This week I’m sharing a few responses to emails from cavaliers. Please feel free to reach out to me at sonofchivalry@protonmail.com.
Hey Chivalry,
You often post on Twitter about good posture. This seems very based. I need to improve my posture, but it’s also very hard. Are there any particular exercises you recommend?
- Mike, Austin
Dear Mike,
You are correct: it is difficult to maintain athletic posture when modern life pulls our shoulders forward and weakens our posterior chain so relentlessly.
At some point I will attempt a detailed essay or Twitter thread about posture. Really, anything that strengthens the posterior chain is going to help—so that means deadlifts, Nordic hamstring curls, glute thrusts, back extensions, and so on. For now let me mention a few of my favorite exercises that don’t receive enough love for their effect on posture.
(Note: this is not personalized advice and I am not a certified trainer.)
1) Lu raise. Like I said, the key to good posture is a strong posterior chain. But for me the emphasis is on scapular placement. If modern life pulls are shoulders forward, we must find ways to pull them back—and it's not about constantly jamming them to the rear but more about strengthening those wings on either side of our back that naturally pull them into a handsome and athletic position. Lu raises helped me find and activate my scapulae—highly recommended!
2) Farmer's walk. This is one of the most simple and useful exercises imaginable. Just carry heavy weights in both hands from point A to point B—with good posture. If you bear the weight correctly—chest high and the scapulae retracted—afterwards you cannot help but assume Superman posture. It’s pretty wild.
3) Overhead squats. The aim here is to be able to stabilize weight overhead—which most people with rounded shoulders cannot do. It's even a good idea to simply get a broom handle and hold at overhead when you’re watching tv, feeling the scapulae engaged properly. Seriously, we should be holding broom handles overhead several times a day.
4) High pulls. These prepare a lifter for the more complex movements of Olympic lifting by activating muscles in his upper back that he didn’t know existed. They are also very good for training aggressiveness—in other words, you really can't do high pulls half-heartedly.
5) Walking. In the spirit of keeping it simple, we must remember that simply moving is pretty much the single best thing you can do.
Would you call yourself a monarchist?
Sincerely, Carlos
Dear Carlos,
Tough question. I would say, yes, deep down I am probably a monarchist. Lately I’ve been reflecting on how a king is in some ways more accountable to his subjects than are the power-brokers of modern democracy, with its administrative apparatus staffed by tenured bureaucrats who never have to answer to the public that they supposedly serve. As one of my favorite Twitter accounts says, “Democracy is laundered oligarchy.” A king, meanwhile, can simply be killed. It is a surprisingly good incentive for him to be a decent king.
At the same time, I don’t see the value of getting hung up on the relative merits of monarchy vs. republicanism vs. Shire-style anarchy—because I don't think monarchists and old school republicans and based anarchists like Tolkien are in any position to bicker with each other over the seat of power in our theoretical regime. There's too much work to be done. Punch left, not right. I’m hopeful that we can flourish under different forms of government, and a mixed government combining elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and popular representative government seems so well-established in the Western mind that I doubt anything else is a real possibility at this point. Either way, if a man spends too much time thinking about that the finer points of political theory, I daresay he’s not engaged enough with the actual problems before us.
Greetings Sir,
Love your work! Is there a good book on a general introduction to the Middle Ages?
Anon X, Sydney
Dear Anon X
The topic is so grand that I don’t know of any single volume that comes close to doing it justice. If I had to select one book, it would probably be Christopher Dawson’s Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, which explains how deeply Christianity went in forming Europe. Before moving on to specific events and characters, any student of the Middle Ages must first account for this fundamental difference between medievals and moderns—and resist the tendency to impose modern values on swords-and-horses drama. Dawson is a challenging writer, but he’s challenging in an inviting rather than discouraging way; he wants the reader to pedal faster rather than give up.
If you’re interested, here are more recommendations.
Dear Sir,
I’m curious: what is your view on Bronze Age Pervert?
Julio, Bogota
Dear Julio,
I have now read Bronze Age Mindset three times and owe BAP a debt of gratitude. The last time I read a book so raucous, insightful, stunningly relevant, and breathtaking was … so long time ago that I don’t even remember. Vitalism is an idea whose time has come—with its insight that the condition of the body reflects the condition of the political order. Rampant disease and decline in the human body, such as are undeniable to anyone with open eyes, reflects bad thinking and a rotten regime.
Of course, I don’t agree with BAP on everything. He is a theoretical pagan; I am Roman Catholic. He is an urbanite; I am deeply skeptical of the effect of huge metroplexes on the soul. He is ambivalent about the family; I am definitely not.
And yet his project is so worthy that I ought not spend too much time thinking of the ways to distance myself from him. If anything BAP’s energy motivated me to want to correct his excesses and deficiencies with my own project, focusing on chivalry. The model became apparent after reading CS Lewis’ “The Necessity of Chivalry,” which directs all the energy of BAP’s vitalism in a more wholesome direction. The knight has all the virtues of BAP’s bodybuilder-pirate, and more. Chivalry is vitalism for Christians.
BAP and Lewis—these two make an unexpectedly powerful pairing.
Dear Sir,
What do you think of fasting? Is there a particular kind of fasting that is best?
- Mack, Boston, 27
Dear Mack,
I am all for it. I currently aim to incorporate a 24-hour fast every week, with a 60-hour fast every month.
For the longest time, the thought of fasting made me uneasy. The lifting gurus of my youth always preached the utter necessity of eating five or six meals a day. ABE was the mantra—Always Be Eating! If three hours passed without a substantial intake of protein, you were losing your gains—so went the narrative, which made it hard for me to get my head around the potential virtues of fasting. Whenever Lent came around, I managed to do the least that was required of me because losing one’s gains was unthinkably awful.
Only recently did it dawn on me how very backwards it is to constantly shove food in one’s face, not to mention exhausting. Ancient religions, all of them, understood the benefits of fasting, which happen to be not just spiritual—the mastering of the will, prayerful suffering—but also physical. You can do the research yourself with any search engine, learning about them all: reduced inflammation, improved brain function, HGH, immunity, longevity, reduced risk of disease, etc, etc, etc. You can learn new words like autophagy, microbiome, and ketosis. The benefits for healing and vitality are pretty extensive. So, no, you will not lose your gains if you fast correctly. If anything, you will be vitality-maxxing.
As for what will work best for you, I do not know. Experimentation and personalization will be required. But like I said, I am much more interested in incorporating a longer weekly fast (24+ hours) than in daily intermittent fasting.
With regard to posture, a problem I have had life long, exacerbated by my profession.
1. The Alexander technique teaches you to stand upright and then try to make yourself taller.
2.To standardise lateral X-rays we get subjects , when standing, to keep their eyes on the horizon.
Not easy finding a horizon in the city but try to imagine one.
Combine the two and the other suggestions and you should be well on the way.