Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #64 Build muscle and shed fat by NOT working so hard!

pqtd 64 Work out but do not beat yourself up

The worst trend in working out nowadays is the tendency to do EXTREME workouts- workouts that last more than 40 minutes, go to “failure” on exercises, and workouts that leave you drained, exhausted, and almost on the verge of collapse!  In these strange times, such workouts are deemed to be wonderful, result producing workouts!  

They’re not.  These sorts of high revving, kill yourself and feel the burn and then feel great about what a hard-charger you are workouts are horrible for your health, AND your physique!

You may be able to get to a state of improved physique for a short while doing this, but it is guaranteed to burn you out, stimulate your cortisol stress hormones to get busy storing fat, and get you injured.  So, you could look pretty good by killing yourself for months and months for maybe a week or so... but then, you would necessarily back off from injury or exhaustion, and in a couple of weeks look (and feel!) much worse than when you started the whole ordeal!  

And I’m not saying just go the wimpy middle-aged spread workout idea: you know, walk half-heartedly on a treadmill while you watch TV for an hour, and barely get your heart rate up- this won’t do hardly anything for you, although at least it won’t hurt you!  It’s kind of like I just want to burn calories and help my heart, so I’ll spend time doing this boring thing...

NO- that way too is largely useless.

So what should you do?  

Work out for maybe 30 minutes (or less) per day, most every day!  Plan to do this forever.

Pair it with a favorite activity, like watching a really good Netflix program-

and ONLY watch that program while you are exercising!

This is the perfect way to reinforce the habit- 

“If I get up early to exercise, I can watch MY FAVORITE PROGRAM!”

Netflix is ideal for this, as you can save your place in the show easily, and resume the next morning when you exercise!

The best exercises?  My ebook Perfectly Paleo Exercise details them, but in truth any sort of stretching, virtual resistance flexing, and calisthenics sort of routine will yield amazing results.  

The key is consistency (doing them daily, or almost daily), hard but not TOO hard (80% of maximum effort is plenty!), and briefly!!

Let’s say you do 15 minutes of calisthenics and virtual resistance (dynamic tension, or “moving poses”), and 5 minutes of stretching on the floor. (An inexpensive yoga mat is ideal for this).  If you follow this with, ideally, a 10 minute session of rebounding on a rebounder or mini-trampoline, you have done a perfect workout!  (I like to do virtual resistance moves as I bounce on the rebounder, which is doubly effective in that manner).

That’s 30 minutes, total, some of which is relaxed stretching, and all of which is NOT draining, and actually energizes you, and leaves you feeling great and ready for a day of work, not gasping on the floor like a dying fish.

And, lastly, remember the greatest truth of all- although exercise is crucial, without a proper ancestral, paleo type of diet and lifestyle without grains and excessive sugars, and including plenty of sleep, good tribal or family and friends relations, it is all for naught!  

It’s 90% diet and lifestyle, and exercise just adds that vital stimulus that tells the body to build muscle, and shed fat.