Aug 09

Foundations in Movement-Ankle Strength

Enduring a full day of eight or more hours of physical activity including walking around the house after getting out of bed first thing in the morning, to performing a rigorous physical activity such as conducting manual labor at our jobs requires the ability to walk, step up, turn around, or kneel.  These seemingly simple activities involve a vast network of neurological connections and sophisticated, coordinated movements from the spine to our hips, down to our knees, and eventually ending at our foot and ankle joints.  Similar to how massive redwood trees support their trunk and branches via an elaborate root system, our feet and ankle joints are primarily responsible for keeping our bodies vertical and mobile so we can function productively in our everyday lives.

The anatomy of the foot is comprised of a series of toe bones called phalanges, metatarsals of the midfoot, and the ankle joint where the shin bone connects the leg to the foot.  The unique grooves and articulations of these bones allow the foot to flex, extend, rotate side-to-side, and create circular motions.  These features grant us the ability to walk, jog, or sprint forward.  Stepping up onto stairs, moving laterally, or stepping down off of curbs are a few examples that require the foot to be able to sense the ground and trigger the appropriate muscles present in the ankle and foot to support and move the body throughout walking, stepping, and shifting balance.  Ankle and foot flexibility, coordination, and overall strength are critically important to our ability to move with less restriction, operate with optimal balance, and proceed throughout our everyday lives in coordinated functional movements.  Therefore, ensuring to input ankle and foot strengthening themes in our exercise routine shouldn’t be overlooked.

The ability of the foot to dorsiflex, plantar flex, evert, invert, and perform circumduction plays a critical role in ankle strengthening.  Dorsiflexion is the ability of the shin to travel closer to the toes.  The opposite direction is plantar flexion, in which the sole bends in the opposite direction toward the calves.  Eversion is the outward bending of the foot in which the pinky toe side of the foot rotates toward the outside of the shin.  Inward rotation of the foot when the sole rotates toward the midline of the body is inversion.  Ankle circumduction is the circular movement in which the foot rotates around the ankle joint from left to right.  These simple motions are responsible for a multitude of complex abilities that allow us to function efficiently as bipedal organisms.  When these abilities of the ankle are restricted, our experience of interacting with our normal daily physical activities can become hindered.  Fortunately, by adhering to a schedule of consistently practicing movements utilizing strength and conditioning techniques to support the ankle and foot, we can reduce the risk of injury and increase our overall quality of life.

A few simple and effective tactics that help promote ankle strength and functionality involve movements that can be done in a home setting.  Below are a few exercises we perform with our personal training clients to assist in ankle and foot strengthening:

  1. Isometric Plantar Flexion:  Better known as the calf raise, plantar flexion from a standing position involves lifting the heel off the ground.  To perform, lift both heels off of the ground and maintain that position with the heels off of the ground for 10 to 30 seconds.  Muscular sensation should be experienced in the calf muscle group in the posterior aspect of the shin bone.  To assist in balance, position yourself in front of a wall so you can use the wall to stabilize your body if you teter forward.
  2. “ABC Foot Writing”: Similar to finding balance when performing the plantar flexion exercise, stand in front of a wall or supporting object, such as a counter, to stabilize yourself.  Lift one foot off the ground and slightly in front of the body.  Begin tracing imaginary letters of the alphabet with your toe.  These twenty-six movements while tracing each letter of the alphabet move the ankle joint in various planes of motion.  Muscular sensation should be experienced at the top of the foot and lateral aspect of the shin.  To increase the challenge of this exercise, lift the foot out in front of the body more and higher off the ground.  This puts more demand on the body’s ability to correct imbalances and puts more demand on the supporting leg and the raised leg.

Many joints in the body offer critically important features to our productivity and functionality.  Let’s not forget the ankle joint offers us the privilege in our everyday lives that supersedes the importance of driving a car, which is our ability to walk without any hindrance.  Taking a few moments out of our day to reinforce the integrity of our ankle joints assists us in our ability to prosper in our everyday lives with less pain and decreases limitations in our usual everyday 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.

 

Aug 01

Utilizing Exercise to Reinforce Confidence in Balance

The ability to maintain our body’s balance throughout our everyday life activities is critically important to our productivity and functionality.  Deconditioned fitness levels, recovering from a significant surgery, or the general advancement of age play a role in creating unbalanced environments.  Standing up from seated or lying down positions, correcting our walking path if we need to suddenly move out of the way of a moving object, or the muscular strength and coordination of our core and lower extremities affect balance.  Finding exercises to practice and reinforce the ability to stay balanced in circumstances that offer presentations of imbalance are vital assets to the general population’s fitness routine.

As we age, the general degradation of muscle and connective tissue occurs.  The healing process of our muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones isn’t as profound as that of a sixteen-year-old multisport athlete.  However, it’s useful to note that as adults progress past their high school and college athletic careers, physical activity levels decrease due to the necessity of working a forty-hour work week, entering a business partnership, or getting married and starting a family.  Needless to say, physical activity and adherence to fitness routines are shunted due to the maturation of the average human in our society.  So, when it comes to degeneration of muscle strength and size over time, what comes first?  Getting older?  Or, we simply get complacent and stop engaging in recreational physical activity and exercise before the obligations of life take over?

Unless we’re Marty McFly driving a masterfully polished stainless steel DeLorean that can travel back in time, we can’t do much about adding another year onto our age after each time the Earth takes a trip around the sun.  However, the human body has a unique ability to adapt to specific adaptations that are imposed on it.  In other words, if the body is put through a period of rigorous work, muscles receive a series of microscopic tears in them.  Better known to the gym rat world as “a case of the DOMS,” or delayed onset muscle soreness, our body feels a slight sensation of pain a few days following a resistance training session.  As muscles heal and adapt after a resistance training session, the body becomes stronger in being able to manipulate objects in the environment more efficiently due to an increase in neuromuscular coordination and muscular strength.  Additionally, the ability to move fluidly in multiple positions while walking, stepping up and down stairs, turning around, or standing up is improved from this adaptation of muscle building.

Understanding exercise techniques that reinforce our ability to change direction immediately, regain balance after an immediate adjustment of stumbling, or avoid falling improves balance.  More importantly, consistently practicing training exercises that reinforce the mastery of balance is critically important to possessing optimal balance to decrease the risk of falling, avoid injury, and ultimately increase confidence through movement as we age.  Therefore balance training should be practiced regularly, if not every day per week.  Once we stop practicing such a critically important aspect of our lives, balance can degenerate rapidly.

Reinforcing balance is supported by strong core and lower extremity muscles.  Strength training exercises such as squats and planks are simple and effective exercises that benefit exercise participants at an entry-level of fitness to the regularly practicing fitness veteran.  Along with strength training, exercises specifically for balance include movements that position the body in a broad or narrow stance, moving in straight lines, or standing on one leg for a brief period.  Below are a few simple stretches we include in our personal training clients’ movement prep routines at the beginning of every training session that are meant to improve and maintain balance:

Single leg balance:  Stand with both feet on the ground and toes facing forward.  While distributing your center of gravity toward one foot, gradually lift the opposite foot off the ground and hold it in an elevated position.  Hold this position for 10-30 seconds on both legs.  To reinforce safety, ensure to perform this exercise next to an object that can be used to grab onto to stabilize in case a loss of balance occurs, such as a wall or sturdy rail.

Heel-to-toe walk:  Stand with both feet on the ground and toes facing forward.  While distributing your center of gravity toward one foot, gradually bring the opposite forward until is just before your stable foot and touch your heel to the toe of the stabilizing foot.  Once your balance has been recalibrated to the new leading foot, bring the trailing foot around the stabilizing foot and repeat the same movement traveling in a straight line.  Travel forward in this movement for about the length of 5 to 10 feet.

These examples are not cutting-edge movements one might see professional athletes performing in their strength and conditioning sessions.  However, these movements offer the ability to be performed consistently.  Practicing simple and effective balancing tactics at least two to three days per week for just one set offers the potential to improve everyday balance, decrease the likelihood of injury, and improve our confidence throughout the movements that become hindered as general aging occurs.

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

 

Jul 26

Making Unhealthy Food Decisions a Sacred Experience

A hidden treasure exists in Napa Valley in the form of a twelve-inch piece of cooked dough produced by R+D Kithcen’s take-out menu.  Better known as Hawaiin-style pizza, this masterpiece of American-Italian fusion displays a pillowy, yet structurally sound, dough that has been meticulously measured out by the R+D culinary team that creates an identical product each time I visit their pick-up location.  Thick slices of pineapples, slightly toasted ham, thinly sliced red onion, and cilantro sit atop a platform of creamy, tangy cheese.  Between the cheese and dough resides a barrier of sauce I’ve yet to identify featuring a tomato sauce base of flavor, yet still has touches of mustardy-vinegar-like acidity that ties the masterfully engineered cooked dough with the harmonious display of toppings creating a majestic soiree of flavors gallivanting along the tastebuds.  Whenever I open up the small pizza box, the aroma kept inside streams toward my nose producing an olfactory escapade triggering a hedonistic pleasure that is set to ensue in a few moments.  Needless to say, this pizza won’t last long if put in front of me.  While I perceive the R+D take-out Hawaiin-style pizza as a form of gold, it creates an issue.  It’s easy to get your hands on.

A few other miracles of culinary genius that gracing our world offer us an eating experience like no other include French fries, ice cream, and beer and wine.  The art of frying 3-inch long, quarter-inch thick potatoes has risen to a mass-produced food product that can be found anywhere from fine dining restaurants, to fast food institutions, to the frozen bags present in the freezers at grocery stores that immediately hit our kitchen tables in a matter of minutes. Cream and milk are constituted in the form of a cold and spoonable morsel that can effortlessly be scooped out of an ice cream quart putting some of the most sought-after food pleasures easily accessible within a few yards from our freezer to our sofas.  Furthermore, humans enjoy a sense of relaxation and laughter after a long day of work.  This is where a bottle of beer or glass of wine can immediately create the environment to escape the grasp of our stressful work lives and enter into a whimsical world of relaxation and indifference after pouring a glass of our favorite wine or cracking the cap off of our favorite beer.

A combination of starchy potatoes, salt, and the texture of a crispy exterior fresh out of the deep-fat fryer scratches our junk food itch in a matter of minutes.  The cold, creamy, and sweet composition of ice cream can easily bring us back to the nostalgia of having ice cream after we reluctantly forced down steamed veggies at the dinner table when we were youngsters.  Pleasant feelings of relaxation, smiling, and laughter are linked to having a glass of wine after a stressful day.  While all of these culinary pleasures produce rapture and joy, consuming too much of them in a short period can create the potential for suboptimal health outcomes of increased fat storage, metabolic diseases including diabetes and cardio arterial disease, and loss of energy.  Add the ability for us to get our hands on these products in a matter of minutes by venturing to a fast food drive-through, sitting down at our favorite restaurant and producing a table full of a glass of beer and a plate of food, or perusing down the freezer aisle to get a frozen pizza or a quart of ice cream, we further compound the detrimental effects of our societies ability to give us whatever we want whenever we want.

Taking a trip back in time to the 1920s when our predecessors lived in an era where fast food restaurants and Door Dash didn’t exist and a million wineries producing some of the world’s best wines weren’t a stone’s throw away, we can imagine how people of that era didn’t have the resources to acquire their culinary guilty pleasures as prevalently.  Instead, cake and ice cream showed their faces at special events like birthday parties.  Meals at restaurants were reserved for extravagant and special occasions, such as wedding anniversaries or visits celebrating an out-of-town relative.  One could imagine the technology to produce a cake wasn’t as sophisticated as today’s ovens and kitchen equipment.  Additionally, it’s safe to say restaurants weren’t as prevalent back in the 20s when compared to the slew of fast food restaurants in strip malls.  Therefore, treats such as desserts, alcohol, and food prepared by a restaurant team were considered something as a rare occurrence.  One could say making a cake or sitting down at a restaurant was a sacred experience that should be cherished and taken in as a rare event one would be lucky to participate in.

What would happen if we reverse-engineered our tactics of using our phones to order DoorDash, make an online pick-up order, or sit down for a restaurant meal to reserve as a special experience in which we can only participate one to two times a week?  Maybe we could make more meals at home that we plan and take control over what ingredients go onto our plates.  Society exists in the golden era of instant satisfaction when it comes to food acquisition.  However, if we utilize our ability for instant gratification too much, we might experience negative side effects.  Focusing on our ability to make our meals and taking a break from the privileges of immediate food acquisition for two or three nights a week can produce health benefits to assist us in living 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.

Jul 17

Exercising in the Heat of the Summer

The nights are hot, people are sporting tank tops in the morning, and flip-flops have replaced the usual foot attire for the standard grocery store visits.  As temperatures rise to the mid to upper nineties later in the afternoon and kids on summer vacation run rampant as raucous laughter fills the streets, we know it’s officially summertime.  Napa Valley is one of the most beautiful places to be present during the summer months.  The vineyards lace the hillsides spanning up and down Highway 29 and Silverado Trail, mustard flowers create a variant of shocking yellow and vibrant green against the grassy hillsides soaking up the photosynthetic glory of the sun, and the blue skies present an unforgettable backdrop along the horizon of the valley’s mountain ranges.  The inhabitants of Napa are indeed a lucky group of people.  However, during the summer, it gets bloody hot.

During the summer, we have the opportunity to be outside more than the winter months we endured a few months ago.  We don’t have to worry about bundling up in a rainproof coat to dodge the rain.  This rainless and sunny climate grants an optimal opportunity to partake in recreational physical activities including walking through downtown Napa, taking a stroll along the riverfront trail at Kennedy Park, or taking a brief hike up Bothe State Park.  Since we don’t have the rain to create a wet and muddy environment, we might be able to catch up on painting the side of the house, building an outdoor shed, or having the opportunity to tend to our veggie garden.  While all of these outdoor activities can be accomplished thanks to the summer season, we face the threat of being exposed to the blistering afternoon sun beating down on our bodies and toasting our bodies like a baguette in a bread oven.  Finding an optimal time to exercise and circumvent the heat can optimize our physical activity experiences.

To support our physical activity endeavors throughout the summer, having a body that is conditioned for the activities we enjoy is critically important.  However, participating in a bout of exercise during extreme heat is a fantastic way to deter someone from their fitness compliance.  Driving to the gym and walking across the searing hot asphalt pavement into the sliding glass doors of a local gym after enduring a day in the high nineties isn’t the most desirable.  Minor dehydration, lethargy, and irritability are common bi-products of existing in one of the heat waves that commonly pass through the Napa Valley.  To get the most out of these summer months and adhere to a consistent exercise program, preparing for the obstacles the hot environment offers can help us get the most out of our exercise habits.  We just need to plan a little bit.

Temperatures don’t break the eighty-degree mark until later in the morning.  The brisk and refreshing morning air can be as much as forty degrees lower than the hot afternoon climate from the previous day.  Initiating exercise when the mind feels relieved from the previous day’s heat is an opportunistic time to take advantage of allocating time to exercise.  Exercising earlier in the day during extreme heat avoids the daunting effects of grinding through a steamy, swelteringly hot workout later on in the afternoon.

It should come as no surprise that water evaporates faster with an increase in heat.  Similar to the way steam comes out of a boiling pot of water, water is emitted from humans in hotter climates.  In other words, we dehydrate at an increased rate during these summer months.  If we don’t hydrate a little more often than what we’re used to during an average day, our bodies will transform from the composition of a grape full of water to a dried-up raisin with a thick, slurry-like consistency of concentrated sugar.  Imagine exercising in a state where the body is hydrated with a steady flow of hydrated blood delivering oxygen and nutrients to the organs and working muscles versus exercising while the body is in a raisin-like state with thick viscous blood.  I’m sure a few of our readers enjoy eating delicious raisins.  However, without going into the physiology of why thick, dehydrated blood isn’t optimal for exercise, I’m sure we can appreciate that exercising while our body is akin to the composition of dried-up fruit won’t be as productive as exercising in a proficiently hydrated state.

To counteract the dehydrating effects the hotter summer months impose upon us, being mindful of hydration tactics is a solution that can help us move better.  A helpful tactic we recommend to our personal training clients to assist in obtaining adequate hydration is to ensure to drink a full glass of water first in the morning after waking.  Additionally, using the cue of consuming a full glass of water after each meal is another useful tactic to keep up with the steady intake of water into the body.

The summer months offer Napa some of the most breathtaking experiences.  However, along with the beauty placed before us, we sometimes get extreme heat.  Remember that exercise before the heat strikes and staying hydrated are key ingredients To get the most out of this amazing time of year and stay healthy enough to enjoy it.

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

Jul 02

Managing Arthritis with Skillful Exercise and Rest Decisions

“Once we get over the age of thirty, we’re pretty much diagnosed with arthritis.”  These were the words of a physical therapist who mentored me during one of my many internship experiences.    Arthritis appears in a multitude of presentations based on an individual’s history of injury, adherence to exercise and physical activity, or through a degenerative connective tissue auto-immune disease.

Arthritis is commonly recognized as inflammation of the joints, “bone-on-bone” contact, or nagging, debilitating pain in large joint areas including the neck, shoulders, back, spine, hips, and knees.  While arthritis does indeed appear more often after thirty years of age, the inflammatory factors present in our joints after a life of being active participating in sports or enduring physically demanding careers don’t slow down as the years progress forward.  However, the future doesn’t need to be a grim forecast of joint pain and discomfort.  Corrective exercise and skillful physical activity decision-making play a critical role in preserving joints and mitigating the severity arthritis can impact on our lives.

Joint inflammation commonly occurs in individuals who have had prolonged athletic careers in running marathons, playing collegiate basketball, football, or tennis, or years of recreational sports such as racquetball or pickleball.  The spine, shoulder, elbow, finger, hip, knee, and toe joints are common areas that encounter stresses of a career worth of professions spanning from the spine enduring framing houses and pouring concrete, to the neck bending while looking down at a cutting board and chopping vegetables for forty hours a week over the span of thirty years.  Our body’s joints take a beating throughout each decade of life.

Fortunately, we’re equipped with a defensive mechanism designed to help us live happy, healthy, and productive lives after enduring the physical stress imposed on the joints from our athletic or professional careers.  Enter the world of skillfully designed injury prevention and corrective exercise.

Ligaments connect bones to other bones, tendons connect muscles to bones, and muscles are the motors that move the bones.  Optimally conditioned muscles move bones efficiently. Structurally sound tendons act as strong anchors to move bones from various angles.  Unfortunately, our ligaments aren’t as vascular as muscles and tendons, so they are far more fragile and repair as easily.  Ligaments have a challenging time healing if injured.  Therefore, if a ligament is damaged, the likelihood of two bones rubbing on each is increased.  However, if muscles and tendons are reinforced through skillful exercise selection, ligaments won’t have to take on as much load and the likelihood of bones compressing suboptimally can decrease.

We teach our personal training clients to choose safe exercises.  The last thing we want to do in an exercise session is worsen the pain experienced through arthritis and degenerative joint diseases.  When looking for exercise tactics or joining group exercise classes, ensure that the protocol involved with the layout resonates with your vision to strengthen your joints and reinforces confidence in the tactics that produce a positive outcome after a bout of exercise.

Controlling the amount of compressive forces in exercise selection is a useful method to impose just enough positive exercise-induced stress throughout a bout of exercise.  If three sets of fifteen repetitions performing a lunge exercise don’t seem like the right fit for an arthritic knee joint, perhaps looking for an alternative is a safer bet.  As a solution to increased repetitions, focus on fewer repetitions, but with slower movements and less weight.  Additionally, instead of performing a lunging exercise, a useful replacement might include performing a squatting movement with an exercise ball placed behind the back to take load off the knees.

Corrective exercise and injury prevention-themed movements are critical toward one of the most important aspects of managing arthritic:  not making joints feel worse.  It’s helpful to appreciate exercises that could worsen a joint affected by arthritis before venturing into a bout of exercise.  However, we can’t just leave an arthritic joint untreated, it’ll only become a more advanced form of joint pain and take away from the joys of life.  As a solution to managing arthritis, skillfully and methodically choose exercises that not only support the strengthening of the joints but are also centered around injury prevention.

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

Jun 18

Reducing Risk of Falling with a Strong Core

“I read some research that one of the biggest factors causing falls is related to having a weak core,” expressed Dutch during one of his weekly personal training sessions.  Dutch expressed this as we performed an exercise involving balancing on one leg as I threw a la crosse ball, bouncing it off of the ground for him to catch for five repetitions each hand.  “I feel like I’m using my core throughout this movement,” added Dutch.  “Most people would think this is a circus sideshow act, but I need to engage my stomach, back, and glutes to get this done.”  Dutch was spot on with his discovery that balance requires substantial activation of the core muscles.  Furthermore, conditioned and optimally functioning core muscles play an important role in reducing the likelihood of falling.

A common perception of core muscles is the abdominal muscles seen on fitness models present on social media feeds and famous movie stars with abdominal lean muscle mass definition akin to the acute, precisely angled edges of a washboard.  There is truth that the abdominal muscles are involved in our core.  However, the muscles involved in the center of our body dividing the upper and lower extremities are more complex than just our abdominals.

If we can envision the body from an anterior view, from top to bottom we have the cranium, upper extremities and rib cage, abdomen, hips, and finally the legs at the lowest portion.  Residing directly in the middle of the body is the area including the belly button and hips.  In the exercise physiology realm, we define any muscle or connecting structure in that area as the core.  This means that the chiseled Greek-god-like abs Brad Pitt puts on display during his boxing fight scene in the movie Snatch are not the only muscles involved in the core.  The muscles along the spine, lateral aspects of the abdomen, and infrastructure of the hips play an equally important role in the development of a proficient core and in reducing the risk of falling.

Presentations influencing risks of falling include loss of balance, a foot colliding into an unnoticed raised object when walking, stepping off a declined surface caused by a lack of detection of the height of the ground, or lacking the ability to regain balance from a multitude of other situations imposing loss of balance.  Decreased conditioning of core muscles and the lumbopelvic hip complex contributes to issues of losing balance or tripping and falling.

For example, a body with a hunched-over kyphotic posture can be produced by a lack of paraspinal and glute strength. Back extension and gluteal strength keep the hips underneath the ribs.  One could imagine that if our butts stick out too far from our bodies, our chest is going to move forward causing a curved and arched shape of our thoracic and cervical spine akin to the structure of a fishing pole with a fish caught on the line.  What happens when the fisherman lets go of the pole when a powerful fish is pulling the forward?  The pole goes forward into the ocean.  The same action occurs when the gluteal and paraspinal muscles lack strength and engagement when the body is tilting forward:  We’ll lean forward too much and potentially fall face-first.

The risk of falling is more apparent in sedentary, injured, advanced-age, and deconditioned populations.  Desk or commuting jobs requiring demanding hours of sitting in cars and airplanes influence sedentary situations where exercise is challenging to come by.  After eight to ten hours of sitting and working all day, the last thing someone wants to do is exercise.  Additionally, orthopedic injuries inflicting pain on the back, hip, or knee joints can hinder motivation when it comes to routine exercise.  If any type of movement causes pain, why would someone want to exercise and inflict more pain on themselves?  Furthermore, a lack of balance can occur with the advancement of age.  Decreased spacial awareness and coordination contribute to increased rates of falling when nagging injuries add up and natural age-related symptoms that include an increased amount of time to regain balance as we age.

To counteract the effects of deconditioned fitness levels and general advancement of age contributing toward tripping and falling, feature core exercises involving the entire core throughout a ritualized fitness routine.  This means dedicating time to exercising the muscles of the lower back, abdominals, and hips one to three times per week.  If you’re not sure where to start, schedule a session with a local physical therapist or trusted personal trainer.  Part of understanding what exercises best support factors that mitigate risks of falling is education on what causes falls and what tactics help us avoid falls.  After studying topics that cause falling, we gain tools to understand that adhering to a uniquely designed exercise program has the power to help us live happier, healthier, and stronger lives.

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

Jun 06

What a Pain in the Neck

“What a pain in the neck,” I muttered after spotting a leak in the irrigation tubing responsible for hydrating my sweet potatoes.  As I surveying my garden observing the vast array of green leaves bustling out of their stems to enjoy the warm summertime weather and basque in the glory of photosynthesis they are set to receive, I noticed a spray of water shooting about 4 feet in the air out of one of the irrigation hoses.  Knowing I needed to get my hands dirty and replace the breached tubing with a new spacer, I reluctantly got down on my knees, clipped the tubing, and forced a tiny plastic spacer in the hose to ensure water didn’t spew away from its appropriate location.  I didn’t want to resolve this problem because I hoped it had never happened in the first place.  However, after years of seeing how gardens can turn into a barren, unfertile landscape akin to the background setting of Mad Max when left unattended, I knew that rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty was the best tactic for my sweet potato’s well-being.

This minor nuisance in my irrigation which caused me to express my dissatisfaction and relate it to “a pain in the neck” led me to think about one of our personal training clients who suffered from literal pain in the neck.  Jay came in the other day in a state of malaise and discomfort.  His right shoulder appeared to be in a shrugged position.  Upset about the news he had received from a doctor’s appointment after X-ray imaging revealed cervical radiculopathy and arthritis, he expressed that he was in a lot of pain and his neck was suffering from “being too old.”

Better known as a pinched nerve in the neck, the cervical vertebrae can become disrupted by degradation of the discs between the vertebrae, a rotational shift of the vertebrae, or tight muscles compressing nerves.  Derived from the Latin terms “radix, ” meaning root, and “pathos,” meaning suffering, cervical radiculopathy can be defined as an advanced situation in which a person is suffering from pain in the neck due to a disruption in the spinal root nerves of the cervical vertebrae.

Located between the cranium and chest are the cervical vertebrae.  Nerves originating from the cervical vertebrae trace down the anterior portion of the spine to innervate areas of the arms and organs in the upper extremities.  As these nerves get pinched due to a compression of the vertabra, degeneration of an intervertebral disc, or shift in the cervical spine past their normal range of motion, a sensation of burning, searing, and sensitive-to-the-touch pain can be produced in the neck, back of the shoulder, throughout the humerus and forearm, and the fingers.  After hearing this report from Jay, I knew my “pain in the neck” wasn’t that bad when put into perspective with what he was dealing with.

In an effort to relieve and remedy Jay’s neck pain, we knew that there were a few critically important tactics to ensure Jay could get the most of out his training sessions.  Our first step was to eliminate any exercises that worsened his tweaked neck.  This meant removing activities that required resistance training while holding his arm overhead, putting his body in a prone position where he needed to contract his neck muscles against gravity, or straining through exertive activities.  We focused on positioning Jay in the antithesis of those positions throughout his training sessions.  For example, instead of performing overhead pressing activities, we performed isometric “anti-shrugs” or scapular depressions with his head and back supported by a wall.  This triggered the muscles underneath the shoulder blades to activate and avoided using the upper neck and shoulder blades muscles.  By focusing on muscles that pull the shoulders down, we focused on “unwinding” the muscles that were causing Jay to have a hyper-elevated shoulder.  If the shoulders stay shrugged for extended periods, the muscles connecting the shoulder to the cervical vertebrae can become strained and pull down on the vertebrae causing compression on the spinal root nerves budding out of the vertebrae.  To perform wall-supported “anti-shrugs,” follow the description of the exercise below:

Leaning against wall “anti-shrugs”:  Position your body flat against a wall.  While keeping the lower back flat on the wall, bend your knees to a slightly squatted position.  Extend your elbows to where your arms are at about a 45-degree angle and start applying pressure as if you are “pushing the wall away behind you with your arms.”  Gradually depress the shoulders downward along your back as if you are performing the reverse action of shrugging your shoulders.   You should feel a muscular sensation in the shoulder blades and along the ribs underneath the armpits.  Once muscular activation is experienced, maintain this position for about one second.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions.

Similar to how an irrigation system left unattended can produce a garden with soil as dy and non-fertile as sand in Western Australia, the body produces similar bi-products if pain is left untreated.  It might not be the most desirable tactic to accomplish when in pain, but to keep a body in motion, we need to roll up our sleeves and address areas of pain so we can live productive and happy 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.

Jun 01

Fend off Arthritis by Managing Stagnant Joints

As I was meandering through my garden over Memorial Day weekend, basking in the glowing Napa sunlight and enjoying the refreshing Northern California breeze, I went to move my wheelbarrow away from one of my garden beds.  The bok choy in my garden was thriving.  However,  something disturbing residing within the bed of the wheelbarrow caught my attention.  A pool of rusty, putrid water was the antithesis of the majestic display of my bok choy plants that were hemorrhaging with life.

I overlooked the detrimental effects of leaving standing water in the base of my wheelbarrow.  Normally meant to move soil from one of end my yard to the other, my wheelbarrow became a cesspool of rusty, algae-concentrated water that also served as a neonatal intensive care unit for mosquito larvae.  I learned a valuable lesson not to have standing water remain in one place for too long.

I related this scenario of standing water to what can happen to the human body if a person’s body remains in one position for prolonged periods.  The standing water in my wheelbarrow bed was probably there for about a month.  Humans can’t remain in one place for a month.  However, their activity levels can reach sedentary states in which movement becomes significantly hindered.

Prolonged sitting, lack of physical, and absence of a consistent exercise routine can produce similar circumstances to a pool of water that lies stagnant for a while.  The main difference is, that the human body is an organic structure composed of living cells that depend on movement.  Once movement is minimized, the fluids present in the body slow down.  More importantly, bones and joints depend on a steady flow of movement.  Decreased bone and joint movement and lack of physical can lead to the debilitating symptoms of pain and weakness that fall under the category of arthritis.

It might seem farfetched to compare stagnant water that had been neglected to be dumped out to how the development of arthritis and degenerative muscle, joint, and bone diseases occur in the human body.  However, the concept of complacently putting physical activity on the back burner isn’t too distant from letting a puddle of water in a wheelbarrow sit and develop a volatile environment.

Skeletal muscle tissue depends on the interaction of oxygenated blood flow rich in electrolytes, nutrients, minerals, sugars, and protein to function efficiently and support our everyday movements.  As the body stays in motion, the muscles utilize sources of energy and building material to keep up with the demands of work and energy expenditure necessary for optimal movement.  Additionally, moving through ways of recreational physical and routine exercise, our body identifies an imposed demand and creates adaptations to continue interacting in the physically demanding environment we exist in by continuously resynthesizing damaged muscle cells.  This creates stronger working skeletal muscle and enhances energy systems of our aerobic capacity which increases our endurance and prevents us from getting fatigued.

Inactivity within muscles becomes present when routine exercise and regular physical activity are neglected.  This sedentary environment creates the opposite circumstance of a human body that stays in motion and engages in regular physical activity.  As a result, a decreased oxygenated blood flow, hormones, and healthy nutrients are transported to the skeletal muscle and other important organs of the body.  Additionally, muscles lacking physical activity lead to decreased muscular contraction and movement of the tendons and ligaments.  This lack of movement can create a brittle and less pliable structure for muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones.  Similar to how a hose left out in the sun in our backyard for a few months gets cracked and loses elasticity, the rubber material of the hose can tear, rupture, or split.  Our muscle cells and connective tissue receive similar byproducts during decreased physical activity.

Routine exercise including resistance training tactics targeting the upper extremities, core, and lower extremities plays a critical role in conveying adaptations produced by the constructive stress resistance training delivers to bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles.  Microscopic cellular damage connective tissue receives from strategic resistance training introduces an adaptation within connective tissue cells to produce a stronger, more durable infrastructure in the way of increased collagen and bone cell reinforcement.  Therefore, resistance training assists in increasing bone mineral density and joint integrity to fend off detrimental effects of degenerative bone and joint diseases such as arthritis, osteoporosis, or rheumatoid arthritis.  Additionally, inputting stretching and mobility exercises can promote blood flow distribution to joints and muscles.

The benefits of a body being in motion more than standing still are critical to our everyday health and functionality.  By maintaining a productive state of physical activity, we can significantly reduce the likelihood of a stagnant fitness level by exercising regularly and being mindful to keep moving.

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.

May 23

Choosing the Best Foods at the Right Times

Eating decisions can create resolutions to circumstances that make us feel better and more productive.  Weight loss, gaining lean muscle mass, and fending off illness are commonly sought-after purposes of adhering to healthy eating habits.  Maintaining an optimal weight for our body type assists in managing a healthy fat mass to lean muscle mass ratio.  Muscular strength and coordination are essential for conducting our everyday activities.  Whether it be as simple as getting out of bed in the morning or as sophisticated as preparing for a three-week hiking excursion to Mont Blanc, ensuring our muscles and joints can perform in the arena we want to excel in is paramount to our livelihood. Society has become increasingly aware of shielding and preventing our body from contracting illnesses as simple as the common cold to extreme conditions such as diabetes or cancer.  Choosing the foods that support our lifetime fitness and health goals are critically important tactics supporting our ability to successfully exist in our everyday lives and excel toward our goals.

Ideal situations for healthy fat mass to lean muscle ratios can be measured through several methods.  A common tactic used to represent a person’s overall “fit-to-deconditioned” status is the BMI.  A high BMI indicates a human is overweight.  Whereas a lower BMI suggests, a person is in a healthier range of having a decreased amount of fat mass within their body.  The size of our waistline and shirt sizes are also helpful measuring devices to grasp the amount of abdominal girth on our bodies.  A simple comparison of waist sizes over a few months can reflect the status of how much subcutaneous fat mass may be present in our abdomen and hips.  Lower bodily fat mass influences less likelihood of metabolic conditions such as the development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cardioaterial diseases.  Selecting foods with less fat and sugar content supports the body’s ability to utilize fat as a fuel source for physical activity and avoid storing fat under our skin, in our blood vessels, and around vital organs.

Strength, endurance, mobility, and our overall ability to move efficiently and pain-free are common aspirations people strive for so they improve their lives.  Kneeling, bending over, or squatting down to pick up objects and interact with activities in various environments aren’t seen as too extravagant of a feat until that feature is removed from a person’s life due to muscular weakness.  Some of our personal training clients’ goals include wanting to have the ability to kneel and pull weeds in their garden or get on their hands and knees to wrestle with their grandkids.  On the more physically demanding side, we have personal training clients who wish to run marathons, get a gold medal at a pickleball tournament, or hike along the Swiss Alps.  Either way, the body needs a body supported by muscles that offer strength to move the body through a challenging environment and endurance to perform physical activity for a prolonged period of time.  Understanding which foods have adequate nutrient density, including efficient amounts of carbohydrates and protein, is critical to maintaining the composition of healthy muscle tissue.

Social media, magazine articles, and shows on our streaming television services offer helpful information to make optimal eating decisions.  While this information is beneficial, there is a plethora of learning material.  So much content that understanding healthy dietary recommendations can become overwhelming.  Venturing into a new world of nutrition could be and introduce challenges on where to begin.  A few simple tactics we have recommended to our personal training is to identify the correct time of day to eat, portion size, and balance of carbohydrate and protein amount in each meal.

  1. Portion size: Choose one protein source and one carbohydrate source.  In each meal throughout the day, try not to eat more than a handful amount of protein and a handful amount of carbohydrates.
  2. The best times to eat: Sorronding eating times around the most physically active periods of the day supports the likelihood of using sugars from carbohydrates as a fuel source and the rebuilding properties of protein to repair and reinforce muscle structure.  Additionally, practicing avoiding eating large meals when the body is in a sedentary state decreases the likelihood of fat storage.
  3. Identify proteins and carbohydrates: Eating a bag of popcorn, chips, or Snickers when hunger strikes isn’t going to cut it.  The body needs lean protein and healthy carbohydrates to support lean muscle mass development and enough energy to exercise.  Choosing a protein and a single-ingredient, minimally processed carbohydrate in each meal balances out the composition of the optimal nutrients to fuel the body and assists in avoiding overeating too many carbohydrates that could influence fat storage.

Focusing on the logistics of the foods we consume has the ability to supercharge our fitness goals.  When struggling to find that chink in your armor on what’s impeding progress in losing weight or increasing strength, looking into what decisions surrounding food consists of has the power to substantially increase our ability to be more productive, have more energy, and thrive in our everyday 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.

May 16

Postural Awareness Increases Productivity

The spinal cord is an elongation of our brain consisting of a series of hollow bones stacked on top of each other.  These bony structures are our vertebrae.    Spanning from the base of the skull down to the buttocks, each vertebra possesses a hollow cylinder-like interior meant to encase and protect the spinal cord.  Consisting of five main sections, the vertebrae have a unique stacking system that allows root nerves stemming from the spinal cord to travel out of facet joints to innervate various areas of the body.

The cervical section of the spine consists of seven vertebrae that start from the skull and travel down to the shoulders.  Granting the the ability to flex the cranium up and down, bend sides to side, glide forward and backward, and rotate left to right, the cervical vertebrae not only have unique functions that allow for coordinated movements of our head, but also feature spinal root nerves that innervate our neck, shoulder, and upper extremity motor nerves.  The thoracic spine has twelve vertebrae with attachment points to the rib cage.  The lumbar spine consists of five thick vertebrae.  The spinal root nerves stemming from the lumbar spine are responsible for innervation of the lower extremities including the hip, knee, and ankle joints.  Finally, we have the sacral and coccygeal vertebrae.  The sacrum consists of five fused vertebrae that make up a portion of the pelvis.  The coccyx consists of three to five vertebrae making our tailbone.

Similar to how Highway 29 transports people from Napa up to St. Helena so they can enjoy world-famous wineries and restaurants, the spinal cord transports critically important neuromuscular signals from the brain to organs.  In the case of neuromuscular signals, the organs that have connection points from the spinal roots nerves are our skeletal muscles present in our arms, core, and lower extremities.

A disruption to Napa Valley’s Highway 29 in the form of rush hour traffic or a detour caused by road work creates a slowing of cars and people heading to their destination.  The same concept of hindered electronic signals traveling from the brain, down the spinal cord, and to the body’s muscles occurs when there is a disturbance in one of the segments of the spine’s vertebrae.

Pinched nerves, bulging discs, or spinal compression fractures can significantly hinder our body’s ability to function.  These injuries are created when one of the vertebrae shifts out of alignment or is impacted by an acute injury in which the spine is damaged.  If a disc between one of the vertebrae is pushed out to the side of the spine, it can press on spinal root nerves that bud out of the spinal cord.   Compressed nerves create sensations of pain and slow the signal sent from the brain to the muscles that the spinal root nerve innervates.  This hindrance of nervous signals caused by a disruption of the spine is akin to the two-lane road of Highway 29 being condensed to one lane and having cars directed by traffic control workers.

One could imagine when maintenance work occurs on a small highway.  The result is a long, slow, and tedious car ride is at hand.  Obstructions to the spine and its root nerves aren’t much different.  Once a blockage occurs in the pathways responsible for transporting nervous signals from the brain, down the spinal cord, to a spinal root nerve, to a skeletal muscle, we can expect slower, weaker, and uncoordinated movements from our body.  Therefore, if optimal function of body movement and mitigating pain is a priority, the structural integrity and regular maintenance of our spine health can’t be overstated.

Strength and flexibility training to prevent injuries to optimize functionality and production is a key component of our lives.  A commonly understood concept to minimize injuries to the spine is to regularly conduct exercises two or three times per week.  However, let’s not forget a key factor of our days holding merit toward our spinal health:  posture.  Humans sit and stand in one position for prolonged periods.  A common injury that affects the integrity of our spine health is poor posture.   Leaning the head too far forward when looking at our monitors at work, peering down at our two-by-four inch phone fifty-something times per day, or hunching over our steering wheels while driving are common examples when our spine contorts in a candy cane-like shape.  Similar to our examples of Highway 29 being a straight shot from the south to the north end of the valley, one could imagine that if that straight line is hindered, people wouldn’t get to where they want to go in a desirable time frame.

We use a few simple cues to remind our personal training clients to practice optimal spinal posture.  While standing, envision your body from a lateral view.  Now, line your ears up in line with your armpits.  Follow by lining your hips underneath your armpits and bringing your knees and ankles underneath your hips.  If done correctly, you should be able to trace an imaginary straight line from your ears to your armpits, to your hips, down to your knees, to your ankles.  Once this tactic has been executed, a body with proper spinal alignment is usually produced that is free of suboptimal spinal curvatures that could cause impingements to our spinal root nerves.

Our spinal health is important to our everyday quality of life.  Practice optimal posture throughout the day to preserve the architecture of your spine and supercharge the performance, efficiency, and functionality of performance throughout 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.

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