May 01

Fitness and Parenthood

Once we start making waves in our careers and our lives progress past college, a popular next step is to hunker down and start a family.  The times we had to take fitness classes, join a recreational volleyball league, or hit the gym three times per week can quickly fade away due to the obligations of family logistics.  After coming home from a long day of work, the kids are fresh out of school chomping at the bit to be escorted to their baseball or gymnastics practice.  Immediately after practice, it’s time to come home and cook dinner.  So much for taking time out to exercise.

Some of our personal training clients, just entering parenthood, endure similar issues.  Time constraints devoted toward our youngsters’ activities overwhelm the availability to perform the normal fitness routines we were once accustomed to.  Joining a yoga class a few times a week or getting a resistance training session in at the gym right after work can be flooded by parenthood duties.

A solution to this issue is usually directly in front of our eyes when our obligations toward our children supersede our bandwidth to focus on our own fitness goals.  Don’t forget these energetic youngsters will interact and play with any human in front of them.  I can recall when my son was 6 years old. He longed to venture to the park and perform his best howler monkey impression on the monkey bars at a moment’s notice.  Reluctantly, I ventured to the park, bitter I had to miss my normal workout routine I cherished so deeply.   Little did I know, interacting with this supercharged chimpanzee was equally, if not more effective, of an exercise session than my coveted gym workouts.

The visit to the park included repeated climbing up and down stairs of the playground structure as my heart raced and sweat poured from my brow.  Trudging through the park chasing this crazed child fatigued my ankles, knees, and hips far more than that of an inclined treadmill machine.  I also used the same muscles involved in performing pull ups, pushups, and the rowing machines at the gym attempting to reproduce my son’s agile movements across the monkey bars.  After an hour of raucous laughter and chasing each other mindlessly through the labyrinth playground structure, we decided to brandish our baseball mitts and play catch for 10 to 15 minutes.  In playing catch with my son, I got to relieve my days playing outfield on my high school baseball team.  I discovered I had an invigorating cardiovascular reincarnation of my physically active teen years right before me, motivating me to accomplish about as much needed physical activity.

Our normal routines can be disrupted by our obligations as parents.  However, some of the most motivating exercise partners are sitting right next to us as we drive our kids to the park for a session on the monkey bars.  Our kids are bright and energetic beings of brilliant exuberance.  Be resourceful and thrash around with them to maintain your fitness when you feel like you don’t have time to exercise.

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.

Apr 25

Healthy Eating: Blood Sugar Crashes

“ Sugar is the devil.”  “I avoid sugar like the plague.”  “Sugar is poison to the body.”  To a degree, most of these statements pose a compelling argument.  However, sugar within our bloodstream is critically important toward the nourishment and functions of the vital organs in our body.  If we lack sugars in our blood, our brain, heart, and visceral organs can lose their ability to operate at full capacity.

Have you ever seen a toddler consume copious amounts of Halloween candy after a heavy night of trick or treating?  Boisterous activity, raucous laughter, and ill-advised–     yet comical–     decisions usually ensue shortly after this intake of refined, processed, sugary food products.  After the maelstrom of hyperactive buffoonery ceases, the child usually slows down and becomes lethargic.  With droopy eyes, they will most likely crash into an unconscious realm of peaceful slumber.  This event is commonly identified as a “sugar crash.”

This crash may sound familiar to some of us.  This sugar crash is something most of society deals with on a daily basis.  An influx of sugar in the early parts of our day can lead to a situation similar to the post-Halloween candy coma the toddler endured in the earlier example.      It’s important to understand why these crashes occur after we consume foods high in sugar.  The hormone insulin contributes to chemical reactions in our body that can lead to erratic blood sugar activity that will lead to decreases in energy throughout our days.

Insulin is a potent anabolic hormone.  A hormone is a chemical messenger that gets secreted from endocrine glands in our body.  Each hormone has a specific message it sends to a cell, telling that cell to perform a function.  When we consume foods with high amounts of ultra-concentrated processed sugars, insulin is released into our blood     stream.  The insulin hormone bonds      to cells and with the messages to absorb sugar for immediate energy use.  As insulin is produced, stress hormones such as epinephrine and adrenaline are produced as well.  These stress hormones put the body into a “fight or flight” response, promoting the cells in the body to use energy as soon as possible.  The “fight or flight” response is a mode the body enters when it needs to move right away, such as getting out of danger.  For example,           if you see that you are going to be hit by a car while going through a cross     walk, the body releases the stress hormone adrenaline      giving an extra boost of energy to      get out of danger and      dodge the car.

The body detects simple forms of sugar as fuel that should be used immediately.  The stress hormones released into the body’s muscle and nerve cells relay a message to harness high amounts of blood sugar immediately with the overall mission to enter a “fight or flight” state.  As the body enters “fight or flight”, the goal is to use sugar in the blood to get out of threatening situations.  When the body utilizes these stress hormones in conjunction with insulin, a high number of sugars in the blood     stream are metabolized at one time, leaving a low blood sugar level after large amounts of insulin are secreted.

However, when we are sitting down at our desks enjoying a breakfast sandwich before performing four      hours of desk work, we’re not necessarily in the mode of avoiding danger.  Answering texts, replying to emails, and making phone calls isn’t really a threatening position that needs immediate energy.  The glorious baked bread encasing the breakfast sandwich is a masterfully designed structure of starchy, processed, and simple carbohydrates.  Once that bread is consumed, the body senses these simple sugars as a message to use them immediately for rapid energy release.  Following the digestion of the bread, the secretion of insulin and stress hormones releasing into the blood     stream ensues, shuttling sugar within the blood to be absorbed into cells for energy.  What is left is a decreased supply of sugar and the byproducts      of stress hormones that have been used for immediate energy.  Similar to how we may feel after running up a flight of stairs, the body will be fatigued and lethargic after this high dose of concentrated sugar being consumed.

It’s noteworthy to shed light upon what sugary foods do the body and how they interact with our everyday life activities.  Perhaps we can take some intervening methods to manage the amount of processed sugars we eat throughout the day.  Take some time to figure out what foods are around you that might have processed, refined sugars in them and replace those foods with natural occurring sugars such as fruits, veggies, and lean protein sources.

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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Apr 22

The Art of Putting Socks On

They cover our feet.  They prevent blisters.  We even make an extra effort to wear the type that have      cute cats on them.  These soft, warm, protective layers of woven cloth are the next most worn object on our bodies, aside from underwear.  We are talking about the trusty pair of socks that envelop feet.  Socks are a compelling subject that shed light upon improving the lifetime fitness of our community.

Socks attach to an important part of our bodies:      our feet.  The action of putting socks on keeps us fit enough for everyday life activities.  Bending over to pick up objects from the ground requires      a certain amount of flexibility, strength, and coordination.     Without the strength to bend over and get back up, life can become challenging.

Enter the world of being an elite performer in the “professional sock league.”  A sport in which the general population in our society must have an efficient and effective performance of attaching socks to their feet.  In a seated position, putting a sock on generally requires the participant to cross their leg over the top of the other upright leg, hinge forward from the hips, and reach out in front toward the foot to encase the foot.  This tactic requires precision, using the dexterity of the hands and fingers to flatten out any imperfections in the landscape of the sock so it contours in a sleek and flawless fashion along the foot.  This action seems like something that shouldn’t be thought twice about.  In some cases, flexibility can be hindered significantly to where the thought of putting socks on is just as frustrating as driving on a one-way road behind a car that has a sloth as the driver.  These obstacles affecting the ability to put one’s socks on lead      to potential struggles in being able to reach down to the ground and perform normal everyday activities.

The usual suspects of symptoms that impede an optimal performance to pick up objects are back pain;      muscle weakness;      and limited joint mobility in the shoulders, back, hips, and knees.  These symptoms could be caused by previous back injuries, remnants of scar tissue caused by previous corrective surgeries, or inadequate levels of fitness.  We should be able to bend down to pick objects up off the ground competently throughout our everyday lives efficiently and pain free.  A productive way we can continue to bend down to the ground comfortably is to ensure we can put our socks on without complications.  The ability to manipulate our body to bend forward toward the feet is a critically important function to our quality of life.  Here are a few recommendations we give to our      personal training clients that help with the ability to put on socks everyday:

  1. Seated Upright Pigeon Stretch: While sitting in an upright position facing forward, cross one leg over the top of the other.  Gently press down with your hand on the inside of the knee that is crossed over the upright leg.  Apply gentle pressure downward until a slight stretching sensation is felt in the crossed leg’s buttocks and lateral hip region.  Ensure that the head is in optimal position by lining the back of the head up with the spine.  Hold this stretch anywhere from thirty      seconds to three      minutes to help with hip flexibility when bending forward.
  2. Seated Good Morning Exercise: While sitting in an upright position facing forward, ensure the back of the head is in line with the spine.  Maintaining a rigid back, “hinge” forward from the axis of the hip joint and move the torso forward as far as possible until a stretching sensation is experienced      in the hamstrings.  While maintaining the rigidity in the back and preventing any back flexion, return the back to an upright seated position.  This movement will assist in the utilization of the hip muscles responsible for strength and coordination when bending down.  Repeat this movement for ten      reps once a day.
  3. Put your socks on standing up: This is for those who want more of a challenge to improve their balance and coordination.  Forget sitting down and putting your socks on.  Bend down from a standing position, pick your foot up, and put the sock over your foot from a standing position.  The ability to stand on one leg and put a sock on is commonly overlooked as an elite fitness ability.  This can serve as a productive measure to maintain balance, coordination, and flexibility.

The act of putting socks on can be commonly overlooked.  Asking someone how well they can put their socks on can seem like a silly joke.  However, once that ability goes away, due to the various obstacles our bodies can endure from injuries and events in life, it’s quite a task to get back.  Make sure to spend a little extra time on your flexibility, coordination, and strength when bending forward.  Tracking your performance on how efficiently you can put on your socks is a good marker to see what you might need to improve on to ensure you can bend up and 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.

Apr 08

Posture and Cell Phones

Last week I paid a visit to La Taquiza, my favorite Mexican restaurant in Napa.  Their fish tacos and shrimp burritos remind me of eating fresh sea food by the beach in San Diego.  After a successful work week and a days’ worth of playing pickleball for 6 hours, I felt I could celebrate by venturing out to one of my favorite restaurants.

As I waited in line outside the restaurant in respects to the social distancing guidelines the restaurant enforced, I noticed a gentleman sitting down at the tables just outside the neighboring Starbucks.  He was enjoying a frosty coffee milkshake beverage and watching a video on his phone with the audio turned up loud enough to hear from my location about 15 yards away.  He sat slouched in his chair, head peering down to the phone in his lap.  His body slumped in the chair resembling a long piece of flimsy PVC pipe leaning against a wall at a 45-degree angle.  His feet projected out in front of him, knees extended, with his hips positioned right before the edge of the chair.  If his hips slid down any further, his butt would slide right off the chair forcing him to plummet to the ground.  The way he was sitting allowed his shoulders to slide down the backrest of the chair.  As his shoulders drooped down, his head was flexed forward at the neck about 45 degrees.  His body reminded me of the shape of a candy cane.

Optimal posture for a healthy functioning human requires our neck, spine, hips, knees, and ankles to be in proper alignment.  We recommend a cue to our personal training clients to help ensure the spine is aligned by visualizing the body from a side profile.  Draw a straight line downward bisecting the ears, arm pit, through the ribs, to the hips, then down to the knees, and finally ending at the ankles.  Maintaining this line that bisects these critical reference points while standing will put an emphasis on upright, strong, and reinforced spinal alignment.   Reminding ourselves to stand up straight will decrease the likelihood of injury, back pain, and hindered mobility.

What happens when we deviate from adequate posture and bend our bodies in a candy cane-like shape while peering downward at our phones for hours?  The neck stays flexed forward for prolonged periods, putting compressive forces on the bones of the neck as the cervical vertebrae scrunch together.  The seated position of the hips slouching forward while the knees are extended puts stress on the lower back near the lumbar and sacral vertebral junction point.  This suboptimal posture underutilizes the stabilizing muscles responsible for keeping the spine rigid and vertical.

A simple solution is to visualize the body from a side profile and line your neck, armpits, ribs, hips, knees, and ankles in a straight line.  Instead of peering down at your phone in a seated position, look at the phone while standing.  Additionally, use your arms to bring the phone up to eye level to prevent your neck from bending forward.  This horizontal line of vision from your eyes to your cell phone screen helps avoid factors that can lead to neck, shoulder blade, and low back pain.  Applying this simple tactic can save your neck and reinforce your posture to keep your spine from getting injured.

Not only is it important to remind ourselves to view our phones in an ergonomically correct body position, but it’s also noteworthy to notice the time we spend on the phone.  Do we need to look at our phones all the time?  There was a time where we only used phones for talking.  Now, we can’t go anywhere without brandishing our fancy phones from our pockets and looking at them.  Granted, they do offer us important advantages to our daily activities.  However, if we’re outside, put the phone down and enjoy the outdoors.  It will always be in your pocket or purse ready for you to interact with in your down time.  In the meantime, when you’re out and about outdoors, practice optimal posture by looking forward while standing up to reinforce your spine.

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.

Apr 01

Exercise is an anti-depressant

“It gives you those positive endorphin things,” Mara explained after conducting her monthly fitness check-in.  An effective question we ask our clients after a 4-week period of regular exercise is, “What results have you experienced from this previous 4-week exercise phase?”  Our team of coaches knows to gather this information following a 4-week period of exercises from every client.  After interviewing Mara on what specific result she experienced, she explained that exercise is her “natural anti-depressant.”  Performing physical activity, attending Yoga classes, and personal training appointments proved to be just as potent of an anti-anxiety medication than a months’ worth of Zoloft.  The immediate sensation of feeling accomplished, rejuvenated, and proud of oneself after completing a challenging exercise session is a feeling that can’t be derived from a physician prescribed bottle of pills.

In an era where anxiety and depression circulate our climate like early morning fog, it’s easy to get emotionally overwhelmed.  The most groundbreaking news of the next country-wide economic struggle, intense political battles, or the latest natural disaster threatening humanity’s existence is available to view and listen immediately at the base of our fingertips.  25 years ago, the only way we could observe such events was by reading the newspaper headlines or by watching the 5 o’clock news on television in our living rooms.  Nowadays, our cell phones deliver this psychologically stimulating emotional content just as rapidly as a saline solution traveling through an IV stand hooked up to our bloodstream.   Additionally, cell phones don’t just simply turn off.  Nestled safely in our pockets or 6 inches away from our bodies on the arm of our couch or table while we’re out to lunch, cell phones are designed to stay on for 12 hours while.  Years ago, we at least made a habit to turn our electronic devices off while at the dinner table and before we went to bed. As technology has progressed to stimulate our ability to seek content from our phones, our stress levels have escalated as well.  It’s no surprise there is a correlation to increased stress in society with an increase in physician prescribed anti-depressant medication.

Let’s switch gears and delve deeper into the components our body endures during an average exercise session.  As we put our bodies through challenging movements, we begin to breath a little heavier.  Holding downward facing dog or performing a plank draws blood to working muscles, influencing our lungs to gather more oxygen to replenish our blood.  Additionally, our heart starts to pump a little harder.  We also feel a slight sensation of discomfort in our muscles as they fatigue and slightly tremble due to the increased workload exercise imposes on them.  These are natural functions of the body brought about by physical stress.  This type of physiological feedback sends out chemical messengers through the blood called stress hormones so the body can operate in a “fight or flight” mechanism.  This “fight or flight” mode allows the body to perform intense movements to overcome challenging tasks imposed during exercise sessions.  Stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine are released during exercise to stimulate the body to open blood vessels and offer a boost in our energy to be able to perform strenuous activity throughout the exercise session.

One might think such stress hormones are harmful to our psychological and emotional wellbeing.  To a degree, stress hormones are suboptimal toward our quality of life when in a non-exercise setting.  Experiencing stressful news, our hearts races, we might breathe a little heavier, or we could break out in a sweat because we are in an alarmed mindset.  However, this type of stress is produced from an extrinsic source that affects our psychological wellbeing.  In contrast, the stress imposed via exercise is incredibly productive to our physical well being during exercise.  Stress hormones are secreted during exercise to assist the body in utilizing calories as a fuel source during exercise.  More importantly, if we utilize these hormones during exercise, there will be less free-floating stress hormones circulating throughout our blood at the conclusion of an exercise session.  Therefore, the next time we see or hear about the latest calamity the news or social media has to offer us, the likelihood of our heart racing, feeling lightheaded, and catastrophizing over an anxiety inducing event can be significantly decreased because our bodies can manage stress hormones more efficiently.  By physically training the body to endure stress, the body will adapt to efficiently managing how extrinsic stressful events affect our quality of life.

Perhaps those “endorphin things” Mara explained was actually the body’s sensation of how the absence of stress and anxiety felt.  Maybe there weren’t any endorphins at all, and Mara felt the burdens of worry, loss of control, and anxiety lift from her shoulders because she did something amazing for her body by exercising regularly.  Take a few moments for yourself.   Place the phone more than 30 yards away from your grasp and offer yourself the gift of exercise.  By freeing your body of the stresses that envelop our everyday lives and prescribing some exercise to yourself, you may not need to make that trip to the pharmacy to pick up anti-depressants.

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.

Mar 24

A Reminder for Sunny Day Physical Activities

Following the winter solstice a few months ago, we have the privilege to look forward to our longer hours of daylight.  We get to experience the sun illuminating the ground sooner in the day and observe the sunset descends below the horizon later in the evening.  Daylight savings time is a few days away.  The brighter days influence our minds and bodies to interact at a higher rate in our everyday activities.  Similar to the California golden poppy when It sees the sun, we open up and take in the sun just like how poppies unveil their orange petals to the early March sunshine.  More sun in the sky usually equals getting more things accomplished.  The better lit conditions offer us an opportunity to get outside to accomplish projects, participate in recreational sports, and peruse some of the amazing hiking trails in the Napa Valley.

Sunnier mornings mean we can take advantage of some early morning walks.  The thirty-degree mornings are soon to be behind us, presenting us an opportunity to get a walk around the block before 8 AM.  The ability to see the sky and the hills surrounding our valley along with the chirps of songbirds stimulates our minds.  Not only will a walk get our bodies upright and moving before a day full of tasks, but this also might be precisely what the doctor ordered to de-stress and unwind from additional stressors in our lives.  A morning walk in celebration of the longer, brighter days serves as a perfect catalyst to approach the rest of the day with a sharp and clear mind.

Photosynthesis is going to be a popular trend to be a part of if you were a wildflower this upcoming season.  The various hiking trails in Napa are home to a multitude of wildflowers showcasing their vibrant colors as the sun offers them warmth and light.  The poppies, mustards, and blue bonnets grow rampant on the perimeter of Napa Valley’s hiking trails.  Hiking is a productive activity for the body’s cardiovascular and muscular system.  Inclined walking increases heartrates responses while decreasing the likelihood of injury.  If jogging isn’t in the cards for you, hiking is an optimal alternative as the demand to walk up hill decease percussive forces on joints while still productively stressing the cardiovascular system and muscles of the lower extremities.  Take advantage of the well-lit mornings and avoid the masses of people during peak times by embracing a sunrise hike along the wildflowers.

The days just past the mark of daylight savings time are an opportunistic time to engage in recreational physical activity.  Playing catch with your kids, throwing a frisbee with your friends, or learning about how fun and healthy endless hours of Pickleball is ripe for the picking in this phenomenal Napa spring climate.  The best part of participating in regular physical activity is that we do activities we don’t normally engage in.  Sometimes, we go years without throwing a ball, swinging a racket, or kicking a soccer ball.  Dynamic movements involved in recreational sports produce movements in the body that engage actions of balance, coordination, and endurance.  Additionally, when playing catch, the stresses of life become a distant whisper because you focus on yourself during this short period away from society.  The cell phones get put away, the televisions turn off, and the banter about the next crisis in society is hushed up as you play around. It’s critical toward our lifetime fitness to regularly participate in a safe and fun recreational physical activity.

The longer lasting sunny days offer us the chance to dive back into outdoor activities.  Once we get involved in a project outside, it’s a challenge to get back inside.   This isn’t a bad problem to have if you’ve been cooped up inside due to the cold, gloomy, dark winter. The inside of your home is easier to get to than the outdoors.  Your sofa, TV, and cell phone will likely still be there when you return from an outdoor activity.  Activity under the sun in Napa is one of the best supplements we can add to our fitness routine.  Take advantage of this beautiful time of year by getting outside and playing around in the daylight to support your mind, body, and soul.

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.

Mar 11

Nutrition: Am I eating enough food?

Balancing the scale of weight loss and improving fitness can be tricky.  Losing weight seems to be a priority in most individual’s fitness goals when first entering a fitness routine to improve their health.  The focus on decreasing the number the scale represents is commonly associated with an individual’s ability to restrict how many calories are consumed.  Calorie restriction is a useful technique.  However, limiting food is a minor component to refine our fitness and quality of life.  It’s noteworthy to address how much food we are eating and not necessarily the amount of food we are avoiding.

Maintaining lean muscle mass is critical to strength, injury prevention, balance, and living a productive life.  Skeletal muscle is defined as the muscles that attaches to bones and moves them in various planes of motion.  The term lean muscle mass refers to the concentration of skeletal muscle in our bodies.  The amount of muscle cells within each muscle, the muscular blood vessels ability to harness oxygen for energy, and the nerve to muscle communication dictates the functional quality of lean muscle mass.  If muscles lack physical tone, strength, endurance, and the ability to perform fine motor movements, this indicates suboptimal musculature.

In contrast, an optimal status of lean muscle mass elicits sufficient strength, adequate muscular endurance, and coordinated abilities to execute fine motor movement, achieve balance, an avoid injury.  Therefore, the muscular architecture of our skeletal muscle is essential to an effective fitness journey.  The development and upkeep of lean muscle mass is produced via an effective training program and plenty of physical activity.  In order to appreciate the development of lean muscle mass, we not only need to train efficiently and effectively, but we also need to ensure we are consuming enough food responsible for upholding the framework of our lean muscle mass.

Protein and carbohydrates are critical component to lean muscle mass synthesis.  Protein acts as the building blocks that lay the framework of the skeletal muscles sorrounding our bones.  Carbohydrates produce energy for muscle to grab onto free floating protein in the bloodstream and attach them to sites of muscle that needing repair.  This combination of substrates is exceptionally potent when muscle has been stressed after a physically exhausting bout of activity, such as a workout routine.

Muscles use carbohydrates as fuel throughout workouts to activate muscles and move bones throughout exercise.  Protein is also used as fuel throughout workouts after carbohydrates and fat have been utilized as energy.  This is important to know because without a source of protein before exercise, the body will breakdown the muscle in the skeletal muscle converting the muscle cell to protein so it can then be used as a calorie source of energy.  This process of protein breakdown within the muscle cell can cause more stress to the muscle than the exercise session is currently imposing.

Following exercise, protein attaches to stressed sites of muscle induced via exercise to resynthesize muscle to match the demand that strenuous exercise and physical activity imposed on the body.  Therefore, carbohydrate and protein are critical for lean muscle mass development when performing regular exercise.

This explanation sheds light upon how the body uses calories throughout exercise and after exercise.  The take home message is to ensure the body has a sufficient amount of protein and carbohydrate source before and after workout sessions to support optimal lean muscle mass.  The more lean muscle concentration on the body, the less fat mass the body will have.  The scale might reflect the weight of the body hasn’t decreased when lean muscle mass has been developed, but that’s because muscle cells are denser than fat cells.  There is more water and blood within muscle cells than in fat cells. Therefore, eating before and after exercise sessions is a good thing.  Not only is it recommended to eat before and after workouts, but consumption of a healthy form of carbohydrate and protein is critical for lean muscle mass development and fat reduction.  Make sure to consume enough food surrounding your workouts outs.  A body that has sufficient musculature will burn more unwanted fat and function properly to help us improve our overall quality of 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.

Mar 08

Keep Exercise Routines from Getting Stale

Having time on your hands after a long career and a slew of grandkids can be a blessing.  However, after those years of working hard are over, the mind can become complacent.  Who needs exercises anyway?  Perhaps you’ve proven that after a successful 40 plus year career without injury or illness, you know what you’re doing.  With the advancement of age and a decrease in physical activity comes a plethora of probabilities to injuries and health maladies.   Maintaining a healthy regular routine of exercise improves our quality of life mentally, physically, and psychologically.  So, how can we start a routine after our working years have reached the finish line?  For some, this might be a foreign position where a sense of direction could be useful when choosing an exercise routine.  Here are a few key tips we give to our personal training clients who find themselves in a “where should I start?” moment at this point in their lives.

Choose a routine with no more than 3 exercises to start.  Additionally, to save time and get the most out of your exercise routines, choose compound exercises.  These are exercises that cover a wide group of muscles crossing multiple joints.  The squat exercise utilizes the hamstring, quadriceps, and glutes.  A push up engages the pecs, deltoids, pectorals.  The simple and effective plank covers almost all the muscles along the anterior portion of the body.  To achieve a benefit from these 3 exercises, you only need to perform one set of them once before your day starts.  Just 10 repetitions of the squat and push up along with 20 seconds of the plank can give you the muscle strengthening and injury prevention benefits needed to improve your life.

Pick a form of exercise you enjoy.  If you are retired with a set of grandkids, why would you want to engage in an exercise routine that resembles a military issued standard operating procedure?  Activities that are easy to look forward to are more likely to be achieved than a list of chores.  Do you detest crunches, aerobic step classes, or a 30-minute workout videos?  Then you should probably stop doing them.  While these forms of exercise may resonate with others, fitness is not a cookie cutter solution.  Adherence and consistency are to key components to a successful lifetime fitness journey.  Activities that are exciting and enjoyable significantly enhance the ability to keep the body in a rhythm of exercise for a long time.

Pick simple and effective exercises.  I have a friend in the advanced age population named Tyson who works his butt off around his homestead.  Plowing the yard, touching up the paint around the house, and pulling weeds in his garden is an everyday activity he does from when the rooster crows at the break of down until the owls come out to hunt mice at night fall.  He is in fantastic shape for his age.  When thinking about fitness routines to refine Tyson’s lifestyle, there is some pertinent information that needs to be gathered before offering exercise advice.  Would it be helpful to present a routine that lasts 60 minutes requiring him to perform 3 times per week?  Knowing Tyson, this routine would be thrown in the trash faster than a hummingbird’s heartbeat.  Tyson is pretty set in his ways and know what he wants to do, when he wants to do it.  However, Tyson could benefit from a simple, effective, and time efficient routine that would improve his performance in the upkeep of his projects that he holds so dear.  What would help Tyson have more energy?  What would fend off back, knee, and hip injuries that could impede Tyson’s work?  How could Tyson get theses exercise done without getting bored?

If I asked Tyson to perform this routine before he hammered out his physically active projects to complete those projects sooner, he might accept the invitation to do so.   What’s in it for him?  A structural sound, durable, high performing body that will get his homestead looking sharp.   He could finish this routine in less than 2 minutes.  After he sees that he can still get what he wants accomplished pain free while having increased energy, it might not sound that bad to a retiree with more time on his hands to do.  In fact, a routine as simple as 20 movements and holding a plank for 20 seconds could be permanently inserted to become an important part of his lifestyle.

If you don’t know where to start and are of older demographic, choose exercises that are simple and effective.  Start with a very modest number of repetitions to ensure you can receive the benefits exercise offers to improve our lives for years to come.

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.

Feb 15

Ankles, Squats, and Balance

Training to improve balance is commonly overlooked.  Strong core, running, and getting steps in to fill activity rings in your favorite wearable technology are popular topics to talk about.  However, presentations of imbalance pose a serious threat to populations living with previous injuries, decreased fitness levels, and advanced age.  Deficiencies in the ability to maintain balance introduces detrimental possibilities to our health including risk of falling.

A learning objective we focus on for our beginning personal training clients is to teach them to appreciate how to utilize strength and power through the ankles, knees, and hips.  In particular, when performing squatting exercises.  Our coaches assess the squat effectiveness of the client’s squat performance by noting the performance their feet and ankles throughout the movement.  Are the heels lifting off the ground?  Do the arches o the feet collapse inward?  Is the exercises participant on the balls of their feet?  Each of these observations demonstrate a technique flaw when performing squatting exercises.  This indication of deficiencies in coordination while performing squat exercises serve as factors contributing to limited mobility, back, hip and knee pain, and decreased control of balance.

Force produced from the feet travels to the knees and ultimately travels to the powerful hip joints.  It’s noteworthy to understand the ankles, knee, and hips are interconnected when it comes to having strong, injury free, and coordinated lower extremities.  An inward collapse of the arches of the feet lead to inward collapse of the knees.  This suboptimal deviation to the tracking of the knees impedes the ability for the strong rotational muscles of the hips from engaging properly.  A decrease in muscular engagements induces impediments to balance and strength.  This contributes to arthritis and a a multitude of mechanisms of injuries including falls.  Decreases in strength lead to underuse of the lower extremity joints.

Fortunately, the understanding how to properly perform a squat can significantly improve the muscles of the ankles, knees, and hips.  Improving the structural integrity of these joints significantly reduce pain, risk of injury, and the likelihood of tripping and falling.

Imagine our hip joints with the various muscles of the glutes, hamstrings, adductors, abductors, and quadriceps attached to it.  Now, think about a docked ship at a boat yard.  The nautical rope attached from the boat to the strong post at the shore is wound up tightly in a strong knot.  This causes enough rotational torque to allow tightness around the post preventing the ship from drifting away.  Our hip bones and muscular attachment are similar.

As our feet create force into the ground, our knees are allowed to extend.   The muscles attached to the knee activate as well, similar to the tension that is on the rope holding the boat from veering off to the sea.  More importantly, the isometric points where the ropes are attached to the pole at the shore is similar to the various rotary muscles attach to our hip bones.  The more torque we can produce from our feet to our hips allow us to keep our hips underneath our torso to have a strong center of gravity.  Without rotational force from our feet traveling up to our knees and eventually our hips, our hips will get “lost at sea” like a boat with a weak attachment point to the shore.

We can’t have a reinforced posture if our hips are not aligned under our torso.  Therefore, it is beneficial for our functionality to use the muscles that bring the hips underneath the torso to push them forward while standing.  Going back to our boat example, if the attachment point of the nautical rope from shore to the boat isn’t strong enough, the rope unravels, and we can farewell to our ship as it drift off to sea.  By creating power from our feet, knees, and hip muscles, our hips won’t be in a suboptimal position.  If our hips aren’t engaged by creating torque from the ankle, knees, and hip insertions points, our hips become loose and fall backwards.

It is critically important to have strong ankles, knees, and hips.  If not, the body will lose control and crumple over.  Boats need a significant amount of reinforcement to hold them ashore.  Our hips need similar reinforcement to stay underneath our torso to create a strong center of gravity and maintain our structural integrity.

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.

Feb 02

Post Retirement Fitness Routine

Having time on your hands after a long career and a slew of grandkids can be a blessing.  However, after those years of working hard are over, the mind can become complacent.  Who needs exercises anyway?  Perhaps you’ve proven that after a successful 40 plus year career without injury or illness, you know what you’re doing.  With the advancement of age and a decrease in physical activity comes a plethora of probabilities to injuries and health maladies.   Maintaining a healthy regular routine of exercise improves our quality of life mentally, physically, and psychologically.  So, how can we start a routine after our working years have reached the finish line?  For some, this might be a foreign position where a sense of direction could be useful when choosing an exercise routine.  Here are a few key tips we give to our personal training clients who find themselves in a “where should I start?” moment at this point in their lives.

Choose a routine with no more than 3 exercises to start.  Additionally, to save time and get the most out of your exercise routines, choose compound exercises.  These are exercises that cover a wide group of muscles crossing multiple joints.  The squat exercise utilizes the hamstring, quadriceps, and glutes.  A push up engages the pecs, deltoids, pectorals.  The simple and effective plank covers almost all the muscles along the anterior portion of the body.  To achieve a benefit from these 3 exercises, you only need to perform one set of them once before your day starts.  Just 10 repetitions of the squat and push up along with 20 seconds of the plank can give you the muscle strengthening and injury prevention benefits needed to improve your life.

Pick a form of exercise you enjoy.  If you are retired with a set of grandkids, why would you want to engage in an exercise routine that resembles a military issued standard operating procedure?  Activities that are easy to look forward to are more likely to be achieved than a list of chores.  Do you detest crunches, aerobic step classes, or a 30-minute workout videos?  Then you should probably stop doing them.  While these forms of exercise may resonate with others, fitness is not a cookie cutter solution.  Adherence and consistency are to key components to a successful lifetime fitness journey.  Activities that are exciting and enjoyable significantly enhance the ability to keep the body in a rhythm of exercise for a long time.

Pick simple and effective exercises.  I have a friend in the advanced age population named Tyson who works his butt off around his homestead.  Plowing the yard, touching up the paint around the house, and pulling weeds in his garden is an everyday activity he does from when the rooster crows at the break of down until the owls come out to hunt mice at night fall.  He is in fantastic shape for his age.  When thinking about fitness routines to refine Tyson’s lifestyle, there is some pertinent information that needs to be gathered before offering exercise advice.  Would it be helpful to present a routine that lasts 60 minutes requiring him to perform 3 times per week?  Knowing Tyson, this routine would be thrown in the trash faster than a hummingbird’s heartbeat.  Tyson is pretty set in his ways and know what he wants to do, when he wants to do it.  However, Tyson could benefit from a simple, effective, and time efficient routine that would improve his performance in the upkeep of his projects that he holds so dear.  What would help Tyson have more energy?  What would fend off back, knee, and hip injuries that could impede Tyson’s work?  How could Tyson get theses exercise done without getting bored?

If I asked Tyson to perform this routine before he hammered out his physically active projects to complete those projects sooner, he might accept the invitation to do so.   What’s in it for him?  A structural sound, durable, high performing body that will get his homestead looking sharp.   He could finish this routine in less than 2 minutes.  After he sees that he can still get what he wants accomplished pain free while having increased energy, it might not sound that bad to a retiree with more time on his hands to do.  In fact, a routine as simple as 20 movements and holding a plank for 20 seconds could be permanently inserted to become an important part of his lifestyle.

If you don’t know where to start and are of older demographic, choose exercises that are simple and effective.  Start with a very modest number of repetitions to ensure you can receive the benefits exercise offers to improve our lives for years to come.

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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