Health & Fitness Overhaul

The Woe's
I've maintained an active lifestyle but still didn't feel as well as I thought I should.  Flexibility has been a life long challenge and the past few years I started to experience periods of low energy and lethargy.  I also struggled with bouts of back spasms which resulted in debilitating pain which I figured was a direct result of my overall muscle tightness.  I attempted to remedy these by taking a yoga class along with many visits to my physician who ran a bunch of tests but provided no ultimate solution. 

Short version, I struggled with:

• Low energy; lethargy
• Poor flexibility; overall muscle tightness
• Back spasms (also had limited range-of-motion in both my shoulders and pain in my right when raising arm above shoulder level)

Synchronicities & the Trifecta
Then two things happened in a relatively short time period: I discovered the book, The Genius of Flexibility, by Bob Cooley which introduced me to the concept of resistance stretching, and while Googling my low energy concerns I landed on an article by Mark Sisson explaining how insulin is regulated in the body and affected greatly by what we eat.  So I picked up Mark's book, The Primal Blueprint, along with a couple supplemental cookbooks and set out to experiment.  I've also followed Tim Ferriss for a while and picked up his book, The 4-Hour Body, which I spent much time in the Pre-hab and Reversing Permanent Injuries chapters which aided, I think in-conjunction with the resistance stretching, the back and shoulder pain. (I posted links to all of these resources below.)

The Primal Blueprint - Nutrition & Exercise Guidelines
Following the The Primal Blueprint not only righted my low energy issues but pretty much enhanced all areas of my health.  I did this experiment to see if my energy levels would increase (they did) and didn't really think about tracking the physical transformations.  One month in though, my body-fat was so low that I was, and remain, with the most muscle-definition I've ever had (granted, I wasn't a big guy to start - about 155lbs, and dropped to 138lbs over that month).  Following the exercise regiment, I've since added more muscle and feeling better than ever but still have more room for improvement, especially with tightening up our pantry and figuring out the best sources for food. 

A quick summation of what The Primal Blueprint is all about is found here with the Primal Cheat Sheet I put together for myself.

Additionally, after doing some of my own research and reading Mark's books and blog, he's become a trusted source for the omega-3 and vitamin/mineral supplements that we had been acquiring piece by piece from Whole Foods.  One re-shippable order that combines everything (and more) that I've been taking in way less containers.  I also added the protein shakes because I do find it difficult to round up a quick snack when I'm on the go.  I used to drink these a lot back in my personal-training-my-way-through-college days with dreaded anticipation of how horrible they taste but I find the Vanilla Primal Fuel to be really good, especially when blended with a handful of blueberries.

Resistance Stretching
The results from resistance stretching has been phenomenal.  I made more progress in 1 month of resistance stretching than I accomplished with yoga and other relaxed (conventional) stretching techniques I did nearly daily for years.  Learning to resistance stretch by book alone is difficult so I tracked down and embedded a series of Youtube videos by Olympic swimmer, Dara Torres (student of Bob Cooley), which may be viewed here along with brief explanation of what resistance stretching entails:  Resistance Stretching blog post.

Back Pain, Muscle Imbalances, Injury Prevention
Before picking up The Genius of Flexibility, I had been consuming and experimenting with various techniques in Tim Ferriss', The 4-Hour Body, particularly the Prehab and Reversing Permanent Injuries chapters.  The book is chock full of interesting physiological hacks and resources.  I added the pre-hab exercises (such as the Turkish Get-up and Single-leg Deadlifts) to my regiment and learned about interesting techniques such as the Active Release Technique (ART) for correcting locked joints and pain.  Using this info, I contacted a friend and client that does bodywork (lindamelick.com) and she was quite familiar and got me in to work on my shoulder that resulted in much progress in healing.  But I'm also convinced that the resistance stretching and many of the lifestyle changes induced by The Primal Blueprint philosophy also aided in my healing.

I can honestly report that I have not had any back spasms or pain in over two months since starting the 4HB Prehab and Resistance Stretching in early August 201

Resources referenced:

• The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson
• The Genius of Flexibility by Bob Cooley
• The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss

Related posts:

• Primal Cheat Sheet
• Gone Primal
• Resistance Stretching