Savage / Zen Newsletter No. 85
March 2024
This month was a transition from NonProphet’s “Escape Velocity” program to their “Free Fall” program. I reviewed “Hunter gatherers as models for public health” and this month’s psychology post was about “real recognizing real.”
Thank you for your growing support where it matters! Monthly downloads for premium subscribers are here! Micro-courses, long-form videos, and archived or maybe even new podcast content can be found in posts tagged as downloads. You can keep track of all premium features as they’re added by bookmarking and checking the Welcome to My Space post.
Recent Articles:
Heavy is the Head
I had almost an entire draft written to complain about the over / mis-representation of metabolism’s role in the (overly) broad umbrella of mental health. Much to the point of this post, I deleted it in favor of something more actionable; something equally moving, but in a forward direction.
What I Eat in a Day: 2024, Part 1
The USDA’s food pyramid — and corresponding food groups, and Swedish origins — have more to do with food costs than “optimal nutrition.” Here I’ll closely examine both nutritional and financial “pyramids” with multi-week data sets of what I actually eat in a day.
Program Review: Escape Velocity
If you’re not aware, I’m quite fond of the work of NonProphet and their Space Program. I used their endurance, capacity, and strength programs to rebuild my fitness over an 18 month period. So, when they released a “program to end all programs” designed to “build autonomous athletes” I was immediately interested.
Premium Content:
Micro-Course: Limitations of Modern Jiu Jitsu
John Danaher is one of the greatest combat sports coaches of all time. On Instagram and in multiple podcasts he’s noted what he believes are the major limiting factors of modern jiu jitsu that he wants to resolve in his career. I’ve made a 5-page mini-course on my $0.02 on the content areas he identifies, which are:
Review: Hunter-Gatherers as models in public health
This study looks at the Hadza people of Norther Tanzania compared to large-scale (Western) societies and relative rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and physical activity regarding diet and lifestyle factors.
Learning to rest in a place of discomfort is a valuable skill. In any case, you’re obligated to pick your poison and your punishment. How hard or how far you’re able to push the needle rarely depends on external conditions, however your willingness to do so may be a different story.
What better way to end a GPP program than a grinding grimy 60-min endurance circuit! This was the last week of NonProphets’s Escape Velocity Program and it was the perfect capstone; heavy pumps, playful grappling, confronting intensity, and an endurance slog.
This week started and ended with some mild mobility, though it was targeted towards my areas of need (spine, hips, ankles). It was also a reminder to “have fun and play a little” on the mats. That is, experiment and explore without an inherent goal, objective, or agenda to progress.
Coming off of a rest (de-load) week, I came out hot, maybe a little too much so and already noticed a regression to the mean. The Free Fall program has started, with the intention of addressing individual training needs via creative and autonomous means.
If you put more pressure through a small sink, you still get a flood. A big sink with no pressure is pond — it sucks at movement and stagnates. If you need a place to start, it’s hard to argue with hips and grips.
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