Barefoot Workouts are Primal!
Recently I have been reading a lot about new science on Nutrition and Exercise. Part of the reason is because I have students with lots of information and they encourage me with books. I've read The Primal Blueprint, Why We Are Fat and Younger Next Year. They are not quite as satisfying as reading the latest Michael Connelly novel The Fifth Witness (which was great), but they make me smarter and way more informed.
The Primal Blueprint, a new book by Mark Sisson advocates a low carb diet(I know that part is no fun) but also advocates the Primal Workout which basically says we should workout like a caveman (not smell like one). He recommended some fast workouts, some lifting and moving frequently, if slowly. Mmmm. Let me see. Sounds like Martial Arts to me.
Fast Workouts: There is nothing like sparring to get the heart rate up. Sparring is my nature an anaerobic workout, heart beat goes up and down quickly. There is an adrenaline factor with sparring that is hard to get anywhere else.
Heavy Lifting : Lifting our own legs above our heads, doing pushups, punching and kicking pads all offer heavy lifting opportunities. In fact using your own body weight is one of the very best ways to improve muscle tone.
Moving frequently, if slowly: This sounds like patterns to me. When working on patterns we are mentally and physically working out. The movements in patterns can be done fast or slow, sometimes both. And if you practice patterns frequently you are guess what - moving frequently.
And guess what - we do it all BAREFOOT! One more benefit of martial arts. Recent studies have discovered that shoes have actually weakened our feet and we should be doing more activities in our bare feet.
And don't even get me started on the other benefits of martial arts. Well let me list a few like, self defense, the ability to focus. Martial Arts was developed hundreds of years ago so that people could defend themselves and hunt for dinner. You know, the primal thing again.
I think it is great to discover that what you are doing is so compatible with the new science and is positively PRIMAL. Now if they can just figure out a way to put pasta back in the diet I would be so HAPPY!