Doing Little Often

While the benefits of physical activity have long been recognised, the modern environment encourages us to pursue a lifestyle of inactivity. Humans are lured by gadgets, transport options, labour-saving devices, and technological solutions, all of which have led us down the path of reduced movement.

“We are designed to be movement generalists, multi-skilled and multi-faceted, rather than specialists in one or two areas.“

The ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) proposes reducing sedentariness for all, regardless of your physical activity level. This can be achieved by interspersing intervals of standing with short bouts of physical activity between periods of time spent sedentary.²

In other words, doing little often and sitting less can be more healthful than one significant movement effort at the end of the day.

Me finding movement opportunities using my everyday surroundings.

We Are Designed to Be Movement Generalists

Most exercise programmes focus on a few specialised areas. We may concentrate on a particular skill or movement alone, to the detriment of others. For example, we may just focus on doing some cardio or just resistance work.

These approaches have one fundamental flaw – they ignore our ancestral heritage and nature’s prescription for adaptation that got us here. The human genome was not framed around enduring recreational ultra-endurance marathons or exclusively heavy lifting an object repeatedly in order to develop fitness.

Through natural selection, we thrived on a broad repertoire of activity and intensity. We are designed to be movement generalists, multi-skilled and multi-faceted, rather than specialists in one or two areas. Our training should reflect this.

“These approaches have one fundamental flaw – they ignore our ancestral heritage and nature’s prescription for adaptation that got us here.”

The types of exercise for which we are evolutionarily adapted include a variety of activities performed intermittently, at moderate intensities, for reasonable durations. This variety not only improves our physical capability, but also lowers the occurrence of repetitive stress injury, provides inherent motivation, and increases the likelihood for long-term adherence to exercise programmes.

7 Tips to Get Yourself Paleo Fit

One clear solution is to get back to basics and reference the movement patterns of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. They were naturally lean and strong, based on the activities they had to do daily. Follow this approach to move as nature intended. Train above and beyond basic function. Be ready to meet any challenges life throws at you.⁴

Here are seven tips to reach back to your roots and get yourself paleo fit:

1. Get Outdoors

Fresh air, grass, trees, and colours in the natural environment have a profound impact on mental health and physical well-being. A study at the University of Queensland, Australia, found that those who exercised outdoors on a regular basis had higher levels of serotonin, a hormone that regulates mood, than those who exercised indoors. They also had higher levels of endorphins, the post-exercise rush that occurs after exercise.³

Science even has a term for this: biophilia. It means love of life and refers to the love we have for the natural world. Most of us feel this instinctively, but evidence for biophilia demonstrates that exposure to and interaction with nature has a profound effect on mental performance, self-awareness, vitality, appreciation of our environment, and the appreciation of those around us.

Me enjoying some play time outdoors.

Being outside is also associated with higher levels of vitamin D, thanks to additional sun exposure. This has significant health benefits, including boosting the immune system, improving heart health, improving calcium absorption and bone health, and preventing cancer.

2. Be Playful

Make activities fun as well as challenging. Use your imagination to create scenarios that will make workouts more interesting. For example, when doing a bear crawl, imagine you’re crawling under low-hanging branches covered in thorns at varying heights. It sounds like child’s play, but engaging the brain in this fashion will increase muscle activation and make you work harder.

“Begin to explore and expand the possibilities that you have to move.”

Scientific studies demonstrate that visualisation brings about quantifiable improvements as well as physiological changes.⁷ Research has also shown that using mental imagery for muscle movement can create similar electrical activity as that seen during actual movement.⁸ Imagination also helps to increase motivation and allows us to create whatever environment we need to accomplish our goals.

3. Be Practical

Think of fitness as the ability to improve what you need to do day to day, as well as the capacity to complete the extraordinary tasks that life sends our way. Make your fitness not just functional, but practical, too.

What does your fitness allow you to do? Are you strong enough to push a car or would you rather wait for help? Quick enough to sprint for a bus or would you just wait for the next one? Would you be able to climb to a position of safety or would you succumb to danger?

Are you strong enough to push a car or would you rather wait for help?

4. Integrative Movement

Don’t feel that your training needs to be conducted at a particular time or place. Integrating physical activity into your daily routine will reduce the need to fall back on the lack-of-time excuse.

Avoid segregating or isolating movement from your day-to-day life. Instead, make physical activity something you do all the time by avoiding sedentary options. It doesn’t mean you have to dedicate all your time to movement. Begin to explore and expand the possibilities that you have to move.

Take the stairs rather than the lift. Sprint for the bus. Walk to the local grocery store and carry several bags of shopping back. Stand up when talking on the phone. Take movement snacks – brief periods of opportunistic whole-body movement a couple of times an hour – to get you out of the chair.

“Integrating physical activity into your daily routine will reduce the need to fall back on the lack-of-time excuse.”

5. Sleep More

Just a few nights of sleep deprivation can increase the levels of hormones that boost appetite and reduce your ability to register when you are full. A lack of sleep increases the stress hormone cortisol and increases the risk of lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Minimal sleep also promotes the storage of fat, especially around the midsection.

Aim for a daily minimum of eight to nine hours of restful sleep. Ensure you find time for relaxation and rest for full recovery after physical exertion. Don’t let your training regimen get in the way of your sleep.

6. Be Mindful

How often have you exercised aimlessly and mindlessly, without paying attention to what, how, or why you are doing? Instead, focus on the experience of the moment and create a mind-body connection with everything you do. Move with intensity and purpose as our ancestors did. Think less about exercise prescription. Dwell on your own, individual movement philosophy.

 Move with intensity and purpose as our ancestors did.

7. Overkill

Regular exercise is protective against chronic disease. However, extended periods of intense exercise can be detrimental. We were designed for routine, light-intensity activity, such as walking and carrying for several miles. We were also designed for intermittent, moderate-intensity and moderate-duration activity with brief periods of vigorous, high-intensity activity. Extended periods of high-intensity exercise are associated with damage to the heart, joints, and muscle.^5,6

“The solution is to replicate natural movement patterns in a natural environment as best as practically possible.”

Summary

Moving in vastly different patterns from those to which we are genetically adapted causes a significant proportion of the health issues we encounter today. The solution is to replicate natural movement patterns in a natural environment as best as practically possible. Doing so will promote long-term health, quality of life, and survival.

In summary, focus on movement not muscles, be practical and don’t stop at basic function, prioritise activity more than exercise, and seek health above performance.

Check out these related articles:

• Making the Most of Your Movement Environment
• Become a Badass Athlete: How to Incorporate Natural Movement
• Movement Drills to Improve Your Hip Performance
• What’s New on Breaking Muscle UK Today

References

1. Schmid D et al., “Television Viewing and Time Spent Sedentary in Relation to Cancer Risk: A Meta-Analysis“, JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst (2014)

2. Garber CE et al., “American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise.” Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011

3. Coon JT et al., “Does Participating in Physical Activity in Outdoor Natural Environments Have a Greater Effect on Physical and Mental Wellbeing than Physical Activity Indoors? A Systematic Review.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2011

4. O’Keefe JH et al., “Achieving hunter-gatherer fitness in the 21st century: back to the future.” Am J Med 2010

5. Jassal DS et al., “Cardiac injury markers in nonelite marathon runners.” Int J Sports Med 2009

6. Middleton N et al., “Altered left ventricular diastolic filling following a marathon is a reproducible phenomenon.“ Int J Cardiol. 2007 Oct 31;122(1):87-9. Epub 2007 Jan 11.

7. Champaign IL, Advances in Sport Psychology, Human Kinetics, 2002

8. Champaign IL, Motor Control and Learning, Human Kinetics, 1999

The post 7 Steps to Paleo Fitness: Why Exercise Is Not Enough appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Darryl moved into fitness after almost two decades as a computer scientist working in investment banking. Darryl transformed his declining health by adopting an ancestral model of fitness that he now brings to the world from his London, England base.

The Paleo Fitness and Primal Play program is a four-week program designed to increase both your activity level and your sense of fun and enjoyment of life. The program consists of four distinct days of training each week: Movement Monday, Tabata Tuesday, Fun Friday, and Strength Saturday.

There are a variety of movements in this four-week program, with some variants to trusty favorites as well as exercises you may not be familiar with. Most of the exercises in this program are to be performed outdoors. There are advantages to being active outdoors in all seasons.

Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Program, Week 4

Movement Monday

• 2 Point Bear Crawl (3/5/10 meters)
• Rabbit Walk(3/5/10 meters)
• Toddler Climb (6/12/18 steps)
• Crocodile Walk (2/5/10 meters)
• Flea (5/10/15 jumps)

Transition and flow between movements. Aim to move as quietly as possible with relaxed, controlled breathing and rest as required.

Using the Rabbit Walk as an example, beginners aim for 3 meters, intermediates 5 meters and advanced 10 meters. With a total playout time of 20, 30, or 40 minutes depending on level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

Tabata Tuesday

Tabata protocol (maximum intensity for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds)

• 20 seconds Double Unders or skipping/jump rope: 10 seconds rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Driver or Sprint: 10s rest (repeat X times)
• Log Flips(substitute with tire or sand bag flips): 10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Jump Pull-Up (use a bar or sturdy tree branch): 10s rest (repeat X times)

Beginner: X = 2

Intermediate: X = 4

Advanced: X = 8

For example: as a beginner you would perform the first exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this exercise again and rest for 10 seconds, then proceed to the next exercise.

Fun Friday

Balance Practice (use railings, wall, slack line or a park bench – have fun and be careful!)

It’s the last Friday, think of something fun and email me with your suggestions!

Strength Saturday

2 person Fireman Carry

Loaded Car Push with a sprint return

Perform movement as long as possible, rest as required, repeat 3 rounds.

The post Strength & Conditioning: Darryl Edwards, Week 4 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw

When was the last time you played? I mean really played. You might regard organized sport as playtime or going to a party and getting drunk as play, but what I am talking about is play that is activity based on unadulterated and joyful movement.

When children are asked what they think is important in life, play is often at the top of the list. Of course, most of us reading this article are no longer children, so how is this relevant to us as adults?

The Purpose of Play

Play is not difficult to justify. Playful movement promotes practical strength, balance, agility, coordination, speed, skill, and mental focus. Play unlocks the mind, it samples endless possibilities, and it seeks and finds new levels of creative opportunities.

Play is key to physical, mental, and social wellbeing, but it is often underrated and viewed as superfluous. Play is endemic to human development – a biological necessity based on our survival. Play is life. As Stuart Brown the founder of the American National Institute for Play stated, “When we stop playing, we start dying.”

When Exercise Is Punishment, Not Enjoyment

Stacked against this evidence when it comes to exercise and activity, adults still tend to opt for a workout rather than a play-out. I often get posed the question “Why should we play, Darryl? I have better things to do with my time!”

As is the case in most instances, the question is easily asked, but the answer comes through participation. I usually respond to people with a playful activity that challenges their perception of fitness. For example, try arm-wrestling a partner while standing on one leg. I mean it – go get a play partner and try it to see what I mean! This simple activity works so many aspects of fitness in a surprisingly challenging way, but also with an element of fun.

My perspective is that the fitness industry has a preference for sweat, pain, and suffering. We mistakenly believe it is mandatory to undergo significant sacrifice in order to get fit. We should be punished for even thinking about being sedentary – no pain, no gain!

Of course don’t get me wrong there is a time and a place for hard work, and I’ve done my fair share of it. But what I am suggesting is that we should find time for serious play, too.

But Darryl, Isn’t Play Just for Kids?

Play can be confusing for us adults. It is either seen as frivolous, deemed as foolish, or blanketed as childish activity related to relieving boredom with no well-defined goals.

Adults often judge play as an unnecessary task even for their children. Instead, they encourage their children to attend more organized activities based on education or leaning toward developing sports talent. Time for spontaneous play is more and more difficult to achieve. It’s ironic that we now pay other people to teach our kids how to play.

This was remarked upon by David Elkind in a piece he wrote for the American Journal of Play:

School administrators and teachers – often backed by goal-orientated politicians and parents – broadcast the not-so-suitable message that these days play seems superfluous, that at bottom play is for slackers, that if kids must play, they should at least learn something while they are doing it.¹

The Two Types of Play

There are two aspects of play that are particularly relevant to us as adults – progressive play and imaginative play:

Progressive play serves the purpose of advancement. Advancing from young to old through the function of play. Imagine a kitten practicing how to pounce, which is a precursor to catching prey, or a child learning how to climb a tree, developing tactics to manage risk as well as the ability to climb.

Imaginative play utilizes techniques such as visualization and focus to make you work harder. This is one reason athletes often use visualization when training to improve their performance. Research demonstrates that visualization brings about quantifiable improvements as well as psychological changes.² Studies also suggest that using mental imagery for movement can create similar electrical activity in the muscle as that seen during actual movement.³

Setting An Example For Our Kids

One thing we understand as parents is that our kids are influenced by what we do or do not do. If we demonstrate movement as being punitive, then our children will see movement and activity as punishing and something to fear.

If we are playful and excited about activity, it gives our children an opportunity to enjoy movement, too. Play is an essential activity regardless of age. As adults, we need to learn how to play again!

So What Can We Do?

Playful movement does not need to be complicated. Lay it out in terms of basic movement patterns. Moves that are functional and possible to adapt for all – with challenges that can be scaled to each individual.

You can piggyback carry, focus on animal crawls and movements, or play games such as tag. Even better, create your own games! The process of creating your own ad hoc set of play is more rewarding then following a set prescription of moves. Focus on exploration and the experience.

10 Pointers for Play

1. Seek to reclaim the enjoyment of movement that we experienced as children
2. Make it BIG (broad, inclusive and general)
3. Make sure play includes the active participation of others
4. Make it fun with a small element of risk (imaginary or otherwise)
5. Make play unpredictable and prepare for the unexpected
6. Abide by the rules, change the rules, break the rules, have no rules
7. Use the natural environment as your playground
8. Use each other as exercise equipment
9. Ge tchildren of all ages (including adults) to create the scenarios
10. Minimize structure, time intervals, and penalties; encourage real-world movement, imagination, and rewards

References:

1. David Elkind, “The Power of Play: Learning what comes naturally,” American Journal of Play, 2008.

2. Thelma S. Horn, Advances in Sport Psychology (Champaign IL, Human Kinetics, 2002).

3. Richard A. Schmidt and Timothy Donald Lee, Motor Control and Learning (Champaign IL, Human Kinetics, 1999).

Click to Start Darryl’s Free Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Workouts

The post How Play Can Make You Fitter and Happier appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Darryl moved into fitness after almost two decades as a computer scientist working in investment banking. Darryl transformed his declining health by adopting an ancestral model of fitness that he now brings to the world from his London, England base.

The Paleo Fitness and Primal Play program is a four-week program designed to increase both your activity level and your sense of fun and enjoyment of life. The program consists of four distinct days of training each week: Movement Monday, Tabata Tuesday, Fun Friday, and Strength Saturday.

There are a variety of movements in this four-week program, with some variants to trusty favorites as well as exercises you may not be familiar with. Most of the exercises in this program are to be performed outdoors. There are advantages to being active outdoors in all seasons.

Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Program, Week 3

Movement Monday

• Bear Crawl(5/10/15 meters)
• Salamander Press-Up(5/10/15 reps)
• Precision Jump (5/10/15 jumps)
• 2 Point Crab Kick (5/10/15 seconds)
• Flea (5/10/15 jumps)

Transition and flow between movements. Aim to move as quietly as possible with relaxed, controlled breathing and rest as required.

Using the Bear Crawl as an example, beginners aim for 5 meters, intermediates 10 meters and advanced 15 meters. With a total playout time of 20, 30 or 40 minutes depending on level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

Tabata Tuesday

Tabata protocol (maximum intensity for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds)

• 20 seconds Sprint Step-Up: 10 seconds rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Jumpee:10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Bunny Hop(substitute with tire or sand bag flips): 10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Jump Pull-Up(use a bar or sturdy tree branch): 10s rest (repeat X times)

Beginner: X = 2

Intermediate: X = 4

Advanced: X = 8

For example: as a beginner you would perform the first exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this exercise again and rest for 10 seconds, then proceed to the next exercise.

Fun Friday

Park Bench Playtime

Organize a game of dodge ball!

Strength Saturday

Resisted Bear Crawl

2 Person Toddler Carry

Perform movement as long as possible, rest as required, repeat 3 rounds

The post Strength & Conditioning: Darryl Edwards, Week 3 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Darryl moved into fitness after almost two decades as a computer scientist working in investment banking. Darryl transformed his declining health by adopting an ancestral model of fitness that he now brings to the world from his London, England base.

The Paleo Fitness and Primal Play program is a four-week program designed to increase both your activity level and your sense of fun and enjoyment of life. The program consists of four distinct days of training each week: Movement Monday, Tabata Tuesday, Fun Friday, and Strength Saturday.

There are a variety of movements in this four-week program, with some variants to trusty favorites as well as exercises you may not be familiar with. Most of the exercises in this program are to be performed outdoors. There are advantages to being active outdoors in all seasons.

Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Program, Week 2

Movement Monday

• 2 point Bear Crawl (2/4/8 meters)
• Corkscrew Press-Up(4/8/12 reps)
• Bench Jump (5/10/15 jumps)
• Cliff-Hangers (5/10/15 seconds)
• Flea (5/10/15 jumps)

Transition and flow between movements, aim to move as quietly as possible and rest as required.

Using the bench jump as an example, beginners 5 jumps, intermediates 10 jumps and advanced 15 jumps. With a total playout time of 20, 30 or 40 minutes depending on level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

Tabata Tuesday

Tabata protocol (maximum intensity for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds)

• 20 seconds Burpee with 2 Press-Ups: 10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Drivers or Sprint: 10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Log Flips (substitute with tire or sand bag flips if no log): 10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Crab Kick: 10s rest (repeat X times)

Beginner: X = 2

Intermediate: X = 4

Advanced: X = 8

For example: as a beginner you would perform the first exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this exercise again and rest for 10 seconds, then proceed to the next exercise.

Fun Friday

Plank Tennis

Play tag with 1 or more people

Strength Saturday

Piggy Back and Fireman Carry

• Beginner: 25m
• Intermediate: 50m
• Advanced: 100m

The post Strength & Conditioning: Darryl Edwards, Week 2 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The modern environment tends to encourage us to pursue a lifestyle of inactivity. We are lured by gadgets, transport options, labor-saving devices, and technological solutions that have led us down an evolutionary path of sedentarism. It is a temptation that is difficult to resist, and for many physical exertion is becoming increasingly optional, if not extinct.

We thrive on a broad repertoire of activity and intensity, designed to be movement generalists, multi-skilled, multi-faceted, and not forgetting an element of fun! I believe our training should reflect this.

Weekly Programming

This is how we will format each week and there is built in flexibility to work around your schedule, rest, and recovery requirements.

Movement Monday

This is movement technique and focus day. Based on what we call a Paleo fitness circuit, here we focus on technique and play around with differing levels of intensity while working on the flow between exercises.

Be slow, precise, and controlled. Instead of an abrupt stop and start of exercises, we want an uninterrupted flow of movements, of constantly varied speed and intensity. String these exercises into one continuous flow of movement, transitioning from one move to the next. This is a more natural way to move. Think of this day as a slow-paced to focus on form and technique with occasional bursts of increased intensity.

Tabata Tuesday

This is a high-intensity Tabata interval day. Here you want to give it everything! For beginners, this will start as a four or five minute workout (including recovery period), leading up to twenty minutes for advanced participants.

The Tabata protocol is a training method that was originally used by the Japanese Olympic speed skating team and is based on the work of scientist Izumi Tabata. The key finding from the research was that a short period – four minutes – of this high intensity interval gave similar improvements to the aerobic system (exercise involving using oxygen) as sixty minutes of moderate intensity exercise. The other key difference was an increase in the anaerobic system capability compared to moderate intensity exercise.

Fun Friday

This is a day of fun! Maybe where you try something you haven’t done before, or you take an opportunity to play. This day is about stressing the fun element, but still being a challenge – keep it playful and enjoy the fellowship of others.

Strength Saturday

This is a day where we focus on some strength training. This could include carrying others or pushing a car for a given distance.

Rest Periods

Rest as required during any of these activities. But, instead of just standing hunched over to catch your breath, stand tall and walk – also known as active recovery. It will be far easier to breathe and will increase the amount of movement per workout as well as improve the rate of recovery over time.

Click to Start Darryl’s Free Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Workouts

PRIMALity

I use the acronym PRIMALity to define the principles of Paleo fitness with Primal Play:

• Playful Movement – Movement that invigorates is imaginative, spontaneous, inherently motivates, and provides its own reward. We should seek to reclaim the enjoyment of movement that we experienced as children. Beyond function, train for life’s challenges, not just the safe constraints of the gym environment. Play can be unpredictable. It is thus easier to train for the unexpected. Play out – rather than just working out.
• Restorative Movement – Regenerate, reinvigorate, and restore your body to its natural state of wellness and wellbeing. Performing moves such as a squat (i.e. sitting without a chair) correctly, comfortably, and easily. Lifting with good form for safety and to ensure maximum strength.
• Instinctive Movement – Focuses on movement patterns that are universal and which we would do naturally without the rigidity or limitations of system based conventions being applied. Walking, running, pushing, pulling, jumping, dancing, squatting, balancing, lifting, carrying, and so on.
• Mindful Movement – Mind and body fully engaged in activity. Not mindless. Focus your mind’s attention on your own body, thoughts, emotions, and the environment around you. Become curious about your experience. Be in the presence of the present moment. Live in the moment, not speculating about future goals or sifting through the past. Instead, put the full weight of your attention into the here and now.
• Adaptive Movement – The ability to shift between challenges, intensity, and multiple disciplines. Learn to adapt rather than to be adapted to a particular movement discipline or skill. This adaptability allows your body to be fit and ready for known and unknown challenges. The capability to perform tasks efficiently and effectively.
• Life-Enhancing Movement – Train for the way you want to live. Train for health and life. Train for longevity.
• Integrative Movement – No primary focus on isolating muscles or a reductionist approach to exercise. But getting your body to experience a holistic and whole-body experience. Compound multi-joint exercises that rely on the coordinated actions of several muscle groups to move two or more joints through a range of motion. Focus your body on movement not muscles.
• Tactical Movement – Be opportunistic about movement with brief periods of intense work such as sprinting and strength, with less intense work that is enjoyable and playful.
• Youthful Movement – Movement that exhibits vitality, creativity, and passion.

Most of the exercises in this program are to be performed outdoors. In the spring or summer, you will get your dosage of Vitamin D, which has a role in bone, heart, brain, and immune system health, as well as cancer prevention. In the colder weather, studies show you burn up to 12% more calories and up to 32% more fat!

There are a variety of movements in this four-week program, with some variants to trusty favorites as well as exercises you may not be familiar with. Enjoy, and please post your experiences, thoughts, and questions to the comments below!

Click to Start Darryl’s Free Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Workouts

The post My 4-Week Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Program appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Darryl moved into fitness after almost two decades as a computer scientist working in investment banking. Darryl transformed his declining health by adopting an ancestral model of fitness that he now brings to the world from his London, England base.

The Paleo Fitness and Primal Play program is a four-week program designed to increase both your activity level and your sense of fun and enjoyment of life. The program consists of four distinct days of training each week: Movement Monday, Tabata Tuesday, Fun Friday, and Strength Saturday.

There are a variety of movements in this four-week program, with some variants to trusty favorites as well as exercises you may not be familiar with. Most of the exercises in this program are to be performed outdoors. There are advantages to being active outdoors in all seasons.

Paleo Fitness and Primal Play Program, Week 1

Movement Monday

• Foxtrot Bear Crawl (3/5/10 meters) – Follow a slow, slow, quick, quick, slow crawl pattern.
• Crab Walk (3/5/10 meters)
• Bunny Hop (3/5/10 meters)
• Rabbit Walk (3/5/10 meters)
• Toddler Climb (6/12/18 steps)

Transition and flow between movements. Aim to move as quietly as possible with relaxed, controlled breathing and rest as required.

Using the bunny hop as an example, beginners aim for 3 meters, intermediates 5 meters and advanced 10 meters. With a total playout time of 20, 30, or 40 minutes depending on level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

Tabata Tuesday

Tabata protocol (maximum intensity for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds)

• 20 seconds Double Unders or skipping/jump rope: 10 seconds rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Driver or Sprint: 10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Bunny Hop: 10s rest (repeat X times)
• 20s Jump Pull-Up (use a bar or sturdy tree branch): 10s rest (repeat X times)

Beginner: X = 2

Intermediate: X = 4

Advanced: X = 8

For example: as a beginner you would perform the first exercise for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds. Repeat this exercise again and rest for 10 seconds, then proceed to the next exercise.

Fun Friday

Climb a Tree

Medicine Balls of Death

Strength Saturday

Car Push

• Beginner: 25m
• Intermediate: 50m
• Advanced: 100m

2 minutes rest, repeat 3 times

The post Strength & Conditioning: Darryl Edwards, Week 1 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.