Being Wrong Is Paleo, Fixing Yourself Is Even More Paleo
I’m not really in the cool kid crowd in the whole Paleo internets spheres. I know I’m small time and I sort of like it that way. It lets me be fully nerded out on the Internet without having to deal with the stress of trolls and angry commenters; although I do get a lot of spam comments trying to sell purses and condoms.
I know most people who occasionally go to this site have lives and don’t live vicariously through twitter like I do, so a little background. There is an uproar or controversy in the Paleosphere stemming from some comments that some bloggers made and a lack of diversity at the 2012 Ancestral Health Symposium.
I know that isn’t really the full story, but I don’t know nor care to try to recall all the details of the soap opera.
Here’s the deal though. Everybody does stupid things. I know that personally I’ll say and do something I shouldn’t about every fifteen minutes. Sometimes its wanton malice (which is why Ranger students hate me) and other times its honest ignorance to the fact that I’m being a jerk (which is why everyone else hates me).
Here’s the thing, regardless of how good you get at something you always need some coaching. I’m not saying that people who do/say something dumb should merely get their hair tussled and get off scot free. What I’m saying is, that if you say or do something dumb and you get called on it or realize it you need to take responsibility and make change.
The most endering quality someone can have is admitting their mistakes and seeking guidence on fixing it.
Now, I’m all for standing your ground when you’re right. However, if you’re wrong or you’re falling on your sword for something dumb then you’re moral high ground is stupid.
There’s a big difference between marching across a bridge for equality and throwing around offensive words and phrases that distract from your message.
For anyone who doesn’t know, I, like the majority of Paleo eaters, am a white male with enough of a paycheck to afford to eat grassfed meat, belong to a gym, and etc. I don’t think many, if any, want to make eating well a Country Club affair.
One camp says that we don’t need to do any outreach because people can find all the information themselves online for free and can fight for tickets to symposiums like everyone else. The other camp calls bull shit and advocates taking a more proactive outreach.
Personally, I tend to be a little callous to anyone who can’t find information themselves. I started Paleo and Crossfitting when I was in Iraq. I bought books on Amazon and watched every video that shitty Iraqi Internet would let me.
However, now I coach and blog and actively try to make this information easier to find, understand, and progress with. Honestly, how could you ever argue against some form of outreach or teaching being a good thing? People should be jumping in with both feet at opportunities like this.
People should also be jumping in with both feet to make themselves better advocates of this message. I say dumb things all the time. A lot of times, I’ll delete a post. Other times someone will make a correction (other then spelling or grammar) that I understand and fix quickly. Sometimes I’ll say something and it’ll offend someone and I wouldn’t understand it.
I’ll usually delete it because I don’t get that much traffic and its not worth losing a reader or ruining someone’s day off of a joke that I didn’t think was funny. I usually then talk to someone “in the know” about why what I said was offensive. I have no idea what its like to be a women, black, gay, not strikingly handsome, or anything other then what I am.
I do know, that if I’m trying to preach a message that I honestly and truly think is supportive I need to save my controversy for where its worth it. I’m trying to piss off the people who want grain subsisdys or think eating animals is evil.
Grow up and act like an adult if you get called out for a mistake. Everyone will screw up at some point. Admit it and move on. No sense in destroying something that’s doing a lot of good in the world because you want to be a shock jock.
Semi-related, but its easy to be a tough guy on the Internet and weak sauce in real life. My least favorite thing about most male Paleo bloggers is that they preach a life style of living in the woods and embracing their testosterone and mustaches but have not and do not live the life style they preach.
Read MoreWOD 31 Aug 2012
“Nate”
20 min AMRAP
2 Muscle Ups
4 Handstand Push Ups
8 Kettlebell Swings 2 pood
13 Rounds
Mobility: Mash Tricpes on a barbell
Read MoreWOD 30 AUG 12
AM
AMRAP OHS @ Body Weight Mobilty: High Lunge Stretch
PM
Mobility: Barbell Shoulder Smash
Rounded Back in a Snatch Starting Position
My buddy sent me a few videos for some coaching cues.
The first one is his set up for a snatch. You can hear his coach cueing him to get his butt back. He’s in a really good position all the way until the very end when his back starts to slightly round. This is probably due in great part to his legendary shitty flexibility. Frankly, without the amount of dedicated mobility work, he probably wouldn’t even be able to get that low into a starting position.
His power snatch looks pretty good, but you can see in the next two videos that he has the same problem keeping that good back angle.
I don’t think that having that back angle is a good thing by any stretch. He should probably add a lot of GHD back extensions, good mornings, and other back strengthening exercises to help her hold that position under load.
Luckily, snatches are light enough weight that he’s not going to slip a disk. However, its going to take more then mobility. What I like about things like good mornings and such is that it’ll add enough strength to the end range of motion to actually allow him to keep that strong position.
This is a good time to add some correctives to address this problem.
Read More
WOD 29 AUG 12
AM
3 attempts 500m Row. Full recoveries and Tall Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Mobility: Super Friend Calf Torture
PM
Mobility: Calf Stretch