Are You Banging Your Head Against the Wall?

Quite often, when people set the direction for their exercise program they simply don't choose the best direction.  You know the expression, "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line"?  Well, in the realm of fitness and exercise, sometimes it isn't.

Jon explains here.  If you feel your exercise program has you banging your head against the wall sometimes, check this out:

Who else wants to be shredded, drop inches and pant sizes?

This is a continuation of our last blog – if you missed it scroll below.  It’s a summary of how simply moving better can get you to look and feel your best again.

Not convinced?  Here are three TR members who in addition to consistent exercise and eating habits, tweaked their programs based on the above key.  At the TR, we use the FMS (Functional Movement Screen) to check for movement efficiencies, as well as the subjective observations of our trainers to help us develop efficient fat loss programs.

Tara started with back pain and a below average, asymmetrical score on her FMS.  With a few different corrective exercises and with some attention to detail, her score went to above average and symmetrical.  Her movement improved as did her workouts along with it.

Result?  Tara dropped a pant size.  Tara does not have back pain.  Not a coincidence.

Kerri started with shoulder pain and a below average, asymmetrical FMS score.  With some corrective exercises and more attention to movement quality, Kerri’s score went to above average and symmetrical.  Her workouts improved along with the movement.

Result? Kerri now has a 4 ½ ” smaller waist, and no shoulder pain.  Not a coincidence.

Vinny had a high, but asymmetrical FMS score (a very good indicator of future injury).  With a simple addition of some corrective exercises added to his group training schedule – yes, even our small group members get personalized programming – Vinny’s asymmetries went away.

So did all his body fat.  Seriously.

I was at a Labor Day BBQ/pool party with him.  All I heard all day was “Vinny, you look ripped”, “Vinny I can see your abs”, “Vinny, Vinny, Vinny,…blah, blah, blah”.  It was actually starting to get annoying.

But in addition to showing off the abs at barbecues, Vinny also finished two Spartan races this summer – injury free.

Movement improved, health and performance improved, abs appeared.  Not coincidences.

So if you feel like there’s a missing link in your programming, or if you feel you should be getting more out of your efforts, come down and get a screen done.  Part of what we do is simply point people in the right direction who may be looking at the wrong issues.

The Secret Key to Slim, Sexy and Strong:

Obviously there are many factors to becoming slim, sexy and strong.  But one key seems to be frequently overlooked and quite often is the reason exercisers fail to achieve their fat loss goals.

(Be sure to read the “P.S.” at the bottom to read about TR members who utilized this key to get ripped, drop pant sizes and lose inches off the waist…)

That key is focusing on the quality of your movement.  Laser like focus.  Making sure your body is moving in the manner it is supposed to.  Moving “functionally”, or “with good form” to the non-fitness pro.  Unfortunately, exercisers may accept this idea, but fail to practice or emphasize it in many cases. 

Why would people ignore something that works?  Why would people not do what will get them to their 

health and fitness goals?  I’m not a psychiatrist, but I think…

The reason nobody cares about moving correctly is that it’s not sexy.  It doesn’t sell TV time and magazines.  It doesn’t seem like a quick, simple fix to people.  (Although it is simple to a good fitness professional).

But the reality is, focusing on improving movement works, period.

There are two reasons for this:

1.  Moving better leads to better workouts.

Moving efficiently means more weight can be moved, for longer periods, with quicker recovery times.  The person who moves well gets a HELL of a lot more done in his or her workouts than the people who don’t move well.  The people who aren’t moving well are simply stepping on their gas pedal harder when their alignment is off.  They’re not getting there faster and they’re going to breakdown more quickly…which leads to…

2.  Moving better prevents Injury

The overwhelming #1 cause of orthopedic problems is misaligned joints.  When this is allowed to happen during exercise, it accelerates the injury cycle as added weight, effort and fatigue are put on to the misaligned joints.  Although “pushing through” may be an admirable mindset in other aspects of life, it only leads to diminishing returns in the exercise realm.  (Reminder: the person who coined the term “No pain, no gain” was a learning impaired individual).  When you get injured, you can’t exercise.  When you can’t exercise, you can’t get fit.  Pay attention to how you move – it will keep you training consistently and well.

P.S.  Still not convinced?  Be sure to look for part 2 of this article coming soon to hear about TR members who focused on the above, and got shredded, dropped pant sizes, waist inches!

Deadly Bikes!

OK, maybe biking isn’t deadly, but there are deleterious aspects of being on a bike of which you may be unaware:

1. Bikes place you in an anatomical position that’s conducive to back and shoulder problems.

You know that hunched forward, rolled shoulder look that we (most of us anyway) try to avoid like the plague?  Not only is that look undesirable to most from an aesthetics standpoint, but it’s a recipe for back and shoulder problems.  That position – it’s called spinal flexion – places abnormal amounts of compensatory stress on the low back and shoulders, and it’s exactly the position you’re in the majority of time you’re on a bike.  Add long durations and increased workload to that position and you’re asking for an orthopedic issue.

2. Like any long duration activity, it burns very few calories.

Similar to jogging, walking, using the elliptical, etc., when performed for long durations it becomes an inefficient calorie burner.  By definition, anything done for 20, 30, 40 minutes or more has to be low in intensity.  This isn’t a bad thing…unless you’re trying to lose body fat. 

Unless you’re doing some serious sprint intervals on the bike (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen), you’re better off choosing something shorter in duration and higher in intensity if lean, slim and strong are the goals.

Not sure why these guys are smiling.  Spinal flexion like that should be making their physical therapists and chiropractors smile real wide.

Yes, I can beat you up...

Sure I can beat you up.

I get that request often, actually.

“I need you to kick my butt!”

“I need to take it up a notch…”

“I need to get in there and get a sweat going…”

The words are different, but the message is all the same:

“Jon, I want to come to your facility, and with your help, I want to beat the crap out of myself because I think that’s going to make me lean, fit, and healthy.”

Of course those words aren’t used, but at the heart of the matter, that is what people are actually saying to me.  Yes, for years now…

This is somewhat silly on several levels.  I’m not sure why you need to pay someone to just beat you down with workouts.  And even if you did, you can go to the 20 something at Retro Fitness who thinks flipping tires is cool, and just finished his weekend certification.  He’d love to beat the crap out of you, and he’s probably cheaper than me. 

Of course the damage that he does to your joints will negate the savings as you’ll have to pass them along to your chiropractor, orthopedist, and physical therapist.

I had a guy say to me once that he needed to get in better shape before he signed up with me.

That was about six years ago and I’m still waiting to hear something dumber, but I haven’t yet.

In fact, as I recently responded to an email with similar requests, I’ve heard different versions of the same request thousands of times in my career, and here’s the bottom line:

When someone says they need things like "my butt kicked", "kick it up a notch", etc. in my experience THEY ARE WRONG 100% OF THE TIME.  Invariably, the person actually needs to take it down a notch and check their form, posture and movement.  Laziness or lack of intensity aren't the issues in cases like these - moving incorrectly is.  And unless you're training with a qualified trainer, you're probably unaware of the issues. 

Continuing to push - or push harder as most people suggest when they say things like this - is the same as stepping on the gas pedal harder when your car's alignment is off.  You're not getting there any faster and you're breaking down and wasting energy as you do it.

Except you’re not a car.  When you push harder in your workouts when your knees, back and shoulders are in the wrong position, your breakdown is different:

Knee injury.

Low back pain.

And even if you are lucky enough to avoid joint pain and injury, if you are moving incorrectly you’re wasting energy.  You will run out of gas and have to stop your workout before the person next to you who is paying attention to details, does.

Who do you think is more likely to burn fat, stay strong and stick to their program?

And who do you think is going to always be going to the chiropractor, orthopedist, physical therapist, etc.?

Go to a facility that screens and evaluates movement regularly.  If you’re not close to us, let me know I’ll recommend one.  It's why places like ours get results for our members and the 20 somethings with the weekend certifications who just beat the crap out of their clients don't.

I'm Not Anti-Crossfit

Seriously, I’m not.

It’s more that I am in favor of other things:

1. I am in favor of having a systematic plan and program to follow.

I’ve yet to meet anyone anywhere who disagrees with me on this point.  If you do, please stand up.  It’s pretty much universally agreed that having a goal, then setting a plan and program to go about getting it is superior to just winging it with a mixed bag of exercises. Performing indiscriminate workouts is unlikely to get you to your goal.  Randomness and varied "workouts of the day" with mixed training modalities is NOT the best way to get a lean, strong physique.

2. I am in favor of focusing on the quality of work instead of the quantity. 

Again I’ve yet to meet anyone who disagrees with me on this.  If you know me you probably know I live with a high school math teacher.  I usually use her situation to make an analogy here:

If she had a student who bragged about doing 72 algebra problems in under 3 minutes, we all would probably have the same reaction: there’s a pretty good chance a lot of those problems were done incorrectly, meaning the student probably wasted his/her time.  The reason the student would do that is certainly ego driven in some way as we all know doing math in that manner certainly won’t make he or she better at math.  Should the student try to move on to trigonometry there surely will be a problem and he or she would probably fail that class, assuming he or she passed algebra in the first place.

The same rationale holds true for exercise: doing 264 barbell snatches and 82 pullups in a short period of time only assures you’re doing some pretty crappy snatches and pullups.  You’re certainly not going to get stronger, and you certainly will never be able to move on to more advanced stuff.  If you try to progress, you'll probably fail just like the dunce in the aforementioned math class.    Except in this case it’s more likely you’ll be injured.  Performing workouts and exercises while focusing on quality of movement and exercise is what yields progress.

I’m not anti “crossfit”.  I’m anti random workouts like “workout of the day!”, and I’m anti picking an arbitrary number to measure success as opposed to exercise quality.

Having a plan and a program is better than doing random workouts.

Doing high quality work is better than doing high quantity work.

If you need help with those two things, you know where to find us.

Treadmills = Useless

Treadmills are tools used to sell gym memberships.  That is all.

Look how easy. 

Watch TV.

Lean on the rails.

Lose weight.

Sold.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way for a few reasons:

1. It’s low in intensity.

The only way to maximize calorie expenditure and raise your metabolism to get that slim and lean look is to train intensely.  The aforementioned amenities make that impossible on a treadmill.  Then there’s the fact that the ground is moving for you negating the necessity of you having to drive yourself forward, essentially reducing the intensity by 50%.  And even if you were a brave enough soul to try to sprint on a treadmill, it’s pretty dangerous.  Go to YouTube and search “treadmill fail” if you don’t believe me.

2. It creates muscle and joint imbalances.

I know this is boring to most people, but it’s a reality that will catch up to you eventually if you use a treadmill more than once in awhile.  Because of the moving ground, your body is forced to lift your leg at a normal force and pace, but it never has to drive the leg back as it would on the ground or anywhere in real life.  This excessive repeated flexion of the ankle, knee and hip in the absence of equal parts extension results in muscle imbalances around the joint.  You don’t need a degree in bio-mechanics to see this will lead to an orthopedic issue at some point at one of those joints.

If you enjoy running or walking, stick to doing it outdoors.

If you’re goal is a strong, sexy physique stick to fast paced total body strength training.