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Cecilia Moen mentioned  of a study comparing 4 groups; 1 did weight-lifting;
1 sat in lotus position and 1 walked (plus 1 sat still for comparison) for
20 mins daily.... After several months comparisons showed best lung/heart
improvement in the weight-lifting group, but best overall fitness
improvement in the lotus-sitting group.

Since no amount of mediating can increase lean body mass (bone or muscle),
my guess is that if the lotus sitting gropu indeed fared better on a portion
of the fitness test--and I don't know how they measured "overall" fitness
(sounds vague!)-- what was measured was probably heart rate.  It is well
known that yogis can control their heart rate, blood pressure, etc.  Since I
didn't see the original study, I don't know what/if any design flaws may
have been present.  Many studies on exercise have serious design flaws or
suffer from interpretation errors (read: experimental bias).  Did
yoga-affiliated folks fund the study?  Just curious!

Since I'm not bench pressing bison, deadlifting dinosaurs, overhead pressing
elephants, or curling kangaroos with any frequency, I'll stick to serious
weight training 1-2x per week and doing a little stretching (with breathing
of course!) 5-6x/week.  Hunter-gatherer's had much thicker, denser bones and
muscles than we modern people have.  I know they didn't get these by
accident!  Unfortunately, many of us have only a fraction of the lean body
mass we had in our youth or could have had....and many of us have lost bone
mass from years of eating a SAD or MAD diets.  Weight training is "th" best
way to increase muscle and bone mass.... for men and women.  And by that, I
don't mean swining around dinky 3- to 5-pound dumbells....as women's mags
might suggest.

There's a great article entitled "The #1 Fitness Problem for Women" by
Ellington Darden....I urge all the Paleo and near-Paleo women who read this
digest to check it out.  It's fascinating!   Increase your lean mass and you
can eat more food for the rest of your life... and look and feel even better
than you do now!

http://www.classicx.com/html/1women.html

Rachel Matesz

P.S.  Laura Northwood is onto something....race walking or aerobic walking
beats running hands down.  It's easier on your joints and can actually burn
more calories than jogging!  There's a book by Casey Myers called "Walking"
---probably many others by now too--which exlplains  how to do this and why
its so beneficial.  The right shoes are a must!  Even brisk walking, paired
with weight training using compound exercies and large muscle groups can
help all of us build more "Paleo" bodies!