Time to have some fun and breed a few smiles. Way back in early November I got an email from Luke Robinson, a fitness entrepreneur in Auburn, Maine. Here’s what he wrote:

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Hi Richard,

My name is Luke Robinson, owner and founder of WolfPack Fitness in Auburn, Maine. I was sent the following paragraph from one of your recent posts by a local chiropractor who supports the paleo/primal lifestyle that we teach here at WolfPack…

How about someone starting a MovNat gym styled after Erwan LeCore’s Natural Movement protocols and using the sorts of “equipment” they construct for their courses? You could even use real logs and trees like they do. I think that would be an excellent alternative to CrossFit—which I’m not too hip on, anymore, from some of the stuff I’ve heard in terms of insane workouts, too frequent, and injuries (though I’m sure there are many out there doing it far more sensibly).

You absolutely described my business to a T. As a former professional wrestler, I used to spend 3 hours a day, nearly 7 days a week doing the typical 7 small meals a day bullshit. In 2011, I was a on the WWE reality show Tough Enough hosted by Stone Cold Steve Austin. The winner of the show got a WWE contract. I came in second.

When I came home, I ate junk and drank my face off. I finally pulled myself together, but dreaded going back to 3-hour/day workouts and 7 small meals/day. Thankfully, I stumbled upon LeanGains, Carb Back-Loading, Paleo/Primal, and the “less is more approach.” IT WORKED! I got shredded, happy and healthy while working out just 3 times a week and letting the power of nutrition take care of the rest. To save money (so I could spend more on higher quality food), I ditched my gym membership and started doing everything outside and in my barn—with nature and objects around the house.

I’d been a certified fitness instructor for the previous 3 years but chose to add a nutrition specialist certification to my resume and started WolfPack Fitness. I wanted to help people find the better way that I had found; I wanted them to understand that the road to health and happiness didn’t have to be a dreaded one of starvation and over-working. In addition, I wanted them to find the humble, appreciative HUMAN BEING inside them and forever be rid of the spoiled, entitled American. We live in the coolest country in the world, but with that much wealth and opportunity comes enough rope to hang ourselves. Perhaps most importantly, I wanted to create a community of love, support, and guidance for like-minded people who wanted to become extraordinary. FUCK AVERAGE.

Our solutions over excuses mantra, with an emphasis on reframing the mind has led WolfPack Fitness to recognition around the world. Most recently, winning Robb Wolf’s “Gym-to-Farm Challenge” and making a big impact at this year’s PrimalCon.

Using nature and our own cinder block system, we’ve created an army of folks in the local community who are trail blazing a model that simply WORKS. Our workouts are a beautiful combination of heavy lifting using natural movement patterns (I even have a MovNat certified trainer on-staff) and safe high-intensity cardio including sledge hammer smashes, log flips, tire flips, and cinder block swings. We do large group classes and personal & small group sessions all throughout the week. Our workouts focus on QUALITY opposed to quantity—most clients work out just 1-3x/week with sessions lasting 20-40 minutes. This is where we see ourselves as “anti-(typical) cross fitters” who tend to be chronic over-workers and get overuse injuries regularly. We’ve affectionally been referring to what we do as outside the box (as crossfit gyms are called).

We’d greatly appreciate your time in watching the following videos and checking out the attached photos for a broad stroke of what we do here. We’d love to hear from you and get your feedback. Thank you so much!

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I said I’d definitely get back to him, but I guess it wasn’t soon enough. He began Tweeting me composite pics of the outdoor workouts. And then it turned cold, and there was snow on the ground. So, I issued a challenge:

Hey, get volunteers to run around barefoot in skivvies and I’ll make a blog post out of it. Nude is OK, too.

He replied:

Challenge accepted! I think we’re all just crazy enough to do it!

And here you go.

(No nudes, but click for large anyway.)

Now, read and smile, clap, get weepy…or whatever it is you do when people pick themselves up and radically change their lives. I get weepy, personally.

Still on cloud 9 after an incredible Rocky 4 themed Primal Fitness class today with a HUGE group! We’ve been in sub-zero temperatures for the past 3 days but today was 20 degrees at class time—a veritable heat wave! So I asked for volunteers to stay after who were comfortable getting very far outside their comfort zones.

Of note: Raedelle, the women closest to the tire, and the 2 ladies behind her have all lost over 50 lbs in the past year since adopting a paleo/primal based lifestyle. I also think it’s extremely cool that Raedelle is 50, Zoe (second in line) is 18, and Sheila (3rd) is in her late 30’s. The point is—and I know I’m preaching to the choir—but it just works.

I also think it’s amazing that these are women who, a year ago, would never have DREAMED of exposing themselves on any level but now feel the self confidence and love to put themselves out there. Pretty amazing.

Let me know what ya think! If you check out the FB page – a few of us boys did some snow angels in the snow too: www.facebook.com/wolfpackworldwide

Finally, this.

For those who haven’t checked out my 5-day MovNat experience with my Frenchman copain, Erwan Le Corre, in Summersville, West Virginia a few years back, with lots of description, jungle tromping barefoot pics, natural movement pics, and awesome food pics, here’s where it starts: MovNat Day 1 (there are 5 posts in all to see and believe).

Also, here’s a search link for all my posts on the one-of-a-kind Martin Berkhan, my Leangains experience with him, and the collaborative posts we did after.