Usually I get asked for advice about strength, fitness, nutrition and flexibility. You know, the usual stuff. And it's not only clients, often it's friends, family or strangers after they have posed the question "So, what do you do for a living?"

Sometimes though I encounter ones which hit one out of the ballpark. It's not as astonishing like how parents would feel when their 3-year old toddler asks them how they are planning to diversify their financial portfolio. And it's not as shocking  as the announcement of a third Sex In the City movie. But still there is that element of surprise and the sometimes the acknowledgement that I indeed did not hear that one before.  

So just for fun I'll list some of those for-real random questions here and also the answers I should have given if only  the music in the bar wasn't that deafening, the MTR wasn't about depart in 30 seconds, my brain had access to more caffeine or I wasn't merely distracted by the thought if I have left  the stove on. Here we go:

I own 3 pairs of Vibram FiveFingers. And I like wearing them on shorter hikes, during my own training and client's training sessions. And yes, some clients asked me if I would jump on the lawsuit wagon and ask for a refund.

For the ones of you who have not heard: Vibram was involved in a class action lawsuit which did not go well for them. To sum it up: The result was that anyone who purchased Vibram FiveFingers could demand at least a partial refund from USD 20 to 50.

The company was accused it has been using deceptive advertising by claiming the shoes could strengthen muscles, help with agility, improve range of motion and even align the spine.

As pointed out by other Paleo bloggers like John Durant and Angelo Coppola: The class action lawsuit was about false advertising and not whether the Vibram FiveFinger shoes were beneficial or not beneficial to some people's feet. Although most of the media brouhaha was kind of aiming at  Vibrams Five Fingers not bulletproofing one's feet, but a differentiation has to be made.

The complaint states:

The kettlebell delivers extreme all-around fitness. 

All-purpose strength. 

Staying power. 

Flexibility.

 Fat loss without the dishonour of aerobics.

- Pavel Tsatsouline -

I stumbled over the glorious kettlebell in 2011 thanks to Tim Ferris' book "The Four Hour Body". He was raving about the kettlebell swing and called it "the king of all exercises" which would get the fitness seeker  to achieve dramatic changes. 

Ferris claims with only 75 reps of heavy-ish kettlebell swings (52 lbs / 24 kg) two times a week he was able to significantly drop body fat and get a more defined six pack. 

In March 2014 I entered the 300-Swings-A-Day challenge. Since I started doing Ashtanga yoga on a regular basis I neglected strength training a lot. I used to follow the Wendler 531 powerlifting protocol but the problem was that I was often sore after my strength session which interfered with yoga pretzel poses like supta kurmasana . So strength training got a back seat but was dearly missed.  When I saw that breakingmuscle.com posted a 30 day kettlebell swing challenge I remembered it as the king of all exercises and gave it a go. 

30 days of daily 300 kettlebell swings later I was happy to report that I have found the perfect supplement strength training which would not impact my flexibility. Although Ashtanga is a vinyasa/ power yoga style, viewed from a pure workout perspective it is still based on slow controlled movements. Through a daily practice your body's movement gets streamlined to rely less on momentum but more on conscious control and interplay of the smaller and bigger muscles, of strength and flexibility with the goal to still the mind in motion. 

Yes, the blog was on hold for entire May and lots of stuff has been going on. Grab a sugar-free beverage and let's catch up:

What do you have to say for yourself Lory?
Although I'm German I have not been very efficient lately. Travel and some projects have disrupted my regular schedule and we all know from lifehacker what happens if you don't have your routine dialled in: Backlog. In my case it was BACKLOG in caps. The blog suffered, the workout suffered and dishes in the sink suffered, too. 

But you are still paleo?
Happy to report that I'm still paleo. I have been tweaking my diet a bit though. Reintroduced dairy like grass-fed butter, goat butter and organic goat's cheese like feta and haloumi. My biggest tweak was having made resistant starch and soil-based probiotics a constant component. I must thank one of my readers Brock in HK who introduced me to Richard Nikoley's blog Free The Animal. Nikoley stirred up the US paleo community by talking about the benefits of resistant starch. I have already tinkered with the superstarch UCAN and wanted to see if I can reap the same benefits Nikoley was talking about. I will write a blog post about how I included resistant starch in my diet and how my gut handled it all.