Jan 17

Starting a Fitness Journey, Take Small Bites

Our fitness center had the privilege to expand another fourteen hundred square feet this past year.  The addition of a hallway, another bathroom, two office suites, and about eight hundred additional square feet to utilize for one-on-one personal training activities gave our coaching team the potential to invite more people into our business and offer our services to help people live happier, healthier, and stronger lives.  It was quite the year for us, and, we have been able to successfully fit our new space with more people from the Napa community to assist people looking to improve their overall quality of life via exercise adherence.

Along with our new space came visions of grandeur involving what we could invest in to enhance our client’s exercise experience with our shiny new toy which involved a new space, a massage suite, and an office for our coaches.  “Let’s get another squat stand,” “How about another front desk?” or “How about we retile the bathrooms?”.  These were just a small glimpse of the requests and proposed projects that were recommended by the team and yours truly to install in our new space.  The ideas were impressive.  However, we forgot about one important variable that made these visions conceivable:  time.

Before we got the keys to the other side of our fancy new space, we already had a maximum capacity of exercise participants in our previous space.  Even though we just acquired a new frontier of expanding a successfully operating fitness business, we still needed to tend to our current clientele.  Who was going to juggle both our beloved clients and the installation of our dream fitness center at the same time?  You guessed right.  The coaches who specialized in one-on-one personal training and exercise program design quickly became professional painters, and floor installation specialists, and quite comically, learned how to use power tools.  Have you ever seen a baby giraffe walk for the first time after birth?  Imagine a fitness coach learning how to use a Sawzall for the first time.  The result was overwhelmingly hilarious.

Needless to say, delving into new projects takes effort, perseverance, and patience.  These components involved in rendering success out of investing oneself into a new project that someone cares about takes a tremendous amount of time.  This most commonly occurs with fitness goals.  Achieving long-term benefits from a fitness program takes willingness, effort, and patience.

Common fitness goals include the desire to lose weight, look good in sleeveless shirts or bathing suits for a summer vacation, or overcome a substantial injury to reduce pain, increase movement, and optimize everyday life functionality.  It’s important to note these desired outcomes don’t happen overnight.   We understand the physiology of the human body.  Losing ten pounds in a week isn’t realistic.  Recovering strength from a surgical procedure takes three months of physical therapy and excruciating detail to rehabilitation tactics to chip the surface of restructuring connective tissue and re-educating the neuromuscular system to return to everyday life activities.  Similar to our ventures to our build-out project for our new fitness center, fitness goals take time.

If weight loss, gaining strength, or decreasing pain is a fitness goal, time is a critically important factor toward the success of such a fitness journey.  Once one, two, or three days a week of meticulously designed exercise routines are adhered to over ninety days, the journey toward a successful outcome of the efforts we invest toward a few days at the local gym, Yoga and Pilates classes, or regular visits with your personal trainer start to take effect to support goals for the long run.

Take a few deep breaths and understand that the success of a fitness journey takes time.  Additionally, it’s farfetched to expect to accomplish fitness goals right away.  Take small bites out of your journey and enjoy the ride.  Noticing the fun of feeling better and stronger while investing time and energy in your fitness journey produces a fun and exciting experience.  Before you know it, you’ll get to that finish line with a smile and a happy, healthy, and strong body.

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.

Jan 11

A New Year of Strength… Where do we Begin?

The first week of the 2024 calendar year has been successfully recorded.  For a local commercial gym employee, this could be one of the most stimulating weeks of the season.  A young front desk representative is likely to observe the flood of excited humans eager to achieve their New Year’s resolution fitness goals come flooding into the sliding glass front doors like a school of salmon traveling inland from the ocean.  Rightfully so, signing up for a gym membership when the membership rate is fifty percent off is all the rage.  New Year’s discounts and specials are offered this time of year to promote health and vigor in the community while giving people a driving force to invest time at a local gym to improve their overall fitness and quality of life.  The parking lots in front of the gym are full, the gym floor is packed to the brim like a kettle full of popcorn ready to serve, and the boisterous energy can be quite a spectacle.

As the gym floors are saturated with humans looking to advance their fitness and health as their New Year’s resolution, there are a fair amount of novice exercise participants present during these first few weeks of the new year.  The good news for novice gymgoers is that they have broken past the most challenging part of developing an effective exercise program:  They walked through the front door.  In an environment that can appear intimidating, overwhelming, and just not someone’s cup of tea, stepping foot into the fitness arena when the foundation of fitness for a person isn’t at the forefront of things to do in their everyday life can be quite a challenge.  So, good job to those of you who have rendered the courage to take that step and sign up for a gym membership to start 2024.

One of the biggest issues for fitness rookies when entering a gym is understanding where to begin.  The gym floor is strewn with contraptions of various colors, shapes, and sizes.  In one corner, you might have large-weight metal objects, benches, cables, and boxes.  As a newbie viewing this section of the gym, they might be confused if they mistakenly ventured into a steel fabrication shop.  In the other section of the gym, there are multiple electronically powered devices that people sit on in a stationary position to run, step, glide, or bike on.  Better known as treadmills, ellipticals, stair steppers, and stationary exercise bikes, these pieces of equipment can bewilder new exercise participants.  Needless to say, finding a place to begin when entering an exercise facility can create an obstacle for new gym goers.  Sometimes, the deciding factor of where to start can deter a person from continuing their fitness journey and accomplishing the fitness goals they initially wanted to achieve in the first place.

A few tips we give to our personal training clients just starting on a new fitness journey is to start with simple exercises that target large areas of muscles.  Additionally, start with choosing just a few exercises to accomplish throughout your first few gym visits.  Completing four to five exercises in a single gym visit is plenty.  A simple and effective tactic to target muscles of the entire body is to conduct simple resistance training techniques that require just a few repetitions to complete.  When deciding what exercises are best for you, aim to perform no more than five to eight repetitions.  Whether it be a resistance training machine, a cable resistance training setup, or utilizing a dumbbell, lower repetition at an intensity of about twenty to thirty percent of your maximal perceived exertion is a safe and effective way to put an efficient amount of exercise-induced stress on the body.

Additionally, choose exercises that cover three simple themes: lower body movements, upper body pushing movements, and upper body pulling movements.  Lower body movements can be accomplished with the leg press machine or by performing a few simple repetitions of body-weight squats on a bench.  Upper-body pushing and pulling techniques can be performed on resistance training machines that are set up with benches, back support, and handles that are safe and effective such as chest press or rowing resistance training machines.   Choosing exercises that have a relatively low learning curve creates an attainable exercise setting to accomplish a worthwhile exercise session.

More importantly, if exercising in a gym is new, don’t be afraid to reach out to one of the onsite personal trainers.  Ask them to share some information about a few entry-level lower-body and upper-body resistance training movements.  They work at these gyms and expect new people to meander around like a fish out of water.  Their job is to help out the newbies and keep them coming back in through those doors so the new members can lose some weight, get stronger, and feel better after they finish a session at the gym.  It takes effort and mental fortitude to acclimate to a new gym setting.  We can all do it with patience and willingness to learn.

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.

Jan 04

New Years Fitness Routines for Beginners

The holiday season features a multitude of cultural festivities centered around spending time with loved ones, taking time off to be thankful for what the world has granted us, and enjoying holiday-themed treats is coming to an end.  The new year 2024 is just around the corner and symbolizes a fresh start to many important aspects of our lives.  Along with a new calendar year featuring a fresh start to financial logistics, new semesters at school, and new seasons of our favorite television shows, we also partake in the invigorating New Year’s resolutions.  One of the most common New Year resolutions resides around self-care and improvement to our health.

New Year’s resolutions featuring a health and fitness goal could include losing a few pounds, decreasing stress via exercise, or establishing another routine throughout the week that focuses on ourselves and sets distractions aside for a brief moment.  Whether these New Year fitness goals involve the veteran gym goer, an individual recovering from a significant injury, or a person who has never stepped foot in a gym, entering a fitness-based regimen can be a daunting process.  Establishing an exciting new tactic to practice featuring health and fitness sounds like an amazing idea.  However, one might sign up for the New Year’s special offered by our local gyms and take one step on the gym floor and wonder, “Where do I begin?”

There are a few key themes that should be focused on when just starting a fitness program.  First off, ensure that the efforts being made to enhance the desired fitness variable are safe.  The last thing anyone wants is to get physically hurt from a bout of exercise.  Additionally, research should be conducted on how to perform certain exercises and what contraindications might be present that could pose a potential injury.  Furthermore, find a time in which distractions are at a minimum throughout your exercise sessions.  Social interactions, looking at your phone, or being rushed for time takes much-needed attention away from exercise sessions.  We want to get the best bang for our buck when focusing on our exercise sessions. Therefore, ensure to have laser-sharp, brain-surgeon-like focus when entering a foreign local gym, exercise class, or home fitness setting.

Safety is of the utmost importance when a newbie enters a group fitness class or local membership-driven gym setting.  A jaw-dropping amount of state-of-the-art exercise equipment lays the groundwork for modern fitness facilities.  For veteran gym rats like me who’ve been in the fitness industry for over twenty-five years, I have a pretty good idea of how these contraptions function.  However, for the rookie exercise participant, a leg press machine might look like the newest rocket ship designed by Elon Musk.  If entering a gym floor setting looks like you just emerged from the wardrobe and set foot into Narnia, perhaps seeking guidance from an experienced and trained fitness professional could support a novice fitness enthusiast to engage in a safe, efficient, effective, and fun exercise journey.

Most gyms offer complimentary training sessions led by a personal trainer.  Don’t be afraid to sign up for those free sessions.  Simply venturing around a new setting with someone who knows how to navigate around the gym is a powerful tool to acclimatize a human to a setting of optimal and avoidable locations on the gym floor.  Additionally, most small group fitness classes such as Yoga, Pilates, and cycling classes offer the first session on the house.  Attending a class with the mindset of testing the waters to see if the experience is a good fit or not is a great opportunity to see which setting resonates with your fitness goals.  Our personal training studio always offers the first two sessions free of charge to ensure our product connects with the exercise participants’ desired outcomes.

New Year’s goals pave the path for an exciting vision of the future.  To fortify our profound goals to enhance our quality of life, make sure to lay out a few plans to get the most benefit out of the efforts invested in these goals.  Making safe, effective, and fun decisions toward your health and fitness aspirations has the power to make this next year the best year of our 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.

Dec 27

Fortifying Knee Stability and Strength

“We’re pretty much diagnosed with arthritis after we turn thirty,” was a phrase one of my mentors consistently said to me, his peers, and patients throughout my internship experience.  As a decorated physical therapist with an esteemed reputation in the medical community, this man who had over forty years of practicing as a physical therapist didn’t beat around the bush.  One personality trait I gathered from the mentoring of this gentleman was his rigorous relationship with the truth he expressed toward his patients.

Telling patients point blank that they’re diagnosed with degenerative bone and joint disease after they reach the milestone of being on this earth for thirty years can cause quite a shock.  However, after he would throw down this icebreaker to a patient afflicted with knee pain, he immediately gave them resources on how to build strength around the knee, function productively throughout their everyday life, and prevent accelerated deterioration of the bones, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons and muscles surrounding the affected area.  I took away a lesson that educating people afflicted with painful conditions develops a foundation on where to begin and continue on a path to recovery.

Some of the readers of this article may have been avid athletes, recreational weekend warriors, or participated in a career involving physically demanding tasks.  Looking back at our high school career playing popular sports such as volleyball, baseball, track, or football might have introduced a few injuries.  Traveling up and down ladders as a painter, kneeling to install outlets as an electrician, or hauling two-by-fours up and down stairs throughout a person’s career can impose a tremendous amount of stress on the joints of the body.  Looking at an athletic career at any age and level of competition paired with a life of demanding physical labor contributes to the likelihood of arthritis.  Among the wide array of joints afflicted with arthritis is the knee joint.

Comprised of the femur, patella, tibia, and fibula, the knee is a hinge joint that controls critically important movements throughout our every lives.  Without a healthy knee, our lives change dramatically.  Bone on bone contact is a common explanation of why people experience symptoms of arthritis.  The knee joint is on the bottom half of the body, below the hip, and right about the feet.  Knees are responsible for not only holding humans upright and moving us from place to place but also holding the weight of the upper extremities and the forces of gravity.  One could imagine without the cushioning properties the cartilage covering the end of the bones would cause the painful effects of bones pressing on each other.  Therefore, appreciating the importance of the knee is worthwhile if living a long and quality life is in our best interest.  Below are a few methods to strengthen the knee joint by focusing on the inner thigh, outer hip, and anterior thigh muscles:

Side laying hip adduction:  Start by positioning yourself lying on your side with your feet stacked on top of each other.   Cross your top leg over to the front of your body where your top foot should rest flat on the ground.  Keeping the bottom foot flexed toward the body and the knee extended, lift the bottom leg until a brief muscular sensation is experienced in the inner thigh region.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions.

Side laying hip abduction:  Start by positioning yourself lying on your side with your feet stacked on top of each other.   Stack your legs on top of each other.  Keeping the top foot flexed toward the body and the knee extended, lift the top leg until a brief muscular sensation is experienced in the out hip and thigh region.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions.

Seated on Ground Knee Extension:  start by sitting down flat on the ground with optimal posture with one knee extended flat on the ground and the other knee flexed to where the foot is flat on the ground.  While keeping the toes flexed toward the body, extend one leg as if you are trying to touch the back of the knee to gently touch the ground until a slight muscular sensation is experienced in the quadriceps and kneecap region.  Repeat this movement for five to 10 repetitions on each leg.

By executing a few of these movements consistently throughout the week or in addition to an exercise routine, the muscles targeted in these exercises can significantly improve the structural integrity of the knees.  These aren’t the most cutting-edge exercises known to man.  However, these exercises are usually practiced in a physical therapy setting because they are easy to learn, can be done with little to no pain, and have a substantial effect on improving lower extremity strength while decreasing knee pain.

Being diagnosed with arthritis after thirty may not be the most exciting news.  At the same time, it’s not the end of the world.  We can still live happy, healthy, and strong lives by adhering to simple yet effective exercises to put the detrimental effects of arthritis at bay.

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.

Dec 20

Avoid pain when sitting long periods of time

I had the privilege of attending a pro pickleball tournament last weekend in San Clemente.  Along with the immaculate sixty-five-to-seventy-degree weather, cloud-free blue skies, and the view of the southern California Pacific Ocean visible from the hillside from the tournament venue, I got to see my favorite professional athletes compete in the “granddaddy” of pickleball competition.   I didn’t have much to complain about.  That was until my gluteal muscles, lower back, and shoulder blade muscles entered a state of disarray due to the concrete bleachers I was sitting on.

I had one of the best seats in the house.  Literally ten to fifteen yards away from the championship match.  This portrays everything a pickleball fanatic could want.  However, the seat that I positioned myself at for hours while watching the main event was not the most ergonomically sound seat.  One would think standing would be a worthwhile solution.  However, had I stood up in the middle of the match, being pelted by a projectile from a spectator behind me in my shoes would be in the near future for me.  What is one to do when a serious case of “bleacher butt” is imposed upon your livelihood?  Fortunately, there were small windows of time in which I could stand, move around a little, and stretch.

Sitting in a semi-squatted position while the hips are slightly below kneecap level introduces the potential for the body to become contorted in a suboptimal position.  When the knee is about the level of the hips while seated, the torso can come forward and create a hump-like shape in the upper back.  This causes pain in the neck, shoulder blades, and lower back.  Additionally, when scrunched in the ball-like position, the abdominal muscles and hip flexors shorten while the paraspinal muscles lengthen.  Staying in this position for prolonged periods can produce strains and nagging pain, leading to a disruption in quality of life during and after the circumstances the body is imposed to face the challenges of this suboptimal position.

I found a few solutions that alleviated the discomfort of being scrunched up like a baby wallaby in its mother’s pouch and enhanced my viewing experience.  One tactic was to practice performing scapular depression, standing up when there was time out to revert my back into a more optimal position, and mobilizing my hips and sacroiliac joint while standing.  Below is a description of how I mitigated back pain and enhanced my viewing pleasure while being confined to a less-than-desirable seating situation:

  1. Scapular depression while pushing down:  While sitting in the cement bleachers, I had enough space to place my hands behind me and push into the ground to straighten out my spine to encourage optimal posture.  First, I ensured my posture was in a strong position.  The head was upright with eyes gazing forward, ears in line with armpits, and accentuating the natural anterior curvature of the lumbar spine.  To support this position, I firmly pressed my hands into the back half of the bleacher behind me I was sitting on, activating my triceps.  Lastly, I ensured to activate the muscles of scapular depression, which means pulling the shoulder blades down toward the hips. Engaging the muscles of scapular depression utilized my shoulder blade muscles to hold my torso upright and alleviate the stress of my paraspinal muscles This tactic helped substantially in relieving back pain while sitting on this cement bleacher.
  2. Standing up: Fortunately, competition-level pickleball grants each team two timeouts per game that lasts about a minute.  Seeing as nothing happens during the timeouts other than the athletes walking off the court to recalibrate their strategy, I wouldn’t be irritating my fellow spectators by blocking their view if I stood up.  Therefore, I seized this moment to revert my body into a more favorable shape by standing up.  When doing this, my back muscles thanked me and reverted to their initial structure before the time out was over and returning to the bleacher seat.
  3. Hip circumduction while standing: Hip circumduction is akin to performing a “hoola hoop” movement.  To perform, place the hand on the crest of the hips and push the body forward, circle in one direction, push the butt out behind you, and circle back to your starting position.  A brief stretching sensation should be experienced around the abdomen, lateral aspects of the hips, and lower back.  This tactic was worth its weight in gold when I stood up from being crammed into a ball and having my butt go numb from sitting in the cement bleachers.  Getting blood flow and neuromuscular activation during my standing break throughout the championship match greatly enhanced my viewing pleasure and saved my back.

Our society sits a lot.  Whether it be parked at our desks at work, driving in our automobiles, stuck in a long plane flight, or sitting in an odd sitting apparatus at our favorite sporting events, seats will always be there.  Remember, the body doesn’t operate well in suboptimal positions.  Even though we’re stuck to the confines of specific circumstances requiring us to sit for long periods, we can minimize the damaging effects of sitting by practicing postural reinforcement tactics when we spot an opportunity.  Take advantage of periods to take a break from uncomfortable situations and give your body the gift to feel better during and after sitting for a while.

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.

Dec 15

Holiday Leftovers-Portion Control

The magnificent spread of Thanksgiving food dishes we recently shared with our family, friends, and loved ones displays an image of food akin to a celebration one might see at a royal wedding.  Mashed potatoes are laced with butter, heavy whipping cream, and sour cream, and for those of us who want to apply more decadence, grated parmesan cheese might find its way in as well.  Stuffing made out of cornbread, a stick of butter, and a few cups of milk serve as another trusty sidekick to the masterfully prepared roasted turkey.  Why not throw a few Hawaiian sweet rolls on the plate to soak up the leftover gravy?

The Thanksgiving feast we share with the people we care about once a year unveils a quantity of food we usually don’t see in the other parts of the year.  Following the festivities of consuming copious amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and topping the night off with pumpkin pie produces a body filled with so much food we pretty much have to roll into our cars to drive home, and eventually roll into our beds like a slow-moving ball rolling down a hill.  Additionally, something extra finds its way into our fridges.  A few containers holding the contents of the Thanksgiving feast make their way home with us to be enjoyed throughout the next few days.  Enter the world of Thanksgiving leftovers.

The art of marinating food items is a skillful technique to impart more flavor to our meats and other food items.   For example, soaking a cut of Tritip in a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, rosemary, crushed garlic, diced shallots, and Worchester sauce for twenty-four hours produces a tender and delicious product.  The same process of imparting the flavor present in our Thanksgiving leftovers occurs as the brined roasted turkey, butter and garlic mashed potatoes, and sage sausage-infused cornbread stuffing in the Tupperware container we took home from our feast melds together in a majestic harmony of tantalizing flavor.  Who wouldn’t want leftovers throughout the week following their long-awaited Thanksgiving celebration?

The issue with the abundance of leftovers present in our fridge that radiates the essence of flavors like no other time of year is that there is so much food.  Usually, when humans see food in their fridge, they eat what’s in front of them.  This urge to consume food is how we survive.  When there’s healthy food in our fridge, we’re in a pretty good place.  A consistent diet of healthy vegetables, lean proteins, and a controlled amount of fats leads to a body that operates efficiently, performs optimally, and fends off disease.  However, a diet consisting of a surplus amount of carbohydrates and heavy fats produces a sluggish, hard-to-move body influencing sedentary behavior.  Therefore, it’s noteworthy to see the potential threats of consuming too many leftovers on a consistent basis following Thanksgiving.

A tactic to mitigate the effects of overconsumption of leftovers is being aware of portion size.  Acquiring a twelve by twelve-inch plate and stacking it full of a pile of mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey influences overconsumption of a surplus number of calories.  Eating too many calories in one sitting has an increased potential to be stored as fat if those calories are not used as energy.  Therefore, to manage the threat of overeating when it’s Thanksgiving’s leftover season, perhaps we should be focusing on our portion size when visiting the fridge for some day-old holiday treats that have marinated in a harmonious symphony of holiday flavor.

To help with portion control, choose smaller bowl and plate sizes.  Enjoy these delicious holiday foods that only meet our tastebuds once per year but enjoy them in a controlled fashion.  Additionally, identify how many items are on your plate.  Aiming to fit no more than a handful amount of each food item on your plate is an effective tactic to mitigate the effects of overconsumption.  For example, try to place no more than a handful amount of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes in your leftover meal at one time.

It’s important to appreciate the celebration of food.  Cultural holidays such as Thanksgiving bring about a sense of joy and appreciation among our friends, family, and loved ones.  So, we should cherish these sacred times and special occasions.  Let’s not go overboard with filling our stomachs to the brim of rupture.  Enjoy holiday food with skillful dietary decision-making to help us stay happy and healthy throughout the holiday season.

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.

Dec 01

Managing Weight Gain Over The Holidays

The last two months of the year lay claim to the most relaxing times.    Gatherings of friends, families, and loved ones occur frequently throughout our society as the year comes to a close.  Along with the joy the end of the year brings and the anticipation the new year has on the horizon, people come together for parties including another theme that brings every human satisfaction and happiness:  food.  That’s right, as we venture into the end of November and December, we can expect to see copious amounts of decadent holiday foods strewn before us everywhere from the kitchen table at home to the tabletops of our desks at our workplace.

It should come as no surprise that with the abundance of fruit cake, snowman cookies, and candy canes people might gain a few extra pounds throughout this celebratory time of year.  A few passes by the kitchen countertop where gingerbread man cookies reside might entice us to grab one or two throughout the day.

Let’s not forget the spread of food present at Thanksgiving feasts.  We can expect to see an entire week’s worth of calories on the table of our family Thanksgiving party.  Even after we pack ourselves to the gills with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and turkey, we’ll still take home leftovers that suffice as lunches and late-night snacks the next week.  Needless to say, we eat way more food than we usually do these last two months of the year than we do in the first ten months.  The result of this surplus amount of food in a short period of time equates to gaining a few extra pounds hanging onto us as we enter the new year.

The last thing we want is to have these last two months hinder our efforts to maintain a healthy weight.  That’s why it’s important to identify that this time of the year is likely to pose some obstacles to maintaining a healthy weight.  However, let’s demonize this joyful time of year.  Instead, embrace it.  At the same time, don’t let yourself fly off the rails.

A few productive tactics to mitigate the effects of the decadent holiday-themed food from expanding our waistlines to ensure we stay active, monitor our portion sizes, and stay consistent with an effective exercise routine.  Ensuring to engage in recreational physical activity such as golf, pickleball, or hiking keeps our heart rate increased so we can keep the cardiovascular system active to utilize extra fat calories as a fuel source.  When consuming our holiday treats, ensuring your portion size is about the size of one handful every two to three hours helps to control overeating and storing extra calories as fat.  Most importantly, adhering to routine exercise two to three times per week for at least fifteen minutes has the ability to keep the body in a metabolically healthy state.

The holidays bring about a profound sense of joy and accomplishment in our society.  Through the existence of our society, we’ve embraced the comforting and powerful properties of food to bring people together and laugh, reflect, and smile about coming together at this time of year.  Let’s embrace the positive energy of this magical time of year and the amazing food we’re fortunate enough to eat by taking care of our minds, bodies, and souls by staying active and exercising regularly.

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

Nov 16

Muscles of Scapular Stabilization: Take Care of your Shoulder Blades

Gymnasts have some of the most impressive body mechanics in the athletic world.  Standing on top of a thin beam with their arms projected out elegantly, their legs are positioned in a precise manner to ensure an undisturbed sense of balance, their back maintains an upright position demonstrating anatomical alignment, their head sits atop their neck absent of any hunching, and their gaze is projected in acute detail in front of them.  Similar to the drawing of The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci, the majestic pose of a gymnast standing atop a balance beam exemplifies optimal postural alignment to where the body is free of the majority of flaws caused by the presentation of postural neglect our society has become accustomed to.

Symptoms of suboptimal posture present themselves in a multitude of areas throughout everyday life.  However, if we walk through our local grocery store, dine at our favorite restaurant, or simply join our colleagues at our workplace, more often than not, we’ll see a prime example of what the antithesis of a gymnast’s pristine posture looks like.  We might see a few heads tilted downward gazing at a phone with a rounded cervical spine.  What follows is usually an arched upper back and collapsed shoulder blades.  It’s true that iPhones and Android smartphones have evolved our society into an advanced human race capable of phenomenological feats to make our lives faster and less complicated.  However, our posture has suffered significantly.

As the forehead is consistently hinged downward, the cervical portion of our spine flexes creating an arch.  Remaining in this rounded position causes the thoracic spine to round as well.  Additionally, as the thoracic spine rounds, the chest gets scrunched together, causing the armpits to get closer together and the shoulder blades to slide anteriorly toward the front of the body.  The result is forward flexion of the neck and upper back portion of the spine.  As the spine rounds forward, we adopt a bodily shape similar to the Hunchback of Norte Dame. As a result, neck, shoulder blades, and upper back pain can occur along with a cornucopia of neuromuscular and skeletal afflictions.

The symptoms of neck, upper shoulder, and mid back are common problems our newer personal training clients bring up as they first embark on a new fitness journey.  A cue that resonates with exercise participants that relieves this situation is to “park the shoulder blades down and back.”  These movements are commonly understood in the exercise physiology world as scapular retraction and scapular depression.  Scapular retraction is the backward gliding of the shoulder blades along the ribcage, bringing the shoulder blades closer to the spine.  Scapular depression is pulling the bottoms of the shoulder blades downward toward the hips.  When performing this movement, the muscles surrounding the posterior border of shoulder blades activate and pull the shoulders back.  The result of this action pulls the head upright and opens the chest.

Parking the shoulder blades down and back is one of the first steps to improving postural awareness and resolving the collapsed forward effects of suboptimal posture.  Perhaps we can be more aware of our posture and use the example of how a gymnast holds their body upright to live with less pain in our neck, upper back, and shoulder blades.

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.

Nov 08

Lower Back Pain Solutions 101- Pelvic Tilt Exercises

Lower back pain is one of the most common physically debilitating ailments experienced in today’s society.  Symptoms such as pressure and tightness in the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine affect the population in a variety of presentations.  Dull pain in the lower back when getting out of bed in the morning, stiffness when standing up after extended time in a seated position, or fear and apprehension to bend over and pick something up from the ground due to disrupted lower back pain are a just a few examples commonly experienced by individuals dealing with low back pain.

The cause of low back pain can be created in a variety of ways.  Suboptimal posture for people who sit at desks all day could be caused by rounding of the upper back and lack of activation in the abdominal and gluteal muscles.  The stabilizing muscles connecting each vertebra to each other which are responsible for structural support when standing, bending forward, and walking could be deconditioned.  The lack of muscular tone and core fitness can lead to shifting of the vertebrae past a healthy range of motion, causing pressure on the supporting discs and possibly pressing on the spinal root nerves that give our body’s organs signals to function properly.  Needless to say, the awareness of inadequate conditioning of the muscles surrounding the spine, abdominal, and hip regions of the body can’t be overstated if our goal is to function to the best of our ability in our everyday lives.

In my experiences of interning and working at various physical therapy clinics, I observed the physical therapists I was fortunate enough to mentor under work miracles and cure individuals who came into the clinic with back pain.  We worked with patients who had the common “tweak” in the low back to the very advanced cases in which surgical intervention was performed on the spine weres screws and rods were installed to correct a severe spine injury.  One of the first exercises the PTs recommended was the posterior pelvic tilt exercise.

The PTs would cue the patient to sit down on a chair and put their hands on the crest of their hips in the front of their body.  Then, they would cue the client to bring their hips toward their ribs.  That was, is it.  Being a young intern working on my master’s thesis, I had no idea about the benefits of this exercise and was oblivious to the benefits this simple and effective technique had on people with lower back pain.  “Wouldn’t it be useful to strengthen the core muscles with planks and stretch the lower back?” I thought.  I learned a valuable lesson that my order of operations when addressing lower back pain was pretty much wrong.  Similar to the bracing foundation of the framework and cement foundation that holds up a house, the deep, intrinsic muscles surrounding the spine and connecting the spine to the hips and thighs were what truly needed to be conditioned when resolving lower back pain.

To perform a seated posterior pelvic tilt, place your index and middle finger on the crest of your hips located just below the navel and on the outside of the body.  Gently “tuck” your hips by pulling the crest of the hips toward the navel.  You should feel a slight muscular contraction in your abdominals and glutes.  Depending on the tightness and condition of the spinal stabilizer muscles, you might feel a gentle stretch within the vertebrae of the lower back.

Performing five to ten repetitions of this simple and effective exercise once or twice per week has the potential to not only alleviate symptoms of lower back pain but also help reinforce optimal posture and mitigate the possibility of other nagging pain symptoms caused by lower back pain dysfunctions such as sciatica, piriformis syndrome, of sacroiliac joint dysfunctions.

Strength training and stretching for the lower back is of the utmost importance.  However, let’s not forget about the deep internal muscles that act as the nuts and bolts for our spine and hips.  Without adequate strength in our spine, hips, and thighs, we’ll topple over.  Spend some extra time to prevent injury on the center of the body with pelvic tilt exercises and we can ensure our back remains healthy and strong.

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

Nov 03

Returning to Exercise After Getting Sick

Enduring a bout of sickness is one of the least desirable states of existence to be in.  Whether it be food poisoning, a bout of the latest strain of the coronavirus, or the newest edition of the flu floating around in the air, coming down with an infection that hinders our physical well-being affects our productivity and overall quality of life.  In addition to feeling like a wet noodle and having the mindset of a three-toed sloth when feeling under the weather, achieving physical activity or an exercise session isn’t the most attainable task either.

Illnesses affect humans in unique ways.  Additionally, every person handles illness differently.  We have unique immune systems. Our bodies and behaviors differ from person to person.  Daily temperature drops due to the changing of season can cause disruptions in our sinus cavity, imposing symptoms of post-nasal drip, earaches, headaches, or sore throats.

Additionally, a new set of plants are flowers are scheduled to bloom after the rains of the fall and winter seasons grace our presence.  Along with the damp environment and photosynthesis, the sunny days in Napa are blessed with trigger plants to produce a new set of pollen.  This new strain of pollen circulating throughout the town’s air can cause allergic responses to individuals sensitive to allergens to have respiratory distress including snot production, raspy throats, and wheezing.  Furthermore, the decreased temperature exposes our immune system, making a virus’s ability to latch onto our body and induce an infection.  Needless to say, the colder, darker, and damper holiday seasons can bring about a few cases of illness in our lives.

Wearing warm clothes, ensuring to eat healthy food, and getting enough rest mitigates the effects of allergies and contracting illness.  It’s also important to understand what our body’s barometer of physical stress is telling us.  For the “movers and shakers” in our society, the “go-go-go” and “get it done” mentality assists people to be productive and successful in their everyday life endeavors.  Staying fit and ensuring consistent exercise is adhered to on a weekly basis is critically important to aiding us in getting the most out of our busy days.  However, when a headache impairs our thoughts, body aches influence us to move slower, or something just doesn’t feel right in our body, there might be a message being sent from our central nervous system telling us to take it easy.

Consistency in an exercise routine is a key ingredient for living a long and healthy life.  However, exercising while in a physically impaired state can do more harm than good.  In the case of feeling a little under the weather, it might be best to take a day off to recover and let the body recalibrate.  Once the body is free of symptoms of beginning to get sick or is coming with an illness, then we can resume exercise when we feel better.  We get the most adaptation of strength and feel amazing from our exercise sessions when we can perform at our best.

that understanding “less is more” is critically important to our lives.  Exercise is vital to our existence.  Performing at our best is equally, if not more important than exercise adherence.  Listen to your body when experiencing something unusual.  The gym will always be there tomorrow.  It’s not going anywhere.  It’s OK to recover so you feel your best to achieve your best exercise session possible.

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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