TEST YOUR PRIMAL FITNESS

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Workout Guide

This is a simple approach that ensures your exercise program addresses the fundamental factors that drive real physical adaptation. This is not a workout plan, but a strategy that ensures that your training covers all the essential elements needed for long-term progress and injury prevention. It's built on proven scientific principles that apply whether you're training for strength, endurance, sports performance, or general fitness.

You can use this as a checklist to optimize any training program, your own or one you found online by checking it against the core principles that govern how the human body adapts to exercise stress. If your program satisfies all principles, you'll avoid the common pitfalls of plateau, overuse injury, and wasted effort that plague most training approaches. Think of it as architectural blueprints for fitness: it doesn't dictate the specific exercises, but it guarantees the underlying structure is sound, efficient, and built for sustainable results.

TRAINING PROGRAM CHECKLIST  Printable Version →

Consistency

Train with steady frequency and structure to build durable results

How-to: Prioritize showing up regularly over the quality of any single session. On days with low energy, reduce the load or complexity but complete the workout. This reinforces the habit and provides a continuous training stimulus.

Why it works: Consistent training drives the principle of continuous adaptation and prevents reversibility (detraining). It builds a strong habit loop, making adherence automatic over time. The cumulative effect of these small, regular efforts is what leads to significant, sustainable gains.

Primal Movements

Maintain your biological potential and injury-resistance

2 x 15min/week

How-to: Build mobility and stability from the core out: start with diaphragm, breathing, and posture; advance to spinal and pelvic mobility; then shoulders, hips, limbs. Include primal movements like hanging, hinging, squatting, crawling, crunching, carrying. Master each these movement pattern before progressing to higher intensities or loads.

Why it works: A stable core anchors limbs, optimizes force transfer, corrects imbalances, and creates a solid, injury-resistant base for complex movement. Balanced mobility prevents injury-causing compensation patterns. Movement quality creates the foundation upon which all other training adaptations are built. Primal movements restore our evolutionary movement heritage, our movement potential.

Primal movements are the movements that are hardwired into our biology and biomechanics. Our evolutionary template.

Functional Movements

Train movements that are useful to you

How-to: Use integrated, multi-joint exercises or patterns that mimic your sport or daily demands. Chain patterns, vary planes and rotations, and add real-world challenges like instability, unpredictability and speed.

Why it works: This leverages neuromuscular specificity (dynamic correspondence), programming your brain so gains in strength, stability, and control transfer directly to real-world performance.

Progressive Overload

Continually add progressions to force adaptation

How-to: First establish movement quality, then keep adding challenges (progressions) weekly; track performance to stay just beyond your capacity: enough to adapt, not to break. Progression hierarchy: movement quality → movement consistency → volume → intensity → complexity.

Why it works: Progressive overload signals muscles, bones, and nerves to upgrade, driving adaptations that make you stronger, denser, and more resilient.

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Zone 5

Do high-intensity work first; add endurance only if time allows

20-40min/week HIIT

How-to: Prioritize explosive, high-intensity workouts such as sprints, jumps, and HIIT as long as you can adequately recover and stay motivated. Only after exhausting your capacity for high-intensity work should you supplement with longer-duration, lower-intensity training. Work your weekly schedule top-down through trainingzones.

Why it works: Aerobic, metabolic and neural capacity are most effectively improved through high-intensity training in zones 4 and 5. This top-down approach also delivers significant secondary benefits such as enhanced coordination, speed, and power that are less stimulated by lower-intensity work and are also the first physical qualities to otherwise decline with age.

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Recovery

Rest and eat as intentionally as you train

How-to: Get 7-9 hours of quality sleep nightly. Fuel with sufficient protein and nutrients. Use off-day recovery—breathwork, walking, stretching. Monitor fitness-fatigue balance: training stress creates both positive adaptations (fitness) and negative effects (fatigue). Recovery optimization timing determines whether you access the supercompensation window.

Why it works: Adaptation happens in recovery. Sleep triggers growth-hormone release and muscle repair; nutrition supplies the raw materials. Proper recovery turns workout stress into real gains.

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Supercompensation

Repeat only after the upgrade is in

How-to: Track resting heart rate and motivation. When they return to or exceed baseline and you feel energized, train in the supercompensation window. Too soon cuts recovery; too late misses the boost.

Why it works: Supercompensation overshoots your prior level, creating a brief peak in capacity. Training then starts from a stronger baseline, driving continuous gains instead of plateaus or burnout.

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Personalization

Learn the pattern, improve it, make your own (ShuHaRi)

How-to:

  • Assess yourself: define your goals, daily schedule, recovery needs, and current fitness level.
  • Choose activities you enjoy: consistency beats convention.
  • Set measurable targets: track progress with reps, perceived exertion, or distance.
  • Monitor and adjust: use feedback on performance, sleep, and soreness to fine-tune your load.
  • ShuHaRi: First copy the movement patterns with perfect quality, then innovate to improve them, and finally create your own workouts and movements. Individual movement competency determines progression readiness

Why it works: Individual responses to the same training stimulus vary significantly due to genetics and lifestyle. A "N-of-1" approach ensures the program evolves with you.

Primal Fitness Radar (Males)

This test is based on realistic but indicative ranges for the purpose of measuring individual progress, if you're looking for scientitically calibrated tests go here →

Fitness Radar Diagram

Track your fitness every 3 months

Enter your age, body weight and as many other metrics as available. More metrics make the result more reliable. The Fitness Radar automatically updates.

Skill Tests (rated from 1..10)
Start standing. Sit down and rise. One point deduction for every lean, 5 points down, 5 up. Example
Walk 5 steps left arm overhead, 5 steps right arm overhead. 1 point per well balanced step. Example
One point deduction for every lean, 5 points left leg, 5 right.
Grab an unloaded bar or broomstick and lockout wide overhead. Perform a full squat, heels down, torso upright. Scoring (10 checkpoints = 1 point each)
  • Feet half sumo-width, toes slightly out
  • Bar stays directly over midfoot
  • Hips descend below parallel
  • Knees track out over toes
  • Heels remain flat
  • Torso angle stays consistent (no forward collapse)
  • Elbows stay locked
  • Knees not caving in or flaring out
  • Symmetrical posture
  • Controlled ascent without bounce
Example
Performance Tests
Max reps on one leg (better leg) until failure, knee straight.
Max grip on dominant hand using dynamometer.
Full range of motion.

Fitness Calculation Methodology The fitness radar algorithm evaluates your physical capabilities by converting input metrics into age-adjusted percentiles based on normative data for three age groups (20-39, 40-59, 60+). It maps these percentiles to seven key factors using Gaussian distributions for performance tests and linear scaling for 1-10 rated tests, then averages them to produce scores from 0 to 100. For strength tests like the deadlift, values are normalized to your body weight. These scores are visualized on a radar chart with color gradients (red for low, green for high) to highlight strengths and areas for improvement, ultimately estimating potential reductions in mortality risk through enhanced fitness. Data points are 'reasonable' not always calibrated against real world data sets.

Train All Aspects of Fitness

Physical fitness encompasses diverse athletic attributes—each one critical for well-rounded performance.

  • Speed: The ability to perform a movement or cover a distance in a short period.
  • Endurance: The capacity of the cardiovascular and muscular systems to sustain prolonged activity.
  • Flexibility: The range of motion available at a joint, allowing fluid and efficient movement.
  • Strength: The maximal force a muscle or muscle group can generate against resistance.
  • Stability: The ability to control movement and maintain joint position, primarily via core and stabilizer muscles.
  • Coordination & Balance: The skill of synchronizing body parts smoothly and maintaining equilibrium.
  • Power: The ability to generate maximal force in the shortest possible time. It's the product of Force (Strength) times RPM (Speed).

Importance of Balanced Fitness

A well-balanced, primal body, characterized by good and symmetrical mobility and stability, is naturally resilient. It resists overuse injuries and compensatory movement patterns, and it will even correct and heal those. It's also all-round adaptable. Its versatility protects against sport-specific imbalances that might otherwise interfere with everyday movement.

  • Injury prevention: a balanced and symmetrical foundation prevents harmful compensation patterns, reducing stress on ligaments, tendons, and joints.
  • Enhanced performance: strength supports power and speed, while endurance helps sustain effort.
  • Improved functional movement: everyday activities become easier and safer with balanced fitness qualities.
  • Holistic health and longevity: training all aspects of fitness supports posture, energy levels, and independence throughout life.

Supercompensation

Supercompensation is how your body gets stronger: train hard → feel tired → recover → get briefly stronger than before. To use this cycle, time your next workout when you're feeling energized and motivated again—not when you're still tired, and not so late that you lose the boost.

How-to: Match your recovery time to workout type. Easy cardio (walking, light jogging) recovers in 8-12 hours, so you can repeat daily. Moderate intensity work (harder cardio, light weights) needs 24-48 hours. Heavy strength training requires 48-72 hours before hitting the same muscles again. Max effort sessions (very heavy lifting, all-out sprints) need 48-72 hours minimum. If you train different muscle groups or movement types, you can workout more frequently without overlap fatigue—like doing upper body while your legs recover.

Progressive Overload

You must continualy adjust your training to drive progress. Follow this hierarchy of training variables. To ensure you're making the most effective changes for long-term adaptation, always manipulate these elements in this order:

  1. Movement quality - First and always
  2. Frequency - Most impactful for skill and strength development
  3. Volume - Primary driver of adaptation
  4. Intensity - Secondary to volume for most outcomes
  5. Exercise selection - Functional patterns prioritized
  6. Rest periods - Without sufficient rest no adaptation

Periodization

Periodization is the meta-principle that organizes your training across time. It provides a strategic roadmap for manipulating training variables—like volume and intensity—over weeks, months, and years. This ensures that your daily efforts compound into continuous, long-term adaptation instead of leading to plateaus or burnout.

This temporal organization follows a nested hierarchy. The long-term Macrocycle (annual plan) is built from several focused Mesocycles (3-6 week blocks), which are in turn composed of Microcycles (the weekly training schedule). This structure allows you to systematically build different fitness qualities in a logical sequence, ensuring you develop a foundation before adding specialization.

The Universal Laws of Temporal Planning. Keep Repeating.

  • Build General Before Specific: Establish a broad base of fitness (movement quality, endurance) before targeting peak or specialized qualities (power, sport-specific skill).
  • Move from Volume to Intensity: Begin with higher volume and lower intensity, gradually shifting towards lower volume and higher intensity as you approach a peak.
  • Manage Cumulative Fatigue: Integrate planned recovery blocks (deloads) to allow for supercompensation and prevent the negative effects of overtraining.
  • Vary the Stimulus: Systematically change training variables (exercises, intensity, volume) between cycles to avoid accommodation and continuously drive new adaptations.

Training intensity and time effectiveness

If your goal is long-term health for your heart, metabolism, and brain but you're not a full-time athlete, you should prioritize short intense sessions over easier workouts. However, longer endurance sessions remain essential for developing movement efficiency and coordination patterns that shorter workouts cannot replicate. In technical terms: high-intensity interval training (HIIT) produces greater cardiovascular improvements than moderate exercise in equivalent time periods, while also enhancing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels that support neuroplasticity and cognitive function. For movement quality, neuromuscular training requiring longer durations develops the coordinated muscle activation patterns and joint stability that brief high-intensity efforts cannot adequately train.

Zone Reference Typical Duration % Max HR RPE* (Subjective Feel) Load Factor (~Time Effectiveness)
7 Neuromuscular power 1-5 sec N/A 10 (Maximal) N/A
6 VLamax (anaerobic capacity) 5-20 sec N/A 9 (Very Hard) N/A
5 VO2max (aerobic capacity) 3-8 min 90-100% 8 (Very Hard)
4 Lactate threshold 10-40 min 80-90% 7 (Hard)
3 Intensive aerobic 20-60 min 70-80% 5-6 (Moderate-Hard)
2 Extensive aerobic 40-120 min 60-70% 3-4 (Light-Moderate)
1 Active recovery >120 min 50-60% <3 (Very Light)
  • Max HR (Maximum Heart Rate): The absolute highest number of times your heart can beat per minute during maximal physical exertion.
  • RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion): A subjective scale (typically 1-10) that measures how hard you feel your body is working during exercise.
  • Load Factor (~ Time Effectiveness): A multiplier that accounts for the exponentially higher training stress of high-intensity work. Higher intensities create disproportionately more physiological strain than lower intensities. The weighting system uses discrete zone-based multipliers (similar to Edwards TRIMP). For validation details, see Haddad et al. (2017) on session-RPE validity and Banister's TRIMP methodology for exponential weighting principles.

Top Performance Enhancing Supplements

These supplements are safe and in now way illegal.

Creatine Monohydrate

Fuels explosive power.

Rapidly regenerates ATP through the phosphocreatine system, supporting maximum strength and power output during short-duration, high-intensity efforts like weightlifting and sprinting.

Research consistently shows 3-5g daily increases muscle creatine stores by 20-40%, enhancing performance in activities lasting under 30 seconds. Creatine may enhance post-exercise recovery, injury prevention, thermoregulation, rehabilitation, and concussion and/or spinal cord neuroprotection.

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Beta-Alanine

Buffers muscle acidity.

Increases muscle carnosine levels by 30-60%, acting as an intracellular buffer that neutralizes hydrogen ions during anaerobic glycolysis, delaying muscular fatigue.

Most effective for high-intensity activities lasting 1-4 minutes. Studies show 3.2-6.4g daily for 4-12 weeks improves performance in repeated sprint efforts and muscular endurance.

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Caffeine

Enhances neural drive.

Acts as an adenosine receptor antagonist, reducing perceived exertion and improving motor unit recruitment while enhancing fat oxidation during aerobic exercise.

Optimal dose of 3-6mg per kg bodyweight taken 45-60 minutes pre-exercise consistently improves endurance performance by 2-4% and enhances alertness and focus.

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