Matt Metzgar

More on male hunter-gatherers

There was one other item from the Kim Hill paper that I found important.  It is often said that hunter-gatherers foraged 1 to 4 nonconsecutive days per week.  I've always been a bit suspicious of this.  Without many good options for storing food (especially meat), how would they ensure a daily supply of food?

Kim Hill found that men foraged on 84% of the days.  The only days they did not forage was when there were heavy rains.  So by this math, men foraged almost 6 out of 7 days each week.  This seems more reasonable to me.  It also may imply that the body needs activity virtually every day.  Even on the days when men stayed in camp, they still walked and pursued game for roughly 90 minutes.  For these hunter-gatherers, there were really no "days off".

What did male hunter-gatherers do?

I found this neat older paper that looks at hunter-gather men from a tribe and what activities they performed.  Kim Hill and company studied the Ache hunter-gatherers of Paraguay for this research paper.  The men's activities were recorded every ten minutes to see exactly what physical patterns they were engaging in.

What immediately jumps out is the large amount of walking that they did.  Roughly four and a half hours per day were spent just walking about looking for food.  Another roughly two hours were spent in the more intense, direct pursuit of game.  The rest of the day was spent among various activities. 

No one knows for sure how hunter-gatherer men from millions of years ago spent their day.  But if the Ache tribe is any representation, they appeared to do a large amount of walking.

I am a big fan of walking - I think it is terribly underrated.  This is probably because it's hard for businesses to make money off it.  All you need to walk is some comfortable shoes and maybe a treadmill if you're in a colder climate.  And if you walk enough (an hour a day), you will lose weight.

Walking For Lunch

For the last couple of weeks, I have been using my lunch break for walking.  I found a nearby park that is fairly large and has lots of grass.  I normally don't eat lunch anyways, so this seems to be a good use of my time.

I think feelings of hunger during the day may actually be produced by the lack of physical movement.  For example, during the weekends I don't eat lunch either and sometimes don't even eat breakfast.  But it doesn't seem like a big deal because I keep active throughout the day.  Yet in the office, I have a much greater desire for food during the day.  My guess is that the sedentary nature of the office environment causes hunger mechanisms to malfunction.

Walking Works For Women

Here's a neat study that shows how accumulated walking throughout the day is a key for women in maintaining their weight.  Average steps per day was inversely correlated with all the major body composition variables, such as percent body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, etc.  As far as a threshold, women who averaged over 10,000 steps a day were in the normal weight range.

Arnold Wins

As I predicted one year ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger won re-election as California's Governor.  The race hasn't been close in weeks, so it isn't that surprising, but it is when you think about Arnold's low approval ratings last year and how much he has improved them.

My next prediction: Arnold will run for and win a US Senate seat in either 2010 or 2012.  My best guess is he takes on Barbara Boxer in 2010 and defeats her.  Maybe I can place a bet on this here in Vegas...

Abdominals

Here is a great article by Paul Chek that deals with functional exercise.  The article discusses how the abdominal muscles are activated and strengthened when doing "Stone Age" exercises.  The whole website is worth a good look.

Open-Mindedness

I made a comment earlier today on Fred Hahn's blog over at Slowburn.  The original post itself was pretty decent and had some good points about cutting down on grains, dairy, etc.

My comment had to do with cholesterol levels.  Hunter-gatherers had total cholesterol levels of around 130.  In modern society, most people are above that number and not coincidentally have a variety of health problems.  Hahn informed me that there are no studies linking high cholesterol to health problems. 

Of course, there are countless studies linking high cholesterol and health problems.  If you go to PubMed, you can put in "lipids" and the disease of your choice and you will most likely find a relationship.  This is not to say that high cholesterol necessarily causes all these conditions, but it sometimes does and lowering cholesterol levels often helps.  After all, why are millions of people taking statins?  For fun?  There are obviously benefits (though there can be negative side effects associated with statins).

The bigger question for me is why some people aren't open-minded about these things.  I received a mysterious email a while ago that told me how saturated fat doesn't lead to heart disease and told me to look up references on it.  The email was written as if Moses himself came down from the mountain with this information.

For many issues, there is lots of debate and lots of ongoing research.  This is the way of the scientific method, as over time the answers get better and better.  For the cholesterol issue, there are scientists (like Loren Cordain) who believe high cholesterol contributes to heart disease and there are scientists that don't (like this group).  But too often people go for easy, black-and-white answers.  For example, it usually isn't even mentioned that people can have different responses to the same amount of dietary cholesterol due to genetic polymorphisms. 

I think it's natural for people to learn and improve their views over time.  Drew Baye commented on this blog that as he learned more his views on exercise changed sharply.  Conversely, there are those who have thought enough: they have convinced themselves, and now they are ready to convince you.  And if you're not sure they're right, just ask them - they'll tell you.

Running and Leaning

I think one of the keys to proper running form is a slight forward lean.  If you take a look at the Kenyan distance runners, almost all of them lean forward slightly when running.

I think the lean is good for a couple of reasons.  First, it cuts down the chances of overstriding - that is, you will be more likely to land with your feet under your hips and not in front of them.  Second, you can get a little extra speed from leaning forward.  It's certainly possible to run fast with the body being vertical, but leaning forward gives that extra bit of help.

Leaning forward while running is not something that came naturally to me.  I had to build it into my running technique with practice.  Even now, I still catch myself straightening up and have to remember to lean.  Also, it is important to note that the proper lean is a whole-body lean, not just bending over at the waist.  Imagine drawing a line from your ankles to your head, and then leaning a bit forward.

I bet that those who grew up running barefoot, like the Kenyans, have a forward lean that developed naturally over time.  Those of us in the West, with our big-heeled shoes, are probably not so fortunate.

Repetitions

For some time I've had my doubts about the traditional repetition scheme in weightlifting.  You always read about 3 sets of 8-10 reps as the way to go.  But why would the body be built for (or respond to) such a regimented scheme?

Here's a neat study that challenges this.  It had trainees do a variety of rep schemes, including single reps with 20 seconds of rest per repetition within each set.  The result?  All three schemes led to a greater power output than traditional continuous repetitions.

There's more than one way to skin a cat...