Category Archives: The Laws of Exercise

The Best Book on How to Barefoot Run now available on the Amazon Kindle Store!

Posted on by
Reply

Hi all!

Just wanted to share the news – The Best Book on How to Barefoot Run by Charlie Reid and myself, is now available on the Amazon Kindle store.

For those who don’t know, the book is a detailed summary of everything Charlie and I learned as we progressed back to barefoot running – the history of shoes, biomechanics of barefoot running, how to do it safely, and an 8-week program!

Since the book (and accompanying videos on YouTube) represents 3 years of each of our lives, countless hours of effort, hundreds of dollars spent on minimalist footwear, books and seminars, and hours of research time, the $7.99 price is a STEAL.

Get the book and let me know how you like it!

The Best Book on How to Barefoot Run!

Posted on by
Reply

It’s up and available for purchase!

The Best Book on How to Barefoot Run, written by Charlie Reid and yours truly, covers the history of the shoe and barefoot running, evolutionary considerations, foot function and health, strength training, and an 8-week running program.

The one thing we really tried to do was to focus on getting YOU the reader back into your body, and into your own experience of barefoot running.

Go buy the book and let me know what you think!

Maximum aerobic work – the measure of optimal development

Posted on by
Reply

In other news…this paper by Apanasenko is GREAT!

He’s talking about a way to categorize fitness testing for children, but some of the statements he makes are fantastic, and can help our understanding of the way our bodies work. Check it:

“PD [Physical Development] is regarded as the key criterion of ontogeny optimality, reflecting the “physical strength resources…”

“Manifestations of life, however diverse, are always inseparably linked to energy transformation. The entire evolution of life on Earth is a process of the improvement of intracellular respiration (energy production) and the transition from predominantly anaerobic to aerobic energy-production mechanisms [8]. This means that evolution resulted in the successive appearance of animals with increasingly higher levels of respiration intensity (Fig. 1).”

“The biological meaning of this process consists in an increase in active metabolism, providing the completeness of adaptive reactions. The physical meaning of progressive evolution is to move farther and farther away from the state of equilibrium, from the state of the primary environment where the first living systems appeared. The conclusion is obvious: progressive evolution of life is associated with an increase in the intensity of the energy production of organisms.”

“The higher the available reserves of bioenergetics, the more viable the organism. The ability to mobilize the resources of organs, systems, and the body as a whole is the first condition of its immediate adaptation to extreme factors. All basic complexes of stress reaction, i.e., the increase in active metabolism, providing the completeness of adaptive reactions. The physical meaning of progressive evolution is to move farther and farther away from the state of equilibrium, from the state of the primary environment where the first living systems appeared. The conclusion is obvious: progressive evolution of life is associated with an increase in the intensity of the energy production of organisms. Thus, the increase in active metabolism, or energy intensification of the secretion of the adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosteroids, hyperplasia of the adrenal cortex, and even ulceration of thegastrointestinaltract(mobilization of proteins for gluconeogenesis), are links of the immediate adaptive response aimed at mobilizing the energy potential. The more energy per body mass unit is produced, the more effective the biological function. Scientific literature shows a lot of evidence that the resistance of the body to various factors, from hypoxia and hemorrhage to penetrating radiation, is determined by the maximum energy production capacity [9, 10].”

Why is aerobic oxidation “more important” to consider than anaerobic? Well, as Jamieson points out in his fantastic book – the aerobic system is the one that is working all the time. Apanasenko adds “aerobic oxidation is several times more effective (economic) than anaerobic oxidation. Besides, it is necessary to take into account that aerobic oxidation, in addition to glucose, utilizes fats with twice higher energy values.”

Below is a picture of the testing model Apanasenko is proposing. Interesting for the “lay-viewer” because it shows what are currently considered to be key mortality/morbidity measures in physical health.

Mixed-methods resistance training increases power and strength of young and older men.

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s an old article for you – “Mixed-methods resistance training increases power and strength of young and older men” by Robert Newton and a bunch of other folks.

The ability to generate power is the main muscular capacity that adults lose as they age (I would argue that all “strength” is actually different expressions of “power,” but that’s another issue).

These researchers built a very simple and effective power-building program, and I want to share it with you:

“Each training session included the squat, knee extension, and knee flexion exercises on machines; trunk extension and trunk flexion exercises using free weights; and/or bench press or calf raise exercises on machines. During each week, the day’s training protocols…were broken down into a ‘hypertrophy day,’ a ‘strength day,’ and a ‘power day.’ For the hypertrophy session of the week, the subjects performed sets of 8-10 RM [repetition-maximum] with 1-min rest periods. This format of resistance training has been demonstrated to elicit a large response by the endocrine system and is hypothesized to provide a greater stimulus to increasing muscle size. The strength session concentrated on high-intensity resistance training using sets of 3-5 RM. Performing sets of low numbers of repetitions and using a resistance close to the subject’s 1 RM has been shown to produce gains in maximal strength. The third training session of the week was designed to specifically increase maximal power output. For this session, the subjects performed the squat and the knee extension exercises with lower loads, but for these exercises the subjects were instructed to complete the concentric phase of the movement ‘as fast and powerful as possible’ for 6-8 reps per set. All the exercises were performed using concentric muscle actions [shortening the muscle] followed by eccentric [lengthening] actions performed in a controlled manner during the ‘lowering’ phase of the movement. Each session the subjects performed 3-6 sets of each exercise. The volume of training [sets x reps] progressively increased throughout the 10-wk of training…During the 10-wk training period, the subjects continued taking part in physical activities, such as waling, jogging, or biking, one to two per week in a similar manner to what they were accustomed to before this experiment” (pg. 1369).

For those familiar with a “Westside-style” Powerlifting program, this is roughly similar to that.

If you were going to do this sort of program, here are the exercises I’d recommend:

Hypertrophy Day and Strength Day (increasing the resistance)
Squats (weighted or bodyweight)
Pullups (assisted or not)
Pushups or Bench Press
Glute-ham raises (assisted)
Hanging knee raises

Power Day
Medicine Ball Squat-Throws
Medicine Ball Chest-Passes
Band Snapdowns
Kettlebell Swings
Medicine Ball Side-Throws

ENJOY!!

The Secret to Being Fit, Strong, Slim, or Whatever Else You Want

Posted on by
Reply

Before I get to the proof, I’ll throw this big secret right out there. Ready?

PERSISTENCE

That’s it. That’s the secret to success in any endeavor. Of course, you might want to persist intelligently, but it isn’t necessary. Many highly unintelligent and poorly-thought-out plans resulted in success due to sheer persistence.

Now the proof? You mean, you won’t just take my word for it.

Ok, if you insist.

The “scientific” proof is very simple – nothing changes without change over duration. There is no such thing as “immediate” change. Even being cut with a knife takes time (though it might be rather short).

The body adapts to stressors over time. To PERSIST is to do something over the course of a period of time (and, usually, with the connotation that you are persisting against or in spite of certain odds or difficulties).

So, by definition, success requires persistence.

But yes, Josh, I see that…but what about six-pack abs?! What about biceps made of fighter jets?! What about my J-Lo booty?!

Again, all of those things require consistent effort over time. The more effort you can give over time, the greater the results you’ll see. It’s a simple formula.

Something’s gone awry in our culture, though. We tend to think that we should be able to change the results of 30, 40, or 50 years of a bad habit overnight, or in eight weeks, or twelve, or even in only one year.

But it isn’t always the case.

In fact, you were persisting that long at your bad habit, that one that got you that nagging knee injury, the one that got you whatever ailment you’ve got now, that you stay sitting in.

Steve Maxwell posted a great post about this recently, as did Frank Forencich over at Exuberant Animal.

How do you perfect the skill of persistence? The same way you perfect any skill – PRACTICE!

Practice persistence daily for best results. Doing something good for yourself (any one thing will do, to start) regardless of any other circumstances.

DeFranco’s Football Training Critique

Posted on by
Reply

Joe DeFranco is a coach, trainer, and businessman whom I admire very much. What’s best about Joe is that his business started because of his passion for football. He wanted to play at the collegiate level, but a back injury prevented him from ever playing again. Joe decided that if he couldn’t play, he’d help everyone he could get to the highest levels possible.

Even better, he’s been incredibly successful because of his devotion to conditioning, which has led to incredible results from the athletes who train at his facility.

Joe’s most recent blog post is about sport-specific conditioning – specifically, no surprise here, for football.

I’ve mentioned the SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demand) principle many times in this blog. If you want to have a crystal clear appreciation for what SAID means, and how specific you have to be in training the body, read Joe’s post.

A Relatively Simple Workout Paradigm

Posted on by
Reply

I want to give a brief explanation of the reasoning behind the workout paradigm I did a video of yesterday. Here’s the vid:

Now here’s the rationale.

There’s something called Henneman’s Size Principle (I know, right?). It says that motor units are recruited by the nervous system from smallest (slowest) to largest (fastest).

The small/slow muscles, because they are used all the time, are more fatigue-resistant. The bigger/faster units aren’t able to sustain contractions for very long, but when they do contract, it is very powerful.

The only way to recruit those large/fast/powerful motor units is through very intense (high-tension) work. Things like jumps, explosive/ballistic movements, and very heavy lifting will recruit more of these fibers.

Typically, those types of movements require greater stabilization assistance.

So, if you do endurance stuff before heavy lifting, 1., you won’t have any energy for it, and 2., you may be injured because your synergists (assistance-muscles) are too fatigued to help you maintain form/posture.

Therein lies the rationale for the sequence. Warmup (get things loose/fluid, neurologically prepared), Explosive or Ballistic movements (get those fast/large fibers, and the nervous system amped up) without weight, Max Effort (work up to a 3RM maybe), then Endurance or Hypertrophy work. If you want to do Isometrics, do them at the very beginning, in the warmup, at the very end, or at a different time.

That said, I only briefly mentioned the importance of good skeletal structure/alignment, and good movement patterns in the video. I’ll do another session about this topic later this week, but for now – make sure your posture is good, and you have good range of motion and control in your joints before doing any of this stuff!!!

Pay particular attention to the pelvic girdle, shoulder girdle, and neck…and then the peripheral joints (elbows/knees, wrists/ankles)…

more soon!