and building muscle, because your body wants to be light and powerful to adapt to the stress it is encountering in the workout.

I will continue to post my thoughts, my workouts, my diets and my response to the massive amount of information that is now available to everybody on the internet, I hope you enjoy. Some of my favorite sites to read up on daily are marksdailyapple.com , sealfit.com , sealgrinderpt.com , cavemanpower.com , crossfit.com , movnat.com and dieselgym.com. Check them out.