Exercise

Here's the Rocky IV training montage -- an oldie but a goodie.  Functional fitness before anyone realized it was a thing.  Though if you're training specifically for a boxing match, I wouldn't take either guy as a model for what to do.  It is, after all, a movie.

You think CrossFit is tough?  You think Ranger School is tough?  You think Navy SEAL training is tough?  You should try the new DPRK-90X, aka North Korean Special forces training.  This is from a translated interview with defector and captain of North Korean Special Forces:

The training begins on 5 a.m. The fundamental of the training is to turn the entire body into steely firmness, and the basic part is training the fist.

It's true, the fist is one of the most neglected skeletal-muscular groups in the body.

Mr. Im said, "You would wrap a tree trunk with ropes, and keep punching it. You throw 5000 punches day and night -- do that for a month, the inside of your fist swells up until you can barely curl your fingers." He added, "Then you open a tin can and set it up on a stand. You keep punching the sharp part. When your hand turns into mush with blood and pus, you start punching a pile of salt. Repeat it, and your hands become like a stone." Mr. Im explained, "You punch the salt so that the salt would prevent the hand from rotting away with the blood." According to Mr. Im, with the hand trained like this "you can easily break 20 sheets of cement blocks, and you can kill a person with three punches." His hands would naturally make a fist throughout the interview. This reporter had to respectfully ask that he unclench his fist during the interview.

That's just insane.  Utterly insane.  Never do more than 2,500 tree punches in a day.  5,000 tree punches a day, for an entire month, is just way too much volume.  I'd scale it back to 1,400 tree punches - but really make them intense - then take a rest day, and then increase 5% and do 1,470 intense tree punches.  (Alternatively, on the rest day, just hit the tree with a different body part, like a foot or an elbow.)  Also, when you punch the salt, be sure to use a high-quality sea salt (organic, if possible) in order to minimize your pesticide exposure. 

Want to work on your traps and delts?  Try "the Bridge":

The way to train shoulder and arm muscles was also unique. Mr. Im said, "You would take off your top, line up, put your hands on the shoulder of the person in front of you and put your head down. And then a car would drive on top of the outstretched arms." He explained, "The car goes fast enough not to break your arms, but if you don't concentrate your shoulder would be destroyed."

Don't make me tell you about "the Tunnel".

Add a little MMA, just for kicks:

In a martial art called "Gyeok-sul," the special forces train by sparring each other. Mr. Im said, "Kim Il-Sung used to say he wanted a warrior who can defeat a hundred, but honestly that's not possible. But we get trained enough to fight ten men without guns."

They do "polar bear swims" too:

In the winter, according to Mr. Im, the special forces are thrown into the sea around 4 km [TK: 2.5 miles] away. Mr. Im said, "The ocean temperature is about negative 30-40 degrees in North Korea in the middle of winter," and said "The salt water feels like blades; the capillaries all over your body burst out, and some people just die there."

As for their diet, it consists of whole grains porridge.  They're so poor, I bet they almost eat a vegetarian diet.  Of course, an alternative hypothesis is that they've discovered the secret to optimal nutrition.

My independent assessment?  The North Koreans are over-training.  Less is more, fellas!

Full article here.

Kim Jong Il, founder of DPRK-90X

Burning calories is a bankrupt concept.   And paying attention to how many calories you burn is as utterly bankrupt as trying to eat healthy by counting calories.

In the CBS piece about our barefoot running event, they suggested that a benefit of barefoot running is that it burns more calories.  Not only does this miss the entire point of natural running (a healthier stride, less injury), but it is factually wrong.  Research by Dan Lieberman up at Harvard (and others) have shown that barefoot running is more efficient -- i.e., you expend less energy for a given distance.  This is because, in part, you actually use your arch to store your momentum and release it in your next stride.  So if you run properly, the end result will be to burn fewer calories, not more.  And that's a good thing.

This is true for other movements too, not just running.  For any given exercise, you should seek to expend as few calories as possible.  Don't get me wrong, you want some big workouts where you burn through a bunch of calories.  That's why I say "for any given exercise".  But for that specific workout, you should seek to accomplish it as efficiently as possible.  That means good form.  No wasted movement.

• hit a golf ball further and more accurately with the same or fewer calories
• hit a baseball out of the park with the same or fewer calories
• throw a football further and harder with the same or fewer calories

Ever notice that it's nearly impossible to sprint at max speed on a treadmill?

This week I wrote about how refrigerator design reflects (and influences) what we eat.  Well, so too with our gyms.  The rows and rows of treadmills and ellipticals are a sign of our chronic cardio habit -- and the treadmill itself reinforces the habit by making it hard to do anything other than jog in a straight line at a moderate pace.  Spend too many years in a gym and you almost forget that sprinting is even an option.

I actually sprint on a treadmill sometimes.  Other people in the gym get nervous because nobody ever sprints on a treadmill.  There must be rules against such a thing!  They get worried that I'll wipe out.  And I do hold back just a little, just in case I don't find the Stop button on the first try.  (But only a little.)

Probably better to just go to the park and do some sprints.  Of course, I rather enjoy blasting the zombie joggers out of their treadmill stupor.