Ever imagined a world of people that were all ripped, had a solid foundation of muscle and athleticism and ate only the healthiest of food? Well it was once a reality, about 10,000 years ago. The fittest & most physically developed human of the our time was one who basically lived on the land picking his fruits and veg and hunting animals to stay alive. So if you want to be in that kind of shape, maybe you should consider ‘Going Primal’.
Is it time for you to Go Primal?
Well yes, if you want a highly effective way to get into awesome shape. But before you leave your house and head off to go hunt wild animals and live in the dirt, I’m talking about a slightly different approach. The approach I’m talking about is adapting primal living into our current-day modern lifestyle. For years fitness experts have slowly been zeroing in on the fact that natural, grown food (meat, veges & fruit) are the ultimate foods for health, fitness and body composition (having cool abs and looking ripped!).
The idea of studying the entire overall lifestyle of our primates and applying it to a modern lifestyle of health and fitness came from an amazingly athletic guy in his late 50′s named Mark Sisson. This philosophy of ‘going back to nature’ in modern society is something Mark has covered in his book titled ’The Primal Blueprint‘.
Mark Sisson going primal in his late 50′s
Why follow our Genetic Primal Blueprint?
We are genetically programmed to live like our primitive ancestors: eating off the land, being active and hunting for survival. Instead we sit in front of computers (for example – I am sitting at a computer typing out this post), we drive everywhere, we eat processed poisonous foods, rarely get active and barely follow our genetic design.
It’s a fact, our current cushy lifestyles are slowly turning us in a physically weak & unhealthy race.
I know, it’s just so fun! Sitting around watching TV, drinking a can of Coke and laughing at people in reality TV shows. But there comes a time when you have to get off the couch, get active and run around like a primate!
When we follow an inactive lifestyle, we program our genetics to take things a little too easy. Being inactive causes us to get weak and eventually (over many years) it cripples our ability to move normally. On top of that, the poisonous food we eat slowly weakens our immune system, causing us to get sicker more often.
But beyond diet and exercise, it’s our lifestyle filled with things like watching TV until late at night combined with erratic alarms buzzing in the mornings that shock us out of sleep, and the stress of hectic modern life that also wreaks havoc on our bodies.
We are designed for a simpler existence and we constantly overrun and confuse everything our bodies understand and this causes a small degree of malfunction which leads to impaired development that makes us more prone to disease and generally worn down, tired and very often unhappy.
While this may seem extreme, compared to a primate, this comparison is very accurate (apart from the death by wild animal style demise primates were usually met with). This is a problem the Primal lifestyle can fix.
The Primal lifestyle is about simplicity!
- Eat natural food that grows
- Run around and stay active
- Wind down at night naturally and get plenty of sleep.
- Simplify your life and have fun!
Going Primal is about removing these poisonous aspects of our lives and changing for the better. The only real problem is figuring out how to do that and still pay the bills every week, whilst finding time to play, get active and relax naturally with our family and friends.
Adapting The Primal Blueprint to your modern lifestyle!
Take things one step at a time! First and foremost, start moving a little and getting regular exercise. If you’re already exercising, that’s awesome! Make sure you get plenty of resistance training and light cardio into your routine.
Eating the right food is all about choice. Plan ahead, stock your fridge with plenty of vegetables, fruit, meat and eggs. Take healthy food to work and everywhere you go. If you don’t plan ahead, and don’t manage to keep healthy food nearby, you will fail. Hunger is quite a force, and the convenience of junk food is at every corner!
As for the hectic lifestyle, this is perhaps the hardest thing to work on. Remember, your life doesn’t have to revolve around exercises, 2 or 3 short sessions a week is enough. Get some family or friend time in there, and make sure you’re home at an early enough hour to get your 8-10 hours sleep.
If you’re job is one that has you constantly busy, this can be almost impossible. There’s only so much you can do. I can’t tell you to quit your job or change career paths. Where there is little space for improvement, sacrificing work or health is the choice you’ll need to make on your own.
Mark Sisson’s book The Primal Blueprint illustrates and discusses these lifestyle choices and offers advice for some of these problems. It seems that a steady balance of all things is important to our well being, and he is living proof of the results. Rarely sick, fit enough to ‘hang with the young guys’ (as he puts it) and sporting a set of ripped abs. Not bad for a guy who’s almost 60!
Mark Sisson Going Primal!
To hear more from Mark Sisson, and a more complete outlook on the ‘Primal’ lifestyle, check out ’The Primal Blueprint‘ (also on kindle here
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