What about ab workouts?
Planks are just about the most complete ab work-
out anyone can do. Otherwise, learn to engage
your abs in virtually every other movement you
perform. Pushups require fully engaged abs, as do
pullups and presses. Learn to engage (tighten) the
entire abdominal area when you are sitting at your
desk, driving, walking or just standing still. Even-
tually, everything in life contributes to washboard
abs. Of course, we need to see them, so you’ll
have to burn off the fat by eating Primally, too.
Can I work out when I’m sick?
This article covers the topic in detail. In summary,
I strongly recommend erring on the very easy side
when you have any symptom of less than opti-
mal immune function. Remember, PBF is about
functional fitness for a lifetime, not filling in every
blank in your workout log.
If you feel up to a very light workout when you are
fighting off a mild cold, and you tend to feel better
after such activity, you can go ahead and try it
cautiously. If you pride yourself on being sensitive
to biofeedback and in-tune with your mind, body
and spirit, you may notice that you don’t feel like
doing much of anything while your highly function-
ing immune system is working double-time to rid
your body of illness.Many experts speculate that highly active people
have superior immune function to sedentary people,
unless they over-exercise, in which case they have
inferior immune function to sedentary people. Re-
member that story about me and my college bud-
dies who seemed to have more energy and more
fun than I when I was pounding out the miles?Use common sense and your intuition when you
aren’t feeling 100%, and take care to align your
workout choices with your energy level, motiva-
tion level, and health. If you don’t feel confident in
your abilities in this area, I recommend using the
PBF Logbook (found at the end of this book) with
daily free-form notes about your health and work-
outs. Rate on a scale of 1–10 your daily energy
level, motivation level and the degree of difficulty
of your workouts, along with the state of your
health. If you notice time periods where you drag
along with a bunch of “3’s” for energy, motivation,
and health, you certainly shouldn’t have many
workout scores above that number. When you
can write down 8–10 in the daily scores, that’s
when you should tackle 10-scale workouts!Frequently Asked Questions and Concerns cont’d 86