http://www.thealternativedaily.com/

[…]

https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/

There’s no end to the amount of ridiculousness we hear regarding what the best workout program really is: From “you must perform two hours of cardio six days per week” and “don’t eat any more than 1,200 calories each day” to “you should totally wear sweat bands on your belly and spend an hour shadowboxing in the sauna.” Yes, “qualified” trainers have given all of this advice to women I know.

It’s laughable, but also pretty scary. And did I mention it’s complete B.S.?

The fact is, evidence-based fitness professionals know (as well as we can ever know anything) exactly what women need to do for their training to get the results they desire. Women who want to look good, feel good, and be healthy and strong need to engage in:

• Moderate to heavy strength training two to three days a week
• High-intensity interval training one to two days a week
• Moderate-intensity cardio one to two days a week

That’s it.

Although, I’d be remiss not to mention that, apart from performing the right workouts, they also need to eat a diet consisting primarily of whole, nutrient-dense foods; manage their stress effectively; get moderate amounts of sunshine regularly; sleep seven to nine hours (preferably in a cold, dark room) every night.

So why does this training program structure work so well? Simple. It covers everything a woman needs to look and feel her absolute best, while allowing for adequate recovery, and preventing burnout.

Obviously, you want to know how to put all of this together, right? Of course. No worries. I have plenty of examples for you.

The following workouts are broken down into individual categories.

Relatively Heavy Strength Training

Benefits include:

• Increased muscle mass
• Increased strength
• Improved posture
• Increased bone density
• Improved insulin sensitivity
• Increased self-confidence

See also: how hyoooge I got from heavy lifting. (L) 2004; 185 lbs. (R) 2014; 162 lbs.

So what do relatively heavy lifting workouts look like? Obviously it will depend on a lot of things: specific goals, ability level, equipment availability, personal preferences.

For women, I prefer full-body, upper/lower splits, or a push/pull/lower body split (with a deadlift variation on your pull day to incorporate lower body twice throughout the week). And let me note, I say relatively heavy strength training because it just needs to be heavy for you. If you’re a beginner, maybe manipulating your body weight is enough. If you’re intermediate or advanced, you’re likely tossing around a fair amount of iron.

I generally like to pair two to three exercises in a circuit that work different muscle groups to maximize work in minimal time, and keep your heart rate elevated, while still allowing your muscle adequate recovery time between sets.

However, if I am starting with a very heavy movement (generally a weight lifted for fewer than five reps) then I’ll perform that exercise alone with two to three minutes of full rest in between to allow good form to be maintained and close to maximal weight lifted.

Obviously this isn’t all-encompassing, as it’s part of a larger program, but it gives you an idea of how I like to structure my strength training workouts.

High-Intensity Interval Training

Benefits include:

• Metabolically expensive (read: burns a lot of calories)
• Increased calorie burn
• Increased metabolic flexibility (i.e. your body’s ability to transition back and forth from using fat for fuel to using carbohydrates for fuel)

High-intensity interval training can be performed a number of ways using a number of work-to-rest ratios (written as “work:rest” throughout the rest of this article). You can organize your workout by predetermined work:rest ratios, variable work:rest ratios (the ratio changes over time), positive rest (rest more than you work), negative rest (rest less than you work), or any combination thereof.

In general, the longer you have been training, and the more “fit” you are, the more work you can do with less rest. Try a few combinations and see what works for you:

Set Work : Rest Ratios

• 15 seconds : 45 seconds (positive rest)
• 20 seconds : 40 seconds (positive rest)
• 30 seconds : 30 seconds (equal rest)
• 40 seconds : 20 seconds (negative rest)
• 45 seconds: 15 seconds (negative rest)

Variable Work:Rest Ratios

• Work as long as it takes you complete an exercise or set of exercises: rest twice as long (positive rest)
• Work as long as it takes you complete an exercise or set of exercises: rest exactly as long (equal rest)
• Work as long as it takes you complete an exercise or set of exercises: rest half as long (negative rest)
• Work as long as it takes you complete an exercise or set of exercises: rest until your heart rate drops to 120 bpm

HIIT Example: Plate Pushes and Farmer’s Carries

Equipment needed: Weight Plate and Dumbbells/Kettlebells

Instructions:

1. Place a plate and a pair of heavy dumbbells at the end of a long strip of turf or carpet
2. Perform a plate push for 10 to15 yards at a very quick pace
3. Rest for 30 seconds while walking back to the dumbbells
4. Pick up the dumbbells and perform a farmer’s carry for 20 to 30 yards (down and back)
5. Place the dumbbells back down and rest for 30 seconds while walking back to the plate
6. Repeat as necessary for the allotted HIIT time

Moderate-Intensity Cardio

Benefits include:

• Builds aerobic foundation
• Allows for better recovery between sets of exercises
• Allows for better recovery between workouts so you approach each workout fresh and ready to train
• Increases your ability to relax, focus, and deal with stress
• Can improve sleep quality

When people think of moderate intensity cardio, they always seem to think of slaving away on the treadmill or elliptical, but there are tons of options for this type of workout. Keep your heart rate between 120 and 140 beats per minute (bpm), and you’re good to go.

Tip: If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, there’s an easy, low-tech way to check your heart rate. Place the pad of your index and middle finger either on the side of your neck just below the jawline, or on your wrist just below your thumb. When you feel your pulse, look at a clock that counts seconds and count how many heart beats you feel in 15 seconds. Multiply that number by four to get your beats per minute. If your heart beats between 30 and 35 times in 15 seconds you’re in the 120-140 range.

Example: Rope Slams and Walk-Outs

Equipment needed: Battling Ropes

Instructions:

1. Perform 20 alternating slams with moderate force/intensity
2. Perform 10 walk-outs
3. Perform 20 bilateral slams with moderate force/intensity
4. Perform 9 walk-outs
5. Perform 20 alternating slams with moderate force/intensity
6. Perform 7 walk-outs
7. Perform 20 bilateral slams with moderate force/intensity
8. Perform 6 walk-outs
9. Repeat until you get to 1 walk-out, resting 30 seconds between every exercise (During this time, take your heart rate and ensure that it’s between 120 and 150 bpm. Adjust your workout accordingly as necessary.)

Putting Everything Together

So you’re probably wondering how you would structure these workouts over a week’s time. No worries—I won’t leave you hanging.

Weekly Layout:

Day 1: 50 minutes strength training + 6-10 min HIIT
Day 2: 30 minutes moderate-intensity cardio
Day 3: 50 minutes strength training
Day 4: OFF
Day 5: 50 minutes strength training + 6-10 min HIIT
Day 6: 30 minutes moderate-intensity cardio
Day 7: OFF

As you can see, a well-laid out and effective program allows you to spend less time in the gym, and more time outside of the gym enjoying your life.

What’s Next?

We’ve just shared with you the “what” and “how” for creating a program that will give you the results you want, but we know that’s a lot to digest and think about. If you want to see exactly what this looks like in action, check out our flagship program,  The Modern Woman’s Guide To Strength Training.

We are serious about helping women get trustworthy and reliable information so that they can confidently get their best results with no wasted effort.

The Modern Woman’s Guide To Strength Training includes progressions built into the programs we have written, so there isn’t much to think about. And the We walk you through it step by step.

To learn more and get get started, click here.

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

Pin it

With a simple breakfast toast like this one, you want to use the best ingredients available to you. Get a really good bread, brush it with really good olive oil, buy some bright ripe tomatoes, and use nice anchovies packed in olive oil. Every bite will be worth it.

READ MORE »

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

Pin it

There’s one big assumption you’ll find in almost any slow cooker recipe: the actual size of the slow cooker. This handy appliance can range in size from about one quart to eight quarts, but most recipes are written for slow cookers that land somewhere in the middle.

If you’re working with a larger or smaller slow cooker than is used in a recipe, don’t let it deter you. With a few simple tweaks, it’s easy to adapt almost any recipe to suit the size of your slow cooker.

READ MORE »

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

Pin it

A plain loaf of brioche is wonderful, but sometimes it’s fun to put in a little extra effort to make it extraordinary. The classic braid makes an excellent sliceable loaf with flair, while the star and bouquet options are eager to offer their pull-apart charms to a brunch near you. I know this all looks like a ton of work, but I promise it’s not! With these three easy-to-memorize techniques, you’ll take your brioche game to a level that’ll make even your grandma jealous.

READ MORE »

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

Pin it

Arguably, the most crucial flavor in a dish comes from the very first moments, when you sauté a few aromatics like chopped onions and garlic before proceeding with the recipe. That’s when those simple flavors start to build, which eventually enhances your final result.

Some slow-cooker recipes that call for you to sauté these aromatics separately on the stove before adding them to the appliance require it for this reason; it’s a chance to give as much flavor to the dish as you can. But then they have you dump the sautéed items into a cold slow cooker, along with everything else, before turning it on.

READ MORE »

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

Pin it

Have you noticed the butter options in your dairy aisle expanding? A few short years ago you’d be hard-pressed to find anything but unsalted and salted butter. Perhaps it’s a result of our changing relationship with fat (we’re back to liking it, it seems), or maybe the demand for more flavor found its way to the ears of the dairy industry — either way, the contents of the butter section have expanded.

There are more options than ever, and most of those new arrivals seem to come with a continental accent. European butter is dominating the shelves. But what is it exactly, and how is it different from good ol’ unsalted or sweet cream butter?

READ MORE »

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

10 Snazzy Ways to Organize and Store Small Appliances

Pin it

For a couple years I blogged as “The Conflicted Minimalist” about my efforts to pare down my life and get rid of the things that no longer made me happy. Although I’m not a full-fledged Marie Kondo wannabe, I subscribe to the philosophy that you should surround yourself only with the things that you really love. That said, I have never met a kitchen gadget I didn’t like. My kitchen is equipped with an immersion blender and a regular blender, all the cookers — pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker — and one of those all-in-ones that does everything but set the table.

READ MORE »

http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain

Pin it

Open Slideshow

You might not know it, but you need brioche in your life. With this one recipe, you have the power to make not only one gorgeous loaf of bread, but also dinner rolls, hamburger buns, hoagie rolls, cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, and a host of other homemade treats. Learn to make brioche, and you’re well on your way to turning your kitchen into your very own bakery.

READ MORE »

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

Everywhere you go these days it seems like there’s big talk about leadership. Schools build curricula around it. Businesses feel the need to train their employees in it, including those who aren’t in management roles. Whereas leadership used to be seen primarily as a function, it’s now touted as a virtue. We’re told everybody should want to be one and is, of course, in need of whatever x, y, z leadership program is being sold that day. I guess I see both sides of the coin here. While I think pushing leadership ad nausea demotes other equally valuable skills and roles like the specialist and artisan (among others), I also believe there’s purpose in cultivating a deeper command of one’s own life and in understanding how to bring self-management to bear in leading others.

The thing is, most “rules” you’ll read for improving your leadership skills focus on other people—how to understand them, how to persuade them, how to manage them, how to move them the way you want to go. While modern social organization is a far cry from our hunter-gatherer roots (and at times requires different skills), there’s something essential and timeless in the model of primal era leadership. It’s a case where cutting edge management strategy can add to but not replace enduring principle. See what Primal leadership principles speak to you.

As I often mention, most experts believe that true (i.e. “simple”) hunter-gatherer groups mostly lived in small, egalitarian style bands, which were ever shifting in their memberships at any given time. People moved within and without at will, and generally speaking there was peace between bands. Given the egalitarian organization members actively guarded in their societies and given the immediate return economy (which meant there was little to no food or other resources to be stored or fought over), “supervisory” leadership wasn’t relevant or necessary as we think of it today.

Theirs was, as far as we can know, largely a shared leadership and horizontal social structure. The band’s cohesion wasn’t held together by a central authority but by elaborate kinship codes that guided people’s behavior and served as a template for assessing conflicts. Within this shared value system, communication and consensus ruled.

While all members took responsibility for the band’s solidarity and functionality under this system, there sometimes were hunter-gatherer societies in which a leader was chosen whose authority was very limited—perhaps only to guide the group through a particular situation. Contrary to what the modern mind would think, these weren’t the strongest or boldest members but often the most modest even if they were also people with a particular skill relevant to the occasion.

Over time, certain groups like the Aborigines developed laws of conduct and leadership in the form of sacred stories, which were transmuted by shamans. Rather than directives, they could be cautionary tales. One such example was a story known as the Black Swan, which warned of the use of fear and manipulation with others, the denying of responsibility, indulging in conflict and blame and abandoning others in search of individual gain.

What can we, however, glean from all this? Can we take what research tells us about the roughly prevalent hunter-gatherer model of leadership and decipher lessons for modern management? I tend to think so.

Here are what I’d consider 7 Primal ways to be a better leader….

1. Cultivate humility.

Humility was a penultimate priority for leadership. At risk was the sacred egalitarian code members carefully guarded for their mutual best interest. These days humility is a rare quality.

The fact is, real confidence isn’t about pomp or aggression. You’ve likely met people in authority who push their agendas, leave no room for discussion or correction and often take everything personally. These people can be miserable to work for, and most of them are probably miserable period.

Real confidence is the outgrowth of humility. It’s about being solid in yourself while also open and discerning toward the gathering of evidence and the voices of others.

Make no mistake. Genuine humility isn’t weak or insecure. It’s rooted in a knowledge of and comfort with one’s self, which is the best security anyone can count on and the most effective leadership quality, since it comes with its own checks and balances.

2. Develop a meditative or mindfulness practice.

Sure, there are health benefits to both, but there’s a different reason behind my suggesting this here. When it comes to leadership (even if it’s just about being a more conscious leader of your own life), a regular meditative or mindfulness practice encourages you to open to and hone your intuition. Bringing regular, perceptive awareness to your feelings—both your emotional reactions and your momentary instincts—will help you tap into the gut sense that can guide your leadership (and life) decisions.

Good leaders might know how to organize and keep the lid on the pot. Great leaders know how to move it all forward and where to direct their actions. They are ruled more by inspiration than order, and that flows from a keen sense of personal intuition.

3. Learn to listen and to sit with feedback.

We’ve all spent time with someone who chronically interrupts and impatiently jostles a conversation with all the darting erraticism of a pinball. (There’s a crucial difference between intensity and impatience.)

In researchers’ accounts of hunter-gatherer societies, decisions were made by consensus and often could take weeks if not months. Members would share a loose thought about the issue at hand and let it settle. On another day a different member might share a consideration. Over time, the collective energy flowed toward a given choice, and it felt natural when the decision was made official.

While most of us don’t operate with the luxury of this kind of time table, we can make the conscious decision to slow down, to invite extended discussion (i.e. more than one occasion) and to truly honor—rather than just ceremoniously entertain—outside views.

4. Accept that it’s not about you.

Related to the above point is the acknowledgment that a leadership position isn’t about your ego (or shouldn’t be). As in Grok’s day, situational or (rarer) ongoing leadership wasn’t ever about the particular individual. Lineage might have had some influence. Special skill, particularly for the immediate circumstance, might have played a role.

That said, leaders were chosen by the collective whole to serve the good of that collective whole. Furthermore, leadership was highly circumscribed, meaning there were significant limitations on the power of that person. “Leadership” was much more diffuse and representational than we consider it today. Whereas we think of supervision and imposition in our leaders now, in Grok’s day a leader’s job was more about support of the traditional process and group interest and not about a personal agenda.

Whose good are you pushing? Is it the good of the organization you’re leading and larger interests—or is it service to the self-image? (Too few seem to ask this relatively obvious question.) It’s where leaders often get sucked into controlling people and outcomes. From there they too often sacrifice the good of the organization and those it reaches as well as their integrity, ironically losing themselves as they take the process in addition to the outcome personally.

5. View your leadership as temporary.

Leadership in hunter-gather groups was often situational (i.e. temporary). In matters where guidance was needed, the person chosen played a restricted role in moving the group through certain circumstances and then promptly and modestly stepped down.

This relates closely to the point above, but it’s worth giving it its own space. When we think of our leadership as temporary (even when we’re talking about something so ongoing and fundamental and leading a family), we appreciate that we’re acting as stewards rather than owners. It’s a different mentality that lends itself to thinking in the best interest of the organization and those involved rather than just one’s self.

6. Be a visionary.

Too many people associate leadership with power rather than vision. Power is about control for control’s sake. It encourages imposition and values a few over many. A great leader holds space for the vision and invites others into that space.

Look at organizations where leaders focus on power versus those where leaders lead through vision. (Richard Branson is good example here.) Leaders who literally lead rather than just manage are there in the thick of their business. They’re excited about what they do, and that enthusiasm inspires others.

7. Tap into a core purpose.

Leaders and shamans who didn’t lead per se but often had a separate status in hunter-gatherer groups, were seen as guardians of the sacred stories. While a company doesn’t probably have a sacred story, it should have a core purpose—and a narrative that can stir those who work for that purpose and those to whom it seeks to advertise that purpose.

Offer people rules and queues and directives, and in most cases you’ll get compliance. Offer them a purpose and the chance for investment in that vision, and you’ll often get a deeper commitment and a more interesting contribution.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Primal views of leadership. Share your comments, and enjoy the end to your week.