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http://chriskresser.com/

In this episode we discuss:

• The dangers of a sedentary lifestyle
• The problems of modern-day fitness
• Movement as medicine
• Darryl Edwards’s new book: Animal Moves
• You don’t have to be in a gym to lift something heavy
• Play is vital to human wellness

Show notes:

• Darryl Edwards’s new book: Animal Moves
• The Paleo Cure, by Chris Kresser
• Play, by Stuart Brown

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Chris Kresser: Darryl Edwards, my man, good to see you.

Darryl Edwards: How are you doing, Chris? How’s things?

Chris Kresser: Things are well. It’s good to see you that one time a year that I usually get to see you at Paleo f(x) last year.

Darryl Edwards: Yes.

Chris Kresser: It’s usually either Paleo f(x) or I happen to be in London doing some things.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, that’s true. Paleo f(x) is definitely one of the highlights of my calendar for sure, so it’s a pleasure to see you, Chris.

Chris Kresser: Yes. And usually I see you running from one room to the next or outside crawling around on the ground with people on top of you or vice versa or something like that, which is cool because that’s what primal play is all about, right?

Darryl Edwards: That’s right. It’s about having fun with movement. I’m definitely not spending much time relaxing whilst the Paleo f(x).

 Darryl Edwards teaches us, “If we move like animals, we’ll become more human.” Learn how to incorporate animal moves into your daily life to get leaner, fitter, stronger, and healthier for life. 

Chris Kresser: Yes. I don’t see you sitting in chairs very often there and watching talks and stuff. You’re busy helping people learn how to move in a more effective way.

Darryl Edwards: That’s for sure.

The dangers of a sedentary lifestyle

Chris Kresser: And that’s what I’m excited to talk to you about today because this, I think we see eye to eye on this, there are a couple of big problems with the modern approach to movement. One is the biggest problem, which is just there’s not enough of it. Just being completely sedentary is the biggest problem, where people are just sitting. I think in the U.S. the stats are six and a half hours a day on average, so of course that’s an average, so we know that a lot of people are sitting a lot more than not, like, 10 to 12 hours a day. Someone rides in the car to work, they commute for an hour, they’re sitting on a chair at their desk for eight hours. They sit on the way home in the car. They have some dinner and they go on the couch, watch a couple hours of TV. I mean, that’s 12 hours easily right there.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, for sure. I mean, yes, we definitely have an epidemic of sedentary lifestyles. And so I spend a lot of my time trying to educate people about the dangers of that and speak about that and provide the research and the evidence based around that, but also, there were times where there’s enough talking about this. We all kind of know instinctively that we feel better when we move. There are significant benefits to our physiology when we move and we are also adverse to movement. We were designed to conserve calories. If we are going to be choosing to burn calories to expend energy, then oftentimes it needs to be fun. Otherwise we choose not to do it. It’s easier to sit on the couch watching Netflix.

Chris Kresser:  Yes.

Darryl Edwards: Oftentimes, and thinking, you know what, I’m going to get my training game on and head outside—

Chris Kresser: I’m going to go on the StairMaster for a while.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, and watch Netflix.

Chris Kresser: Yes. That leads us to the second problem, and I want to come back to that evolutionary mechanism because I think that’s really actually important for people to understand. They often feel like there’s something wrong with them if they’re not motivated to go run on the treadmill for an hour. But that’s a biologically hardwired mechanism as you said, to conserve energy, because we never had a problem of not moving enough in the natural world. It was more like the risk was expending too much energy and then becoming a target for a predator because you couldn’t run away because you were too tired.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, exactly.

Chris Kresser: We don’t have that problem now. I think it relieves a lot of guilt, shame, and blame when people understand that, and it opens up the possibility of, “Hey, look, let’s try to find some ways of moving that are more fun and more likely for you to actually want to do it.” But the other big problem we have, and I know you talk about this a lot, is okay, let’s say someone is not totally sedentary. They’re following the government-issued recommendations on activities that they’re dutifully going to the gym three to five days a week and they’re on that StairMaster for 30 minutes and then they’re lifting some weights. That’s great. I mean that’s certainly a big improvement over not moving at all. But what’s the problem with that approach?

Darryl Edwards: Yes. Well, I think, I mean, we always seem to sit back and look through an evolutionary lens, through a biological lens, through an ancestral lens, and when doing so, you’ll recognize very quickly that exercise is a substitute. It’s a proxy for the physical activity we used to get for survival. What we used to have to do day to day just to survive meant there was a requirement for movement of all types of persuasions, so very low-intensity kind of puttering around through to high-intensity, very strong, powerful movements, lots of different moving patterns. Whether it be crawling, running, jumping, climbing, looking at different vantage points, a successful kill you’re going to bring the hunt back so you’re going to have carry it for several miles, usually in order to get back to the camp to then prepare the food for everyone to share. I think there were two things wrong, or that we could get more right, about conventional fitness. One is we try to use a reductionist approach to movement and fitness. We say, “You know what, as long as I’m moving, there’s a benefit. It doesn’t really matter what I do. So if I’m just doing aerobic activity, that’s a tick in the box. If I just go to the gym and lift weights, isn’t that good enough?” Actually no, we need a more holistic approach to movement and we need to consider that as humans. We are kind of a jack of all trades and a master of none when it comes to movement. We are pretty average at best when we compare ourselves to other members of the animal kingdom. We can’t balance on one leg a flamingo right? We can’t climb trees as well as monkeys. We can’t sprint like a cheetah. I was looking at Usain Bolt’s top speed—camels can outrun Usain Bolt.

Chris Kresser: Yes, and the cheetah is like zero to 60. It’s ridiculous. It’s like three or four seconds or something. Even the fastest cars on the road would struggle.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, would struggle to keep up. And evolution—nature has given them that advantage in order to be successful, and even for a cheetah they’re not that successful when it comes to hunting. Even though they can outsprint an antelope, they are still relatively unsuccessful, and I think something like four out of five hunts of a cheetah aren’t successful.

 Chris Kresser: They don’t have a lot of endurance either.

Darryl Edwards: Exactly. They burn out within a few seconds. They can only maintain top speed for about four or five seconds, and if the antelope gets away, the weakest, slowest antelope, if they get away, the cheetah’s got to hope that he has enough energy to go back and hunt again.

The problems of modern-day fitness

Darryl Edwards: Humans, on the other hand, even though we are not very adept at specializing in movement, we are very good at being a generalist of movement. That’s one of the problems of modern-day fitness is that we try to focus on only what we enjoy and only what we feel that we are good at. I’m a great runner. I’m great at endurance, so I’ll focus on running, maybe get on a bike, maybe do some swimming. I want to become a triathlete, and to get better at that, to get fitter at that, I need to go longer distances, more volume, and that’s what I’ll do to the detriment of other components of fitness. I believe if you put fitness onto an evolutionary landscape, then you’ll start picking out all of these different moving patterns that we need. You won’t sacrifice one area of specialism for all the others. In other words, you focus on your balance, your coordination, your agility, your strength, your speed, your stamina, and your ability to interact with the environment, which is also important, and you won’t be overly relying on one piece of equipment or your gym. You’ll recognize that the world around you could become your gym.

The second problem, I would say, is that exercise has become a chore. It’s often seen as punishment for what you ate the night before. As a way to get … “I’m going to go to the beach. I have a two-week vacation in six months. I want to get myself in shape so I look great with a T-shirt off.” That seems to be the motivation, very short term, based on aesthetics or maybe making money for a charity event—“I’m going to run a 10k”—and so we don’t have a great love affair with exercise. We have lots of short-term love affairs. Like New Year’s Day. “That’s it. I’m dedicating myself, my whole life to movement.” Give it two or three weeks, and we ditch.

Chris Kresser: Yes. Fewer than 8 percent of people are still doing their New Year’s resolutions six months later, from the statistics thrown around about that.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, for sure, and I can understand why, again. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up about this. I don’t want to say we’re designed to be lazy, but we’re designed to conserve energy because evolutionarily, we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from. You wouldn’t just recreationally decide, “Hey, let’s just go for a jog.” “Let’s just go running around just because we can.” Recreational activities would come off to the success of a successful hunt, a great meal, now we can go and have a dance.

Chris Kresser: Now we have surplus calories to burn.

Darryl Edwards:  To burn, yes, exactly.

Chris Kresser: And that’s, by the same token of course, that’s the problem with food. We’re conditioned to seek out highly rewarding and palatable foods because we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from. If we had really calorie-dense foods available, we are going to eat as much of that stuff as we can. There are hunter–gatherer groups like the Aché in Paraguay who have been observed eating up to a liter of honey at one time when they find a source or a beehive, and they’ll climb 150 feet up in trees where they could fall and die just to get this honey, and they’ll risk being stung by hundreds of bees in order to do this. I mean, that’s the environment we grew up in, not the one where you can walk down to a 7-Eleven and get an unlimited amount of calories any time you want. Those mechanisms promoted survival in the natural world, but they’re really, in some way, working against us in this modern world.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, for sure. The 21st century, we’re bombarded with convenience, so most of our ancestral heritage was based on inconvenience. It’s difficult to locate food, which meant we were nomadic. We didn’t just stay in one location because if we did, we’d be depleting food resources, so we were fantastic in our ability for locomotion via walking significant distances to ensure there was always access to food, and then somebody had the bright idea that maybe raising animals and planting seeds in agriculture was advantageous, but it meant there was less requirement to move on that basis because we don’t need to hunt. We can … “Oh my gosh, we can just harvest once a year,” so a few times a year we can get access to food and we can raise animals, and so we’ve gone from a significant amount of movement requirements from day to day, and that’s gradually been trickled down to now in the 21st century where you mentioned walking to the 7-Eleven, I mean, we know now 24/7 you can click a button on your mouse and get food delivered.

Chris Kresser: Yes. You don’t even need to walk to the 7-Eleven. [crosstalk]

Darryl Edwards: Exactly, and we’ve got smart fridges now with internet access, but I mean, I can imagine a day where you’ll wish, “Oh, I would love to eat X-Y-Z, and it will just probably appear.”

Chris Kresser: Your personal AI assistant will just know that you’re ready for a snack, and it’ll pop up right there.

Darryl Edwards:  Yeah, exactly. Your ghrelin level is activated. Here you go.

[crosstalk]

Movement as medicine

Chris Kresser: I’m curious. I want to talk about another, I think, benefit of your approach. You call it “animal moves,” which I think is really appropriate because we often forget that we’re animals. I mean, we certainly are different from most other animals in a lot of important ways, but we’re also similar, and I think that our modern existence, one of the consequences of that is people tend to have a very limited experience of their animal body. It might be limited just sitting for a long time, standing, and then maybe repetitive movements like jogging or StairMaster. They don’t really have the full, rich experience of the dynamism and fullness of the human form and everything that it’s capable of. I think that’s to some extent responsible for kind of a lot of stuff like a disconnection from the sexual and sensual self and the way that gets played out in addiction to pornography and all this stuff, is just not really a full, rich experience of being human. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Darryl Edwards: Yes. That’s a fantastic point. I cover a lot of research on my website around movement as medicine and why movement is so important to our physiology. So, we know, for example, that there’s interesting research about the gut microbiome, for example. Those who have a high VO2 max in a control population, so looking at rugby players, so control for diet, control for other lifestyle mechanisms, those who are actually fitter based on peak VO2 max, your ability to process oxygen for energy, have 25 percent increased volume and diversity of beneficial gut bacteria. Even something that’s fairly decoupled, you could argue, movement and the gut microbiome, what’s the connection? There is a connection.

Chris Kresser: Yes, absolutely.

Darryl Edwards: And every single cell in the body benefits from movement. Muscle contraction, for example, muscle that has been identified as the new endocrine organ, based on the latest research on myokines, so the muscle cytokines communicate with organs like the pancreas, the liver, the heart and promote healing, which you use in chronic inflammation, so there are inflammatory benefits of pursuing the right type of movement practice. We’re starting to understand now why movement is not only good for prevention of chronic lifestyle disease, so we know the research tells us that it …  which we see the likelihood of cancer, type 2 diabetes risk, improves your likelihood of surviving from a cardiovascular risk event, for example, but we now understand the underlying mechanisms as to why that happens. We’ve become quite arrogant in some respects, not acknowledging ourselves as animals and when we are looking after animals … so zookeepers, again in their misplaced arrogance, decided at one point, “You know what, I don’t believe our animals are healthy eating meat. Let’s feed them a vegetarian diet because sure, that’s going to be far more healthy for the animals.” And of course what happens is that the lions lose their libido, they start to get depressed, they start getting sick, and they decide, “Oh, there’s something else wrong.” What’s happened in the environment, actually, guys, is the fact that you’re not feeding them what they were designed to eat. It’s exactly the same with movements. If you own a dog and you decide, “You know what, it’s not safe outside. I don’t want my dog to encounter the elements. It’s far too cold. Let’s just sit here and let’s watch TV together, pet.” We know what’s going to happen. That dog becomes depressed. It affects their mood. It affects their body, they’ll gain weight, they’ll become miserable, they’ll die prematurely. That’s what will happen. We know that we are not responsible as pet owners if we don’t take our dogs out for a walk, but we are also not responsible for our own health. If we are not taking ourselves out for walks if we’re not also … and we know even with dogs, dogs don’t just want to walk. They want to sprint, they want to chase, they want to catch, they want to explore their environment. They want to climb. There are so many moving patterns they want to engage in, and so we should take a leaf out of observation of other animals, which is why I wrote Animal Moves. It’s one small part of the entire primal play method of if we move like animals, we’ll actually become more human.

Chris Kresser: Yes, makes perfect sense.

[crosstalk]

Darryl Edwards: What we’re capable of, yes, for sure.

Chris Kresser: There’s the benefit of being able to experience our sort of full range of movement, and as human beings, there are medical and health benefits which … I mean, look, if you look at the research on just about any condition, exercise is really at the top of the list, let’s say, movement in general is at the top of the list in terms of the most effective interventions in cognitive decline and preventing dementia and Alzheimer’s. Just meeting the recommended guidelines for movement can reduce the risk in some cases by up to 50 percent, which is just insane.

Darryl Edwards: Which is incredible.

Chris Kresser: If there is a drug that they came out tomorrow and they’re like, hey, we got this new drug that reduces Alzheimer’s risk by 50 percent, that would be a multibillion-dollar product within minutes of being reviewed. Everyone would be clamoring for it, and yet you can get that benefit and many more just by moving your body.

Darryl Edwards: By moving your body. Yes. Physical activity is more important, I would argue, than exercise, but—

Chris Kresser: Yes, absolutely.

Darryl Edwards: But really we’re in an environment which means we are forced to be sedentary far more often. We need exercise in the 21st century because it’s a supplement. It’s a supplement for the lack of physical activity that we get living as 21st-century Homo sapiens. We need better ways and prescriptions for movement today, which includes this package, this kind of smorgasbord of different movement patterns, which will mean we achieve the health benefits without having to be outside all day moving because with office space, we’re working from home, some of us can’t escape having to commute in a car for a couple of hours every day there and back, sit at a desk, and we can’t have a standing desk. We’ve got to find mechanisms that would enable us to maintain really good health through movement, making better decisions about movement, as we do with food. We plan to make healthier food decisions because we are aware of the health benefits, and we need to be just as articulate about and educated about our movement decisions. Trust me, I struggle sometimes. Some days I get up and I’m like, “I would just love to just lie in bed all day. Why not? Wouldn’t that be fantastic?” And every now and again get some grapes fed to me and get a massage and feel really pampered, but whenever I do spend a lot of time being sedentary, I feel worse afterwards. I feel fatigued. I’m like, I feel muscle soreness, I’m like, how can I be sore when I haven’t actually done any movements? The body starts to decay very, very slowly when you stop moving. And so because I’ve had experience now of, one, being very sedentary, so my former career I was a computer programmer 16 to 18 hours a day every day of the week in front of a series of computer screens, didn’t move. I mean, if I move my head, that would be a problem. I was like, I’ve got to keep looking at the screens. Coming out of that to then becoming more physically active, going back to any form of sedentarism, I’m even more sensitive to being sedentary. And so many of us aren’t aware of we’ve got to remove ourselves from our sedentary lifestyle, and then we can become more in tune with what our body needs when it comes to movements.

Darryl Edwards’s new book: Animal Moves

Chris Kresser: It’s so important. I want to dive into some of the specifics of your program now. Your new book, Animal Moves, just came out, I think, in mid-April, right?

Darryl Edwards: That’s right, yes.

Chris Kresser: And it’s available. I’ve got it pulled up here on Amazon.com in the US, so it’s available here on Kindle and paperback, also in the UK, iBooks.

Darryl Edwards: All good stores and all bad stores, Chris.

Chris Kresser: All good and bad stores everywhere. Great. I know from the book you’ve got a 28-day program for beginners, intermediate, and advanced that brings these different animal movements together to help people kind of get a sense of what this type of movement could do for them, and if any of you have been to Paleo f(x) and you have seen Darryl or you met Darryl elsewhere, you know how dynamic and fun this type of movement can be and how different it is from the typical gym workout. It tells a little bit more about what happens in these programs.

You don’t have to be in a gym to lift something heavy

Darryl Edwards: Yes, I suppose when I started out, I really went hardcore into what could I do to improve my fitness, and I joined a gym and I got into the performance aspects of this, into the sport of fitness. And I was very ultra-competitive in my day job, and I took that into the gym environment. What happened was, I was highly self-motivated, so whenever I was winning, whenever I was doing better at my workout, when I could measure the results of my workout, I felt great. But if I was losing, if I wasn’t top of the leaderboard, if I didn’t see any progress, I hated what I was doing. It was very results-oriented. I didn’t enjoy the process. I wasn’t in the moment. I wasn’t enjoying the moment. I was only enjoying the end result, and so I couldn’t maintain that for the long haul. It was another one of those, “Hey, this is great for the first year or two when I’m really enthusiastic, but now I don’t feel the same motivations to leave home, to go to the gym and to do that particular workout of the day.”

Play was my … the first kind of, like, “Eureka!” moment for me, like, hold on a second. There was a time in my life where I really enjoyed movements, and exercise didn’t figure in that. And that was when I was outside playing in the summer holidays with my friends all day. I didn’t complain about muscle soreness the next day. We didn’t do stuff that we didn’t enjoy. It was like, “This game is a waste of time. Let’s play something else.” That’s how it was, structured play. I recognize that as adults we need a form of structure because that’s what we really like as adults, but we need to have some of the freedom that comes around from exploring movement, and play is a great vehicle in doing so. I now know that that is a way to keep me in love with movements unto the end of my days. That’s how primal play came about. It was getting these primal, natural, instinctive movement patterns that we should be engaging in and having that synergy play theory and saying, “Hey, this could work.” I can make movement really effective but have fun at the same time. And so anyone who has taken part in my sessions, who has done my programs online, or has read my books will see that I intersperse play and playful activities throughout, using your imagination, using visualization. Why crawl like a bear, for example? I can crawl like a bear or I can pretend that I’m an environment where the bear is. I can pretend that I’m being stalked. I could pretend that I’m a predator. I can become more childlike in my approach to movement, and then it becomes far more enjoyable. We didn’t stay in static. It becomes more invigorating and joyful.

That was really the reason why I created this book is, one, to say, “Guys, we need to be moving in all these different ways,” but if it just appears like just another hardcore fitness program, people will buy the book and go “Hmmm. …” It’ll be a shelf-help book. It stays on the shelf. I may look at it next New Year’s Day. I wanted to hopefully encourage people to realize, just become more inquisitive about yourself and your environment. If you go out for a run tomorrow, don’t just take a straight line. Use the environment around you. Look at a tree—if you have the permission to climb it, climb it. If you don’t have the permission to climb it, still climb it. If you see a bench, interact with the bench. Use that as your gym equipment. If you see some rocks or logs, pick those up. You don’t have to be in a gym to lift something heavy. If you see somebody you like, I’m sure I probably picked you up once or twice, Chris.

Chris Kresser: Yes, sure you have.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, pick up somebody you like. You can have a handshake or you can come up …

[crosstalk]

Chris Kresser: In other words, act like a six-year-old.

Darryl Edwards: Exactly.

Chris Kresser: I have a six-year-old, and as you were talking about that, I was, like, “Oh yeah, that’s just Sylvie,” my daughter. She jumps on a trampoline outside and she comes inside and asks me to turn the jumper up for her and then she goes and picks something up, and then she runs down the street to her friend’s house and they start skipping. It’s really notable to me that we didn’t have to be taught this as kids. I mean, we unlearned how to do this. This is natural in our genes, but we really unlearn it over time because in many ways the environment sort of conditioned it out of us.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, exactly. Unfortunately, it’s not just the environment; it includes other human beings. When we were kids, most parents, I would argue, would say, “Get out of the house, amuse yourselves, go out and play.” Nowadays, a lot of parents would say amuse yourself within eyesight on a smart device. Do not go outside to play. I want to see what you’re up to. I want to supervise you at all times, and so kids are missing out on the opportunity to play and to explore their environments and to learn of risk assessments and to socially interact on how to improve their social and emotional intelligence by interacting with other children, different peer groups. All the challenges that we had as children, which we try to avoid them all and create this really sanitized environment, becomes more detrimental, actually, for our children than beneficial. I’m sure you’re aware of some really interesting research by Stuart Brown, who wrote a book called Play, and his observations were that kids who were play deprived, who were deprived of active play, are more likely to unfortunately become serial killers, are more likely to …

[crosstalk]

Chris Kresser: End up on death row.

Darryl Edwards: And end up on death row, for sure. It sounds quite alarmist in order to say that, but we know children who are play deprived are more likely to have autism, for example, more likely to have ADHD. There’s lots of great research in that area, but it’s kind of common sense. Kids have this nervous energy. They want to fidget. They want to move, and we constrain them oftentimes as adults, as their guardians, as their supervisors, as their teachers. We have legislation now which will state, “Oh, you can’t use a jump rope because you might fall over and cut your knee,” and “You can’t climb a tree because it’s dangerous.”

Chris Kresser: You might sue the school.

Darryl Edwards: Exactly, and there is interesting research, again, three times as many kids, this is both in the US and UK, three times as many kids are admitted to ER, the emergency room, or accidents and emergency, as we say here in the UK, falling out of a bed than falling out of a tree, and that’s taken place in the last generation. Those are the official stats by the National Vital Statistics and the CDC and a similar body here in the UK tracking this, and it is appalling.

Play is vital to human wellness

Chris Kresser: It’s appalling, and you’re so right. Stuart Brown, I had actually a whole chapter in my book on play, my first book, The Paleo Cure, and how play is … what we’re saying, is really as vital to human wellness and function as a proper diet and getting enough sleep, managing your stress and physical activity. We’re biologically hardwired for it, and part of that is what you said. It’s where we learn to actually negotiate ourselves in space, how we relate to other objects in space and other people. It’s how we learn things like balance and coordination. It’s where we try out certain strategies for getting our needs met—“Oh, this one works, this one doesn’t.” We kind of experienced the ebb and flow between cooperation and competitiveness and how that works, and it’s not just kids, actually. He talks a lot about how that continues to play a role for adults as we get older, as long as we allow it to.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, as long as you allow it to.

Chris Kresser: That adults play who play are healthier as well, not just kids. Something I love about your approach is it really incorporates that and recognizes the importance of that. For me, I’m a lifelong surfer, and surfing, it satisfies so many different needs. It’s the funnest thing. I have the most fun doing that than anything else. I’m outside, I’m getting sun exposure, I’m in nature, the ocean, I’m moving my body and really engaging all the different parts of my body to move. There’s a meditative aspect to it when you’re sitting there and you’re just waiting in between sets. It’s a time where my head can go clear. If I could do that every day, that’s it … [crosstalk] … anything else. Unfortunately, I can’t because of my other obligations and where I live, so for me it’s kind of like on the days when I can’t surf, how can I try to recreate all of those different things in my daily routine.

Darryl Edwards: And you know what, I’ve come to the conclusion that play is as an adult, sometimes we state that play is an activity rather than as kind of a state. In some respect, it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing. You can take that play ethos and intersperse that with your work, with your interaction with other people, and it took me, being a formerly very serious guy, I’m a reformed serious individual who’s now very much trying to—

Chris Kresser: Pick people up and carries them for a while.

Darryl Edwards: I’m on this playful path now, and I recognize that play can also be very, very serious. It isn’t just about “having fun.” Sometimes when your daughter’s playing, you’re not going to see any obvious signs of joy in her face. You’re going to see concentration and focus and trying to, as you say, to work out, to navigate, make decisions, to become more creative. And so, as an adult … Einstein once said that play is the highest form of research, so in some respects play is a superset of work. Work confines us, constricts us, puts us in a box. Play allows us to explore and experience things that there’s no way we would be able to miss when we’re in that kind of playful state. I would say and I would suggest that yes, it’s great to be able to say, “You know what? Surfing is my form of meditation, my form of fun and playing. I wish I could do that all the time.” But some of those things, because you’ve experienced that, you know some of those things you can bring into your daily practice.

Chris Kresser: You absolutely do. It’s a two-way relationship there.

Darryl Edwards: Yes, exactly. I really struggled with that because you kind of said to yourself, “No, I’m an adult. I’ve got to behave like adults do, and I’ve got to push childish behavior to one side.” Again, we confuse childish with childlike, so being a child and actually having an innocence about the world around you is a beautiful thing. Do you remember when you were a kid and you’d wake up every single day and go, “Oh, my goodness. This whole world is amazing. This environment is amazing. My friends are amazing. I just love everything and everyone and every experience.” And then you start getting bogged down with growing up and responsibility becoming more and more serious. There are times when I want to feel that again. I want to be nostalgic about that. I want to get up in the morning and go, “Isn’t it just fantastic to be alive? Isn’t that wonderful?” And now I feel that I’m in a much better place because I kind of re-experienced this again without being like a brat. I can take the childlike aspects, which are really rewarding and really helpful and really beneficial, and I can cast aside the elements of me that were very childish, that I would not want to repeat now as an adult.

Chris Kresser: Absolutely. Well Darryl, this has been so much fun, a fantastic conversation. I love your work. The book is Animal Moves: How to Move Like an Animal to Get You Leaner, Fitter, Stronger and Healthier for Life. It’s on everywhere—Amazon, Amazon UK, iBooks, bookstores, you name it. And then Darryl also has a really cool online program. I love books. I write books. I’ve read tons of books. Sometimes watching videos, especially with movement, can be really helpful, and I know Darryl has some fantastic courses online at primalplay.com, including a 30-day animal moves challenge, which I know is very popular. Thanks for doing this work and spreading this important message, Darryl, and I look forward to seeing you probably at the next Paleo f(x).

Darryl Edwards: Yes. It’s been a pleasure, Chris. We really enjoyed the conversation, and thanks very much for being such a great host.

Chris Kresser: My pleasure. Go and get the book, folks. It’s fantastic, and we’ll talk to you next time. Send in your questions to chriskresser.com/podcastquestion. See you next time.

Darryl Edwards: Take care, guys.

The post RHR: How to Move Like an Animal to Get You Leaner, Fitter, Stronger and Healthier for Life, with Darryl Edwards appeared first on Chris Kresser.

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If you’ve finally convinced yourself that nothing sears a steak like a cast iron skillet and that you absolutely have to have one to make crusty cornbread, your next decision is figuring out which one to buy. In our opinion, there’s only one choice. The good news is that it’s remarkably inexpensive. (That’s right — “the best” often means “the most expensive,” but not when it comes to cast iron!)

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Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

I get multiple emails per day asking me advice on what workout plan they should follow:

“CrossFit sounds really tough, but people that do it LOVE it. Should I try?”

“Should I be doing P90X or Insanity? I’m supposed to confuse my muscles, right?”

“I want to look like this particular person, what’s the strategy I should be following?”

“Should I do 3 sets of 5? 5 sets of 5 reps? 4 sets of 4? Ah!”

These are all great questions.

It shows that people are taking matters into their own hands and trying to figure out the best strategy to get in shape. And that’s amazing!

After running Nerd Fitness for the past 9 years, I know how confusing it can be for people to try and navigate a hundred different workout options, each claiming to be the newest, greatest, or quickest.

Ask yourself enough questions and visit enough websites, you’ll freak yourself until you become Tweek from South Park:

Poor Tweek.

I’ve seen people spend months and years trying to lose weight, jumping from one program to the next, and getting no results.

This makes me a sad panda.

I’ve ALSO seen people struggle for years only to turn their lives around permanently in a matter of months.

This makes me happy as a clam.

What separates the second group from the first?

The right mindset, the right community, and the right strategy for finding their PERFECT workout program.

This is the exact strategy we guide our 1-on-1 coaching clients through, it’s the mindset we teach in our online courses, and today I’m going to walk you through it, step by step (“day by dayyyyy”)!

Did you just start singing the theme song to “Step By Step?” You’re welcome.

Okay let’s get weird and help you find your perfect workout program.

Step #1: What Are Your Goals?

You’re reading Nerd Fitness, which means you likely have SOME goals.

Orrrrrrr, you just think my writing is so damn clever and funny that you’re willing to put up with all of this “better yourself” talk.

But it’s probably the goals.

And your goals will likely fall into one of three categories:

• Feel great and look good naked – You want to lose weight (and/or build muscle) and feel comfortable in your own skin.
• Get Healthy –  Your doctor told you that you need to change your ways or you’ll die an early death. Yikes.
• Be Happy – You are on the hunt for an exercise program that you don’t hate.

I like to refer to these three goals as the Triforce of Awesome.

Because I’m a dork, and because you’ll remember it.

Happy, healthy, look good naked.

(There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good naked, by the way. It’s why I started training all those years ago!)

MY goal for you is to have you satisfy all three conditions to become healthy, happy, and look damn good.

It starts by identifying why you’re here in the first place.

Because let’s be honest: this journey is gonna be tough.

You don’t just want to just “lose weight.” You want to “lose weight” so that you can “start dating again after a messy breakup.”

Or because “your dad passed away from health issues at a young age and you want to be around for many more decades to raise your children.”

The more specific and DEEP you can get with your reasoning, the more likely you’ll be to push through when you’re struggling to stay consistent!

I also want you to be realistic about how much time you think you can dedicate to this journey. 3 days a week for 30 minutes? 5 days for 15 minutes each day? Only on weekends?

That’s cool – just be up front with yourself.

Here’s how to put it all together:

PART A – IDENTIFY A GOAL THAT YOU’RE FOCUSED ON:

• I want to lose 100 pounds+.
• I want to pack on 30 pounds of muscle.
• I want to fit into my favorite dresses I haven’t been able to wear for years.

PART B – WRITE DOWN WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN YOU ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS:

• What is your “Big Why?” “I’ll lose this weight and I can start dating again!”
• What would getting in shape mean to you? “A better life not full of pain.”
• Who are you doing this for? Your family? Yourself? Your wife?

PART C – BE REALISTIC WITH HOW OFTEN YOU CAN TRAIN:

• I’m a broke college kid with lots of time. I can train 4 days per week no problem for an hour. Great!
• I’m a single mom working two jobs, so I can train once per week at a gym and the rest will have to happen at home. Amazing!
• I’m a Robot with unlimited energy and I have come to conquer earth. Ruh roh. Email me.

Be specific with your answers above.

STEP #1 TAKEAWAY: Pick your goals, pick your “Big Why”

We’re going to pick goals that work for us, and then build on top of that foundation. Have you written down your goals yet?:

• “My goal is to lose/gain X amount of weight by X date.”
• “My Big Why is I want to start dating again/my wife to look at me like she used to/be an inspiration to my family.”
• “My plan is to train once per week and then find time elsewhere.”

Now that we have a foundation, we can start to build on top of that. Like Fornite. #UnecessaryButTopicalNerdReference

Step #2: Realize Exercise will contribute to 10% of the weight loss equation.

You can lose all the weight you need to lose without doing a single minute of “exercise.”

I shit you not.

(What a funny expression by the way, it makes me happy every time I use it.)

If your ONLY goal is weight loss in any way, then exercise is not a necessary component.

No treadmills. No gym memberships. No terrible bootcamps. No feeling bad about yourself training in public. No hating exercise.

“Steve, you sorcerer, what madness is this?” You exclaim!

When it comes to weight loss, how you eat will be responsible for 90+% of your success or failure.

That means if you are only looking to lose weight as your primary goal, you should be putting nearly ALL of your effort into fixing your nutrition.

As we say here in the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, “You can’t outrun your fork.”

I’ve covered nutrition EXTENSIVELY here on Nerd Fitness, so you’ll need to pick the strategies that work best for you:

• The beginner’s guide to healthy eating
• The beginner’s guide to Keto
• The beginner’s guide to Intermittent Fasting
• The beginner’s guide to Paleo

I personally prescribe to a “pretty damn good, most of the time” strategy which keeps me in great shape, healthy, and happy.

So write this phrase down. Tattoo it on your forehead. Write it in the sky. Spray paint it on your garage door. Internalize this concept:

Nutrition is 90% of the equation.

Don’t believe me? Tim found Nerd Fitness, joined our NF Academy, and then due to an injury was told he couldn’t exercise.

So he did two things he could do: followed the plan laid out for him. He fixed his nutrition, adjusted his mindset, and built the habit of walking daily.

That’s it.

6 months and 50+ pounds of weight loss later, Tim is a changed man!

You can read his whole story by clicking on the image below:

“But Steve, walking is exercise!”

Yes, I know, party pooper. It’s also a thing we humans do every day, and Tim was going on short walks.

So although Tim walked, it was his nutritional changes – and his mindset change – that did ALL of the “heavy lifting.”

Got it? Good.

So yes, exercise burns calories. But more importantly, it reminds us that we’re making healthier choices in our life. Which means it can also remind us to make better food choices.

Just please don’t do this: “Well I exercised today, so now I can eat 5000 calories!”

Instead your mindset needs to be “Well i exercised today, so I’m going to stick with my eating strategy so I don’t backslide!”

STEP #2 TAKEAWAY: Pick a food strategy you can stick with!

Pick a strategy that speaks your language. Nutrition is the most important thing, so your time is best spent understanding this stuff!

If you are trying to lose more weight or build more muscle FASTER, your nutrition needs to be even MORE dialed in.

Here’s how to make better choices in a nutshell:

• Start tracking how many calories you eat, education for the win!
• Eat fewer calories than you burn each day. Eating 500 fewer calories per day than normal = 1 lb. weight loss per week.
• Cut back on liquid calories, especially sugary beverages.
• Eat mostly real food. Meat, veggies, fruit, nuts.
• Track your progress and see how your body changes.

If you are a noob on nutrition, check out our free 10-level Nutritional System that simplifies the entire process! It’s free when you sign up in the box below:

STEP #3: Do what you enjoy to Be Healthy and Happy.

If your goal is to look good enough and feel good about yourself, there’s only ONE solution when it comes to the perfect workout program for you:

Any exercise you actually enjoy.

Full stop. Exercise is only a 10% piece of the formula, which means if your goal is “look pretty good, feel pretty good,” ANY exercise is a bonus.

And that means might as well ENJOY what you are spending your time on!

Here are some suggestions for the perfect base level of exercise:

Running, cycling, powerlifting, Yoga, parkour, gymnastics, weight training, running, cycling, LARPing, capoeira, jazzercise, swing dancing, Beat Saber, walking, hiking, geocache, Pokemon Go, hashing, ballet, powerlifting, CrossFit, bootcamps, martial arts, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Ninja Warrior, Dance Dance Revolution, aerial silks, acro yoga, and anything else you can think of.

This is me giving you permission to attend jazzercise classes regularly, if you enjoy them. Seriously.

This is me also giving you permission to never run on a treadmill ever again, unless you actually enjoy running on a treadmill.

Don’t suffer through a particular type of exercise if you hate it. There are plenty of ways to get your heart racing and your body moving.

Exercise doesn’t need to mean misery: you deserve better!

Think of it this way: you never get to “be done.” You’re always a work in progress. So suffering unnecessarily to reach a goal just so you can stop won’t work.

Stop trying to get to the finish line as quickly as possible – that’s why you failed in the past. Instead…

STEP #3 TAKEAWAY: Do an activity that you enjoy. Do it frequently.

Write down a list of “exercise” activities you love. Write down a list of “exercise” you hate. And then do things on the first list frequently, and don’t ever do things on the second list!

You don’t need to suffer.

Nutrition is 90% of the battle, so if you want to lose weight, get healthier, and be happier, pick a form of exercise that you actually enjoy.

To answer your next questions:

“But Steve I don’t like exercise.” You haven’t tried enough things! I too hate “exercise,” so I ONLY do things I enjoy.

“I have always wanted to try (activity) but I’m afraid to try it.”  Use 20 Seconds of Courage – it works. I promise 🙂

Step #4A: Build a Foundation of STrength.

Okay, now we’re getting down to the good stuff. 

Yup, eating better can help you lose weight.

Yup, any exercise is better than no exercise.

HOWEVER, if you want to keep yourself injury free, build a physique you’re proud of, AND get better at whatever fun activities you picked in Step #3, there’s a component that needs to be incorporated into your life:

Strength training. 

100% of people, no matter their age or situation, should be doing SOME kind of strength training in some capacity.

Yes, both men and women should be strength training.

If you’re a woman, you will not get too bulky. I promise – I’ve been trying to get “too bulky” my entire life, and 15 years later I’m still not there!

Seriously though, strength training makes EVERYTHING better:

• When you strength train, your body is forced to burn extra calories to rebuild muscle. This ‘afterburner’ effect of increased calorie burning lasts for 24-48 hours, which means 30 minutes of strength training will burn significantly more calories than 30 minutes of steady cardio. Efficiency ftw.
• When you strength train, you teach your muscles to become more resilient and “antifragile.” From giving your kids a piggy back ride to playing frisbee to carrying groceries to walking up stairs, strength training makes you safer when doing everything.
• Strength training will make you better at any activity you picked in the above section for fun exercise. Yes, even THAT activity. Let’s just say your significant other wants you to strength train.
• Strength training builds the physique you want. It’s how you build muscle, aka, those things that most people want to have instead of being skin and bones.

So hopefully at this point you’re all:

“Steve you sly devil, I am INTRIGUED by strength training. But I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder, strength training seems not fun, and gyms intimidate me.”

I can satisfy each of those rebuttals with a single sentence:

When I say “strength training,” I simply mean “you are moving your body in a way that your muscles must respond by getting stronger.”

Your muscles are introduced to outside stimuli (you pick up your kid, you do push-ups, you carry groceries, you do a squat, etc.), and they get “broken down” through use.

Over the next few days, they rebuild themselves stronger to prepare for more stimulus (a greater challenge).

By building up your strength over time, it allows you to become more functionally strong and avoid situations like Mr Potato Head here:

This means “Strength training” can take place in a gym or at your home, with your body weight or with free weights, in a box or with a fox. The ways to strength train are endless.

HATE gyms? You never have to go into one. Ever. Christina lost 50 lbs without a gym.

AFRAID of weight training? You can train with just your body weight!

WANT to learn how to weight train? Check out our Strength 101 series.

This does not need to be over complicated. Start with two basic movements that you can do literally right now. Maybe even in your cubicle:

• 3 sets of 8 wall push-ups.
• 3 sets of 8 bodyweight squats.

I’ll wait. Boom, look at that – you just did strength training.

I promise you: get strong with push-ups, squats, and pull-ups, and you will be in better shape – and look better – than ever before.

It comes down to consistently training these movements and getting stronger.

How do you get stronger? Simple: “progressive overload.” This might sound like a complex term, but really it just means increasing the challenge by a tiny amount with each workout so your body has to work harder and adapt more each time.

And how you end up looking in the mirror and saying: “WHOA I HAVE MUSCLES WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN!?”

So every time you strength train, do ONE more repetition, one more push-up, or lift ONE pound heavier.

What’s the best way to do more than last time? Write down what you do! Keep it simple. Write down your sets, reps, and weights. And then do one better next time.

I have one final person I want to address: “You nincompoop, I hate strength training.”

That’s not a nice name to call me, but fair enough! Consider getting bit by a radioactive spider or finding a super-serum.

Otherwise, consider these alternative things:

• Aerial silks.
• Gymnastics and Parkour.
• Handstands build strength.
• Acro Yoga builds strength.
• Hiking with your kid on your back builds strength.

STEP #4A TAKEAWAY: Start strength training today.

You don’t HAVE to strength train, you GET to strength train.

Pick a workout that doesn’t intimidate you and give it a shot! You can start TODAY.

• Brand new to strength training? No Gym? Do our Beginner Bodyweight Workout.
• Have a gym membership and want to train there? Read our “how to train in a commerical gym!”
• Excited to try barbells and dumbbells?  check out our Strength 101 serious.

STEP #4B: How to Level UP Your Strength TraIning Routine.

Alright alright, you read the previous section, and you’re thinking:

• “Steve I heard training individual body parts like a bodybuilder is the best for muscle building.”
• “What about Stronglifts 5×5 or Starting Strength or CrossFit?”
• “I hear I should ONLY do free weights, and machines are the devil!”

I have VERY opinionated thoughts about all of the above. These thoughts come from my particular situation that has been tested through trial and error.

In fact, I have done workout routines and trained in EACH of the ways above, and eventually settled into a routine that I love now. But each of them worked for me at the time I needed them.

My thoughts: I don’t care HOW you strength train when you get started:

If you want to follow a bodybuilder routine you found in a magazine which uses lots of machines and isolation exercises, great.

If you want to train your left bicep and right butt muscle on Tuesdays and right tricep and left shoulder on Wednesdays and so on, go for it.

If you want to follow a workout DVD or follow bootcamp style stuff on YouTube, great.

Whatever gets you manipulating your body and learning the fundamentals of strength training, I’m for it. As long as you’re enjoying it and getting results, keep doing what you’re doing.

If you’re interested in learning more, here are the foundational philosophies we teach in our Academy and with our coaching clients:

#1 You’ll be healthier, stronger, and get faster results training with free weights and bodyweight exercises compared to machines. However, machines can be used when you’re rehabbing an injury or there’s no other options (you’re at a hotel gym, for example). Here’s how to switch from machines to weights.

#2 Full compound movements like barbell squats, deadlifts, push-ups, pull-ups, dips, overhead presses, and rows are best for leveling up. Your body is a complex machine that uses all of your muscles in unison when you do physical activity. Thus, It’s safer and more efficient to train with compound movements instead of isolated movements.

#3 Keep it simple. If you make progress every week on compound movements by picking up more weight or doing more reps, your body WILL transform like Optimus Prime. But like, into a better version of you, not a robot:

#4 Learning barbell squats and deadlifts can be the most powerful change you make in your life. Ask Staci.

#5 If you have more fun with a bodybuilder style workout, or you like bootcamp classes instead of weight training, that’s fine too. If you’re healthy and happy and getting results, stick with it.

#6 Muscle confusion is totally not a thing.

STEP #4B TAKEAWAY: Pick A Strength Training Program 

Here’s how to level up your strength training program:

• Read our Strength 101 series, and learn to do squats, deadlifts, and presses.
• Afraid to train in a gym? Read this gym guide to build your confidence.
• Pick a program: the 7 Level Academy, Stronglifts 5×5, or Starting Strength 3×5
• Want form checks, guidance, and a custom workout each morning? Get a coach!

What’s that? You want to BUILD your own workout program? Great! Here’s how to do it, step-by-step (sorry, you might start singing the theme song again…)

If you want us to do the heavy lifting for you (HEYO), we have a free PDF for you to follow that teaches you and tells you exactly what to do.

You can get it free when you put your email address in the box below:

STEP #5: Focus Your Training on Specific Goals.

Okay, now we’re getting down to the secret sauce that has transformed thousands upon thousands of lives at Nerd Fitness.

Don’t worry our secret sauce is low calorie, low carb, and keto-friendly. 

Here’s the scenario: you’re here with a goal of losing 100 pounds, and you start losing weight after eating better and moving more.

I’m so proud of you. In fact, I just called your mom to tell her what a swell person you are. Nice lady.

Anyways, things are going well until you start to approach your goal weight (woo!) and encounter a divergent path:

• Path A: “I’m about to reach my goal weight! I can be done soon!”
• Path B: “I’m approaching my goal weight. What is my new body capable of?”

People that pick Path A always backslide and put all of the weight back on over the next few months and years. They then have to start the “means to an end” cycle all over again.

Temporary action = temporary results.

Path B? It’s the reason our clients and customers keep the weight off and continue to transform.

Permanent progress + permanent challenges = permanent results.

Path B People ask themselves, “Now that I’ve lost this weight, what am I capable of? Let’s train for that!”

This is a distinct mental shift. Exercise is no longer a means to an end.

There is no end. Just like there is no spoon.

They’ve finished fixing up a car, and can’t help but think: “let’s take it to the track and see how fast it can go!”

We encourage our Rebels to shift from weight loss goals to physical challenges (Like Double Dare, but with less Gak):

• “I’ve always wanted to do a handstand, let’s start training to get better at those.”
• “I’ve always want to do train with gymnastic rings! Let’s try that!”
• “I’ve always wanted to run a half marathon, I will adjust my routine to become a stronger runner.”
• “I want to try Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I will sign up for a class!”
• “I’m gonna sign up for Swing Dancing so I can crush the dance floor at the next wedding I attend.”

WHY THIS WORKS: By training to get better at a particular activity, you are triggering the same processes in your brain that makes us hooked on progressing in video games:

It’s why we say, “just one more level!” or “I bet I can do one more rep!” or “I can climb this new path that’s tougher than any path I’ve attempted before!”

STEP #5 TAKEAWAY: Shift from weight loss goals to physical challenges.

As you start to get in shape, updating your mindset can be a HUGE game-changer.

You spent all this work building a new body – take it out for a test drive and find out what you’re capable of!

Counterintuitively, the less you worry about your weight and the more you worry about your performance, the more likely you’ll be to build a body you’re proud of, that’s functional, and that you can keep, permanently.

As they say, “Appearance is a consequence of fitness.” 

If you want to dig more into skills and advanced physique stuff, read our post here: “The ultimate guide to building any physique.”

Pick a skill, pick somebody farther along than you to model yourself after, and adjust your training and nutrition to get better at that skill.

When you get better and better at these physical skills, your physique will start to improve as a side effect.

STEP #6: Have Healthy Expectations.

As we’re talking about physique and physical goals, I want to address something that is a major challenge for many people:

“Steve, I want to lose some weight, build some muscle, and also build up more endurance. I want to get strong and run a marathon but also look like a model. Oh and get a six pack. But I don’t want to be too bulky. Can I do this in 6 weeks please?”

Here’s the truth: your body can only do so many things at once, and the three goals above will pull your body in three completely separate directions. 

If you’re not sure what are realistic goals, I have answers for you on BOTH questions (click each to learn more):

• “How fast can I lose weight?” 1-2 pounds per week of weight loss is a safe pace. Could be more or less depending on your starting weight!
• “How fast can I build muscle naturally?” 1-2 pounds of muscle gain per month is possible under optimal conditions for most. This could be more or less depending on your level of experience.
• Generally your body can do one or the other. But it can’t lose lots of fat and gain lots of muscle at the same time. One requires you to eat LESS, and the other requires you to eat MORE. So pick one (weight loss, muscle gain). You can always change later.

Are those numbers in line with your expectations? Do you wish you could get in shape faster? Of course you do. So do I!

Surprisingly, by changing our timeline to be more realistic, we can make better progress than at any point in the past:

KEY TAKEAWAY #6: Have realistic expectations!

Have the right expectations, and put your focus on the process. You’ll get there when you get there – so just focus on what you can do today.

If you’re not sure if you should build muscle first or lose weight first, and your focus is on physique/aesthetics, my humble advice:

• Eat a caloric deficit for weight loss. Train heavy to maintain muscle mass.
• Do this until you get down to a low enough body fat percentage (10-11% for men, 17-18% for women).
• Increase your caloric intake. Build strength and muscle until you’re at your desired size.
• Decide now if you want to reintroduce cardio, cut more fat, or keep getting bigger
• Repeat!

Step #7: Build Momentum by Surrounding yourself with people who make you better.

I love sharing stories on Nerd Fitness of REAL people, with real struggles, that found the perfect program that fit THEIR lifestyle, like Christina above. 

These are not people with superior genetics, not on steroids, not choking down supplements.

They work full time jobs, have kids, friends, and nerdy hobbies. Some are single moms. But they found a workout program that works for their life situation.

Some of them are powerlifters.

Some of them train at home with no equipment.

Some of them run 5ks.

As you are starting to get yourself into better shape, who you associate with is almost as important as how you train.

Sounds ludicrous (did I just make you yell, “Luda!”), but it can be the difference between long term success and long term floundering. And not the cute kind.

They say you are an average of the 5 people you associate most with. Think about your roommates, significant other, friends, and coworkers:

Are they people who have succeeded in the way you want to succeed, support you on your journey, can answer questions you might have, and make you want to continue being better?

Or are they people who ask you to skip your workouts, make fun of you for waking up early to train on a Saturday morning, and enable you rather than support you?

The more time you can spend with Group A people, the more likely you’ll be to stay on target and make progress.

As you are getting better at a skill, do whatever you can to hang out with people who are good at that skill!

• Like running and want to get better? Join or start a running club!
• Want to take powerlifting more seriously? Hire a lifting coach or join a powerlifting club.
• Want to be better at handstands? Try joining an adult gymnast class!
• Want to look like CrossFit athletes? Great! Join the cult! I kid, CFers, you’re good in my book 🙂

If you don’t have people in your life that are making you better, consider hiring a coach or instructor or joining a class to help you push yourself even farther and stay accountable!

And I’m not telling you to fire your friends, but you might need to make sacrifices like Katniss until you’re better equipped to stand up for your new healthy lifestyle when they want you to come back to the dark side!

Nerd Fitness helps people with workouts and eating better, sure. But I believe we get permanent results for people because we do our best to foster the most supportive community on the internet.

Many of our success stories have 1-on-1 instruction from our Online Coaching Program, while some come our self-paced NF Academy. And others?  They read the free articles on Nerd Fitness and put helped themselves stay on target!

But it comes down to learning from and interacting people who are just like you, or who are people that you want to be like when you “grow up” (get in shape)!

You can click on each image to learn their full story:

STACI THE POWERLIFTER:

ANTHONY THE IT PROFESSIONAL:

LESLIE THE SINGLE MOM:
JOE THE IT DEVELOPER WHO TRAVELS 2 WEEKS PER MONTH:

SAINT THE APP DEVELOPER WHO LOST 60 POUNDS AND GAINED 6 PACK ABS:

And me? I started with karate as a kid. Then cross country running in high school. Then ibodybuilder style training in college.Then it was bodyweight training.

And now? It’s powerlifting and gymnastics! It’s how I went from Steve Rogers to Captain America:

STEP #7 TAKEAWAY: Surround yourself with people that push you to be better.

You need people in your life that are pushing you to be better.

If you don’t have those people already, consider joining a club or class in your community. You might just make new lifelong friends!

And you want to be at the top of your game in a particular skill or activity, you might need a coach that knows your situation specifically.

We’d love to have you be part of OUR online community, but you need to determine what level of accountability you need and what your goals are!

In addition to our paid private communities, we ALSO have a free Message Board community that is thriving!

STEP 8: Track Your Results, adjust as necessary

“Thanks Steve, but that was a lot. What do I do now?”

Let me Recap Steps #1-#7:

• Step #1: Pick your goals and your “Big Why.”
• Step #2: Realize that nutrition is 90% of the Equation!
• Step #3: Pick an activity you enjoy, do it frequently.
• Step #4a: Add strength training.
• Step #4b: Take strength training seriously.
• Step #5: Move from weight loss to physical challenges.
• Step #6: Have realistic expectations.
• Step #7: Surround yourself with people that make you better.

Depending on where you’re at in life, and how much weight you need to lose, You might be satisfied with just Steps 1, 2, and 3 for the next few years.

Thats awesome!

And if you’re ready to do more than that, we’re here for ya too.

If you’re looking for me to actually tell you what to do, I would suggest the following:

Here’s a strategy optimized for effortless awesomeness, happiness, and look-good nakedness:

• Strength train twice per week: squats, pushups, and pull-ups.
• Do fun activity 1-2x per week.
• Walk when you can.
• Focus on your nutrition.

I would start there, and then do two things after 30 days:

#1) Track your compliance to see if you actually did the workouts!

Did you go for walks, strength train twice per week, and do a fun activity? You can track this on your calendar or in a notebook.

• Yes? Great! Move on to question 2.
• No? Great! You learned you tried to do too much. Do less and repeat for another 30 days.

#2) Measure if you got closer to your goal weight/skills/physique?

Are you healthier, happier, and more confident?

• Yes? Great! Keep doing what you’re doing!
• No? Great! That strategy that didn’t work. Track your food intake, adjust your diet. Repeat.

“Steve that’s still not specific enough. I want you to tell me, for my exact situation, what to do every single day to reach my goals. Oh and hold me accountable. K thanks.”

I’m not clairvoyant or omniscient (…yet), so in the meantime, you can check out our really fun 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program.

Your Coach (a member of Team NF we’ll match you with based on your needs) will get to know you, your goals, and your challenges, and develop a workout plan that’s specific to not only your body type, but also to your schedule and life.

Click the image below to schedule a free call to see if we’re a good fit for each other!

I don’t care whatever path you pick, be it our coaching, our Academy, or if you just read the free stuff on Nerd Fitness and never buy anything!

I just want to help you get results, feel better about yourself, and stop struggling to make exercise a consistent:

So let’s hear it. Where are you on your path to finding your perfect workout program!?

Tell me what your goals are. I’d love to hear about what you’re working on.

Which step are you on? Stuck on Level 3? What are the activities you LOVE/HATE?

What program are you following?  Do you have a question on what to pick?

What have you found works for you, and what DIDN’T work for you?

Leave a comment and share your story with your fellow rebels!

-Steve

###

photo sources: Reiterlied Biking on the Lake, Reiterlied To The Lofoten Islands and Back Again 8/16 – Hooray for the blue sea!, clement127 Amazing playground: bicycles and football, clement127 Eurobasket 2015, Legozilla treadmill, themofoit: Stormtrooper Pushups, beach, road split, egg, runner

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Growing up with a potato farmer father, I was destined to be well-versed in potato prep. Mashed or scalloped, baked or hash browned — I can do it all! And yet, I’ve always been tragically incapable of preparing a simple pot of rice.

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