To date I've been a Burpee man exclusively, but some digging turned up two other full-body plyometric exercises, bringing the list to:

• Burpees
• Thunder Rolls
• The Mahler Body Blaster

Here's a quick Thunder Rolls vs. Burpees thread. I just tried a quick set of Thunder Rolls without a medicine ball (don't own one yet), and it does seem like you get quite a bit of help from momentum that you don't get with Burpees in the lower part of the exercise. Maybe I'll feel differently when I add a ball, but I could add a ball to Burpees as well.

I haven't tried the Mahler Body Blaster yet, as it's dark outside right now so I don't want to brave the wolves, and I can't do them in here as the exercise covers more horizontal space than my basement allows. I don't think I've figured it out though. Do you ever stand up again after the initial squat, or do you just keep going roll-pushup-roll-pushup-etc.? Also, after the pushup do you keep your feet in place and use your arms to return to the squat and then roll back, or do you jump your feet up to your hands and then roll back? If the latter, you could do Body Blasters for distance, as you'd move forward with each rep.

The prisoner's workout would be fun for any of these, I bet. I tried this yesterday for the first time, but I started at a paltry 10 burpees and laddered down from there. My walk was about a 10-second walk. Concentrated on form and speed, making sure I exploded on the jump, and then flowed into the next burpee immediately upon landing (i.e. rather than catch myself on the landing from the jump, I pretty much let gravity pull me right down into the squat, with minimal slowing and no hitches). 10 wasn't too bad, 9 was uncomfortable, 8 through 5 truly sucked, 4 showed the light at the end of the tunnel, while 3, 2, and 1 were a welcome home stretch. I really must get better at these.

I can think of few athletic endeavors where wet, sweaty hands are an advantage. Playing Ultimate, the range and consistency of my forehand suffers in the rain, or on the steamiest days (I know, I know, it's because I've been holding it wrong for 16 friggin' years - I'm going to rebuild my grip in the off-season). So I was pretty interested to discover that the Power Rings folks sell a product called Tite-Grip. It sounds like it's a heavy-duty anti-perspirant so it, combined with wristbands, might be a boon for hot, humid Ultimate days. But what about the rain?

Well, there's another product called Dry Hands that bills itself more as a kind of wicking solution than an anti-perspirant, and it claims to be effective in the rain. There's quite a testimonial on rec.sport.disc. I'll have to give this one a whirl. I'll report back after the next rain game.

In a recent post I mentioned Ross Enamait and his books. Let me try and do more justice to the two books of his I own.

First up is The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness (now discontinued). Here's a quick rundown:

• More bodyweight exercises for the upper body, core, and legs than you can shake a stick at. After a lot of searching I found a good number of these online, but many were completely new to me, and the book collects them all in one place.
• Fifteen different animal walks and jumps (e.g. bear walk).
• Balance training (so often overlooked, but I really think this has made a difference for me - I'm saving this subject for a separate post).
• His stretching chapter is more a discussion of different stretching styles than detailed routines or exercises, so you'll want a separate source for those (see my "Books" section to the right).
• The conditioning section is all high-intensity work, and goes into lots of detail on various forms of interval training and explosive exercises.
• The nutrition chapter is fascinating, with a lot of discussion on various supplements and how elite athletes diet must differ from that of your average sedentary drone. I have not put much of this into play for myself yet though, so can't comment on it first-hand.
• Routines, routines, routines! Ross includes a bunch of ready-made routines putting it all together. You could easily build your own with all the information provided, but it's great to have so many off-the-shelf options, which also serve as great jumping-off points for improvisation.
• No equipment necessary! Well, you'd greatly benefit from a pull-up bar (I got mine for $25), an ab wheel ($10 or so), and a two-by-four, but otherwise your only equipment costs are the book itself and your workout clothes.

As I mentioned in my other post, you could build a lifetime's worth of workouts from the material contained here. So why buy any of his other books?

Well, I recently picked up his new one, Infinite Intensity. I did this mostly for inspiration, as it was billed as containing more advanced exercises than The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness, many of which I have not mastered yet. Sure enough, many of the exercises are currently out of my league. However, the book was still a fantastic purchase with direct relevance to where I am now in my fitness. A quick summary, from the book's page:

• Dumbbell training for power and strength
• Advanced bodyweight exercises
• Isometrics
• Weighted and bodyweight core movements
• Low budget options for homemade training equipment
• Heavy bag drills for enhanced punching power
• Conditioning drills to enhance each energy system
• An analysis of periodization for combat athletes
• Research from world renowned sports scientists
• Commonly neglected areas such as the hands and neck
• A 50 day training program
• And much, much more...

First off, the exercises complement and extend what is in Warrior Fitness, and the chapter on isometrics was completely new to me and compelling (moreso as the two gymnastic holds I'm working on are isometric in nature). But the big thing that makes the book worthwhile right now, even if you're nowhere close to such feats as a one-arm chin, is this: where Warrior Fitness gives you everything you need to build a fantastic workout, Infinite Intensity gives you everything you need to put those workouts together for a complete, long-term, training lifestyle. Personally, the chapter on periodization was worth the price of admission alone. I had always written off periodization because of it's emphasis on peaking for a certain key event, but it turns out that's only one kind of periodization. There are other forms that are relevant to longer seasons and year-round fitness, which is much more what I'm after.

A few final general notes...

All Ross's books are geared towards fighters, but the techniques are highly relevant for any competitive athlete, or those simply dedicated to getting into better shape.

The books are spiral-bound, which I understand can be a turnoff for some, but I really like being able to fold them over.

Finally, Ross is a one-man operation. He is self-published, fills the orders personally, encourages and answers all e-mail questions, and is an active participant in his forums. My books arrived almost instantly (I'm sure it helps that we both live in the northeast), and my few e-mail communications with him have shown him to be very responsive and helpful.

In short, I can't recommend his books highly enough. I love the two I have, but I bet they're all great.

Oh, last thing, if you want to get a better sense of Ross's writing and exercise routines before buying, here are his articles and videos.

I was remiss in my Crossfit post yesterday: read the FAQ! It's a gold mine in its own right, and has more video links than my meager Googling managed to uncover.

Jim of Beast Skills fame has just posted a One-Arm Chin-Up/Pull-up Tutorial. Yow. I need to pick some easier goals!

Crossfit is not only home to a brutal "workout of the day" (WOD) weblog, but a raft of other resources as well, including two free PDF newsletters that contributed greatly to changing my approach to fitness. First up is the free What is Fitness? edition of their newsletter (other back issues are $5 each, or $25 for a subscription). There are so many good candidates for excerpting in this 11-page newsletter, so definitely read the whole thing, but here's a bit on interval training to whet your appetite:

One of the best Internet resources on interval training comes from Dr. Stephen Seiler. This article on interval training and another on the time course of training adaptations contain the seeds of CrossFit's heavy reliance on interval training. The article on the time course of training adaptations explains that there are three waves of adaptation to endurance training. The first wave is increased maximal oxygen consumption. The second is increased lactate threshold. The third is increased efficiency. In the CrossFit concept we are interested in maximizing first wave adaptations and procuring the second systemically through multiple modalities, including weight training, and avoiding completely third wave adaptations. Second and third wave adaptations are highly specific to the activity in which they are developed and are detrimental to the broad fitness that we advocate and develop. A clear understanding of this material has prompted us to advocate regular high intensity training in as many training modalities as possible through largely anaerobic efforts and intervals while deliberately and specifically avoiding the efficiency that accompanies mastery of a single modality. It is at first ironic that this is our interpretation of Dr. Seiler's work for it was not his intention, but when our quest of optimal physical competence is viewed in light of Dr. Seiler's more specific aim of maximizing endurance performance our interpretation is powerful.

Dr. Seiler's work, incidentally, makes clear the fallacy of assuming that endurance work is of greater benefit to the cardiovascular system than higher intensity interval work. This is very important: with interval training we get all of the cardiovascular benefit of endurance work without the attendant loss of strength, speed, and power.

The other freebie from Crossfit is their Foundations PDF, which is chock full of tantalizing information:

In gyms and health clubs throughout the world the typical workout consists of isolation movements and extended aerobic sessions. The fitness community from trainers to the magazines has the exercising public believing that lateral raises, curls, leg extensions, sit-ups and the like combined with 20-40 minute stints on the stationary bike or treadmill are going to lead to some kind of great fi tness. Well, at CrossFit we work exclusively with compound movements and shorter high intensity cardiovascular sessions. We've replaced the lateral raise with pushpress, the curl with pull-ups, and the leg extension with squats. For every long distance effort our athletes will do fi ve or six at short distance. Why? Because compound or functional movements and high intensity or anaerobic cardio is radically more effective at eliciting nearly any desired fitness result. Startlingly, this is not a matter of opinion but solid irrefutable scientifi c fact and yet the marginally effective old ways persist and are nearly universal. Our approach is consistent with what is practiced in elite training programs associated with major university athletic teams and professional sports. CrossFit endeavors to bring state-of-the-art coaching techniques to the general public and athlete who haven't access to current technologies, research, and coaching methods

Then there's the answer to the question, "can I enjoy optimal health without being an athlete?"

No! Athletes experience a protection from the ravages of aging and disease that non-athletes never find. For instance, 80-year-old athletes are stronger than non-athletes in their prime at 25 years old. If you think that strength isn't important consider that strength loss is what puts people in nursing homes. Athletes have greater bone density, stronger immune systems, less coronary heart disease, reduced cancer risk, fewer strokes, and less depression than non-athletes.

... and a final teaser on "Fringe Athletes":

There is a near universal misconception that long distance athletes are fitter that their short distance counterparts. The triathlete, cyclist, and marathoner are often regarded as among the fittest athletes on earth. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

As if that weren't enough, their discussion boards are lively, and they have demonstration videos for a ton of challenging exercises. Great site, even if they have yet to post a WOD that I can tackle without major modification (well, except for the running ones).

Oh, I haven't watched all these yet, but here's a bit of Googling: a bunch of Crossfit Real Videos.

I mentioned recently that I'm following Coach Sommers' instructions for learning the planche and front lever. I just had a breakthrough that I thought might be helpful to others (your mileage may vary, of course). I'm still basically in the fetal stage of acquiring these skills, but even now it's fun and rewarding, and Sommers' training approach couldn't be easier to follow:

You will use the same basic strength progression on all of the following exercises. Be sure to master one position in a progression before moving onto the next. Hold for sets of however many seconds you feel comfortable, while continuing to combine the time of your sets until you reach 60 seconds total time. The number of sets it takes to reach the 60 seconds combined total time is irrelevant. All that matters is that you accomplish 60 seconds of "quality work". Once you can hold a position correctly for the entire 60 seconds in one set, it is time to move on to the next harder exercise and begin the training procedure all over again.

So that's what I've been doing for a few months now. Progress has been very slow, but perceptible. And building up to 60 seconds was fairly painful. After getting to a point where I could execute a hold at all, my first hold of a session would be okay, but the duration of my subsequent holds would plummet, dropping to just a second or two for the last 20-30 seconds I needed to get to 60.

So last week I tried something different. Instead of trying to accumulate 60 seconds of quality work in one session, I spread my sets throughout the day. I'd do one in the morning. Then another at each bathroom break. Then another at each laundry break. As a result, all of my holds were of some semi-reasonable duration, rather than an almost instantaneous collapse into failure. I have been trying this gentler approach for three days now, and the result has been a clear spike in my improvement. In fact, after three months or so of working on these, this would be the only spike in my otherwise-linear improvement. My best hold last week for my pathetic version of a tuck planche was maybe 8 seconds after working on it for a month, and today I managed 15 seconds. I didn't gain much time in my advanced tuck front lever, but it felt like my form was much better (which makes the hold harder).

So is this what greasing the groove is all about? Sign me up. There are a few other variables that could account for the sudden acceleration (from snail to tortoise) in my progress, but it certainly feels like this minor training tweak is the big one. Less pain, more gain. It doesn't seem possible.

My second post in a row on injuries. I should have named this weblog "InjuredAndWastingAway.com", as I put my back out playing pickup about two weeks ago. Fer cryin' out loud, such a Masters-division injury. Actually, trusty Mr. Kim was right on hand to make me feel a bit better on that score:

Some athletes feel immune to back injuries, associating back pain with people who are older or out of shape. Contrary to that perception, back pain is the number one cause of "limited activity" for adults under age forty-five. In fact, after the common cold, back pain is the most common medical complaint in the United States. No one is immune, particularly not those who put increased stress on their back by engaging in demanding movements like high kicks, falls or throws [like whatever it is that I did to myself].

Anyway, I don't know what precipitated it, it just started siezing up until play was no longer possible. It was bad enough over the next three days that it would take me a good 30 seconds to get up off the floor, for example. On the fourth day it loosened up considerably, and I was able to start doing pseudo-workouts again, but even half-assed efforts would set me back on the sieze-up scale. And that's basically where I've been for two weeks. The lack of walking-around pain is nice, but losing conditioning as we approach the critical juncture of the season was plunging me into despair, especially with improvement in my back plateaued. On Tuesday I started prescription muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatories, but they were making no difference at all (the anti-inflammatories can take awhile, I understand). So last night I went to watch pickup, got a tip for something to try, and today I feel much better! I have hope again. But before I describe the miracle cure, let me describe the exact nature of the pain:

After the initial sieze-up subsided, the pain was sharp and pretty much centered where my spine and belt intersect. If I locked my knee mostly straight and swung my right leg from the hip, I could get full range of motion, forward swing parallel to the floor, no problem. But with my left leg the forward swing produced sharp pain at that spot in my back maybe 25 degrees into the swing. Like my hamstring was pulling something very specific in my back, or was pinching a nerve that ran up there, who knows?

So here was the tip from my holistic-posture-breathing-alignment-healer-type teammate (I really should get an official title from him). Paraphrasing:

Try rolling up a washcloth into a small cylinder. You don't want it to be too big. Then lie on your back, knees bent, feet on the floor. Put your head on a couple books for comfortable neck alignment. Lie on the rolled up washcloth such that it runs along your spine under your lower back. Visualize your back flowing and relaxing over the cylinder formed by the washcloth.

Twenty minutes later, my range of motion on the left-leg swing had at least doubled. Amazing! Your mileage may vary, of course. Get a proper diagnosis before trying this. Backs are nothing to screw around with. I'll leave you with more immortal words from Mr. Kim on that score:

Back pain, if left untreated, can lead to other nagging aches and pains. If you try to compensate for back pain by favoring or "babying" the offending area, you may find yourself deveoping sharp shooting pains in your leg or tense knotted muscles in your shoulders. Back pain should be addressed at your earliest opportunity, wiht a visit to your doctor or a physical therapist.

I struggled with chronic shin splints for at least a dozen years before finally getting them under control around three years ago. Here is everything I know about shin splints, and what I did to fix (or at least suppress) mine...

(Usual disclaimers apply: I'm not a doctor, trainer, etc. Follow at your own risk. This is just what I've read (probably with poor comprehension) and what I've done for my own shin splints.)

Definition

"Shin splints" is a garbage term that pretty much covers any form of recurring shin pain. Such pain can be caused by any of the following:

• Overuse or overpronation can cause tendinitis in your shins.
• Repeated jarring (like from running :-) can cause the lower-leg bone sheath (periosteum) to become inflamed.
• Nerve irritation can develop from friction with the surrounding muscles.
• Stress fractures, although in my experience you get the other problems first, and then this develops, laying you up for awhile.
• Finally, compartment syndrome. Very bad. All the stuff in your leg (muscles, veins, nerves, etc.) run through four different compartments, each wrapped in a sheath. If the stuff swells and is constricted by it's compartment, your blood flow can get cut off (and I hear it hurts like hell). Relatively rare, but very serious. Seek medical attention immediately. Now. Yes, you can lose your foot if the circulation is cut off for too long. Cold or blue feet are two giveaways, although I don't know if they will always happen.

Prevention

Obviously, the best thing to do is figure out the cause of your shin splints and eliminate it. Here are some ideas:

• See a good orthopedist who works with athletes (he/she should watch you run, not just look at how you stand) to determine the cause or your shin pain. If you overpronate, you'll want to wear proper shoes, and possibly have said orthopedist make you custom orthodics. I've never actually performed this step personally, but probably should, even though I now have a system that keeps my shin pain in check (more on that shortly).
• Increase your running distance and/or speedwork gradually. Your body has to grow tolerant of the impact.
• Run on softer surfaces (although I believe this can possibly be counterproductive for shin splints caused by overpronation rather than impact stress, as it introduces even greater undesirable motion in your foot).
• Lose weight, if you're carrying extra baggage. Every pound you lose reduces impact stress on your shins.
• Do stretching and strengthening exercises for the front of your lower legs. Running strengthens your calves out of proportion with your shins, so you want to try to keep them balanced. I actually don't have a source for this, so might very well be making it up. Pretty sure I heard that somewhere though.
• Ice after workouts. Even if you're not in pain, ice will help prevent inflammation.

Treatment

If you're already in pain, here are things you can try to get relief:

• Rest until you aren't in pain any more, and then build up more slowly.
• Ice.
• Ibuprofin or some other anti-inflammatory.
• Some folks try wraps or tape, but these have never worked for me. In fact, for me the compression sleeves you can buy made them worse. Your mileage may vary.
• ...and pretty much everything under "Prevention" above.

Many of you will want to play through your shin splints. I know I have. In the dozen or so seasons I strugged with shin splints, I probably successfully played through them twice. The other 10 times they kept getting worse and worse until they were unplayable. Based on those stats (and conventional wisdom), I don't recommend playing through them. Notice, though, that I tried to play through them all 12 seasons, and did so mostly by consuming far more Ibuprofin than I should have. I'm not the sharpest stick in the eye. So do as I say, not as I do.

My Shin Splints Experience

My struggles with shin splints began in college, playing Ultimate Frisbee on a field that was so hard it may as well have been a parking lot. Even though I was in good shape at the time, the pounding was just too much for me. Ibuprofin and stupidity got me through all my college seasons. After college I continued to be dogged by shin splints. Notice I keep using the garbage term as I never really had them properly diagnosed, although I do know that I overpronate. As I settled into adulthood and declining fitness, my yearly cycle would look something like this:

1. Basically take the winter off from exercising.
2. Start playing Ultimate two or three times a week around April. Lament the dismal state of my fitness, but enjoy pain-free shins.
3. June. Fitness improves. Shin pain begins. Start Ibuprofin diet.
4. Around July. My pain/performance peak.
5. August through the end of the season. Watch my pain curve increase, and beat down my performance curve.
6. Rinse. Repeat.

Then, finally, around three years ago I tried playing a couple games of indoor Ultimate over the winter. Within two sessions I started experiencing June-level shin pain. I knew something had to change. And besides, as I mentioned elsewhere, I was tired of sucking. So it was time to get in shape and fix my shins once and for all. Here's what I did:

1. Hopped on the NordicTrack. I've written elsewhere what a great machine this is, but for my purposes in particular is was perfect. I needed to get some exercise outside the high-impact context of Ultimate, I needed to lose some weight, and I needed to work out my lower legs. Even jogging brought on shin pain for me, so easing into running slowly wasn't an option. The NordicTrack was a good, full-body, aerobic workout, and the balance component of the exercise really worked my lower legs well. In fact, for my first several weeks of my workouts on that machine, most of my soreness (the good kind) was in my lower legs and shins.
2. Lost 20 pounds. Then another 20 pounds. The first 20 was enough to make a big difference for my shins though.
3. Started icing religiously after each and every workout that had any kind of an impact component (jogging, running, rope jumping, competing, etc.). Note that this means I am icing healthy shins! I am not waiting for the pain to start. For icing anything, but especially shins, I can't recommend Cryopak Flexible Ice Blankets highly enough. They are cheap, five or six fit nicely in a small personal cooler, and you can wrap your entire lower leg with one or two (depending on what size you buy and how tall you are). Man, it gets you good and cold. I just put them right on my skin and wrap them down with a snug Ace bandage. I'm not recommending direct ice-to-skin contact in case you get frostbite or nerve damage or something, but I've never had any problem with it personally.

That's it. Less weight, better fitness, and regular ice. I'm not sure which of those factors had the biggest influence, but I've been shin splintless for three years now, and I thought I was always going to be stuck with those bastards.

I still overpronate though, and I just learned that might account for my high number of ankle sprains, random foot pain the day after Ultimate, and inclination towards calf cramps. I really should do the right thing and get that checked out. And so should you, if you're anything like me.

If you haven't considered the humble NordicTrack cross-country skier, you should:

• It's a good full-body workout.
• Taku mentions it specifically as a good choice for interval training, and my own experience bears this out.
• There is a balance component to the exercise, and thus really works the lower legs, especially in the first few weeks. It's been great for my shin splints.
• It's dirt cheap. Check out the current eBay listings (make sure you also check the "show only completed listings" box to give you an idea of what these are going for, and note especially all the auctions that end with zero bids!). You can also often pick these up for a song by watching the classifieds or CraigsList. Heck, I've seen them at tag sales or just sitting by the side of the road.

I will warn you though: when you first hop on the thing you'll think it sucks. It'll feel wobbly and awkward. You won't like coordinating your arms and legs, and at least one part of your body will probably fatigue well before the others. So you'll cut your workout short without really feeling like you've achieved much. For me, it took about three weeks to hit my stride on the machine, but now I'm very glad I put in the work to get used to it.

Okay, how do I get this strong and flexible (Windows Media ~3MB)? Unbelievable, particularly some of the stuff towards the end.

Update: if the link above doesn't work for you, try here.

If you want to do some (r)evolutionary reading on fitness, check out Art De Vany's blog (warning: 447K and growing). Even as a zealous convert to low-duration, high-intensity, varied training, it was (and is) still hard for me to wrap my mind around the possibility of such short workouts being effective. But before excerpting further, let me lead off by noting it's hard to argue with results (from his introduction):

Here are the parameters of my recent physical at the age of 65: blood pressure 111/72; pulse 58. My low density cholesterol (ldl) is 118 (below the recommendation not to exceed 130). My high density cholesterol (hdl, the good cholesterol) is 87, far above the suggested 45 or more. Together, these indicate zero cardiovascular risk. My glucose tolerance is excellent, but it is possible to be glucose tolerant and still be insulin resistant. So, I prefer to test for blood insulin, the lower the better. My blood insulin is almost unmeasurable at 3.4 relative to the ``normal'' range of 6 to 27. Insulin is the aging hormone in all species; my low insulin is one of the many factors that slow my rate of aging.

Based on body composition, strength, flexibility, reaction time, and blood profile, a research institute rated my biological age at 32 a few years ago. I don't take this seriously, but it is consistent with how I feel. My body composition and hormonal profile are not so remarkable when you understand that what we call aging in this modern world really is the accumulated damage of inactivity and dietary abuse. Hunter gatherers don't age like Westerners do because they retain their metabolic fitness.

65. Damn. Granted, he's just one guy and might be a genetic freak of nature rather than a pure product of his health regimen, but still...

The basic premise of De Vany's work is that evolution took three million years to mold us into hunter-gatherers, but that the pace at which we've changed our environment—moving to an agricultural model around 10,000 years ago and an industrial model around 200 years ago— has put our stone age bodies dangerously out of step with the times. The pathway to health lies in emulating hunter-gatherer patterns of long periods of rest punctuated by periods of high-intensity work...

Mechanistic prescriptions fail because they do not present the metabolic challenges and variety of the ancestral environment for which our bodies are designed. If your personal trainer is working you out three days a week, doing three sets of the same exercises, or, worse, 5 or even 6 days a week, find another trainer. Working out 5 or 6 days a week doing many sets of exercises per body part and spending over an hour per workout imposes a chronic load on the body for which it is poorly designed to adapt. You are flooding your body with hormones that consume lean body mass. These hormones also preferentially consume fast twitch muscle, the very substance you are after for strength, lean mass, and vitality. You are draining your adaptive capacity so that you cannot build, or even keep up with the load. Worse still, you are compromising your immune system. Virtually all the body's adaptive mechanisms are designed to deal with acute, not chronic, stresses. Exercise should mimic the activities of our ancestral existence; we are adaptive organisms that thrive on variety, not machines designed for high volume routine.

... and a diet that emphasizes fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats, while eschewing simple carbohydrates (e.g. sugar, pasta).

Homo sapiens is an omnivore; your diet must contain an ample variety of fresh plant foods and lots of amino acids and essential lipids. The only universal characteristic of ancestral and living hunter-gatherer diets is the almost complete absence of grains and simple carbohydrates. There were no simple carbohydrates like sugar and pasta in the evolutionary past. The Ice Ages were times of protein plenty and scarce fat and carbohydrate. Fruits were tough and fibrous, not the refined, sweet stuff we have today. The closest thing to a simple carbohydrate was honey that was rare and guarded by wild bees. There were no grain or cereal sources of carbohy21 drates in the ancestral diet. Hunter-gatherer diets contain an enormous variety of plant foods and are high in protein (the median is about 35 per cent of calories from protein). Human metabolism cannot handle protein levels above 35 per cent over a long term. Cofactors, in the form of fat or carbohydrate, are required in order to utilize protein. So, variety and quality are the key objectives of the Evolutionary Fitness Diet.

This is laid out in more detail in his paper, Evolutionary Fitness (PDF), a thought-provoking read through-and-through, and De Vany is currently expanding into a book. I could excerpt something from every page, but I'll content myself with just one more bit:

We are hunter/gatherers in pin-stripe suits, living a sedentary life and it is killing us in ways our ancestors never experienced. Virtually all the degenerative diseases-atherosclerosis, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, declining muscle mass-of modern civilization are unheard of among hunter-gatherers and were not part of our ancestral experience. Most modern fitness prescriptions are static and agricultural. These programs model the body as a machine, not as an adaptive organism.

Anyone who's been following my fledgling site knows I'm very happy with the results I've seen from ditching longer cardio work in favor of shorter, more intense workouts. So of course I was thrilled to discover De Vany's ideas support this model. Having read The Stone Age Present 10 years ago or so probably made me particularly receptive. And evolution and fitness are two favorite topics of mine. A good fit all around.