I recently re-read Art De Vany’s – The New Evolution diet. It’s a brilliant read but what caught my attention this time round was an interesting section in the afterword by essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb. One of the ideas he suggests is that “There is a Need for Environment Randomness“.
The human body cannot be separated from its environment. We evolved in a landscape of uncertainty and unpredictability – there were no guarantees of food or pleasant weather. You had to be resourceful, physically strong and adaptable. Taleb proposes that this randomness is what the human body is designed for and that the routine of our environment removes the important variable stressors we need.
I briefly mentioned this concept in the post on Intermittent Fasting. If you skip breakfast every Monday and Wednesday for a year that’s not intermittent. To get the full benefit it needs to be more random. Skip dinner one day when you feel like, miss 3 days brekkie one week then eat every morning the following week. The same principle can be applied to training – working out by feel with no target sets or reps.
All good so far but why not extend this to other environment factors? Here’s Taleb’s list of possible variations experienced by humans in a typical ancestral environment:
The bottom line is we are designed for much more fluctuations in our environment. I’ll certainly be looking out for more areas where I can inject some randomness. In particular: more cold exposure, different running routes, varying meal times, supplement frequency. This should help keep the body guessing and increase adaptability.
image courtesy of: quattrostagioni
Nice that you found some of Taleb’s stuff. I’m admittedly now a bit obsessed with his works (since I don’t shut up about Antifragile). You can take those same ideas and apply them to movement and anything like MovNat training to make it more useful.
Also, cold showers do wonders to create beneficial thermal fluctuations. 
Hi Gary,
I am intrigued by the idea of mixing things up, particularly where you mention training with no target sets or reps. It sounds like a great idea but have you had any success with this? In particular have you noticed any muscle gain or loss?
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Nice that you found some of Taleb’s stuff. I’m admittedly now a bit obsessed with his works (since I don’t shut up about Antifragile). You can take those same ideas and apply them to movement and anything like MovNat training to make it more useful.
Also, cold showers do wonders to create beneficial thermal fluctuations.
Yeah I’ve been searching around on the net for his stuff – some brilliant ideas that apply to so many aspects of life. I’ve got Antifragile on my wish list. Bout to start Primal Connection then think I’ll pick that up.
Hi Gary,
I am intrigued by the idea of mixing things up, particularly where you mention training with no target sets or reps. It sounds like a great idea but have you had any success with this? In particular have you noticed any muscle gain or loss?
Hey Richard, yeah I’ve tried using this with my kettlebell training and also on some MovNat style workouts. I usually think of it as skill work and a chance to develop technique without a set routine.
The plus side is that’s fun working without restrictions and you often do decent volume. I’ve noticed improvements when going back to my usual classes and training so I would say it has a positive effect but I think I would have to do it with more regularity to see any significant strength gains. Let me know if your decide to experiment with the idea.