Exercise Ideas - Train like a Caveman

We are born athletes. Our genes think that we will be racing across sweeping vistas in search of supper; climbing trees to gather fruit; hauling wood around to build houses; spearing at fish; and sprinting to escape disaster. Our genes have no idea that most of us will embark on a lifestyle of mostly sitting.

Genetically, we are the same today as we were 100 centuries ago, even though we don't look the same (i.e., half the American population is obese). But many people, even doctors, think obesity is primarily driven by genes, even though it can take 100,000 years for a mutation to start showing up in the population.

The only change is our lifestyle. It has made Americans the fattest country on earth. To lose weight and get trim, hard and lean, you must mimic the kind of physical activity that early man engaged in. This doesn't mean you must gather up some spears and attempt to bring down a buffalo, or run barefoot through the jungle and climb trees to get fruit.

The kind physical activity that your early ancestors engaged in, consisted of brief, but extremely intense bouts of exertion. This is what you must create in the gym, or even outdoors on local hiking trails. BRIEF, but EXPLOSIVE. Say goodbye to casual, hum-drum pedaling on an elliptical machine. I can't believe all the people I see on these machines, pedaling in a lackadaisical fashion, eyes glued to the TV. I have nothing against these machines, but they do invite a leisurely attitude towards exercise.

And early man did not survive by being leisurely. Early man -- and woman! -- was lean, buff and hard because they sprinted, jumped, leaped, bounded, lifted and hauled.

Next time you begrudgingly saunter into your health club, with the idea of spending yet another full hour on the bike or elliptical, or walking only 3 mph on the treadmill while gripping its side rails (early man had nothing to hold onto, by the way), consider doing something radically different, so that your body is shocked by something unexpected. When you shock your body, it burns fat to accommodate the shock. There's nothing shocking about lame pedaling on a machine.

Try something like this: Grab two dumbbells and keep arms straight at sides. Face a mirror and start squatting. Keep back straight at all times. Keep squatting, up and down, up and down, until your legs are screaming in pain. This is how early man worked out. He couldn't quit when the burn came on. He had to keep moving to catch his dinner or escape from a predator. Wild animals didn't care if man's legs were burning. And you shouldn't, either. So keep squatting until your thighs are just short of collapsing beneath you. Then walk around for a few minutes to regroup. Then do two more sets of the squats. You just combined resistance training with cardio training.

With those same dumbbells, lie on a bench and press them up for chest presses until your chest and shoulders begin biting. When done, set weights down and immediately do step-ups on that bench for five minutes straight. Then return to the dumbbell pressing. Then do 10 squat jumps. Then do dumbbell curls (adjust weight as necessary). Then jump-rope for one minute. There is no let-up. Just keep moving, but move like a caveman, because a caveman had to move for survival. There are no wild animals in the gym. But pretend there are.