144: The Fitness Lie Homesteaders Believe

Episode 144 - Manual labor is not enough
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Well, today's episode might ruffle some feathers. And no, not because I'm not wearing a shirt, even though that has also ruffled feathers in the past by a certain segment of the population. I don't know, maybe ever since, you know, sitcom dads became overweight, nobody wants to see someone in regular physique.

Anyway, but it's not that. It's not my shirt today that we're gonna talk about. It's whether or not manual labor is enough- And replaces going to the gym or doing some structural physical activity, or exercise for that matter. Welcome to the Primer Shift Podcast. I decided to record this episode not only because I just came from shuffling a whole bunch of compost and wood chips, no, because I saw a clip from a very famous homesteader this morning on Instagram that we follow, and she posed the question, um, or kind of implied that carrying heavy milk jars like...

or jugs, like 25 pounds, you know, in each, and carrying them overhead and pouring them out, if that's... that that's enough, and you don't need to go to the gym and do any more weight-lifting or resistance training. And she is, I wanna say, a little bit on the bigger side. And, you know, this episode is not about body shaming or any political or, you know, gender bullshit or anything.

No, this is just the way I see it. And to give you some context and nuance, I first res- wanted to respond in only a, a very short clip, but I think this topic deserves a little bit more substance, um, so you can then, you know, listen to it, think about it, and then use the gigantic brain between your ears to figure out whether or not what I'm saying makes any sense.

But, you know, I've done it in the past too. I recorded clips where I was, you know, shoveling stuff or unloading feed or, you know, doing something, physical activity on the homestead, and I said, "By doing this, I don't need to go to the gym." And the one thing that people misunderstand, I think, is that there is a significant difference between maintaining your level of fitness, maintaining your lean muscle mass, maintaining your body fat percentage, maintaining your metabolic health, and improving it, especially if you need to improve it significantly.

So what I mean by that is if you're severely overweight or if you're obese, if you're metabolically unhealthy, if you don't have your blood sugar under control, if you don't have your insulin levels under control, if you have high inflammatory markers, if you have, uh, if you have weak bone density, you know, if, if you're just not incredibly fit, uh, generally speaking, then doing manual labor is not going to be enough to make significant improvements.

I mean, how many hardworking manual laborers do you know who are fat? Evidently, whatever they are doing is not enough to get them lean. Now, of course, there is, you know, dietary components, there is sleep, there is stress management, there, there's a whole lot of, uh, a lot of other factors involved in, in being healthy than just exercise.

But, you know, within the hom- the realm of homesteading, you know, one can assume, I hope, that a homesteader raising their own food is eating significantly better And not going every day to McDonald's. You know? So I, I just make that assumption. And so I would argue that the dietary component is dialed in more than that of an average American.

Now, there are still a lot of homesteaders who eat a whole lot of corn and, you know, and, and grains and not a whole- and not enough animal protein. You know, that is certainly true in an argument. But generally speaking, I would argue that a homesteader raising their own food is in, you know, eats better than almost everyone else in this country But my point here being is that If you just do manual labor, then that might be enough to maintain what you currently have.

But if what you currently have is not where you would like to be, if you- if your body fat is 40%, if you're, you know, massively overweight or overweight generally speaking, if you have weak bone density, if you have high inflammatory... You know, all of those things, then just doing manual labor is just not gonna be enough.

You have to do more. You have to do actual and probably structured resistance training. You have to lift, you know, heavy weights. And in my case, you know, I, I did CrossFit for many, many years. I've been physically active for f- for a l- many years. You know, as... I was pro athlete back in the days and just had a little bit of a break when I came to the US, and I started actually heading in the direction where, you know, I didn't wanna be.

Um, but I did CrossFit for many, many years, you know, five times a week, you know, lifting heavy. I mean, I can deadlift over 500 or at least I did. I'm not sure if I can still do it right, right now. Um, my front squat at over 400 pounds. You know, I could move heavy weight. In comparison to my 200 and something pounds body weight, you know, I was at double or more in most of the traditional lifts.

And so maintaining a certain level of fitness for me is much, much easier than getting there. You know, I could have never, never gotten there by just, you know, starting homesteading. I don't think I would have ever deadlifted 500 pounds. Not that it... need to deadlift 500 pounds, but I'm- what I'm saying is that you're not gonna, you're not gonna challenge your body.

You're not gonna provide enough stimulus for your bones, for your muscles, for your ligaments and connective tissue to actually grow significantly stronger. It's all about the stimulus. Now, if you're 18 years old, and you know, you, you grew up on a somewhat reasonable diet and you're in, in, in relatively good shape, you're not overweight or anything, and then you start homesteading doing manual labor, any manual labor really for that matter, that might be, at this point in your life, enough stimulus to actually grow muscle tissue.

You know, I mean, I see w- we see it with our kids, you know. They do things that are... At the end of the day, they just move, you know. They just, you know, maybe they pick heavy stuff up, maybe they help us with groceries, whatever. They don't do any structured exercise. But whatever they do, we can tell that their muscles improve.

You know, their, their physique improves. They are getting stronger, etc. Because the stimulus required at that age is, is, is relatively little because they also weigh nothing, you know? But if you're already 40, 50, 60 years old or whatever, you know, you need a, an entirely new stimulus. You need a different stimulus.

You need more stimulus, and you likely not gonna get this by carrying 25 pounds. We have to interrupt this episode for an important message from your feet.

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 And now back to the episode. You know, the 25 pound, uh, milk jug is fine. You know, it's not terrible. It's something, but I mean, it's 25 pounds, you know. I mean, I do farmer's carry, you know, or, or bear hug carry kind of, you know, with 200 pounds, you know, just to give you some perspective.

Now, if you're a woman, it's again different, you know. And here is also one thing that I think is incredibly important. You know, I don't think women should look ripped or need to look ripped. You know, I, I, I've never seen from an... You know, going back, you know, looking at some of those, um, modern hunter and gatherer tribes, you know, looking at maybe pictures or drawings or whatever from back in the days or what we know of people from early, earlier, you know, than, than, than what I've been around I don't think women had a six-pack and, you know, huge biceps and, and all of those things.

I don't think that's necessary. Women also are meant to have higher body fat percentage, you know, especially during their childbearing years. I mean, that's their, their energy reserves to conceive. You know, n- nature d- or your, your, your genetics, your biology doesn't necessarily know when you're 30 years old or 25 years old that you have no plans of, of, of, of, of giving birth to a, to a child, you know?

Because we now plan that. You know, back in the days it wasn't probably as planned it, you know, chi- children popped or babies popped out whenever, you know? But now that we have, that we think about, that we strategize, that we plan for that, the body doesn't necessarily know that. So, you know, having carrying a little bit more fat and being a little bit bigger and not as lean as, as men who are supposed to be the, you know, the warriors, the hunters, you know, the fighters, etc.,

it's a whole different ballgame, you know? So that, you know, out of the way. You know, I don't think as a woman or as a female homesteader, you know, you need to be, you need to be ripped and deadlift 500 pounds and be a butch. No. By no means whatsoever. But I also don't think you need to be severely, you know, overweight and out of shape and with poor bone density, you know?

So there is a, a, a balance to that. And but for men, you know, it's a little bit different. I mean, we are supposed to be the ones who protect, the ones who fight, you know, from an ancestral perspective. I'm not saying that you, you know, you have to go into, get into a bar fight every night, but, you know, just from a what's, what's biologically normal, you know?

And so going back to this is, you know, now, you know, these days I don't do CrossFit anymore. I might pick it up again, I don't know, but there's no gym in the area right now. You know, I go to, you know, a regular f- you know, fitness place, a gym once or twice a week, joining my wife, you know, so that we can work out together.

Um, the rest of the day, I just move stuff, you know, I do stuff. I'm... I try to be active. And yes, I might not be exactly as strong as I was back in the days when I lifted every day or several times a week. But I maintain what I need to be functional, to be strong, to, to be able to do those things that I want to do, and to get into a fight if I ever had to.

I hope I not, you know. Best fight is the one that you never in. But regardless, you know, that's, that's kind of the thing, you know. Yes, I can, I can af- I can afford doing that because I just need to maintain, you know. I need to beat inflation at the end of the day. That's all I have to do. That's all I want to do right now.

Now, there are certain areas where, yeah, yes, I want to improve my mobility, range of motion, you know. Maybe I, you know, I, I do enjoy lifting, you know. Maybe at some point I say, "You know what? I wanna, you know, lift really heavy and do heavy squats again," or heavy, you know, what have you. It doesn't really matter.

So yes, I... There might be a, a case where I wanna improve, but if that's the case, I'm not gonna get it by shoveling dirt, you know. I need to do structured exercise. I need to, you know, pick up a barbell or a dumbbell or whatever. And, well, to wrap, to wrap this really up is, you know, it's been 10 minutes, um, I think you get the idea.

No, manual labor all by itself is likely not going to be enough unless you are already in the shape you want to be in and you want to maintain. If you wanna improve, even if it's only a little bit, you'll probably need to do more. You need to challenge your body. You need to provide stimulus, and you only do that likely by lifting some heavy...

some really heavy stuff. I'm not talking about 25 pounds, you know. It's probably gotta be a little bit more in a certain rep set. You, you gotta... If you're not sore at the end of the day, if you don't feel like, oh, I have a pump or whatever, chances are it's not going... it wasn't enough stimulus to cause your muscle tissue to grow.

And then the other thing is obviously you need enough protein. You know, 30 grams per meal if you wanna cause mu- or trigger muscle protein synthesis, otherwise you're not gonna get it. So if you're female in particular and you wanna improve your lean, you wanna increase your me- lean muscle tissue and maybe decrease fat, you know, you need to eat that protein, a lot of it.

30 grams per meal at least, otherwise not much is going to happen, and you keep asking yourself if what you're doing is enough, and the answer's probably it isn't. So with that out of the way, happy Wednesday. I'm gonna go back to shoveling dirt so I can maintain. Kummer out.