Can You Go?

It’s 4:30pm, and you’ve got:

·      Your best guns out t-shirt

·      Your gallon of water and mass “gainz” shake

·      Your IPod is set to crank some pump inspiring anthems

It’s training day and you are headed to the gym to meet up with your posse. But a funny thing happens when you get there, you don’t have it in you to train. You can’t go. This is an all too familiar situation for most people. When is it appropriate to push the “Go” button and when to push the “Stop”.

World renown strength coach, Dan John, wrote a book, Can You Go?  And to paraphrase, it’s simply the notion of being ready to train or compete that day. It inspired me to think about how I go about my training process. I’ve always believed in listening to my body. I don’t want to fall into the robotic process of, “this is my training day, I HAVE to train”! And I also don’t want to bail on a session every time I feel tired, because if that were the case, I might never train. And to be honest, I’ve had my best sessions when I felt I couldn’t go. So determining when you feel you should train vs. packing it up and training the next day is tricky.

Is the body willing and the mind isn't or is it a case of the mind is willing and the body isn't? First decide if it’s a mental or physical roadblock holding you back.

If it’s a mental, my trick is my warm-up. I take 10 Crocodile breaths, do some myofascial work, some light movements, check my balance by standing on one-leg and see what happens (And yes, I am serious about breathing and standing on one-leg. If I can’t do those simple things, how can I expect my body to do something more demanding)? Can I go? If I feel better from that, training is a go. If breathing was a chore and I had trouble doing bird-dog, then I know I would be in trouble if I tried lifting or got under a loaded bar.

Is it physical? By this I mean am I experiencing an achy body part, muscle soreness, or stiffness? Basically, is it something that some basic re-set movements will fix and I just need to get the body moving and the blood circulating? As long as I am not experiencing pain, and I start to feel better, I can go. 

Is it more of an internal physical nature? Did I recover from my previous training session or activity? This can be tricky because this requires you to be in tune with your body. But if I feel overly stimulated, like I had a few too many cups of coffee, I back off from training that day. A safe and quick way to check is to get your 1 minute resting heart rate. On average, mine can range from 50-60 beats/minute. If it’s higher than the norm, I back off and rest. Rinse and repeat. If it lasts for more than a few days, I'd suggest getting it checked out.

Note: Check your resting heart rate regularly and first thing in the morning. You don’t want to have your cup of coffee or engage in anything too strenuous before taking this measurement. This ensures you have a baseline to compare. Some elite athletes are known to be in the 30’s!

In the event it’s both mental and physical, take the day off.

I’ve walked into the gym with every intention of training, only to go through my little assessment and decide instead to hit the sauna for 15-20 minutes and leave. I’m not interested in impressing anyone. I couldn’t go that day and there’s no shame in that. If there’s a consistency in training, another day of rest and recovery is never a bad thing. No one can tell me how my body feels. More importantly, I live to train another day. Remember, there’s nothing written in stone you have to train that day or train what you were planning to do. Can you go? Be safe and be smart. Best of luck in your training!

6 Tips for Injury Reduction

I wasn’t blessed with the foresight of predicting the future. I know, shocking! But if I did, I probably wouldn’t be a Personal Trainer (I wish I could say I’d use my powers for only the greater good of mankind but I’d probably use them to impress the ladies and make a killing in the stock market. Yup, don’t really care what Back to the Future or the Butterfly Effect taught us about altering the future). However; injuries are a very real possibility in training and in sports. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable because there is no such thing as injury prevention. However, this does not mean you can’t drastically reduce the possibility of injury. Here are 6 tips to help keep you from losing important training time.

1)   Warming-up: Spend some time and choose exercises that reflect the exercises in your program or sport that will prime the body for those movements. Assess how the body feels, don’t go into your training session with a cranky body!

2)   If you have a goal, have a plan: For example, if your goal is to lift heavy weight, understand the basic body mechanics. You’ll learn valuable information from researching and being able to apply the information (and this means books! If you find a credible blogger you like, they will no doubt have lots of literature on the subject from some of the greats). 

3)   Learn to use your body properly: Exercise isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. For example, poor running mechanics will lead to poor running habits. Over time this will lead to a compensatory pattern with nagging aches and pains (and potentially missed training time from injuries). Take the time to learn how to do things well.

4)   Listening to your body: Be responsible by becoming in tune with your body. If something doesn’t feel right, STOP. If there’s pain, please consult your physician.

5)   Massage: We abuse our bodies in training, in sports and in our daily movements (or lack thereof). Be kind and treat your body to some TLC. The right kind of massage has many wonderful restorative qualities such as: increase in blood flow, reduction in inflammation, alleviating muscle tension and helping muscles to relax, reducing mental stress, etc. Notice how your body responds with improvement in how it feels and moves (and I mean Deep Tissue or therapeutic massage)

6)   Rest: Allow your body to heal and recover from the training session or sport. This includes a nutrition plan, drinking water and getting 6-8 hours of sleep (late night binges will seriously hinder the body’s ability to recover).

The future will be the present sooner than you realize, so don’t pay for the sins of your past when you could have done something about it now. These simple tips will help to ensure a healthier relationship with training, sports, and more importantly, the demands of daily life stresses.  Whether it’s in the weight room, the field or court, improve your performance and reduce the potential for injury and missed training time. Best of luck in your training!

Great Family, Great Coaches=Great Accomplishments: Why 2014 was my Greatest Training year

This blog is long overdue. But I had a great 2014. Why? Because, I set both personal and professional goals and I achieved high levels of performance in both. I managed to successfully train for the SFG (StrongFirst Kettlebell) Level II Instructor and 12 weeks later successfully became certified as an SFL (StrongFirst Lift) Instructor. Oh yeah, and later in the year, I competed in 3 natural bodybuilding competitions, nearly winning a pro-card in the process. On the surface these look like individual accolades because I received the trophies and certifications but it’s the behind the scenes support and guidance that positioned me to get there.

The biggest reasons why I succeed can be
found from the values my parents imparted
on me.

Yes, I am self-motivated. So doing things I don’t necessarily want to do are things I tend to think are the most important things to do, so I do them (twisted way to look at it, I know). I like to believe I get this self-motivation trait from my mother and father. And I get it, maybe it’s not so easy for you for various reasons. But I like to think if it were easy, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge (if you want a participation medal, talk to Pittsburgh Steelers, linebacker, James Harrison). However, this success could not be achieved on my own (and anyone’s success is always a direct result of others assistance and/or contributions). I owe much of my success to my family and the coaches involved that supported or directed me along each individual journey. Hopefully, my achievements are something they can be proud of because I always aspire to represent them the best I can.

You'd think I trained more and ate
less to get these results. But I ate more 
and trained less. Funny how that works. 
Find a knowledgable coach! 

There are many ways to quantify success. Maybe, your goal was to climb Mt. Everest. Or maybe your goal was completing a marathon. Maybe, your success is more modest and simpler, maybe you were pain free or didn’t miss a training session for an entire year (sure, that sounds simple but it’s not easy). Or maybe you want to be the next American Ninja Warrior (I wasn’t aware an American could be a ninja). Regardless, whatever the goal, if it’s important to you, your inner circle understand it’s important to you. If you’ve ever triumphed in your personal goals, be sure to thank your family, friends and coaches that got you there. Thanks Mom, Dad, Becs, Brian, Mike and Evan . Best of luck in your training!

3 Simple Things to Improve Performance You Can Work on everyday

If you are an avid exerciser, we have three very important things in common. And these three things are often overlooked and never thought of inhibiting performance. No, it’s not nutritional belief that kale possesses some kind of super power. No, it’s not what makes your arms and butt look its best, Lulu Lemon or Under Armor. And no, it’s not what's the best pre-workout (chances are, if you feel your heart is going to explode, it's not a good one). It’s breathing, posture and walking.

As Dan John, StrongFirst Master Kettlebell Instructor and expert strength coach (and all around bad a$$) says, "if it's important to you, do it everyday". So here's the million dollar question, what's important to you? The trend in our busy lives is to focus on the more active aspect of our respective lifestyles. But what about the basic things such as breathing, posture and walking that make those activities we enjoy possible? Try as you might, heavy squatting won’t fix bad posture, (it’ll make it worse). Try as you might, poor breathing mechanics will not improve your endurance (it’ll make it worse). And if walking is causing you discomfort, do you really think running is the answer to fixing the problem (yup, it’ll make it worse)?

How about taking a step back and re-assessing your current activities by answering these three questions:

1)    Do you feel better as a result of your training?

2)    Does your body recover or do you experience nagging aches, pains and discomforts?

3)    Are you improving toward your goal?

Look, I understand, it’s frustrating making time to train and having very little to show for it besides that nagging hip or back ache when you are sitting. Believe it or not, your lack of enjoyment might be the result of poor basic mechanics resulting in your body's discomfort. Try to re-groove your breathing, posture and the way you walk and rekindle your love for training. Best of luck in your training!

Re-setting the body: The "Yang" to the "Yin"

Ever gone to the gym to just decompress? By decompress, I mean go to the gym with the intentions to not do anything but breathe, foam roll and do some easy body movements. I’ll admit, I do this. I might be one of the crazy few people to pay a gym membership just to plop my body down and melt into learning my body. The popular term within the fitness industry is to call it a re-set. I’m going to call it the “Yang”.

Yin and Yang is the Chinese philosophy
where opposing forces compliment one
another. Therefore, if you cause a disruption
to the body, you need to bring balance to it
by introducing gentle methods to regain
it's most efficient and harmonious state. 

If you are like me, training takes it’s toll on your body not just during but sometimes after the session. Ever stop to think about what happens when a training session inhibits normal functionality and posture? This is the “Yin”, or the darkness. Was this the result of training or poor breathing/posture, that’s like asking what came first, the chicken or the egg. Whatever the reason, it’s there and these discomforts and muscle imbalances are the body’s way of signaling to you something isn’t right. And if something isn’t right, does it make sense to force a pattern? More importantly, does it make sense to load this pattern? I don’t believe so. Let’s try and complete the circle by introducing the “Yang”, or lightness back into your life. Let’s get some “Yang” back up in here!

To me, getting back to the “Yang” and re-setting is anything that helps to bring the body to a more efficient and comfortable pattern. Now, comes the tricky part, once you have re-set the body, you have to try and keep it. Sometimes this means you have to consciously work at it until it becomes a new habit. Unfortunately, with the stressful demands we place on the body, posture will probably always be affected. Here are some simple (more importantly, free) ways to help re-set the body and improve your quality of life and training experience.

Lying prone on the ground: This is a great place to start because the load of your body weight standing has an impact on the muscles, ligaments, joints, etc., and creates a lot of stress in different places. This change in body position can shift the load of your body weight and can lead to compensatory movement patterns. To decrease the stress, de-load the weight on your body simply by lying on your stomach.

Breathing and posture go together like meat and potatoes. And
I like me some meat and potatoes!

Crocodile Breathing/Posture: I’m lumping these two things together. I wrote a blog earlier about diaphragmatic breathing (also known as belly breathing) and it’s powerful effects to help dial the body back to it’s initial state of efficiency. Once you have it, try and work on this form of breathing the rest of your day. Notice if this helps to improve your posture. Please read this blog and watch the video on posture by my good friend, Physiotherapist, James Braithwaite:

http://www.yorkvillephysiotherapy.com/video-blog/pub:14/The-Perfect-Posture-Guide. When’s the best time to do this, first thing in the morning before the stress of your body sets in, whenever you feel stressed or before training. You can do this for as long as you want. Keep in mind, you want to use this changed breath for whatever else you have planned for your session. I believe learning to regain your breath and coordinating it with foam rolling, less aggressive mobility/stability drills is the ideal time to practice it before trying to activate it to more challenging patterns.

Gentle Hip Rocking in the prone position: Rocking the hips back and forth help to gently massage the hips and lower part of your spine. This is one of my personal favorites because it adds a little movement as I work on my breathing.

Gentle Hip Rocking in the supine position: This gives the same benefits as the above but using the floor to massage directly on the back.

Myofascial work: Again, please refer to a previous blog for more specific explanations. If something is tight from the training session, try rolling out those areas. This will help improve soft/deep tissue quality and improve blood circulation. I want to reiterate that nothing will replace the skilled hands of a massage therapist but being able to take care of yourself between appointments is important.

There's 24 hours in the day. Make yourself
 a priority and find some time. Don't set off
  Jay's BS Meter!

Active Recovery:  My recommendation is after working through some of the above recovery drills, try re-grooving some of your movement patterns such as: walking, hip-hinging, squatting, pushing, pulling or rotating. This is not meant to be a training session. It can be as easy as 1-2 sets of 5 repetitions ranging from Cat/Camel, Downward Dog, Cobra, Mid-Back Rotations, Bridges, etc. It can be as simple as taking your new re-set body and walking on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes. Again, try concentrating on your breath and posture. Maybe you’re a little advanced and you can practice bodyweight or lightweight goblet squats, Turkish Get-Ups, etc., with an emphasis on grooving the respective pattern.

Sauna: After the prep work you put in, feel free to get a little sweat. This is a great “YOU” time to relax! Again, don’t forget about your DB and posture.

Follow these simple ways to help nurture a healthier body. One of the worst excuses I hear is, “I didn’t have time”. I agree, time is a precious commodity but there’s no excuse for not finding 15 minutes spread out over the course of the day to work on your “Yang”, (breathing/posture and light movements). Best of luck in your training!