Heavy Day!

Ok, not all that heavy really. For the past several months I've been sticking to bodyweight exercises, kettlebell work and some training on the heavy bag. It was fun and (I think) beneficial as well, but I miss going to the gym and picking up heavy stuff.

So today I went back to the gym and did squats, hang power cleans and push presses, and deadlifts. I went a bit easy on myself since it had been so long, but I can already tell that my legs are going to be SORE. Squats are like that, unless I do them a couple days a week.

I definitely felt like I could do more weight on the squats, even though it's been months since I last squatted, but I made myself stop at 135 lbs. The HPC&PP were a little tougher, but not too bad. By the time I got to the deadlifts things were feeling heavy. Here's what I did, after a quick warmup on each exercise:

Squats: 135 lbs, 3 sets of 5
Hang power clean & push press: 95 lbs, 3 sets of 5
Deadlifts: 225 lbs, 3 sets of 3

As soon as I got home I whipped up a breakfast scramble of 3 eggs, a little turkey sausage, about half a cup of ground venison, and a heap of broccoli, spinach and collard greens.

SCIENCE!

Ok, as promised I'm going to provide some links to the science behind the paleo program. In this first installment, I'd like you to take a look at this paper published in 2005. It's essentially an introduction to the notion of paleolithic nutrition, and why it's a major improvement over what most of the world currently eats. It's pretty accessible too, for the most part, and well worth a detailed reading. Here's the link:

Origins and evolution of the western diet: Health implications for the 21st century.
Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:341-54.

Abstract:
There is growing awareness that the profound changes in the environment (eg, in diet and other lifestyle conditions) that began with the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry 10000 y ago occurred too recently on an evolutionary time scale for the human genome to adjust. In conjunction with this discordance between our ancient, genetically determined biology and the nutritional, cultural, and activity patterns of contemporary Western populations, many of the so-called diseases of civilization have emerged. In particular, food staples and food-processing procedures introduced during the Neolithic and Industrial Periods have fundamentally altered 7 crucial nutritional characteristics of ancestral hominin diets: 1) glycemic load, 2) fatty acid composition, 3) macronutrient composition, 4) micronutrient density, 5) acid-base balance, 6) sodium-potassium ratio, and 7) fiber content. The evolutionary collision of our ancient genome with the nutritional qualities of recently introduced foods may underlie many of the chronic diseases of Western civilization.


When you're finished reading the article, reward yourself by lifting something heavy and eating some meat!

Good luck and happy foraging.