Forest for the trees

Been there done that?

Ever notice that when you have a sore tooth your tongue won't leave the spot alone. Keeps returning to it even though you already know it's there and sore?

Then throughout the day it becomes the background of everything you do and think. You perceive good news is a little less good. Bad news a little worse, etc etc. The day takes a little more out of you. You know what I mean, we have all been there.

So what does this mean to me?

Think about that and think about what that means insofar as counting calories. In you are constantly thinking about calories and food values, where will you mind be? Where will you attention be turned. What will be the color of you mood as a result of this?

Working with clients over the years I have coined a new term and a new way to think about calories.  Rather than counting them we can Mind them.  There are plenty of internet tools out there to help you do this and believe it or not once you get into the groove it's kinda fun.  It winds up being a tools in your toolbox rather than a yoke on your mind.

Something to think about as we move about in the real world

Stay tuned true believers.  There's always something around the corner.

A Thinking Man's Guide to "The Warm Up"

What is a warm up?

Many people understand a warm up to be stretching to loosen the muscles.  In reality warming up really is just that, this misunderstanding has led to injuries with average exercisers and high level athletes.

A muscle can be seen as a rubber band, which can stretch several times beyond its resting  length and then pull back to its original size.  If that rubber band were put in a freezer (inactivity) then taken out, when you tried to stretch it, it would most likely snap.

The purpose of an effective warm up is to warm up that rubber band that that it has the elasticity to move.

Another way to think about this is starting your car.  If it has been a few days since you have driven or you live in a colder climate you will let it set and idle for a bit.  The oil, usually described as a car’s life blood, is thick and viscous when the engine is cold.  As the car warms ups the oil gets thinner, more fluid, and moves through the system more easily.

Not letting the engine idle can mean it clogging out just when you are about to accelerate into traffic. Bad thing.  Warming up your muscles, tendons and joints before regular exercise is the idling time your body needs to get it’s fluids…well fluid, so that it does not clog out when you begin your routine.

An additional value of a smart generalized warm up routine is that it does not have to be done JUST before a workout.  Ideally it could be done several times a day for the same purpose, keep that rubber band lose and functional, keep the fluids circulating.

We train to be better at life. The more you marry the two, using one to assist the learning of the other, the stronger you will be for it body and mind.

If you need help with program design you can contact me at

Fitnessnexus@yahoo.com

All the best,

Steve

How do you organize your workout

For body builders there might be 9 or 12 areas to work on, biceps, triceps, deltoids, lats, pecs, quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, abs, they might add on forearms, traps, inner thigh, etc. A bodybuilder, who is interested in isolating and maximizing size and shape needs to isolate and maximize the pieces of the machine. This is right within the framework of their goals.

One of my compatriots is an Olympic and power lifter (please don’t confuse the two) he looks at moves, pulling off the ground, pushing overhead, pressing forward, etc. Within the framework of his goals he is correct. To break the moves down into the body parts would lose the connection of the parts and sacrifice function.

I OFTEN (though not always)design programs for my clients breaking the body down into four parts or movements, those that push, those that pull, moves for the legs and something for the core or abs. This splits the difference between the two extremes listed above. It allows my clients to focus on a single area rather than a whole complex move but since it involves multiple muscle groups it keeps a quality of functionality by using chains of muscles rather than isolating each.

I need to stress, as I have in most of my blogging articles that none of these lifting styles is superior it’s just a matter of agenda.

If you can clearly define your agenda it will go a long way to helping your define your training.