Primal Workouts
An Excerpt from the Lean Hybrid Muscle Building Program
Nature is amazing. Plants, animals, humans, insects and ecosystems, left on their own, over time adapt to their environment to not just exist, but to thrive. Each species is designed to do whatever it does best. For example, carnivores like wolves, lions and tigers are built to hunt and kill. They’re strong and fast with sharp teeth and powerful jaws. And all this happens naturally. When they are born, their parents don’t sit them down and explain to them what they have to do to become skilled hunters—they just go about living their lives and they develop that way naturally.
Animals in nature don’t go to the gym. They don’t lift weights, they don’t do cardio, they don’t read about the latest hot training routine and they don’t go on diets. Yet despite the fact that they don’t do any of these things, wolf cubs, lion cubs and others grow up to be skilled hunters with lean but incredibly strong bodies. Why? Because they live their lives the way nature intended, doing the activities that nature intended them to be doing without giving it any thought. It’s like this throughout nature, with all species. What does this have to do with building a better body and why should you care? A lot—and I am going to tell you why.
Over the last thousand years or so man has gotten soft. By nature, we’re hunter-gatherers, meaning that our bodies are built both to hunt and to forage for food—we kind of get the best of both worlds. But as our society has become more civilized we’ve moved away from doing the things that nature intended our bodies to be doing. And as a result, for the most part we’ve become flabby, soft and out-of-shape. We don’t have to hunt down animals and kill them with our bare hands or with simple tools and we don’t have to traverse long distances, searching for fruits, vegetables and nuts. When we did have to do those things every day in order to survive, we developed naturally lean and strong bodies—without even thinking about it.
Today though, we go to the gym, use machines, moon over the latest fad diet or hot new supplement. And what’s the result? More people than ever before are overweight or obese. Our intellect and knowledge have grown exponentially but yet overall, we’re in progressively worse shape than at any time in our history. What’s the problem? I’ll tell you what the problem is—it’s us. When man intervenes things start to get all mucked up.
We’ve moved away from living the way nature intended us to live. We train at the gym doing exercises that are unnatural and wonder why we don’t get results. Our ancestors didn’t do this but yet they thrived. Look at the warrior cultures like the Spartans, the Vikings, the Roman Gladiators and others. They didn’t have gyms but they developed lean, powerful, muscular bodies. They got that way because they did what they had to do to survive. They trained every day not doing isolated, contrived movements, but using compound movements that incorporated a variety of training styles and developed real-world skills.
Our ancestors didn’t order carry-out food. If they were hungry they had to go out and forage or hunt. And while doing this, sometimes they got chased by wolves, bears or other humans. Food had to be carried across distances. If they killed a bear, they probably had to drag it a long ways back to camp. And the warrior cultures did the same thing—trekking across the land wearing their heavy battle gear and lugging cumbersome weapons, supplies and even wounded soldiers. These are the kinds of activities that are bodies were built to do. When we did those things on a daily basis, we just naturally got the best results without even thinking about it. Our ancestors—the hunter/gatherers and the warrior cultures developed into what they were and thrived because if they didn’t, they would have perished.
And if we today want to see the same kind of results and be lean, muscular, strong and healthy, we need to stop looking for the magic bullet and look to our past. We need to get primal and train the way nature intended our bodies to train. To get really healthy and get the bodies we want we need to exercise the way our ancestors lived by getting primal in our workouts. So how’s a modern guy supposed to “get primal” in his workout? One of the best ways to train like our ancestors is by following training strategies like Lean Hybrid Muscle Training and others.
As you may already know hybrid muscle training is a training philosophy. It incorporates the best of bodybuilding, powerlifting, strongman and cardio and combining them into a cohesive training philosophy that essentially mimics the sorts of intense physical activities our ancestors would have done on a daily basis. The approach runs totally contrary to most of what you may have read in magazines but most “revolutionary” ideas have done the same. It’s a way to burn fat and build muscle at the same time, without the hit or miss—mostly miss—hassles of bulking and cutting. Lean Hybrid Muscle Training will really supercharge workouts and completely maximize your results.
Strength Training
January 29, 2010
4:03 am
Guys, I had the pleasure of having Dr. McDavid [he of the McDavid sports braces] as a professor during my masters classes and one of his favorite myths was warm ups and stretching. His example was also this; as a hunter, when was the last time you saw a rabbit or deer get up and stretch before he took off at top speed to avoid you killing him? Good point.
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Marcus Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 9:10 am
What is the first thing a lion does when it gets up after sleeping? Or all
big cats for that matter? They immediately stretch their whole body.
And I would personally like to mimic the powerful lion, than to mimic
a scrawny rabbit.
Just my thoughts on it.
Cheers
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leanhybr Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Okay my dog is no lion, but he’s no rabbit either. What’s cool is he can be sound asleep and than leap of the bed into a full sprint in a split second if he hears something. But than again he always stretches like crazy before he knows he’s about to go on a long walk. – Mike
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Troy Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:19 am
I do my stretching when the workout is done. I do like warm up a bit to get my body ready for the onslaught though. I think it helps get your body ready to go. Get the juices flowing.
I now have a lot of multi-joint, near full body exercises in my workouts. If you aren’t doing these kinds of exercises, then you aren’t working out. Nothing gets the heart pumping like these exercises. This is a test of how your body as a whole is doing. It’s becoming obvious of how important the multi-joint, full body exercises are. Your core stability and strength seems to lie within these exercises. They more accurately mimic what we would do naturally, if we were out doing shit.
I don’t even know if you need to do a single barbell curl, or a single isolated military press, or a single calf raise, for that matter, to build an astounding and strong physique. If you’re going to lift a pack of shingles, you probably aren’t going to curl it like a barbell, you’re going to get down there and dig in with your legs, back, arms, forearms, chest, shoulders, and you’re going to lift that Mofo.
I’m starting to see how uncoordinated my body still is when I tried some “squat presses” with dumbbells. More work to do. So many years, all I knew was gym strength. That’s why I sucked a lot in the real world. When it came time to lift a heavy couch, all that strength I possessed in the gym didn’t mean shit. I whined like a little baby because it was so heavy. Too much work, fear of lost gains! My body couldn’t handle the real stuff. My body as a whole didn’t know what to do. I spent a lot of time with upper back pain, perhaps had I trained my body as a whole like our bodies should be trained, this may have never happened?
Starting to see the light Mike and E! Thank you for putting this out there.
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January 29, 2010
6:22 am
I totally agree about being primal. People have definitely gotten lazy in the past few decades. Men need to be men and sweat testosterone! But anywho I think Gorillas or Grizzly Bears might be the most brutal animals there are. They’re both super strong and I wouldn’t want to come face to face with one ever.
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January 29, 2010
5:19 pm
I totally agree. plus, when you go primal, get angry at that weight, lift that motherfucker overhead, and do things we were naturally born to do, maan, you can, like, taste the testosteron in the air.. It’s the greatest feeling there is.
My favorite animal has always been the siberian tiger. It’s super strong, explosive, lean and beautiful. In my oppinion, it’s the most ultimate nature has to offer in our time
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January 29, 2010
5:58 pm
Hands down doormice. One beat the crap out of my nanna last Wednesday!
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January 29, 2010
8:14 pm
I have two favorite beasts- one is the lion. Proverbs 30:30 says “the lion which is mightiest among beasts and does not turn away from any.” At the high school where I run the weight room the Lion is the mascot and in the weight room I have posted the “10 Commandments of the Weight Room”; number 10 says:
“You are a Lion, you shall not turn away from anything. If anything tries to confront you, you shall attack it, chew it to pieces, and spit out the bones – then come back and LIFT MORE WEIGHT!” The boys really dig that, it fires them up!
My second and personal fav would be the Gorilla. He is by far the biggest, baddest and strongest primal beast in the jungle! If someone just looks at him (or his woman) the wrong way, it’s go-time!
Great program Mike & E – rage against the weak and non-primal!
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January 30, 2010
3:26 am
Great post. Unfortunately nowadays people pay too much attention to science, supplements, and they are afraid of hard work. Sometimes science have to be neglected and should train and move naturally. We still have the physical components to become some amazing physical creatures. However the weakness and most critical muscle that is neglected is mental strength.
The difference between modern people and animals is that the large majority of modern people lack mental strength. They give up to easy, are afraid of hard work, are impatience and can not withstand discomfort.
Men and women should be training outdoors in the elements with heavy weights, calisthenics, movements. People should stay away from machines. It turns us into lazy beings who cannot even withstand the stabilization of the weight they are trying to move.
Anyway keep up the great work.
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leanhybr Reply:
January 31st, 2010 at 3:18 am
Sean, you’d make an excellent guest “poster”. Great response! Mike
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January 30, 2010
8:14 am
Some ants can carry items 10 – 50times their body weight …
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February 2, 2010
3:51 am
This was an excellent article. I totally agree and I see how our new culture and technology has softened us. I see it every day when I shop or go to the gym. It’s a shame. I like your way of explaining and seeing thing. I want to incorporate more of your view into my life, thanks!
Dano – Chicago
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February 3, 2010
8:19 pm
i agrre with your artical and we have become very lazy. if we want to get back to the lean and powerful shape our ancestors was in you have to primal.
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February 7, 2010
9:44 pm
Definitely, the Jack Russel dog!
These annoying little creatures are tiny bags of nothing but pure muscle, in highly-ripped definition. And it shows in their attitude, too. They think they are the biggest and baddest animals on the planet, humans included.
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April 26, 2010
9:20 am
i do agree with your observation that aminals dont go the gym yet they thrive we can also do the same
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May 4, 2010
5:09 pm
I would like for you to check out this animal or should I say animals these guys are probablly the baddest animals pound for pound on the planet, be sure and check out their stanamia.. The African Dingo Dogs. these bad boys are unbelieveable
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May 25, 2010
5:44 am
my goldfish billy is the meanest monster i think.Its them big strong eyes and them powerful guppy jaws,wow hes ever so strong.The speed when he darts round his bowl is just jaw dropping amazing.
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May 25, 2010
2:31 pm
In my opinion far best animal might be cheetah due to it’s speed, it’s not strong, but it got great acceleration. You don’t see it and than suddenly he is just few meters away. But than in terms of speed and surprise, black mamba might be even better. However, in terms of brutality hungry wolf. Flexible, strong, brutal.
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May 29, 2010
9:41 am
I think u guys or doing a great job. im a trainer in a town called thomasville ga.i you have opened my eyes and i thank you for that keep it coming.
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May 31, 2010
3:15 pm
I don’t know how the Spartans or the Vikings looked 200 or 300 hundred years ago, but I do know how the indians in the Amazon jungle look, the tribes in Africa look, and the aborigines in Australia look. Strong and Atheletic are not the words that come to mind. Eventhough, they live the hunter/gatherer lifestyle. They appear to me scrawny, skinny, and underfed. Also, who would want their lifespan of 30 to 35 years. So no matter how great you think the good old days were, they were n’t. Basically, it all comes down to what is important in your life, and your actions and reactions show you how you truly feel about the choices you make.
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August 4, 2010
6:32 pm
You switch between two eras of our ancestors. It makes it seem inaccurate. Spartans, Gladiators, Samurai, Knights, their weight training was weapons training, along with moving around with armor. This was still kinda like hybrid training cuz its cardio and weight training. But they weren’t hunter-gatherers. They went to the market!
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August 29, 2010
9:48 pm
thanks Mike and E for all the killer info.its taking my mma training to another level,and helped me have a total warrior mentality.my fighting style would rather be like a lion,great white shark,or a pit bull. my opponent needs to kill me. “i am a shark,the ground is my ocean,and not everyone knows how to swim.” rickson gracie…r.i.p. helio. ive always thought that there was only two kinds of guys,hunters and gatherers.
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October 29, 2010
7:19 am
@ ray… dude! you ndo realise that the modern world is a shadow of it’s former self, right? I mean, more pollution, less crops, those that grow are not 100% as nature intended due to poor farming practice and climate change. Soils these days are depleted of nutrients essential to growing healthy crops… there is less goodness in what people eat these days than what there was years ago. You cannot look at modern man and pass judgement on past cultures. The modern Australian aborigine is a victim of the European settlers and what they have done to the land, how they impacted the tribal lifestyle et cetera. Ditto for other peoples you mentioned. Besides, size does not indicate strength necessarily, nor is it an infallible indicator of health.
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November 2, 2010
11:16 am
You’re right on- we do need to stop looking for the magic bullet and simply get back to our primal past!
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February 28, 2011
3:33 am
true…..i thing we should go back to square one…….
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