It is confession time.

I have been slacking. I could make a million excuses (which I have), but fact of the matter is that I have been lazy. I have not fallen of the primal wagon per say but I have not been doing everything I could/should.

I have been eating healthy, but not with my same primal intensity and attention to detail fitting to the SoG and I have only been averaging one, yes one 30 minute workout a week. This has been going on for the past 3 months now since I left for work travel.

The result is that I am not out of shape (its is hard to get out of shape even when slacking and living primal), but I am not in the shape or the health that I truly want to be in and that I know I can be in.

It is time for a resolution of sorts. Time to get back to what makes me the SoG… not the Slack-o-G. So here, I say to you… I am going to get Primal. I am going to get dirty, hardcore and happy Primal and I want you to join me.

If you are interested, post your own confessional if you have one and post your dedication to the most important cause their is… your own health and well being. Not doing everything you know you could/should? For the next 4 weeks lets dedicated ourselves to kicking our own buts in gear. You could call this a challenge of sorts but I am not going to bait you with crappy prizes. Our rewards will be our results.

Here is how I am going to help:

1. You may notice 2 new tabs at the top of the page. Back when I actually had more time I started putting together some fitness plans. I almost completed the first of these but never got around to adding the polish and posting. I will make this available over the next couple days… polished or not. I have also had enough interest in an SoG cookbook that I am going to start putting one together… for free. I don’t have an ETA on the cookbook yet but it will be a mash-up of basic Primal cooking advice, my favorite recipes and some new recipes.

2. Email me. If you fall off the wagon, feel free to email me your woes and I will be happy to help you get back on track. Need some help or advice? Or do you just have an inspirational post for yourself or your primal compadres that you would like to see me post? E-mail me. SoG@sonofgrok.com

To kick this off right, Wednesday will be official Primal Enchiladas day. I really promise this time…

Now I better get to work on the Fitness Programs and Cookbooks!

This is my idea of a "fun" workout

“I Hate Working Out”

I hear this a lot (mostly from Roger De Rok).

If this is you or how you feel as well then I have some good news for you.
YOU DON”T HAVE TO WORK OUT TO BE HEALTHY AND IN SHAPE.

If you think that what I just said is unprimal… think again.

How often do you think Grok thought “Man… I need to work out more”?
He didn’t.
Instead he thought “Man… I need to get some food” or “Man… I need to build some shelter” or “OH CRAP THAT THING HAS BIG TEETH… I NEED TO RUN AWAY”.

All these things translated into exercise which we do need to be healthy and in shape. “Working out” is not the only way to get exercise though. Planned and scheduled “workouts” do not have to be part of the equation.

Working out is indeed a good way for us to get exercise and for us to make up for all the things that Grok did standard that we no longer do. Working out is also quite convenient when you don’t have the time, weather, or opportunity to get exercise in other ways. Some people even enjoy working out itself and more power to them. I myself have been working out 1-3 times a week depending on how active I am outside of working out. I have been doing a fair amount of outdoors activity lately and so have not felt a need to work out too much. I have been going to the lake the last couple weekends which involves a lot of swimming, jumping, climbing etc.

If you hate working out though, don’t stress! Just make sure that you are getting your exercise through other means. This can be done any number of ways including playing a sport, taking a hike, exploring, yard work, home improvement projects. Just be active!

If you can find a manner of exercise that you enjoy, then getting exercise will never seem like a chore. Also, if you get bored of getting exercise one way, switch it up and find another. It is why the workout crew likes to switch up their workouts so they don’t get monotonous.

Don’t let your lack of motivation or your distaste for working out keep you from a healthy happy you!

Ready to jump back down!

Why do I live here then? Well it’s a long story but I own my house… can’t afford to move somewhere I would like to live and frankly it is rather cheap and inexpensive to live here. In fact it is so cheap that they call this the “land of entrapment” (a play on our state slogan “land of enchantment”) because it is so cheap that once you live here you can’t move away and if you do… you usually end up back. Anyways I am now ranting and it is completely irrelevant so back on track….

I live on the Westside of Albuquerque. This side of town is basically built on a true high desert plateau. I live on the edge of this. What this means is not that I have access to mountains and the like… I have access to a wide open space of dirt, sagebrush and million year old lava flows.

But if life gives you lemons, make some lemonade. I started doing Arroyo Sprints. Roger De Rok has joined me once a week for these and it has become more than a workout or excursion… it has become a down right primal ritual for us.

Here is how Arroy Sprints work:

Shirtless and barefoot (well Roger wears a t-shirt and converse), walk 4 miles through the desert that looks a little like this…

Steep dirt hill between us and the PTG

Top of dirt hill. Lava flow hides PTG

It really is a nice hike aside from being the desert. You are surrounded by desert wildlife. There are jackrabbits, birds and lizards everywhere.

We hike until we get to here…

The Top Secret Primal Training Grounds

This arroyo has been lovingly dubbed the “Top Secret Primal Training Grounds”. It is an arroyo that is tucked down between a lava flow and a high sandy bank with lava rocks that is hidden from sight and has probably not seen water in a bajillion years. The trees are the only desert trees really around and for a short time every year bloom into a lovely pink blossom almost like a cherry tree.

Once here, we do 10 short sprints down the arroyo (only 30-50meters) with 10 seconds of rest in between. Once done we immediately, unceremoniously and silently walk away and begin our trek back. It is very cool.

I made a crappy video of it. I seem to be talking like I am intoxicated but I assure you I am not. It was a one take deal with my cell phone… it was very bright and also very hot out and we had just finished our trek to the Primal training grounds. Oh and the hairy (slow) guy with dreads is Roger De Rok (almost 100 pounds lighter now!).

Sprinting in the sand is amazing exercise. It feels like you are trying to run in slow motion. It is hard, its is dirty, it is good Primal fun. These excursions are also great for getting fresh air and sunshine. All in all, this is one of my favorite ways to get a little exercise during the week.

I have often pondered and said that if you give me a competetive athlete and a couple weeks in the Primal Training Grounds, I can delivered insanely improved performance.

The ancients knew what sexy was

“I want to look good naked”. Kevin Spacey said it in American Beauty… I love that line. Who doesn’t want to look good naked? I think most everyone can sympathize with this statement.

Unfortunately most of us just don’t look good naked. I can remember times when I could put on a set of designer cloths and look pretty “fly” (like my hip lingo?) but I would wear a shirt to the beach or swimming pool because clothes… well clothes hide a lot.

So what is the key to looking good naked? What even is looking good anyways?

Truth be told, we all have different body shapes, body styles, and features. This is a GOOD thing. Maybe everyone wants to look like Brad Pit or Carmen Electra or whoever but really, we wouldn’t want everyone to look exactly the same.

What we really want to do is to look good in OUR body… and I believe that to be 100% possible. The keys to this in my opinion are symmetry, proportion and health.

Health is probably the simplest part of this equation. Eat right avoid trauma and get some exercise. We know this from the Primal Blueprint. Symmetry and proportion are more difficult aspects. Think of the local gym. There is big chest man, big arm man, shoulders chick, good ol’ chicken legs… and any other assortment of moderately healthy and in shape but unsymmetrical people. Symmetry is one of the most coveted things a bodybuilder can possess. Arnold had it, it goes heavily judged at any competition but it proves so hard for most people to achieve. Why is that?

I think it is training methods. The emphasis in conventional wisdom on isolation exercise and training has led us down this path. I still followed the traditional isolation separations “Chest/tri day”, “Back/bi day”, “leg day” etc. even after going primal. I no longer believe this is the way to go. I am now all about full body circuits and compound movements. Train the entire body and let it do the hard work (or easy work when you think about it ) of symmetry and proportion. In my opinion, this is the ultimate way to a balanced, symmetrical, healthy physique.

Some disadvantages of isolation training:
- Sever DOMS (muscle soreness)
- Joint Strain
- Disproportionate muscle mass leading to discomfort and long term posture and pain problems
- Workouts get.. well boring

Advantages of full body exercise and compound movements:
- Athletic build
- Symmetry and proportion
- More entertaining workouts
- Body designed better to natural and functional movement

This is why I am using these types of workouts for both beginners and experts in my fitness programs that will begin to be be available for FREE download here on the site soon. Oh snap… there it is… I let the cat out of the bag. I have been working hard on putting together some SoG fitness programs. The first one I am hoping to have up here on the site within the next couple weeks. You heard right too that they will be available for FREE download.

It is my goal to build a series of programs for people starting from the simplest beginnings for those getting started and expand the collection over time to advanced programs specifically targeted at athletes and the like.

What are your thoughts on training methods? How about the SoG programs? Are you looking forward to them or are you expecting them to be crap?

Image courtesy www.travelblog.org

Its been a while since I had a post that wasn’t me being depressed, pensive, overly thoughtful or whiny. Sorry about that. I think it has been a mixture of no time to exercise, being too injured to exercise, and working from dark to dark which = no vitamin D. So lets get back to health and fitness!

Since the rollerblading incident, I have not been able to do much in the way of exercise. Just Monday I was going to try some burpees and after doing one discovered that my tailbone was NOT ready to do burpees. Ouch. I haven’t lost much in the way of looking fit despite not working out hardly at all for the past couple weeks but I am getting to that point where I really want to do SOMETHING.

I have started doing those exercises that I know I CAN still do. Mostly light work, jumping jacks, punching bag, push-ups and pull-ups… that type of thing. I have been getting a little creative too and that is where I discovered this one… I have a new activity that I am enjoying incorporating in my exercise and it is awesome.

Crawling… yes crawling. This is more exercise than you can imagine.

I don’t mean getting down on your hands and knees and shuffling around like a baby. I mean get down in a plank type position… feet and elbows on the ground, butt low and really crawl. Keep your tush down and go for it. Don’t believe me? Go try it right now.

Forget planks (ok well don’t forget planks.. they are still good but..) this will really engage your stabilizers. This feels pretty primal too… think of Grok sneaking up on prey, or hiding and escaping a predator. Maybe their is a tribal war going on and rocks and spears are flying overhead! Stay low and move fast!

Try it out! Let me know what you think! When your co-workers ask about your rug-burns… just smile.

*P.S. I updated some of the colors on the site to enhance readability. Let me know if it helps or not.

I workout basically ever other day (around 3 days per week). I workout for around 30 minutes. I workout hard, continuously and with very little rest. Between sets or exercises, I hit the punching bag, sprint on the stairstepper, do jumping jacks or something. That is my rest.

A lot of the emails I get tell me something to the effect of “On days I don’t workout, I do sprints or tabatas etc…”. Well, not me. Sprints, tabatas, etc ARE workouts. I incorporate them into my every other day workouts. On the days in between, I rest… I don’t workout at all! with the exception of my30 min to 1 hr walk of course which I TRY to get in 5 days per week.

I have a list of about 15 different workouts that I do. I go down the list. This is not to “shock my muscles” or anything like that. Rather it is to keep me from getting bored and to keep working out entertaining. This list is not definite and if I feel like doing a new or a different workout, I will throw it in. I try to go climbing once per week which I count as a workout (not on the list as it gets inserted whenever the day falls). The list alternates some light workouts with some heavy and works out very well for me.

The list looks like this:

“Interval” workouts involve some type of sprints and some light intervals. “Tabatas” involve 4 or 5 different light tabatas. Once I complete the list, I start over.

As always, if my body needs an extra day rest, I take it. The list takes about a month to get through so I only do the same workout (with a couple exceptions) once about every month.

I do end every workout almost exactly the same though. I do one set of heavy deadlifts and one set of heavy hanging power clean into overhead press after every workout.

Do you train similarly? How do you train? What are your thoughts?

Sorry for the Myspace-esque cell phone pics

Appologies for no post yesterday. I actually had one typed up but thing after thing came up and I never got to post it. I will put it up tomorrow. Also awesome commentary everyone on the Bacon post! really great discussion.

Yesterday I did a long overdue 300 test. This is after a week of not working out. Thats right, I haven’t worked out at all for a week… not even my walks. The closest thing to working out I have done is planting a couple trees in the back yard. Even that didn’t take very long nor was it very hard. For the past week work, working towards this hopefull promotion, transportation issues, life and various other bits and pieces have been coming up one by one and I just have not worked out.

I will use this to make 2 points… that are somewhat contradictory to each other lol.

Point 1: You can take a week off from working out without wasting away or taking major steps backwards. As you can see from the picture above (taken last night), I have not lost all my muscle, gotten fat or significantly changed in body composition at all. Some people are afraid of missing a single workout as they are afraid they will instantly begin regressing and losing hard earned gains. This just isn’t the case. Everyone knows I am a big fan of listening to your body and taking extra rest when it needs it. In this case, my body didn’t need it… my schedule did… but either way, its ok to miss a workout or 2 from time to time.

Point 2: This is not a free pass to make a habit of missing workouts or to stop working out! My performance WAS impacted. I completed my 300 test, but I did it in just over 30 mintes (this is a slower time). I could feel the impact to my body of the prolonged time off. It took it longer to get going in the workout and the workout was definitly harder than it should have been. It seems like one good workout was enough to get me back in the swing though and I am sure I will be 100% back on track by my workout tomorrow.

So, you can miss time working out… its ok. You do not need to freak out or mentally stress that you are taking leaps and bounds backwards if you miss a workout or you take extra rest time. BUT expect some impact to your performance and expect some extra time to be needed to get back into things.

Take the time you need but don’t take advantage or overdo it!

Your thoughts?

Getting coffee in my MDA "Grok On" Shirt

*The picture is completely unrelated to the post but i needed a picture. This is me harvesting coffee in what I imagine is the true Columbian tradition for ages… at the grocery store

Last night I was finally able to work out again. This is after a 4 day hiatus from training. I am sure you are asking yourself  “Ok well what happened 4 days ago then?” Well whether you actually are asking yourself that or not, I am going to tell you.

I am sure you have all heard that it is important to “ease yourself into plyometrics and intense bodyweight exercise”. This saying sounds almost ludicrous… I mean… its a BODYWEIGHT exercise for crying out loud. Well I fell victim to this line of thinking which forced me into the 4 day exercise hiatus lol.

It all started with a lack of motivation to really work out hard. I was going to train some legs but I didn’t really feel up to throwing around some heavy weights. I started with some full on front squats. Wearing 60#’s of weight vest and a 60# bar, I did 4 sets of 12 full range squats. Then I did 4 sets of 24 walking lunges while still wearing the vest. So far good workout but nothing really hurting me or motivating me. Next… plyo jump sprints up the stairs and then about 50 meters. Ok these started getting my heart rate up and motivating me to finish my workout hard. I wanted to do some box jumps, but I had destroyed my folding chair (see testerday’s post) and I had not yet built my box jump box so I did….

…Exploders. That is what I call em anyways (I think they might officially be called “squat jumps” but I am not positive). I am pretty sure this is where I did the damage. Bodyweight only (or wearing a weight vest if you are real good), squat down all the way (almost like Mark Sisson’s indigenous peoples stretch) then as quick and as powerfully as you can, “explode” up into standing and into a jump as high as you can. I did 4 sets of 8 of these.

Next thing you know, my legs are in excruciating pain for 2-3 days where I can barely walk unassisted and another day worth of tightness to wear there is no way I am working out. I evan woke my wife up one night because my leg cramped up so bad in my sleep that I woke up screaming lol.

Moral of the story in 2 quick points:

#1. Exploders are awesome! Do them… try incorporating these in your workout. Tabata protocol would be great with these.

#2. Listen to your body. If you need that extra rest… take it. It is the only way for your body to properly rest and recover. It is also the best way to see results!

Have you ever wrecked yourself with plyos? Are you familiar with exploders?

Sidenote: A friend gave me an idea for an awesome primal snack that I am going to expirement with tonight. If it works out well, I will try to get it up tomorrow.

Simple, cheap, effective

If you don’t have a jump rope yet… go buy one. Head down to the local sporting goods store. A jump rope will cost you $10. If you are really cheap (nothing wrong with that), make your own. Simply tie a knot in both ends of a piece of rope.

There was a time when I was really into boxing.I would actually really like to get in the ring again but I can’t find a trainer that doesn’t want me to condition their way (which usually involves running miles and miles per day and overtraining). There are a couple habits (Some good and some questionable – reader Tim knows what I am talking about here lol) that I picked up from it that I still practice. One of the habits that I picked up that is truly awesome and good for life is jumping rope.

Benefits of jumping rope:
1. Its a cheap piece of workout equipment that takes up almost no space.
2. You can easily travel with it.
3. It is a full body workout. Works both upper and lower body.
4. It is a great workout. It burns mega calories!
5. It is a very athletic workout. It requires agility, timing, coordination and endurance.
6. It is an activity that is possible by both beginners and workout experts.
7. It is just plain fun.

What to do with your jump rope:
1. Try doing some tabata sets jumping rope (8 rounds 20 seconds jumping 10 seconds rest). Or try other forms of jump rope “sprints”.
2. Jump rope between set when you are working out.
3. Start or end your workout with a set of jump rope.

The SoG twist:
Being the quirky guy I am, I do have some advice on jump roping that may be slightly out of the norm. “Jump rope barefoot”. This may not sound bad to you but trust me… this is not for the weak of heart. When you mess up barefoot… it hurts and I mean it really hurts. This motivates you to get good fast. Jumping rope barefoot also strengthens feet muscles and the calves in ways you never knew existed. In my masochistic opinion, this is the only way to skip rope. If you can’t handle this though, don’t let it discourage you from jumping rope lol… just do it with shoes on.

These piglets have the eye of the tiger!

This little piggy did high knees.
This little piggy did none (but he did jumping jacks).
This little piggy did boxing.
This little piggy had fun (doing burpees).
And THIS little piggy did jump rope… all the way home.

This is a little Tabata workout I threw together the other day when I was looking to do a light little workout.Nothing light about it… I was pretty sore the next day! lol. This is a great beginner workout OR more advanced workout. I say either because the beauty of doing any Tabata type workout is that the more fit you are, the more difficult it is because you can rep out more reps. I think that this would be a great little workout on the road travelling.

The workout consists of 5 exercises done in 5 sets of 8 rounds of Tabata protocol (20 seconds balls to the wall then 10 seconds rest). The entire workout takes around 25 minutes.

If you want a great online timer to help you time your Tabata… I use this one.

1. 8 rounds Tabata high knees. Run in place as fast as you can bringing your knees up as high as you can.
2. Immediately into a 60 second front plank.
3. Immediately to 8 rounds Tabata jumping jacks. Hopefully self explanatory. Go as fast as you can!
4. Immediately into a 60 second left side plank.
5. 8 rounds Tabata punching bag. If travelling or no bag then shadow box!
6. Immediately into a 60 second right side plank.
7. 8 rounds Tabata burpees with pullup. If no access to pullup (traveling or don’t have a bar at home) then just do regular burpees. To do a burpee, stand up straight. Squat down and place your hands on the ground. Kick your legs out behind you. Do a pushup. Jump your feet back to your hands. Stand up. That is 1.
8. Immediately into a 60 second front plank
9. 8 rounds Tabata jump rope. If you don’t yet own one… go buy one. This is a great piece of workout equipment that is only around $10. Many of my future workouts are going to require a jump rope.
*10. If you have access to it, do 1 set heavy deadlifts & one set hanging power clean and presses.

This may be a little hard for the begginers but is great because you can do it in the comfort of your own home. Do not be discouraged if you can’t finish the workout. Keep building up until you can!