“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
True for many aspects in life, but no more so than in the pursuit of a long and successful life in the game of Physical Culture 2.0.
And what exactly *is* Physical Culture 2.0? Well, in essence, it’s the fully integrated pursuit of a healthy and vibrant existence, including (but certainly not limited to) looking to our evolutionary past to construct a scaffolding upon which to layer ever more effective and efficacious “technologies” (both modern and stone-age) so as to produce an exquisite phenotypical expression of one’s self onto the world.
And speaking of Physical Culture 2.0, here’s Skyler Tanner and yours truly speaking truth to power about this emerging paradigm shift from what is currently understood as Physical Culture (or PC 1.0, if you will) at the August 2011 Ancestral Health Symposium:
…and the presentation’s accompanying slide show.
Revolution vs Transcendence
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the emergence of Physical Culture 2.0 is a healthy, lasting process — less so an anarchistic revolution as it is a phenomenon of transcendence — the building upon (“transcending” in every sense of the word) that which has come before; even that which we might be quick to label “malicious” at best. Carrying forward that which is good and helpful, and simply leaving behind (and with no emotional attachment) that which is not helpful. No failures, only feedback. Learning from previous mistakes; moving forward with no baggage — emotional or otherwise — to drag about.
And while team sports certainly have their role in PC 2.0, for the most part, this is an n=1-driven phenomena; self-mastery, self-betterment…self-knowledge.
The Four T’s
…or one person’s “play” is another person’s metcon…
I’ll speak more to the idea of Exercise vs Activity (or play) in an upcoming post, but for now, let’s just say that activity (or play) to ===> exercise is an n=1-specific continuum, and concentrate here on tools, techniques, time and tenacity; the immutable laws of Physical Culture. As a correlate to the four T’s, consider the speed of light and its position as an immutable law of physics. Just as David Duetsch would say that anything is possible so long as it does not violate the immutable laws of physics, so too is our ability to transform ourselves, in a phynotypical sense, so long as we properly manipulate these four tenants of Physical Culture (diet being the other side of the same coin, of course, and with it’s own set of “immutables”). Now this isn’t so “woo-woo” as it might first appear. Let’s, for the sake of argument, consider my last outdoor metcon outing, which went a little something like this:
100 meter sprint
6, rapid-succession, tennis ball goalpost “dunks”
30′ parallel bar “sprint”
60′ dual-leg hops
30′ monkey bar “sprint”
5 tractor tire flips + immediate 40 yd sprint
20 yard blocking sled (think heavy-ass Prowler) push
60 yd change-of-direction sprint
Wash, rinse, and repeat x3. I won’t get into a full-on explanation of all the individual elements (I’ll post a video of this in the near future), or hella-bitch about the temperature being a nice one-ohh-whatever-the-fuc! outside during this particular shindig…
Ozzie says, "Texas heat blows, yo!"
…no, actually what I want to do is look at this workout through the tools, techniques, time and tenacity lens.
…enter “the study”…
From the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, consider the following:
What’s the take-home message here? Quite simply, this: that Sprint (or High Intensity) Interval Training — even at moderate intensities — can impart some pretty damn impressive physiological adaptations. That’s smart and efficient training, folks; training, by the way, that requires little in the way of tools and, if performed moderately (or “scaled”, if you prefer), only a modicum of tenacity.
Additionally, I’ll tell you this about HIIT/SIT: this manner of training will, in short order, devour an enormous amount of calories, both during — and for many hours following — said exercise bout. And while the metabolism remains jacked for up to 24 hours following a SIT/HIIT bout, there is an even more important shift taking place in the musculature at the fiber-type level: a preferential shift to fast-twitch dominance and a preservation of this fiber type (Bending the Aging Curve, from the above-sited talk and slide presentation). In addition, there will be an up-regulation of anaerobic, ATP, and aerobic enzyme activity. In other words, all energy systems will become more efficient at generating energy and burning calories.
Simply put, training in the anaerobic-glycolytic pathway via proper manipulations of SIT/HIIT methodologies up-regulates all energy pathways (yes, including aerobic oxidation), making them more efficient and, as a result, making you a better conditioned Physical Culturalist. So high-intensity exercise elicits a high output from all metabolic energy systems — however, this does not work both ways. Training for endurance (aerobically, i.e., long and slow) will not lead to equal up-regulation of ATP and CP or anaerobic glycolytic enzyme activity/pathways, simply because aerobic type training does not stress these systems.
Now, let’s shift environments (and available tools), and see if we can produce the same type of metabolic effect using old-school black iron. Check out this workout from earlier in the week. I also ran a few of my more advanced clients through this same, Martin Rooney inspired, black iron circuit, which can, of course, be scaled (or exercises can be swapped) so as to suit any ability level. Remember the emphasis here is on metcon/energy system training, not strength, per se. Since the “rules of the game” are such that I have a 30-minute time limit, and that I’ll need to rely on old-school tools to accomplish the task, I’ll have to select exercises that can be performed safely under some pretty severe fatigue. Uhhh, so yeah — that means Oly lifts/derivatives are out 😉
So here’s what I ended up with:
power sumo DLs x 10
T-bar swings x 20
alternating lead-foot BTN jerks x 10 total
wash, rinse, repeat x3.
Tough? Yeah, you bet your sweet ass it is. But the cool thing is that anyone, in any condition, can perform this basic theme (scaling and/or subbing exercises where necessary) and — as the study sited above demonstrates — derive some fantastic benefits from it. So my “play” might be somebody else’s beat-down, but that’s the beauty of this Physical Culture thing — it’s all about the n=1 experience.
In health,
Keith
Theory to Practice 