Real World Strength Training

This is a natural movement outdoor strength training session that I modified slightly from a recent Men’s Health article which you can read here (I don’t think the workout is posted online, only in the physical magazine article). I had fun going through it, and I can tell you without a doubt that this one will challenge you a LOT. This natural movement session will definitely have your body burning fat, building muscle in places you didn’t know you had them, and conditioning you for natural human movement. I was drenched in sweat when I was done, and feel like I truly accomplished something primal. Give it a try if you’re feeling brave!

Here’s the instructional video…

Natural Movement Outdoor Strength Training Session

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Here are two quick workouts for those that like trying something different than your normal everyday strength training routine.
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Moving on all fours should come naturally to humans. Personal trainers and strength coaches tend to label it as an animal exercise or animal movement, when in reality, it’s just natural human movement. Humans learn to crawl even before they learn to walk, and children are adept at moving on all fours in a variety of ways. We tend to lose this natural ability as we grow older and don’t practice or play on all fours anymore. The truth is that moving on all fours is our birthright, and we are completely entitled to being able to master this physical skill even throughout adulthood.

Moving on all fours is great for a lot of reasons…

1) It can be done anywhere and doesn’t require any equipment
2) It is an integrative movement, not an isolation movement that can improve strength, endurance, power, balance, coordination, and agility.
3) It can be used for fat loss, muscle building, or general conditioning goals.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to begin to rediscover the value of moving on all fours. Pretending like you’re an animal stalking prey makes it all the more fun…

How to Move on All Fours: Basic Crawling Fundamentals

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In medical school, aspiring doctors learn a lot more about drugs and treating the symptoms of disease, rather than how to prevent disease in the first place. It’s likely that the nutrition and fitness courses they are required to take in medical school don’t offer a comprehensive solution to the prevention of disease.

Nikhil Rao wrote in his article What Your Doc Doesn’t Know About Weightlifting (article here):

medical education is extremely intense, and extremely broad. It has to be. That said, there is a lot it doesn’t cover. We learn the atomic structure of every amino acid (most of us promptly forget all of this after the biochemistry final). We learn the equations for cardiovascular physiology. We learn the branches of every nerve, the origin and attachment for every muscle in the human body.

But we don’t learn the basics of healthy nutrition. We don’t learn about cardiovascular and musculoskeletal adaptations and responses to exercise. We don’t learn about how insulin facilitates the utilization of protein and creatine.

Rao makes a good point in his article that doctors are taught about how to treat the symptoms of disease, usually with drugs and/or surgery, but they are NOT taught about how to prevent it through healthy lifestyle strategies like physical activity and a healthy diet.

Now, wouldn’t it make sense that our culture should place a stronger emphasis on the study, education, and practice surrounding the topic of DISEASE PREVENTION, rather than disease treatment? You would think so, but it’s not the case – and that’s a story much too long for this article to tell. Basically, my opinion is that it all boils down to the love of money, and how that contributes to the medical industry.

Instead, most of our culture’s resources are spent on the research and practice of DISEASE TREATMENT, not prevention. Now, I see a similar theme present in the fitness industry – except it’s not doctors that are to blame, it’s personal trainers.
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Running should be a joyful experience, not a boring or exhausting workout.

Today, I went for the perfect run. Why was it perfect? Because I utterly enjoyed it, and I know that it was exactly what I needed today. That’s how training should be – our desires should line up exactly with our needs.

Not only was I eager to get outdoors and run, I wanted to do it right. I wanted to practice the perfect run and know that when I was finished I had done something right and good for me. Allow me to elaborate.

I ran Fall cross country, Winter Track, and Spring Track and Field in high school, and my events were the long distance events. I put a LOT of miles on my body in three years. So many miles, in fact, that I overtrained into injuries that ultimately led to almost three years in physical therapy, which was terminated early because I had maxed out the funds my health insurance was covering. I won’t bore you with the details.

It’s probably too obvious to say that I approach long distance running with caution these days. In fact, I remember saying that I would never run again. That’s what the doctors and specialists were telling me, and I eventually believed them for awhile. I’ve learned a lot about running since then, including many things that I would do differently if given the chance to return to the past.

Today, I definitely will not allow myself to stumble back into the running methods of my youth. I approach each run in a very different manner than I used to, and I want to share some tips about how to run better with you.
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June 22, 2009 – Moderate Intensity Day
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The phrase General Conditioning has problems in and of itself because we don’t know what we’re talking about. There isn’t a world-wide definition of what general conditioning entails. Certainly, general conditioning is different from one person to the next. The general conditioning of an olympic swimmer is very different than the general conditioning of a traveling businessman. The U.S. military has a different definition than the Chinese military. Even U.S. colleges have different definitions of what general conditioning is.

Think about it…

Is being able to run a 10k in 50 minutes good general conditioning?

What about being able to do 10 pullups, 30 pushups, and 50 bodyweight squats?

How about being able to carry an 80 lb rucksack through moderate-difficult terrain for a weekend?

Aren’t those all qualities of general conditioning?

So, the first problem is that general conditioning requires a definition – which immediately makes that conditioning SPECIFIC. Even if you make the definition of general conditioning very broad, you still have specific means of obtaining it.
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