Introducing the new Wild-Fitness Primal Health Challenge
Interested in losing some Christmas love handles?
Want to be a healthier, stronger, more robust version of yourself for 2017?
Are you tired of making positive changes only to regress back to how you were before?
Then why not give something different a try?
The Wild Fitness Primal Health Challenge is a 10 week programme designed to enable you to make health changes that stick.
By making small, daily behaviour changes, we will be laying the foundations for better lifelong health, longevity, body composition and resilience.
“What does that even mean, Glenn?”
In short, you will be setting yourself up to LIVE LONGER, MOVE BETTER, MOVE FASTER, BE STRONGER, LOOK EVEN BETTER NAKED, AND BE MUCH HARDER TO KILL.
“Well, that does sound great, Glenn, especially the ‘looking good naked’ bit. But it does sound like hard work.”
This is the beauty of the Wild-Fitness approach. This isn’t your classic NO PAIN, NO GAIN system. We are making small, achievable daily goals that add up to make much larger changes. By taking smaller steps to greater health we will be rewriting lifestyle habits with newer, cleaner ones. This will mean that after the 10 weeks are up we are going to be far more likely to continue on this path of health and well being. By following this challenge we can make 2017 our strongest, healthiest year yet.
“That sounds easy. I’m in!”
Whoa there. No-one said it would be ‘easy’. If it was easy then you’d already be doing it. It is easy to implement, but notice that the title is ‘Health CHALLENGE’. You will be challenged at some point through the 10 weeks, but maybe not on what you’d expect.
So what does it entail and why is it different?
The Wild-Fitness Primal Health Challenge follows a system of choices and activities that best align us with how we are biologically designed to live. Technological advances can be a great and powerful tool for human advancement, but it can also mean we overlook some of the fundamental requirements for a healthy human body. This challenge aims at redressing this. I’m not suggesting we turn our backs on modern trappings and form a new tribe up here in the woods (I’m not saying no to this either), I’m suggesting we make appropriate choices that keep our bodies and minds sharp, as nature intended, whilst enjoying and utilising the conveniences of our modern world.
The challenge runs for 10 weeks and consists of 2 evenings (Wednesday and Friday) and one morning (Sunday).
The evening sessions will comprise of our ‘exercise’ sessions. This will primarily focus on strength and conditioning work, along with mobility.
The strength and conditioning will be based around 4 primal movement patterns utilising body-weight only. These are an upper body pull, upper body push, a squat, and a plank hold.
Why strength training and not cardio?
We will go into this in more detail through the course, but in brief, strength/resistance training has time and time again be shown to aid fat-loss far more than cardio alone. And worry not about becoming ‘Bulky’, ladies. We will also be looking to slay this false fitness myth. Cakes make us bulky, strength training makes us lean.
It is suitable for absolutely all fitness levels. You will each get an individual workout programme based on an initial assessment, which gives you a personalised progression through each of the movements. As you improve with each movement you progress through the levels of difficulty.
You’ll do this in small groups to give each other the support and encouragement needed and to help keep each other accountable. In the strength and conditioning session, the only person that you are in competition with is yourself.
The rest of the session will comprise of discussion, queries, mobility work to keep you supple and some form of play. The last part is very important, hysterical laughter is one of the best ab workouts I know.
The Sunday morning session will be a bit of a wild card. This session will vary from week to week and will be the time that we can cover the whole range of other important topics relating to optimal health.
These will include:
Healthy Nutritional Choices. You can’t out-train a bad diet! We will look at what foods make us fat and contribute to ill health (some surprises in stall for you here). You’ll all get food lists; green list- eat as much as you like; amber list – eat in moderation; red list – best to avoid/eat sparingly.
No restrictive, calorie counting, hunger inducing, misery ridden diets here. Just honest, real, fulfilling foods.
We may even discover why salad is so funny.
The importance of Sleep. Something we all know yet few of us implement. We’ll look at just how important sleep really is to us and its impact on health and fat-loss. We discuss the dos and don’ts of getting decent sleep, and tactics for improving we what get and dealing with poor sleep. We’ll also be reviving the ultimate tool for health, The Disco Nap.
Mobility and movement. Yet another much underrated aspect of health. We’ll be keeping our bodies loose and supple which will in turn allow us to keep them strong. The human body was designed to move with grace and efficiency, allowing us to transition from one position effortlessly to another. Let’s get it back on track.
Hydration. The importance of water and hydration. For many of us today, we are in a constant state of dehydration. Many of us confuse the sensation of dehydration with hunger, leading us to snack unnecessarily. One of our daily challenges is to drink enough water.
Relaxation/Meditation. We will have a session on relaxation and meditation to allow our minds to reset from the constant barrage of modern living. You’ll get tips and tricks of how to implement these techniques on a day to day basis to allow you to deal with stress.
Low Level Activity. Immensely important for health and fat-loss, and sadly so simple that it is usually overlooked and considered ineffectual. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Daily/regular low level exercise (think walks, gentle jogs, bike rides) have an incredible effect on the body. If done at the correct intensity (not too high), they burn heaps of fat as well as increase our cardio potential. Going slower can literally improve our abilities to go faster and harder when the occasion calls for it. We’ll have daily goals for this.
Mindfulness. The ability to be in the moment and increase awareness may not seem at first to be a primary concern to physical well-being, however, so many of our bad health and food choices tend to be made in a very unconscious, unthinking manner. Being truly mindful of the tasks at hand will allow us to navigate the pitfalls ahead. Bringing our minds back into our bodies will also allow us to judge whether to scale our efforts back, thereby avoiding injury, or to forge on ahead at a greater effort.
Gratitude. Whilst being honest and critical with ourselves is an important part of our health challenge, constantly gazing up the metaphorical fitness mountain can be a daunting thing. It is therefore important that we take stock and appreciate how far we have come, what we have achieved and what we have to be thankful for. A daily 5 min gratitude exercise can be an incredibly powerful tool for health and well-being.
Making this a game.
As I said our strength and conditioning sessions are non competitive (other than with youselves). Equally this is not a ‘Biggest Loser‘ type of affair focusing on how much and how quickly someone can lose ‘weight’. This is about making you the healthiest version of you.
That being said, a little healthy competition is never a bad thing.
Each week you will gain points by completing the different tasks, eg completing both strength and conditioning sessions, drinking the required volume of water each day, daily stretch/mobility drill, 8 hour sleep etc.
At the end of the 10 weeks these points will be totalled and the highest point scorer will win a prize and be heralded as the Ultimate Primal Health Challenge Bad-Ass (this title may change).
And to keep track of your progress everyone will get a booklet and you can also sign up for the App so you can record your data, progress and points, from your phone, pc or tablet. I know, technology has finally tracked me down.
There will also be a private Facebook site for all participants to share their stories, progress and questions. There will be videos demonstrating the different exercise movements and challenges, and anytime email availability from me to answer any queries you have or to meet you to go over any issues that may arise.
So who is this programme not for?
If you are looking for a ‘No Pain, No Gain’ military style boot-camp, or any other kind of suffer fest, then this is not for you. I get it, I really do. I love the sensation of putting my body through the fitness crucible and seeing how it comes out the other side. But this is not the place for this. Contact me about some of my other programmes and classes. I’m happy to help.
Equally, if you are looking to lose the biggest amount of weight/body fat as quickly as possible then this is also not for you. This programme is about making long-term changes for lifelong health. If you’re desperate to lose some body fat for an intended timescale then feel free to contact me about doing this safely and efficiently.
This programme starts on the 18th January at 7pm in An Coire, An Carn, 132A Tirkane road, Maghera, BT46 5NH
There will also be an information evening on Wednesday 11th January at 7pm in An Coire.
Feel free to contact me or call 07546552880.
Stay strong.
gx
