Nov 01

Building Resilient Hips for Everyday Life Functionality

Humans perform upper and lower extremity actions daily without thinking too much about it.  Starting from getting out of bed, the upper and lower body are involved in morning rituals as simple as walking to the kitchen to start a cup of coffee.  More sophisticated and physically demanding actions requiring coordination and dexterity, including walking up stairs, carrying objects, or performing manual labor at the workplace, require a person to perform upper and lower extremity movements competently.  The actions of how many times the arms are lifted from our sides and the legs stride back and forth while walking can be performed over ten thousand times per day.  Data collection from peer-reviewed articles researching human physical activity states that humans use their upper extremities more than their lower extremities on a normal day.   Optimal functioning of the upper extremities is necessary to conduct an efficient and functional day of human activity.  Even though the lower extremities might be used less than the upper extremities, it’s worthwhile to appreciate one of the most important gifts humans have been granted that gets us from point A to point B.  This is the gift of walking. Our lower extremities are responsible for our ability to be mobile.

Commonly identified parts of the lower extremities include our thighs, knees, shins, and feet.  Breaking this down into more granular analysis, it’s helpful to understand the names of the bones and how these bones comprise the joints of the lower limbs.  At the hip joint, the femur is the large thigh bone.  The femur’s proximal, or top portion, inserts into the hip joint located in the pelvic girdle.  The pelvis comprises multiple joints connecting the spine at the top portion and two ball and socket joints connecting the femurs.  Acting as a keystone in the body’s center, a substantial amount of connective tissue attachments hold the hip bones together, and nerves track through the hip area to coordinate the lower extremity’s movement.  Therefore, if our interest is to keep moving by being able to walk, climb stairs or hills, and get up and down off the ground, the hip joint is critically important to our functionality.

Hip flexion is one of the first movements involved in walking, going up and down stairs, or standing up from a kneeling or standing position.  Defined as bringing the femur closer to the abdomen, hip flexion can be an underappreciated movement.  Normal walking patterns require the leg to swing forward in each step.  If the hip flexors are deconditioned, gait can become afflicted, causing the legs to swing outward during walking, leading to a slew of issues, including the inability to walk in straight lines and musculoskeletal injuries leading to knee pain and increased risk of falling.  The hip flexors contribute to efficient travel upstairs, inclined sidewalks, and hills as the knee is lifted past the normal height of walking to place the foot on a heightened surface while walking forward.  When getting up from a seated or kneeling position, hip flexors assist in bringing the leg out in front of the body to place a foot on the ground to prepare for standing.  One could imagine living without the ability to move the thigh forward during walking could substantially challenge everyday life.

One of the simple yet effective tactics we employ with our personal training clients is the leg kick exercise. This exercise, when performed consistently, can significantly enhance neuromuscular coordination and hip strength, empowering you to improve your mobility and overall functionality.

Leg Kick Stretch:  Reach your hand in front of you.  While keeping your supporting leg straight, actively bring one leg in front of you to touch your hand as if you are performing a kicking motion.  Ensure that the kicking leg is kept as straight as possible. You should experience a slight stretching sensation in your hamstring and calf muscles and a brief sensation of muscular exertion of the anterior thigh muscles.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions on both legs.

By incorporating this simple movement into your routine, performing just one set of ten repetitions before your daily activities, you can potentially enhance your neuromuscular coordination and hip strength.  The key is consistency, and with regular practice, you can build lasting strength and improve your everyday functionality and mobility.

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 23

Optimal Posture While Sitting

Imagine living without tables, desks, or work benches.  Throw in the twist of removing an automobile that we sit down in to take us to our desired location in minutes.  Just for fun, put yourself in a fantasy world where the revolution of cell phones never crossed the mind of the brilliant inventors who created these iconic extrapolations of computers.  What would the world be like? And how would our bodies adapt to the environment where these revolutionary features that optimize human efficiency were never brought into this world?

The innovation of chairs has created valuable a tool for people to rest after standing for long periods. If we were cavemen in the Paleolithic era running from saber-tooth tigers, scavenging for berries, and maintaining a hut made of sticks and mud, we would be pretty tired at the end of the day.  After a long day of caveman-specific duties, humans would probably sit against a tree or lie on the ground.  Thanks to the invention of the chair, sitting on the ground is unnecessary.  We can squat backward and position our buttocks on an object that keeps our hips elevated off the ground and our backs supported.  This action of sitting allows our spinal stabilization muscles to rest and decreases the demand for the muscles of hip elevation when lowering the hips to a seat.

While chairs allow the human race to sit in cars, conduct work on computers, and converse with others at lunch or dinner, sitting in a chair for prolonged hours can contribute to suboptimal afflictions for the human body. Too much sitting can influence poor postural awareness, decreased muscle strength, and a plethora of potential musculoskeletal injuries to the neck, shoulder, and lower back.

Sitting down in front of our computers first thing in the morning with our monitors roughly two feet away from our faces at eye level is a proficient tactic in setting up an optimally functioning work environment.  Having a keyboard and mouse handy to perform advanced executive functions when answering emails, reviewing data on spreadsheets, or researching the interwebs makes work engaging and efficient.  However, this scenario can introduce the potential for neck, shoulders, and lower back injury.

Some of our personal training clients share that they sit for hours on their computers typing and clicking their mouse at the heart rate of hummingbirds.  Their finger and wrist muscles are active, but the spine stays stagnant. In addition, the desire to look closely at the content on the monitor influences people to lean forward and bend their neck, shoulders, and upper back without even knowing it.  After a few hours of rigorous computer work, the body structure sitting on the computer chair, which started as a structurally sound L-shape where the spine was straight and the eyes looking forward, has quickly transformed into a “candy cane” shaped spine with the shoulders hunched forward and a rounded back.  The result of a hunched back, caved inward shoulders, and convex-shaped lumbar spine introduces a boatload of potential injuries, including strained muscles along the back and shoulder, impinged vertebra to various sections of the spine, and overuse injuries that contribute to arthritis or building discs of the spine.

If our goal is to prevent the likelihood of injuries to the neck, shoulder, and lower back, the importance of postural awareness in seated positions can’t be overstated.  As a helpful cue to assist in activating the muscle of scapular stabilization and reinforce organizing the neck, upper back, and shoulder throughout exercise sessions, we remind our personal training clients to “park their shoulder blades down and back.”  This prompt is meant to coach the exercise participant to perform scapular retraction and scapular depression before performing a specific exercise, usually a compound upper-body pulling exercise, during their personal training sessions.

Scapular retraction triggers the shoulder blades to glide backward against the ribs and toward the spine.  Performing scapular retraction activates the trapezius and rhomboid muscles on the upper and middle portions of the spine and ribs.  This action opens the chest up, allowing the chest to avoid caving forward and assisting the head to sit in a relatively neutral position over the torso.  If the head is placed in a position perpendicular to the axis of the shoulders, the likelihood of the head caving forward is decreased, and neck and upper back injuries can be influenced to occur less often.  Additionally, performing the opposite action of shrugging is categorized as scapular depression.  Utilizing the muscles connecting from the bottom portion of the ribs to the bottom of the shoulder blades influences the opposite action of shrugging, which brings the shoulders away from the neck and down toward the armpits.  These two movements work the muscles of the posterior portion of the torso.

If we can strengthen the muscles opposite of the area of the body that is affected by poor sitting posture, we can contribute to stronger posture while sitting for hours at a time. Try to include a few exercises in your resistance training routine that target the shoulder blades and middle back. By exercising the muscles of scapular stabilization, we can encourage strong and healthy backs to endure years of sitting down in chairs.

 

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 17

Exercise is Boring

A visit to the dentist, a routine physical with your doctor, or a mind-numbing Zoom meeting with team members at the workplace is a less-than-enticing setting for some of us to participate in.  Who wants to sit in a dentist’s chair with their mouth wide open and have their gums prodded with foreign metal instruments?  Additionally, an annual doctor’s appointment to review cholesterol, insulin, and hormone levels in the body can be akin to the anxiety experienced of waiting to see the results of a minimum SAT score required to apply to a prestigious university.  While web conference technology such as Zoom has accelerated productivity in our career and educational system, the anticipation of sitting in a chair and staring at a screen for hours can be daunting.  Yoga classes, small group fitness classes, or personal training sessions can elicit similar scenarios involving a setting someone isn’t looking forward to being a part of.

For a gym rat like myself, I look forward to the sacred time I reserve to move my body, sweat, increase my heart rate, and breathe.  I enter this setting, putting my phone on silent and telling everyone important to me that I’ll be out of pocket for a brief time.  Barring family emergencies or uncontrollable extenuating circumstances like my home being hit by a meteor, these sixty to ninety minutes of exercise I set aside cannot be replaced by any other request for my time.  This session is more than therapy to me.  The ability to exercise utilizing the knowledge and skills from my life’s work of helping people feel happy, healthy, and strong to benefit my health and improve my life offers me an irreplaceable, engaging, and entertaining experience.  However, I understand and appreciate that there is another side of the spectrum in which people have the opposite perception of exercise.  Some people think exercise is boring, it hurts, and it’s simply a thorn in the side of someone with better things to do than check into the front desk at a local gym.

It should come as no surprise that compliance with an exercise routine benefits our livelihood.  Increased functional strength, staving off pain caused by injury or degenerative bone disease, and a positive outlook in life are just a few of the positive features regular exercise offers.  But for those of us who think that entering a gym to sweat, get dirty, and hang out with super fit people who we have nothing in common with is as undesirable as watching paint dry, what can we do to bypass that barricade of doing something that makes them shudder to the very thought of exercising?

A common misperception of exercise is that it must take hours of work per week to see a result of losing weight, getting stronger, and telling the doctors to leave us alone because we’re getting one hundred and fifty minutes of physical activity per week.  While our doctors are correct in the fact that we should all move around more to fend off the advancement of arthritis, metabolic disease, and cardiovascular disease, we don’t need to look at the act of exercising in such a strict manner.  A solution we offer to our personal training clients who detest exercise is to ensure they are consistent in their efforts to move more.  Instead of counting the minutes of exercise achieved in a week, another worthwhile solution might be to count the number of days one can achieve in a week.

Troubleshooting tactics to resolve a boring exercise setting might include choosing physical activities one enjoys and feeling fulfilled after completing them.  For example, many of our clients have dogs they enjoy walking and throwing a ball for at the park.  Perhaps ensuring that you walk two to three times per week can be an attainable physical activity goal.  Another suitable option people commonly overlook is cleaning a particular area of the house that has been on the back burner for a few months.  Taking time out to complete a task like garage reorganization, tidying up the home office, or hanging pictures requires squatting down to pick things up, reaching overhead, and maybe stepping up on stools.  Other hobbies might include recreational sports such as bocce ball, pickleball, or hiking.  Two days per week of dog walking, one week of house reorganization, and one day of a social sporting event influence movement in the human body and can last around an hour each event.  Looking at a calendar to fulfill specific tasks that are engaging, enjoyable, and someone looks forward to can replace a visit to the gym or signing up for a group fitness class.

Exercise is physical activity.  If the vision of wearing a sweatband, putting on gym-appropriate apparel, and entering a local gym sweating isn’t the most desirable thought, perhaps looking into other forms of physical activity specific to an individual’s sense of enjoyment would be more appropriate.  Humans are too sophisticated to have a cookie-cutter solution to getting more exercise.  However, let’s look into activities we enjoy. There’s more than likely a cross over of enjoyment and physical activity that can be applied to our weekly schedule that can help us live happy, healthy, and strong 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.

Oct 09

Consistent Practice for Strong Knees

“Are the first few minutes of getting out of bed just absolute hell?” my friend Kaus asked me while we were enjoying one of Model Bakery’s finest English muffins, which had been toasted and smothered in strawberry jam.  Kaus and I take leisurely walks every few weeks, discussing our hobbies, traveling adventures, and current events.  I especially enjoy Kaus’s thoughts about my professional growth as a business owner and leader among my fellow coaches.  He’s perpetually fascinated to see our fitness center grow not only as a business but as a culture with more clients, staff, and a presence in Napa’s community.

Regarding Kaus’ comments about his situation of taking a tour through the underworld first thing in the morning,  he happens to be about a decade older than me. Unfortunately, injuries and events in his life have produced musculoskeletal injuries to his joints.  Sometimes, his neck, shoulders, lower back, and knees emit pain and soreness throughout the day.  He mentioned that he feels like he got shot out of a cannon off a mountaintop first thing in the morning.  Therefore, advice on improving his physical well-being is a hot topic when we take our “walk-and-talk” adventures to our favorite eateries.

Joint pain appears in various presentations.  Arthritis, osteoporosis, or the atrophy of muscles and connective tissue surrounding joints and bones following the recovery of a substantial injury are just a few examples of suboptimal occurrences influencing the disruption of connective tissue.  Bone-on-bone contact and degeneration of cartilage around the articular surface in which joints rub together, pinched nerves, or deconditioned muscles are usual suspects that produce joint pain.  For Kaus, it is no surprise he feels this way in the morning when you hear about his former athletic career as a professional biker training for the Olympics.  Decades of competitive performance produced shoulder, lower back, and knee pain.

It’s challenging for me to relate fully to Kaus’ musculoskeletal pain he experiences in the morning because I haven’t been on this earth as long as him.  He’s a decade older than me and has endured ten years more stress than me.  However, I understand that strengthening muscles surrounding critically important joints mitigates pain and increases human performance.  Knee joints are among the most common areas that experience discomfort due to overuse and joint degradation.  Therefore, knee strengthening and injury prevention concepts can’t be overstated.  A simple and effective tactic we use with our personal training clients is consistently practicing exercises targeting muscle connective points around the knee joint.

Areas hindered by knee joint pain can occur in the front, back, sides, and within the knee.  For individuals experiencing advanced joint pain due to lack of cartilage or weakened tendons and ligaments, shifting knees throughout bending and straightening the knee, lateral movement, and stepping movements can create uncomfortable, loose, and shifty bone movement.  As a solution to strengthen those areas, it’s essential to identify the muscular attachments that protect areas of the knee prone to loose and shifty joint movements.  The hamstrings and hip adductors are two common muscles that act as brackets to hold the knee joint tighter.

The hamstrings originate from the bottom of the hip bone, beneath the butt cheek, and attach below the knee on the back of the shin.  Optimizing strength in the hamstring assists in limiting the anterior gliding of the knee and aids in bringing the leg backward throughout walking movements.  The hip adductors originate from the groin region of the inner thigh and attach to the inner portion of the knee.  Muscular endurance and enhanced structural integrity of hip adductors prevent the knee from shifting past its normal range of motion medially and laterally.  Now that we know these muscles are essential to knee strength and mitigating pain, we must identify tactics to apply productive muscular stress via exercise consistently.  Below are two exercises we conduct with our personal training clients for one set every during each training session:

  1. Side Laying Hip Adduction: Position yourself on your side with your feet stacked on each other, and cross your top leg over to the front of your body, where your top foot should rest flat on the ground.  Keeping the bottom foot flexed toward the body and the knee extended, lift the bottom leg until a brief muscular sensation is experienced in the inner thigh region.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions.
  2. Supine Isometric Hip Extension:  While flat on your back and your knees bent,  press your feet into the ground and lift the hips upward until a brief muscular sensation is experienced in the hamstrings and glutes.  Once your hips are extended upward, hold this position utilizing your glutes and hamstrings to stabilize the hips in an extended position for 10 to 30 seconds.

We perform these exercises at the beginning of every training session to induce muscular adaptation and optimize muscular strength and intramuscular endurance.

While it’s true that we might feel a few sensations of pain in the morning due to the onset of joint damage throughout life, these symptoms can decrease, and we can feel better.  We can reduce sensations of soreness in the morning by consistently practicing simple and effective knee-strengthening routines two to three times a week to reinforce knee health.

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 04

Resistance Training Improves Knee Health

Walking, getting in and out of cars, going up and down stairs, or kneeling to pick up objects are common activities in our everyday lives that our lower extremities allow us to do. However, activities that seem simple enough that someone should be able to do it with their eyes closed can be cut short by an affliction to the knee joint.  The introduction of knee pain and dysfunction appears in various presentations.

As we meet with our personal training clients for their initial consultations to learn more about their goals and visions for the future, we primarily focus on the history of injury their bodies have endured.  We need to know what limitations the exercise participant has due to what type of traumatic injury has occurred, the development of degenerative joint disease, or the history of corrective surgeries.  If we’re going to recommend an exercise prescription to an individual to enhance strength, decrease the likelihood of future injury, and improve the overall quality of life and functionality, it’s necessary to understand where we are on the road map in relation to an individual current standpoint in their fitness journey to achieve their goals.  One of the most common reports of injury appears at the knee joint. The introduction of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, corrective surgery, or joint replacement aren’t uncommon pain points that can be improved utilizing corrective exercise tactics.

One of the most sought-after services our exercise participants seek is guidance for performing resistance training techniques. These techniques are instrumental in mitigating joint pain, increasing functional strength, rehabbing a joint injury, getting back to everyday activities following corrective surgery, or prehabbing an area to enhance the effectiveness of physical therapy and the healing process when preparing for corrective surgery.  Understanding the planes of movement the knee joint is responsible for, what activities the knee contributes to everyday life functionality, and areas of weakness that can be improved upon from strengthening via exercise are crucial for implementing a lower extremity resistance training routine to enhance knee health.

The knee is a true hinge joint. Its job is to bend and extend.  It can’t rotate or glide forward or backward compared to the hip or ankle joint. The knee works harmoniously with the coordinated simultaneous movements of the trunk, hip, ankle, and foot. Along with essential ligaments, tendons, blood vessels, and nerve supplies, skeletal muscular attachment points are located on the knee’s front, sides, and back.  Lack of muscular size, strength, and neuromuscular coordination to the connective tissue and skeletal muscles can not only enhance the progression of degenerative bone disease but can also introduce the likelihood of future injury to occur as we age.  Therefore, understanding the need to strengthen the knee joint muscles is critically important.

To start off by understating exercises that are safe, simple, and effective foundational movements, choose exercises that focus on knee flexion and extension, as well as hip adduction and abduction, and serve as foundational strengthening movements that reinforce the structural integrity of the knee.  Flexion and extension are the bending and straightening of the knee joint.  The muscle that brings the shin toward the back of the thigh creates flexion in the knee.  The muscles of knee flexion are predominantly the hamstring muscles.  Knee extension is the straightening of the leg where the shin extends out in front of the body until it is roughly perpendicular to the thigh.  Quadricep muscle groups are responsible for knee extension.  Both the quadriceps and the hamstrings have muscular attachment points starting from the hip that travel to the knee joint on the front and back of the knee.  Therefore, strengthening these joints assist in maintaining stability not only in the straightening and bending of the knee but also as isometric anchor points akin to framing screws holding together two boards to decrease forward and backward shifting of the knee and thigh bone.

Other simple and effective muscles to focus on to reinforce knee strength are the hip adductors and abductors.  The abductors originate at the hip bone and attach to the outside of the knee joint.  Joint abduction means “take away from the midline” or to bring the lower extremity outward and away from the body.  Hip adduction is the antithesis of abduction, where the muscles attaching from the hip’s inner part attach to the knee’s inner portion and pull the thigh inward toward the body.  The abductors and adductors control the inward and outward motion of the leg and serve as critically important supporting components to mitigate medial to lateral shifting at the knee joint.

For a more in-depth description of exercises we focus on to enhance understanding of knee extension and flexion, as well as hip abduction and adduction, tune in for part two of this article on knee strength resistance training next week in the Napa Register.  In the meantime, perhaps researching a few safe, simple, and effective foundational strength training tactics focusing on knee joint health could shed some light on what movements might be missing in our exercise programs.  Bolstering our understanding of knee strengthening has the potential to help 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 28

Efficient Order of Operations in Exercise Sessions

“That’s just bad math,” my physics professor told me as I struggled to finalize a lengthy equation for calculating potential energy in one of our laboratory experiments.  “Use PEMDAS,” she chirped at me, slightly annoyed.  I recalled the fourth-grade lesson on multiplying numbers of more than two digits, long division, and the introduction of the dreaded parentheses and exponents.  This simple lesson empowered me to sit back down at my desk, rewrite the equation, and produce the correct answer by solving what was inside the parentheses, then apply my exponents, and multiply and divide from left to right.  After I submitted the laboratory experiment and received full credit, I can still recall today that accomplishing tasks in the incorrect order led to inefficiency and, ultimately, an undesirable result.  I always wanted to avoid scenarios that were caused by “bad math.”  Completing the correct order of operations is also crucial to achieving a successful exercise session.

During my time at Napa College, I needed to take a few extra prerequisites to apply to physical therapy school. It just so happened that general physics was one of the courses. That course equipped me with the necessary tools to understand angles in force production and double-checked my work as I slogged through the challenging math equations.  Similar to the teachings of Professor “Bad Math,” the services we offer to our personal training clients involve checking their work. As fitness professionals, we play a crucial role in guiding our clients’ exercise prescriptions, ensuring they are completed in the most efficient order to elicit the most optimal outcome possible from a bout of exercise.

Exercise sessions consisting of rigorous movements are complex and require concentration and focus.  The body produces a symphony of thoughts, feelings, and actions that transmit signals to our muscles via neurological electrical impulses traveling from our brain to our spinal cord and eventually to motor neurons to make our body move in a desired physical task.  Allocating time at the beginning of an exercise session to priming up this neurological response enhances the coordination of the brain to muscle function.  Ligaments, tendons, and skeletal muscle also function from oxygenated blood flow and carbohydrate delivery.  Without an efficient signal of neuromuscular coordination and muscle-fueling substrates delivered by the blood, we are more likely to achieve a suboptimal outcome from an exercise session.  We must strive to avoid “bad math” in our exercise efforts, as it can lead to inefficiency and undesirable results.  To achieve an optimal result in our training sessions, understanding the order of operations and the modes of exercise to perform throughout each session can’t be understated.

Below is a simple and practical example of our form of PEMDAS that we use to coach our personal training clients to ensure they achieve an optimal outcome from their training sessions:

  1. Start with a dynamic stretching routine: The body needs to slowly increase the amount of neuromuscular synapses, increase the heart’s beats per minute, and psychologically enter a mode of rigorous intensity throughout a workout session.  We don’t want to immediately step into a maelstrom of struggle by lifting weights, running, or putting ourselves in compromised positions requiring substantial energy expenditure and concentration.  Instead, start with five to ten repetitions that warm up the body’s major muscles, such as moving the shoulder joints, lower back, hips, knees, and ankles.

An example of an upper and lower extremity dynamic stretching routine might include:

Supinated Arm Crossing Stretch:   Lift your arms to armpit level.  Rotate your palms upward, perform a crossing motion across your chest, and reverse the motion to abduct your arms away from the midline of your body.  Repeat the motion once you feel a slight stretch in the pecs, shoulders, and biceps for five to ten repetitions.

  1. “Pendulum” Stretch:  Find a stable surface to lean forward and place your hands on, such as a wall or post.   Bring an extended leg slightly in front of your body with your toe pointed forward.  Gently swing your leg to the inside of your body and then again to the outside of your body.  You should experience a slight stretching sensation in your inner thigh region.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions on both legs.
  2. Perform compound-resistant training techniques before simple movements:  Movements in which force is produced from multiple joints are considered compound movements.  Examples for the lower body include squats, lunges, or step-ups.  Upper body compound movements include push-ups, chest press machines, or bench press.  These movements require a concentrated and intense stress response in the muscles.  Due to their advanced requirements of energy expenditure, concentration, and focus while in a compromised position, compound movement should be conducted before more simple movements.
  3. Perform assistance movements last: Assistance movements that require only one joint of the body to move throughout resistance should be performed later. Exercises such as dumbbell biceps curls or cable triceps press-downs don’t require substantial focus and energy expenditure, so they can be performed after the more concentrated resistance training movements.

Exercise is meant to offer a form of productive stress so the body can become stronger and more resilient to the demands of everyday life.  However, ensuring exercise in a safe and effective environment takes planning.  By following a safe and effective order of operations when exercising, we can get a positive and desirable outcome from our exercise sessions.

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 19

The Art of Putting on our Underwear and Everyday Functionality

“They all put their underwear the same way,”  my high school football coach proclaimed during his pre-game motivational speech.  This seemingly off-topic comment, a nugget of wisdom from our leader, left my teammates and I pondering its relevance to our upcoming game against Vallejo High School.   We were preparing to face a team known for their elite athletes, who ran sub 4.5 seconds forty-yard dashes and had full-ride scholarships to reputable collegiate football programs.  What could the coach have meant by the way we put our underwear on when compared to our opponents? What did it have to do with our performance on the field?

Let’s delve into the seemingly simple task of putting on a pair of underwear. It’s not just a matter of slipping it on and off.  A set of underwear has a circular entrance and two separate openings for our right and left legs to pass through.  A person must make a decision to either put the right or left leg in through the bigger opening meant for the hips, followed by the second decision to pass the other leg through the hip entry point and to the secondary thigh slot.  Who would’ve thought putting on underpants could be such an intricate task? It’s a task that requires a level of dexterity and coordination that we often take for granted.

What technique do we prefer when equipping our underwear?  Is it sitting on the edge of our bed first thing in the morning before starting the day?  Or, is it the tactic of standing one leg while bending over, grabbing the underwear, lifting the hip to fit one leg in through one of the thigh slots, then repeating with the other leg?  One of these techniques requires advanced spatial awareness, dexterity, coordination, and balance.  Sitting down and sliding one’s leg through the openings removes the need to think about the surroundings and transfer balance from one leg to another.  However, the ability to stand in the middle of a room without any objects to stabilize oneself, bend over at the hips, grab the undergarment with both hands, and efficiently transfer the center of gravity from one foot to the other while simultaneously lifting the thigh, bending the knee, and gliding the feet through the thigh slots requires an intricate computation of neuromuscular coordination and immediate decision making.

Standing on one leg while making decisions to move one or two other extremities is a seemingly simple action for some.  However, for individuals with deconditioned fitness levels, simply putting on a set of undies while standing up can pose a lofty challenge.  Balance can degenerate rapidly if not consistently practiced.  A lack of ability to correct imbalances can threaten functionality, productivity, safety, and overall enjoyment of life.  If putting on a set of underwear is a challenge first thing in the day, one could imagine that other challenging tasks requiring balance won’t be much easier.  Examples that require the mastery of efficient balance levels include stepping up and down stairs, getting in and out of a car, or interacting with our pets, children, or grandkids.  Identifying and correcting imbalances is critically important for a productive, safe, and fulfilling day of life.

If we look at the demands of standing up and sliding our underwear on first thing in the morning, the torso needs to bend over, which requires hamstrings and lower back muscles that are flexible enough to hinge over the hips down to the ground.  To step into the underwear entryway, one foot must be entered at a time, which requires lifting one foot and transferring weight from one to the other.  After both feet are in, the torso is elevated back to a vertical position while simultaneously pulling the undies up, which requires sufficient thigh, hip, and lower back strength.

While putting on your undergarment may appear to be a humorous example of human performance, it’s noteworthy to consider the importance of conducting this action proficiently at this current time and for the rest of our lives.  As time passes, the body is not the same as it once was as an injury-free and spry teenager.  Joint structures and muscular strength may have been altered due to injuries, lifestyle habits, or general age-related imbalances.  Therefore, it’s essential to notice the simple acts, such as putting our underwear on, that can significantly hinder our livelihood if taken away.

Going back to what our coach said about our team having the ability to put our underwear on the same way as our opponents, I think our coach was saying we’re on an even playing ground with our ability as humans.  We wouldn’t have been able to get to the point where we performed organized sports if we had trouble putting our underwear on.  Even though our opponents could run faster than ninety-five percent of our team and probably had more athletic potential, we still had something in common that didn’t make facing off against them too intimidating.

If muscular strength, coordination, or recovery from injury seem to be significant obstacles, focus on mastering the simple movement requirements, such as putting on socks, standing up, or putting on underwear one foot at a time without losing balance. Maintaining optimal performance in these simple movements has the potential to equip us with essential tools and aid us in living long, happy, and strong 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.

Sep 10

Foundations in Health with Fitness Education

Health and fitness awareness is positively evolving society’s outlook on the benefits of living active lives. The advancements of smartwatches not only offer the properties of our beloved phones, which can be talked into, interact with for business decisions, and peer through various apps, but also track our activity levels, such as how many steps we’ve taken or how long we’ve been standing still.  A cornucopia of services offered by fitness professionals is increasingly booming into local small businesses, including cycling classes, Pilates studios, and other small group fitness classes.  Additionally, savvy technical fitness professionals are pumping out instructional video-based apps we can download on our phones or view from our flatscreen monitors in our living room.  Popular and successful applications include Peleton Bikes or The Mirror, which offer an interactive approach to exercise for participants to follow a professionally designed fitness session any time they want.

Thanks to the revolutions of exercise-based technology and fitness entrepreneurs, we’re fortunate to have fitness and health-enhancing resources readily available to assist in living productive and enjoyable lives. However, it’s important to remember the potential risks involved when participating in an exercise program. Just like learning how to ride a bike for the first time, there is a learning curve involved in conducting the sophisticated physical demands involved in each of these exercise arenas.

I can recall when my son first took off on his bike with training wheels when he was around three years of age.  The pedals powered by the adrenaline-filled tiny human were turning at surprisingly rapid revolutions. I wouldn’t have been surprised if sparks started to flare off to the side and smoke began to emit from the chains.  It was only a matter of seconds before he lost his balance and plummeted toward the ground.   After his bike veered off, he proceeded to project out in the opposite direction in a series of barrel rolls propelled by the momentum of his enthusiastically fueled pedaling performance.  I felt like I had just witnessed a biker roll his Harley after taking a turn too fast.  Fortunately, he was unscathed from this event.  About a month later, he learned to pedal a little slower and master the art of strategically tearing around corners utilizing precision, dexterity, and strategy he had practiced in his training wheel-equipped vehicle.

The enthusiasm of initiating an exercise journey for the first time with an exciting new stimulus isn’t much different than my son’s journey to go fast into a new, fun, and thrilling experience of learning how to operate his first two-wheeled vehicle.  Unfortunately, in the exercise arena, conducting exercises where the participant lacks competency and mastery of the intricacies involved in sophisticated exercise actions can lead to injuries.  The last thing we want from any exercise session is to get injured.  Additionally, no one wants to develop overuse injuries from exercises performed incorrectly for the previous few weeks to months.  Remember that exercise is meant to enhance productivity, functionality, and overall quality of life.  Investing time to educate oneself on the purpose of exercise movements, the technical aspects of a specific action in an exercise session, and the potential injuries is critically important for achieving optimal outcomes when starting a new fitness experience.

We instruct our personal training clients to perform a series of dynamic stretching and preparatory exercises before any training session.  These movements are encouraged to become a ritual of warming up the body, delivering oxygenated blood flow to the working muscle, producing synovial fluid in the joints, and putting the exercise participant’s psychological mindset into the mode of entering rigorous physical activity.

After completing a concentrated full-body warm-up routine, we coach our clients to complete one set of three variations of exercises that seem to be present in most exercise environments.  These primary movements are planks, push-ups, and squats.  This doesn’t mean holding the world records of planks for 9 hours, completing the Navy Seal requirement of push-ups, or getting under a barbell for a one-repetition maximum of squatting a personal best equal to twice a person’s body weight.  Instead, completing a plank at a manageable inclined angle or on the floor for twenty to thirty seconds is sufficient to activate the core muscles and neuromuscular system of the spine and lumbopelvic hip complex.  Completing five to ten push-ups at an inclined angle or on the floor serves the purpose of activating the stabilizing muscles of the rotator cuff of the shoulder.  Completing a few reps of sit-to-stand squats is an efficient way to warm up the lower back, hip, knees, and ankles before entering into an exercise routine requiring stepping, lunging, getting up and down off the ground, or long-distance walking and biking.  A ritual of rehashing compound movements at a lower intensity before entering a bout of rigorous physical activity not only enhances the strength of the big motors of the body but also encourages us never to forget how to perform these movements present in so many exercise programs.

Take time to let the technique of exercise to sink in when just starting out a new fitness program.  By understanding a learning curve is required to master exercise techniques, we can get the best possible outcomes out of fitness programs.

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 04

Staying Fit to Manage Arthritis

General age-related breakdown occurs in many aspects of our lives, including the wear and tear of the engines in our automobiles, the scuffs in our hardwood floors, or the chipping of paint on the side of our houses facing the hot afternoon sun.  These repercussions of being present in the world for years can’t necessarily be reversed or avoided.  Simply existing in the world introduces an advancement of age for any object from its genesis to the current point of its life.  Similarly, as time goes on, a human who has circled this earth for a substantial amount of years can expect to experience general age-related symptoms of organs in their bodies getting chipped, scuffed, stretched out, or, in undesirable events, torn or broken.  In the human advancement of age, we see wrinkles on our skin, maybe a slight decrease in our ability to lose subcutaneous fat mass or develop lean muscles, or the introduction of osteoarthritis in our joints.

Osteoarthritis can be defined as clinically diagnosed symptoms of pain occuring throughout the bones and joints.  A few common examples of arthritic pain and joint inflammation appear in the neck joint, rotator cuff, wrist and fingers, lumbar spine, hip joints, or knee joints.  Advanced cases of arthritis could lead to the need for surgical intervention, including partial or total joint replacements to the hips, knees, or shoulders.    Once the pain from inflammation of the joints caused by degradation of the cartilage in joints leading to bone-on-bone contact becomes so intense, productivity and function in everyday life can become significantly hindered.  Consistently dealing with pain from the waking hours of the morning until the day ends can bring frustration, depression, or loss of sleep to an individual’s life.  While surgical intervention is a worthwhile option to remedy the detrimental effects of osteoarthritis, avoiding the need to take painkillers, looking into shaving off bone spurs or acquiring a joint replacement can be managed to delay the need for corrective surgery.  Maintaining a physically active and fit body grants the power to potentially avoid degenerated joint corrective surgery altogether.

The onset of osteoarthritis not only stems from the result of general age related degeneration of connective tissue, but is also produced as a result of previous injuries or lack of physical activity.  For example, a previous injury to a knee joint in which the joint was immobilized for a prolonged period might have produced athrophy in the joint in which the stimulus to grow was absent, causing connective tissue surrounding the joint to breakdown.  Furthermore, inactive individuals are prone to the development of bone-on-bone contact throughout the body’s joints.  Lack of physical activity triggers a response to halt the body’s reaction to produce anabolic hormones.  Anabolic growth hormones aid in developing lean muscle mass and bone mineral density.  However, this stimulus to trigger bone and muscle strengthening effects only occurs after the body is put through consistent physical activity, resistance training, or corrective exercise.

To delay the advancement of osteoarthritis and general age-related degenerative connective tissue occurrences, we coach our personal training clients to accomplish at least one day of resistance training each week.  This isn’t just meandering through the gym and dilly-dallying on random equipment here or there.  Consistently practicing joint strengthening and injury prevention tactics must be identified, tested, approved, and finally prioritized in a meticulously designed strength and conditioning program specific to an individual’s current physical capabilities and fitness levels.

Tactics that create significant adaptations to fitness levels include simple yet effective movements that can be repeated week after week.  Body weight-themed exercises such as planks, inclined push-ups, or assisted squats require a low learning curve and are often mastered quickly.  After a few weeks of performing three sets of five to ten repetitions of simple body weight techniques, developing competency within these techniques is likely to occur.  Venturing into more sophisticated forms of exercise and physical activity has the potential to improve overall body strength and decrease the likelihood of bone and joint-related injuries or advancement to arthritic symptoms.  However, it’s critically important to discover and consistently practice foundational resistance training tactics that can be repeated from day one of starting an exercise regimen to the day we stop moving altogether.

Research and historical evidence have repeatedly proven that a body in motion stays in motion.  Even though distractions of joint pain and hindrances to movement occur as we age, the desire to continue adapting toward advancing our fitness levels must remain present to avoid accelerating the deterioration of bones and joints so we can live happy, healthy, and strong 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 28

Exercise is the Natural High

“It doesn’t get much better than this,”  I commented after sitting on a bench at Crane Park in St. Helena and peering out into the vineyard-laced countryside with a few of my pickleball companions.  We concluded a three-hour session of playing pickleball matches, switching partners every game.  For me, this was just what the doctor ordered.  The phone was left in the car, my court shoes were strapped on tight, and I heard nothing by the percussive cacophony of plastic balls hitting paddles for long-awaited sessions away from checking my emails, returning texts, and the hustle and bustle of getting things done in my professional world.

Crane Park in St. Helena offers many well-kept areas for recreational physical activity.  Starting with my personal favorite, four newly paved and painted pickleball courts welcome pickleball junkies.  To the west, you can see more than four tennis courts breaming with devoted tennis players playing and bantering with each other in a friendly competitive match, youth coaching lessons, or the lone participant with a bucket of balls by their side practicing serves.  A stone’s throw away to the west includes a slew of bocce ball courts with many tables and benches.  A few nights throughout the week feature bocce league play, where you’ll find the lanes filled with skilled Bocce athletes socializing, laughing, and working on mastering their ball-rolling skills.  Most importantly, a functioning bathroom with two separate units resides fifty meters away from these three arenas of recreational physical activity.  These features Crane Park offers are potent ingredients to put the world on hold for a moment while people can venture out for much-needed movement.

As productive humans in today’s society, we put pressure on ourselves to be the best we can.  Whether it be making the most money possible, being the best parent or spouse, or struggling with an interpersonal conflict, challenges are present in our daily lives in which we try to be the best version of ourselves.  Within these periods of putting in energy and effort to produce a positive outcome at the end of the day, a byproduct of mental, emotional, and physical stress can arise.  Examples might include a deadline for a specific work or career-related task due at the end of the week.  Or a co-worker isn’t picking up their portion of an expected workload.  Maybe an infestation of termites or rats has plagued the subfloor of your house, and you need to manage that by working with an exterminator.  Life can offer obstacles that are challenging to manage.  The bi-product of resolving some lifestyle-related issues can produce stress.

An overabundance of psychological, emotional, and mental related stress can equate to physical stress.  Loss of sleep, irritability, or decreases in energy are just a few outcomes of existing in a hyper-stressful environment.  Along with a lack of recovery from a long day of getting things done, inadequate sleep can lead to a dysfunctional immune system or hormonal imbalances.  A state of discontent, frustration, or impatience doesn’t help us to support the people we care about if certain things trigger a snappy response because our stress hormones are heightened.  To sum it all up, a stressful state of mind is exhausting.  And, if we don’t have any energy because we’re so stressed, how are we supposed to be the best version of ourselves?  Fortunately, these conditions can be remedied by consistently applying skillful exercise decisions as a pertinent portion of our lives.

Exercise positively influences optimal psychological, physical, and emotional stress management.  As the body enters a state of physical exertion, a “fight or flight” mode is introduced to the nerves, muscles, and organs.  As the body moves its legs faster or lifts a challenging amount of external resistance, physiological chemical reactions occur in which the release of stress hormones improves exercise performance.  The heart rate increases, oxygenated blood flow is sent to working muscles, and nerve cells are excited and encouraged to fire more synapses to areas of the body to produce athletic movements.

Exercise-induced stress hormones are beneficial in balancing out the stress responses we might encounter in our everyday lives.  One of the most helpful features of the human body is its ability to adapt to imposed demands of rigorous physical and psychological situations.  The body becomes stressed as we increase our heart and complete a bout of exertive physical activity.  However, as an adaptation to match the demand of the stress introduced via exercise, the body learns to become less stressed via fitness level enhancements such as increased strength and cardiovascular endurance.  An optimally conditioned body won’t release exercise-induced stress hormones until later in strenuous physical activity.  The good news is these adaptations trickle into helping us manage stress responses we might endure through our busy everyday lives. Exercise has the power to be a natural anti-depressant that can replace the need to have a glass of wine, take a toke off a vape pen, and, in some cases, remove the need for anti-anxiety medication.  By using our stress during exercises, we can decrease the likelihood of becoming anxious, frustrated, and irritable during stressful situations in our everyday lives.

Some people’s form of recreational sport might include golf.  For others, it’s gardening, bowling, or walking with their buddies.  While it may not be as simple as taking a pill or a sip of alcohol to unwind after a day filled with the demands of everyday life, exercise offers the “natural high” that can’t be overdosed.  And, the side effects include helping us live happy, healthy, and strong 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.

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