Brownstone Fitness

Information may not be reliable

Like education for our children, we abdicate too many decisions affecting our health to the professionals. On the surface, this makes sense. The specialized knowledge, training, and tools are the realm of the expert. Western medicine has its place. With acute or mechanical medical conditions, Western medicine should be the default. I don’t want a Thai massage therapist treating my mother for a stroke. The surgeon who put my knee back together after I tore my quadriceps tendon, was great – the first doctor who diagnosed it as a tear of my patellar tendon, not so much. I do know that my Reiki wasn’t going to get ‘er done.
An article in The Atlantic Monthly titled, Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science profiled Dr. John Ioannidis – He and his team have shown in many different forums that “much of what biomedical researchers conclude in published studies … is misleading, exaggerated, and often flat-out wrong.” He charges that “as much as 90 percent of the published medical information that doctors rely on is flawed.”
ProPublica has documented the “play for pay” that thousands of doctors engage in as they take money from Big Pharma as they push unneeded pills on their patients.
What Everybody Knows
I have many flaws but one of them is not a lack of epistemocratic humility. I have been aware of the limits of my knowledge for as long as I can remember and that has made me a seeker. My intuition and common sense dictate much of how I live my life. These things have informed my recent decisions about my diet and my family’s diet. As I mentioned in earlier posts, we are now eating Paleo. We do this in an effort to improve our health, fitness, body composition, and quality of life. We hope, but have no proof, that this will also improve our longevity.
Yesterday, during leadership training I was conducting for the Baltimore Police Department, we “somehow” digressed and had a brief discussion on nutrition. In my work with football players and police officers, I take some chances and bring up seemingly taboo topics like “love.” I had an easier time talking with these officers about the mythic quality of love as it applies to warriors for peace than I did when I tried to convince them to give up their bagels and “healthy” cereal.
They wanted to talk about the lack of significant human incisors for chewing meat and I talked about something more dangerous than incisors and claws – the human mind that developed with a diet dominated by animal protein that allowed it to create things like wheels, fire, and sharp pointy sticks. At least I did not have to worry about pointing out the health fallacies contained in most vegan arguments. Law enforcement vegans would definitely have been a shock!
In summation, let me share with you what I shared with them (courtesy of people like Robb Wolf).

Have plenty of spices in your pantry
Limit or eliminate dairy (with the exception of a little aged cheese and goat’s milk)
Eat animal protein, vegetables, and fruit (limit the fruit if weight loss is your goal)
Eat good fats in the form of olive oil, avocado oil, almonds, macadamia nuts, etc.
Limit cortisol by meditating, praying, sleeping in a completely dark room, and learning proper breathing techniques
Limit “chronic cardio” and engage in brief, intermittent, and intense exercise that includes resistance
Walk 30-45 minutes every day

Does anyone remember the 50 Million Pound Challenge? I don’t really, either. It was part of an effort in 2007 to address obesity in the Black community and the rising tide of preventable “lifestyle diseases” that are associated with it.
I See Fat People
When it comes to nutrition, the American people in general and the poor in particular have been lied to by the government which does the bidding of Big Agriculture. Big Box gyms and basketball courts capture most of the small number of my community who exercise regularly. Functional, lifetime exercise is a rarity. Information about a diet consisting of moderate protein, high fat (the good kind – yes, there is a good kind), and low amounts of carbohydrates gets washed away in a flood of high fructose corn syrup.
I’m Starting with The Man In The Mirror
Well, I intend to do something about it. First, let me say that I am not obese. My middle-age exercise regime now includes more flexibility and hypertrophy components but I will not leave the power exercises alone. The meal above – barbecued chicken with an apple compote, brussel sprouts sauteed in grass-fed butter, avocado, zucchini, and a pickle (helps with digestion), are representative of what the diet in my house has looked like for the past 3-4 weeks. The macronutrient profile is also representative of what our Paleolithic ancestors ate. This is also the diet that is more evolutionarily appropriate for our bodies. It’s the diet we will be following from now on with some concessions in the form of basmati rice and corn pasta for the younger children and guests.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be seeking platforms to spread the gospel of a Paleo lifestyle to people in poor communities. I have a feeling that I won’t get a lot of help from the established medical community since they are a subset of the triad comprised of politicians, pharmaceutical companies, and Big Agriculture.
Let me know if you’re interested in taking on a Paleo challenge involving exercise and diet. If I get enough people interested in being better than they are, I’ll find a suitable reward. We can join the world of Paleo pioneers covered by the New York Times; the readers of Free the Animal; the exercisers who follow Movnat; and people like me, who became convinced by the case made by Robb Wolf in his recent book. This is the Internet at its best. Stay tuned and in the meantime, let me know if you’re in. BTW, watch out. I just got my All-Clad Slow Cooker!(NOT an affiliate link!)

Who knew?! This may be the source of a lot of people’s health/weight problems.

Thought this was a pretty interesting story on the state of military fitness.
Also, I’m still figuring out how to develop my two start-ups, run three blogs, volunteer as a football coach, and be a father and husband. I WILL get better at all of them. Thank you for your patience.

For those of us who are serious about our workouts, overtraining can become a concern. Joint pain, lack of motivation, insomnia, lack of progress, difficulty with digestion, higher pulse rate, general fatigue, etc, can all be signs of an overtrained state. For anyone thinking about beginning an exercise program this can be de-motivating and yet another excuse to remain a couch potato. For the affected person, this can lead to injury or a regression in physical condition.
Part of the problem is the AFCWAF program that many trainers use. This is the acronym for “Any Fool Can Workout Another Fool.” Just because you can crush someone with your “blood and guts workout ” doesn’t mean that you should be ordained as a training guru. I believe that the problem of “over-training” is actually one of “under-recovery.”
You can’t push to failure in your workouts every day or even a few days a week. If you want to work hard you need to have your nutrition dialed in (including fish oil and vitamin D), get your eight hours of sleep, meditate or take a short nap, and pay attention to everyday stressors. Even doing these things, I’d like to make the case for a more rational training routine.
This is not a concern for the majority of the population. Just look at the health and obesity statistics in this country and it becomes evident. But if you are one of the tribe who sometimes pushes the envelope, give yourself a break and watch your fitness rebirth.
Training four days per week should be the goal. If you want to fit in an extra couple of days of walking -great. Otherwise the cycle should be:

Day One – this is an easy day consisting of joint mobility exercises or an easy yoga flow
Day Two- this a low intensity day that could include about thirty minutes of something like Ashtanga yoga, Pilates, or a short walk (1/2 hour) that would include some hills
Day Three – a moderate intensity day that would include bodyweight circuits or barbell/dumbbell complexes with light weight for about twenty minutes; you could also do some intervals interspersed with things like pushups
Day Four – this is your intense day and would include a hard weight workout or weights and plyometrics or hard sprinting

This sequence could be done four days in a row or you could place a day in between. On every intense day you want to increase weight, lower rest time, or increase the volume.
You’ll get stronger, faster, fitter without the nagging injuries, chronic pain, or lack of motivation. Let me knw if you have any questions!

The older I get, the more I value powerful, natural movement. As young people we were bulletproof. Past 50 (and even earlier for some), reality sets in. As a guy, being big and strong were the goals. Women of a younger age often want to fit into that special pair of jeans or to look good in that summer outfit.
Injuries, a little arthritis, and other competing priorities have caused me to re-evaluate some of my fitness goals. I still want to do more pullups and pushups than 80% percent of the high school football players I work with; I want to continue to deadlift more than twice my bodyweight while I’m still on this earth; and I want to pretend that there is still a workout routine that will allow me to grab a 10-foot basketball rim again. But I also want to play with my younger children on demand, sprint after the bus in winter and not have to worry about slipping or pulling a muscle, and move furniture up and down several flights of stairs when friends or family need my assistance.
I am now more conscious and evolved when it comes to my fitness and intend to keep all of the aforementioned goals. One of the biggest impediments to anyone’s fitness goals is the American lifestyle. When it comes to the battle between exercise and lifestyle, lifestyle will be the winner. We try to counteract years of bad eating habits and lassitude with New Year’s resolutions, and frenzied episodes at the health club.
The best many of us can hope for is to add strength to dysfunction. This will eventually lead to chronic pain or acute injury. Our gait, our balance, our sleeping position, our posture, and our balance all need more attention. The mobility of our hips and thoracic spines needs to be improved.
The intense weight training sessions and joint pounding runs of the small exercising population at least need to be offset by some Feldenkrais, Pilates, yoga,or Z-Health. Expand your movement repertoire with a little sprinting and Parkour. Get in touch with the Earth’s natural rhythm and wisdom by backpacking. Pay attention to lifestyle and movement and you might just find that you’re closer to meeting your goals for both fitness and aesthetics.

Soft tissue work, that’s how. Active Isolated Stretching (AIS), foam rollers and lacrosse balls have become an important part of my training. Active Release Therapy (ART) is even better but more expensive. Mobility is a critical and often overlooked part of the workout. The aforementioned methods can/should be used before and after workouts. Dynamic mobility exercises should follow the foam roller work.
These things help to get your body warm and help to get the “kinks” out. If we don’t mobilize and warm the tissue before exercise then we are not only limiting its potential for strength but we put ourselves at risk for injury if we try to layer strength on top of dysfunction. Our muscles are connected by a sheath-like material of fascia. This means that not only is “the shinbone connected to the ankle bone” but the pain we feel on the left side of our neck might be related to tension and dysfunction in our right foot!
Before the marathon running and big bench presses, we need to move without restriction. Mobility before stability before strength. Also learn how to absorb force. You’ll have more athletic longevity and you’ll be less likely to hurt your back carrying the groceries.