Primal Strength and Conditioning: A Practical Approach to Fitness for Healthcare Professionals

In light of the current COVID-19 epidemic, I feel compelled to give you brave Healthcare Professionals the very best that I possibly can. I’ve never been a Healthcare Pro, but I have served in the U.S. Military (and continue to serve) for nearly 18 years. So, I know a little bit about sacrifice. Make no mistake about it, I understand your fight against this emotionless disease requires tremendous sacrifice. Even potentially the ultimate sacrifice, as too many Healthcare Professionals throughout the world have died on the front lines. Your fight against this enemy is perhaps the most important fight of any of our lifetimes. For your fight is not just about our health and lives, but about our way of life and the maintenance and progression of civilization itself.

Though, at the moment there’s no end in sight, rest assured that it will eventually end. You may be putting in so many hours that you feel you’re about to break. Your spouse or loved ones may have been laid off. The stock market crashed and all our 401Ks and IRAs are now f@cked. You may know a loved one or have patients who have died from COVID-19. But if you’re reading this now, consider the hundreds of thousands of generations that came before you. Your ancestors survived untold economic and biological hardships, and so will the human race. Within your DNA is a fighting chance, and it only takes a simple (though not always easy) switch in mind set to maintain your morale and continue fighting for humanity.

Many of the philosophers of old have shown us a way to harness a mindset ready for survival. A way of thinking. And not just survival in a passive way, but an active one. Entire books have been written by these next level thinkers, and as this is not a book about philosophy per se, I’ll just distill a few of the very best of it for you now. Think of these as mental reps and sets, as the barbells, kettle bells and dumbbells of the mind. They are tools that when wielded properly can build a strong and enduring mental citadel.

Tool 1 for Healthcare Professionals:

Control what you can control and don’t worry about the rest. You can’t control the weather, can you? But you can put on a raincoat and dawn an umbrella. You can check the weather and plan accordingly.

Tool 2 for Healthcare Professionals:

Live meal to meal, end of shift to end of shift, and day off to day off. This ole chestnut I used to get through Basic Military Training and eventually my deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. “How do you eat an elephant?” my friend and business partner Seth Reynolds, COO once asked me, “one bite at a time,” was the answer. You see, we can all become overwhelmed by the totality of a situation, the sheer perceived vastness of things. But if we can control what we can control in these times, and live meal to meal, shift to shift, and day off to day off without losing our professional composure and purpose (military bearing and mission is what we call it, maybe it’s the Hippocratic Oath for you all), then we will all get through these dark times.

While most diet and fitness programs and marketers will write you a program to be followed to the exact measurement, I will not. As you are not a professional athlete who has the luxury of getting 8-10 hours of sleep a day. You are not a professional athlete or bodybuilder who has the luxury of time to be able to hit your perfectly planned workouts and the exact time of the day on the exact days of the week most programs require.

Although these precise programs when followed elicit elite results, they are simply impractical for most. You do not always have the luxury of hitting the exact and optimal macro and micro nutrients ratios specific to your unique body type, profile, biological age and training age. You do not have all these luxuries because you’re a real world, hardworking, ass kicking Healthcare Pro on the front lines.

I have written this program as more of a road map, blueprint or guideline to follow in principle and spirit, not as a panacea Olympic level training program full of precision down the tiniest of details. So feel free to substitute with a similar movement, add or omit reps, sets and volume and frequency of training days.

Note:

As many people don't have home gyms with weight equipment, I won't recommend weight ranges. Instead, body weight exercises make up the bulk of this routine. As a result, your Perceived Exertion Rate (Rated Perceived Exertion) will dictate how many reps you perform on each exercise. Let me explain.

You’re going to use the Rated Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale. While subjective, the RPE scale is used to measure the intensity of your exercise. The RPE scale runs from 0 – 10. For our purposes, we’ll use percentages. 100% RPE is hitting muscular failure. For instance, if I can only do 10 pullups and cannot do 11 even if my life depended on it, 10 Reps is 100% RPE.

The goal of this program is to keep you in the sweet spot. To keep you at a 70-80% RPE on every set. So if 10 Reps is my 100% RPE, I will only do 7 or 8 Reps. Why is this the goal you may ask? It’s because you need to keep some fuel in your tank to work the front lines against the pandemic. I can’t tell you to go hit 10 sets of 10 deeps squats taking each set to 100% RPE and expect you to be able to function on your next shift. Despite the mainstream fitness media’s insistence on the “NO PAIN, NO GAIN,” mindset, I can assure you this isn’t necessarily true. While using high intensity certainly elicits gains, it’s also the main factor in over training and injuries.

In other words, don’t go all rhabdo (Rhabdomyolysis) on your killer WOD, Bro. Leave some gas in the tank for saving lives! Remember, your workout should have a tonic effect when completed. This routine is designed to be restorative physically, emotionally and mentally.

Instead of using intensity as the mechanism of fitness, this routine uses volume and frequency. 70-80% RPE seems to be the sweet spot that helps you maintain and increase your current fitness level without dumping tremendous amounts of stress hormones into your system. I promise you, if you just stay consistent in this 70-80% RPE range, you will leave your workout feeling great with an endorphin high, not huffing and puffing or with wobbly legs for the next 3 days. If you do this right, you won’t even feel sore the next day at all. In fact, if you do feel sore, you likely overdid it and went beyond the 70-80% too much or too often.

There are two indicators you can use to feel when you’re going beyond the 70-80% range.

1. If you start to feel a heavy burn in your muscles you’ve likely went too far. A little burn is good, too much isn’t.
2. If you’re breathing so hard you have to take deep breaths in and out of your mouth, your heart rate is likely too high. Try to only breath in and out of your nose, or in your nose and out your mouth.

Look, I know this sounds crazy and against everything the mainstream fitness industry preaches. But I’m pulling this info from the Strength and Conditioning world where marketing the glory and intensity of your training sessions on Instagram or to sell some magazines isn’t a priority. The fact is, this workout routine would be hard to sell because it doesn’t look sexy or complex. But it will work. On day one and even day two you might think “This is easy”. But it’s the frequency of volume over time that will add up. You will likely start to feel it pile up on Day 4. But it’s most likely going to be a central nervous system fatigue, not local muscular fatigue that you may be used to from traditional intensity-based programs.

So, if the volume does start to pile up and you start to feel a little fatigued, just take a day or two off. Recovery will be quick and you’ll feel great again in no time. This routine is also addictive, as hitting the 70-80% Perceived Exertion Rate will give you a steady stream of endorphins every day.

I won’t give a prescribed rep range, as everyone has a different fitness level. Also, when it comes to picking up stuff lying around the house (i.e. paint cans, sandbags, water jugs etc.) I’m not sure how much they’ll weigh, so you'll have to adjust your rep ranges accordingly.

If this style of training is new to you, don't stress out! It won't take long to figure out. You'll also develop the lifelong skill of intuition and mind-body-connection! So, just get creative and enjoy the process within the 70-80% range!

Now Let’s Go! Click HERE to follow this exclusive fitness routine for FREE!