Tag Archives: workout

Why train?…and how? – Part 1

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Why do we train? And when we do, what’s the “best” way?

For me it’s helpful to understand what we’re doing in the large and small picture in training.

“Physical activity” is really (literally) simply any movement of the body. It’s better to define “physical activity” in these terms, and use other words to describe specific types of physical activity.

For instance, “exercise” is a specific type of physical activity, one in which we seek to intentionally disrupt homeostasis toward a specific end goal or result.

Gyms or outdoor exercise areas are places we go to create specific types of stress on our systems.

Health
The number one reason for doing exercise is that our body requires exertion and movement to remain healthy.

To be “healthy” is to function optimally (really in all “categories” of human relationship – best defined by the Exuberant Animal Mandala – body, mind, spirit, land, tribe, ancestor) (health includes death). In “health” we disrupt homeostasis and then allow it to return.

If we were to look at “health” as the relationship between the disruption of and return to homeostasis, the variability in this wave (of disruption and return) in both frequency and magnitude (x and y axes) would be a good indicator of overall health. That is, as long as it is truly variable, and not chaotic (i.e., there’s a rhythm there…).

This tenet is true for all living systems. Environments that are more diverse and “variable” (like rain forests) have greater robustness, great resilience, and greater “health” than less-variable environments (like deserts).

Hearts that have greater variability between systole and diastole, or between heart beats, are healthier than hearts with completely “normal” waves (regardless of their amplitude).


click the picture for a fun paper!

Fitness
Fitness is not health or necessarily healthy. Fitness is the capacity to perform a specific task. A person or other animal may be perfectly “fit” for one task (like sitting in the car, at the desk, and on the couch), but completely unfit for another (like doing anything else).

We can train our relative level of fitness for a specific task by understanding the demands of that task, and by introducing those demands to our body in a gradual fashion (again, allowing for the disruption of and return to homeostasis).

Often, simply performing the task itself will get us more and more “fit” for that task. Sometimes this is a very hard way to go, however.

As you can tell, though, certain tasks might limit our variability. They might restrict our range of motion, or the particular ways in which we move. We might end up training ourselves right into a heart attack, knee or hip replacement, or chronic muscular pain.

Sport
This brings up the issue of sport, and sport-specific training. Much of the exercise advice out there is based on sport training, and much of the training advice I’ve seen is based on training methods for other sports (e.g., bodybuilding-type programs being recommended for basketball players, etc.).

Sport almost always demands an extremely high level of fitness in some specific qualities at the expense of all others. The only sport where this may not be the case is the Decathlon – also the reason that the World Record holder in the Decathlon has always been known as “The World’s Greatest Athlete.”

But of course, the decathlete’s general ability comes at a price. Only rarely will any decathlete beat a world record in a particular race.

Social and Cultural Definitions
To do “society” to relate and to create explicit and implicit definitions of relations (rules of engagement) within/among a group of people.

Doing culture, then, is believing, behaving, creating, and valuing in accordance with explicit or implicit socially-defined norms.

Our idea of health (even my very broad definition above), and fitness, (and beauty, and everything else), is socially and culturally defined, maintained, and conditioned.

General Fitness
So can there be such a thing as “general” fitness? I guess the decathlete would be the highest example of the most-generally fit individual. But even a decathlete’s training is very specific.

My short answer is no. All training is specific, whether you want to admit it or not.

Why Do It?
Humans have reached the top of the food chain (as long as we stay in our man-made environments, at least, or carry some powerful technologies with us into other environments).

We call exercise a “work-out” because that’s precisely what it’s designed to do for most of us – replicate the normal physical work our bodies need to be healthy.

Health itself is relatively simple. The most important component of health is happiness.

Happiness generally, and in meaningful relationship with body, mind, spirit, land, tribe, and ancestor. Don’t believe me? That’s okay. Go get really unhappy about it and I’ll meet you on the “other side” to discuss. But you might have to wait a while…

Regular, diverse, and varied movement is healthy. Bio-regional diet is healthy. But happiness is most important.

Want to know how to be happy? Just do it.

Fitness? Let’s save that for the next post!

DNS – The Foundations of Human Movement – Part 3

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This is part 3 of a 3 part series on DNS…for Part 1, click here, for Part 2, click here.

Part I covered the history and background assumptions of DNS, and went into reasons for its use.

Part II I’ll covered some of the process that I learned at the seminar.

Here in Part III I’m hosting a “philosophical” discussion about movement in the light of DNS and will include some observations of my own around assumptions we make regarding movement in our culture.

Corollaries
I think the second biggest thing that happened for me during the DNS seminar (the first being learning an approach to movement and motor organization that suddenly MADE SENSE) was the experience of multiple coincidences between DNS and other movement methods I’ve learned or been exposed to.

For instance, DNS is similar in ways to the developing field of Functional Neurology, which seeks to address and influence neurological (read: brain) structures through muscular and sensory stimulation.

Somatics
When you’re doing these “developmental” patterns, you can’t help but think of Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, or the work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen or Annie Brook. Why? Because they based their work off an observation that these types of movement patterns are the ones we start with, and are ones that make us feel better.

If we were taking the stance that DNS is accurate we’d say that the principles all of these creators were recognizing were the reflex locomotor ontogenesis of the human animal.

The Big Difference, I think, is that DNS is organizing this approach under a very clear physiological (and developmental) framework, where most somatic disciplines I’ve been exposed to approach their work only from the felt-sense of the body.

Nothing wrong with that, and at the same time, DNS to me has the benefit of having a clear theoretical framework, that can be tested against across individuals. But don’t throw out feeling!

FMS/SFMA
Speaking of “somatics” and movement-based work, what about Gray Cook’s FMS/SFMA (Functional Movement Scree/Selective Functional Movement Assessment) and DNS?

Note – I do not have a certification in either the FMS or SFMA methods. Please correct me if I’m speaking out of turn here.

My take on FMS/SFMA is that they’re useful tools to standardize the assessment process of patients/clients. I’ve seen a good amount of video on these methods, and been taught the FMS assessment by a certified FMS’er.

The real value I see for these methods is that because they’re highly standardized they offer a good way to pass information along to other practitioners or to assess large numbers of people (e.g., teams or squadrons) at once.

Beyond that, though, I don’t see any difference between FMS/SFMA and any other assessment method. The practitioner still has to be skilled in identifying movement patterns and movement pattern dysfunction in order to do any type of quality work with the patient/client based on that assessment.

DNS helps the practitioner, I think, in offering a deeper perspective on what’s happening in the body.

For instance – one of the attendees is a certified FMS assessor. He has always had trouble with the shoulder mobility test, with one shoulder being much less mobile than the other in this test. In the DNS course, we had him put his scapulae into an optimal neutral position, and then perform abdominal coactivation the DNS way, and…voila…totally equal results from side to side on the shoulder mobility test.

How does this help? To me it showed that his “shoulder problem” was more about a lack of global stabilization. Working on good positioning for stabilization and proper “core” activation, and progressing those methods through movements, will likely “cure” this patient.

RKC/Primal Movement Patterns
Gray Cook has another series of videos out that are more RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certification) based that deal with “primal patterns.”

From what I’ve seen, now that I’ve been to the DNS course, Gray and Lee have borrowed DNS material and put it into various movements they feel are appropriate for RKC folks.

That’s fine, but what I’ve seen on the DVD’s doesn’t replace what you get at a DNS course, and doesn’t provide the full spectrum of information you need to (help other to) perform proper core coactivation through the use of the diaphragm, breathe well, or move through “primal movement patterns” effectively while maintaining core coactivation and breathing.

Martial Arts
Of course there are huge martial arts implications in DNS as well. After all, martial arts are usually ways of understanding the most effective (and often efficient) way to move your body when confronting another (or multiple others) in conflict.

I’ve always practiced internal martial arts (IMA’s), which rely on the manipulation of advantages of potential and kinetic energy in conflicts, rather than the direct use of potential and kinetic energy. Most IMA’s have some form of standing practice, and many do “Zhan Zhuang” (standing like a post).

Here’s Chen Taiji master Chen Xiaowang doing three variants of the Zhan Zhuang posture:

Here’s a baby exhibiting the posture that DNS calls Supine Sagittal Stabilization:

Connection not clear? Try this one:

Well that’s funny! If we look at the Zhan Zhuang posture from the side…it looks…well…

Now have a look at this image of a Skylab astronaut in weightless posture:

All so strangely similar, no?

Perhaps the similarities aren’t so strange after all. They all represent a foundational or primary postural “set-point” in the human animal. It is the posture from which we stabilize and begin to learn to interact with the forces of gravity.

The posture is determined by our ontogenetic (species-genetic) structure, which also determines the reflex neuromotor patterns in our central nervous system, and the ways in which our muscles are organized.

Chen Xiaowang is replicating a sagittal stabiliation posture (and doing proper breathing) in an upright position.

The astronaut is exhibiting a primary posture of structural stabilization while asleep in a weightless environment. You’ll notice that the astronaut’s head position isn’t “ideal.” I don’t know how long he was in space at the point the picture was taken, but eventually the flexor system begins to dominate in weightless environments, since the extensor system doesn’t have anything (gravity) to oppose.

Just as importantly, RELAXATION is emphasized in all of these iterations of this posture.

My friend and extremely experienced internal martial artist Scott Phillips and I had a chat once about the predominance of thoracic kyphosis (rounded upper back) in many older Tai Chi practitioners. Why were they developing that postural abnormality.

Scott said that it was due to a misunderstanding of the “sunken chest” prescription in Tai Chi postural cues. The goal is not to collapse the chest by rounding it in, but rather, to let the sternum “fall” or relax, while the shoulders stay broad and the upper back stays erect (as in Chen Xiaowang’s demonstration above). The head stays on top of an erect spinal cord.

This is precisely the type of relaxed posture we seek in DNS SSS. Laying on your back, allow your ribcage to relax down into the floor. Many people have a concept of good posture as the classic “military” posture – chest up, shoulders pinched back, etc. But this throws us completely out of whack and is a terrible posture for any kind of movement.

When you can attain this relaxed posture while maintaining coactivation of the “core” musculature and breathing well in a circular fashion (i.e., allowing your chest and abdomen to expand to the sides and back as much as to the front), you can start to add mobility.

Adding movement one step at a time reeducates the body regarding effective, efficient, and stable movement. That also equals powerful movement, since the expression of power depends on all of those things as prerequisites.

Going from one side to another can reeducate the body regarding bilateral deficiencies or compensations (which may have underlying sources in scar-tissue or unresolved tissue trauma…which should be treated).

Moving this posture into standing creates the “Grand Ultimate Fist” of Taijiquan.

Well…that wraps it up for now. If you have questions about DNS or anything else here, feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading!

DNS – The Foundations of Human Movement – Part 2

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This is part 2 of a 3 part series on DNS…for Part 1, click here.

Part I covered the history and background assumptions of DNS, and went into reasons for its use.

Here in Part II I’ll cover some of the process that I learned at the seminar with reflections on similar movement patterns in other disciplines.

Part III will be a “philosophical” discussion about movement in the light of DNS and will include some observations of my own around assumptions we make regarding movement in our culture.

So let’s get going!

As discussed in Part I, the main observations to make at the beginning of DNS are whether or not the joint is functional – that is, centrated and capable of full ROM. If not, why not?

Karel Lewit notes that it’s important to remove any restricting lesions before beginning any other work. A “lesion” here means any neuromuscular block to normal movement. Lewit often refers to these as “scars” and has a definite method for releasing scars.

Once you’ve removed lesions or blockages to restoring mobility or centration, get to work.

But first thing’s first. Numero uno – check your breath!

This resonated with me very deeply since I’d just finished a Wilderness First Responder course a week prior to the DNS seminar. In first-responder scenarios after considering basic scene safety and triage, the first things to assess in a patient are the “A, B, C’s.” That is – What is the quality of their Airway, Breathing, and Circulation.

Life won’t continue long without any of those three. And life is certainly diminished when any of those are diminished. Consider the relative quality of life of any person suffering from airway, breathing, or circulatory disorders.

Adequate and efficient intake and distribution of oxygen is primary to the function of the body.

Check your breathing by doing the following – place your hands on the fleshy bits between your hip bones and your lower ribs, with your thumbs toward the back by your kidneys, and your fingers pointing forward toward your navel. If you can’t get into this position without restricting your shoulder movement (hunching forward) DO SOME SHOULDER/THORACIC MOBILIZATION FIRST (here, or here).

Now that you’ve got a grip on yourself, push out against your hands.

How? By using your diaphragm, of course. When your diaphragm pushes down, it presses against your guts, which have to squeeze out somewhere. When they push down and out, they should automatically trigger a “myotatic stretch reflex” in the abdominal and pelvic floor (and gluteal/deep hip) musculature.

This move is different from just pushing your belly out…or “belly breathing” as they like to call it. Instead, think in terms of breathing circularly. The entire hoop around your midsection should expand and slightly contract as you breathe.

Practice keeping that tension while breathing.

One key here is to RELAX. Let your shoulders relax, let your arms relax, let your brain relax. Relax all over. If your shoulders are hiking up when you breathe (or even if your clavicles or sternum are moving upward toward your head) you’re using accessory muscles to breathe rather than the diaphragm. RELAX.

Now put your hands up on your lower ribs, making sure they’re expanding and contracting laterally (out to the sides) with each breath. When you’ve got that (while keeping your core coactivation) move up to the upper ribs.

Once you’ve got your breathing functioning well again, it’s time to integrate that into some movement.

The 13:00 mark on this video shows clear application of the method in a supine sagittal stabilization (SSS) phase. Once you’ve got yourself stabilized, start adding slow limb movement.

If you get the limb movement down well, move on to transitioning from SSS through developmental patterns, starting with the ipsalateral/homolateral support pattern. Again, watch the video for the different patterns.

Remember throughout your exploration to maintain abdominal coactivation, “circular” breathing, RELAXATION, and focused awareness.

The top 7 training tips for 2012

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Just wanted to take a moment and share some thoughts and observations here at the beginning of 2012, that might help to guide you in your fitness pursuits this year.

1. Fitness is not Health
This has been said so many times and in so many ways it seems like old news – which is even more reason to say it again. I was reminded of this old rule watching Dan John’s “Intervention” DVD series recently.

Fitness means being fit to do a certain thing. Health means optimal functioning of the body. They are not the same. People can be extremely fit for certain tasks (and in very different ways) and not healthy at all. Think, powerlifter, or football linebacker. Very fit (for their respective tasks), not necessarily very healthy. Keep these separated when planning your training.

2. “Cardio” is not “Cardio”
This time of year, most people are asking me the best way to lose fat and tone up. “Cardio” is not it.

Traditional “cardio” (jogging, running, etc.) focuses on local muscular endurance in a few muscles. That’s what creates the “cardio” demand. Your muscles need oxygen. Heart, lungs, and veins deliver.

Bodyweight training circuits will deliver the same effect, while creating a greater demand on muscle groups, which will increase calories burned over time, and improve strength (BONUS!).
Using more muscles to create more cardiovascular demand = increased cardiovascular fitness and increased muscular fitness.
My favorite short workout is still the 5-minute Burpee Challenge. If you have a bar available, add a pullup on the up phase of the jump, and a straight leg raise when you get to the bottom of the pullup. I.e.:
squat down
kick legs back
do a pushup
bring legs back up under you
jump up in the air
do a pullup (or muscle-up if you can)
come down to hanging and do a straight leg raise
drop to ground
repeat

Could you do this workout everyday? Sure. Will you?…

PS…if you’re scared of that one, try a simpler 5-minute workout – jump rope continuously for five minutes.

3. Fitness is Simple (not easy)
The physiology of fitness is simple. Upset the homeostatic balance of the body by doing work of a certain type. Allow for the body to recover. Introduce a greater stimulus than last time. Recover, repeat.

What’s most important? Very simple things. See the diagram below from the IAAF:

Focus on the three main attributes 80% of the time, and their intersections 20% of the time.

Pushups or bench press or shot put? Running or jumping rope or rowing or spin-class? Yoga or hot yoga or shadow yoga or pilates or barre method? All exercises within any given “category” affect the same systems, with slightly different emphasis.

For instance, is it possible to do pushups that demand (and generate) “max strength” (i.e. 1-5 rep range)? Of course. For many people, a quality standard pushup will be a max-strength effort. If a quality stand pushup is too easy (meaning, you can do more than 1-5 repetitions), try elevating your feet. If that’s too easy, try 1-arm pushups.

What’s your relative level of ability in the Big Three (Max Strength, Speed, Aerobic Endurance)?

2012 is the perfect time to work on your weak-spots.

4. Diet is Simple (not easy)
Eat real food that’s bioregion-specific.

Need more detail? Go to your local farmer’s market or visit a farm or three. Read the book “Plenty.”

Use the interweb for something other than Angry Birds – find the farms within 200 miles of your home and eat from them for 80% of your food. Grow food at home. Cook simply with delicious ingredients.

5. Health and Fitness are a Personal Path
To paraphrase my friend Scott Phillips – “Any fitness path/system works.” It’s a matter of finding the one that resonates and sticking with it.

Want to “get in shape” – i.e. change your shape to another shape? You’ll have to find a reason that’s compelling enough to continue over time. Forever.

I met someone recently who “used to do Crossfit.” They even continued for a while after recovering from a shoulder dislocation (sustained doing Olympic lifts). But then, the magic faded, and now, they’re looking around again (and “out of shape”).
As Su Dong Chen says – “Seek possibilities, avoid seeking limits.”
Whatever floats your boat is great. Just make sure it isn’t the same thing that’s going to sink your boat. And, as Eben Pagan says “No matter how far you’ve gone down the wrong road – turn back.”

Shameless self-promotion – I’ll be releasing a new e-book shortly that will be a program anyone can follow for as long as they live that will continually create improvement over time. Buy it.

6. Health and Fitness are Culturally-Bound
If you know me, you’ve been waiting for this one. Not only are definitions of “health” and “fitness” culturally bound and determined, but the way those things are enacted are similarly so.

Recognize that your concept of the possibilities or limitations of your ability come from your larger culture (for instance, the US culture, which is largely capitalistic, mechanistic, reductionist, Protestant Christian, conservative, and detached from nature or natural cycles (and detached generally)), your individual culture (your “social circle” and family), and your internal culture (your own prejudices and beliefs…some of which may need further consideration).

Realize that your diet, your workouts, your work, your play, your entire life, all have been shaped by the cultures you were brought up in. Realize and recognize those influences, then choose the path you really want.

7. Stop Sweating the Small Stuff – Stick to the Basics and Keep Going
Finally, it’s easy, all too easy, to get lost in the minutiae. It’s what we humans are good at as animals. Finding things like “the one best way” or the “right” answer to questions is what we do best (even though we both create the question and the “correct” answer).

Stop worrying about “ultimate” “bests” and “corrects” and that stuff and go back to fundamentals. Go back to the most basic of basics for whatever it is you’re interested in. And do that.
It worked for John Wooden. It’ll work for you too.

Those are my tips for 2012! Want more info, drop me a line, or subscribe to the LIFT newsletter, or to this blog feed…

Sour grapes, Crossfit, tabatas, and an exercise program that really helps you

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I posted some articles on Facebook recently dealing with Crossfit (in particular this one, this one, and this one), and just yesterday posted an article asking “What the #$%^ is MetCon?!”

Met-Con is a term frequently used by Crossfit and people who do Crossfit to describe the Crossfit-style workout. It’s also occasionally used as a blanket term for what could better be described as “General Physical Preparedness” – a program that achieves a general level of aerobic endurance, muscular strength, and some muscular power.

As mentioned in the post above, the term is actually useless, since literally anything and everything a person does qualifies as “metabolic conditioning.” That’s the definition of metabolism. “Met-Con” sounds cool, but doesn’t help anyone to understand what is being described or promoted.

I also recently re-posted this article by a fitness guru about Tabata training. He doesn’t go into much depth, so let me explain.

Tabata (named after Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata) intervals consist of 20 seconds of maximal effort work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for 7-10 total sets. Tabata developed this working on highly trained athletes, who would get close to total failure in that 20 second period.

The results are amazing. Over time the Tabata athletes’ VO2max (max oxygen volume/uptake) increased to levels beyond those achieved through any other recorded training protocol.

Crossfit began using Tabata intervals, and then a lot of other trainers jumped on board. Here’s the problem – Tabata intervals demand 7+ rounds of 20-second effort to exhaustion.

Most trainees do not have the capacity to exert an all-out effort period, let alone for multiple rounds of 20-second stints. This is not a knock against the average trainee, it’s simply a fact. New trainees don’t have the neuromuscular coordination or power-endurance to perform this protocol in any meaningful way, let alone to adequately control complex movements (like Olympic lifts) in this fatigued state.

Will it exhaust you? Yes. Will it make you feel like you are experiencing “tabata death?” Yes. Will it improve your performance over time? Maybe. As long as you don’t fry your central nervous system, or experience some sort of acute or repetitive-strain injury. And as long as your body can adapt between “Tabata” workouts.

That said, the reason for this post is something slightly different.

One of the people who commented on my Facebook posting of the articles above said that it seemed like “sour grapes.”

She’s an amateur competitive runner. She’s invested in her health and fitness. And I’m sure she knows at least one person who does Crossfit.

So I understand her reaction.

And that reaction itself is the reason for this post.

As long as the lay-public has no way to discern the deeper aspects of physical conditioning – as long as health and fitness experts continue to post articles that simply praise or blame, but offer no true education – those types of articles and posts are just sour grapes.

It is up to the competent health and fitness professionals out there to begin to educate their public about the principles of physical health (as far as we can understand them) in concrete and useful terms, that rely on accepted standards of reproducibility and logic (“science”).

Our technology has advanced to the point where – now more than ever before – it is possible for anyone to understand and interact with the deepest structures and functions of their bodies in ways that allow for feedback and meaningful correction over time.

This is the method that I use in my training, and seek to refine, constantly, and I call for all of the other health and fitness professionals out there to use the same principles in their programming – to tailor their work to each individual based on the principles of life – and to become proper educators of their client base, rather than just fad-producers or -promoters, cool-name-slingers, and/or disconnected, herd-mentality “workout” generators.

I’ve hit my limit on this post. I’ll post the best workout for you in the next entry!

What the #$%^ is “met-con?”

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Met-Con – Metabolic Conditioning

Metabolic – having to do with metabolism, which is the sum-total of chemical actions that take place within the body at any given moment.

Conditioning – the state of something, or the process of changing that state.

Okay, so that’s it eh?

Well…yes, that IS it.

Sit on the couch and eat potato chips and watch TV/play video games/wait for the paleocalypse = MetCon.

Workout till you puke = MetCon.

Go on vacation and hike/bike/swim/have fun every day = MetCon.

So can I ask a favor of you folks out there in the reading-world?

Please stop calling your workout session or methodology MET-CON!

We know it’s MetCon.

EVERYTHING IS METCON.

If someone is selling you “Met-Con,” and they’re not telling you specifically what aspect of your MET their going to CON (other than you wall-met…eh…alright that’s bad, but you get my point), take your money elsewhere!

Breaking up scar tissue in your body – why is it important, and how can you do it?

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Andreo Spina has just come out with what I think is his best video yet. In it, he describes the way scar tissue adheres between layers of soft tissue in the body.

This information is critical to everyone who has a body. Soft tissue scarring is a fact of life. Everyone gets it. Knowing what to do about it and actually doing those things will improve your health, your movement, and your strength.

What are Soft Tissues?
The body has several layers of tissues.

There’s your skin, on the surface.

Under that, there’s the fascia, a contractile connective-tissue. Fascia is that white stuff you see on meat that you get in the supermarket.

Then there’s the muscle, which is attached to bone by tendons.

And the bones are attached to one another with ligaments.

Scar tissue, or “adhesions,” are areas where some part of the soft tissue gets damaged, and doesn’t actually heal. Instead it forms rigid connective-tissue bridges in order to stabilize the tissues and allow for movement.

Typically scar tissues remain when the body isn’t moved. But we’ll get to that in a second.

First, here’s Andreo’s video:

So you can see the importance of breaking up scar tissue. Imagine, as Andreo said, “stretching your leg up with a pair of skin-tight jeans on.”

You can’t do it.

That is, you can’t move well if your soft tissues are full of scar tissue that is preventing them from moving.

And if you can’t move well, your body can’t do several things:
1. It can’t pump blood back to your heart sufficiently. The contraction of muscle is what pumps blood back to your heart. If your muscles can’t (or aren’t made to…different issue) contract fully, your circulation sucks.
2. If that happens, metabolic waste builds up in your tissues…so, number two is You can’t clear metabolic waste produces efficiently. When those build up, disease happens.
3. You can’t feel the joy of movement. If you’re bound up by scar tissue, movement is probably painful. That’s no fun. And that doesn’t help you want to move.

So, what can you do about it? Here are a few things:

1. Get high-quality bodywork.
What do I mean by this? I mean bodywork from someone who understands the video above, and who isn’t just giving you a “relaxation massage.” People who label themselves as offering “sports massage” often have a good understanding of the above. Self-massage works as well. Investigate some techniques and apply them (on YouTube you can search for things like “myofascial release” or “skin sliding” or “break up adhesions” or “self-massage” or any combination of the above).

2. Take hot baths.
Yes, a nice hot bath is relaxing. Throw in some Epsom Salts if you want. The bath can also help to “liquify” the very soft tissues in your body, allowing them to slide again. But that will only happen on one other condition…that you:

3. Stay well hydrated.
This means drinking plenty of high-quality H2O. Not going to go into a lot of detail here. Simply try the pee-test. If your pee is not clear, you’re dehydrated (with exceptions). Also, try to get well-water from reliable local sources rather than drinking chlorinated/treated water from the tap.

4. Move Well, Move Often!!!
This may be the single most important factor. Moving itself, as long as your body gets heated up to a nice sweaty level, will help to resolve soft tissue adhesions. Of course, it won’t usually do everything, but it will sure help. And once those adhesions have been (manually) broken up, there’s nothing better than full-range, hot movement to keep things from sticking together again. That’s one of the reasons Tai Chi is so good for you. Getting down into the pose above (snake creeps down, I think) demands a high level of balance and strength, AND – to the point of this post – it puts the soft tissues of the body in the deepest possible level of stretching and contraction…

Foam rolling can help, but as Andreo points out, it doesn’t really or necessarily slide one layer of soft tissue over the other.

But don’t just sit there reading this! Go do one of those three things (or all of them)! And put them into your regular practice!!!!

Bodyweight Training – why, what, when, where, and how?

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Local Parkour facility Parkour Visions posted this talk of Charlie Moreland discussing bodyweight training.

Great talk!

AND…

I agree with his early assertion – “We can do what you can do, but you can’t do what we can do.”

This is often true, because movement is a skill.

So, if you practice doing the bench press often (laying on your back), you get very good at that movement-skill.

If you practice the progressions Charlie recommends, your nervous system gets much more greatly enriched.

That said, weight training still has its place. I just prefer to limit it.

Weight training has become popular in the past few decades as a way to rapidly change physique.

It also matches up with a cultural tendency to isolate things – we do “isolation” exercises like biceps curls, triceps pushdowns, etc., in much the same way that we isolate ourselves in other ways…

Free weights offer an easy way to “progress.” And, being less demanding on supporting muscles than bodyweight only training can be, it’s often easier to “bulk up” on free-weight programs than on bodyweight programs.

So what’s the best?

For the average person, the best is – diversity of movement.

Yes, I know I’ve discussed the SAID principle at length in this blog. The fact is, that’s true. You get what you train for.

But the average person wants to train for LIFE itself. There’s no “competition” date…or rather, every day is a competition…to feel good, to stay exuberant, to be healthy, to have energy.

There are a zillion ways to approach this, but at this point in life, my favorite is this:

Pick one “classic” barbell exercise: Squat, Deadlift, Clean and Jerk, Snatch, Overhead Press
Pick a few full-range-of-motion bodyweight movements.
Pick one movement practice – dance, martial arts, walking or hiking, climbing, etc.

Do your classic lift twice a week. Day one work up to a 1-3 rep max. Back off and do 2 or 3 sets of 3-6. Wait 72 hours. Do that lift again but do 60% of your 1-rep max, and go for 4 sets of 3 explosive (or, preferably, ballistic) reps.

Do your bodyweight training every day. Mix it up if you want. Stop with gas in the tank.

Do your movement practice every day.

In other words, use weights for “strength training.”

Use your body to move better.

Why You Fail – The Secret to Fitness Motivation, Part 2

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In an earlier blog post I commented on what motivates the truly motivated fitness enthusiasts.

It isn’t necessity.

It’s one thing that they’ve chosen to inspire and propel them onward.

Maybe it changes over the years, but it’s always one thing.

But why is it so hard to DO that one thing?

Here’s why:

"Grooves Turn Into Ruts"

What the?! The Grand Canyon?

Yes, that’s right. The Grand Canyon.

It’s a slide reminiscent of one used by Frank Forencich in his Exuberant Animal talks. His has the same caption as the one above “Grooves Turn Into Ruts.”

Yes Josh, but what does that have to do with motivation and why I fail?

Frank uses that slide to highlight the way our nervous systems work. Or the way a nervous system, generally, works.

As you do things, you use certain neural pathways in your brain (and body). The more you use those pathways, the more efficient those pathways become at delivering a signal. There are a lot of mechanisms behind this, and if you’re interested in those, send me an email and we can chat about the specifics. Otherwise, just remember the words of Daniel Siegel, MD:

“Neurons that fire together, wire together.”

As with any natural system, energy follows the path of least resistance. If a signal comes into your brain, it is much more likely to go down the highly-efficient and well-used pathways than it is down some dusty, poorly-lit alley of your mind.

The longer you use those pathways, the more ingrained they become. Grooves turn into ruts. Similarly, the other pathways become more and more atrophied.

And the practice of using different pathways atrophies as well.

In action, this looks like what we call HABIT.

It’s the things we do over and over, habitually, without really thinking about them, that define us – just ask Aristotle.

This is also the reason why “The way you do one thing is the way you do everything.”

The stimulus/response follow the same pathways…over and over…you rarely deviate from your norm. You are a creature of habit.

So attempting to change your behavior – starting an exercise regimen, for instance – is akin to taking a ton of water to the top of the Grand Canyon and pouring it out, while saying I don’t want this to go down to the Colorado River!

Likelihood = Pitifully Low.

So how do you get around this trap?

Well, in the words of the old GI Joe PSA’s “knowing is half the battle.” Being able to recognize your habitual patterns is a good first step.

The next step is to decide what pattern you really want to emphasize – knowing that it most likely will change over time!

Finally, you have to create that pattern.

You have to – literally – create a structure that will shape your behavior.

In the example above, it’s akin to creating a reservoir or channel into which you could pour your water.

For some people, that’s as simple as creating or obtaining a detailed exercise schedule, plan, or program.

For others, it involves signing up for a class or sessions with a personal trainer.

Even beyond that, it might include things like watching habitual actions in other areas and altering those, even slightly, to tip the scales in favor of the new behavior. Replacing chips with carrot sticks, for instance…

Definitely interested in hearing your feedback on this concept and approach to behavior change. Leave a comment below!

Are barbell back-squats safe?!

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Before we answer that question, here’s some current news:

Today was yet another round of the Smolov squat program! Today was 2 sets of 3 with 300 on the bar, then a final set of 3 with 320. TOUGH!

Again, I underestimated rest times, and still feel like I’m not getting enough protein/recovery between sessions. I’m going to commit to a nice hot epsom-salts bath at least ONE day (if not more than one), and to getting plenty of protein and fresh greens in every meal. It’s only going to get tougher for the next four weeks…

That said, are barbell back-squats safe?!

Well I’m interested to hear your opinion on the subject.

Even the “experts” are divided! There are many differing views on the topic ranging from – HELL NO! to maybe…depending…to BACK SQUATS TAUGHT ME HOW TO LOVE AGAIN.

So what do you think? Are back squats safe or not?