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The more I think about paleo activities and modern exercise, the more I
just don't 'buy' that the things I typically do in a gym are even a close
replica of the movement patterns our paleo ancestors followed.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I really enjoy the athletic things I
do.  Olympic lifting and mountain biking are my main stays, and I doubt I
will ever give them up completely.  But if I'm looking to mimic the
activities of our paleo ancestors, how can I do that inside, or on a modern
invention like a bike?  There were no bikes, or even 'inside'.

If we make some assumptions, we might say that the primary exercise
activity pattern of male paleo's were hunting, or preparing to hunt, or
moving from place to place, or preparing shelter. Wouldn't it then be wise
to duplicate those activities?  How does maximal effort dead-lifting
replicate that?  Surely paleo people had to lift loads, but a static 3x
bodyweight deadlift?  Doesn't it make more sense that they moved lighter
loads over distance?  They butchered their kill, and carried it back on
shoulders, or a travois, or a stretcher-like device with assistance from
tribe members.  They sprinted, they dodged, they made thrusting/throwing
movements, and they made longer running/walking tracking efforts.

If I'm interested in duplicating that in the modern environment, I can do
it much more effectively in a local wooded area than in the gym with steel
plates.  I can start with a moderate activity like walking\slow
intermittent running over mixed terrain to replicate the tracking activity,
move to more intense sprints with thrusting or throwing motions to
duplicate the kill, and walk with weighted pack over hill and dale to
duplicate taking the kill back to camp.  One pattern I see here is that
paleo people probably relied much more on a combination of strength and
endurance, with a real focus on the legs.

Like I said, this seems to me to only hold if we want to more closely mimic
our paleo ancestors activities.  I'm not disregarding modern exercise
patterns, I love them, maybe too much.  I'm just pointing out that I've got
a hunch we are rationalizing too much when we say that anything we do with
weights, or on a bike, or in a racing shell, has any close analog in paleo
movement/activity patterns.  If I want that, I better head outside with a
pack and cover some ground, or scamper up that rock outcrop, and not go to
the gym.

Tim

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