Exercise

[tara]

My guess ...
Some regular movement is good. Pushing to exhaustion often is probably too much. I aim for a level of movement I can do with my mouth shut. I notice I cope better with exercise I do outdoors in daylight. Walking, dancing, yoga, weights or body weight exercises, but not to extremes. Find something you enjoy doing. Your body needs sugar and protein to recover after exercise.

 

[InterrogaOmnia]

What sorts of exercises are you doing in this interval training?

Maybe you could try traditional strength training/bodybuilding with sufficient rest between sets. My girlfriend is very overweight and she has recently started working out with me with no breathing issues. Short sets with an appropriate weight shouldn't make you breathless.

 

[Xisca]

Maybe if we could find the diet that's just right for us, we could live well without doing any exercise.

I know it's dangerous to try to guess exactly how our prehistoric ancestors lived, but it seems unlikely that they took much exercise beyond hunting, building shelter, and occasionally fighting.

That might have been already enough of exercice! I would look at it the other way round....
Would they / we want to not exercise?
Peat talks about having a better metabolism. A bad metabolism just don't give any liking for exercice.... So just imagine having a lot of energy, an internal fire with enough wood (sugar) and enough oxygen to blow a nice flame....
Would not this give MOTIVATION?
I guess our ancesters might have been also PLAYING, just like children having energy...

I do not work out, but I have a garden, 2 hens, and have to walk quite a lot just for living in a steep place.

 

[Peat's_Girl]

My guess ...
Some regular movement is good. Pushing to exhaustion often is probably too much. I aim for a level of movement I can do with my mouth shut. I notice I cope better with exercise I do outdoors in daylight. Walking, dancing, yoga, weights or body weight exercises, but not to extremes. Find something you enjoy doing. Your body needs sugar and protein to recover after exercise.

So, as far as I understand, Peat suggests just doing, let's say, weight lifting/ body exercises but stop and rest before it gets intense? I guess videos are out of the questions since you always have to compete with the others...

 

[Peat's_Girl]

What sorts of exercises are you doing in this interval training?

Maybe you could try traditional strength training/bodybuilding with sufficient rest between sets. My girlfriend is very overweight and she has recently started working out with me with no breathing issues. Short sets with an appropriate weight shouldn't make you breathless.

Um... I'm not sure how to explain...! Just a lot of body exercises but in fast sequences so you do go out of breath and tired and achy, which I guess was a bad idea because I was also undereating.

I do remember being in the best shape when I was doing the Venus Index (it's by the same creators as the Adonis Index, and pure weight-lifting and stuff). I guess that's good advice, thanks!

 

[Peat's_Girl]

My guess ...
Your body needs sugar and protein to recover after exercise.

So, like the best post-workout exercise would be milk with cane sugar and gelatin ;D
I know Peat doesn't think whey is a good idea for people with sucky metabolisms.

OH! And a form of exercise I could think of that works your muscle but NEVER makes you out of breath
is Callanetics. I found it online. It's really tough.

How many times a week would you do something like that? *60m* workout or weight-lifting?

 

[jaa]

I was reading a few older posts on Vision and Acceptance, and came across Original Strength. It focuses on a few simple movements that babies and toddlers use to strengthen their bodies and explore the world. The core exercises are crawling and rocking and neck rolls, but really anything that ties the shoulders and hips to the midsection work. I've been doing strength training, yoga, and physio exercises with a goal of improving posture and freeing tight shoulders/upper back, and while those exercises worked, the progress was gradual and would plateau until I found a new exercise that hit muscle in just the right way. I've only been doing a couple Original Strength exercises for the past few days and can't believe how much better I feel and move. The exercises are very quick and simple, they almost seem like they shouldn't work. The goofy guy in the videos doesn't help that image. But I can't recommend it enough.

http://originalstrength.net/

There's a few books and dvds, but I've just been reading the blog and watching youtube videos. I'm interested to hear what others who try this program think.

 

[BingDing]

Thanks for posting this, jaa. It looks really good, very RP feel to it. I rocked a little bit, will follow up.

 

[Peat's_Girl]

I was reading a few older posts on Vision and Acceptance, and came across Original Strength. It focuses on a few simple movements that babies and toddlers use to strengthen their bodies and explore the world. The core exercises are crawling and rocking and neck rolls, but really anything that ties the shoulders and hips to the midsection work. I've been doing strength training, yoga, and physio exercises with a goal of improving posture and freeing tight shoulders/upper back, and while those exercises worked, the progress was gradual and would plateau until I found a new exercise that hit muscle in just the right way. I've only been doing a couple Original Strength exercises for the past few days and can't believe how much better I feel and move. The exercises are very quick and simple, they almost seem like they shouldn't work. The goofy guy in the videos doesn't help that image. But I can't recommend it enough.

http://originalstrength.net/

There's a few books and dvds, but I've just been reading the blog and watching youtube videos. I'm interested to hear what others who try this program think.

Is it a video or a book?

They videos have been taken down ;(
Did you buy the DVD or the book?
I'm really interested because my back is really bad and I can't do 90% of exercises even though I'm technically young (26).
Maybe this would help!

Thanks for the info!

 

[jaa]

They sell a few books and a video series, but I've just been reading their blog and watching youtube videos for now. They still play on youtube for me. Try this link:

https://www.youtube.com/user/OriginalStrengthSys/videos

I bet this would help. Let me know how you find it!

 

[tara]

But I can't recommend it enough.

http://originalstrength.net/

Thanks jaa, this looks good.
I've had a few short rodeo sessions with kids this week, which I felt good for and I think fits in with this. :)

 

[jaa]

Haha yeah that will definitely do it.

 

[member 2106]

I get my exercise through doing things I love, eg. football, tennis. Doing it simply to "get fit" never works for me.

 

[Peat's_Girl]

They sell a few books and a video series, but I've just been reading their blog and watching youtube videos for now. They still play on youtube for me. Try this link:

https://www.youtube.com/user/OriginalStrengthSys/videos

I bet this would help. Let me know how you find it!

Missed this.

Thanks a lot Jaa! ;D

 

[Evandrojr]

The sodium and C2 get cleaved in your stomach. Sodium is massively hygroscopic, and if the salt concentration in your intestines is higher than the salt concentration in your blood serum, water will flow towards the gradient, out of your stomach and into your small intestine. By the time your normal volume of feces gets to your large intestine, it's going to be loaded with water, officially making it diarrhea.

For the record, this is exactly what happens when you drink sea water. It ONLY becomes an issue when the salt concentration of your stomach is higher than your blood (which is pretty high). Otherwise, salt (and the water following it) will flow downhill normally, out of your stomach and into your body.

Maybe try halving bicarbonate until you get normal bowel movements or introducing a larger fecal load to be combined with sodium bicarbonate, essentially "diluting" your bicarbonate with food.

Hi @Asimov, this is very interesting. So do you think Sodium Bicarbonate (or even sodium chloride) could help with constipation? Or would increasing salt consumption actually cause constipation by increasing blood sodium and consequently pulling way too much water out of the intestines?

 

[Sapien]

below i am posting my response to the thread "exercise the ray peat way?" it seems applicable here




This is a topic I have been pondering as of late, as a peaty young male looking to build muscle safely and effectively. Ray mentions that muscle mass is beneficial as it increases RMB, and also cited studies that show bodybuilders live longer. However, he has concerns with the eccentric stuff and lactic acid production.

So in summary- a good training routine is one that builds muscle, avoids eccentric movements, and minimizes muscle oxygen debt (i.e, "the pump) as it increases lactic acid.

He once said something along the lines of "brief, infrequent use of muscle is good" (probably butchered the quote but something along those line)

His advice reminded me of a famous bodybuilder in the 80's, Mike Mentzer, who postulated that all bodybuilders are overtraining, and the principals of muscle growth only required a brief and infrequent session to momentary muscular failure. Interestingly, in Synchronicity fashion, I discovered Ray's work just weeks after discovering Mentzer. I noticed great crossover between the two. Mentzer actually cited Hans Selyes "the stress of life" in one of his books about the harms of overtraining, which blew me away. Even Mikes nutritional advice was peaty, emphasizing the importance of (simple) carbohydrates and sugar, and dispelling the myth of the whey(ste product) protein industry that you needed to overload the body with protein to build muscle.

He has some great lectures on youtube on the topic of HIT, specifically, his audio tapes: The logical path to successful bodybuilding are a MUST watch for anyone interested in the topic of building muscle. He was a very intelligent man, many regarded him as a philosopher, and after watching these tapes you will realize why. His articulate speaking manner and use of logic is extremely impressive. He dispels much of the authoritarian dogma in the fitness industry, and like Peat, attempts to teach one about the science behind the topic rather than just giving a protocol. In other words, he was a proponent of "Perceive, Think, Act".

In my opinion, the theory of High Intensity Training is the most logical, science backed theory of effective exercise, and is the antithesis of the current state of bodybuilding- high volume "pump" style workouts popularized by Arnold (Mentzer's arch nemesis).

His training was based on the work of a man named Arthur jones, the inventor of Nautilus equipment proved that brief exercise to failure is the optimal way to build muscle

There is a book titled "body by science" that goes into this in more detail for anyone interested. Mentzer also has serval books of his own

As peaty as all of this sounds, minimizing the amount of stress to the organism and only doing the bare minimum required, there is still the concern of both eccentric movements and lactic acid, albeit to a DRASTICALLY lower degree.

Coauthor of body by science, John Little (a friend and disciple of Mentzer), has a program that implements these principals of brief, infrequent maximal effort training, AND eliminates these two issues. I present to you: Max contraction training (link). He talks about how a scientist in the 50s proved great results simply by a maximal muscular contraction of just 1-6 seconds.

I have applied this routine to a degree, simply contracting a muscle as hard as possible either on its own or against an immovable object (isometric), briefly and infrequently, and I honestly have had better results doing this the past 2 months than in years of traditional bodybuilding. Each day I wake up in amazement of my progress. I will see muscles that I never knew I had; a couple days after a single pull up I noticed new muscles in my upper back that I had never seen before; after a single rep of a chest contraction I grew my stubborn upper chest more in one workout that I never seemed to build with years of bench press (
"Why I never bench press and you shouldn't either" ) .

Some examples of exercises I will do are: flexing bicep in maximal contracted position as hard as possible by using a doorknob, doing the concentric part of a pull up and maximally contracting for a few seconds at the top then dropping, contracting hamstring by lying down placing heel against the ground, holding the contracted portion of a "mountain climber" pose or sit up for abs, simply contracting my rhomboids or rear delts super hard, doing a "lateral raise" against the bottom of my work desk to provide an immovable resistance, placing my forearm against the back of my (opposite) hamstring and contracting my chest across my body, etc etc. Pretty much anything that you feel a contraction will be effective, you can play around yourself. Using weights in a manner shown in the max contraction video is probably just as if not more viable, but I have seen great results even without going to the gym. The many forms of Isometrics I mentioned, contracting against an immovable object, will provide great stimulation as it will recruit ALL of the possible muscle fibers MAXIMALLY. This is a key principal of HIT (henemens size principal), fatiguing the fast twitch muscle fibers. It can be achieved in any rep range by simply training to failure, but isometrics allow you to do so with minimal/no lactic acid as only one contraction is required.

There was a wrestler named the great gama, who is famous for going 5000-0 in his bouts (yes you read that right) , who touted the benefits of maximal isometric contractions that inspired me to use immovable objects instead of the weights shown in the max contraction video. (that and I don't have a training partner crazy enough to train this way with me lol) Essentially it is the same concept, providing maximal resistance, stimulating the fast twitch muscle fibers ( henemens size principal).

'One day after defeating an opponent much larger than he, someone asked him how he was able to get so strong.' "
“It’s really quite simple,” the Indian said good-naturedly. “In the Punjab, where I lived there was a large tree behind my house. Each morning I would rise up early, tie my belt around it, and try to throw it down.” “A tree?” the boy marveled. “For twenty years.” “And you did it?” “No, little one,” Gama smiled, “but after a tree…a man is easy.” Great gama (link) .

^ This may sound like "bro science", but it actually is an example of "Heneman's size principal" in action. When contracting against an immovable object, you are using ALL of your possible effort, thus stimulating fast twitch muscle fibers.

This all may sound unbelievable, too good to be true; is it really not only possible but OPTIMAL to train this brief and infrequently?; but when one considers the biochemistry of the subject, it makes sense. Muscles are ANEROBIC, the opposite of AEROBIC exercise. This is why sprinters have very muscular legs, while a marathon runner is almost always frail. High intensity, short duration exercise such as sprinting uses predominantly fast twitch, carbohydrate burning fibers, while jogging uses slow twitch fibers that rely on fat. It is the fast twitch muscle fibers that are a lot more prone to growth

While the principals of HIT have been demonstrated scientifically ( View: https://youtu.be/ag5YMTcAudw, View: https://youtu.be/NndeNFVf9eU , View: https://youtu.be/wVYEjFZAERw ), and shown to work in practice by the success of Mentzer and Dorian Yates, these principals have been all but forgotten. It was only through an unrelenting, thorough search for a logical approach to building muscle that I discovered HIT. I have always been unconvinced of the science of traditional bodybuilding; I would follow routines and wonder WHY 3 sets of 10 ( View: https://youtu.be/hddsfYdaZ1k ), why 2 minutes of rest, why not 53 seconds of rest? All of these arbitrary decrees never sat right with me. In science, there is no room for the arbitrary, The principals of HIT initially defined by Arthur Jones and popularized by Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates use science and logic, rather than the arbitrary tradition based programs that are popular today.

As to why it's unknown and forgotten, I don't really have a good answer other than the fact that we live in a "dark age" to some degree, with sheeple believing whatever the popular opinion is, rather than using the logical principals created by Aristotle to cultivate knowledge. It is through the use of logic and reason that I was able to discover ray peat and the community, rather than believing whatever info the dietary guidelines told me, and these same principals of logic led me to discover HIT. As a group of logic based people who Perceive, Think, Act; rather than cultivating information simply because an authority figure told you something, I know you all will really appreciate the science based approach of HIT.

The implications of this are staggering. The entire fitness industry is following the high volume approach simply out of tradition, not logic or science. I wonder how many people's lives would be changed with a proper approach to building muscle, how many more people would take up the sport if only minutes a week were necessary. Hell, a gym membership isn't even required! If anyone decided to try these principals out for themselves (after thorough evaluation of the logic of the theory, not per my advice , {Perceive Think Act!}), please update us with your results!

(P.S , I probably did a poor job explaining the exact science behind HIT, Henemens size principal, fast twitch muscles etc., I recommend reading the works of Dr Doug mcguff, Mike mentzer, Arthur jones and the content of Jay Vincent. This post was a spur of the moment thing after seeing this forum on the home page, I just did my best based on my knowledge of the topic)