Primal Patterns

My favorite health & fitness guru of all time is Paul Chek. He’s the founder of the CHEK Institute, a therapist, a coach, a father, a husband, a certified shaman, and more. He does medicine journeys, helps people heal themselves from the inside-out, and likes to stack rocks in his rock garden. He’s 58 years old and still does heavy deadlifts and one-arm pull ups. He has some deep insight into human experience and what it means to really live and love. If you want to hear him in a podcast, he has his own (Living 4D) and he’s a guest many times on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast and the Kyle Kingsbury Podcast (formerly called the Onnit Podcast).

Paul’s most famous work is his 2004 book titled How to Eat, Move, and be Healthy! It’s still in print, now in it’s second addition. This book is the health & wellness Bible, only it’s not full of general dogmas but specific, individualized program planning and execution strategies. I’ve been following the principles within this book for years with great success. As the result of this book, right now I’m in the best physical shape of my life.

Alongside dietary guidelines and lifestyle design protocols is a movement section. Here, Paul walks you through his trademark movement system called the Primal Patterns®. This system claims that no matter the exercises, there’s basically 7 patterns the human body can (and should) move. These 7 patterns are: Squat, Lunge, Bend, Push, Pull, Twist, and Gait (the movement associated with walking). These 7 movement patterns should be the basis of every training program—macrocycles and microcycles alike.

During the fall semester I lift with the track team two times a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. The lifts have been solid so far and I’m happy with my progress; however, I’m still trying to do some resistance training 4 days a week, leaving two lifts up to me and my programming. For these individual lifts I’ve been designing them with Primal Patterns in mind. I try to hit most of the primal patterns in a single session, ensuring my whole body is activated and staying balanced.

Here’s an example of my lift earlier this week and how the exercises match the Primal Patters:

  • Warmup Series
    • SL RDL into Curtsy Lunge (Bend + Lunge)
    • SL Tuck Jump (Squat)
    • Handstand Hop into Sit Through (Push + Twist)
  • Strength Series
    • Back Load Reverse Lunge (Lunge)
    • Wide Grip Pull Ups (Pull)
    • OH Floor Press (Push)
    • Cable Rotations (Twist)
    • Step Ups (Lunge + Squat)
    • Calf Raises (Push + Squat)

I highly recommend this style of training. It leaves no stones unturned and keeps your body loose but toned. It’s important to ensure your lifts support your whole body, not isolated systems. After all, our ancestors weren’t doing biceps curls. While there is a time and place for curls, the bulk of our movements should be moving in patterns our bodies were designed to move in.

Please look into Paul Chek, his Chek Institute, and his Living 4D Podcast. I can’t express how much I’ve learned from him (for free) on the internet. He and his teachings have truly changed the trajectory of my life. I hope they change yours, too.

Your Body

Have you ever though about what your skull looks like? What about your small intestine? Have you considered that your heart is keeping you alive, but you’ll never see it working? Don’t forget your brain—how it sends neural impulses at speeds of 150 miles per hour…and how we can send humans into outer space but we don’t fully understand how it works.

Some scientists tell us we have around 37 trillion cells in our body. That number is almost unbelievable. Not only that, but each of those 37 trillion cells has a purpose. Cells work with their neighboring cells to make up tissues, and different tissues work together to form complex communication and support systems throughout the body. This leads to an organism.

Trillions of things have to happen for you to read this post right now. The fact that you can read is preposterous. Most of us take these things for granted. Really, we are living miracles made up of particles. Maybe treating one another as miracles would be a good step forward.

Weight Room PRs #1

Today was a strange day: the best, most productive two hours of my day were the first two, from about 5:30-7:30 am. We had team lift, and today we tested Hang Clean and Back Squat.

I currently weight around 155 lbs. Here are my results from today:

Hang Clean PR – 245 lbs

Back Squat (tied PR) – 335 lbs

It felt pretty great hitting those numbers. I celebrated with some yoga with a few teammates. Then the rest of my day was pretty mediocre, except for home made dinner with my girlfriend. My energy was zapped after the morning and I’m still recovering from an illness.

But it’s okay. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of hours to be grateful for. That was the case today.

Here’s for another adventure tomorrow.

Consistency Over Perfection

We don’t have the most glamorous Instagram page. We don’t have the most beautiful first product. We don’t have the baddest blog on the internet. We don’t have fancy filming equipment and personal photographers. We don’t have our own gym.

But we have a dream of helping people discover who they really are through meaningful exercise. This is how Paul and I became who we are now. It was through suffering and growing during hard workouts, stressing and straining over barbells that were sick of being lifted. Our dream grew as our passions grew deeper. And we’re still just figuring it out.

We won’t have the nicest Instagram page. But we will show up consistently every day until this mission is done. I will blog every day until this mission is done. We may not have thousands of followers, but we have each other’s backs. We’re going to make some waves. We hope you’re there to catch them.

Governor Begone!

David Goggins opened my mind to a new idea in his book: the governor. Goggins explained how older cars used to have what was called a “governor” on their engines. This device would prevent the car from going above a certain speed, thereby keeping everything running smoothly. But the good news for those who like to push the limits? The governor can be removed, allowing the car to really go fast.

Goggins’ point was that we all have governors on our minds. We have this built in function that keeps us from reaching our genetic potential. It’s there so we don’t get hurt, but it’s holding us back. So if we really want to be great we gotta get rid of that governor.

So we can go fast.

And leave no stone unturned.

Elliptical Flow

I used to hate ellipticals. Nothing spoils your day like moving as fast as you can while making no apparent progress. But this past week I’ve been dealing with some tendonitis in my foot, so I opened my mind and tried it again.

I have this fancy health-tracking device called an Ōura ring. It shows me everything from my REM sleep to my heart rate during activities and everything in between. I’ve noticed that when I go for a run, my heart rate is “high” the entire time. Makes sense. But when I swim (and I just began swimming recently) or aqua jog my heart rate is “medium.” That’s about the same as a brisk walk.

But when I’m on the elliptical? It’s “high.” Looks like it’s time to give it another shot.

So on Thursday I made a playlist of Nahko & Medicine for the People (my new favorite band) and hopped on the elliptical. I held myself accountable – I wouldn’t get off until 40 minutes elapsed. At first it was boring, then I found my stride and started to feel the music.

Then around minute 25, something happened. Love Letters to God came on. I closed my eyes and my strides per minute increased by 25% (up to 250). I reached deep into the emotions I’ve been hiding for the past 4 months: getting injured, having a disappointing track season, my grammy dying, my friend dying. I was almost in tears. I kept this pace up for 6 minutes without a break.

Call it Flow State, call it The Zone, call it Feeling Yourself. I was deep in it, all because of the elliptical.

Is there a moral to this story? Maybe. To stop judging things predicated on preconceived notions might be a good start.