The Top 5 Must Know Exercises

One of the most important things you can do for your body is to keep moving. The best way to do this is by integrating strength training into your weekly routine. While most people should not start with heavy loads, the principles of movement that lay the foundation for strength work are vital components of keeping your body and your mind in top condition. Gaining strength is particularly important because of it's role in allowing us to stay active as we age. Without quality of movement, quality of life diminishes. So if you are not lifting weights, or regularly participating in an activity where you work to maintain your strength, then I highly recommend getting involved. 

When it comes to strength training, there are a few exercises that we feel should be at the top of the list. While you should not be starting with heavy weights for any of these, it is the movement that we are most concerned about. It should also be noted that a with any activity, there will be some populations that these particular variations are not appropriate for. If you have never done them before or unsure if they are right for you, find someone that can show you the correct technique! 

With that said, here are our top five exercises that everyone should be doing (if not a regression):

The Turkish Get Up

This is the ultimate total body movement, and what is best, you don’t even need weight to make it a great move! I would recommend starting with no weight, and make sure you have perfect technique before adding on the 4kg Kettlebell. We also recommend that you take this move one piece at a time. Make sure that you are confident getting to your elbow and down before you try to get to the hand and so on. Once you are confident getting all the way up, THEN add weight. 

Single Leg Deadlift

Start with the weight in hand, held at your side. Keeping one leg almost straight (let the knee stay relaxed), bend at the waist and press your other foot back. You should be keeping your abs and butt tight during this move as to protect your back. Try to keep your hips and shoulders level so that one side is not higher than the other. Bend until just before your back can no longer be held straight, then squeeze your butt and stand back up. Remember to stay in control, and if you need to, have a wall or bench close by for balance.

NOTE: If you have not done standard deadlifts before, start there. Deadlifting variations are some of the best exercises you can do for overall strength, while also training the much neglected posterior chain (back, butt, hamstrings). For those of you that know the deadlift, try out the single leg as it will challenge your balance, coordination, and core to a greater extent.

TRX Row

In our society, we spend most of our lives in a seated, slouched position. This exercise can help undo the rounded shoulder look, while helping to strengthen the back and working to prevent shoulder injuries. If you do not have a TRX, you can use a barbell on a rack to do inverted rows, or use a dumbbell for bent over rows. 

TRX BodySaw

This is one of the best core exercise I have found, though I usually do not include the pike. This is an advanced exercise, so if you are not familiar with it, try out a TRX Roll Out first, and work your way up. If you are a beginner, you may want to start with planks before advancing. 

Kettlebell Swing

The Kettlebell swing is both a power and metabolic exericse, meaning that it will help to build strength while also increasing your cardiovascular capacity…what more could you want! It also stems from the deadlift pattern (see links above) which is one of the most important movements you can learn. Both of them are based in quality hip movement, and those that can move well and move powerfully through the hips will look and feel the best over the long run.

The brain likes to be challenged, so it is important to mix up your workouts and not let yourself get stuck in the same old routines. Hopefully at least one of these exercises has sparked some interest and excitement for you and has given you enough information to go try it out next time you are in the gym. The most important thing you can do for you body is to stay active and to vary the movements that you perform. If you just do the same thing every time you are in the gym, your body will become more and more efficient and will actually stop producing results. Add to this that training your brain is just as important as training your body and you can see that variety in movement will not only be good for your looks, but your long term health as you age. So keep mixing it up and find the right exercise for your current fitness abilities to see the best results while staying safe!

Are You A Food Addict?

While many of us joke about being “addicted” to this or that, there can be serious concerns when someone truly has an addiction to food. What is difficult about food addiction is that unlike most other addictions, food is something that we need. Our bodies have been designed to be attracted to certain qualities of food derived from sugar, salt, and fat, and these are all things that we need to survive.

The Signs of Addiction

So how do you know if you are truly addicted? First, we must establish what a food addiction looks like. The first sign of food addiction is when you consistently overeat to the point of being overly full and uncomfortable. Eating until full is one thing, but if you consistently eat in a fashion that actually takes the pleasure out of eating, then this is not a good sign. The second sign is the feeling of being out of control while eating. Much like someone who is addicted to alcohol and cannot have just one drink, someone who is addicted to food cannot have just one serving of their favorite foods. And this does not mean that two or three will suffice, either. One taste and an addict is usually sent into a single-minded mission to consume as much as they can. For drinkers, they would only stop once they passed out. For eaters, they may only stop once they physically can no longer swallow.

There are also less obvious signs that you have an eating addiction. Because addiction is generally characterized by withdrawals—feelings of discomfort, distress, or cravings—your addiction may not be about overeating as much as eating to fill a void. This could mean consistently eating because of feeling lonely, bored, sad, discouraged, etc. It could also mean that you do not eat enough or are resistant to eating changes even when dealing with a nutrition related disease. To be clear, if you are bored one day and you go eat a bag of chips, you are not a food addict. But if every day you constantly snack because you are bored with your job or what you are doing, or you snack all day because you are stressed, or you stay constantly hungry throughout the day because it gives you a sense of control, then you are addicted to food as a source of comfort.

Building a Dependency

A common occurrence for food addicts is that as they become more set in their addiction, they become more and more dependent on their favorite foods to produce the same comforting effect. This is where addiction becomes dangerous, because while having a bowl of ice cream each night may not be the worst thing in the world, if you continue to need more ice cream more times through the day, then you are on the road to self-destruction.

The official symptoms of substance dependency are as follows:

1) Using more over time (aka building tolerance)

2) Experiencing withdrawals

3) Using more than intended

4) Being unsuccessful in attempts to limit consumption

5) Spending time pursuing, using, or recovering from use (think about the effort put into acquiring favorite foods, or time spent recovering from the feelings of fullness, bloating, or nausea that may arise from overeating)

6) Missing important activities because of use

7) Partake despite knowledge of consequences

If you consistently experience at least three of the previous statements when it comes to your eating, you should seriously consider the possibility that you have an unhealthy dependency on food.

Why Does this Happen?

Why would something so important to our survival have the potential to cause so much harm as well? The problem is that in today’s world, we are no longer just dealing with “natural” foods. We have access to processed foods that have been engineered to CAUSE addiction. In nature, you do not find fat, sugar, and salt in the same place…ever.  And there is a reason for this—while you may love the sweet taste of fruit (which has actually be engineered to be sweeter these days) your body and taste buds naturally become acclimated and disinterested if you just keep eating apples (sugar). Add in some peanut butter, though (salt & fat), and you can eat a significant amount more. Now it is only when you feel full that encourages you to stop eating, rather than a loss of palatability.

This shift in food production and consumption has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of food we can and do consume and sets the stage for addictive tendencies. Now we have access to a huge variety of foods that are very energy dense, tend to not have many nutrients (processed food is usually stripped of its vitamins and minerals), and our culture has shifted to where large portions and overeating is the norm. Being overweight is now actually the norm, as well. With all of this working against us, it is no wonder that food may be the most common addiction around.

Fighting Addiction

If you feel that you might have an addiction to food, please know that there are many others like you who are dealing with the same conflicts. While this is not something that you can “treat” necessarily, it is something that you can work to address. To best handle one’s addiction, the following factors must be dealt with:

1) Food availability and environment

If you have an issue with eating, then you MUST avoid the people, places, and things that trigger you to rely on food. You must keep your environment clean of the foods that send you over the edge and change your social setting so that you are not in a position to easily indulge your cravings.

2) Facing your emotions

It is important to recognize negative emotions as a natural part of life and that neither food, nor drugs, nor alcohol will resolve them. Painful emotions stay with us until we face them straight on and work through what we are feeling, not around it. Life becomes so much more challenging when we spend our time and energy avoiding our own feelings, and it can be detrimental to our health when we use substances to comfort ourselves and avoid our feelings.

3) Going through withdrawals

As with any addiction, when you first try to fight it, there will be hard times. Just know that if you can last 2-4 weeks avoiding your trigger foods, the cravings and discomfort you feel WILL subside.

On this point, however, it should be stated that “dieting” and diet pills are not the way to get through this struggle. Dieting is an act of reason and willpower (both things that cannot win out over time), not a lifestyle change. When you diet, it is usually associated with eating very little and over-exercising, followed by binge eating and weight gain. Our goal is not to diet or use drugs that help suppress appetite, because these things do not deal with the underlying root of the problem. As with any addiction, you must not only move away from the addictive substance, you must find new meaning and activity to replace what that substance provided for you.

4) Finding Meaning        

This is the most important point in all of this. While changing your environment will help support your fight against your addiction, it is not until you find new meaning in your life that you can truly be free. What drugs, alcohol, and food provide for the addict must be found in other, more supportive activities. Often times this starts by establishing what you want out of life. Unless you have a reason to change your current situation, then all will remain. If, however, you decide that there is something more important in your life than your addictive substance, AND you take the steps needed to change your environment, then you will be better equipped to make the changes necessary to kick your addiction.

Last Words

I want it to be clear that overcoming an addiction is no easy task, and if you do find that you have an addiction to food, making the changes necessary to alter your situation will take time and effort. We do not just wake up one morning and find out that we are overweight, unhealthy, full of negative emotions, and have a serious addiction. It took years of building unhealthy habits and avoiding our own internal struggles that lead us down this road. So, if you have had trouble fighting a food addiction in the past, please know that conquering it will take time, effort, and the support of your friends and family. I want you to know that there is hope and there is a way out. It may not be the easy road, but if you can keep the path to recovery in view long enough, you will be able to come out the other side a whole new person. 

Why We Train

If you have ever asked a fitness coach why they do what they do, you have probably heard some version of “I want to help people” or “I like helping others”. This generalization, however, does not always fully explain the depth of one’s conviction to have chosen this profession as their life’s work.

To be sure, not all coaches have the same attitudes and beliefs, but I would like to take this opportunity to explain why being a fitness coach is so important to me and my team. The first and most important point is that as a fitness coach, we have the unique opportunity to help individuals transform their lives. Two or more times each week, we have the privilege of teaching about a field that is possibly the most important discipline to master: health. And it is health that is the gateway to all other endeavors in life.

Inspiration to Action

This may be the underlying reason for all that we do: to provide a setting in which our clients begin to believe in themselves and their dreams again. If you look at the history of the world you will see that humans have the ability to do amazing things. All accomplishments, however, begin with a belief. No matter how big or small, if you BELIEVE that it is possible, you will in some fashion reach your goal. No, we cannot fly, but we can build airplanes that can do it for us. No, we cannot reverse aging, but we can make new medical discoveries that help increase quality of life as we age. And no, you cannot look like you are 20 when you are 50, but what if you felt like you were 20 and looked darn good, too?? With all of these endeavors, it first takes a belief that we are, in fact, capable of achieving them.

As second but equally important goal for us is to help others maximize their quality of life. Lack of exercise and a lifetime of poor eating strips the body of its vitality and leaves us in a state of survival. To thrive, we must learn how to take control again of our health. With the help of diet and exercise, the human body can make amazing changes. It can lose dramatic amounts of weight, build muscle, increase bone density, improve immune function, decrease its risk of cardiovascular and auto-immune disease, and much, much more.

It’s Deeper than Aesthetics

This is where our work becomes more than just helping people to lose weight. Because what is a weight loss goal in the first place? It is really a goal to gain confidence and increase the quality of one’s life. So for us, it’s not just about the weight loss, it’s about the transformation an individual can achieve, leaving them in a better position to optimize their life.

We hold dear the belief that life is not meant to be lived in a state of discomfort or disease. That life should be good, yet many people, either through poor information or no previous guidance, have been lead down the wrong path.

All of this fuels our fire. We are passionate about empowering our clients to see through the marketing efforts of the “food” industry. The corn lobby, the soy lobby, the fast food companies, the snack and soda companies; these groups do not have your best interest at heart, yet they have the funds and the influence to make the destructive “food” they produce cheaper and more available than nutritious food. They are not solely responsible—we all have the power to choose our own destiny—but it sure makes it hard, especially for those who are not educated in what a healthy diet looks like. And these companies spend a lot of money to make you think that their products ARE in fact healthy when they are far from it.

The Need for Movement Education

Along with education about nutrition and disease, there is also significant value in the teaching of exercise. For most of human history, our species had no need for formal exercise. We spent most of our time and energy finding and preparing our food. Today, it could not be more different. Now, the only thing we NEED to expend energy on is breathing and moving from one seat to another.

This is why formal exercise has become a must. While we would love it if people were more active in their daily lives, the reality of the times is that we are all too busy to be moving for 8+ hours a day. So, rather than hoping for a miracle, we have taken it upon ourselves to help teach movement in a way that can be progressed and used to produce the highest level of caloric expenditure both in and out of the training session. It is not enough to just go for a run; we must create a metabolic demand great enough that 24 hours after an exercise session, your body is still burning more calories than it otherwise would. And we must do it in such a way that challenges each person to improve their overall movement, decrease the risk of injuries, and improve posture. All of these things play into overall quality of life, and as we said before, quality of life is what this is all about.

Closing Thoughts

In the end, we are here for you, the client. Just as a teacher believes that education is a form of empowerment, we believe that movement, strength, and health are also empowering. They provide the foundation on which all other goals and aspirations can be built. We all have people we want to be our best for and activities we want to participate in. Begin able to enjoy each of these parts of life requires one thing: a functional, health body.

This is why we coach. Because life is too short to let poor health slow you down on the path to happiness and fulfillment.

The Sleep Solution

On average, how many hours do you currently sleep each night? If it is less than seven, your body is probably having a hard time doing what it was designed to do: keep you lean and healthy. You see, you are not meant to be tired, sick, anxious, and depleted all the time. Your body was designed to stay healthy! The problem these days is that just about every part of society from food to entertainment works to beat us down until we think that feeling lousy is just normal.

Probably the most neglected health tool today is sleep. It is looked at as a waste of time, unproductive, and for the weak-hearted. What is missed is that sleep is actually the most important thing you can do to run your best, and if we are talking productivity, it is sleep that can double or even triple what you can get done because you are actually able to use your brain! Add to this the fact that if sleep is shortened, interrupted, inconsistent, or disturbed by food or drink, you will never achieve the level of health needed to make significant fitness gains. Poor sleep is almost synonymous with being overweight, and it’s not just because of late night snacks.

Why Is Sleep So Important?

The main reason sleep is so powerful is due to its ability to help you recover. If you consistently sleep 7-9 hours, you will have improved hormone regulation, synthesis of information and learning, regeneration of muscle and tissue, increased immune functioning, and elevated energy and mood.

Sounds like a miracle pill to me! And it is. But it cuts both ways…

Did you know that just one sleepless night can leave you functioning worse than someone who is well over the legal alcohol limit, leave your insulin sensitivity resembling that of a Type II diabetic, send your fat storage through the roof, and actually lead to a breakdown in muscle?

And that is why sleep is so important. We often think that just because it is common for people to be sleep-deprived, or overweight, or sick, or moody, that it is “just how things are”. The truth is, our bodies are not meant to feel terrible all the time. We are SUPPOSED to be healthy, and not just for a few weeks here or there. It should be the rare occasion that we get sick, feel unrested, have low energy, etc.

How to Get More Sleep

If sleep is so important, how the heck do we improve our sleep habits?? There are a number of ways that can help you to get more sleep, but let’s go over some of the basics before we get too far ahead of ourselves.

1) Go to bed earlier!

This may seem so simple, but most of the time, the reason we do not get enough sleep is because we choose to stay up late. We watch TV, browse the Internet, go out with friends, or get into a book we cannot put down.

This is in no way saying that these are “bad” things to do, but they are those things for which we tend to sacrifice our sleep to participate in. And this is where sleep issues can begin—when we do not have good nighttime habits. We are used to watching our late-night shows or browsing our favorite websites for a few hours before bed. Again, these activities would be fine if they were not messing with the most important health and fitness activity: sleep!

2) Improve your “sleep ritual”.

Every night, you have a routine. Whether you have created it or you have just fallen into it, the routine is there. This may include some of the activities mentioned before, or others. But every night, before you actually go to bed, there are certain things that you usually do.

The question is, if you have not actively thought about this routine, how do you know that it is helping your sleep situation? What is more likely is that it is hurting your sleep. So what might a good sleep ritual look like? Well, the first thing to know is that whatever your ritual, it should start about an hour before you want to be asleep. Here are some things that can help get you to sleep faster and keep you asleep longer:

- Turn off ALL electronics (TV, cell phones, iPads, etc.)
- Take out a piece of paper and write down all the things you need to do the next day
- Have a fatty snack (nuts, eggs)
- Read a relaxing book in dim light
- Take a warm shower/bath (Epsom salt baths are great for relaxing)
- Use as little light as possible (and use blackout curtains to keep light out)
- Listen to soft music
- Drink decaf tea
- Set bedroom temp to 68 degrees
- Avoid caffeine! (You should actually start avoiding caffeine around noon)

Each of these things can make a big difference in how easily you will fall asleep. Maybe the most important are those is dealing with light and planning. You see, light is a stimulant for our bodies and whether it’s light from a TV or the sun, we are affected by it. As far as planning goes, one of the most common reasons for troubled sleep is anxiety/racing thoughts. If you put it all down on paper, it gets it out of your head and allows you to be more relaxed.

Putting it All Together

However you choose to take this information, please at least know this: sleep is a life changer. If you have ever known someone who has sleep apnea (a condition where it is impossible for them to get deep sleep) and has been treated, you will know just how big of a difference sleep can make. It can take someone from being tired, unmotivated, overweight, and ill-tempered and transform them into a whole new person. Often people with sleep apnea describe the feeling of a full night’s sleep as being alive for the first time in years. They have been lifted from a fog and can actually be themselves again!

What is sad is that we often choose to put ourselves into a state of sleep deprivation when we could easily work on our sleep habits and drastically improve our quality of life. So, start thinking about where you can improve your sleep and start implementing those strategies that work for you. This could be the most important health decision you make this year, but it is up to you to take the first step. Now go grab some ZZZ’s!

The Fourth Quarter Push

This week marks the beginning of a new quarter of the year: the fourth quarter. When we started the year, we talked about the importance of setting goals for the whole year, then breaking them down into smaller, more manageable parts. If you wanted to lose 40 lbs this year, then you would want to lose 10 lbs every 3 months. If you want to gain 100 lbs on your deadlift, then you would want to be gaining 25lb every 3 months. Simple idea; not so easy in practice. The problem is that we tend to have an all-or-nothing attitude and if we did not make major changes in the first part of the year, by now we may have given up all together. Well, here is the good news: every quarter is a chance to start fresh. Really, every DAY is a chance to start fresh. So even if you have not been as productive this year, or have struggled with some of your goals, there is no reason that you have to wait until the New Year to get going again. If anything, this is the best time to get started. Summer has ended, we have a few more months until Christmas, and if you have a health or fitness goal, this is exactly the time to make your health a priority.

What most people do, however, is the exact opposite. They think, "Well, I will get back into shape starting January 1st, so I can take it easy these next few months." The problem with this mentality is twofold. First, most people do not actually achieve all of the things that they resolve to do in the new year. Second, you can put on a lot of weight over the holidays if you are not careful (and/or backtrack on other goals you have set) and you will have set yourself up for an even harder road ahead. Instead, what if we think about this fourth quarter as preparation for the next year. For these next three months we will dedicate ourselves to setting up our routine and habits so that when 2013 hits, we will be ready to rock and roll. It’s not about the goal—it’s about the set-up. It doesn’t mean we won’t make progress; it just means that we are taking this time to practice all of the habits, actions, and systems that will be needed to make next New Year’s resolutions the most real and lasting ones we have ever made.

And here is the best part…three months is a long time! If it takes three weeks to build a new habit, you could have four new habits by the time the new year comes around. And if you are doing the right things, you may just make some solid progress toward your goals in the process.

So, if you are on track with your 2012 goals, well done, but don’t lose momentum. If you are behind schedule there is still time to catch up. If you have not started yet, please believe that it is NOT too late. You may not complete your 2012 goals, but who says you have to? Isn’t ANY progress toward your goals better than waiting until next year to get going (or even worse, going backwards?)

Let’s finish 2012 strong, while setting ourselves up for even greater achievements in 2013. If you start now, there is no telling where you will be in 3, 6, 12, and 18 months. It just takes sitting down and establishing what you want for yourself and what you need to do to get it.

Fourth quarter: here we come!