Aug 28

Maintaining Fitness on the Road!

For all of you who are in a routine in your lifetime fitness journey when your firing on all cylinders on your path to happy and healthful life, the fitness community of Napa salutes you.  Perhaps you’re exercising consistently at the gym or a small group fitness class 3-4 times per week.  You hit all the main body parts at the gym, using the machines in the weight room and the cardio equipment.  Your diet is in check because there is a specific day set aside to where all the veggies are chopped, proteins are portioned out and snacks are prepared for a busy week.  Veggies have been purchased and stored in the fridge for a week’s worth of healthy dinners.  This leads to losing fat mass, gaining lean muscle, decreasing likelihood of injury, and feeling overall great because of the positive benefits exercise and a planned-out diet offers.  This empowers you with a clear mindset inhibiting cravings for junk food because you’re in the zone and striving for that goal of eating clean, having a positive mental attitude, and training the body to be a fine-tuned machine.

However, what happens when you get a call from the boss with orders to head out of town for work and leave this routine that was so diligently created?  You might be staying in a hotel for 3 nights in the middle of a strip mall by an airport with sub optimal food options.  Not to mention your favorite local Napa gym could be 500 miles away.  There is an abundance of chain food restaurants that lack the healthy ingredients you have in your fridge at home.

Perhaps a business trip to the Pacific Northwest occurs in an area housing tempting gastropubs and breweries.  Some of the famed microbrews and pub food while watching ESPN at the bar could be hard to pass up.  Extra calories are waiting to be absorbed, derailing a healthy diet.   The urge to partake in some famous cuisine that veers outside of your dietary standards can leave you with the feeling not to miss out on such opportunities for legendary decadence in another town.

Then there’s the family visits.  You might have to stay in a town where you’re unfamiliar with the layout> Obtaining quality food and finding a gym could be a challenge.  Not to mention your loving relatives might reserve some of their secret family recipe pie for you.  It might seem rude not to partake, adding yet another threat of consuming foods outside of your normal healthy eating regimen at home.

When staying in places outside of your comfortable home turf, you enter a foreign exercise environment with food choices that you are not used to choosing from.  These are some of the many obstacles that appear during travel that hamper efforts to improve our lifetime fitness journey.

We offer solutions to our personal training clients in Napa when travelling occurs in their schedule. We help develop exercise routines utilizing little-to-no equipment that are stationary and require simple movement.  There are a variety of exercises that can be performed in about 9 square feet of space.  Meaning, you don’t necessarily need a gym to for a solid exercise session.  Performing stationary exercises during travel means they can be performed in a hotel room or a guest room in the dwelling you are staying at.  We prescribe fitness homework routines to our personal training clients who travel frequently focusing on simple yet effective mobility, core, lower body, upper body pushing and pulling exercise techniques.  An example of a stationary body weight routine might look like this:

  1. Warm up with a dynamic stretching routine.
  2. Perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions body weight squats
  3. Perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions pushups (can be done from the knees)
  4. Perform 3 sets of 30 seconds elbow planks.
  5. Finish with 4 sets of 25 jumping jacks or a brisk 20-minute walk.

Performing routines requiring your body weight and a small area is an innovative solution when there are no exercises facilities around or time to exercise is limited.  While such routines may not be as effective as 90 minutes at one of Napa’s local gyms, the exercise put into a stationary body weight routine can mitigate the detrimental effects of lack luster food options and the absence of a normal exercise routine that might be more comfortable.  Something is better than nothing when on the run.  Don’t let traveling throw a wrench in the spokes of your lifetime fitness momentum to healthier life.  Think dynamically and use the resources we always have available to keep active while maintaining health and fitness during travel.

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 11

A “Pain in the Butt”: Alleviating Hip Pain

Activities such as sitting, doing recreational activities or just hanging out with friends and family all seem like normal activities everyone should be able to do.  However, when pain arises somewhere in the body, these activities become challenging.  A common site of pain in the body is hip tightness.  Symptoms such as sciatica creates pain that runs down the side of the hip all the way down to the knee are common triggers that lead to debilitating pain.    Limping due to pain lingering down the leg can cause a halt to every day physical activities.  The IT band is a large ligament that spans from the back of the hip to the outer portion of the knee.  When the IT band gets too tight, pain will occur in this area.  Weakness around the lower back, back of the hip and knee joint occur as well due to the distraction that pain can bring.  This can hinder our desire to be active in our normal daily activities.  This “pain in the butt” can also distract us from being happy and turn our moods upside down.

Don’t let this pain slow you down, because it is curable.  Once we know what causes this pain, the detrimental effects of this type of injury can be remedied or avoided.  We teach our personal training clients the indicators that tell us the IT band may be irritated by noticing the factors that exacerbate this injury.  Likely culprits include sitting down for too long, insufficient injury prevention awareness, and lack of exercise to strengthen the gluteal muscles.

A common mechanism of injury is simply sitting down for too long.  Commuters, desk job workers, and students all sit for long periods of time.  Picture the entire weight of the upper body of a human resting down on the IT band, the sciatic nerve and the gluteal muscles.    Now imagine bending a garden hose at a ninety-degree angle while standing on it for a few hours.  You would notice that the rubber in the hose molds to the ninety-degree position.  It would take a while for the hose to revert to its initial shape.  The same process occurs in the human body when remaining in a seated position for a prolonged period.  The muscles and ligaments of the hip become molded in a 90-degree shape and take a while to return to normal position.  This constriction of muscles and ligaments limit the delivery of oxygenated blood flow to muscles, ligaments and nerves of the lower extremities.  This can lead to nagging nerve pain and stiffness in physical activities that shouldn’t be that challenging to perform.

The first solution to preventing the hips from becoming too tight is to simply stand up from long bouts of sitting.  We encourage our personal training clients to set timers every 90 minutes to get up and walk around for 5 minutes.  This stimulates blood flow to muscles and won’t force muscles to remain in a constricted position and lock up.  More importantly, exercising the muscles that attach to the hip joint are critical to help the joints maintain mobility and strength.    Providing a healthy environment for the glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and adductors will help to support the structure of the hip and thigh bones so compression of the sciatic nerve and IT band is less likely to occur.

Sure, pain in the hip region can be a bear.  But don’t just let it sit there and linger.  If we throw our hands up in the air and settle with the fact that we have pain, we are going to live with pain.  However, if we can identify the source of pain, we can draw a road map of how to remedy the situation.  If you have tight hips, don’t forget to train the muscles surrounding the hip joint.  Most importantly, don’t forget to get up from your seats and walk around regularly.

 

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 06

The Almighty Knee Joint: Part 2

Last weeks from the “Fit for Life” weekly column featured 3 large muscles attached to the knee and their significance in maintaining the health and structural integrity of our critically important knee joint.  This subject received special attention because it could not be condensed into the 800-word limit for this column. As a special, let’s elaborate on exercises that improve the optimal performance of our knee joint.

To recap, we discussed how decreased physical activity and exercise increase likelihood of arthritis.  While previous corrective surgeries to damaged ligaments and supporting tissues in the knee joint is productive to get back to moving, weakness and pain causes distractions in returning to regular moving conditions.  Relatable muscles that are simple to target and improve knee health are the quadriceps, hamstrings, and adductor muscles of the thigh.

The stellar local gyms in the Napa Valley, such as Healthquest, Synergy, and Health Spa Napa Valley have resistance training equipment that are easy to understand.  These resistance training machines are created to have a participant execute movement to target the quadriceps, hamstrings, or adductors.  Instructions are listed explaining how to perform the movement.  Additionally, staff and personal trainers are ready to answer questions regarding proper usage.  Therefore, resources are available in local gyms to help us strengthen our knee joints.

The theme of lifetime fitness is to be able to continually exercise critically significant areas of the body to maintain a happy, strong, and healthful life throughout the week in any circumstance.  Even though we may not be able to attend one of the amazing local gyms in the Napa Valley due to scheduling conflicts, we can still strengthen the muscles around the knee in the comfort of our own homes.  Resistance training is optimal for lean muscle development.  Greater concentration of lean muscle surrounding the knee joint contributes to strength in the lower extremities, improved balanced, increased coordination, and decreased pain from the threat of arthritis.  To support the theme of lifetime fitness, we teach our personal training clients in the Napa Valley to target significant muscles of the knee with home exercise prescriptions.  Here are a few exercises that can be performed in most settings at home, on vacation, or on a break at work:

  1. Step up: The step up is an exercise targeting the quadriceps muscles.  The quadriceps are important because they are attached the knee cap.  Strong attachments to the kneecap ensure that the knee will does not deviate side-to-side.  To perform the step up, find a step in your home or surrounding area.  It could be a step in the stairs, threshold to your entrance of your back door, or a curb outside.  Stand in front of the step, bring one foot forward to where the heel is pressing into the step, and lift the opposite foot to meet even with the leading foot.  Step down with the first foot that led the movement, then rinse and repeat with the other foot.
  2. Supine hip bridge: This exercise targets the hamstrings and gluteal muscles.  Hamstrings are an important attachment point of the knee because this large, dense muscle attaches from the back of the hip and runs underneath the knee joint.  Strong hamstrings will help reinforce damaged knee ligaments or previously surgically repaired ligaments. This adds support by guarding the knee when stress is applied to the knee and influences it to shift front-to-back past its range of motion from.  To perform the supine hip bridge, lay down on your back.  Bend both knees and bring your heels close to your bottom, your knees should be bent at about 45 degrees.  While maintaining a perfectly flat back and driving through the heels into the ground, lift the crest of your hips toward the sky.  Ensure to squeeze the gluteal muscles.
  3. Single leg adductor balance: Strong adductors assist in ensuring the knees don’t collapse inward and aid our balance.  Perform this routine by placing both hands on a surface in front of you. Such as a wall or countertop.  Slightly bending the knees, lift one leg to the outside of the body as high as it will go.  Hold this movement at the maximum range of motion for about 5 seconds.  Repeat on the other side of the body, alternation side to side.

Performing these exercises for about 5-10 repetition each once a week will positively influence the knee health.

Adherence to exercise is critical to lifetime fitness.  Especially when referring to a strongly influential joint such as the knee.  Therefore, dedicating time to this joint throughout the week will improve the quality of life.  If you can target these muscle groups at a local gym, knock yourself out.  If you can’t make it to a local gym, utilize home exercise resources like the ones stated above.  Use the powerful tool of will power and lifetime fitness to keep the joints that allow us take one step at a time healthy and strong.

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

Jul 22

Knee Health (Part 1): Future Proofing your Knees with Exercise!

The more you move, the less stiff your body will be.  The less stiff you are, the more you can move.  What happens when we’ve moved so much over the course our lives that now it’s painful to move to avoid getting stiff?  What happens when the joints and hinges holding us together begin to creak, crack, and crunch that is not only painful to you, but to people around that can hear your joints sound like Velcro when kneeling to pick something up?  The sound of two marbles rubbing together when moving your knees could be the result of more than 20 years of manual labor, the healing of injuries and surgeries, or just the amount of time spent on this earth contributing to wear and tear.  These symptoms contribute to arthritis and threats to future injuries.

A critically important joint to maintain so we can remain happy and productive in our future is the almighty knee joint.  Healthy knees joints are responsible for daily physical activities like picking things up off the ground, getting in and out of cars, or stepping up stairs and curbs.  We utilize our knees joints when interacting with our kids or grandkids, wrestling on the ground or getting down to their level to play.  One of the most common activities we do as human is sit.  Optimally functioning knees are responsible for getting in and out of chairs.  A knee that is lacking in structural integrity, strength, and coordination can hinder us from these normal daily functions.

As bipedal organisms, humans depend on putting one foot in front of the other when walking.  A car with old, rusty suspension and deteriorated wheels can’t be trusted to travel 100 miles.  Just like an unkept car, the human body can’t keep up with the demands of life with neglected knees.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could keep the shocks and wheels of the knees functioning properly through our future years?  With regular knee strengthening exercise, this is possible. Even if father time decides to sprinkle a little age on our knees every 10 years

Significant structures of the knee joint include ligaments that protect the knee joint from going out of it’s normal side-to-side or front-to-back range of motion. The meniscus is a thick pad of cartilage responsible for absorbing force between the thigh and shin bone is also noteworthy.  Symptoms of arthritis can occur when the thigh bone and shin bone rub together due to the wearing down of the meniscus.  When arthritis is paired with inactivity, the bones lack stimulus to regrow because there is no stress or demand to move.  A vicious cycle can occur as knee pain hinders our desire to move.

A solution we offer our personal training clients in Napa is to focus on strengthening large groups of muscles in the lower extremities to reinforce the knee.  Popular muscles targeted for knee strength are the quads, hamstring and abductors of the leg.  These muscles are responsible for reinforcing the structural integrity of the knee and reducing the likelihood of pain through bone-on-bone rubbing.

Quadriceps are responsible for extending the leg and ensuring the stability of the kneecap Strong quadriceps will protect the kneecaps from shifting and scuffing the surface underneath, further decreasing arthritic pain.  Hamstrings attach on the back of the hip, through the back of the thigh bone and just below the knee joint.  Strong hamstrings not only aid efficient leg movement but are also a useful addition to reinforcing knees that have been affected by injuries to the ACL and PCL.  When the significant ligaments of the knee are affected from injuries or weakened over time due to inactivity, they don’t regenerate efficiently.  Therefore, using a strong and large muscle to reinforce the joint is a useful alternative.  Abductors are responsible for bringing the leg away from the midline of the body, lateral movement, and a contributor to correcting balance.  Similar to their cousins the quadriceps and hamstrings, the abductors serve as another reinforcing bracket of muscle that will protect the knee from injuries and also help reinforce bones from rubbing together at the knee joint.  Most importantly, performing resistance training on these muscle groups stimulate blood flow and regeneration of bone and cartilage cells in the knee joints, decreasing the detrimental effects of arthritis.

If we don’t want age to slow us down, we need to decrease joint pain over time.  We want to enjoy our hobbies, recreational sports, and hanging out with our families after we retire. Don’t let the advancement of age slow you down by worrying about previous knee injuries and arthritis.  Strengthen the muscles of the knee joint and live a strong, happy, healthful life as time passes by.

For more information on exercises that will build the hamstrings, quadriceps, and abductors of the thigh, tune in next week for “knee future proofing, part 2.”

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

Jul 14

Benefits of playing in the water: Aquatic Exercise!

Summer in the Napa Valley is one of the most beautiful times one can ask for.  Morning fog rolls in, making it just warm enough to venture outdoors for a morning walk in your t-shirt.  The vineyards bearing their fruit preparing to be harvested lace the hills in majestic beauty.  Some of the finest restaurants thrive off patrons looking for world class food paired with a beautiful view of the valley’s rolling hills.  Visitors from all over the world partake in the unique Mediterranean climate that is rivaled by few other locations in the world during this gorgeous time of year.  However, once the morning fog burns off, another phenomenon occurs.  Napa can get hotter than the hinges of Hades’ gates.

What do can we do when the air that we breath gets hot enough to burn our faces?  A solution that is fun and beneficial for the body is to partake in entertaining physical activity in the water.  Swimming at a pool party, hopping on boat in Lake Berryessa, or making a quick drive out to one of the beaches of the Pacific Ocean is an innovative way to be active in the water. Not only is frolicking around in the water fun and a great release from the stressful demands of everyday life, aquatic exercise has substantial benefits to the body.

Outside of the pool parties, aquatic exercises classes don’t get the credit they deserve.  A structured exercise routine facilitated by an accredited aquatics instructor offer a unique form of resistance that doesn’t impact our joints as much as land exercise, but still offers significant resistance to muscles.  Buoyancy while moving in water takes away the effect of gravity pressing down on joints, decreasing compressive forces on popular pain areas during exercise such as the back, hips, and knees.  Additionally, the “thickness” effect that water offers while moving joints forward creates work in the muscles, offering a form of resistance humans don’t usually experience as they move on land.  A structured exercise routine in water is a great fit for participants who are just beginning a regular exercise program, people recovering from injury, or individuals who might be struggling with arthritis.  People who aren’t confident in their balance can participate in aquatic exercise to regain confidence by moving in the water in ways that might be a challenge to their equilibrium on land.  Over time, the muscles involved in stabilization and balance will regain strength and coordination for movements that might be hindered on land.

Physical activity in the water is also beneficial for increasing calories burned during exercise.  Resistance of the limbs moving through water is a relatively slow-moving activity that is different from brisk walks, hikes, or jogging on land.  While moving at lower resistances for a longer period, heart rate responses won’t increase as fast.  This promotes a steady pace of exercise for a longer period, utilizing more fat as a fuel source at a lower heart rate expenditure.  This takes the edge off the idea that exercise is excruciatingly painful and challenging.  Why do something you don’t enjoy? Perhaps splashing around in the water is a great solution for people who don’t like the gym floor scene or running on a treadmill.

Another key component that aquatic exercise offers is the conductivity of heat while performing physical activity in the water.  Water acts like an insulator when a person is submerged in it.  Similar to that of a coffee mug holding steaming hot coffee.  This ensures that heat doesn’t escape as fast compared to when a person is exercising on land, limiting the effects of over heating yet still burning calories.  If we can keep more heat in the body and limit it from leaving due to the increased energy we are producing through movement, we can literally “burn” more calories as we move in the water.  Moving in the water not only requires muscles to utilize oxygen as a fuel source during exercise more due to the resistance, but also for a longer period.  Once a high amount of oxygen has been used for a while, the “after burn” effect kicks in following completion of exercise which allows muscles to absorb more oxygen following exercise and utilize fat as a fuel source even after you finish your bout of aquatic exercise.

Take advantage of these historically hot summer months by splashing around, jumping off diving boards and getting a few laps in at the pool.  Welcome the opportunity to get back into exercise if you’ve fallen off due to injury or recovering from a surgery by partaking in aquatic exercise classes.   The water might be the perfect fit to introduce a productive and fun exercise routine to help us enjoy our lives with decreased pain, improved balance, and a calmer, productive state of mind.

 

 

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

Jul 11

Improve Balance and Find your Imbalance

Walking, turning your head, stepping on and off objects.  These activities can be more challenging than we think when our sense of balance is disturbed.    The regulation of balance perpetually occurs throughout a normal day.  Take away an optimal level of balance, we have issues.  Once we take one misstep off a curb, trip over a crack, or get startled to where the feet tangle up after a we get spooked by a loud noise and fall, it’s easy to understand how important balance is to our everyday lives.  The risk of falling increases, recreational activities and sports become challenging, and working on projects around the house can be hindered by inadequate balance.

Visualize our bodies moving in a straight line during each step.  As bipedal creatures, we depend on the gate of our feet to trace an imaginary line running through the center of our bodies.  Deviating outside of the line indicates an imbalance in our path of movement.  Sturdy muscles in the core and lower extremities contribute to the stability of the midline of the body.  Coordination of these muscles acting in unison protect against the upper body from swaying away from the midline of the lower body, preventing the body from toppling over like the end of a game of Jenga.  Training the body to be mobile through balance training, strength training, and remaining active in recreational activities and sports keep the mind acute and aware to compute when imbalances might occur to automatically correct them.  Not only is it important to train the muscles responsible for balance, but it’s also important to pay attention to the visual comprehension to adjust to maneuvering around difficult objects in our way, identifying possible threats leading to falls, and recovering from unpredictable situations inducing a loss of balance.

One way we improve our Napa personal training clients’ balance is to discover where their imbalances are.  The best way to improve balance, is to discover imbalances.  From hyperathletic, to post surgery, to advances age individuals, challenges to balance and proprioception can always be introduced.  Through safe and effective training, threats to poor balance can be improved.  Here are some examples of techniques that can be performed safely in the comfort of our own homes to challenge our imbalances and improve balance when practiced regularly:

  1. Stand facing a wall with your hands resting on the wall. Lift one foot off the ground attempting to get the knee about hip height.  Hold that pose for 5 seconds.  Repeat on the opposite leg and perform 5 times each leg.  To make this movement more challenging, while one foot is lifted, remove the opposite hand off the wall and raise it in the air.  When you are ready to ramp it up more, lift both hands off the wall.
  2. Perform the old DUI test. Find a straight line to trace with your footsteps and place one foot in front of the other as you walk for about 5 yards and back.  Repeat about 3 times.  I’m sure Napa’s finest police officers would be thrilled that we are using this tactic as a strategy to improve our balance and health unhindered by the effects of debilitating substances.
  3. For an advanced form of balance training, stagger one foot in front of the other and close your eyes for 10 seconds. You’ll be surprised how challenging this may be.  Please do this in a safe environment where there aren’t many falling or tripping risks.  For an even bigger challenge, attempt to lift one foot off the group with your eyes closed and feet aligned one in front of the other.

To improve our balance, we need to improve our imbalances.  Feeling confident in balance reduces the risk and fear of falling, allowing us to enjoy our lives more.  Do you want to test your if your balance is up to par?  Then you should be able to pass the universal DUI test when you are in a sober state of mind.   More importantly, don’t be afraid to test your imbalances.  The knowledge of knowing what you lack is powerful fuel to contribute to a critically important facet of lifetime fitness that will allow us to live life confidently and safely as we move.

 

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

Jul 04

Exercise before the day begins!

The to do list of daily chores and errands is ever evolving in our roles as responsible human beings.   Progressing in life as partners in relationships, parents, throughout careers, or when we retire, we undoubtedly get busier.  With time invested into these obligations, the and energy we invest in ourselves to be a good worker, parent, or retiree can fizzle.  40 hour per week jobs require face to face interactions, phone calls, desk work, or commutes.  Combine that with some ill-advised food decisions on the run, the lack luster results of sedentary activity and poor diet puts our bodies through the ringer.  Chauffeuring kids to school and extracurricular activities take away some much-needed opportunities for exercise.  Even in the retired population house projects, spending time with grandchildren, and errands can engulf an individual’s time to where there is no time to focus on refining the body, adding to the effects of aging.  Achievement driven individuals’ days grow long, and the hours of obligation fill up leaving little time to focus on health and fitness.  There are only so many hours in the day.  However, ensuring to get some much-needed exercise in early part of the day is a powerful technique to supercharge your day and positively contribute to life time fitness.

Accomplishing exercise early in the day benefits the human body mentally, emotionally, and physically.  Hormones such as adrenaline and dopamine are released in the body from exercise which can increase mental acuity, alertness, and serve as a natural energy booster.  Physiologically, exercising earlier in the day will increase the amount of oxygen absorbed by skeletal muscles, allowing the muscles worked by exercise to utilize fat as a fuel source more efficiently throughout the day.  Regular exercise improves strength and endurance, helping the body to be injury free and hold up to the stressful demands of the day.

Moving up in a career, managers and supervisors are likely to commend a person who takes care of their body and mind.  Why would a boss desire someone to represent their team or business with health risks?  As parents, it pays to be healthy, strong, and mentally fresh to be a good role model for our kids.  The retired community needs endurance, strength and the reduction of chronic pain to keep up the with activities and hobbies.

Achieving a workout early in the morning also decreases the likelihood of procrastination from exercise.  Accomplishing a bout of exercise earlier is a significant attribute having a good day before our busy lives take the day away from us.

We teach our personal training clients in Napa to adhere to a simple exercise routine before the demands of the day occur.  A brisk paced walk, aerobics class, or a home-based resistance training routine consisting of 10-20 minutes is enough to support exercise needs before the day starts.

An example of a short and effective exercise routine that can be performed in the comfort of your own home that we prescribe to our personal training clients in Napa might look like this:

  1. Start with a simple dynamic stretching routine
  2. Perform 3 sets of 10 body weight squat repetitions
  3. Lay down flat on your back on the ground and perform 3 sets of 10 hip bridges
  4. Turn over to where you are face down and perform 3 sets of 10 push ups (from knees if needed)
  5. Finish off with 30 seconds of elbow planks

That doesn’t seem like it would take too long.  However, a routine this simple will elicit positive adaptations of exercise that contribute to a strong, happy and alert body if done before the hustle of life envelops us.  We all have 24 hours in our day.  How we spend it is the determining factor of if we can get the most of it or not.  One thing is for sure, if you exercise early in the day before life takes you away, you will be fine tuning your performance as a parent, worker, and retiree.

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

Jun 27

Keep Up Your Hobbies to Stay Young at Heart!

“10 years ago, I would have caught that ball!”

As my softball teammate cursed at himself, letting a fly ball sail past his reach. My teammate compared himself to how the younger version of himself playing little league baseball.  Spry, young, energetic, and unhindered by injuries and the stresses of life. Perhaps a sedentary lifestyle of his career, becoming a family man, and the lack of time devoted to fitness left him not as athletic as he once was and a little overweight.

A younger version of ourselves doesn’t include the hardships of our current everyday lives.  Challenging interpersonal relationships, parenting responsibilities, or financial obligations were absent in our younger days.  Minimal responsibilities made it simple to focus on being athletic and participate in hobbies, sports, and extracurricular physical activities.  Sure, aging can do a number on the body and mind.  However, if you let a jalopy from the 1940’ssit stagnant in the driveway for years, it’s going to be quite the challenge to start back up.  Our bodies work the same way, especially with father time officiating the game.

The silver is lining is that the soul can remain young.  As my softball teammate chased that ball down, his youthful energy remained prevalent in his subconscious.  The desire to continue hobbies and physical activities is the true medicine that keeps us young at heart.  If we want to stay young and combat age, we need to keep doing the playful activities that maintain our exuberance.

We’re all familiar with the deleterious effects of aging.  Our bone structure starts to deteriorate as osteoporosis kicks in, leaving our bone mineral density less concentrated when we were kids.  Decrease in muscle mass occurs, which can affect our overall strength.  Challenges to maintain coordination and balance becomes an issue, increasing the risk of injury or falling.   Gaining unwanted fat mass is increased due to the demand of adhering to a sedentary lifestyle with our careers.  Desk jobs and commutes can cripple us as our bottoms get glued to our chairs, propagating underuse injuries, unwanted fat mass, and cardiovascular disease.  It’s a double-edged sword as we advance in age when the body slows down and stress effects our lifestyle.  These conditions are obviously suboptimal.  However, most of the time age hits people like a ton of bricks when they stop participating in their physically active hobbies.

Senior division recreational slow pitch softball, dancing with a partner, hiking, Tai Chi, Yoga, pickle ball, and tennis are all reminiscent to what may have been done for fun in our adolescents or young adulthood.  Little league baseball, high school tennis, gymnastics, martial arts, or dancing with friends was very popular in our youth.  These activities are part of the same category to older adult activities, just in a different spectrum.  For example, gymnastics are for young people up to age 25.  Yoga is somewhat of the same activity, just more forgiving on the joints and less intense for someone who has endured the stresses of aging.  There is cornucopia of fun physical activities that can be enjoyed.  The body of a 15 to 25-year-old is structured different from someone who is 40-50-year-old.  However, both bodies thrive from moving for the sake of enjoyment.  This is one of the most important lessons we tell our personal training clients in Napa.  Stick with physically active hobbies you enjoy, and you will stay young.

These physically active hobbies organically contribute to improved strength, balance, and coordination.  The side to side movement of softball, pickleball, tennis and dancing help with proprioception, balance and overall body awareness.  Tai Chi and yoga contribute to balance in a stationary position and decrease injury with attention to healthy posture.  Heart health, ankle, and knee injury prevention are normal adaptations from dancing, biking, walking and hiking.

The “key to the fountain of youth” is always up for discussion.  If you every find it, let me know.  However, my softball teammate mentioned at the beginning of the article had heck of a time catching that fly ball.  Who knows, maybe I could’ve chased it down and caught it..  However, my teammate was 20 years older than me.  I thought to myself, “Sure, he missed it.  But he’s been chasing that ball down and cursing at it 20 years longer than I have.”  He’s still chasing that ball down.  He probably will be for the next 20 years too.

So how can we stay young and healthy?  We can exercise regularly, eat healthy, and stay free of disease.  However, it we look at my veteran softball teammate, one thing is obvious about staying young.

Keep chasing after that ball and keep having fun.

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

Jun 19

Popular Exercise Trends as Time Goes On

As we age, we enjoy various forms of physical activities to keep us occupied and fulfilled.  It’s fun to engage in a pickup game of basketball, softball, or tennis.  However, as decades go on, we can find ourselves less entertained with activities we embraced 10 or 20 years ago.  From year 20 to 80 years of age, changes are affected by relationships, career path, or moving to a different location.  A tennis club 30 miles away seems unappealing compared to previously living in a town with organized tennis down the street.  Taking a job requiring a commute and 50 hours a week, it’s easy to pack it in for the night and skip your traditional recreational physical activity.

Then we have the big elephant in the room affected by aging. Our bodies.  About every 10 years or so, we might notice our bodies don’t function like they used to.  Aching joints, increased soreness after exercise, and the perception that you may have slowed down, makes that activity less desirable.  A problem arises within these scenarios where physical activities become dormant due to the factors associated with aging. might become dormant.  People might stop moving when posed with the obstacles aging brings.

Let’s not put a damper on aging through.  There are opportunities right in front of us waiting to be picked up like employers seeking job applicants over LinkedIn.  As we age, we need to keep moving to enjoy our lives while being able to see all the beautiful gifts the world can bring as after our kids move out, the mortgages are paid off, and we retire.  Here’s a list of some new, popular, and exciting fitness trends that are ready to get devoured like hotcakes on a Sunday morning.

  1. Pickle Ball: If Ping Pong and Tennis were to meet in college and have a love child, you would get Pickle Ball.  This game lasts an average of 10 minutes per game and uses a court half the size Tennis uses.  You get to smack a whiffle ball with paddle 90% lighter than a tennis racket at your opponents.  The best part is, your opponent won’t get hurt, and you won’t either.    Being hit by a whiffle ball is like getting hit by a marshmallow.  The mechanics are simple and easy to learn.  In fact, the game is based on making sure that participants can adapt to a learning curve on a level playing field of both beginning and intermediate players.  The limited number of steps backward and forward supply some much needed cardiovascular exercises while limiting excessive overuse and stress on joints.  Most importantly, Pickleballs culture is based around a non-judgmental and welcoming atmosphere ensuring everyone around has fun.  If you are looking for something new that includes social and physical improvements to your life, stop by the Pickleball courts.  You might see me out there looking for a teammate.
  2. Tai Chi: A fast growing “martial arts meets meditation” style of physical activity offer classes led by certified leaders in this calm yet challenging lesson of movements.  Tai Chi classes are becoming abundant because people are seeing improvements in their balance, cardiovascular health, and decreased anxiety.  This guided form of martial arts emphasizes slow and controlled breathing with some of the movement being performed with the eyes closed.  More people are choosing Tai Chi as a new form of exercise because it is a low impact, relaxing style of fitness that calms stresses from the day and previous years of life.
  3. Yoga: Branching off Tai Chi, Yoga classes are appearing all over the map like drops of rain on a windshield driving through Seattle.  Yoga is yet another form of exercise that welcomes advanced age individuals to enjoy stationary poses that challenge both technique and physical condition.  Progressing through different levels of poses and sequences is easy on the joints while still allowing for positive adaptions to strength, mobility and decreased pain.  The community and culture of Yoga is a welcoming way to try a new form of physical activity that helps people to thrive through, practice, mediation, and calming music.

One of the biggest threats of aging and exercise is decreased interest to continue moving because it’s boring or painful.  A hallway of doors waits to be opened via the path of physical activity.  The path to less pain, excitement, and an overall good time in life is waiting for healthy older people to embark on.  So, take a look around at these new and exciting trends of culture and physical activity.  You never know what your next healthy addiction could be for the next 10 years and then some.

 

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

Jun 11

Eccentric Exercises: Less is More!

We all remember the story of the tortoise and the hare.  If you haven’t, go ahead and grab a kid’s version of The Tortoise and the Hare from the Napa County Library and you’ll find out the origination of the term “slow and steady wins the race.”  As an ambassador of lifetime fitness with a mission to guide my friends, family and clients to live happy and sustainable lives, I ensure to keep this theme in mind with every health and fitness lesson I promote.  If we want to accomplish living a happy, healthy and strong life for the long run, we need to ensure our bodies can be productive 30 years down the line even though pain and injury might slow us down.

Moving at high speeds can mean we get more work done in a little amount of time.  However, this also imposes more stress to a situation.  Picture a NASCAR stock car tearing down the raceway.  Sure, they move at lightning fast speeds, but they must change their tires after every race.  Fortunately, those high-performance race cars moving at impressively high speeds also have pit crews ready to change those tires that have been super-heated by the track in a matter of minutes with brand new fresh tires from the shop.  Wouldn’t it be nice after playing a season of recreational tennis if a pit crew showed up to our door with a brand-new elbow to replace the tennis elbow injury that developed over playing 2 nights a week of tennis in your mid 50’s?  Please nod your head yes.  However, the human body wasn’t designed that way.  After an injury, the body will likely not perform or recover the same.  Even after corrective surgery to a significant injury, it takes significant rehab and years to get return to optimal performance.  With the threats of wear and tear after recreational sports, our careers, and advancement of age, our bodies will experience pain that could impede us from continuing to move and do what we enjoy.  This doesn’t always have to be the case.

Luckily, there are forms of exercise that can assist us in still enjoying our hobbies and recreational physical activities.  A theme that we focus on with our personal training clients in Napa is injury prevention, rehabilitation, and future proofing.  A very effective mode of exercise that we implement throughout our exercise prescriptions with our personal training clients are eccentric exercises, the slow and controlled lowering movement of an exercise technique.  An example of an eccentric lower body movement is an eccentric chair squat.  To perform, place a chair behind the body and slowly lower the hips in a squatting movement for a count of 5 seconds until fully rested on the chair.  Then squat up to the initial position.  An example of eccentric movement for the upper extremity is an eccentric push up from the knees.  To perform, position the body face positioning the elbows straight under the chest and the knees resting on the ground.  Slowly lower the torso to the ground for a count of 5 seconds, ensuring the hips are lined up with the back and there is no curvature in the spine.  When the elbows have become in line with the ribs, push yourself up to the starting position.  Both exercises can be performed for 3 sets of 5 repetitions each.

A benefit of performing eccentric themed exercises is the lack of repetitions put on the body.  Exercise stress is still being put on large groups of muscles, however mechanical stress on the joints are reduced.  After suffering from an injury or recovering from a surgery, this low impact-low stress activity is a useful solution to keep the body moving while productively returning to an optimal state of human movement.  Eccentric exercise can be perceived as “slow motion” training.  Similar amounts of work will be produced, just in a slower amount of time.  This slower, less stressful style of exercise will help to keep the affected joints safe, while maintaining lean muscle mass and strength as the afflicted area heals.

The idea of lifetime fitness is to keep moving happily through life.  Being able to enjoy your hobbies, play sports and recreational activities with friends, and participate in social functions is what sustains us to keep living.  However, pains and unexpected injuries happen all the time.  We always encourage challenging exercise to keep the body healthy and strong.  However, listen to the body when a pain signal says that you’ve had enough.  Give the body a chance to recover while still exercising and being productive.  With eccentric exercise, an individual can continue to move and return from an injury sooner if implemented correctly.  Just like the tortoise and the hare, this is a long game we play in life.  There are a lot of new, exciting places that we can take our bodies.  You’ll get there, just don’t go too fast.

“Slow and steady wins the race.”

 

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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