Publication Review: The Primal Blueprint

I’ve been following Mark Sisson’s blog, Mark’s Daily Apple, for quite some time. I first heard about it a few years ago, and I was quite surprised when I read a bit more about his background.

As it turns out, he’s a former competitive endurance athlete with a storied career that includes a 4th place Hawaii Ironman finish and a 5th place finish in the 1980 US National Marathon Championships. But he is now one of the most vocal critics of a fitness and endurance sports community that constantly pushes “chronic cardio” along with unhealthy, carbohydrate-driven diets.

And it is this aspect of his background that really resonates with me personally.

Background Notes

Starting in 2004, I became quite active in endurance sports – mostly triathlons. Like many athletes afflicted with the “tri bug,” I got caught up in both the sport and the community and began to “ramp up” pretty intensely over the years. And all this time I was convinced that what I was doing was keeping me in optimal physical shape.

So you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when I discovered that I had borderline high blood pressure – as well as lousy triglyceride and blood cholesterol levels – despite all of my heavy endurance training. It just didn’t make any sense.

But as I began to examine my food consumption and physical activity patterns and cross-reference this with some of the “non-traditional” information available online, I was forced to face an emerging truth. Namely, these poor health results weren’t happening despite all my heavy endurance training. They were happening because of all my heavy endurance training. I shall explain.

Why the Need for a New Approach?

Based upon my own experience and observations, I’ve come to the conclusion that most endurance athletes have bought into two very fallacious beliefs:

1. Heavy and sustained endurance training will lead to optimal health
2. Heavy and sustained endurance training will negate the consequences of an unhealthy diet and lifestyle

The bottom line is that many endurance athletes (myself formerly included) cultivate an attitude of “more is better” when it comes to training. And they use this sustained and heavy exertion as an excuse to justify poor – or even downright trashy – behaviors and eating habits.

Fortunately, Mark does an excellent job dispelling these two beliefs in his new book, The Primal Blueprint.

He also provides a roadmap for cultivating and maintaining optimal physical health based upon hard science and time-tested common sense – both of which seem to have been eclipsed over the past 20 years by the half-truths and “conventional wisdom” of the health and fitness industry.

So let’s dig in a bit further, shall we?

The Ten Primal Blueprint Laws

The Primal Blueprint starts out with an introductory chapter that examines and challenges some of the Conventional Wisdom (CW) we currently follow with regards to diet, exercise, and lifestyle. Areas of particular examination include the current CW regarding grains, saturated animal fat, cholesterol, fiber, and meal habits. On the exercise front, the book examines the current dominant attitudes and beliefs regarding cardio exercise, strength training, and weight loss among other items.

The cardinal point of The Primal Blueprint is that the majority of what we deem to be CW when it comes to consumption and activity is actually ineffective at best – or deleterious at worst. It is at this point that Mark introduces his 10 Primal Blueprint Laws:

1. Eat Lots of Plants and Animals
2. Avoid Poisonous Things
3. Move Frequently at a Slow Pace
4. Lift Heavy Things
5. Sprint Once in a While
6. Get Adequate Sleep
7. Play
8. Get Adequate Sunlight
9. Avoid Stupid Mistakes
10. Use Your Brain

The remainder of the book examines each of these laws in greater detail, but not before providing a clever “compare and contrast” case study.

Grok and Korg

Using the Primal Blueprint framework, Mark details the likely consumption and activity patterns of the “Grok” family, a Paleolithic hunter-gatherer clan living 10,000 years ago. He then examines the consumption and activity patterns of the “Korg” family (“Grok” spelled backwards), a typical contemporary family living the average American lifestyle.

This explicit, and rather eye-opening, comparison puts all of the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws into context and gives the reader a reality-based anchor point that helps him or her understand the real science underpinning the concepts of The Primal Blueprint. It also serves to highlight the relatively recent external factors in our environment which have contributed to our current crisis of poor overall health.

It’s All About Insulin

After setting up the reader accordingly, Mark devotes 100 pages – more than one-third of the book – to the Primal Blueprint eating philosophy. In the first of three chapters, he introduces the key concept of moderating insulin production, something which he cites as “the most health-critical concept in the book.” He then goes on to debunk the conventional wisdom surrounding cholesterol and fat consumption – instead citing the more definitive role of oxidation and inflammation in fomenting heart disease and systemic disorders.

The New Food Pyramid and the Bane of Grain

The following two chapters introduce a new Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid that is anchored by vegetables and fruits followed by animal-source fats and proteins including meats, fish, fowl, and eggs. Topping off the eating pyramid are nuts, seeds, and approved fats and oils as well as natural herbs and essential supplements.

Conspicuously absent from the Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid are grains, sugars, legumes, processed foods, and trans/hydrogenated fats – all of which fall under the category of “poisonous things” to be avoided. In fact, Mark makes a special point to emphasize the negative impact that grains (i.e. wheat, corn, oats, rice, cereals, pastas, breads, “whole grain” foods) have on human health:

Perhaps the most harmful element of dietary Conventional Wisdom is that grains are healthy – the “staff of life” – as we’ve been led to believe our entire lives. While grains enjoy massive popularity today, they are simply not very healthy for human consumption.

Indeed, when you read about how grain products spike insulin levels, store body fat, promote inflammation, and compromise immune system functioning, you will never look at a dinner roll or angel hair pasta the same way again…

Walk, Lift, and Sprint – But No Chronic Cardio

Paralleling his eating philosophy, Mark introduces the Primal Fitness Pyramid in the next chapter which is anchored by Law #3, “Move Frequently at a Slow Pace.” He recommends a regimen of walking, hiking, cycling, or easy cardio at 55-75% of maximum heart rate for up to five hours per week. This is to be punctuated by one or two brief but intense strength training sessions (30 to 60 minutes) and one “all out” 5-10 minute sprint exercise once a week.

Also in this chapter, Mark outlines his case against what he terms “Chronic Cardio,” or frequent medium-to-high intensity sustained workouts. Chronic Cardio entails exceeding 75% of your maximum heart rate for extended periods of time. This depletes glycogen (versus burning stored fat) and requires large amounts of dietary carbohydrates each day to support the energy demands. Chronic Cardio also triggers stress hormone production, inflammation, and hormonal imbalances leading to fatigue, burnout, and accelerated aging. Per Mark:

Chronic Cardio – a program I followed for nearly 20 years as a marathoner and later an ironman triathlete – is bad for your health, period.

Lifestyle Laws and Primal Weight Loss

The final two chapters of The Primal Blueprint (before the conclusion) are fairly condensed. The first one focuses on “lifestyle laws” such as getting adequate sleep and sunlight, engaging in “play” behaviors, managing environmental risks, and challenging your brain. The second chapter provides a detailed process for losing weight and includes specific dietary guidelines and plans as well as exercise recommendations.

While both chapters are highly informative, I do feel that they are somewhat lacking in detail – especially when compared to the previous three chapters. However, since food consumption and physical activity are really the foundation of the Primal Blueprint philosophy, I didn’t expect these later chapters to constitute as much of the book’s contents.

Is The Primal Blueprint Worth Reading?

The Primal Blueprint is a very thorough and fascinating review of how we as a species have substantially diverged from the healthy eating, exercise, and lifestyle habits that have allowed us to survive and thrive for over 50,000 years. And while the book does cover a variety of scientific and medical topics, it manages to remain both readable and informative through the author’s lively commentary and entertaining tone. So in this respect alone, I do recommend it.

In addition, if you’ve read any other books on “evolutionary fitness” or “paleo diet” topics, The Primal Blueprint – while incorporating much of this information – represents an even more comprehensive lifestyle guide for athletes of all levels. For one thing, the book is written from the perspective of a former competitive endurance athlete who has made a career out of studying and practicing physical fitness at very high levels. And because of Mark’s unique background, both “recovering endurance athletes” as well as less active individuals looking for a better way to optimize their overall levels of health and fitness can readily identify with the content in The Primal Blueprint.

So do yourself a favor and check out a copy of The Primal Blueprint. It will definitely make you rethink just about everything you’ve read or been told about diet and exercise. And even if you’re the most hardcore endurance sports addict, you will likely come away from the book with a renewed respect for the benefits of “ramping down” and actually enjoying the process of health and fitness.

And in the end, that’s a very good thing.