Virtuosity - The Common Uncommonly Well

Hello Fitters.

Merriam-Webster defines virtuosity as such: great ability or skill shown by a musician, performer, etc. But to me, that makes the idea of skill or ability seem beyond the reach of us "mortal" people.  You need not be a musician, performer, artist, or athlete to be able to show great skill or ability. These can be demonstrated with the most basic of actions. Do you want to know the best definition of virtuosity that I have seen? In gymnastics, virtuosity is defined as such:

Performing the common UNCOMMONLY well.

Think about that. Have you seen a 45 year old squat? I'm sure you've seen a person that age sit down and stand up. But have you seen a 45 year old man squat with a vertical torso, knees out, weight in the heels, good lumbar arch, and butt all the way to the ground? It's not as common. But we all do squats, right? I would say it's a fairly common movement, considering probably 95% of humans do it on a daily basis. But not like that, not that well. Now imagine doing it for 100 repetitions. Even more impressive, right? Now the 45 year old does 100 perfect squats like this in 3 minutes. Now this common movement is being done so uncommonly well, wouldn't you agree?

It is pretty obvious our society is bombarded with the "industry" of health and fitness, but with that comes the inundation of people with fancy movements, equipment, exercises, straps, wraps, bars and benches, and trying to move more and more weight. I will not say these items have no place in our exercise (they do, I use them myself), but it hides us from the reason we do it, to move and perform well. So it is important that we remember to train those movements (squats, lunges, pushups, and other simple gymnastics movements). And not only should we do these movements, we should strive for virtuosity in these movements. We should train to perform these common movements uncommonly well. From there, we can advance these other movements, like clean and jerks and snatches, and full on sport. If your squat is perfect EVERY time, you can believe you will be more inclined to perform better in your jumping, stepping, running, sprinting, cleans, and on and on. So don't let the extras bog you down from remembering to Do the Common Uncommonly Well.

Stay Fit.

Chad Vaughn, 285 snatch. Not as common of a movement, but his virtuosity in other movements most certainly translate to this. And is still done uncommonly well. And I'm a geek who loves kinesology. So here you go Fitters, enjoy.

The Aging Movement

Hey Fitters!
 Firstly, thank you Lonny for tonight's blog post topic! If any of you readers have an idea, post it in the comments below.

 Tonight's topic is personal to all of us. We're all doing it. I'm doing it, you're doing it, the Queen of England is doing it RIGHT NOW! It is the act of aging. It is inevitable, and as it happens, our body's needs change. But something that maybe people don't realize is this:

The needs of every individual differ by degree, NOT by kind.

Every human being needs to better themselves in the ten aspects of fitness (check out this Post to see those aspects). What an Olympic speed skater and what your grandmother need to support their quality of life is the same in that they need to develop their strength, coordination, agility, etc. However, while Apollo may be doing 185 pound explosive front squats to cut a tenth of a second, Bertha is doing box squats holding a 10 pound dumbbell at her chest. Both are the same movements that elicit the same stresses to the body, but differ by degree (speed, weight, depth) But why? Why do work on a movement that she won't be doing in real life? Let's think about it.

As we age, what is it we want to be able to do as long as possible? I think most of us would agree that it is to live independently. Would you rather live to be 85, visiting family hundreds of miles away and hiking in the woods, or live to be 110 in a chair in your house, with hospice taking care of you? Whatever your choice, we can agree that the second does not sound appealing. So by doing a weighted squat, Bertha is training her mobility through a squatting motion, as well as developing (or at least maintaining) muscle mass. This allows her to get out of a chair on her own, walk up and down stairs, step off curbs, get in and out of her car, all on her own. This allows her to maintain her independence well into her golden years.

With all of that being said, there are things we can focus on as we age to continue our quality of life, which are also the things we tend to lose as we age. The main aspects of fitness I believe we should focus on as we age are:

Mobility/Flexibility - As we get older, our muscles become less supple, and muscle imbalances cause us to not be able to move our joints through full range of motion. It is imperative that we work to maintain mobility through these ranges so we can continue to use our joints the way they are intended.

Strength - Along with muscles becoming more immobile, we also lose a great deal of muscle mass. To combat this, it is important to use resistance training (weighted exercises) to build and maintain muscle mass. This is what helps insure that we can get out of that chair, and keep getting up when we are down.

Balance - "I can't do that, I don't have any balance." I've heard this time and again from everyone from 75 year old men to 28 year old women.  Balance isn't like brown hair, it isn't genetic, you gain it by practice (which is how you work your neurological system, as opposed to training, which benefits things like strength, endurance, and other "organic" bodily changes). So if you want better balance, you have to work on your balance. And most injuries that occur to the older population occur via falls, making balance vital.

So now I tell you how to train for these things, right? Sorry, there is no way I could do that in one post, it would be an endless list. And moreover, everyone has different needs, even in their mobility (shoulders, ankles, hips, etc.) strength (hamstrings, shoulders, etc.) and balance (stand on one foot, stand on tiptoes with eyes closed, balance on a beam, etc.). So to truly learn more, you can continue to read my blog, look for more information on your specific needs with resources such as the internet, or even visit a personal trainer like myself and start preparing for living well the rest of your life!

Stay Fit.

Try telling this man "That's just a part of getting old." Don't let someone else's sorry excuse become your "reasoning" to live a poorer life. Squat, jump, run, lunge, pull, push. LIVE. Until the very day you stop, LIVE.

Train for Life

Greetings Fitters!
 The topic of discussion tonight is one of my strongest beliefs. If you have read my post on Opinions and Beliefs, you'll know that I believe that in life, you should have many strong opinions on different aspects, but you should have two to three definite beliefs. One of my beliefs for the very brief time I'm on this earth is this:

Train for Life.

There are two deductions for this motto of mine, and they are both (to me) insurmountable in their importance, and intrinsically necessary for an individuals quality of life. Here they are.

1) Train in exercise for the tasks you need to accomplish in the rest of your life: Very seldom will you find yourself needing to lift something to your shoulder by sitting down on a perfect seat, squaring up your shoulders, and curling the object. So why would you wish to spend so much time training this movement while exercising (the bicep curl)?

I believe the reason is hidden in the evolution of fitness in a health club or gym setting. Prior to the era of desk jobs and technological booms, the individuals inhabiting the fitness facilities were bodybuilder-minded individuals. Enter the 9-5pm cubicle worker. They know they need to work out, but what to focus on? "Well, I want to....be healthy? That person looks healthy. So I need to look  healthy to be healthy." What's the quickest way to "look healthy"? Body-building exercises. But this doesn't really make us healthy, it just makes us look more muscular. Is it your aspiration to have chiseled pecs? Or do you want to carry your baby through the mall without your lower back hurting and your shoulder feeling like a dead weight for two weeks?

So don't waste 4-6 hours in your week learning how to lift a bar over your head with half range of motion and flared our elbows (military press) while you're sitting on your kiester, unless you really just care about having "super big" shoulders. Spend time instead learning how to brace your spine while holding a load over your head, with stable, externally rotated shoulders so that when you have to take that bag of cat food off the top shelf, you don't tweak your lower back and injure your shoulder.

2) Move in a way that will allow you to continue exercising and being fit for your entire life span: Don't settle for good enough, and don't suffer through a pain because "I've always had a little twinge in my shoulder". A twinge is a twinge, and what it is is your body telling you something is wrong. A twinge turns into an ache, which turns into an injury, which turns into irreversible tissue and joint damage. And you only have 1-2 of everything (knees, shoulders, hips, spine). Once you wear it down, it's GONE. It isn't going to go away over night, and it isn't going to be a quick fix to move perfectly. But there are countless ways to keep your workouts intense without exacerbating an injury. Rest the injury, work on mobility so it works properly, and keep on being fit.

Tell 64 year old Greg here that a lack of mobility and strength is "just a part of being old." You'll have to wait until he puts down his 190 lb. Clean and Jerk (that means he took it from the ground to over his head).

 So check the ego at the front door, and move in a way that is going to allow you to do so for a looooong time. There's no point in wearing yourself down in your early years, just to ruin your quality of life for your last 20-30 years. There are 85 year old people jumping, heavy back squatting, running marathons, etc. They are no different from you except they didn't accept pain and poor movement. Make a good decision to improve your quality of life now to continue it into your hundreds. If it hurts, fix it. (By the way, pain medicine/advil/aleve is not fixing it, it just masks the symptom of pain so you continue your poor movement...fix the movement)

So there it is folks. Train for Life. Do what you do, do it well, and continue to do it until the day you leave us. What is this going to guarantee you do your entire life? You guessed it.

Stay Fit.



P.S. Remember, you aren't alone. If you don't know how to train specifically for the things going on in your life, message me, Facebook me, email me at LucasWoody@gmail.com. My goal in life is to help people reach their fullest potential, whatever that may be. I'm here for you!

Use Your Bones for Support

Hey Fitters!

Good day today. Little early morning workout, a lot of business building at the Club, a great group session with some awesome athletes, and finished with a team meeting with the greatest personal training team in Lafayette! What did you do for your personal physical, occupational, or social development today?

Today, we are talking about your support system, your bones. Many people move their exercises with a muscle mentality. They believe that by being "strong" with their muscles, that they can power through any movement well. However, consider this. Our muscles are only as strong and supportive as the structures for which they are attached, or can create torque upon. Think about squatting on a solid rubber floor. It is easy to create torque in the feet, externally rotate the femur, and create massive force. Now consider doing it on ice. Much less force can be created. Now on top of water (yes, I know, you can't stand on water, point made!). The final point is that our muscles are really great levers, but they must have something on which they can act: your bones.

Your skeletal system is the support system of your body. The sole purpose of your muscles is to generate force on your bones to change the angles of your joints. This is why it is called the musculoskeletal system. These two systems work together to move your body. Without your skeletal system, you would be very mushy.

So what does this mean for exercise? You can only be proficient in a movement with muscular strength alone for so long before your posture and form cause faults and failures. Imagine a back squat (check out The Back Squat - Learn to Lift Well, I added a new video!) where you become very soft in your core, allowing your spine to be loose and flex or extend with no resistance. Very quickly you will fail to be able to lift the load. Now imagine that you are in a "somewhat proper" position, but still not quite perfect, but are trying to lift a maximal load. Again, being in a slightly compromised position can lead to failure. This is why it is imperative to learn how to use proper mechanics and posture throughout each of your movements to ensure not only that you can support maximum loads, but so that your body wears more slowly, due to it being in the ideal position to go through every day motions hundreds of thousands of times in the right way.

So don't just learn how to move hard, or move strong, learn to how to move WELL and in the right position. Check out the short video below to help demonstrate my point. And always,

Stay Fit.

The Back Squat - Learn to Lift Well

Greetings Fitters,
 Crazy Holidays! Lots of family, lots of food, lots of fun. And now, back to it. I hope you were able to work on your fitness throughout the craziness, I know I did!

Today I have to talk about some key points on the back squat. A lot of people avoid the back squat for a lot of reasons:

1) They saw the big guy get red faced, screaming as he tries to stand up with 500 lbs, and figured it is too much work or too intimidating.

2) It takes a lot of technique, and isn't worth the time.

3) They haven't had any instruction to do it well.

4) They have been injured from the movement before.

These are legitimate excuses to have caution when dealing with the back squat, but no reason at all to avoid it completely! The back squat can be very technical, but recall that so is running, but we spend a lot less of a proportion of technique training to actual running. Injury can occur from back squatting easily, but so can getting out of bed incorrectly, or bending over to pick up a grandchild. Moving well and learning proper technique can save you in any movement, including this one. And I'll admit the guy screaming over a quarter ton on his back is slightly intimidating, but there's no reason whatsoever for you to try that, so why worry?

Here is a short list of reasons why back squatting will assist you in the every day routine:

1) Learn how to move up and down with a load on your back (i.e. moving safely while carrying a child)

2) Create strength synergistically in your leg muscles, through full range of motion, that can transfer to almost all other movements (running, jumping, lunging, etc.)

3) Back squats allows the biggest capacity to move the most weight while dealing with any restrictions in mobility (i.e. you can move a large load in a back squat that may be impossible in an overhead squat. NOTE: this does not mean do not work to create mobility for the front squat or overhead squat. I simply mean you can continue to gain strength through the back squat WHILE working on mobility for these other squats)

So now that we have a basic idea for the reasoning behind back squatting, let's learn a little bit about how to back squat well. Here are some major points of performance.

These first three are more for back squats specifically, in that they deal with having a barbell on your back.

1) Keep the upper back tight - Start by externally rotating the shoulders by "breaking"  the bar apart with your hands. Also pinch the shoulder blades together, and keep this tightness in the shoulders as you move through the squat.

2) Find a good position on the shoulders - This is a mixture of comfort and shoulder mobility. Find a place where you can keep the bar on you shoulders, can keep your shoulders externally rotated, and pinched back. (for me, this is about a thumb's length wider than my shoulders.

3) Unrack and step back with as good of technique as the actual squat - This is often neglected, but many injuries in weight lifting occur in transitional periods (i.e. racking the barbell, lifting a dumbbell off the rack, trying to sit up with weight in the hands). Get your heels directly under the barbell, and with an upright torso, stand the bar up. Then step back very diliberately with each foot. Use the same sequence each time (starting with left or right, then following with the opposite). you may try the step out process with an empty bar, just to ingrain the neuromuscular pattern in your head so it becomes second nature. Try not to spend too much time fidgeting, as this can be tiring under heavy loads.

These next steps are the same for every type of squat, including air squats, front squats, and overhead squats.

4) Keep the midline braced - See my post "Core, Do Core, Use the Core.....What is Core Again?"
 With the squat, this means keeping a slight lumbar arch (lower back arch), as the first fault seen in the spine is a rounding of the whole back.

5) Initiate the squat with hips/hamstrings - This means don't start squatting by letting your knees fall forward, but by sending your hips (or hamstrings) back. Think sitting back in a chair. It may help to think about keeping your weight in your heels, although it is important to keep the whole foot down.

6) Squat below parallel - This means your hip crease is below your knees (femur is below parallel to ground). Don't go crazy, but strive for depth. Why? GREAT question! Because life doesn't stop at a parallel squat, why should we? Train for life.

7) PUSH YOUR KNEES OUT! - See pictures below. Your knees need to at the least be tracking in line with your toes (which should be pointing straight). If they are a little wider, no biggie. It is much better for them to be a little wide then valgus, or caving in (a slew of knee problems arise from this).  Make sure you are actively pushing out both coming down and going up.

How can you focus on this? A couple of cues seem to help a lot of people:

• Screw your feet in the ground - this creates external rotation in the upper leg, allowing the knees to move outward
• Split the ground - this assists with the torque created in the legs, and furthers the "pushing knees out" process
• Knees out! - have someone press against the outside of your knee (unloaded) and actively push against their hand. You can also wrap a band around your knees (again, with an unloaded squat) and push against the tension.

One of my heroes, Kelly Starrett, demonstrating valgus "knees in" squat, vs. knees out.

So keep these tips in mind. Get out there and start practicing these points of performance. NOTE: If you are having trouble performing the tips I gave for all types of squats (#4-7), work on these FIRST, and then add the weight later. Then, when you have found some problems/restrictions/issues with your squat, I want to hear about them! Tell me what is going on in the comments section, and I will be more than happy to help you start perfecting your squat. I can PROMISE you there are thousands of people with the same issues, you just may be the first with the courage to admit it, and do something about it! Be willing to work on yourself. It can only help you do one thing.

Stay Fit.

Core, Do Core, Use the Core.....What is Core Again?

Welcome back!
 I hope you all are doing well, and you have overcome the troubles we have had recently here in our area from the storms, if you are nearby. My wife and I were fortunate to only lose power for an hour or so, and we were very fortunate to be able to house some friends who had lost power for a few days. Our hearts go out to any who have lost more. Let me know if there is any aid we can give.

Let's talk about the mystical core! The previous philosophy on the core in years past is that it was made up of:

1) The abs
2) the things on the side of your abs (aka obliques, aka love handles)

I credit this to the fact that when people think of "pretty muscles", they think of the 6-pack abs (because those people with minimal body fat can show their abs well, ergo abs=fitness). Luckily for the human race, we are starting to see (be it ever so minor) a subtle shift into function over aesthetics. For that reason, we must look at the core for what it is, a conglomerate of synergistically functioning parts. Because they work together, you can gain the greatest results in the shortest period (in regards to function), generate the greatest force, move the biggest loads, etc. if you train these muscles together.

Really think about what your rectus abdominis (6-pack muscles) are designed to do. They are meant to flex your spine....that's it! So by training them independently, you are going to get phenomenal at doing two things. 1) Sitting up HARD. 2) Stooping over. If you are looking to just develop these muscles, that's fine, but it's not functional. When you go to lift a heavy load overhead (like those fence sections I was lifting at the Boy's and Girls Club (see post titled Physical Activity vs. Exercise), those underactive lower back muscles are going to fail, and you just picked up a one-way ticket to Paintown. So train those muscles together, so they can work together.

Core muscles. I would add the quads, which are vital hip flexors.

So why is it really so important to have a strong core? (I told you, I'm a Why Guy) Your core is created to do one thing, and one thing it does well: protects your spine. The human body goes through great lengths to protect your CNS (Central Nervous System). From a thick skull, to blackouts, a strong core, and more. So bracing your core is really designed to prevent your spine for over-flexing (bending forward) or over-extending (bending backward).  What does it feel like when you lift something over your head and your lower back arches? This is over-extension, and from my experience, it sucks!

Now a lot of things are going on when your spine over-extends/flexes, especially in your shoulder region or hip region, too much to talk about in one post. But there is actually a proper way by which avoid it, and brace your spine. While many people think it is a simple "sucking in the belly button", there is a step-by-step process for doing so (thank you to Dr. Kelly Starrett, and his book Becoming a Supple Leopard, for this information):

1) Squeeze your glutes hard. This aligns your pelvis correctly.
2) Pull the front of your ribcage down. This aligns your ribcage over your pelvis (like stacking two soup cans, instead of letting them sit at different angles. If you stepped on stacked soup cans, no big deal. Two off-angled cans? You bet they will collapse).
3) Now you can "pull your bellybutton into your spine", or tighten your abdominals (all of them, including deep abdominals, and obliques). This locks both the pelvis and the ribcage into place, and tightens the muscles around the spine.
4) Finally, pull the shoulders back, then down. This activates the scapulae, and makes the shoulders stable. You can now relax the glutes, keeping the abdominal muscles engaged.

This is the process you should use before each major lift. the heavier the weight, the harder the "squeeze". But don't forget, a braced spine is necessary for all movements in life: walking, running, sitting, squatting, pushups, etc. You don't NOT have a spine after you are done lifting (you can't just throw it in your locker when you are done with the workout). Learn how to use your core well in all aspects of life!

Try the bracing sequence the next time you are about to sit, and see how it makes your core/back/shoulders feel. My guess is tired (they aren't used to being activated so well), but MUCH more stable. And that's what it's all about people. Moving (and not moving) well. This is how we stay young for 100 years. This is how we

Stay Fit.

Want to see abs? Eat well! Abs only show after we remove the subcutaneous fat above them.

Tonight's dinner - Yellowfin tuna, sauteed squash and zucchini, and lettuce. Finished off with some almonds. Lean meats and veggies, nuts and seeds!

Physical Activity vs. Exercise

Hello All,
 Long day on Saturday, so I am making it up this morning! Started off with my wife and a great group from the Weight Loss Challenge at my club going out to the local Boy's and Girls Club to help tear down an old fence. We had a good time, and it felt good knowing we were helping out the community. It also reminded me that it is good to be fit! All of the heavy lifting over our heads, twisting and turning with the large fence sections would have been a lot harder had I not been physically prepared! There were a few times leaning over with the boards that I was grateful for strong legs so I did not hurt my back.

A great team doing a great cause!

Anything can be done with the right people and a big hammer!

After that demolition duty, I got a call from a buddy of mine to go play a game (or 6) of paintball. Run through the woods and shoot at people without anybody dying? I'm in! It was a great time as well.

At the end of the day, you can bet I was tired! Although I am a little antsy from not exercising, I was still able to stay active. To help explain the differnce (in my own terms), exercise is a routine, designed and structured period of time focused on improving your overall fitness. Physical activity is all the other stuff (from getting out of bed, to sitting and typing. For most people, increased physical activity can be a great way to stay healthy. If you are able to incorporate (more physical) physical activity into your daily lives regularly, it can go a long way towards calorie burning, strengthening, increasing range of motion (if you work in that range of motion), and most likely getting a lot more done throughout the day! As long as you are eating right, and still incorporating exercise into your lives, physical activity can be a true lifesaver. So get out there, rake those leaves, clean that house, volunteer, walk that dog, live that life!

Now I'm going to go workout before my head explodes! Have a great Sunday readers.

Stay Fit.

Running Does Not Equal Fitness

Now settle down!
 Before I get into it, I want to make something clear. Ironmen, Ironwomen, runners, marathon enthusiasts, and weekend warrior racers are all fit people. No beef there. But the misconception that the masses have with running and fitness being mutually exclusive, and that it is impossible to find one without finding the other, is irrefutably wrong! You can by all means use running as a avenue to find health, but by no means is it THE means to an end.

 So why is it that so many people find themselves strapping on their tennies and heading out for a morning jog? The answer is in the question! Running is so easy accessible (you simply need your shoes and an open area), that people misconstrue this concept to the point that they believe running is a simple, nontechnical exercise. And unfortunately for the masses, this is not the case at all. A study in SportsMed (van Mechelen W.), found that the rate of injuries for runners is between 36-56%. That means that in a group of you, that guy, and that other guy, one of you is getting injured this year. To put that in perspective, Runner USA found that in 2008 alone, there were 35,904,000 runners in the U.S. Using the percentages from the SportsMed literature, that would mean between 12,925,440 and 20,106,240 people in the the U.S. get injured by running a year (there are 6,537,000 people in Indiana). So I am saying running is stupid, right? NO! But it can be much more technical than people give it credit. Respect the running, and learn how to do it properly. MOVE WELL (see previous posts).

So what DOES = fitness (i.e. what makes you fit)? Running is a part of it, but only a fraction. Running can help you with your cardiovascular endurance, and even stamina. But there is more to fitness than that. You are most fit when you increase your work capacity in each of ten aspects of fitness:

What aspects of fitness are being used here?

Flexibility
Balance
Speed
Coordination
Agility
Accuracy
Cardiovascular Endurance
Stamina
Strength
Power


Are triathlon/marathon runners amazing athletes? Of course! But to become someone who is truly competitive in the sport (like, 1st, 2nd, 3rd place, getting paid to do it), they must sacrifice many of these fitness characteristics.  Many endurance runners have jump heights of a few inches, or can lift very minimal loads from the ground.

Does that mean don't pursue an act which brings you joy (if running is said act)? Definitely not. Run away. But if you have no intentions of winning these races, and use them only to test your mettle, and see what you are capable of, then don't sacrifice your ability to function in your day to day life. Practice and train for these other aspects of fitness. You'll find that life gets easier, and a heck of a lot more fun, when you are a more balanced, capable individual. Stay busy, stay focused, stay happy, and above all...

Stay Fit.

Pain is the LAST Step

Hello all!

   Welcome back, I hope you had a terrific Thursday! It was one thing to another today, meetings, sessions, food, meetings, donating blood, seminars, and meetings. But I didn't forget about you all. Tonight I want to talk about our acceptance of pain, and my inability to accept our acceptance (and perhaps your acceptance of my inability to accept your acceptance, should you accept it).

I avoid pain with foam rolling. This is how puppy Kratos helps.

 It follows somewhat my latest post about poor movement, and the implications of dysfunctional kinesiology. When we move poorly, our bodies tell us by hurting. We hurt chronically, it becomes a natural part of our daily routine, and we accept it. But pain is a response. It is a symptom of our dysfunctional movement. When you have a runny nose, is that the beginning of your flu? No! Your body is already wracked with the virus, and your immune system is just starting to show the signs. Pain is a similar symptom. You move poorly, this puts strain on your joint/ligament/tendon/muscle/nerve, your body responds: inflammation, tenderness, soreness, pain, Pain, PAIN! And when you continue to let the nagging irritation in your joint go unaddressed, injuries ensue. Rotator cuff tears, meniscus injuries, tendonitis.


So what to do? Step 1: Stop the movement that caused the pain. If you tried a new workout/movement, and you hurt later, discontinue that movement until you can learn to do it correctly. Step 2: Learn to move correctly (see my last blog, which will tell you to see me). Step 3: There is no Step 3. Moving correctly will cure your ailment. If your pain has not subsided and dissipated within a few days, you know damage has been done, and you should most likely see a doctor. There is no such thing as "working through the pain"! Pain is a Giant Red Blinking Light that is saying "System Malfuction", that you are using your available machinery (muscles and joints) outside normal, factory recommended usage (proper movement mechanics).

So don't wait until it hurts, don't accept the hurt, and don't work through the hurt. DON"T HURT! Move right, and be happy. And always always ALWAYS.


Stay Fit.

P.S. Fun fact, P.S. stands for Post Script.

P.S.S. Please add comments at any and all times to my blog. It feels good to know someone is reading, and outside opinions are the only way true education can be found. Without testing and combating thought, there can be no evolution of knowledge. So get to it!

Lunges aren't bad for your knees.....BAD lunges are bad for your knees.

Welcome back!
 One comment I hear a lot which is completely unacceptable (in my little world) is "I can't do that movement, it hurts my (fill in the blank)." Now I understand the implications of an irreversible injury (i.e. complete cartilage breakdown), but barring that, there is absolutely no reason why any movement/joint should ever hurt, twinge, ache, etc. If the movement is done in the intended (and available) range of motion for that joint, and done with appropriate mechanics, it should be pain free, and will be efficient as well. In fact, the very movements you avoid because they "worry" you are the same owns we should probably be focused on! Now, some days we may not be able to go through full range of motion, but we should be asking the most range we can safely out of our joints each day, and working on our mobility so that we don't seize up like an unoiled tin-man when we are 35!

"I can't do a full squat, it hurts my joints."

"Yeah, me either. We should stick with movements for people our age."

And coming back to the cartilage breakdown (or some other form of debilitating chronic injury). Unless you were born with a hereditary predisposition for the problem (not "my father and his father and his father were all carpenters, so we all have bad backs", I'm talking deep, internal hardwiring malfunctions!), there's a really good chance that poor movement got that person into the problem in the first place. But is it too late? NO! Our bodies were put together to last 100+ years, and do so well. Poor movement each and every day takes away years (like running the car with no oil). The longer you do it, the more damage that can occur. But put some oil in that car now, and it can run a whole lot longer! You owe it to yourself to move well, to learn to move well, because you move every day. You might as well learn  to do it the right way! And I promise, every movement you make has a "right way" and a WHOLE bunch of "wrong ways". Walking, running, bending, sitting, standing, jumping, hopping, stair-climbing, ladder-climbing, mountain-climbing, laying, lunging, sitting up, turning over, picking something up, and putting something down. Don't know how to move well? Read a book, watch some videos, or do the best thing you can do, hire someone who spends their entire life studying movement. When your car needs improved, you take it to a mechanic. When your body needs improved, you see someone like me. So after you drop that machine of yours off at the Body Shop (...really Lucas? Pathetic pun), remember to keep doing one thing for me.
 

Stay Fit.

Your body BEFORE good movement.

Your body AFTER good movement. (Man, you look goooood, I bet you deep squat, don't you?)