On the politics of Paleo...and then some

Hey there :-) Hope your weekend has been enjoyable so far. I love Saturday evenings because you have a whole other day to look forward to before you have to go back to work! Of course, there are many more reasons why Saturdays rock, but you already knew that :-)

Anyway, I digress. I hadn't really planned a post when I sat down this evening to write one, but that's not anything new. In fact, I kind of like that the inspiration for my posts comes naturally and they're (for the most part) not planned out in advance. It lends a certain excitement to this whole blogging thang.  But I always need to write about something (or else this would be the blog equivalent of Seinfeld), so I decided that this fitness article I came across on Self magazine's was as good a choice as any!

Now, if you clicked that link and took a look, you may see why I deemed this article blog post-worthy. The article's entitled "Build Lean Muscle with Eight Primal Moves" and the article goes on to illustrate eight bodyweight exercises, complete with form cues, that are named after wild animals. For example, there's the Kangaroo: a sort of variation of the plyometric jump squat; and there's the Ostrich: a basic alternating lunge. Some of the more far-out exercises like the Monkey look like something you might do in a Parkour class! According to the article, you should do each exercise for 30 seconds each, rest for 90 seconds, and repeat the sequence a second time.


Now, don't get me wrong: I love a little novelty. One thing that the fitness industry cannot be criticized for is ever becoming stale. The field is constantly evolving; fitness buffs continue to open studios and gyms, touting their techniques as the latest in the industry; and there is no shortage of research reported day by day, minute by minute, to keep us informed about the science of exercise and the perceived effectiveness of certain methods over others. However, how often do studies come out that completely contradict one another? How many times do our own personal fitness experiences contradict what the latest studies show? It's happened to me, and the scary thing is that sometimes, despite my results and how great whatever method has been working for me, these studies make me question myself and my efforts. I end up second-guessing myself, trying new things, realizing they don't work, and going back to what I know works for me and my body.

My point is that maybe this over-saturation of fitness information is doing more harm than good. And it's not just the information: it's the presentation of the information. It's the repackaging and regurgitation of the decades-old information into something more on-trend, snappy, and marketable. Take this "primal workout" for example. With all the buzz surrounding the Paleo lifestyle and its claim that eating and exercising like our cavemen ancestors is the way to achieve the best health, it's no wonder the folks at Self published a fitness article to appeal to this craze. The funny thing is that "Paleo" is really just a fancy word for "low-carb" and the foundations of Crossfit are some of the oldest, most commonly prescribed exercises ever. History has a funny way of repeating itself in the fitness world ;-)

I'll be the first to admit that the way Self mag chose to present these exercises was ingenious. They used all the sexy buzzwords in the article, and made the exercises accessible because they can be done anywhere because they rely solely on bodyweight. Since reading the article a few days ago, I decided to interchange some of the moves with others into my strength training routine. I substituted "Iguana" for a 30-second plank...or so I thought. What I actually did is called "Alligator," but who other than a reptile expert would really know that?!? I kid, but I think you catch my drift: you can call an exercise Iguana, Alligator, Panther, Monkey or Bull Frog, but how does that inform the exerciser? How is slapping a snazzy new name on a squat going to make an exerciser perform a squat well? That answer is that it's not. I think that coming up with new ways to do things and present information is an important part of what makes the fitness industry so cool and dynamic. However, I don't think we should be encouraging it at the sake of the fundamentals on which healthy bodies are built. After all, there are only so many animals after which we can name a damn exercise!