If you want to pick something up off the ground, you have two options: hinge at the hips or squat down. There’s no question that the full squat is an essential, Primal movement, and yet many folks in modern, industrialized society are unable to perform one. Kids have good squat form (just watch them at play), but their parents are stiff at the hips with rounded backs and tight knee joints. Many more have been taught – by health experts and personal trainers – that the full squat is dangerous, that it will destroy your knees with wear and tear and render you incapable of normal activity. They say a half-squat is perfectly adequate, or, better yet, get rid of the squat altogether and use the leg extension machine! Disregard these “experts.” You need to squat. You don’t need to use a ton of weight (or any!), but you do [...]

Original post by Mark Sisson

I remember back in my supplement days we were constantly asked about competitor’s products.
Of course, when you are working in the industry you have to be VERY careful about what yous say.
(Heck, even after you’ve left, you still have to be careful – spies everywhere)
So the best way to discredit a competitor’s product was by simply saying it ‘destroyed my stomach’…
So no mention of the flavor, consistency, effectiveness, cost…just ‘destroyed my stomach’.
It was great because it wasn’t debatable, and it was a scary ’cause and effect’ association to put on a product.
You can even use my favorite technique (back in the day) and do the discredit wrapped in a compliment:
“It’s actually a very good formula, but it completely destroyed my stomach”
So the point of today’s blog post is when asking about a diet, or a workout or a supplement [...]

Original post by Brad Pilon

Time for some more Leangains certified meals from myself, clients and Leangains fans from all around the globe. Click the hyperlinked names after the headings if you want to see the person behind the meals.
Post-workout meal

XXXL roast beef platter with potatoes. This is a meal I’ve been eating a lot lately. I get the roast beef fresh from the deli since that pre-packaged stuff usually makes me bloated as hell. Plus fresh roast beef is juicier and tastes a lot better.
500 g roast beef500 g potatoes fried with 200-300 mushrooms and half an onion.

I roll the roast beef slices up like wraps with the potato mix stuffed in between. Might dip it in some ajvar but I really enjoy the taste au naturale as well.
After that I usually go for one of my berry bowls.

Shown above is 1 kg strawberries with some vanilla protein milk, cacao and sweetener.
I might [...]

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Martin Berkhan)

Over the next week I’ll be covering some key concepts related to the recently-released Primal Blueprint Fitness. You can get your own copy of the free eBook here. Yesterday I covered proper pushup technique. Next up, proper pullup/chinup technique.
Not everyone loves doing pullups and chinups, but they are an absolutely necessary part of the Primal Blueprint Fitness program. See, with most other bodyweight exercises, it’s possible to make the case for the superiority of their weighted analogues. There is at least a debate to be had for bench presses and barbell squats versus pushups and pistol squats, but nothing trumps the pullup. You could spend years training with lat pulldowns and bent over rows, but they will never match the strength-building capacity of pullups and chinups.

Pushups don’t ask you to handle your entire body weight; you’ve always got your feet on the ground, taking a load off your upper body. [...]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Here’s an interesting article from Details magazine on the concept of ‘Exercise Addiction’
–> http://tinyurl.com/exerciseorexia
My comments are in the members section here –> http://bradpilon.com/content-exclusive/exercise-addiction/
BP

Original post by Brad Pilon

Over the next week I’ll be covering some key concepts related to the recently-released Primal Blueprint Fitness. You can get your own copy of the free eBook here. First up, proper pushup technique.
If you’ve ever taken a PE class, joined the military, played organized sports, or watched Rocky, you should be familiar with the basic pushup. In theory, it seems pretty simple, right? You assume the position, lower yourself to the ground, touch your chest to it, then push back up. Hence, “pushup.”

It’s a simple movement, but it’s arguably the best way to develop overall upper body strength and mobility. A proper pushup puts your shoulder blades (scapula) through their full range of motion, as opposed to the bench press, which forces you to keep your shoulder blades tight to protect your shoulders. The pushup is also unique in targeting the serratus anterior, an oft-ignored muscle whose development improves overhead [...]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Have you ever stopped to think that there might be an upper-limit to human metabolism?
Basically a top rate at which we can burn though calories?
Probably not, but don’t worry..I did for you!

(Full discussion in the members section)
BP

Original post by Brad Pilon

Ready for Another Mission 4 Submission?
Here in North Eastern North Carolina, you know that tournaqments are few and far between in the area, but Donnie Tinsley is hard at work to change that. Mission 4 Submission is the highly anticipated follow up to the the successful Mission Submission tournament.
This event is a Nationally Ranked No-gi Jiu Jitsu tournament and is being held Saturday August 21st. The tournament will be located at 300 E. Elizabeth St. in Elizabeth City on the corner of Elizabeth and Road St.
Our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu students have been preparing for this competition and coach Jeremiah Lancaster feels confident on his students. On the very first Mission For Submission tournament our athletes dominated EVERY weight category – with 8 of our competitors bringing home 12 medals, including the overall absolute weight belt.
If you live in the area, go check it out. There will be plenty of action [...]

Original post by knuckleup

Once organ meats are cooked, they really don’t look that much different than other, more common cuts of meat. In their raw state, however, organs can be a little challenging. For some, the sight of a raw heart on a kitchen countertop doesn’t exactly stimulate the appetite. If you’re tempted to try cooking offal but don’t want too much face time with the raw product, then a Crock-Pot is the way to go.
A slow-cooker is the perfect “out of sight, out of mind” cooking method for organs that need a little tenderizing, like the heart. Christopher Williams’ “Heart on Fire’ recipe (submitted for the Primal Blueprint Reader-Created Cookbook Contest) is the perfect recipe for easing into offal. If you can manage to get the heart into a slow-cooker, then you don’t have to think about it for another 6 hours. It will emerge fully cooked and tender, looking not much [...]

Original post by Mark Sisson

I’ll be honest with you…with BCAA’s becoming popular again I had high hopes that there was some new research proving there worth…
I was really excited that there was something new…some new research that was really well designed that showed actual changed in Lean Muscle Mass, or even better maybe MRI quantified cross-sectional area (that would be awesome!)
but alas, it’s the same old stuff I used to push supplements back in the day..
The same research, written by the same people…same assumptions, same surrogate end points…just recycled wishing for something to work.
So sadly the new BCAA bandwagon (which isn’t much different then the old BCAA band wagon) is something I will have to pass on.
BP

Original post by Brad Pilon