Today’s show features Frank Forencich. Frank is an internationally recognized leader in health and performance education. He has over thirty years of teaching experience in martial art and health education. Frank holds black belt rankings in karate and aikido and has traveled to Africa on several occasions to study human origins and the ancestral environment. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank is the author of numerous books about health and the human predicament, including “The Exuberant Animal”, the book I read that originally led me to Frank’s work.
We live in a time where early sport specialization and pressure has led to burnout and high injury rates amongst athletes, but the “rabbit hole” to a dis-satisfaction with sport and movement in general for so many, goes much deeper than that. As much as we fall prey to the stress-laden, year-round competitive schedule that leads athletes to higher pressure situations at younger ages, we also have “forgotten” our roots as athletes, and more importantly, as human beings, in so many senses of the word. We miss out on both training results, satisfaction and longevity by failing to study our ancestral nature.
On today’s show, Frank Forencich goes into many important elements of our humanity that can help athletes not only recover and train better, but also help increase enjoyment of the training process. These elements include human biorhythms, dance, play and exploration, getting in the dirt, benefits of training in nature, purpose driven movement, and more. This podcast was truly important on the level of helping us use the principles of nature that define who we are, to help us in training, and far beyond.
If you bring drums into your gym, or for your workout after this episode, PLEASE let me know.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster and Lost Empire Herbs. For 15% off your Lost Empire Herbs order, head to www.lostempireherbs.com/justfly
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:41 — 52.6MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | JioSaavn | Podchaser | Gaana | Email | Deezer | Anghami | RSS
View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.
Timestamps and Main Points
5:20 – Key trends seen in the animal kingdom, in physical movement that humans should pay attention to our own movement practices
11:50 – “Effortful striving” in human training versus more of a purpose-driven approach that is characteristic to non-human animals
20:30 – What the idea of “dancing being the original PE” means to athletes and all-human
28:20 – How play and exploration influences how we adapt to movement and training
33:50 – Frank’s thoughts on when to specialize in a sport, or movement practice
35:20 – The difference between the “jungle animal” and the “desert animal” and what this means for humans, training and moving in context with their environment
38:35 – The impact of bioregion on movement practice
40:40 – The impact of training in nature, versus training in an indoor gym setting, and then the “Bio-Philic” need of humans in regards to connection with nature
45:45 – Jim Thorpe’s primal and natural training methods
48:20 – The importance of getting “in the dirt” and actually connecting with dirt and the earth itself for the sake of the micro-biome
54:05 – Low hanging fruits on how to deal with stress better in context of our human biology
58:05 – The role of the athlete in modern society
1:01:55 – How to build a total training day based on the rhythms and mechanisms of the human being
“There is no emphasis on appearance (regarding movement and “exercise” as observed in the animal kingdom)”
“It’s important to remember that sports are movement specialties”
“In human athletics, there is constant striving all the time that is divorced from habitat; it is almost as if we are training in a bubble”
“For the playful athlete, the motivation is purely intrinsic”
“We’ve lost sight of the fact that the dose makes the poison, the dose makes the medicine… the wisdom lies in remembering the shape of the inverse U-curve”
“I don’t think we give our animal bodies enough credit for knowing what’s going on… I think we just need to listen more”
“(Dancing) is not sagittal movement, it’s transverse plane movement”
“There’s rhythm everywhere, drumming and dancing are fundamental for all of us”
“At various weightlifting facilities, bring drums in and use them, that would an easy thing to add that would increase enjoyment and it would increase performance too”
“Play is deeply wired into the primate-mammal body”
“If you isolate rodents (from being able to play) they will grow up to have huge social deficits and dysfunctions”
“What I’ve tried to do with people is have a bio-regional approach to athletics”
“Native people always identify with habitat, and that is something we have lost a lot of in the modern world”
“The blue collar stuff is really under-rated (for physical fitness)”
“Our microbiome now is completely out of whack, and the way to get back to that is to put your hands in the dirt and actually contact the soil, or run barefoot, or go climbing (outside)”
“(Modern ambient noise) is an assault on the autonomic nervous system”
Show Notes
Oregon State football dance-battle (rhythm and dance is foundational)
One of Frank’s movement classes
About Frank Forencich
Frank Forencich is an internationally recognized leader in health and performance education. He earned his BA at Stanford University in human biology and neuroscience and has over thirty years of teaching experience in martial art and health education.
Frank holds black belt rankings in karate and aikido and has traveled to Africa on several occasions to study human origins and the ancestral environment. He’s presented at numerous venues, including the Ancestral Health Symposium, Google, the Dr. Robert D. Conn Heart Conference, and the Institute of Design at Stanford University. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank is the author of numerous books about health and the human predicament. He’s a member of the Council of Elders at the MindBodyEcology Collective and a Diplomate member at the American Institute of Stress.
Free Speed Training eBook - Velocity 101
Improving speed is one of the most popular topics in the athletic performance equation. Where there are many ideas and thoughts out there, as to particular training exercises, or setups, the more core aspects of speed training often go without mention. These include the fundamental aspects of what makes an athlete fast, specific sprint-power concepts, the relevance of "3D" motion, motor learning and more.
Velocity 101 will help you take a leap forward in understanding of what makes athletes fast, and how to train it effectively