Weight Loss Goals and Business Lunches

“It’s really tough to eat healthy when my job requires me to go out to business lunches and drink wine.”

Sound familiar?  As life time fitness coaches in one of the most successful food and wine meccas in the world, this is not an uncommon struggle that we come across with our personal training clients in Napa who want to achieve weight loss goals.

A common challenge is the requirement of going out to business lunches and dinners as part of their jobs.  While out to eat and converse about business, there are some decadent options on the menu that can hinder weight loss efforts.  Add in pairing food with Napa’s exquisite wine, we have a dual threat in absorbing calories from alcohol along with large portion sizes of a delicious variety of foods rich in carbohydrate and fat concentration.  While going out to consult with peers about business at lunch, it’s easy to order some delicious pasta, a fine cut of meat with mashed potatoes on the side, a sandwich with bread from one of Napa’s amazing bakeries, or some pizza.  These all go great with red wine as well.  As a native of Napa, I have been brought up to appreciate the fine restaurants and wine that surrounds this valley.  Bistro Jeanty, Morimoto, or the Oxbow Public Market to name a few.  Who wouldn’t want to take an associate out to one of these amazing restaurants to talk business?  While the food is amazing, the weight gaining effects of over indulgence can happen sooner than we think.

Many of our personal training clients work in the wine industry.  While this is a fun and fulfilling job that creates a successful lifestyle for many people, frequent meetings out to lunch and sampling wine occur on a regular basis.  Some jobs require meetings over lunch with different samplings of wine to pair with specific foods and have their wine on the menu of a restaurant.  In order for this to be a successful experience, food must be consumed, and wine must be drank.

Something that we hear is, “I can’t say I won’t eat the red meat because or drink any wine, I’m watching my diet.  That would be awkward if I’m promoting my wine to be part of this restaurant’s menu.”  This is a true statement.  However, instead of trying to avoid eating delicious rich food from a great restaurant, why not focus on some other manageable variables that hinder weight loss efforts.

A subject that helps clients mitigate the effects of having to eat at fine dining restaurants is to focus on what type of physical activity has been done before going out to eat.

Has it been a low physical activity day (LPA) of a high physical activity day (HPA)?

Days that we call LPAs, or low physical activity days, mean that an individual may have been sedentary and has not engaged in exercise that day.  Perhaps it has been a day at the desk or there are deadlines that need to be met that has put exercise on the back burner.  HPAs, or high physical activity days have had an exercise session at the beginning part of the day or some form increased movement, like walking or engaging in a game of tennis.  We educate our clients on tactics focusing on awareness of their current physical activity status.  This technique dilutes the threats frequent business lunch outings can cause on weight loss efforts.

Performing an exercise routine in the morning on the day of a business lunch will put the body into an accelerated metabolic state.  Resistance training exercises that focus on compound upper and lower body movements, balance, mobility and cardiovascular exercise will put a person in an HPA status.  A simple resistance training session at a local gym, Yoga class, or a brisk walk in the morning will put you in an HPA state.  Muscles will be ready for repair and convert into lean muscle mass.  Blood flow will coarse more efficiently through the body to deliver oxygen to the brain and heart.  Positive stress hormones such as dopamine are produced via exercise to enhance your mood and interactions with others.  The body will be in a primed state to absorb some of the extra calories from a business meal into the stressed muscles for repair.  More importantly, exercising has been shown to put people in positive mental attitudes and enhancing social experiences.  The dopamine response exercise offer boosts confidence, friendliness and mental acuity.  Who wouldn’t want some of that before going out to promote your wine?

We can still take our clients, co-workers and peers out to some of the great restaurants surrounding us for business lunches.  We just need to ensure that regular exercise is part of our lives, especially on days that we might be going out to dine at a phenomenal restaurant, such as the ones in Napa that offer some of best food.  Great food and dining experiences in social and work setting will always be around us.  Let’s use the gifts exercise gives to help us live strong, happy and healthy lives and enjoy some of the great food with our friends and colleagues.

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.

Muscle Soreness: Follow up Chaser Workouts!

Exercise adherence to maintain health and fitness is just as important as fending off the flu.  When we experience flu like symptoms, we must take atrocious tasting cough syrup to fend off flu like symptoms.  Surely, Nyquil does not taste like a milk shake.  My 12-year-old son would rather pull weeds in the backyard that drink cough syrup. The taste makes them gag.  A technique I do with my son when he is sick and must take a shot of cough syrup is to make sure he has a “chaser” to go with it, such as a lime to suck on or a glass of milk.  That’s right, just like what we do as adults when we are taking a shot of Don Julio at the bar with our friends and suck on a lime after taking that shot to tame the ferocious bite hard alcohol gives, I tell my son to do the same thing to stave off the wretched tasting cough syrup.  Cough syrup is important to aid in reducing the detrimental effects of staying home and suffering through flu like symptoms.  We use a similar approach with our Napa personal training clients to support their efforts to remain strong, healthy and active in their life time fitness efforts at the gyms in Napa.  Just like the chaser that cuts the bite of icky tasting cough syrup, we implement a similar coaching strategy called a “chaser” workout session.

We guide our Napa personal training clients through challenging exercises called compound exercise sessions during weekly coaching sessions.  Large compound strengthening movements such as the squat, pull up, bench press, dead lift and various core movements supersede other exercise during our coaching sessions.  These are critically important movements that deliver optimal results in strength, coordination, balance and help to burn fat efficiently.  The contradicting issue is that compound exercise sessions are very challenging.  Acute muscle soreness is a direct effect of performing these types of movements.  Like the revolting taste of cough syrup or a shot of tequila, the sensation known as delayed onset muscle soreness can cause a similar perception following a challenging exercise session.

Delayed onset muscle soreness can make movements challenging the following day.  A technique we promote our clients to decrease soreness following a challenging exercise session is the addition of a “chaser” workout.  A “chaser” workout can be done the day immediately following a challenging compound workout.  Chaser workouts can be completed in the form of walks, stretching, mobility, regenerative exercises to previous injuries or simply performing “gun show” exercises to work the triceps, biceps and abs.  Performing simple exercise routines that are a fraction of the intensity of a compound exercise routine helps keep the body moving.  Additionally, having a simple workout the day after a challenging session will strongly influence more exercise throughout the week.  A sample exercise routine with chaser workouts might look something like this:

  1. Monday, compound exercise session #1: Personal training session focusing on squats, bench press, pull ups and core
  2. Tuesday, chaser workout #1: 5 minutes of stretching, 3 sets of 10 bicep curls, 3 sets of 10 triceps extensions and 10-minute walk with a friend.
  3. Wednesday: No exercise.
  4. Thursday, compound exercise session#2:  60-90-minute hot yoga class
  5. Friday, chaser workout #2: 10-20 minutes of physical therapy rehab exercises focusing on injury prevention from past injuries.

Compound exercise sessions are critically important because the increased amount stress imposed up on the body will elicit the greatest adaptations of building lean muscle, increased strength, improving coordination, assist in balance and help to burn more calories from fat.  In addition to all the positive physical results transforming in the body, increased workouts serve as a form of meditation and self-improvement to help decrease psychological stress.  The downside of too many compound exercise sessions is the cause of overuse injuries.  In addition, becoming too sore from challenging exercise sessions can steer a person away from exercise completely.

A challenging question that we always ask ourselves as life time fitness coaches and personal trainers in Napa is, “How can we keep people exercising?”  A viable solution has been to manage the effects of challenging exercises and creatively introducing techniques to switch up the routines, so exercise does put people in so much pain from delayed onset muscle soreness that it hurts so much to go back to the gym. Introducing tactics such as chaser workouts that are simple yet easily attainable yields optimal results.

Just like getting that gross taste cough syrup leaves in your mouth by drinking some milk, a chaser workout helps taper down muscle soreness compound exercises put on the body.  When you have an amazing workout session that really challenged your mind and body, don’t stop there.  Follow it up with a chaser workout to help keep your body and mind finely tuned to improve your overall quality of life.

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

Improve Confidence with Life Time Fitness Goals

Having confidence is one of the most powerful tools to perform at an elite level in our every day lives.  A confident mindset helps us excel at our jobs, day-to-day interactions, and our decisions involving the future.  When beginning a program with our personal training and life time fitness coaching clients in Napa, we interview them about what goals they would like to improve upon.  A frequently seen goal is to improve confidence after having success in their program.

Elaborating further into that topic, we ask “what does improved confidence look like to you?”  Common answers include:

  • “How I feel in my own skin.”
  • “I need to be at the top of my game at work and life.”
  • “I’m training to apply for a position at a job, school or academy. If I’m capable, healthy and strong, I’m more likely to get the position.”

We make sure to check in through monthly interviews with our clients.  A very common improvement we see in their lives is the increase in confidence.  A helpful tip that significantly improves confidence in our clients consistently checking in to ensure exercise is performed 2-3 times per week.

Why is that so good for you? Having some form of physical activity for 10 minutes throughout the day will put the body past its comfort zone.  This promotes adaptations in the body to increase lean muscle mass and burn calories from fat.  Even if you’re tired and can’t get a full workout in, any challenge to the body will give a physiological response throughout the body to improve its performance.  Ensuring to perform physical activity 4-6 weeks consistently means that conscious decisions are being made to improve oneself.  Struggling through the comfort out of low physical activity to completing a challenging workout will improve confidence in stressful situations.  For these reasons, situations that might appear intimidating or create anxiety will not seem as bad by exposing oneself to some form of challenging exercise.

Physical activity throughout the week can be as simple as performing the common plank exercise for 15-30 seconds, taking a 10-20 minute walk, or stopping by a local health club do a few of the resistance training machines.  Ensuring to do these simple activities 2-3 times per week puts the body and mind in challenging conditions that it may not be used to.  Once there is competency achieved in ensuring at least 2 challenging physical activities on a weekly basis, we can confidently manage even more challenging interactions in our everyday lives.  When giving this tip to our clients, we see improvements in confidence and reductions in stress almost immediately.  We get reports that these tactics are ingrained after a few weeks of checking in to ensure clients are adhering to challenging physical activity 2-3 times per week.  Transforming the mindset of understanding what is too easy and comfortable to asking the question “what’s next?” is a critically important factor to improving confidence in everyday life experiences.

If you struggle with feeling depressed, insecure, or insufficient somewhere in your life, then why not get up and move around a little bit?  Moving past your comfort zone will improve positive thoughts, feelings and actions throughout your everyday life.  Most importantly, situations that pose a challenge can be handled with confidence because you have trained yourself to endure stress with regular physical activity and exercise.

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

Have you counted how many Starbucks drinks you’ve had lately?

Living a healthful, happy and disease-free quality of life requires a balanced understanding of food choices.  During our nutritional consultations with our personal training and life time fitness coaching clients in Napa, a common deterrent to achieving weight loss goals is the amount of excess sugar present in their daily food intake.  One of the biggest the threat of too much sugar is the grazing of sugar treats, sugar coffee, and sodas throughout the day. At the office, it’s common to have small candy treats posted at a desk or around the office, making grazing on tasty chocolates easy to do.  Before you know it, you’ve consumed 3-6 candies throughout the day, which can be the equivalent to a half or even a full Snickers bar.  Sodas are loaded with empty calories, leading to an insulin spike and excess fat storage.  The tastiness of sugary beverages can lead to addictive and habit-forming tendencies, contributing to the tendency to devote a certain time of your day to order a caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks 30 minutes before your work day or during work breaks.

An overlooked behavior is soda consumption at lunch.  When going out for lunch, it’s easy to get a soda added to your meal.  In fact, at sandwich shops and other chain restaurants, they even add that as a package deal to your purchase.  The soda fountain machine is even freely available for customers to get as many refills as they want, making the possibility for soda consumption to be doubled.  It’s easy to see how soda consumption when going out to lunch can be doubled or even tripled through out the week.

A common blip in the radar when coaching our clients to refine their dietary habits is the ritualized stop by the Starbucks or Drive Thru Coffee stands to order a latte, mocha, or blended coffee milk shake before heading into work.

What gets ordered?  Lattes, Mochas or coffee milkshakes (Starbucks call them Frappuccinos).

During work breaks, it’s easy to walk to a coffee shop nearby and order another leading to drinking 1-2 of these sugary coffee beverages per day with a net total of 5-10 per week. These are loaded with calories from processed sugars and fats.  In addition, you have the option of adding whipped cream, caramel, or chocolate syrup on top, further concentrating the amount of sugar and fat content to your coffee drink.  We enter a dual threat of increasing insulin and putting an over-abundance of sugar into our bodies.  Processed sugar in the syrups and whipped cream wreak havoc on the metabolism. The addition of milk causes inflammatory responses in the body while super charging the insulin releasing reactions of shuttling sugar to the fat cells in the body, causing fat cells to swell up in size.  These beverages are an unhealthy threat to the body not only because of their ingredients, but also the portion sizes ranging from 16 to 32 oz. containers, which can equate to a liter of sugar, fattening fluid.

Teaching awareness of how many drinks are consumed is a primary tactic we use to create healthy revisions to a diet.  We literally lay out the amount of sugary drinks that are consumed per week.  After we have clarified the truth of sugary drink consumption, we ask the question, “What can we do help this?”

A common answer is, “Stop drinking Starbucks” or “Not drink as many of them.”

While we would prefer the first answer, the second one is more realistic.  Perhaps we could benefit from the 12 oz. size as opposed to a 16 oz. or higher size beverage.  Instead of having a whole milk beverage, maybe it would be a good idea to try non-dairy options such as almond milk lattes or cold brew coffee using a dash of cream added to it yourself.

A powerful lesson we offer our clients when discussing these issues is to be aware.  As life time fitness coaches, we cannot be at your side the entire day, but we can influence mindfulness of the foods going into the body. It’s important to understand that with the above listed possibilities of consuming readily available foods with additional processed sugar added to them, we can drink a total of 10 Starbucks sugar bomb drinks, 15 cans of soda, and a couple bars of chocolate throughout the week.  The truth hurts but put those items in front of you and you will be convinced on how the overabundance of these commonly consumed foods has influenced the overweight epidemic in our culture.

Let’s be aware of how much sugar we have each week.  Once we come to the truth of this, we can make progress in tactics to support our life time fitness goals and decrease the amount of additional sugar consumed.

Deep Breaths and Meditation: Become an Elite Performer in Everyday Life

Stress puts us in a confined state of mind in which we feel like we have nowhere to go and we stay stuck in stressful states of anger, depression, anxiety.  We can find ourselves feeling stagnant at work, sitting or standing for hours.  Similar to the way our bodies adapt to become stronger after weeks of regular exercise, maintaining an optimal quality of life requires your mind to be constantly percolating and striving for adaptation to efficiently deal with stress.

How do we keep our mind percolating and striving for the next best thing that’s in front of us?  A technique that we teach our clients is a little bit of meditation that I learned in a college Psychology course.  We constantly talked about what an elite performer in an athletic event must go through to be successful in their competition.  We connected the practices athletes must do to perform at an elite to how the general population could be elite performers as a parents, friend, or employee.

Something that is commonly taught to athletes before they execute an event is to take deep breaths.

Taking deep breaths slows down the heart rate a few beats per minute and decrease the amount of stress hormones that are telling the heart to beat rapidly.  There is a physiological correlation to taking deep breaths and reducing the stimulation of the nervous system.

For example, Marksmanship athletes participating in biathlons competitively ski downhill at high speeds, aim, and shoot at a target that is 50 m away with a rifle.  Skiing downhill to immediately shoot at a target 150 feet away while their heart is racing and stress hormones are overstimulating the body poses a substantial challenge.  Similarly, professional Baseball athletes are taught to take a few deep breaths before going up to bat against a pitcher throwing a ball 90 MPH.  Taking deep breaths helps these athletes to become a better performer because they can focus on the task at hand that takes a high amount of dexterity and concentration in order execute successfully.

Even though everyday life   does not involve the challenges professional athletes deal with, stress can hit us the same way.  For example, having a bad day at work can affect a person’s mood negatively, leading to a decreased desire to exercise, eat healthy or go to sleep in a timely manner due to increased stress and anxiety.  The stimulus of getting yelled at by the boss or meeting certain deadlines will increase circulating stress hormones, blood pressure, and heart rate responses.  This stress stimulus is very similar to the challenges athletes experience that increase their stress responses. A solution to this stress is identical to how athletes center themselves utilizing deep breathing techniques.  By taking deep breaths, one can apply similar heart rate recovery, concentration, and an overall decrease in the amount of circulating stress hormones in the blood stream.  This is a method in which we can become elite performers and adhere to a healthier lifestyle.

A simple form of meditation we teach our personal training clients when stress takes over is to take a few deep breaths.  This is a technique that I was taught by one of my favorite Psychology teachers in my college career:

  1. Find an inanimate object outside (like a tree, the horizon, or some clouds)
  2. Look at that object. Close your eyes. Take one long, deep breath.  Fill your lungs to full capacity. Take your time and keep your eyes closed.
  3. Let that breath out. Keep your eyes closed
  4. With your eyes still closed, take another long and steady deep breath. On the exhale, open your eyes and slowly let out your breath. Take as much time as you need.
  5. Take One more deep breath with your eyes open, still looking at the object you initially picked out. Exhale one more time and start looking at other objects that strike your interest.

Feel free to try this technique when things get rough.  Not only will taking deep breaths improve focus during an athletic event, but this technique can also help reduce stress in our everyday lives.  This is a technique we teach to some of our personal training clients in the Napa Valley because there are so many amazing things to experience in this beautiful area of the world. Trees, vineyards, hills.  Stress is always a threat to slow us down.  However, the beauty around us is always present as well.

Take some time out of the stressful part of your day and look at something pretty.

It will be alright, if we just take deep breaths.

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.

Reasons Personal Trainers are Important!

Personal Training is a service sought out to refine health and fitness.  Popular interests in acquiring personal training services include losing weight, gaining lean muscle, and becoming stronger.  Creating solutions in developing a fitness program that supports life time fitness goals and avoids injuries is a common reason to reach out for personal training.  Maintaining physical strength and mental acuity while adhering to an exercise program is critical to living happily and healthy.  Additionally, individuals struggle with regular exercise due to failed attempts leading to injury, boredom, or falling back into old habits leading to suboptimal physical activity.  The services of personal trainers and other fitness professionals help create solutions to these issues.  However, it’s important to be aware of important components in your personal training outreach to ensure you are entering a safe and efficient time investment.

The benefits of exercise into our lives is well known.  However, we hear that people simply don’t have time for exercise.  The reasons can span anywhere from family commitments, finding daycare for the kids, or just being bogged down by too many work hours.  This makes the benefits of a regular exercise program obsolete and leads to the deleterious effects of decreased physical activity.  Acquiring the guidance of a personal trainer helps to remedy this issue because appointments will be made specifically for the participant to attend at a designated time frame.  Nothing else can interfere with this appointment because both the personal trainer and the participant have carved out a portion of the day to devote to each other in this unique coaching dynamic.  This means all work obligations, cell phones, grocery store trips and other attachments have now been set under the priority of this hour of one-on-one time of exercise instruction devoted to you.  Furthermore, most personal trainers, along with small group fitness classes, require that you pay before the training session.  If you miss this session, you still must pay for the time you agreed to devote to yourself.  This shouldn’t be a financial accountability test.  However, utilizing positive reinforcement of being accountable for your motives of seeking out personal training will further support your life time fitness goals.  During these training sessions, you have someone to report your health and fitness progress that is dedicated to your success.  Furthermore, setting this time aside can also serve as an advanced form of meditation in which your efforts are focused solely on the proper execution of each exercise technique to support a successful exercise session.    Our personal training clients in Napa know that they are expected to show up to each training session ready to go and strive for this success.  Various other services such as small group fitness classes, boot camps, or Yoga classes expect the same thing from each participating member of their program.  Having an accountable fitness professional to report to is a very useful tool to ensure that you are dedicated to your specific health and fitness goals.

A discouraging factor when contemplating the start of an exercise program is the possibility of injury from exercising incorrectly.  Unfortunately, injuries from joining a gym and exercising ineffectively can leave participants injured for a few weeks and even years at a time.  This should never be the case because local health clubs are a place to improve mental, physical and emotional health.  Most gyms have personal trainers on staff that usually offer a training session free of cost.  These complimentary training sessions are meant to answer any questions to clarify the proper use of the training equipment around the gym.  Personal trainers can also clarify what a good muscular engagement is and what pain feels like when exercising.  In addition, personal trainers will be able to tell you what exercises need to be performed initially before other exercises.  For example, we always teach our personal training clients that work with us at Napa Tenacious Fitness to perform more technical exercises first and finish with less advanced exercises to focus on a safe and effective conclusion to the workout.

Personal trainers, fitness class instructors and other fitness professionals are here to help.  They are passionate individuals who have embraced success within life by prioritizing health and fitness. It’s important to seek out a qualified, educated and experienced professional.  Before signing up for the services of a fitness professional, it’s highly recommended to screen the potential coach.

What housing organization are these trainers certified through?

Do they have a college degree in a biological science?

How long have they been a trainer?

Perhaps you can perform a Google search on your potential exercise leader to ensure they are an upstanding person in society.

Utilizing the services of a personal trainer will effectively promote exercise adherence.  A strong team chemistry between participant and a personal trainer has the potential to build a positive team dynamic to promote successful life time fitness goals.

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.

“Do I need to do a ton of Cardio?”

Weight loss is one of the leading factors for individuals to begin a fitness program.  A common theme is to “burn” fat by performing cardiovascular routines.  Our personal training clients in Napa frequently ask the question “Do I need to do a ton of cardio to get rid of fat?”  This statement is usually identified as going to the gym, hopping on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike and use that machine for 15 to 30 minutes.  While it’s true that cardiovascular exercise assists in burning fat calories and contributing to overall weight loss, there is common misconception that performing hours of cardio is the most efficient way to decrease fat.  There is a need for clarification regarding alternative ways to efficiently train the body to utilize fat as a fuel source without only hopping on a cardio machine at the gym.  There are more efficient and invigorating techniques that decrease fat while controlling weight to improve health without doing a ton of cardio.

First off, it’s important to understand the term cardiovascular.  The “cardio” portion indicates activity that is occurring in the cardiac muscle of the heart.  The “-vascular” portion refers to activity in the blood vessels such as arteries, veins, arterioles, venules and capillaries.  Combine those terms to create the term cardiovascular.  Cardiovascular exercise is commonly understood as “cardio”.  Therefore, any activity that occurs within the cardiovascular system form the stimulus of exercise falls into the category of cardiovascular exercise, or “cardio.” This means that any utilization of fats, carbohydrates and the delivery of oxygen throughout the organs of the body are being used to aid the body in exercise.  As heart rate increases, so will these interactions occurring in the body which will help burn fat, increase blood flow and improve the condition of cardiac muscle tissue in the heart.

Increasing heart rate is not the only method to increase cardiovascular activity.  It’s important to understand that interactions occurring in the blood vessels as an integral portion of optimizing cardiovascular exercise.  Increasing blood flow can come in the form of resistance training, mobility exercises such as Yoga, and basic leisurely walks.  Safe practices of lifting weights influence the contraction of muscle cells and influence the influx of oxygenated blood to the muscles.  Poses in Yoga will elicit lengthening muscle fibers and breathing techniques that facilitate oxygen into the blood.  Simple acts of walking from your house to the store for 15 minutes or more will cause increases in blood flow and increase heart rate responses anywhere from 5 to 20 beats per minute.  When the body is introduced to the condition to increase the volume of blood flow from physical activity, distribution of oxygen to muscle cells occurs.  As oxygen travels from the blood to working muscles, fat is utilized as a fuel source. This demand for more blood being called to the working muscle will ultimately lead to an increased heart rate and stimulate the cardiovascular system.  In addition to finding alternatives to the cardio equipment at the gym, training in various forms of exercises like lifting weights, practicing Yoga or walking more offer benefits to increasing strength, improving mobility and stimulate the mind.

Embracing cardiovascular exercise is critically important ideal in supporting our lifetime fitness journey.  However, hopping on a cardio machine at the gym and staring at a TV monitor is a monotonous and time inefficient use of time.  It’s true that these machines are very useful to aid in fat loss and improving physical activity.  The problem is that individuals feel the need to devote countless hours of attention to these machines.  Eventually, diminishing returns of getting bored and developing attachments to these cardio machines can occur.  This can put us in a state of dependency and threaten to close off our minds to other beneficial forms of physical activity that will improve our efforts toward our health and wellness goals.

Challenge the mind by performing a variety of exercise.  Introducing new physically challenging exercise activities stimulates the mind to welcome the opportunity to experience more thoughts, feelings, and actions.  This can serve as a unique form of meditation to keep ourselves not only in great physical shape, but also able to become more refined in the physical, mental and emotional realms.

Take a break from the treadmill, elliptical and stationary bike at the gym and unglue your eyes from the TV.  Ditch the idea of performing a ton of cardio to burn fat and embark in the various offerings of physical activity by performing resistance training, taking fitness classes and getting out to walk more.

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.

Exercise as Medicine to Cure and Prevent Diabetes

Adult onset Diabetes is a common occurrence impeding society’s health due to the consumption of sugary foods and decreased physical activity.  High glycemic index foods such as breads, crackers and “on-the-go” breakfast bars contribute to the insulin spiking effects that can develop into Diabetes.  Lack of physical activity from sedentary professions and stressful lifestyles cause muscles to become inactive, losing the ability to identify insulin correctly and lead to insulin resistance.  Add in the busy lifestyle of having to get  food while running around in our cars with the convenience of fast food, we have the perfect storm to introduce the driving forces that afflict our society in becoming Pre-Diabetic and developing Adult Onset Diabetes.  The threat of self-inflicting Diabetes is increasingly prevalent in our society.  However, by understanding what causes that threat, we can utilize preventative measures by understanding how to correctly utilize the hormone insulin and adhering to an active lifestyle.

Hormones are chemical messengers that travel throughout the body’s blood stream bonding onto cells to facilitate a specific function.  Insulin is a hormone that will bond onto connective tissue cells and allow the transport of sugar from the blood stream into those cells.  From an exercise physiology perspective, two important cells that are affected by insulin are the skeletal muscle cells and the fat cells underneath our skin.  Insulin gets released from the pancreas after a specific food is consumed. Foods possessing a high glycemic index such as breads, sodas and other processed grains will release a higher concentration of insulin into the blood stream.  Whereas as food with a lower glycemic index such as broccoli, nuts, and lean proteins will not release as much insulin into the blood stream.

The designation of what cells utilize insulin is influenced by the amount physical activity performed.  When physical activity such as exercise is performed, skeletal muscle is broken down.  As the muscles break down, the body recognizes the needto repair the muscle is present, introducing the condition in which protein can be shuttled into the cell to facilitate muscle resynthesis.  Following a bout of exercise, the muscle cells are now in an insulin sensitive state where the introduction of insulin in the body will benefit the rebuilding of the muscle cells.  As insulin bonds on to damaged muscle cells, sugar from the blood stream flows into the muscle.  This influx of sugar into the muscle will give the muscle the energy it needs to grab on to free floating proteins in the blood stream and bond them to the damaged site to reinforce the architecture of the muscle cell.  This is on f the most beneficial methods of increasing insulin sensitivity and fending off factors leading to the development of Type 2 Diabetes.

On the other end, lack of physical activity will lead the muscle cells to ignore the presence of insulin after digesting insulin triggering foods.  As muscles cannot detect insulin, the insulin will now travel past the muscle cell to the next best thing, the fat cells.  Fat cells will gladly allow insulin to their front door which trigger sugar from the blood stream to travel into the fat cells.  Similar to how muscle cells grow when insulin bonds to them, so will fat cells underneath the skin.  Not only will this state of insulin resistance lead to becoming overweight, but it can also contribute to adult onset Diabetes.  The development of adult onset diabetes, or type 2 Diabetes, is self-inflicted by insufficient physical activity and unwise dietary decisions.  Along with becoming overweight due to being insulin resistant, the detrimental effects of having poor circulation, increased hunger, and increased levels of fatigue occur as Diabetes develops.  The presence of Diabetes will require a multitude of medications to counteract the deadly conditions it imposes to the body.

The most powerful solution to prevent the development of Diabetes is to participate in physical activity on a regular occurrence.  We teach our Napa Personal Training clients to participate in a form of resistance training at least once per week.  The addition of exercises that create muscular soreness indicate muscular damage, leading to the body being able to utilize insulin constructively in creating more lean muscle mass.  In addition to adhering to regular forms of exercise, we also remind our Personal  Training clients in Napa what foods might be higher in the glycemic index.  Limiting foods such as breads, cereals and dairy products is a technique that will help manage insulin levels.

Using exercise and a mindful approach on diet are not only beneficial to decreasing the risk of Diabetes but are effective in so many other ways in our lives to improve our Life Time Fitness.  If we can utilize exercise and a positive outlook on nutrition, we can help our bodies to fend off disease to live stronger, happier and healthier lives.

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

Cooking at Home: Get out of the Drive Through Rat Race

Today’s general population struggles with obtaining healthy foods from the store to prepare in the comfort of their own homes.  A common problem that we hear from our personal training clients in Napa is that healthy food is expensive and going to the store is drag.  People are too busy to make a trip to the grocery store and shop for food that can be prepared at home.  The perception of dining out is that it’s convenient and inexpensive.  Unfortunately, this perception that eating out for convenience and saving money is flawed.  Additionally, eating out regularly is suboptimal to our health.

A common scenario entails individuals who work long business hours to get their meals conveniently before work, during lunch time or on the way home from work when 5:00 PM hits by visiting the drive through. You have everything made for you to collect in a matter of minutes.  However, an abundance of problems arises from being involved in the drive through rat race.  The food at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, or Jack in The Box will undoubtedly hold you over for the lunch hour or after a long day’s work. The downside is the warfare that most of the foods on the menu inflict, leaving your body in disarray.  Processed white flour bun or tortilla in the form or wraps and burritos are filled with simple carbohydrates waiting to spike your insulin and be stored as fat.  In addition to the insulin response and overabundance of carbohydrates in these items, there is too much protein and fat for the body to absorb when consumed in one sitting.  Granted, there are healthier options like salads on the menu.  However, sandwiches, burgers and wraps are what takes up the greater portion the fancy lit of menu we see while sitting in the drive thru line.  Lastly, fast food drive throughs are kind enough to offer some fries.  Who wants to throw away a pound some delicious, salty, deep fat fried potatoes for such a great price?  The problem arises when too much food is consumed at once.  Fast food industries can offer you a lot of food for a great rate. Most of the time when this much food is put in front of us, we eat it. These are some of the leading causes of pre-diabetes and becoming overweight when our culture becomes entrenched in the drive thru epidemic.

The convenience of avoiding the store, shopping the aisles, waiting in line and unloading groceries gets eliminated when dining out.  Another common misunderstanding is that shopping for healthy food at the store is pricey.  Purchasing items like lean meats, oils for cooking and veggies are thought to be on the pricier side.

A solution that we offer our clients during our nutritional consultations is to first pick out some proteins and vegetables they enjoy eating.  We challenge our clients to create a days’ worth of what having a vegetable and lean protein during each meal would like throughout the day and have them write it down.  Additionally, another successful strategy is to develop 5 separate breakfast and dinner dishes that include a veggie and lean protein.  After we have these items, we have a healthy breakfast and dinner menu.  Within these menus, we now have ingredients.  We find that a lot of these ingredients are budget friendly and have a decent shelf life.  Lean meats such as chicken and fish can be frozen and stored.  Once we know what is on the menu for the night, the protein simply needs to be taken out in the morning to be thawed.  Eggs are also a very sustainable source of protein that can be purchased in bulk and utilized throughout the week.  Veggies such as broccoli, green beans, carrots, onions and garlic are all nutrient dense foods that can be stored in the fridge before expiring.  These veggies not only have health benefits, but also can be innovatively prepared in many dishes.  Some of our favorite ways to recommend carrots is to either steam them and sauté or bake them in aluminum foil with garlic, onion, olive oil and salt and pepper. This method can also be used for broccoli. Creating a list of the healthy foods we enjoy and developing food prep. tactics can create solutions to cooking at home more often.

Once we learn to shop smart for healthy food items, budget and inconvenience becomes a non-issue.  Take efforts to make it to the grocery once or twice a week and limit your dining out to 2-3 times per month.  That way we can get out of the car and get to the comfort of our home faster to enjoy our delicious healthy meals.  Get out of the drive through rat race and get into the comfort of your home to destress from the day and supercharge your lifetime fitness journey.

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.

Shoulder Under Use Injuries: Developing Mindfulness for Improved Shoulder Strength!

Society’s awareness of posture when sitting and standing during everyday activities is commonly overlooked.  Some common examples include looking down at our cell phones with our necks bent like a flamingo getting fish out of a pond, standing in line at the grocery store with our toes pointed out leading to the arches of the feet to collapse, or hunched over our desks while sitting with our arms stretched out like a zombie for hours.  Scenarios such as these can lead to overuse and underuse injuries to the body causing suboptimal performance to our everyday quality of life.  A solution to improving posture is being mindful of debilitating factors leading to poor posture.  More importantly, ensuring to exercise the areas surrounding the ball and socket joint of the shoulders will significantly improve the muscles of postural stabilization.  Regular exercise to the ball and socket joint of shoulder region will limit the likelihood of injuries and help us be more productive in throughout our daily functions.

A Ball and socket joint is the connection of a series of bones which allow 3-dimensional movement of a limb.  The most commonly understood ball and socket joints are the shoulder joint and the hip joint.  Both areas house a vast network of muscles responsible for an array of movements that we depend on to perform common daily tasks.  The actions of the shoulder allow overhead reaching, extension of the arm in front of the body and lateral movement to the outside of the body.  Now, imagine what life would be like if you removed one of those examples.  If anyone has ever suffered from a shoulder rotator cuff injury, you can probably relate that it is not an enjoyable experience.

Sedentary occupations that require desk work are infamous for underuse injuries of the neck, shoulder region and upper back.  Shoulder injuries can occur from repetitive use as well.  However, atrophy in muscles can occur from keeping a muscle in a static position for a prolonged period.  This is one of the leading causes of underuse injuries in the shoulder, neck and upper back regions.  As atrophy of the muscle occurs, less blood flow circulates to the working muscle, causing lack of oxygen to the muscles.  The lack of blood flow to the muscle will cause the muscle to decrease in size and strength.  More importantly, our muscles will “suffocate” from a lack of oxygen just like we do when we hold our breath for too long.  This leads to muscles losing the ability to function.  One of those primary functions impeded are muscular repair, growth and strength.  When a muscle gets atrophied, even the actions of everyday life can cause a muscle to strain because of the sedentary situation imposed upon it.   However, this detrimental case of atrophy caused by lack of movement due to a sedentary lifestyle is curable.

The muscle of the ball and socket joint surrounding the rotator cuff of the shoulder have various attachments from the shoulder blade to the rib cage and upper arm.  Most of the larger attachments of the muscles supporting the rotator cuff originate from the shoulder blade.  In addition to the attachments from the shoulder blade to the front of the body, the shoulder blade also has attachments to the neck and base of the skull.  Therefore, strengthening the muscles around the shoulder blade region with a regularly scheduled shoulder blade specific exercise routine will counteract the effects of underuse injury from being in a sedentary position.

When working with our personal training clients in Napa who suffer from neck, upper shoulder, mid back and rotator cuff pain-like symptoms, we focus the first 4-week phase of their exercise prescription on education of the various movements the shoulder joint offers.  Within each exercise prescription, we ensure to focus on movements responsible for scapular protraction and retraction, which is also know as the forward and backward gliding of the shoulder blades.  Emphasis on the internal and external rotation of the upper arm is another important mover that is responsible for ensuring the muscles holding the ball and socket joint together to limit injuries within the rotator cuff.  Understanding certain cues such as “parking the shoulder blades against the ribs” is another critically important component that helps remind people to avoid collapsing their chest forward and having “hunched forward” posture.

Concentrating on the specific muscles that are responsible for stabilizing the shoulder blades are some of the main exercises a physical therapist will prescribe to treat an underuse injury of the shoulder.  Instead of waiting for the injury to occur and making a visit to a rehab specialist, take preventative measures by focusing on strengthening the large network of muscles surrounding the shoulder blade.  Focusing on injury prevention by utilizing regular exercise for the shoulder joint will positively influence the avoidance of underuse injuries in the shoulder to keep you healthy, active and productive.

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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