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Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age
Your Primal Body is a book that will transform how you think about your body. Not just another fitness/weight-loss book, Your Primal Body shifts the paradigm for how to achieve a lean, muscular, vibrantly healthy body according to your genetic inheritance. This is the same body your Stone Age ancestors had, expressed through the human genome that evolved over a period of 2.6 million years. It's the body you too can have when you learn how to follow ancestral dietary and activity habits in your 21st century life.
Scientists studying the remains of early humans tell us how our ancestors were in far better shape than we modern humans, their bodies free of disease and painful conditions. Natural adaptation and selection occurred over millions of years when they lived in caves, hunted wild game, and foraged for plants and berries to survive--a way of life very different than ours today.
But one thing has not changed: our DNA. The human genome has evolved so slowly that our genetic blueprint is almost exactly what it was 40,000 years ago when our ancestors still hunted and gathered their food. Lifestyles may have changed, but our modern bodies are no different in their basic DNA--a startling fact that revolutionizes how we think about and approach diet and exercise. The thesis of Your Primal Body is that we modern humans can follow the diet and activity patterns of our Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors for optimal health and weight-loss. When you do eat and move as they did, you are healthier, more muscular, leaner, and pain-free; when you don't, you run into trouble. The "diseases of civilization"--heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, arthritis, to name a few, are all linked by researchers who study health and longevity to sedentary lifestyles and eating habits. Eating highly processed food and performing minimal activity, you become susceptible to the health problems that plague our modern society--none of which our ancestors had.
In this book, you will read the argument for switching to a more "primal" way of life and how it is scientifically valid, based in the latest research done by exercise physiologists, evolutionary fitness theorists, and scientists in university laboratories.
Your Primal Body goes beyond theory and science to give you a practical plan for implementing primal fitness into your modern lifestyle. In Mikki Reilly's 5 Step Primal Body Program , central to the book, she shares her 20 years of experience in training people from all walks of life about how to lose weight, become fit, stay healthy, and condition their body for athletics. Reilly's clients span a range of ages, from 18 to 74, and the book includes their inspiring stories, along with their "before and after" pictures, placed throughout the text to illustrate the book's points and instructions. Their stories are not fictional composites but actual words of people who got the results they wanted from "going primal," telling exactly how they did it. The Primal Body approach is not a quick-fix, but a complete overhaul in habits that have been stopping people from taking advantage of their natural inheritance, a fit and healthy body for life.
Scientists studying the remains of early humans tell us how our ancestors were in far better shape than we modern humans, their bodies free of disease and painful conditions. Natural adaptation and selection occurred over millions of years when they lived in caves, hunted wild game, and foraged for plants and berries to survive--a way of life very different than ours today.
But one thing has not changed: our DNA. The human genome has evolved so slowly that our genetic blueprint is almost exactly what it was 40,000 years ago when our ancestors still hunted and gathered their food. Lifestyles may have changed, but our modern bodies are no different in their basic DNA--a startling fact that revolutionizes how we think about and approach diet and exercise. The thesis of Your Primal Body is that we modern humans can follow the diet and activity patterns of our Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors for optimal health and weight-loss. When you do eat and move as they did, you are healthier, more muscular, leaner, and pain-free; when you don't, you run into trouble. The "diseases of civilization"--heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, arthritis, to name a few, are all linked by researchers who study health and longevity to sedentary lifestyles and eating habits. Eating highly processed food and performing minimal activity, you become susceptible to the health problems that plague our modern society--none of which our ancestors had.
In this book, you will read the argument for switching to a more "primal" way of life and how it is scientifically valid, based in the latest research done by exercise physiologists, evolutionary fitness theorists, and scientists in university laboratories.
Your Primal Body goes beyond theory and science to give you a practical plan for implementing primal fitness into your modern lifestyle. In Mikki Reilly's 5 Step Primal Body Program , central to the book, she shares her 20 years of experience in training people from all walks of life about how to lose weight, become fit, stay healthy, and condition their body for athletics. Reilly's clients span a range of ages, from 18 to 74, and the book includes their inspiring stories, along with their "before and after" pictures, placed throughout the text to illustrate the book's points and instructions. Their stories are not fictional composites but actual words of people who got the results they wanted from "going primal," telling exactly how they did it. The Primal Body approach is not a quick-fix, but a complete overhaul in habits that have been stopping people from taking advantage of their natural inheritance, a fit and healthy body for life.
- GenresHealthNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 25, 2012
7 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 21, 2013
Great foundation book that explains not just how but also why primal living is valuable. I love that she acknowledges that it's impossible for us to truly live the primal lifestyle as our ancestors. But she gives great recommendations to fill in the gaps. Her 5 step process helps take baby steps to better living, releasing us from the guilt of not being perfect in all areas all at once.
March 22, 2016
even though I read a few paleo/primal books before, I enjoyed how this author briefly summarized many points of the lifestyle. it was also nice to read about nutrition and fitness ideas (hiit, foam rolling ) in one book.
September 4, 2021
The author literally claims the Paleolithic diet didn't contain fruit?
January 23, 2014
The Paleo lifestyle is hot right now and that interest has created quite a number of books such as Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age by Mikki Reilly. The idea in this book is to find the inner healthy body you have and get that going once again. When you are doing things the way you genetically are meant to do things, your health in all aspects will improve. The book is primarily broken into three parts that discuss why our ancestors did when they did, the 5 step program of this book, and how you can do it for a lifetime.
“Part 1: The Primal Body: Our Genetic Inheritance” begins the book after a forward by Dr. Art De Vany as well as a four page introduction guide to the book from the author. This section explains that like our cave ancestors, our best choice food wise is a diet that is low carb with high protein and the right kind of fats. The right way to lose weight, exercise, and to live healthier as well as longer as one reverses the aging process are some of the topics covered in the three chapters of Part I.
“Part II: The 5-Step Primal Body Program” consists of five chapters beginning on page 49. “Chronic Inflammation” is a problem for many people and how to stop it by the right eating leads off tis section. Not only does the author go through the myths on various things, she also provides detailed information on what to eat and what to avoid. She also suggests what supplements should be taken as well as what ones should be avoided. Also included here is information on how to obtain pain free muscle movement, specific exercises and techniques to help restore movement and flexibility, building muscles, and increasing your metabolic rate. A number of exercises are explained in the chapter of this section and the text is accompanied by small black and white pictures depicting the movements.
“Part III: Putting It All Together: Your Primal Body Plan For Lifelong Health and Fitness” is all about taking all the information you have gotten in the book and coming up with your own plan uniquely suited to you. The author explains how to do that starting on page 151 with suggestions on eating with meal plans and recipes, exercise and duration suggestions, and basic information designed to help you stay on the lifestyle.
The book concludes with various appendices devoted to resources, books and works cited, along with a conversion chart. Also included is multi-page index.
Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age by Mikki Reilly is a straightforward instructional manual for living a better lifestyle. Written by a former body builder and certified fitness trainer with more than 20 years’ experience, the book is written in a plain spoken style giving readers solidly good information on how they can change their lives for the better. Along with testimonials from clients of the program, pictures and details, a caring supportive spirit comes through on every page encouraging readers to give it a shot.
Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age
Mikki Reilly
http://fitnesstransform.com/
Da Capo Press (Perseus Books Group)
http://www.dacapopress.com
2013
ISBN# 978-0-7382-1637-9
Paperback (e-book available)
240 Pages
$17.99
Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
“Part 1: The Primal Body: Our Genetic Inheritance” begins the book after a forward by Dr. Art De Vany as well as a four page introduction guide to the book from the author. This section explains that like our cave ancestors, our best choice food wise is a diet that is low carb with high protein and the right kind of fats. The right way to lose weight, exercise, and to live healthier as well as longer as one reverses the aging process are some of the topics covered in the three chapters of Part I.
“Part II: The 5-Step Primal Body Program” consists of five chapters beginning on page 49. “Chronic Inflammation” is a problem for many people and how to stop it by the right eating leads off tis section. Not only does the author go through the myths on various things, she also provides detailed information on what to eat and what to avoid. She also suggests what supplements should be taken as well as what ones should be avoided. Also included here is information on how to obtain pain free muscle movement, specific exercises and techniques to help restore movement and flexibility, building muscles, and increasing your metabolic rate. A number of exercises are explained in the chapter of this section and the text is accompanied by small black and white pictures depicting the movements.
“Part III: Putting It All Together: Your Primal Body Plan For Lifelong Health and Fitness” is all about taking all the information you have gotten in the book and coming up with your own plan uniquely suited to you. The author explains how to do that starting on page 151 with suggestions on eating with meal plans and recipes, exercise and duration suggestions, and basic information designed to help you stay on the lifestyle.
The book concludes with various appendices devoted to resources, books and works cited, along with a conversion chart. Also included is multi-page index.
Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age by Mikki Reilly is a straightforward instructional manual for living a better lifestyle. Written by a former body builder and certified fitness trainer with more than 20 years’ experience, the book is written in a plain spoken style giving readers solidly good information on how they can change their lives for the better. Along with testimonials from clients of the program, pictures and details, a caring supportive spirit comes through on every page encouraging readers to give it a shot.
Your Primal Body: The Paleo Way to Living Lean, Fit, and Healthy at Any Age
Mikki Reilly
http://fitnesstransform.com/
Da Capo Press (Perseus Books Group)
http://www.dacapopress.com
2013
ISBN# 978-0-7382-1637-9
Paperback (e-book available)
240 Pages
$17.99
Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
October 11, 2013
Returning to our primal ancestors
Superb writer Mikki Reilly, with all her fine credentials as a competing body builder, degrees in Exercise and Health Science and Communication, credentials in Strength and Conditioning, a Master of Fitness Sciences, and positions on the Balanced Health Science Advisory Board, etc., knows how to introduce the reader to the concept of her book in informed but immensely accessible language. As she states early on in this book, `You are about to discover that he way of getting a fit, lean, and healthy body - one that moves powerfully and gracefully at any age - has nothing to do with hours of `chronic cardio', low-fat diets, or using machines to work out in a gym. This is because becoming slim, muscular, and healthy is how you return - in both diet and exercise - to the way that your body was intended to function originally, based on millions of year of evolution and as proven by modern science.' That pretty much sums up what will happen to each of us if we follow Reilly's easy to grasp explanations, instructions on diet and exercise, and guidance to the Paleo DNA concept.
Reilly is well schooled in her thoughts and her ability to transmit that information is rather extraordinarily fine. She explains why our hunter gatherer ancestors obeyed their DNA demands, that intermittent fasting (as was a way of life between finding food and eating) serves a purpose, the reasons behind the concept of weight gain and weight loss and the role that altering our diet permanently (as opposed to simply adding supplements or moving from one diet to the next or buying into crash programs to get into shape for special occasions) can bring about balance within our physiology and metabolism and ability to fight that poorly understood role of anti-inflammation, that adding the right kind of exercise that mimics the activity of a hunter gatherer of old is perfect of conditioning not only our muscles, but our resistance to disease and to aging.
The sections on diet are complete and thorough with every suggestion backed by a reason instead of simply an idea. For example, eating primally involves five simple tips: focus meals on high-quality animal protein, eat an abundance of plant foods, included fresh raw nuts and seeds avoid all processed or fried or fast foods, and avoid vegetable oils. In the section on exercise she explains the whys of the various body movements and the manner and concept in carrying out this simple but integrated program with simple equipment that restores muscles to pain-free movement, and an excellent set of exercises accompanied by photographs of how to perform them.
There is so much more to this book than a brief review can cover. Unequivocally this is one of the most sound books on health and fitness before the public today. Highly recommended.
Grady Harp
Superb writer Mikki Reilly, with all her fine credentials as a competing body builder, degrees in Exercise and Health Science and Communication, credentials in Strength and Conditioning, a Master of Fitness Sciences, and positions on the Balanced Health Science Advisory Board, etc., knows how to introduce the reader to the concept of her book in informed but immensely accessible language. As she states early on in this book, `You are about to discover that he way of getting a fit, lean, and healthy body - one that moves powerfully and gracefully at any age - has nothing to do with hours of `chronic cardio', low-fat diets, or using machines to work out in a gym. This is because becoming slim, muscular, and healthy is how you return - in both diet and exercise - to the way that your body was intended to function originally, based on millions of year of evolution and as proven by modern science.' That pretty much sums up what will happen to each of us if we follow Reilly's easy to grasp explanations, instructions on diet and exercise, and guidance to the Paleo DNA concept.
Reilly is well schooled in her thoughts and her ability to transmit that information is rather extraordinarily fine. She explains why our hunter gatherer ancestors obeyed their DNA demands, that intermittent fasting (as was a way of life between finding food and eating) serves a purpose, the reasons behind the concept of weight gain and weight loss and the role that altering our diet permanently (as opposed to simply adding supplements or moving from one diet to the next or buying into crash programs to get into shape for special occasions) can bring about balance within our physiology and metabolism and ability to fight that poorly understood role of anti-inflammation, that adding the right kind of exercise that mimics the activity of a hunter gatherer of old is perfect of conditioning not only our muscles, but our resistance to disease and to aging.
The sections on diet are complete and thorough with every suggestion backed by a reason instead of simply an idea. For example, eating primally involves five simple tips: focus meals on high-quality animal protein, eat an abundance of plant foods, included fresh raw nuts and seeds avoid all processed or fried or fast foods, and avoid vegetable oils. In the section on exercise she explains the whys of the various body movements and the manner and concept in carrying out this simple but integrated program with simple equipment that restores muscles to pain-free movement, and an excellent set of exercises accompanied by photographs of how to perform them.
There is so much more to this book than a brief review can cover. Unequivocally this is one of the most sound books on health and fitness before the public today. Highly recommended.
Grady Harp
Read
April 19, 2013I got about halfway through this book before I had to return it to the library. I think the first part was very good information. I just think the diet itself is kind of far fetched. Her exercises are VERY primal and she encourages eating major protein but only from free range grass fed animals. Furthermore, we will never be like our primal ancestors because our food and the soil it grows in has evolved so much so even if you can manage to find all organic food and grass fed animals, you will still need to take vitamins. This diet just was not realistic enough for me and did not seem worth it.
October 16, 2014
Having already read several paleo/primal books, I mostly skimmed through the nutrition section. I was starting to think I wouldn't get anything new out of this book, until I came to the workout component. I really like the author's approach to training, between the exercises themselves and the way he mixes in steady-state cardio and HIIT on alternating days. It looks like a workout program I would actually enjoy. I look forward to giving it a try soon.
February 20, 2013
Good review of paleo with practical advice on how to get started and maintain it. No fluff, just helpful.
April 11, 2013
Liked the concept of the foam roller and stretches.
November 8, 2014
Ton of great info... My brain is on overload!
February 21, 2016
Best book ever
I have read a lot of books on longevity and health. This is the one that makes the most sense.
I have read a lot of books on longevity and health. This is the one that makes the most sense.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews