Rubber, Meet Road.

I don't work out to stay lean, or look hot, or even for the undeniable health benefits. Those are perks. The real reason I work out is so I can run my farm.

There's a 55-foot flatbed parked on my upper driveway. It towers with 6 rows of tightly packed bales of Oregon hay. The bales average 98 pounds -- 17 pounds under my own bodyweight -- and the load totals 16.2 tons.

My mission is to unload the bales from the trailer and re-stack them, 6 to 10 high, for winter storage. This must be done by early next week, so the trailer can make another trip across the border and return with another 9 tons.

It's a hell of a workout. Wrestling those bales into place takes me, singlehanded, about an hour per ton. I try to move about 3 tons in a day. The effort compares to the same time spent on a heavy lifting workout -- a bit more variety, no breaks between sets -- but it's similar. Plenty of real-life deadlifts, bent-over rows, front squats, and lunges. Throw in some sled dragging. And do it all in an enclosed space so full of dust and pollen that you have to wear a mask to keep your throat from closing up.

A while back, I wrote that fitness is choices. And it is.

But fitness is also the ability to do the job that needs doing, brutal though it may be. And I have it.

If friends stop by to help, it'll be much appreciated. The job will be done faster, and I can get back to training horses. But they probably won't, and that's okay. I can handle it. It'll work out because I work out.

And that, my friends, feels pretty damn good.

Bloody Marvelous

I just received the results of my first-ever blood panel.

Normally, I avoid conventional medicine (aside from emergency care, which is a whole other -- and much more impressive! -- ballgame) like the plague that it (mostly) is.

But, when Central District Health brought a $22 cholesterol screening and fasting blood glucose test clinic to my office, I couldn't pass up the chance for some cheap numbers. My inner geek demands regular feedings, after all, and I was dying to know whether this high fat, moderate protein, fairly low carb diet was killing me.

I've been primal (closer to paleo, actually) for a good 7 months now. Unfortunately, I don't have "before" blood work. A comparison would be fascinating, particularly as I'd been mostly vegan for the previous three years.

Anyway, here are the numbers as they came off the report. Interpretation to follow.

Fasting blood glucose: 84 mg/dL (Optimal is 60-100. Higher puts you in the pre-diabetes or diabetes category.)

Total cholesterol: 216 mg/dL (Optimal is under 200. Or so says conventional wisdom. Wait for it...)

Triglycerides: 38 mg/dL (Optimal is 30-150.)

HDL: 101 mg/dL (Optimal is 40 or more. This is the "good" cholesterol.)

LDL: 107 mg/dL (Optimal is under 100. According to conventional wisdom.)

I know enough about cholesterol to be unconcerned about these numbers, but for all the gory details, I pulled up this fantastic post, written by a knowledgeable member of the MDA forum. "Griff" has actually reversed full-fledged, type II diabetes with diet alone, and he knows his stuff.

As Griff explains clearly and thoroughly, total cholesterol is much less important than the ratios between the numbers, and LDL cholesterol numbers from a simple test like this are inaccurate in anyone with triglycerides below 100 mg/dL.

Let's start with that second point. LDL is typically calculated using the Friedwald formula, but it is well known that the formula only works properly, mathematically speaking, if trigs are higher than 100 mg/dL. Therefore, because my trigs only came in at 38, I know that the 107 listed for my calculated LDL is inaccurate.

Fortunately, there is a different and more accurate formula available. According to the Iranian calculation (detailed in Griff's post, if you're curious), my LDL is actually only 71.7 -- well within the optimal range of 100 or fewer mg/dL. So there.

Now, let's talk about ratios. There are three that count. Here are mine and what they mean:

Total:HDL = 216:101 = 2.1 (Ideal for women is 4.4 or lower. This indicates that my LDL cholesterol is predominantly Pattern A, or "large fluffy," which is neutral rather than dangerous.)

Trigs:HDL = 38:101 = .37 (Ideal is 2 or lower. This indicates low risk of heart disease, as well as low free insulin, which is a good thing.)

LDL:HDL = 71.7:101 = .7 (Ideal is 4.3 or below. Even using the inaccurate, Friedwald formula, my ratio is still stellar at 1. This indicates that I have very little carotid plaque.)

So. It looks like I'm not going to keel over from coronary heart disease anytime soon.

Pass the bacon n' barbell, please.
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For details of what I've been eating these past 7 months, check out the posts labeled Tuesday Tallies. You'll see that they've changed some over time (mostly in a carb-lowering direction), but the central principles have remained intact.
_______________________________

PSA: If you have bloodwork results of your own handy, please, PLEASE do yourself a favor and run the ratios on them. Your numbers can be low enough to satisfy your doctor, yet your ratios could put you in the danger zone. Conversely, you may have been prescribed statins (and all their nasty side effects) when your ratios are actually quite safe. See the MDA post linked above for easy instructions on how to do the math.

For further reading, there are lots of links in the post. See also Protein Power by the Drs. Eades.

Who Needs Lulus? (Or, How to Turn Your Ass from Sag to Sass)

Have you ordered your Lulus yet?

Apparently, they're all the rage among Crossfitters. Why? Because (in addition to being high-quality and high-comfort), Luluemon Athletica's pants are reputed to make even the most mundane female backside a head-turning exhibit at your local gym.

Which is great. I guess. If your backside is boring and you don't mind cheating in order to turn heads.

But who wants a Wizard of Oz butt? I mean, c'mon. Are those admiring looks really satisfying when you know, deep down inside, that your Luluemon tush is, behind the veil, a lemon? Who wants to worry about running into the gym guys at the grocery store, when your non-Lulued backside is waving its true colors behind your unsupportive slacks?

Talk about false advertising.

You want a real sassy ass, you're going to have to work for it. And don't give me that crap about being too old. The only reason we Westerners tend to lose muscle mass with age is that we get lazy. We expect to get soft. And weak. And unhealthy.

You do not have to lose muscle mass with age. At almost 32, I'm falling seriously behind on the bat-wing and saddle-bag curve that's practically required of women who've left their twenties in the dust. (Just try to find a scrap of fat dangling from my triceps. I dare you.) Similarly, Ironman, at 40, is regularly mistaken for a much younger guy. Why? He's lean and cut, and we're not used to seeing that on anyone over 30.

It's as simple as you've always heard, people: Use it, and you won't lose it.

But what if you've already lost muscle mass? Well, shut up griping and start doing something about it. You can build muscle whether you're ninety or nineteen, and whatever lean tissue you add will help keep you lean. The notion that metabolism must slow with age is a myth.

That's the good news. The bad news is that you do actually have to put some effort into achieving the backside of champions. Since it's we females who typically agonize over our butts -- resorting either to baggy sweats or Lulus to conceal or modify them -- this post is especially for women. (Guys who give a rat's ass what yours looks like: the concepts apply to you, too. Just keep away from the Lulus, k? K.)

Without further ado, here are four steps to a sassy ass. Guaranteed or your money back.

1. Diet

Yeah. Sorry girls, but nutrition is the single, biggest factor in leanness. If you want a perky butt, you're going to have to get rid of the layer of fat that conceals the muscles beneath. (We'll talk about developing those muscles in a moment.)

Contrary to popular belief, undamaged dietary fats (not to be mistaken for the frankenfats that are rampant in processed foods) do not make us fat. Sugar makes us fat. All carbohydrate is, as far as the body is concerned, sugar. Some carbs (most notably, vegetables) are worth the tradeoff. Most (especially grains and sweeteners) are not. Clean up your diet ala the Primal Blueprint or Whole 30 Paleo, and watch your bodyfat vanish -- not to mention a host of other health problems.

Still in the does-not-compute phase? Watch the Lustig and Taubes videos for accessible explanations of the science.

2. Squat

Air squats, heavy squats, Tabata thrusters, pistols... Pick your favorite variety, start at whatever level you can, and do them. Lots of them. Work up to heavy squats, because that's where the real money is in terms of gluteal development. You want perky, you gotta squat.

In a typical week, I do several kinds of squats. Thrusters and air squats appear in metcon routines, pistols are a staple of my gymnastics/bodyweight days, and backsquats are my personal favorite among all the heavy, compound lifts.

Do your homework on form. You know all those aerobics instructors who warned never to squat past parallel for fear of wrecking your knees? They were wrong, k? Here's Mark Rippetoe on the subject of squat form. Rippetoe (literally) wrote the book on strength training.

3. Lunge

Ah, lunges. These suckers are my best friend and worst enemy. Done properly, they're hellishly hard...but do them properly, and your glutes will be heavenly hard.

I started out with walking or standing lunges 3-4 times per week -- first without weight, then with dumbbells in each hand, then with the dumbbells plus a backpack stuffed with 35 pounds of sand. (Hey, you use what you got.) 4-6 sets of as many reps as you can do while maintaining good form will do the job. These days, I barbell lunge up to 95 lbs for 5x5s (5 sets of 5 reps each).

As always, do your homework on form. Then work it. At first, you'll notice sore quads. But those will develop, and you'll start to feel the real work in your gluteal muscles. Be warned: heavy lunges can give you a seriously sore seat for a couple days! It's worth it. I have yet to find a better way to sculpt my butt.

4. Sprint

Sprinting is particularly useful for developing a shapely tush because it tones the muscles without adding a lot of bulk. (Depending on individual genetics, most women don't need to worry about excessive bulk anyway.) Rusty of Fitness Black Book discusses sprint form and butt benefits in this article. And we all know that sprinting offers myriad other rewards, not the least of which is the promotion of a hormonal response that leads to the burning of bodyfat for fuel.

There you go. Applied with consistency and commitment, the four steps above will turn your ass from sag to sass. Then you can buy LuLus and really rock 'em -- because you don't need them!

Progress, Plateau, and Progress Again

[Continued from Part One and Part Two in response to this Reader Question about primal workouts.]

I finally got an update photo taken to go with the continuation of my reply to reader Rebekah, who asked for specifics regarding my primal workout plan. This shot is from April 4, 2010 -- it's not great, but you get the idea:

If you've been reading for a while and have a very good memory, you might recall that I started doing primal workouts about 13 months ago, well before I'd even heard of the primal blueprint. I didn't have much equipment, but I had plenty of determination and enough creativity to turn bodyweight and interval work into a very effective training program.

But you know us overachievers. Never satisfied, are we? I wanted heavier things to lift! I also wanted more energy with which to lift them...and my long-enjoyed flegan diet wasn't cutting it anymore. I began looking for solutions to my slow recoveries and frequent stomach bloating. You can read about my transition to primal here.

Going primal -- I was nearly 100% compliant by late August, 2009 -- gave my training program a major shot in the arm. After enduring an extended low-carb flu (6 weeks, presumably due to my formerly heavy reliance on carb-laden grains and legumes for the bulk of my caloric intake), I emerged stronger, faster, and more energetic than ever.

But I still needed heavy things. Stacking hay is great, but you can't do it every day. The beasties just don't eat that much! I needed iron. Finally, in late December, I bought it. My Christmas present to myself was an Olympic barbell set, squat rack, plate rack, curl bar, and the necessary accessories.

My workouts, which had moved indoors for the winter, underwent a significant shift. My late 2009 workouts were built around metabolic conditioning (Tabata and other types of intervals, usually "prison style" due to limited space and freezing weather) plus bodyweight/gymnastics work such as decline pushups, pullups, and HLRs. Once my barbell set came home, however, my schedule transitioned to something like this:

Day 1: Heavy
6x rotation of back squats pull-ups, bench presses, weighted HLRs, weighted dips, and military presses

Day 2: Gymnastics
6x rotation of pistols(aka one-legged squats), decline push-ups, pull-ups, L-sits, weighted step-ups, close-grip push-ups, planks and side planks.

Day 3: Sprints or Metcon

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Heavy
6x rotation of barbell lunges, chin-ups, deadlifts, bent-over barbell rows, weighted calf raises, and renegade rows.

Day 6: Gymnastics

Day 7: Sprints or Metcon

Day 8: Rest

Pop Quiz: What is wrong with this picture?

Gradually, I did less metcon and more heavy lifting and gymnastics. Gradually, my performance peaked...and plateaued...and dropped. Gradually, mild fatigue set in and I lost enthusiasm for training. Gradually, my sleep patterns became disturbed.

Yeah. I was flirting with overtraining.

Okay, okay. It spent the night.

In early March, faced with minor but unresolved pain in my left knee and resolutely mediocre performance, I took a week off. A whole week! (Oh, the mental anguish!) It was my first rest of more than two, consecutive days since September, when Ironman and I took an active vacation to compete in a multi-day equine endurance race.

After my week off, I spent another two weeks working my way back into a regular, amended schedule involving more rest -- and also a few more primal carbs, which now come in around 85 instead of 65 grams on the average day.

I'm still in flux, accommodating increased farm work now that we have more daylight hours, but my enthusiasm has returned. My strength is burgeoning, too. I set a couple PRs last week. I'm leaner than ever. Climbing again.

Notes:

I think there's a bit more going on here than overtraining. Just over a year into general physical preparedness training, and roughly 4 months in to my heavy lifting program, I believe I am teetering on the brink between "novice" and "intermediate." (Check out this fantastic reference.) My gains are starting to slow. I'm forced to work smarter, not just harder. As the weight goes up, so must my time spent in recovery.

About the abs: I like 'em. Some people seem to find them unfeminine, which is okay with me. They're entitled to their own, lousy opinion. ;) I've always said that I'd rather be athletic than classically beautiful.

Anyway, it has been my experience that weighted core work is responsible for the "6-pack" definition. I do renegade rows with 15 lb dumbbells, HLRs with 15 lbs between my ankles, situps with a 35 lb plate held overhead, and Turkish get-ups with a 12 lb dumbbell.

On post-workout nutrition: While leaning out, I found that skipping PWO food intake was an easy way to take advantage of the release of human growth hormone and maximize fat burning. However, a person can get too lean for optimum performance. I've found that, when increasing strength is my primary goal, I need to eat within about half an hour PWO. A little full-fat cottage cheese and fruit, or sweet potato roasted in coconut oil, goes a long way toward enhancing recovery.

On weight: I weigh myself about once a quarter. It's always fascinating -- but never so much as this last time, when I discovered that I've gained 12 pounds since last April. At 5'3", I'm up from 110 to 122. Wow! That represents a massive shift in body composition, from fat to lean, considering I had to buy a new professional wardrobe in January because all my suits were way too big!

I'd love to know my bodyfat percentage, but alas, I haven't a clue -- nor much faith in any of the usual measurement methods. C'est la vie.

The Gift of Fitness

One of my favorite things to listen to is the sound of my father's voice. I have listened to it so long, so intently, over the years that we are as alike in the cadence of our speech as in physical appearance.

I have gained more from his words than the rhythm of language. I've gained knowledge as well, much of it neatly encapsulated in remembered turns of phrase that I imagine he doesn't recall having spoken all those years ago.

"Money is choices" is one quote that stuck with me. Simple. Obvious, once you notice it. Ringing with the force of truth. And, I have come to realize, quite as applicable to fitness as it is to finance.

I once read that fitness is the difference between the most you can do and the least you can do. I like to keep that difference big. Huge. Broad enough to swing me from deep sleep to the oars of a raft sweeping into Crystal Rapid on the Colorado, to the back of a horse forty miles into a mountain race, to the summit of Pike's Peak with bare arms outstretched above the snow.

Fitness, like money, is bought with work. Time. Commitment. Effort. Often we enjoy it, but sometimes we don't. Sometimes, it is just plain hard. The barbell is heavy, the hill is steep, the road is long.

But look what we get in exchange! The embrace of life, my friends. Choices, and the strength to pursue them all.

Winds of Change: Primal Fitness, Year One, Part Two

[Continued from Part One in response to this Reader Question.]

I got serious about strength training in March 2009. By mid-May, things were looking pretty good. It's amazing what a few sprints and a bit of bodyweight work can do.


Having layered on some basic strength, I began looking for ways to add intensity to my training. While the format of my workouts remained much as they began, I increased their difficulty without purchasing equipment by:

• Graduating from standard push-ups to decline push-ups, starting with my feet on an 8-inch step, then moving up to 2 and eventually 3 steps.
• Transitioning from standard hanging leg raises (to "L" position) to the knee-to-elbow version.
• Adding pull-up efforts to the end of my pull-downs. I also did many pull-downs in which I lowered an inch, then pulled back up and inch, lowered three inches and pulled back up two, etc. It was a great triumph the day I managed my first-ever, unassisted pull-up!
• Making a "weight vest" out of an old school backpack filled with gallon-sized zip-top bags full of sand. Voila! A free and easy way to add 30 pounds to my squats and lunges. Holding 12-lb dumbbells allowed me to bring the total up to 54 pounds, which made a huge difference in my lower body musculature.

Notes:

On modifying exercises -- I discovered that although I experienced great benefits from increasing the difficulty of standard exercises (such as by switching to decline push-ups or knee-to-elbow HLRs), it paid to go back to the original exercise periodically. The modified versions may be more intense, but they also involve different angles of motion; if you only practice the modified version, you'll lose capacity in the original.

On grip -- As I worked on HLRs, I noticed that the limiting factor on my number of reps tended to be not core strength, but grip. My hands and forearms weren't up to dangling from the bar that long. Continued pull-up and HLR work got me through, but months later I discovered an exercise that would have sped the process: Farmer's Walks. Don't have two barbells? Try buckets full of water. After all, my fortuitous discovery was the result of a cold snap that forced me to haul water by hand to my 9 horses. Farmer's walks, indeed!

On training around injuries -- Did I mention that I tore my hamstring in April? The result of a nasty riding accident, that injury forced me to inject some extra creativity into my workouts. Lower body work such as squats and lunges was obviously out, as were sprints and distance runs. Even walking was off the table for several weeks. So, I decided to take advantage of my recovery time to focus on upper body work. I did push-ups, pull-ups (well, pull-downs), HLRs, planks, side planks, overhead dumbbell presses, and delt raises galore. And guess what? I emerged on the other side of that injury fitter than I began. Score!

On the role of diet -- One can't ignore the importance of nutrition in maintaining or improving fitness despite injury-induced modifications. Though I hadn't yet discovered primal eating, I kept my diet clean (that is, free of processed foods) throughout my recovery. Leanness is 80% diet, and despite my carb-laden, flegan choices, I didn't gain a single pound of fat during those weeks.

Speaking of diet, by early June I realized it was time to add more protein to my daily intake. This meant first the re-introduction of eggs (2 a day), followed by fish (several times weekly). Meanwhile, I was fed up with acne and stomach bloating, and looking for answers. That search led me to grain-free nutrition, the truth about fats and carbohydrates, and finally to the Primal Blueprint. I wrote about the transition here.

As summer progressed and life changes demanded that I be able to run my farm alone, I placed increasing value on functional strength. Cardiovascular fitness is great, but the ability to lift heavy things is invaluable when it comes to laying in a winter's supply of hay, repairing fence, lugging bags of feed, and watering livestock despite frozen pipes.

Yes, farm work is demanding -- but not necessarily consistent. I looked for ways to continue building strength during the lulls and, though I found many, my desire to own a bunch of iron increased. When I finally got it, the nature of my workouts changed. More about that in Part Three.

In the Beginning: Primal Fitness, Year One, Part One

A friend got me started on bodybuilding. A friend in another state, another generation, another class of athlete considerably more experienced than my own.

He was returning to serious training after about a year's hiatus. I needed to get moving, too, after a winter hunkered over my keyboard with whiskey in my blood and a novel on my mind. We began together.

At first, I imitated him without really understanding why. Hill sprints and push-ups, jump rope and air squats, stair repeats and lunges. He introduced me to the concept of general physical preparedness; that is, an approach to athleticism that balances strength, speed, endurance, and flexiblity to form a base for specific sport training and/or simply the ability to live fully and save one's own life should such an unfortunate occasion arise.

A bit of backstory
I come from a family that runs fairly lean on both sides. We're more or less mesoporphic in body type and tend to be on the active side. I grew up playing outdoors, entirely unconcerned about body composition, and never formally exercised until I took up running in college after a boyfriend informed me that I was fat. (His loss.)

The ensuing ten years saw me finish a relay marathon and a half-marathon, log thousands of daily runs with my beloved Dalmatian, attend an assortment of aerobics classes, bicycle my commute until I got hit by a car, and even join the treadmill troops at a local Gold's Gym.

Though I eventually bought In the Night Farm and laid on some decent muscle as the natural result of hours spent on farm chores, horse training, and riding, I can't recall ever curling a dumbbell heavier than 10 pounds in all those years. I may have been considerably fitter than your average 30-year-old, American female, but I was neither strikingly lean nor particularly strong.

Here's a picture of me taken in Summer 2007. See what I mean?

In March 2009, I could string together a whopping 6 push-ups...on a good day. Pull-ups were a pipe dream. I believed air squats should be performed only to a 90-degree angle to protect the knees, and couldn't have told you exactly what a deadlift was.

I owned almost no fitness equipment. Fortunately, although my workout partner did have a good home gym, he also had a strong interest in bodyweight work and high intensity interval training (HIIT). In the early days, I fashioned an effective "gym" from a hilly road, a flight of outdoor stairs, an iron stair rail high enough to dangle from, two pairs of dumbbells (5 lb and 12 lb), and a jumprope braided of used baling twine (not recommended).

Here's what those early workouts looked like:

Workout One
8x hill sprints (100 yards, sprinting up and walking down. Your sprint may not be super speedy, but it counts as long as you're running as hard and fast as you can at your current level of fitness)

4x rotation of:
Air squats (To failure. See "range of motion" below.)
Hanging leg raises (aka HLRs. To failure. I think I started with 7, after a month or so of more familiar ab exercises like sit-ups and planks.)
Pull-downs (Climb a ladder to "up" position and lower slowly)
Push-ups

Workout Two
Tabata sprints (Three sets. See "Tabata sprints" below.)

4x rotation of:
Lunges or walking lunges (To failure.)
Planks (Front and side. Work up to 2 min front and 1 min each side.)
Overhead presses (With dumbbells, to failure.)

Workout Three
Distance run (4-6 miles)
Reverse crunches

Workout Four
Escalating quarters (3-6x rotation of walk 1/4 mile, jog 1/4 mile, run 1/4 mile, sprint 1/4 mile on flat ground)

4x rotation of:
Air squats
Pull-downs
Push-ups
HLRs

Notes
Looking back, I am interested by the amount of work I chose to do each day. Though I largely avoided overtraining by following a 3-days-on, 1-off, 4-on, 2-off schedule and keeping each workout to an hour, I could still have achieved significant results with daily workouts featuring just the sprints or just the distance run or just the bodyweight rotation. Chalk me up in the obsessive category.

Also, it's worth pointing out that I didn't set out to bodybuild. (My friend actually had to tell me that that's what I was doing!) I simply aimed to achieve overall fitness -- and I did. Nevertheless, I've since refined my training program rather significantly upon discovery of the primal blueprint way of working out and eating. I'll get to that later in this series. For now, here are a few additional thoughts regarding the workouts above:

On sprinting -- At first, I used a quarter mile section of paved road for my hill "sprints." I later learned that 100 yards is a more appropriate sprinting distance and switched to a shorter, steep section of the same hill. Eight hill repeats (sprint up, walk down) takes about 18 minutes and is a fantastic interval workout that stimulates the release of human growth hormone and results in lactic acid accumulation and oxygen debt, both of which yeild powerful, positive metabolic benefits. Though I used to combine my sprint workouts with rotations of several bodyweight exercises, I now let my sprint workouts (which are faster, but not longer, than before) stand alone.

On range of motion -- A few weeks ago, I was doing barbell squats at an out-of-town gym. A guy came up to me and asked who taught me to squat like that. Assuming he believed (as so many people do) that I should be lowering only until my hips were level with my knees, rather than into a full squatting position (aka ass-to-grass), I asked if he was going to tell me that I was going to blow out my knees. He said no, but it was so rare to see a person do squats correctly that he assumed I must have worked with someone on my technique. I gave the credit to the Crossfit website and other online resources. "Well," he said, "that's a damn nice squat." You can do them too. See the "air squat demo" on this Crossfit link.

On increasing reps -- As stated above, I started out at 6 or fewer pushups in a set. I chose 10 reps as my first, significant goal. During each set, I pumped out as many standard pushups as I could, then dropped to "girlie-style" to get up to 10. If I had to rest mid-set, so be it -- but I was getting that 10! Within about six weeks, I could whip out four sets of 10 standard pushups and had graduated to decline pushups. Today, I can do multiple sets of up to 36 pushups with my feet on a 24-inch platform.

On Tabata sprints -- Tabata sprints are brief, all-out sets of intense exercises repeated 8 times, 20 seconds of work alternating with 10 seconds rest, for a total of 4, brutal minutes. They have a similar metabolic impact as other types of interval work. Tabata sprints can be performed on a stationary bicycle, or you can use thrusters (try it faster, with lighter weights and no ball), hop-ups (2-footed jumps up and down a step; start with 4-6 inches and increase as your fitness improves), stair repeats (run up and down a flight of stairs), jump rope, etc. The key is utter intensity. You must pour full effort into Tabata to reap its benefits. If you don't feel like you're about to pass out or puke afterwards, you probably didn't work hard enough.

On other things -- At this point, I was still eating flegan. It was a clean diet that served me will for several years, but frequent stomach bloating (which I now realize was due to gut inflammation resulting from copious whole grain and legume consumption) was an increasing irritant. On the bright side, I made the decision to give up alcohol so as to benefit as much as possible from my training. (I now have an herbal tea habit instead.)

While the workouts above proved highly effective, further reading and a major life change led me through a series of modifications for the better. I'll cover several such changes in my next post.

Recommended Reading:
Ross Enamait on hill sprinting
Fitness Blackbook on How Interval Training Works
Mark Sisson on the basics of Tabata sprints

Relative Strength Advantage on consistency and establishing basic strength levels

Related Posts:
Reader Question: Primal Workouts

Primal Fitness, Year One, Part Two

Progress, Plateau, Progress Again (Part Three)

Reader Question: Primal Workouts

Over the weekend, I received a delightful email from a reader, Rebekah, who included the following request:

You mentioned in a post that you started bodybuilding, but with an emphasis on functional strength. I'm a recent convert to the Primal Blueprint, and I'd love some advice as to what your workouts look like. I know I won't be able to emulate them entirely, but any advice you could give (if you have the time) would be greatly appreciated.

Rebekah put her finger on the reason I haven't shared specific workouts up until now: I was afraid that some readers, new to physical training, would throw up their hands and say "I could never do that."

But here's the thing. When I first got serious, I couldn't do "that" either!

Maybe Rebekah's right that she won't be able to emulate my workouts entirely in the beginning -- but she clearly knows that isn't what matters.

The important thing is simply getting started. Do what you can, be consistent, keep trying, and you'll be amazed at how quickly you improve.

Believe me, I can do a lot of things now that I once considered impossible -- and I have my eye on a lot more things I can't do yet, but I know one day I will.

Tomorrow, I'll begin a series of posts in answer to Rebekah's question, including specific workouts and some information on why I do them and how they work.

I'm no expert, but I'm an avid reader of the experts, and I've learned a lot since I started training almost a year ago. It's time to review the journey.

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Related Posts:
In the Beginning: Primal Fitness -- Year One, Part One

Winter Weekend

Ironman and I spent a fantastic weekend playing in the mountains. After a week of snowstorms, the sun came out in time for some snowshoeing in the hills above Ketchum.

This was the easy part, near the beginning, where someone else had already broken trail through the deep snow.

Before long, the going got tougher. Milo's decision to park himself on the back of my snoeshoe was less than helpful.

Onward and upward! I'm on a firm and easy section here, but you can tell by the snow on my clothes that we spent a fair amount of time slogging through drifts that were nearly waist deep.

The view from the top was worth the effort. Exhilirating weather, invigorating exercise, engaging company (human and canine)...what could be better?

Well, I don't know about better, but the surprise that awaited me when I logged onto the interwebs last night was almost as good. It seems my recipe for Fat Guacamole Devils won the Primal Snacks category of the cookbook contest at Mark's Daily Apple! Among other things, this means that I'll soon be modeling my very own Grok On T-shirt.

Look out, Idaho...you're in trouble now!

You Are Here

I realized something the other day: For the first time in my life, I feel completely satisfied with my physique.

At 31, I am fitter than I have ever been. Leaner. Stronger. With a BMI of roughly 18, I'm in the "low-normal" or "athlete" range for females (who, me?). I have a six-pack and obliques and (according to Ironman, who might be biased) a pretty nice butt.

But it isn't about looks, is it? It's about health. Longevity. Vitality. Ability.
I love being able to lift heavier and run faster than ever before -- not for numbers on a chart, though visual progress is satisfying, but because it's practical, here on the farm, to be able to lift ranch panels and buck hay and haul water.

I love being able to hike up a mountain, row down a river, camp in the wilderness, ride a horse 50 miles in a day.

I love feeling as though I have, for once, actually arrived.

Not that I'll stop striving. I'll still add weight, still try to make each hill sprint faster than the one before. All the same, it's high time I settled back a bit, mentally, so as to enjoy not just the doing, but the sense of having done.

Fitness is freedom, my friends. It ought to be earned -- and once earned, it ought to be enjoyed.

Seize the day.
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Go Figure

Go Figure

I once dated a guy who told me I was too fat. His reasoning? The insides of my upper thighs touched each other.

I'm sorry to say that, presumably because I was young and brainwashed by our weight-obsessed culture, his comment affected me for years. It became a measure by which I assessed my own fitness, which was never poor, but wasn't always peak, either. I recall with dismay the internal monologue: My thighs are touching! Crap! Gotta run more! (Wrong.)

This past March, while still eating flegan, I dived into a fitness regime unprecedented by anything I'd tried before, including my distance running days. A friend put me onto bodyweight training and Tabata, hill sprints and weight lifting.

In my typically obsessive manner, I devoured literature on the subject of strength training and HIIT (high intensity interval training). Plenty of science backed it up, but the best proof of all was the changes in my own physique. By June, I was leaner than I'd ever been. My biceps earned admiration from colleagues, and the shadow of a six-pack appeared in my midsection. I was getting close to doing the first pull-up of my life. And, my thighs didn't touch. Score!

Then, something changed. Along about July, my fitness efforts bogged down in a quagmire of fatigue, bloating, and poor quality sleep. I looked pretty good, but I felt worse and worse. What on earth was I doing wrong?

My research led me first to the possibility of removing grains from my diet. It took me two months of reading to accept that the "healthy whole grains" that comprised nearly half of my daily intake could actually be wreaking cumulative damage on my intestines due to glucose intolerance, or simply the toxins such foods contain.

By the time I was convinced that going grain-free was worth a try, I'd also come around to understanding the detrimental effects of excessive carbohydrate intake. Thus began my shift to primal eating, which I embraced whole-heartedly by mid-August.

Now, looking down the barrel of October with a growing set of Tuesday Tallies documenting my new eating patterns (low carb, high fat, moderate protein) and continued bodybuilding and sprint workouts, I have replaced bloating and fatigue with muscle mass and power.

There's just one problem: My thighs touch.

I confess this bothered me, when I first noticed it a few weeks back. Were the primal advocates wrong? Would all that new thigh muscle make me look fat? How about the newly-defined obliques that both strengthened and thickened my core? Was I losing the figure I'd worked months to achieve?

Yes, the questions bothered me...but not nearly as much as the thought of giving up my workouts. After all, my primary goal had always been to achieve a high level of functional strength and cardiovascular endurance -- and I'd never felt better nor been more powerful! No way was I going to sacrifice athleticism for cultural ideals.

All the same, I was most gratified to stumble across the photo below.

I'm no professional pole-vaulter, but I'm proud to say that my physique doesn't fall too far short of this chick's. I'm no guy, either, but I think she's pretty damn hot -- sculpted obliques, touching thighs, and all.

Go figure.

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Related Resources:

The Definitive Guide to Grains from Mark's Daily Apple

The Real Truth About Those "Healthy Whole Grains" from Fitness Spotlight

Unexpected Effects of a Wheat-Free Diet from Heart Scan Blog

The Definitive Guide to Fats from Mark's Daily Apple

Fats: The Real Story and Why You Need Them from Fitness Spotlight

Saturated Fat Intake vs Heart Disease & Stroke from Free the Animal

Sugar is Poison -- a link from Fathead to Dr. Lustig's excellent video presentation. Highly recommended!

In the Night Gym

Farm life is good for keeping a body in shape. A few equines, ovines, canines, and felines, with a side of gallus domesticus, will keep you moving enough to maintain a basic level of fitness (though not necessarily leanness, which is more heavily influenced by diet than by exercise).

When I took up bodybuilding last March, however, it was with something more than the daily work in mind. Something like this:


That is 16.83 tons of hay. It can't stay on that trailer all winter. Somebody has to move it. Welcome to In the Night Gym.


I spent about five hours yesterday in a state of intense gratitude for every squat, lunge, push-up, pull-up, Roman chair, plank, and renegade row I've pounded out in the past few months. This is what it's always been about: Functional strength -- having what it takes to do what needs to be done, efficiently and without fear of injury.


I took care to eat a few extra carbs (in the form of sweet potatoes, dried fruit, and a banana, which brought me up to about 200g, vs. my usual 150-175g...and the fattening, American standard of 300-400g), and was amazed by my consistent energy level. This is exactly what the primal people said would happen as I adjusted to eating low-carb. They weren't kidding!


Sure, stacking the 100-pound bales was still hard work. But it wasn't nearly as hard as last year. This year, I worked longer and harder, with less fatigue and -- to my surprise -- very little next-day soreness with which to contend.


Good thing...because 7 tons remain on the trailer. Looks like I'll be hitting the gym again today! Would you believe I'm actually looking forward to it?


...after a generous breakfast of Sweet Potato & Zucchini Frittercakes, that is.