Health
At some point in my younger years I decided to make a commitment to life-long fitness. Although I have found my underlying motivations have changed over time, the good news is that the commitment is still there. These days my motivation is fueled by being a father: I want to adventure with my children as they get older, not just be relegated to the sidelines wishing to have my youth back. I also want to be able to LIVE my life, not just exist in a state of constant sickness and steady decline as seems to increasingly be the norm in our modern society.
My original strategy for fitness revolved around traditional weight training and some form of cardio (walking, cylcling, running, etc.). In order to balance fitness with family life I made sure that all activities could be done close to home and inexpensively. I reasoned that if I coudn't do it easily, then I wouldn't do it consistently. To be able to weight train consistently I gradually built up a home gym. To keep things accessible and inexpensive, I slowly dropped activities that required going to special places (i.e. rock climbing, kayaking) or spending lots of money (i.e. golf, downhill skiing).
As time has passed, I have started to adopt another philosophy that is shaping the way I view fitness: simplicity. Over the last few years, my wife and I have been striving to simplify our life. We find that when our life gets simpler there is a subsequent increase in quality, mostly because it allows us to spend more time on things that are important, and less time maintaining complexity (or "stuff"). We still have a long way to go - it is a process that can take a lot of time - but we have found that the results are well worth it. For myself, the latest phase of this process has been the search for a simpler fitness routine. My criteria for a fitness regimen are:
It needs to be do-able any time, anywhere, in any season.
It needs to have minimal equipment requirements.
It needs to be scalable with lots of room to grow.
It needs to be safe, health promoting, and effective.
It needs to be interesting, and fun.
Somewhere along the way while doing my series on minimalist footwear and researching fitness philosophies/systems (like MovNat), I met a fellow blogger and minimalist footwear proponent John Sifferman. Incidentally, John also happens to be a personal trainer. When I posed my question to him, his response was to look at Circular Strength Training (CST). A little more investigation of John's website soon revealed to me that he happens to be a huge proponent of that training system. I hadn't heard of CST before, but after a little more research I began to realize that he may be on to something. CST is a fitness system based on three "wings": Joint mobility (Intu-Flow), yoga (Prasara Body-Flow Yoga), and strength training using Clubbells. It seems to have gained quite a following in the martial arts world, and is also being adopted by sports teams, law enforcement, military, and others.
As of last week, I have decided to take the plunge. I ordered the starter package for Intu-Flow, and am in the process of selling my room full of weight training equipment. This feels like a huge leap of faith for me, especially since I have been indoctrinated for so long believing that barbells and dumbbells were the "only true way" to build quality muscle. I am also feeling a certain satisfaction by freeing myself from all of the equipment requirements I used to have. It is almost like I was shackled to the weights, and unable to break free. Now I have renewed enthusiasm and the anticipation for learning something new.
In addition to CST I have also started to run regularly again. This time I am doing things differently (as opposed to my early days of running, prior to my discovery of minimal footwear). I am doing it barefoot and with minimalist footwear, and I am trying to run on trails as much as possible. I am finding the combination of trails and barefoot/minimal is absolutely wonderful. It is great for developing and strengthening my feet and legs, and it is great for my spirit that loves being surrounded by nature. I should have started doing this a long time ago!
How do you keep clean in the backcountry? My wife (Renee) has been making all of our own soap now for the past year-and-a-half. She has recipes for everything from hand soap, to laundry soap, to dishwasher soap, and everything else in-between. We originally started this venture due to the fact that I have very sensitive skin and we were also getting concerned about all of the chemicals that are being put in beauty products these days. It turns out that homemade soap actually has quite a lot going for it:
Winter Woods Soap
Made with natural ingredients: There are no dyes, artificial fragrances and colors, or toxins with unknown long-term harmful effects. The only known long-term effect of using natural soap is cleanliness!
Safer for the enviornment: Biodegradable. Less packaging. No detergents, chemicals, or other nasties that cause fish to birth young with three heads. You should still be responsible when disposing of your suds in the backcountry however, making sure to keep our water sources as clean as possible.
Effective: We have a friend who is a mechanic. He says that he has never found a soap that get's his hands cleaner that the homemade bar we gave him. Our experience has shown that natural soap is more effective at eliminating body-odor than commercial soaps with strong perfumes.
Multi-purpose: Use it to wash your body, your hair, your dishes, or your clothes. You could even brush your teeth with it if you can put up with a soapy taste in your mouth.
Locally made: Support local businesses. You can always find locally-made homemade soap. Better yet, if you are crafty, you can learn to make it yourself.
Free: You can get it for free. Actually, normally it costs money, but not if you are one of the lucky ones this week. I have two bars of our Winter Woods flavor (don't try eating it though) homemade soap to give away so you can try it yourself. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before the end of the day on Sunday April 12th. I will make the drawing for the winners next week. Tell all your friends... or maybe on second thought, that would reduce your chances of winning... oh well, do whatever you want.
Update: And the winners are... Robert and Pamela! Congratulations! I just sent you an email message asking for your mailing address, if for some reason you didn't get it, please get ahold of us using the Contact page. Enjoy!
We have created a new section on our site where we will highlight various backcountry recipes we use. The first recipe has just been posted, expect many more in the future.
To see the current list, click here.
