Mark's Daily Apple

Trick or Treat: Yea or Nay?

There are menacing spirits about tonight. Truly horrifying, ghastly ghouls in shiny, enticing packages. Resting ominously in bowls, baskets and bags, they await their jolly little prey. With the power of the Pied Piper, they will lead all manner of small witches, scarecrows, Spidermen, vampires, princesses, cowboys and gypsies toward ebullient, screeching glee, then sugar shock and moody mayhem this evening. Dastardly little devils, aren’t they…?

Posted By: Worker Bee

40

Primal Blueprint Fitness Standards

(This is the fourth part of a four part series on fitness. Part 1: What Does it Mean to Be Fit?, Part 2: Could You Save Your Own Life?, Part 3: Modern Fitness Standards)

Yesterday, we explored the multitude of modern fitness standards spanning a variety of professions – soldier, cop, firefighter, Olympic athlete, pro athlete. We discussed the amorphous, free form standards held by pure fitness methodologies like CrossFit, as well as the simple but starkly delineated physical benchmarks a “real man” must satisfy as laid out by Earle Liederman. And though I didn’t even get into all the other fitness markers of the various athletic subcultures (ultrarunners, mountain bikers, soccer players, body builders, kayakers, backpackers, etc.), I’ve concluded that modern fitness is, by and large, incredibly splintered and heavily specialized. If you were to take a cross-section of examples of ideal athletes from every sport or activity imaginable, you’d get a veritable motley crew of different shapes, sizes, musculatures, and body types. Each would have wildly different capacities for strength, power, speed, endurance, agility, balance, and precision, and you’d see a wide range of resting heart rates, inflammatory markers, chronic injury rates, stress levels, and immune systems. And, if you had X-ray vision, you’d probably see an assortment of liver, heart, kidney, and other organ sizes.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

25

What Does it Mean to Be Fit?

(This is the first part of a four part series on fitness. Part 2: Could You Save Your Own Life?, Part 3: Modern Fitness Standards)

fit-ness

\ˈfit-ness\

n.

1. The capacity of an organism to survive and transmit its genotype to reproductive offspring as compared to competing organisms
2. The ability to conduct oneself in physically demanding situations; to function effectively in emergencies; to display superior body composition and aptitude in matters of strength, cardiovascular capacity, power expression, reaction time, speed, agility, flexibility; to evince generally superior health and resistance to injury and disease

Posted By: Mark Sisson

24

Dear Mark: How to Politely Pass on Dessert

It’s a common question I get: how to graciously decline the proudly presented delicacy, the traditional or long-labored sweet, the celebratory dessert. Like it or not, desserts are woven into our cultural doings and gatherings. As one reader put it recently, “I’ve been trying to go quasi-primal for about 6 months and have had very good results. A challenging situation that I’ve experienced is declining dessert offers from friends who LOVE to bake. How do I politely decline a chef’s generosity without offending them?”

Posted By: Mark Sisson

80

Weekend Link Love

You may notice a few adjustments to the regular Weekend Link Love. I’ve decided to add the Recipe Corner as a permanent fixture (including perhaps the best link in the history of MDA linkage, Grok chefs will know it when they see it). And I’ve added a new “Time Capsule” section which contains posts that were popular on this week one or two years ago. It’s a great way to find hidden gems in the annals of MDA history!

What is The Roman Box, and how will it help you lose weight better than any diet or fitness plan? Head over to Pay Now Live Later to find out.

Early in the week I discussed the importance of muscle balance and symmetry. Someone needs to pass the message along to this German armwrestler.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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