Oct 12

Fitness Preparation for an Event

One of our aspiring young coaches recently completed an ultra-endurance event known as the Spartan Race.  This is an event that includes eight miles of professionally designed obstacles one would see in a military boot.  The only difference is a creative twist with the addition of obstacles including long distances of monkey bars, ice cold water baths to swim through, and the gift of throwing a javelin at a target at the end of the race in a physically exhausted state.  When Tom told me about this event, I looked at him in a bewildered expression and asked him if he had received a blow to the head over the weekend.  Personally, I wouldn’t volunteer to run eight miles through an army boot camp on steroids.  However, whenever Tom spoke about this event, the exuberance in his voice became more concentrated and you could see the endorphins flood through his eyes as the Spartan Race approached.

In our down time between conducting personal training sessions, Tom shared when his next planned run would be.  Five miles yesterday, eight miles at the end of the day, or a few miles before he would train clients in the morning later in the week.  Meeting his running goals every week was at the top of his priority list.  Tom could also be heard asking both clients and fellow coaches when training sessions would end to ensure he could have the gym to himself to devote time toward his workouts.  Through my peripheral vision while performing administrative work behind the desk, small Tupperware containers of salad, thinly sliced chicken breast, and nuts could be seen neatly stashed in the corner so Tom could get frequent feedings of lean protein and veggies.  There was no doubt, Tom took preparing for this event seriously.

After Tom successfully completed the Spartan Race, he shared the details.  The event was performed on the beautiful Monterey peninsula.  He and a group of friends joined him in this chaotically fun activity.  There were multiple memorable moments he said he would never forget throughout the various obstacle and interactions with his peers as he went through the event.

Four hours of aerobic activity through a maze of obstacles challenging the will of the human body paired with eight miles of running doesn’t sound like the most appealing of activities.  However, if you’ve met Tom, it would be visually apparent that he’s already in exceptional physical condition.  Tom certainly wasn’t born that way though.  There were years of participating in sports and group recreational physical activities Tom has been a part of throughout his life that he has devoted time to prepare his body for.  This example of having a goal event to achieve promoted a certain desire to motivate Tom to diligently work toward.  Could it be the hours of running throughout the week, the four consistent days in the gym, or the pristine dietary decisions that gave Tom the body of a well-polished athlete?  Or was it the motivation, desire, and willingness to be able to complete this short-term goal that gifted Tom the mental, physical, and emotionally energy to adherently comply to his lifetime fitness efforts?  These tactics gave Tom a body that could endure a significant amount of physical demands.

The desire to work toward a short-term goal is a productive tool to stay in shape.  Additionally, signing up with a team of like-minded individuals offers support from those peers to stay motivated and be a supportive teammate.  Adherence to an exercise routine, eating the right foods, getting enough sleep, and avoiding copious amounts of indulgent foods and alcohol undoubtedly forge a solid foundation to a healthy body.  However, these tactics are challenging to muster up and complete without a reason.  When we have something to look forward to that requires a refined level of fitness and expectation to perform competently, the motivation and desire to perform well for that reason makes these challenging fitness decisions more of a gift for yourself and team and less of a task.

Healthy and fitness plateaus happen to the best of us.  A great tool to reignite the fire to train for something can be promoted with the goal of getting in shape for a physical activity event with a group of peers sharing the same interest.  Instead of just getting into shape, use the motivation to stay in shape for physical challenges as motivation to continue practicing exercise and living a healthy, active, and strong life.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Oct 07

We all have enough time for exercise

Time is a piece of reality in life we can’t fully control.  After reading the previous sentence, that moment will be stored in the archives of history along with the many other events we have participated in throughout our lives.  The idea of time can be limiting for us.  We have twenty-four hours in our day to interact with the world.  This could mean allocating eight to twelve hours working toward our jobs, making sure our children are getting to school and sports practices on time or running grocery store errands.  Before we know it, the end of the day approaches and we are met with the darkness of the night.  We only have a few hours to eat dinner and get some sleep until we prepare for the next day.

A barrier to achieve fitness goals we hear from our personal training community is the obstacle of time.  People have expressed their fitness is negatively impacted due to the amount of time necessary to devote toward exercise.  This is a challenging topic because many normal functioning humans spend a significant number of hours in their week dedicated to their profession.  We all understand the importance of being the best version of ourselves for our jobs that financially support ourselves and our family.  However, the most important person responsible for these responsibilities is commonly overlooked.  That person is the human we look at in the mirror every time we wake up in the morning.

Diminishing returns play a significant role in our maximum potential to support our body, emotions, and mind.  Our goal to spend ten hours of unblinking energy to accomplish the daily task list for the day is an admirable attribute.  This list will undoubtedly fill back up after the day is over.  The left-over items on the yesterday’s task list will be anxiously awaiting your attention when the rooster crows at the break of dawn the next as the sun rises.   Once our eyes open back up, we shower, eat our breakfast, and get dressed, yesterday’s unfinished tasks are still there waiting to be tended to.  Spending time on the to-do list everyday will make for a productive and successful day.  However, if there isn’t any time laid out to focus on self-care, the prolonged hours of labor inflict wear and tear on the body and mind in the form of increased stress hormone concentration circulating throughout our bloodstream, neglected healthy dietary decisions, and loss of fitness throughout the body.

We can achieve the benefits of exercise by completing some consistent body weight exercises on a daily basis.  A term we call “consistent practice” are a few simple yet effective exercises we include to our personal training client’s fitness homework programs.  These consistent practice exercises consist of exercises that won’t exceed 30 seconds per set that can be done any time throughout the day.  Three exercises that stimulate a large surface area of muscle is chosen to be performed at any time throughout the day.  Example of low learning curve exercises could be the body weight squat, straight arm plank, and incline push up.  The squat covers a large group of lower extremity exercises while the plank and push up cover a substantial area of upper extremity and assistance core exercises.

A preview of how these consistent practice exercises are performed might look like this:

  1. After waking up in the morning and prepare hop in the shower, it takes a moment for the hot water to warm up. Perhaps this would be a good time to perform ten pushups on the bathroom counter.
  2. Now that you are squeaky clean after a refreshing shower, you might make your way to your dresser. Before putting your socks on, this might be a perfect time to complete ten repetitions of body weight squats.
  3. About to the head out the door for a thirty-minute commute to work? There’s always time for a thirty second straight arm plank.  Get down and post your arms on the ground for ten to thirty seconds to get the muscles of the upper extremities and core stimulated.

These intermittent exercises throughout the day performed in short spurts of limited time apply muscular stress throughout the body.  Performing these simple to exercises on a consistent schedule trains the body to adapt to additional demand imposed upon it.  The result is a momentary increase in stimuli in the muscle, a slight increased heart rate response, and a much-needed break for our minds that preparing to endure the tasks we will conquer in the day.

When there isn’t time to get to the gym for a concentrated exercise session on a jam-packed day, don’t worry about it.  Performing simple and effective exercises for just one set randomly dispersed throughout the day elicits similar body strengthening and stress reducing results.  It’s true that we all only have 24 hours in our day to get things done.  However, we all have 5 minutes somewhere throughout the day as well.  Take some time out for yourself to fit in exercise to assist us in being elite performing humans and getting more out of our twenty-four hours.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Sep 20

How Does Stretching Make you FEEL?

Flexibility and mobility are terms that contribute to an efficient, pain free, and productive body. Functions such as reaching over the head to acquire objects, bending down to pick objects off the ground, or rotating the torso to get in and out of cars are common movements that require joints to be able to move without any impedance.  Imagine a world in which getting into the car took five minutes because of back and hip stiffness?  These obstacles in flexibility wouldn’t put us in the best of moods.  Changing the angle of the thighs, flexing at the torso, and bending the knees are functions we utilize daily.   We shouldn’t have to put extra effort into something that we perform frequently in our daily lives.  The inability to conduct a normal human function doesn’t make us feel very good.

Throughout one of my internship experiences as an apprentice collegiate strength and conditioning coach, I was up to my ears in books, peer reviewed journal articles, and research projects that covered a wide array of human performance.  Athletes of multiple sports entering the human performance complex acted as guinea pigs for the elite strengthening and conditioning coaches I mentored under.  The coaches were hard-nosed gym rats who acquired their PhD and made it their life’s work to improve a human’s physical activity via exercise.  It was safe to say, these coaches were very in tune with tactics that reinforced the body’s development to its maximum potential.

During a training session with one of the college teams, we began with a long static stretching protocol.  The athletes would line up, sit down on the ground, and touch their toes.  They held this position and a few other stretching positions for 3 minutes each pose.  I recall an exercise physiology lecture that covered the difference between static and dynamic stretching.  The different modes of stretching were beneficial in particular applications of movement.  The content we covered touched on the benefits of dynamic stretching over static stretching before exercise and sports specific performance.  Dynamic stretching was defined as momentarily stretching muscles and returning it to its normal baseline position.  A standing toe touch is a great example.  To perform the standing toe touch, keep the leg extended at the knee and kick your leg up toward the ceiling and reach your hand out as if you are touching your toe.  A momentary stretch in the hamstrings should be experienced.  In contrast, a static stretching example for the hamstring is the “sit and reach” stretch.  To perform, the participant is in a seated position reaching for their toes for a prolonged period of time.  This static stretch of the hamstrings should be held for a minute or longer to achieve flexibility improvements.

The content my exercise physiology professor discussed is how static stretching decreases force production due to the lengthening of muscle fibers.  When muscles fibers lengthen, they lose their spring like abilities.  Why would you want to lose “springiness” before doing explosive athletic movements?  I shared this knowledge with one of the strength and conditioning coaches.  After he stared me at with a face as cold as ice, he exclaimed: “Research says lots of things.  But these stretches make the athletes feel good.”  He added, “They can throw around 300 lbs. of weight at a time and play to their maximum potential every game with a smile on their face.  Science says a lot of interesting things, but it doesn’t consider how my athletes feel psychologically, mentally, and emotionally before a tough workout, practice, or game.”  This coach made a a great point.  A collegiate athlete with a full-ride scholar ship taking fifteen units and having to perform at an elite level on a division one college sports program puts a lot of pressure on a person.   The coaches were definitely onto something when they put an emphasis on making sure the athletes were a good state of mind instead of strictly improving their sports performance with the most cutting-edge research.

Research supporting evidence that particular data will influence one thing or the other.  However, when it comes to living life as an active human, it’s important to go to what makes a person feel good.  If a person takes a shot of pickle juice every morning and they swear it gives them enough energy to roto-till a yard, then it sounds like something is working right.  Who knows what peer reviewed research articles says about the correlation between pickle juice and muscular physiology?  If your routines are helping you feel better throughout your day, keep them going to instill a ritual of helping you feel at your maximum physical potential.  Sure, scientific data is always going to benefit us.  However, it’s the traditions we practice that make us feel good that scientific data doesn’t necessarily support. Feeling free of stress and in a fluid state of mind helps us live happier, healthier, and stronger lives.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Sep 06

Healthy Dinners: Electronic Free Meals

Long days at the office require rest and relaxation.  Waking up at the early hours of the morning, commuting to job sites, and devoting energy and time to your trade requires significant psychological, emotional, and physical bandwidth.  As we make the journey home following a productive day, we look forward to seeing the inside of our homes.  Putting your feet up while relaxing in the recliner, getting filled in on how your spouse or child’s day was, or zoning out to watch a few shows on the television sounds appealing.  As we devote hours to other tasks throughout the day, we expend a tremendous number of calories, which leaves us hungry at the end of the day.  As a staple in our human rituals over the course of our existence, dinner has been the most potent end of day tool to help us relax and prepare to hit the hay.  Dinner is a time to wind down and prepare for six to eight hours of slumber before we wake up to seize the day again as the sun rise awaits us tomorrow.

Dinner, or supper time, occurs when the sun descends in the horizon.  The lights turn on around the inside of the house, the sounds of cars driving down our streets dissipates, and birds stop chirping.  The decreased stimuli create a quiet, soothing, and relaxing climate.  Additionally, as we sit down to enjoy a plate of food at dinner, we might be accompanied by our spouse, kids, or other family members.  Our pets can even join us for dinner, making this a great conclusion to an eventful day.  Fortunately, this is an opportunity to share experiences and interact with the people we are closest to.  Cacophony and stimuli of a standard workday are momentarily put on hold during dinner. People at the dinner table, and the plate of food in front of you, offer a moment of peace.

Few parts of our day allow us to catch up with our loved ones.  It’s common for partners in a romantic relationship to work separate jobs away from each other for eight to ten hours per day and be void of any communication between each other.  Kids attend school, play sports, and hang out with their friends until they arrive home.  They might spend more time getting homework completed and study for tests.  If dinner is the only time to be in the same room before life presents the next day full of tasks, perhaps limiting distractions can aid us in resting up and resetting for tomorrow.

Turning off the television for fifteen to thirty minutes won’t hurt anything.  Setting cell phones to “do not disturb” and laying them to rest in a different room isn’t the end of the world.  They aren’t going anywhere.  We have already been exposed to a day’s worth of fast paced meetings, deadlines, talking on our phones, answering email, and conducting multiple conversations with others.  Our nerves and stress hormones are running rampant after a successful day of productivity.  Listening to the news, scrolling through social media, and answering texts impose more stimulus to a body already put through a marathon of being a productive human for our jobs and tasks throughout the day.

Dinner is a time to rest and digest, not a time for fight or flight.  We got off that flight the moment we clocked out of work and drove home.  Perhaps it would benefit our life to stay off of the flight of the never-ending fire hose stream of voicemails, text messages, social media feeds, and way too many news updates when we sit down for dinner.  Give the body a chance to decompress, sit still, and enjoy a moment to ourselves and with the people we love.  Perhaps we can turn the electronics off for just a moment to refresh yourself at dinner.  The text messages, social media, and news will be there when you finish that little bit of time at dinner.  I promise.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Aug 27

ABC’s: Feet, Stability, and Balance Exercises

Last week, we reviewed the young Olympic phenom, Simone Biles and her ability to display the extents at which the human body can move in various presentations of imbalance.  We concluded that Simone is a generational phenom of athletic performance that arises once a decade to set new world records in sports.  While the rest of the earth’s population is happy being able to get out bed and walk to their kitchen every morning, without much hinderance to our balance, we don’t notice how valuable balance is until we have it taken away.  Balance, proprioception, and coordination can be impacted by advancements in age, injury, or suboptimal fitness levels.  These scenarios to losing balance are curable though.  Our Olympic champion friend, Simone, has a rare set of skills.  However, she keeps the skills of elite balance because she practices and trains in a consistent manner.  Therefore, if we want to avoid decreases to our ability to have sufficient balance in our everyday lives, we need to adhere to a consistent practice schedule to maintain our balance we use in our everyday lives.

Balance can be defined as the ability to correct imbalances.  Presentations of imbalance can lead to unproductive and possibility harmful situations.  Tripping over a dog toy, uneven sidewalk, or a grandchild running rampantly in our direction of travel are some examples of random occurrences that lead into having to correct an unbalanced situation.  The loss of footing requires immediate correction of placing both feet in a centered positive to regain balance.  The ability to regain a balance in standing position after balance is disrupted seems simple enough.  However, this basic tactic can develop into a lost skill if left unpracticed.  It doesn’t take exceptionally long for a human body to plummet to the ground, like a tree being chopped down, when a foot is swept out from underneath a person.  The result produces a thud that not only echoes in sound, but that force sends a tremendous amount of energy throughout the body upon impact that can elicit significant damage.

We can prevent such a fall from loss of balance, due to tripping, by mindfully practicing tactics to improve reaction time, foot dexterity, coordination, and awareness.  A simple and effective tactic requiring twenty-six repetitions we conduct with our personal training clients is what we call “ABC foot writing.”  To perform, find a solid object to spot yourself in case you feel as if you will lose balance.  An edged wall, outdoor post, or refrigerator will suffice.  Safety first.  After you have found an object to spot yourself, lift one foot in the air.  Imagine your big toe is the tip of a Sharpee marker.  While keeping the foot elevated off the ground, trace the letters of the alphabet in the air, envisioning you are writing each letter in front of you on an imaginary piece of paper.  Once you have finished the alphabet on one of the feet, plant the foot you just exercised firmly on the ground and repeat on the other foot.

This practice is an efficient and effective way to improve balance, strengthen core muscles, and increase coordination of the feet and ankles.  By keeping the foot elevated and conducting the alphabet, the ankle joint, various metatarsal bones, and toes are moving in the motions of flexion, extension, circumduction, pronation, and supination.  These are all critically important movements involved in the performance on landing and balancing on each foot to establish optimal balance.  By keeping these motions present in the forefront of our mind, the feet are more likely to be prepared to correct a random presentation of imbalance.

Olympic athletes need to be elite performers at Olympic level events.  Time is devoted to ensuring they are able to perform at the Olympic level.  As the other ninety-nine percent of the general population, we need to be elite performers in avoiding falls and imbalance injuries.  Therefore, we need to practice for unbalancing scenarios regularly.  By performing just one set of writing the alphabet with our feet, we can contribute to fending off accidents due to loss of balance.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Aug 19

Why do I have poor balance?

The Olympic gymnastics anomaly, Simone Biles, put on another spectacle of elite human performance at the recent Olympic trials.  Events such walking along the balance beam with precise steps, like that of a dove hopping along a telephone line, seems as simple a task as brushing her teeth.  As she bounces off the ground to flip head over heels and turn thee-hundred and sixty degrees in the air, in what seems to be ten feet in the air, she lands with the grace of jaguar descending from a jungle treetop.  Not only can this elite athlete challenge the laws of physics, but she also follows her movements to a synchronized rhythm of dance and music as she moves her arms, turns her body in multiple directions, and poses during floor routines like a bird of paradise dances after a lifetime of practice.  Simone demonstrates important components to elite balance, coordination, and precision.  Sure, Simone may have pulled the “elite DNA” card as she developed in the womb that only a handful of humans in this world are fortunate enough to obtain.  However, if we look at the activities she practices, we can gather a few ideas on how the general population can improve their balance.

An important part of our warmup routine we conduct with our personal training clients includes a few movements requiring exercise participants to lift one leg from the ground while the other leg remains on the ground.  At the very beginning stages of exercise routines, clients will wobble around, wave their hands frantically, and attempt not to teeter over their non-stabilized leg and find the ground as they regain their comfortable state of balance.  Now that two feet are on the ground, balance gets re-established.  “Man, why is my balance so bad?”  We hear this often when clients are in the beginning stages of entering into a new exercise program.  We usually follow up with the questions, “How often do you perform balancing routines?”  “Do you play recreational sports, dance, or hike?”  A common answer to this question is, “Not as much as I should.” Or simply, “No.”

Balance can be interpreted into many things.  The ability to walk in a straight line unhindered, recovering after stubbing a toe on an uneven piece of pavement, or regaining center of gravity after turning around or getting up from the group rapidly.  Our Olympian friend, Simone, obliviously checked these boxes, and a few more, when applying to a be a human while in the waiting room at the womb.  She can perform these activities and many more at will.  However, for the remaining majority of the general population, we might have struggles with these presentations of imbalances.  A critically important skill to improve balance is the ability to correct our imbalances in an efficient manner.  As Simone gracefully soars through the air and lands on one foot like a snowflake landing on a twig of a spruce tree in the Canadian arctic, she is unhindered by any imbalances.  She demonstrates mastery of the ability to avoid imbalance from impeding her performance.

We can take a page out Simone’s book to apply to our own practice of improving balance.  We don’t need to be an Olympic qualifier to detect where our imbalances are.  As a realistic solution, approach imbalances at the root of what hinders balance.  Is walking in a straight line challenging?  Is the ability to stand on one leg for a prolonged period an issue?  Perhaps the fear of falling is present.  These common afflictions to our will never improve unless practiced.

Simone is a human prodigy that only appears once a decade.  However, her athletic ability is not the only component that offers her elite balance.  She studies her imbalances and refers to a coach who informs her what she needs to improve upon.  Most importantly, she takes the time out to address misbalancing situations and makes efforts to correct them.  Only a fair portion of the general population has elite athletic abilities who can demonstrate exceptional balance.  However, if we take the time to notice what hinders our balance throughout our everyday lives, we can lay some plans on how to improve our balance.  Next week, we’ll discuss some simple and effective balancing exercises that can immediately improve our balance to help us live happier, stronger, and healthier lives.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Aug 08

Healthy Knees and Strong Hips

A productive and enjoyable experience to our everyday lives is what most of us strive to achieve after we wake up in the morning.  A critically important factor to a fulfilling day is our physical well-being.  We can have a to-do list with the power to supercharge our world.  However, we cannot make these life-enhancing waves through a meticulously designed to-do list if we cannot move efficiently.  Our legs get us from point A to B in many more instance than we think.  We do not just use our automobiles to get us to important locations in life.  Let’s not forget about how important the structural integrity of our knees is to have a successful day.

Knees are complex hinge joints held together by an intricate matrix of connective tissues, muscles, ligaments, and tendons.  Ligaments attach bone to bone.  They aren’t as vascular as their neighbors, the muscles and tendons.  These important structures consist of cruciate ligaments that protect the knee joints from shifting foo far forward, backwards, or side to side as we walk, step up, or change directions.  A ligament’s lower blood supply makes healing from injuries take longer.  Therefore, excessive stress to theses knee ligaments is harmful to knee health.

Tendons connect muscles to bones.  They act as an attachment point to the bones as muscles contract to move the bones in a specific direction.  The hamstring, quadriceps, gluteal, abductors, and adductor muscles originate from the hip region.  These muscles move the leg in multiple directions including forward, backward, toward, and away from the midline of the body.  Insufficient strength in the hip joints leads to the brunt of the force placed on our knee from our activities throughout the day.  The knee joint isn’t designed to uphold as much force as the hip joint.  Focusing on the muscles that bracket the knee joint will prevent knee ligaments from getting damaged and prolong the functionality of the knee joint longer.

Wear and tear on the knee joint in debilitating on a physical, emotional, and psychological level.  There’s nothing more frustrating than having to walk at snail speed because of nagging knee pain.  Therefore, it’s valuable to understand that strengthening the muscles in the hip region will assist in even force distribution when walking, stepping up stairs, getting in and out of cars, or getting up and down from the ground.  Focusing on lower extremity specific exercises that target the glutes, hamstring, and quadriceps lay a sturdy foundation to support the knee.  Sufficient muscular density and strength in these three main muscle groups will not only aid in efficient every life activity, but also decrease the detrimental effects of arthritis and other degenerative bone afflictions.

Exercises such as squats, supine hip extensions, and inclined walking are simple and effective exercises to strengthen hip muscles.  An exercise prescription that can be easily followed is to perform the “ten, ten, ten” method.  Execute ten repetitions of squats, ten repetitions of hip extensions, and walk up a hill or inclined surface for ten minutes.  This can be done as little as once per week to efficiently strengthen hip muscles.  Weekly adherence to simple exercises such as these will strengthen hips to reinforce our knee joints.

Point A to point B is not just a commute to work or the grocery store.  It’s also getting out of bed, getting up and down from sitting, and doing activity around the house.  Strong and pain free knees are necessary to get us to those various points throughout our days.  Keep your knees healthy by ensuring the hips are activity strengthened and conditioned to endure a productive days’ worth of accomplishments.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Jul 29

Solving Sciatica Through Exercise

Back pain is no joke.  Limited movement, decreased functionality, and living with pain are just a few negative biproducts back pain imposes upon a person’s life.  Disruptions such as traumatic accidents, overuse, underuse, or injuries, to the structures surrounding the collections of bones comprising our spine, can turn a personal world upside down.  These words hit home when a friend mentioned he didn’t feel comfortable leaving his house due to sciatic pain in his lower back.  The sensation of lightning bolts shooting from his lower back downward to his lower extremities not only impeded his movement, but also marred his confidence so acutely that he had not ventured outside of his home for weeks.  Activities such as going to the store took a tremendous amount of physical, psychological, and emotional effort to overcome the pain he was experiencing.

Sciatica has a multitude of presentations.  It can be a slightly annoying hindrance.  In my friend’s case, sciatica dealt a paralyzing and crushing blow to standard everyday life routines.  The sciatic nerve system originates from a group of spinal root nerves budding from the opening between the lumbar vertebral joints in the lower back.  This network of nerves braids together and forms the sciatic nerve that runs down the posterior aspect of the thigh to the heel of the foot.  These nerves can be impeded by shifted vertebrae, tight muscles, or distorted connective tissues surrounding the membrane of the nerves.  The sciatic nerve that runs down the leg is huge.  During my studies as an anatomy and physiology student, we observed the sciatic nerve’s physical appearance in cadavers.  This nerve has the diameter of an extension cord you would find at your local Home Depot.  Therefore, any sort of compression on a large nerve will equate to large amounts of pain.

Compressive forces on these nerves can be caused by vertebrae narrowing their spaces which the spinal root nerves pass through.  Any sort of spinal compression contributes to disruptive pressure on the spinal root nerves.  Additionally, one of the biggest culprits contributing to sciatic pain is caused by tight gluteal muscles pressing down on the nerve in the buttocks region.  In particular, the piriformis muscle, one of the deepest groups of gluteal muscles responsible for hip movement.  The piriformis runs directly over the top of the sciatic nerve.  If the piriformis becomes inflamed, pressure will be applied to the sciatic nerve.

As I listened to my friend’s frustration regarding his sciatica symptoms, he mentioned how he wished he could go back to his everyday life activities of gardening, working on his car, and various projects around the house.  I asked him how much exercise he participates in throughout the week.  He let me know that he visits a local gym every now and again.  Curious, I asked him what his exercise routine was, before he injured his back, consisted of.  He replied, “I dabble with the weight machines and hang out on the treadmill.” I then asked if he ever included some simple body weight exercises such as squats, pushups, or planks in his routine.  “What’s a plank?” he replied.  Without delving in to deeply to the contributing factors of what may have produced these symptoms of sciatica, I could derive that a lack of an organized and purposeful exercise routine contributed to his painful story of sciatica.  It’s unfortunate that we discovered this too late.  He was exercising using a few pieces of equipment at his local gym, but he had lacked a program that could help prevent injury and increase functional mobility to his lower back and hips.  If he had a structured routine with the knowledge on how to prevent such an injury, perhaps this undesirable experience could have been avoided.

There’s nothing wrong with using exercise machines at a local gym.  In fact, more people need to join local gyms and embrace exercise as a critical component of their livelihood.  However, sciatica along with many other dysfunctions in the body are caused by a lack of direction in an exercise routine.  Choosing exercises with the purpose of decreasing the likelihood of debilitating injuries is critically important to living a happy, productive, and pain free life.  Squats, pushups, and planks utilize multiple muscle groups responsible for reinforcing the muscular architecture of an optimally functioning human body.  Now the trick is to identify what exercise gives the best bang for your buck.  These exercises have a small learning curve and are potently effective toward decreasing neuromuscular disfunctions such as sciatica.  Tune in next week for part two of some simple, yet effective, exercises to add to your fitness routine that will significantly decrease the likelihood of sciatica and other painful symptoms in the body.

 

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Jul 12

BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)

“I have a few big, hairy, audacious goals.”  These profound adjectives presented before the word “goals” caught my attention as I was meeting with a new personal training client.  “I call them BHAGs.  I use them as a tool to achieve my sales quota for my job.  If I don’t set those goals for myself, I underperform.  And I don’t want to get fired.  So, why not set my fitness goals the same way?”  Impressed by his serious approach towards achieving his goals, I was able to develop an effective set of tactics for this client because he already had a foundation established to meet his goals.  We simply needed to sit down, grab a pencil, and conduct an interview to collect and document how he was going to reach these benchmarks.

The desire to improve one’s fitness can be hindered by emotions of frustration, sadness, or even anger. “Why aren’t I losing weight?”  “This meal plan makes me feel miserable.”  “I’ve tried everything.”  These are a few examples of phrases that are caused by the trials of achieving challenging fitness goals.  It’s relatively easy to complain, berate, or make excuses when confronted with uncomfortable situations.  However, taking time out for yourself, being quiet, remaining physically still for a few moments, and recording thoughts takes effort.   Circling back to the example of the client who wanted to establish his BHAGs, treating our fitness goals just like a decision to generate money and keep our job can put us in a potently effective growth mindset.  In order to do so, we need to retrieve goals we value the most, document them, and develop an action plan to accomplish them.  Here are a few simples steps we conduct with our clients to collect and layout plans to achieve fitness goals:

  1. Sit down, be quiet, and grab a pen: It doesn’t take an overabundance of effort to wake up at your normal time, eat the same breakfast, grab your cell phone, open your favorite app, put your coffee in the same mug, get in the car, put in 8 hours of work, and come home.  Rinse and repeat this routine 5 times per week.  The challenge occurs when breaking that cycle.  These repeat patterns can put us in a sense of complacency, which pose obstacles in our abilities to establish and create new goals.  In order to put ourselves in a growth mindset, stepping into an uncomfortable and awkward situation can present an opportunity for new thoughts to flow in.  Try setting aside fifteen minutes to grab a writing utensil, something to write on, start a timer for fifteen minutes.  A microwave timer, oven timer, or watch will suffice.  You read that correctly, use your hands, fingers, and an instrument with led or ink to transcribe your thoughts onto paper.  Don’t use the keypad on your cell phone.   Put that electronic extrapolation of your life in another room where it can’t be heard.  Trust me, it will still be there when the fifteen minutes is up.  The cancelling out of distractions will allow the mind to extract valuable thoughts for setting goals.
  2. Make Monthly Goals: Society is fortunate enough to have calendars.  Twenty-eight days is a fair amount of time to establish some smaller goals that will help contribute to our BHAGs.  For instance, if our goal is to lose fifteen pounds in three months, perhaps an attainable monthly goal would be to lose five pounds within that four-week period.  Jot these monthly goals down, and revisit them after four weeks.  Perhaps you surpassed this goal and it’s time to set some more challenging ones for the next month.
  3. Weekly Tactics: Delve into your monthly goals and peel back the onion to achieve slightly more granular goals.  What can be done each week to support these monthly goals? At this point, focus more on how you can support your monthly goals, and less on the BHAGs.  Perhaps you need to exercise two or three times per week to support your weight loss goal.  Refraining from alcohol consumption four times per week can deter the allowance of excess calories toward fat storage.  Ensuring to get six to eight hours of sleep each night is another simple and effective weekly tactic to maintain the hormone and immune system balance to ensure we have a body free of illness capable of exercise in a well-rested state.

Every human has the potential to set realistic goals and establish them.  However, the challenge comes with having the courage to confront those goals.  Maybe we can accept the challenge to get away from the cacophony of cell phones, television, and the endless hamster wheel of stress.  Sit down, stay still, be quiet and jot down three fitness goals you’ve wanted to achieve.  Such a small number can produce phenomenal life changing results if we can take the time to write those goals down.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Jun 28

Injury Prevention for the Trip of a Lifetime

“Take life by the horns.”  A phrase some of the most inspirational people live by.  The ability to accomplish tremendous feats in life are cherished by many ambitious people.  Summiting Mt. Fuji, diving in the great barrier reef of Australia, or taking an ice breaker to visit Antarctica are just a few samples of milestones people strive to achieve.  It seems simple enough to a book a trip, use accrued vacation time, and set out to travel to such destinations.  However, let’s not forget the elaborate orchestration to actually get there.  These trips require a means of transportation and our bodies need to be intact to endure such journeys.  The logistics of travel are usually put first before anything else.  Let’s not forget how a beautiful vacation we look forward to can immediately go belly up due to disruptions to the wellbeing of our body.

As we venture to faraway locations, we leave behind our comfy beds, recliners, and ergonomically customized office desk chairs.  Stepping into an airplane, a sharply angled, thinly cushioned chair with less leg room that that a kindergarten student’s desk awaits us.  Time to contort your body to fit into this this Tetris-like opening.  Now that the body has been jammed into this narrow space like a can of sardines, expect to stay in this position for a prolonged period of time.  Before landing in the location where the wonders of the world await, you may need some time to recalibrate yourself back to the initial shape of your body after being packed into the metal tube flying through the sky that brought you there.

Entering the airplane environment is just the beginning of putting the body in shapes it’s not used to.  The spine, shoulders, hips, and knees are accustomed to our own unique everyday life activities.  We get a good night sleep because our bodies are familiar to the bed we are accustomed to sleeping in six to eight hours per night.  We get to freely move up and down from our office chairs at our own volition.  The airplane ride, hotel bed, and hours on our feet while experiencing the trip of a lifetime is a completely different set of activities the general population to our native land is not acclimated to.  This opens the opportunity for injury to the body even before stepping foot off the plane to our desired location.

To fully participate in the joys of these cherished travelling adventures, it’s critically important to keep our bodies physically healthy.  Muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other important connective tissue act as reinforcing brackets around bones, joints, and the spine.  Maintaining optimal strength assists the body from bending too far out of alignment when the body is placed in uncomfortable situations.  Ensuring the body is athletic enough to participate in walking long distances, hiking, and navigating through large crowds of people is necessary in lands foreign to our normal living conditions.  Therefore, balance, dexterity, and coordination are a key component to focus on before going on long trips.  Most importantly, having a strong fitness foundation to return to following the conclusion to a monumental trip is equally important because we need to prepare for the next breath-taking voyage we have on our list.

Strength and conditioning routines for long voyages are identical to the routine a college athlete performs to prepare for their athletic season.  Athletes train three to four times per week to prepare for their sport.   The only difference is that travelers are preparing to endure the stresses of traveling.  Why should it be any different for people who want to travel? In order to decrease the likelihood of injury and perform well, a structured exercise prescription is highly recommended.  Make sure to plan ahead for these trips with a balanced exercise prescription to ensure the body is strong and injury free to enjoy these life-changing experiences.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

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