Fitness

Sexy and strong

Warning: You and your dance partner may have to scale these moves appropriate to your fitness and flexibility level.

CrossFit is officially mainstream

If you haven't seen it already, Reebok is now running CrossFit ads.  Expect to see one during the Super Bowl.

Just in time, CrossFit NYC is in the process of moving into a much larger space.  Right now it feels like we're working out of one of those shipping containers.  We'll probably look back on it with nostalgia.

Gawker: CrossFit is over.

Very German sporting events

From the WSJ:

But aren't too many athletes out there who can do what Rogelio Juarez does.  Juarez, 49, is a rising New York star in the tiny but transfixing sport of Masskrugstemmen, an endurance competition in which athletes—and they are athletes—try to hold onto an enormous beer for as long as they can.

Yes, exactly: Masskrugstemmen is the greatest sport ever invented.

Is there a gluten-free division?

 

MovNat at the Mets game

This is awesome.  Who says you can't do MovNat in the city?

Thanks to Rob for the link.

How to train like SEAL Team Six

Vanity Fair has an exclusive book excerpt from a veteran of SEAL Team Six.  Calling the training intense doesn't do it justice.  Insane might be more accurate.  I'm glad they're on our side.  Here are some cool excerpts.

On going barefoot on a mission back in Vietnam:

Under the cover of darkness, Master Chief Knepper’s squad of seven SEALs arrived by boat. Not even the moon shone. His squad free-climbed a 350-foot cliff. After reaching the top, they lowered themselves into the VC camp. The seven-man squad split into two fire teams, taking off their boots and going barefoot to search for a VIP to snatch. Going barefoot didn’t leave behind telltale American boot prints in the dirt. It also made it easier to detect booby traps, and bare feet were easier to pull out of mud than boots.

Of course, you're a bit more exposed to VC throwing grenades at you.

On obstacles courses testing functional, real-world objectives:

One of our first training evolutions included the obstacle course (O-course). One night a SEAL might have to exit a submerged submarine, hang on for dear life as his Zodiac jumps over waves, scale a cliff, hump through enemy territory to his objective, scale a three-story building, do his deed, and get the hell out. The O-course helps prepare a man for that kind of work. It has also broken more than one trainee’s neck or back—climbing over the top of the 60-foot cargo net is a bad time to lose arm strength. Much of our training was dangerous, and injuries were common.

What happens if you over-specialize in a gym or playing a sport?

Partway through, I ran to the bottom of a three-story tower. I jumped up and grabbed the ledge to the second floor, then swung my legs up. I jumped up and grabbed the ledge to the third floor, then swung my legs up. Then I came back down. As I moved on to more obstacles, I noticed someone stuck behind on the three-story tower.

There stood Mike W., who had played football at the University of Alabama, tears of frustration streaming down his face because he couldn’t make it to the third floor.

With a hint of Georgia in his accent, Instructor Stoneclam yelled, “You can run up and down a college football field, but you can’t get up to the top of one obstacle. You sissy!”

On having a mission:

Deprived of support in our environment and the support of our own bodies, the only thing propping us up was our belief in accomplishing the mission—complete Hell Week. In psychology this belief is called self-efficacy. Even when the mission seems impossible, it is the strength of our belief that makes success possible. The absence of this belief guarantees failure. A strong belief in the mission fuels our ability to focus, put forth effort, and persist. Believing allows us to see the goal (complete Hell Week) and break the goal down into more manageable objectives (one evolution at a time). If the evolution is a boat race, it can be broken down into even smaller objectives such as paddling. Believing allows us to seek out strategies to accomplish the objectives, such as using the larger shoulder muscles to paddle rather than the smaller forearm muscles. Then, when the race is done, move on to the next evolution. Thinking too much about what happened and what is about to happen will wear you down. Live in the moment and take it one step at a time.

Of course, there's plenty of polar bear swims.  Read the whole thing.  The book is SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper, and you can pre-order it here.  Thanks to RAC for the pointer.

And nice work, SEAL Team Six -- you did good.

DPRK-90X: The North Korean Workout Plan

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

Native Hawaiian surfer (1890)

This is the first known photo ever taken of a surfer.  Hawaii, 1890.

Look at the body composition.  No treadmills or Cybex machines, and probably a traditional diet -- certainly more traditional than today.  I wonder how old he is.  From the beard, he's definitely not a teenager.  I'd peg this guy in his 30s, but who knows.  Lean and mean.  And the posture: totally confident and relaxed.

Gentlemen, that is how you rock a loincloth.

Two other (non-surfing) photos here.  Thanks to Zoe for the link.

The Top 10 Health and Fitness Trends of 2010

I'm the type of person who will jump on any new trend, just because it's cool.  The Thigh Master, Tai Bo -- hell, if I had been alive in the 70s I would have been pounding out the miles in newfangled pair of Nikes instead of barefoot running.  Because I'm flaky like that.  So let's see what Outside Magazine had to say about the Top 10 Health and Fitness Trends of 2010.  

10. iFitness (health apps) --  I should track more stuff, but I don't. Tracking will continue to improve, this is here to stay.

9. Vitamin D -- Ding, ding, ding!

8. Boot Camp -- Is that like a more gimmicky form of CrossFit?

7. The Shake Weight -- This should be on the top 10 trends of the 21st century.  Here's the original ad, plus the SNL spoof (hilarious adult subject matter).

6. The Gluten-Free Diet -- Gluten free is the paleo gateway drug. (via Evolvify)

5. Tone-Up Shoes and Clothes -- Tone-up clothes??  You've got to be kidding me. "Honey, I need a new tone-up clothes...I've gained weight."

4-3. P90X and TRX -- Muscle confusion will eventually go the way of the dinosaurs. 

2. Barefoot Running -- Ding, ding, ding!

1. Paleolithic Fitness -- Our very own Erwan Le Corre and MovNat, picking up top honors.  And the article points to a lot of paleo elements.  Totally sweet.

So let's check the score board.

  • Dead on with 5: Vitamin D, Gluten-Free, Barefoot Running, and Paleolithic Fitness.  And I'll count CrossFit as better form of Boot Camp.
  • Kind of missed on 1: iFitness and better tracking
  • Avoided 4 other fads or jokes: Shake Weight, Tone-Up Shoes / Clothes, P90X, TRX

That's a pretty damn good tally.  Welcome to the epicenter of the health revolution.  At least, until I go chasing the hot new trends of 2011.

Update: A few commenters have pointed out that P90X and TRX incorporate positive non-faddish developments, like HIT (high intensity training), higher movement variation, and more compound movements.  You're right, and that is all good.  But 10 years from now, will people still be doing P90X and TRX?  I don't think so.  I don't think HIT is a fad, but I do think the popularity of specific branded approaches are more likely to be fads...particularly when there is little community (CrossFit) or deeper meaning to the approach.

Don't be a toaster: Why fractal geometry matters to your health

Benoit Mandelbrot, founder of fractal geometry, died yesterday.  He was 85.  To most, Mandelbrot is an unknown or obscure mathematician -- possibly known only by the psychedelic graphics called fractals.  So what does fractal geometry have to do with health?

Mandelbrot's important insight is that fractals are the geometry of nature.  As Mandelbrot wrote: "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line."  Very helpful if you're trying to generate realistic special effects in movies.  How do you generate a realistic looking sky?  Or mountain?  With fractals.  Here are some examples of fractals in nature: here, here, and here.

Here's why fractals matter to your health.  Stop trying to impose a machine-like regularity on life that isn't natural.  Life is bursty, non-linear, and unpredictable.  There are regular patterns in life, but they are self-similar resemblances and echoes, not exact copies.  A toaster is regular, on-time, and predictable.  Don't be a toaster.  Be a wild animal.  You don't need to eat three square meals a day -- sometimes you will eat two, one, or even fast.  You don't need to eat the exact same number calories every day -- maybe it's 2,300 on Tuesday and 1,800 on Wednesday and 2,800 or Thursday.  Don't run the same distance on the same treadmill at the same speed at the same time of day every day.  A healthy heart beat is slightly irregular.  There are no exact clocks in nature, and we do not need them to be healthy.  The body thrives on a certain amount of variance and irregularity.  Don't be a toaster.  Be a wild animal.

Art De Vany has been most instrumental in incorporating these ideas into human health and fitness, and I hope we'll see a post from Art on this subject in the next few days.  Nassim Taleb's tribute: "A Greek among Romans."

 

Why you should try to burn fewer calories, not more

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.

Good form allows you to do more with less.  Athletes understand this.  Good form allows you to:
  • 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
Or say that you're in the wild on a persistence hunt.  You don't know how long the hunt will last -- 2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles.  If you're successful, you'll have more work ahead of you to butcher the animal and possibly carry it some distance.  If you're not successful, then you still have some work ahead of you.  Due to the uncertainty of life in the wild, you want to accomplish your objectives while conserving as much energy as possible, husbanding your resources, and being more efficient.  For a given objective, you want to burn as few calories as possible. 
 
So the next time you hear someone say that an activity is a great way to burn calories, alarm bells should go off.  Remember that whenever there is an external goal -- like in sports or life in the wild -- there is a desire to expend fewer calories for a given motion.
 
It's not about counting calories.  It's about moving and exercising in the right ways.  It's about eating the right kinds of foods.  It's quality, not quantity.

Eukonkanto: The Ancient Sport of Wife Carrying

A Finnish friend of mine (also paleo) recently told me about a new workout he's been doing.  He shoulders his wife using a fireman's carry, and then does squats.  No joke.  Works his strength and balance, and her abs too.  

Apparently, there is a whole sport around "wife carrying" in Scandinavia.  Seems to have begun as a joke in Finland, mimicking some past time when men ran off with women.  Here's a Village Voice article that describes wife carrying as what cave people used to do, but the much more recent Vikings were probably much better at it.  (Practice makes perfect.)  Regardless, what began as a joke now has national and international competitions.  Still small, but growing.  My buddy and his wife want to compete.

There are different types of carries: the fireman's carry, piggyback, or Estonian-style: "the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist."  See the picture.  Pretty awesome.

Check out the rules at Wikipedia.  Here are two I like:

  • The track has two dry obstacles and a water obstacle, about one meter deep.

Kind of like a mini Tough Mudder, but for couples.

  • The wife to be carried may be your own, the neighbor's, or you may have found her further afield; she must, however, be over 17 years of age.

Now really.  There should be a prize for couples that are, in fact, married.  And just like you have age/gender groups in road races, you could have anniversary tiers.  You compete against other couples that have been married for 5-10 years, 10-20 years, 20-30 years, and so on.

Because don't forget the most important thing that wife carrying strengthens: your marriage.

Workout Anywhere #24: The Hotel Rooftop

With the right mindset, you can find a good workout anywhere.

I was at a wedding in Chicago this weekend.  The hotel had a nice gym (by conventional standards), but I had forgotten to bring VFFs or sneakers.  And of course, they don't allow people to work out barefoot.  So I did some laps in the pool, then went out on a sun balcony and improvised my own CrossFit-style workout.  I used different pieces of furniture for box jumps and uneven push-ups, and then did some squats, burpees, and some ab work.  A few circuits of that hit the spot.  Plus, a stunning view of Chicago, fresh air, a nice breeze, and no rules on footwear.
 
Finished, I went back into the pool area.  A hotel employee walked past me and out on the balcony, apparently looking for whomever was jumping on furniture on the roof.  He went that-a-way, sir, and I got a good look at him: no beard, short hair, very clean cut, wearing shoes.
 
Another benefit to high intensity, short duration workouts: you're done before the authorities notice and can come tell you to stop.

It's hard to sprint on a treadmill

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.

NBA players moving away from hightops

The athletic shoe is having a rough few years.  From best-selling Born to Run, Harvard professor Dan Lieberman's work on barefoot running in Nature, to the success of Vibram Five Fingers.  And now, the NBA: players are moving away from hightops that allegedly provide more ankle support.

"One of the reasons hightops are going out of vogue, players and injury experts say, is that there's some research that suggests they aren't very good at protecting your feet. NBA players missed 64% more games last season because of foot-related injuries than they did twenty years ago, according to NBA statistician Harvey Pollack."

There are multiple reasons why foot injuries could be going up:

"Players have gotten taller and heavier, the pace of the game is faster and the NBA postseason has gotten longer."

But for a piece of conventional athletic wisdom, "ankle support" has surprising little support.

"Craig Richards, a researcher at Australia's University of Newcastle, published a 2008 article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that catalogued academic studies in athletics and found no evidence that sneakers limited injuries. His research actually found that hightop basketball sneakers make players run slower and jump lower."

 

(Thanks to Cheryl for the pointer.)

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