Apr 17

Exercise Before Your Brain Turns On

Agendas in our lives require a substantial amount of bandwidth made up of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.  From waking up in the morning to making breakfast and getting spruced up for work, to figuring out what’s for dinner at the end of the day, we have many obligations that need to get done before the day ends.

Research supports regular exercise increases our mental bandwidth. For example, common recommendations from doctors encourage their patients to participate in regular physical activity and exercise to treat psychological distress, lack of sleep, or individuals experiencing challenges in lacking focus and concentration.  Without going into the beneficial physiological adaptations exercise introduces to improve a person’s life, recommendations from qualified health professionals are showing up in the form of encouraging the world to exercise more instead of treating symptoms with medication.  However, we run into a problem with exercise:  adherence to exercise is physically challenging and it takes time.

Paving out time to get to the gym and investing sixty minutes in conducting cardiovascular exercise and resistance training poses its challenges.  First off, we have to think about the fifteen to thirty minutes it takes to get to the gym, find a parking spot during peak hours, and check into the gym.  Next, it takes about forty-five to sixty minutes to navigate through the gym to find the equipment that best suits our needs such as resistance training, treadmills, stationary bikes, or ellipticals.  After maneuvering past other gym goers, sharing equipment, and making the most of your time at the gym, it’s time to find our car in a crowded parking lot, head home, take a shower, and prepare for dinner.  This accounts for about two-to-three hours invested out of a normal day to allocate toward exercise.  For humans who already have an agenda full of eight to ten hours of work, answering emails and voicemails, or making a trip to the store to acquire groceries for the week, fitting a few extra hours throughout the day for a gym visit can become a thorn in the side.

A few solutions we’ve heard from our personal training clients that help them avoid the day getting away from them and gym visits developing into a nuisance is finding time throughout the day they can exercise first before their “brain turns on.”  One of the most powerful solutions offered to exercise participants who regularly participate in small group fitness classes such as Yoga, Pilates, or cycling is that those sessions are planned out.  Once there is a class established and paid for, and a spot is reserved at class time, an obligation to participate in that class becomes a priority.  Furthermore, signing up for a personal training session with a coach at an established time introduces a sense of accountability on both ends.  Once a personal training session has been reserved and both parties agree to meet and focus on exercise instruction for that period, the inhibitory effects of work, family obligations, and other busy agenda items become less of a hindrance to attending an exercise session.

If signing up for fitness classes or sessions with a personal trainer isn’t a good fit, exercising before the day’s tasks begin is another useful tactic.  In other words, set aside time before work begins, before your kids wake up for school, or before you have a lunch date with a friend.  By frontloading the day with exercise, we can avoid the laborious effects of slogging through the later portions of the day to get to the gym and grind through a training session.

The benefits of adhering to regular physical activity and routine exercise aid, and have the potential to supersede the quick-fix tools of medications that treat metabolic diseases and certain illnesses.  We know that taking a pill is far easier than devoting time to exercise.  At the same, we know that a body in motion stays in motion.  By making time to exercise before our “brains turn on,” we can increase our bandwidth to support our mission to live happy, healthy, and strong lives.

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

Apr 11

Strong Hips Makes for a Strong Life

“You know my hips don’t lie” is one of Shakira’s most recognized lyrics in her iconic song written in the early 2000s, “Hips Don’t Lie.”  Shakira is known for her elite demonstration of moving her hips in an athletic display of artistic Latin dance.  Not only are Shakira’s performances and music videos an example of how powerful hips can blow people’s minds when she performs, but I like to think the glowing smile she emits and the upbeat energy she creates throughout her performances shows that moving your hips brings about positive energy and happiness in our lives.

As an enthusiast of physical activity and a life-long nerd who has made the study of exercise physiology my life’s work, I appreciate how strong, mobile, and healthy hips aid in our everyday productivity and functionality.  Located smack-dab in the middle of our body is our lumbopelvic hip complex, also known as the LPHC.  This sophisticated term indicates the area in which our lumbar spine, pelvis, and hips connect.

It’s worthwhile to appreciate the intricacies the LPHC offers to our everyday lives.   The muscles surrounding the border of the posterior aspect of the lumbar spine act as a support mechanism to keep the lumbar spine upright throughout standing and sitting up from lying down positions.  The lumbar spine connects to the sacrum, which is the triangular bones consisting of five fused sacral vertebrae that connect the spine to the pelvic girdle.  The holster-like pelvis is responsible for encasing the lower portion of organs and has muscular attachment points to our abdominals, obliques, muscles of the posterior lower back, and an array of hip flexors, extensors, adductors, abductors, and rotational muscles.  Traveling further down past the pelvis, we have our hips, which are comprised of the top portion of the femur inserted into the hip socket.

The importance to the structural integrity of the LPHC can’t be overstated.  A disruption to the bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles, or nerves involved in powering this area to move correctly has the potential to significantly hinder the everyday functionality of a human’s life.  As a preparatory routine before training sessions and a measure to decrease likelihood of injury, A few movements we perform with our personal training clients that focus on strengthening the LPHC are the pendulum stretch and “Hula Hoop” stretch:

Hula Hoop” Stretch:  To perform the “hula hoop” stretch, start by placing your hand on the crests of your hips.  Rotate your hips in a circular motion.   Reverse the motion by rotating your hips in the opposite direction.  You should feel a stretch in the front and back portions of your hips as well as the lower back.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions.

“Pendulum” Stretch:  To perform the “Pendulum” stretch, start by finding a stable surface to lean forward and place your hands on, such as a wall or post.   Bring an extended leg slightly in front of your body with your toe pointed forward.  Gently swing your leg to the inside of your body and then again to the outside of your body.  You should experience a slight stretching sensation in your inner thigh region.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions on both legs.

               Shakira’s hips move in a sophisticated array of harmonious muscular contractions that make up the artwork of her masterfully crafted dancing performances.  Referencing Shakira’s LPHC movements, we can understand how a conditioned, mobile, and strong group of muscles comprising this joint can grant us enhanced abilities to move in a less restricted manner.  Perhaps our goals aren’t the same as Shakira’s when it comes to performing and singing in front of a crowd of fifty thousand people in a packed amphitheater in Brazil.  However, if we focus on the health and optimal function of the lumbopelvic hip complex, we can enhance our ability to move in a less restricted manner and be in less pain.  strong hips “don’t lie” when it comes to living a happy, healthy, and productive 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.

Apr 05

Fitting Enough Protein in your Diet

Building strength, reinforcing the structural integrity of connective tissue holding our bones together at the joints, or improving human performance in our everyday quality of life are just a few goals commonly sought out by individuals investing their time and energy into a dedicated fitness program.  A widely understood concept in today’s knowledge base of fitness is that exercising in a resistance training-based program breaks down muscle.  After a delayed onset muscle soreness graces us with its presence for a few days, the commonly understood perception is that the muscles rebuild to become bigger and stronger.  This equation of imposing exercise-induced stress to a group of muscles to cause muscular damage to the site of mechanical stress and regenerating the broken down muscle fibers is a practice that is taught by the majority of fitness professionals, can be read in online articles, and seen on social media feeds.

Developing lean muscle mass contributes to improving quality of life in many ways.  Understanding a step further past conducting resistance training and allowing muscles to repair faster and stronger can create opportunities for advancements in developing increased lean muscle concentration.  A missing link that is commonly overlooked is understanding how increased protein intake in a daily diet can create a greater opportunity to develop increased lean muscle mass throughout the body.

Skeletal muscle is a connective tissue comprising the mechanical engines that move our bodies’ bones.  For example, the bicep muscle moves the forearm closer to the shoulder when bringing our coffee cups closer to our faces.  Another example is how the hamstrings and glutes pull the leg backward when we are walking.  Furthermore, the abdominal and core muscles around our spine hold our torso upright when standing, sitting, and walking.  These examples of muscles are called skeletal muscles because they move the intricately engineered skeleton we depend on throughout our lives.  Along with many other critically important skeletal muscles that produce everyday life movements, the majority of the material that makes up skeletal muscles is protein.

As skeletal muscles are stressed and broken down throughout resistance training, the body’s natural response is to heal that damaged site of muscle.  Similar to how a scrape on the back of a hand left by brushing up against a rose bush produces a scab that heals over a few days, skeletal muscle heals in actions similar to how skin heals progressively over a few days.  Following a bout of exertive exercise, muscles develop microscopic tears within the architecture of proteins that make up the landscape of the muscle.  To resynthesize the damaged sites of the muscle, the muscle grabs onto free-floating protein and amino acids present in the bloodstream and bonds them to the site where microtears occurred, making the site repaired and slightly stronger to be able to withstand future stress imposed upon this muscle site during exercise sessions.

The protein present in our blood acting as essential repair items for creating bigger stronger muscles in this process of skeletal muscle resynthesis is gathered through the protein-rich foods ingested from our diet.  A few foods comprised of substantial protein sources are nuts, meats, beans, eggs, and dairy products.  An increased number of proteins that are tasty, enjoyable to eat, sit well on the stomach, and avoid allergies increases the potential to develop increased lean muscle mass.  Protein supplements in the form of the classic protein powder put in a protein shaker or blender, and then consumed as a drink are optimal sources of protein.  However, if we don’t have a solid foundation of protein present in the meals throughout our day, the overall amount of protein consumed in a day can fall below the amount of protein necessary to support lean muscle building during a consistent exercise program.

A tactic we recommend to our personal training clients during our nutritional consultations is to focus on ensuring to consume at least one handful amount of protein as a priority in every meal.  An example could be to include an egg or two in addition to the bowl of oatmeal we enjoy for breakfast.  Or, for lunch, perhaps make sure a handful size of chicken is present in our lunch dishes before consuming the rice, pasta, or bread that might be present on the table.  Additionally, when hunger strikes throughout the day, instead of reaching for a handful of popcorn or chips, maybe a handful of raw unsalted nuts could provide a higher density of protein than filling up on carbohydrates and sugars when cravings arise.  Simple tactics such as prioritizing dietary protein first in each meal have the potential to create a favorable environment for muscles to increase their muscular size and reinforce the intricate cellular engineering within the muscle to enhance strength, reinforce the connective tissue to avoid injury, and ultimately live happier, healthier and stronger lives.

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

Mar 28

Sciatica: What a Pain in the Butt

The trials and tribulations of every day life present themselves in various ways from the moment we wake up to that restful point in the day when we close our eyes for a good night’s sleep.  Getting to work on time, ensuring the kids have enough money for lunch at school, or completing the latest “do it yourself” in your home are just a few examples of things we need to keep track of, or else we can get set back in our productivity.  Some would say keeping tabs on daily tasks can be a true “pain in the butt.”

Maintaining balance in family, professional, and lifestyle logistics requires reorienting and juggling to set an efficient flow of productivity.  However, let’s not forget about the aspects of life that are literally and physically a pain in the butt.  For the people who have dealt with lower back pain that has transferred into pain tracing down the back of the hip to the heal, this symptom of searing, sharp, “nervy” pain can reach the top of the totem pole in everyday life challenges.  This pain originating in the buttock radiating to the back and lower extremities is sciatica.  It is truly a pain in the butt.

Symptoms of sciatica present themselves when a sharp, searing, pinching pain is detected in the center of the butt cheek.  Sitting, standing, or walking can produce sciatic symptoms that can last five minutes to a few hours.  Unfortunately, sciatica can linger for a long period of weeks to months in a chronic presentation of pain that not only causes physical impairments upon movement but can also impose psychological and emotional distress on individuals afflicted with sciatica.

Fortunately, symptoms of sciatica can be decreased and potentially resolved by practicing injury prevention and rehabilitation techniques.  To remedy this painful symptom, it’s beneficial to understand the origination of sciatica and why it can appear in our lives.

The sciatic nerve originates from the spinal root nerves budding out of the lumbar spine.   These nerves converge to form one single nerve that travels down the end of the lumbar spine and passes the sacrum.  After passing down the sacrum, this massive nerve travels underneath the gluteal muscles and the posterior aspect of the hip, down the back of the femur and tibia, and eventually ends at the heel.  The size of the sciatic nerve gives note to the various areas of the back of the leg it innervates.  One could imagine that compression applied to this nerve by either bones or muscles pushing over the top of it could introduce a sensation of pain.  Similar to the sensation of hitting the funny bone of the elbow when sharp pain is produced from percussive forces pounding on the nerve, the sciatic nerve shares similar qualities of pain production when it is compressed.

Compressive forces could come from the simple act of sitting on chairs that disrupt the landscape in which our sciatic nerve covers the gluteal region.  Hard-surfaced chairs or seats in our cars can press on the sciatic nerve, creating a sciatic-like symptom.  One of the most common culprits in our body that contributes to sciatica is the piriformis muscle.  Residing deep below the multiple layers of gluteal muscles, the piriformis is a significant rotational muscle of the hip that resides directly over the top of the sciatic nerve.  Akin to all skeletal muscles in the body, once the piriformis is overworked, it can get tight.  As the piriformis tightens up, it can push down on the sciatic nerve like a tight rubber band that has been wrapped around a finger one too many times.  Also referred to as piriformis syndrome, this compression of the piriformis is one of the most common causes of sciatica.

To alleviate sciatica, prioritizing the reconditioning of the piriformis can produce beneficial recovery outcomes.  Rehabbing a tight piriformis can be done through stretching and slow movement exercises to influence oxygenated blood flow to the strained site of the muscle to encourage recovery of the connective tissue residing around the piriformis.  By stretching the piriformis, less compression is imposed on the sciatic nerve.  And, by implementing rehabilitative movements to the piriformis, the architecture of the muscle can be structurally reinforced so it can endure the physical challenges of everyday life.

A simple and effective stretch we perform with our personal training clients is the supine knee tilt.  Performing just five to ten repetitions of this stretch in a slow and controlled manner can mobilize the lower back and hips to alleviate sciatic symptoms:

Knee Tilt Stretch:  Position yourself flat on your back on the ground with your arms extended and your knees bent.   Tilt your knees to one side of the body as far as you can while keeping your knees and ankles touching.  After a brief stretching sensation is experienced in the lower back and outer hip, alternate this motion to the other side.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions on both sides of the body.

Sciatica is a pain in the butt, literally and figuratively.   Emphasizing injury prevention and strength and conditioning to the core, lower back, and lower extremities can significantly decrease the likelihood of sciatica rearing its ugly face and help us live happier, stronger, and healthy 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.

Mar 23

New to Exercising, Shoulder Injury Prevention

The third month of the year is coming to an end.  For those of us who have embraced the tactic of consistently adhering to a new fitness routine and refining our health as a New Year resolution, the results of exercising regularly are probably starting to show.  Following ninety days of exercise one to three times per week usually creates adaptations for improved strength, cardiovascular health, and less stress in life.  If you’ve stuck with a New Year’s resolution of maintaining an exercise routine up to this point, give yourself a pat on the back.  Going from little to no organized exercise to paving time out of your week for a few days isn’t easy.

While beneficial adaptations to complying with a regular fitness routine occur after ninety days, some maintenance issues hindering future progress can occur at this point as well.  The excitement of feeling energized, shedding a few pounds, and being able to perform physical activities that were challenging before gaining this newfound status of being fit creates an eagerness to push ourselves a little harder in our exercise arenas.  Our bodies are malleable organisms that adapt to stresses imposed on us via skillfully designed exercise routines.  However, too much physical stress can cause injuries.  One injury in particular that seems to arise are shoulder injuries.

Shoulders supply us with the ability to use our hands to manipulate objects in front of our body, out to the side of our body, and reach for objects overhead.  Additionally, people enjoy engaging in recreational physical activities such as pickleball, tennis, bocce ball, golf, or throwing a frisbee or ball for their dogs.  Let’s not forget playing catch with our children as they enter their first year of tee ball.  For the first-time parents of five-year-olds looking to be the next Brandon Crawford, you’ll need a durable and capable arm to throw the baseball with your future professional athlete offspring.  These movements seem like common functions of everyday life.  However, once they are taken away due to an exercise-induced overuse injury, something as simple as putting a shirt on over your head can become agonizingly painful and debilitating.  Unfortunately, overuse injuries from performing too much exercise can produce shoulder movement impairments that can not only hinder our fitness progress but bring the everyday functionality of our shoulder to a screeching halt.

Shoulder injuries from participating in suboptimal exercise or overusing the shoulder joint throughout exercise aren’t uncommon symptoms for new exercise enthusiasts.  The good news is, most exercise-induced shoulder injuries are avoidable if the correct injury prevention measures are installed into an exercise program.

The various joints throughout the body are attached by muscles, tendons, and ligaments.  Additionally, synovial fluid is produced during movements to lubricate joints and allow for smoother gliding of the bones and cartilage as the bones move throughout the exercise.  Performing a movement preparation and injury prevention routine before entering an increased-intensity resistance training routine stimulates the joints to move in a more efficient state.  Conducting dynamic stretching and joint mobilization techniques before getting into the more challenging movements promotes oxygenated blood flow, synovial fluid, and neuromuscular signals to muscles surrounding the joints involved in exercise routines.

Here are a few examples of simple yet effective shoulder mobility exercises that don’t require any equipment that prepares shoulders for a strength training session:

Pronated Arm Crossing Stretch:  To perform the arm crossing stretch with palms facing down, start by lifting your arms to armpit level.  Rotate your palms downward perform a crossing motion across your chest and reverse the motion to abduct your arms away from the midline of your body.  Once you feel a slight stretch in the pecs, shoulders, and biceps, reverse the motion.  Repeat this stretch for five to 10 repetitions.

Forward and Backward Arm Circle Stretch:  To perform the arm circle stretch, start by lifting your arms to armpit level.  Make small circles with your arms toward the front of your body.  Increase the diameter of your arm circles to where you feel a little more stretch.  On the third progression, increase the diameter of your arm circles as wide as your range of motion allows and perform large arm circles.  You should feel a stretch in your shoulders and muscular sensation in your biceps and deltoids.   Once you complete three progressions of gradually increasing your arm circles from small, medium, to large, reverse the direction of your circles and perform the same sequence in the opposite direction.  Repeat each set of arm circles for five to 10 repetitions.

Along with a few other important joints of the body such as the back, hips, and knees, the shoulders serve important purposes in life.  Strengthening the shoulders is critically important to our success as humans in today’s society.  However, we can’t strengthen our shoulders if we’re injured.  Take some time before the more rigorous movements in your exercise routine to activate the shoulder joint to mitigate the likelihood of injury so we can exercise the upper body and garner the benefits of strength training for years to come.

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

Mar 13

Keep Moving During Plane Flights

A successful start to the new year has welcomed gyms with motivated individuals looking to achieve their fitness goals.  Entering the third month of the year is usually when results from our health and fitness efforts start to materialize.  New Year’s resolutions commonly include visions of weight loss, losing a few inches around the midsection, or getting out of the pre-diabetic category our doctors may have placed us in.  Decisions to hit the gym, a Yoga or Pilates class, or personal training sessions pay dividends to lean muscle mass composition, increased overall mood, and loss of fat mass.  If you’ve come this far and have been consistent from the beginning of the year until this point, you should feel proud of yourself.  Consistency and adherence to a fitness routine have challenges attached to them that might hinder our ability to comply to ensure we get our workouts in.

An obstacle present in many of the working classes’ lives affecting compliance with the discipline of maintaining a steady exercise program is commuting and traveling.  Sitting in a confined area with nothing to do except look forward and wait until the trip is over can wreak havoc on the body and mind, particularly when using an airplane as the transportation vessel of choice for business or family trips.

Airplane seats aren’t the most ergonomically sound sitting devices.  Restricted leg space, the decreased ability to recline the seat or adjust the seat height, and the challenge of getting up to walk around and revert the body to a standing position pose obstacles for our bodies to reside in an optimal position throughout airplane travel.  Following the trip of being packed in a metal tube like a can of sardines shooting through the sky to get to our desired destination can create physical challenges to our body, influencing resistance to move efficiently.  Additionally, the mind-numbing effects of watching movies or waiting until the flight is over during the plane ride can create a state of lethargy.  We may not want to move or think normally after an exhausting trip on an airplane because the body has been put through a mentally and physically stressful situation.

To counteract some of the potential threats like plane rides apply to our adherence to maintaining our physical activity and fitness levels, a few solutions to keep the body moving throughout the trip could include exercises you can perform in your seat to keep blood flow to essential parts of the body so we don’t just sit and marinate in a sedentary position the entire flight.  A few examples we recommend to our personal training clients who commute for work travel include exercises focusing on neck, shoulder, and hand movements since the requirements to move around are minimal:

  1. Side-to-Side Neck Stretch: Start by flexing the neck by bringing the ear to the shoulder until a brief stretching sensation is experienced in the side of the neck and upper shoulder. Once you feel a slight stretch, flex your neck in the other direction by bringing your ear to the other shoulder. Repeat this stretch for five to ten repetitions.
  2. Scapular Protraction and Retraction Stretch: While maintaining your elbows at a 90-degree angle and keeping your fingertips facing forward, glide your shoulder blades forward along your rib cage until you feel a stretch in the upper back and muscular sensation in your pectoral region.  Reverse the motion and glide your shoulder blades backward against your ribs.  You should feel a muscular sensation in the muscles surrounding your shoulder blades.   Repeat this movement for five to ten repetitions.
  3. Finger Flexion and Extension: Start by extending your arms in front of you at about armpit level.  Straighten the fingers away from the body until a muscular sensation is experienced in the back of the hand, wrist, and forearms.  Reverse the motion by making a fist and squeezing with both hands until a muscular sensation is experienced in the forearms.  Repeat this movement on both hands at once for five to ten repetitions.

These movements don’t have the same effect as a seventy-five minute professionally designed exercise session you get with your personal trainer or a class led by a skilled Yoga teacher.  However, these movements revert the repercussions of the restricted environment influencing lack of movement while enduring long plane flights.  The amount of blood flow, contraction of significant muscle groups surrounding important joints, and the production of excitatory hormones when stimulating muscles throughout a mundane and drawn-out setting can mitigate underuse injuries in sedentary environments such as long plane flights.  Additionally, if we can condition our mindset to gift ourselves the ability to grant our body some form of movement, albeit minimal compared to a concentrated exercise session, we can develop reflexive responses to produce critically essential movements that support our fitness goals in circumstances when we are posed with the challenge of being confined to tight quarters.

 

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

Mar 06

Prioritizing Lower Body Strength

Completing a full-body resistance training exercise session introduces a plethora of benefits toward everyday functionality.  Movements featuring productive exercise-induced stress on the lower extremity, core, and upper extremity have historically demonstrated how they assist in optimizing the ability to move more efficiently, avoid injury, reduce physical pain from previous injuries, and bolster the interactions within our everyday quality of life.  The ability to pick things up off the ground, reach overhead, and simply walk are aspects necessary to exist in this lifetime.  Therefore, a strength training program to fortify these features of life substantially benefits our productivity and experiences as we operate in our normal daily functions.  However, emphasizing lower body strength training is commonly overlooked in a beginner’s exercise routine.  In other words, leg workouts need more attention.

The importance of lower body strength shouldn’t be overlooked.  What do we do after we wake from a restful night’s sleep?  Unless we’re a vampire sleeping in a coffin in an upright position, most humans usually perform a barrel roll on their mattress, pivot to the side of their bed, stand up, and walk.  That’s right, we walk every day after we get out of bed.  For those of us dealing with unpleasant hip, knee, ankle, or foot injuries, the inability to walk properly is quite the thorn in the side.  The ability to walk properly can’t be overstated.

Alongside the functions of walking without pain or debilitating symptoms comes the multitude of functions our hips, knees, ankles, and feet offer us in our everyday lives.  A few examples include stepping up and down stairs or curbs, pivoting and standing up out of our cars after we park to visit the grocery store, or kneeling to pick up an object from the ground.  Furthermore, if we find ourselves on the ground in a kneeling position, or in the unpleasant event of tripping and falling, we need to get back up to a standing position.  Without adequate lower extremity strength, we can find ourselves in a state of strife if we can’t stand up proficiently.

Our exercise prescription design for our personal training clients includes a full body injury prevention, mobility, and strength training routine.  However, the first area of the body featured in a lower extremity movement.  Whether it be a supine hip extension, side lying hip adduction, step up, lunge, hinge, or squat movement, the lower extremities are the first in line throughout a full schedule of training before exercising the muscles of the core, shoulders, and arms.

We perform lower extremity movements first because as humans interacting with the general population, we need to be able to walk, step up a few stairs, avoid the likelihood of falling, and get up off the ground.  Additionally, lower extremity resistance training movements require more coordination and concentration when compared to upper body movements.  Furthermore, performing lower extremity weight-bearing movements such as kettlebell or dumbbell goblet squats, lunges or step-ups with weights held by the side, or barbell squat and deadlift movements require a tremendous amount of neuromuscular coordination, focus, and purposeful intent to execute such rigorous movements efficiently and effectively.  Weight-bearing lower extremity movements indeed elicit potent strength, coordination, and injury prevention adaptations.  At the same time, these weight-bearing lower extremity movements have the potential to cause injuries not only during an exercise session when performed incorrectly, but also slowly add up throughout subsequent days, weeks, or even months to elicit overuse injuries to the lower spine, hips, knees, ankles, and feet if performed incorrectly.

A simple way to avoid lower extremity exercise injuries and complications is to conduct them first thing before your upper body or core movements each training session.  This way, the neurological function and mental and physiological state of mind won’t be fatigued.  If we were to complete upper extremity and core exercises before our heavier, compound lower extremity exercises, we might be fatigued both physically and mentally to be able to support the advanced coordination involved throughout our lower body movements.  The lower extremities of the hip, knee, ankle, and foot have a higher surface area of muscles than the upper extremities.  The glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, and tibialis anterior double the size of upper extremity musculature.  Therefore, lower extremity muscles require more energy to function properly when compared to their neighbors residing in the shoulder blades, ribs, and arms.

Strength training for the entire body is of the utmost importance to empower the human body to thrive and prosper.  The upper body and core should receive a sufficient amount of attention in an exercise routine.  Appreciating the functions our lower body offers us in our ability to move efficiently as bipedal organisms shouldn’t be overlooked.  If we’re looking to advance our strength to support our everyday lives, take some time to exercise the lower body before venturing into other strength training movements.

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

Feb 29

Eat the Right Foods at the Right Times

“Six packs start in the kitchen,” Felix told me as I was gulping down my protein shake after a two-hour training session and I waited for my dad to pick me up from the gym at seven o’clock in the evening.  One-hundred-pound dumbbell chest press, fifty-pound dumbbell curls, and five-hundred-pound leg presses weren’t an unusual sight to observe when Felix trained at the gym.   Along with many other regular gym attendees, Felix had the physique and work ethic of an optimally performing human who reaped the benefits of utilizing the gym floor as a potent tool for forging his body into a healthy and strong person.

When I first got a membership to HealthQuest when I was eleven years old, I ventured throughout the gym floor in earnest anticipation to lift the heavy dumbbells, use the “peck deck” machine until my chest exploded, and do sets of dumbbell curls until I couldn’t lift my protein bar to my mouth I looked forward to at the end of my workouts.  I admired the chiseled, in shape, and polite gentleman who attended the gym the same times I went after I finished my homework.  I was also terrified by the women of the gym who could lift more than the overall body mass of my chicken-legged, baggy t-shirt-wearing, awkward eleven-year-old body.

Developing lean muscle mass like Jean Claude Van Dam and Sylvester Stallone, gaining a sense of confidence, and feeling a sense of security around these more advanced gym attendees was what drove me to consistently attend the gym and lift my ten-pound dumbbells next to the men and women who were lifting twenty to fifty pounds more than me.  The passion and drive to put in the rigorous work at the gym were there.  But, why didn’t I have the Greek god-like abdominal section of Bruce Lee?

I was flummoxed by Felix’s comment about creating a defined, washboard-like abdominal structure starting in the kitchen.  When I read through Muscle and Fitness magazines and watched exercise instruction videos, the models posing in those articles and videos would do a trillion different types of abdominal exercises and have mid-sections that appeared to be able to deflect baseballs hit by Barry Bonds.  It might be true that the crunches, side crunches, and reverse crunches performed by the models played a pivotal role in developing a pristine masterpiece of abdominal muscle sculpting. However, what usually isn’t mentioned is the dietary and food decisions that those models diligently executed in excruciating detail to lower the likelihood of storing fat and increase lean muscle mass.  In other words, Jean Claude Van Dam, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Lee, and Felix were masters at making healthy food in their kitchens.

We see clients at our personal training center begin their fitness journeys to create a strong foundation meant to forge an outlook on health and fitness that may have been dormant for a long period.  This dormant physical activity contributes to a lack of lean muscle mass, the development of pain causing physical impairments, and public enemy number one:  weight gain.  As these new exercises participants gain momentum developing lean muscle mass, increasing energy, and developing a sense of accomplishment and overall happiness, the next step is usually refining dietary decision-making tactics.

As social media feeds on Instagram and TikTok feature various methods of themed dietary tactics such as Keto, intermittent fasting, and tracking calories via wearable technology such as Apple watches, one thing is always consistent, we need specific foods that line up with our physical activity levels.  Calories break up in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.  The human body utilizes carbohydrates as a fuel source when the energy demand is present.  Proteins are used to restore stressed muscles from workouts to create stronger and higher-performing muscles for demanding physical activity.  Dietary fats are used as energy when there are no more carbohydrates present in our system.

Carbohydrates can get stored as fat if we don’t use them as energy.  In other words, if we eat a sandwich from Subway or a burrito from our favorite taco truck on a day when we’re sitting at the desk all day, our body is going to take those carbohydrates present in the sandwich bread or burrito tortilla, and store them as fat because we didn’t use those carbohydrates as a fuel source.  However, if we consume an apple before we attend the gym and conduct an hour-long exercise session, our body will use those carbohydrates as energy to fuel our workouts.

If we’re looking to refine our fitness levels and take the next step when we already have a proficient adherence to exercise, perhaps we can look at what our activity looks like in the kitchen.  Focusing on eating foods at a time that lines up with our current state of physical activity is a valuable tactic to assist our body in maintaining a healthy weight and performing optimally.

 

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

Feb 21

A Brief Tour of The Core Muscles

The nuts and bolts holding together the framework of houses and buildings create a strong structural integrity to stay upright for a very long time.  Looking at the oldest building in Napa, the Old Adobe building has a framework that lasted well over a hundred years.  A building that was built back in the mid-1800s must have had some ingenious thought put into it since it still stands strong to this day.  The infrastructure of the bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles residing in the center of our body have a lot in common with the strong wood beams and masterfully engineered angles of support Cayetano Juarez had in mind when constructing the Old Adobe building.

The spine is one of the most important structures in the human body.  Granted, every joint in the body should be considered an important area of the body.  However, the vertebrae comprising our spine encases a very special organ in which is an elongation of our brain and the central command center of the nerves that make our limbs move.  Say hello to the spinal cord.

Not only does our spine act as a strong supporting mechanism like the massive wood beams and iron bolts holding together the Old Adobe building, it also relays important messages to our muscles to move.  Without a strong signal being sent from the spine to the skeletal muscles, we won’t move as efficiently.  The muscles that attach the ribs and shoulder blades to the spine, and,  the spine to the hips  act as supporting attachments to keep the spine upright and prevent the likelihood of collapsing like a loose pile of blocks stacked up at the later half of competitive game of Jenga.  These muscles are commonly identified as core muscles.

Akin to the fibrous core of an apple, the spine resides in the center of the body.  Above the spine is the rib cage, and, below the spine are the hips.  The muscles attaching the ribs to the spine help to keep the upper half of our body upright.  The lower half of the spine has muscular attachments from the spine to the hips which not only helps the body to stay upright but also assists in rotational and bending movements throughout normal human activities.

The rectus abdominus can be identified as the “six-pack” muscles that reside on the surface of the front aspect of the abdomen.  It’s located between the ribs and the pelvis.  Another common muscle of note residing on the back half of our body is the quadratus lumborum which originates from the back of the hip and attaches to the upper portion of the lumbar spine.  A commonly overlooked core muscle are the glutes.  Located just below the spine, the glutes are a noteworthy core supporting muscle that keeps the hips underneath the torso.  Without the glutes, the likelihood of the torso collapsing forward and additional stress being put on the spine to support the entire weight of the upper extremities becomes a risk factor for low back injury.

Many core muscles aid the body to function optimally throughout our everyday lives.  However, focusing on strengthening just a few important supporting muscles at a time has the potential to reinforce our bodies to have a strong framework that can hold us up for years to come.

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

Feb 14

Reduce Stress by Completing the Hardest Part of Your Day

The stress and demands of everyday life can cause our bodies and minds to endure stress of various degrees.  Clocking in to work for an eight to ten-hour shift, putting out a fire at your job, keeping tabs on our children’s progression in a school, or navigating through the intricate labyrinth of financial logistics to support ourselves and the people we care about are intense staples commonly experienced.   Needless to say, we put ourselves through the wringer so we can be the most productive and successful versions of ourselves.

Along with the demands of everyday life, our body produces chemicals that circulate through our blood in response to mentally and physically rigorous situations.  Better known as stress hormones, these chemical messengers increase our heart rate and blood pressure, excite our nervous system, and relay the message to our mind to be more alert to function in high-paced environments.  As our bodies endure stressful situations, our heart rate increases, we get anxious, and we might start sweating slightly.  This reaction is caused by stressful stimuli we perceive so our body can react in a stressful environment.

Stress hormones such as epinephrine and adrenaline are known for their ability to increase heart rate and blood pressure to stimulate a human’s ability to move faster.   These stress hormones can have a bad reputation.    Increased heart rate and blood pressure are frowned upon when we compare those two variables to the healthy standards of having a resting heart rate of around 60 to 100 beats per minute and having a blood pressure of 120 mmHg systolic over 80 mmHg diastolic.  However, an increased heart rate and blood pressure are beneficial in the correct circumstances.

When the body is prompted to move in a way that requires a higher capacity of physical exertion than sitting, standing, or leisurely walking, a strong and efficient heart rate along with a steady flow of blood throughout our arteries and veins is optimal when physically exerting the body such as moving heavy objects, walking up and down stairs, or running around with our kids.  When the muscles of our body enter a physically exertive state, they require oxygen and energy to move.  If our heart sends out a sufficient supply of oxygenated blood to the working muscle, the muscles will continue to work efficiently.  Therefore, increased physical work equates to an increased working heart rate so blood flow can circulate to and from the functioning skeletal muscle.  In this instance, a stimulated heart rate and neuromuscular system caused by an increase in stress hormones benefits the body.

In contrast, stress hormones can be suboptimal for our health.  What happens if our body perceives stressful stimuli from an unfortunate financial situation, our children get sent home from school for cussing, or we get in a heated conversation with a colleague at our jobs?  You can bet our heart rate will increase a few beats per minute, we might get a little angry or excited, and a lot of energy is going to be spent thinking about these unfortunate situations.  In this example, stress hormones are produced from a psychological and emotional stimulus while muscles in the body work very little, or,  not at all.  The result of such a stressful situation creates a surplus amount of stress hormones that can leave us feeling physically exhausted when all we did was think about an unfortunate event that left us feeling angry, aroused, or distraught.  To endure the rest of the day in a mentally fatigued state from a stressful situation is an undesirable situation to be in.

Fortunately, the body has the ability to adapt and armor itself to psychological and emotional distress when the body is in optimal physical condition.  When we enter a bout of exercise that includes routines demanding the body to move past its comfortable range of motion, manipulate more mass in the extremities than it’s accustomed to, or endure a continued pace of aerobic stress, natural adaptations to a source of physical stress from exercise occur.  As an adaptation to consistent exercise, the body has the potential to manage stress hormone production efficiently without becoming overstressed during exercise.  This adaptation carries over during the sedentary periods when we sit down to work, talk on the phone, or interact with people after exercise as well.  Therefore, if we train our bodies by routinely exercising at a moderate intensity, we can train our bodies to endure psychological and emotional stressful situations that occur through social interactions.

We recommend our personal training clients to exercise before the hustle and bustle of everyday life occurs.  In other words, it’s beneficial for the reduction of stress to set aside time to exercise before you clock in to work, pick your kids up from school, or before the grind of executive decision-making through emails, texts, and phone calls begins.  If we can accomplish a bout of exercise or recreational physical activity before the real demands of life begin, we’ll use up most of those stress hormones from our exercise routine and the likelihood of having a stressful situation alter our well-being is less.

Give yourself the gift of exercise and get the hardest part of your day out of the way by exercising in the morning or before your workday.  By doing so, you’ll have a potent tool to help you flourish in your everyday 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.

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