The solution…

Floor sitting!

Abandon your chair and come down to the floor. Philip Beach, author of Muscles&Meridians, mentions this in his book and i think it is an excellent solution to combat the issues associated with prolonged sitting. Grab your laptop, put it on an ottoman or chair and plop down to watch this video on floor sitting and the benefits therein:

Here are a couple of postures you can incorporate into your floor sitting practice, but feel free to come up with your own and trust your instincts when it comes to which position is best for you.

Lord of the Fishes (without the spinal twist)

Diva Pose

Hero’s Pose

  Butterfly Pose

You are only limited by your imagination here in regards to the number of postures you can incorporate. Post your own ideas to my blog and join in the floor sitting revolution!

Over the last few years i’ve developed an incredible fascination for crawling patterns and brachiation for fitness, and the benefits therein for adults. The fact is that crawling and brachiating is HARD for adults mainly because we stopped doing it years ago when we traded playground time for office cubicles and happy hours after work.

With a slouched posture like this, it's no wonder we see so many shoulder issues in the population at large.

Now, with newer generations becoming increasingly sedentary and playgrounds becoming less and less centered around movement (and more focused on “safety”) by taking out high monkey bars, i predict that we are going to start to see more and more movement-related dysfunctions in the body. With that said, i’d like to use this blog post as a dissection of brachiation for health and fitness and break it down in regards to how it may benefit you!

1) Grip Strength/Endurance: Grip studies are some of the most prolific studies published in the literature. This is most likely due to the fact that the tests are easy to administer. In the eastern bloc, they would select future olympic weightlifters by testing children using a grip dynamometer, as well as a broad jump test. This is due to the fact that grip strength and leg power early on are strongly correlated with total body strength potential later in life. Grip strength studies are vast and some are crazier than others. Everything from athletic predictors to sexual behavior. As crazy as some studies may be, the reality is that we lose our grip strength pretty quickly in our society from not doing physical labor as we’ve done in years past. This poor grip strength could be related to instability or overuse in other areas of the body (i.e.-the shoulder), and should not be overlooked. Hanging from the bars and brachiating is a fun way to build grip strength and endurance which addresses this cultural problem of girp weakness. Also, neurologically, when you are able to grip something harder, it sends a cheering signal to the muscles up the chain (a principle called “hyper irradiation”) to contract and stabilize.

2) Shoulder Rehab/Prehab: As a disclaimer, anyone facing shoulder injury should be evaluated by a qualified professional first. Once that has been done, brachiation can be a powerful ally in healthy shoulders because by hanging by the arms, you get a tractioning effect in the shoulder joint. A lot of impingement in the rotator cuff, for example, can be caused by the joint being jammed up due to soft tissue and capsular tightness. Try building up to a minute of hanging with both arms before moving around from hand to hand. You can also superset brachiating with any overhead work like handstands or military pressing, and/or incorporate it as part of a warm-up before upper body resistance training. Hanging is an excellent pairing with handstand or inversion movement practice as they work antagonistic (opposing) muscle pairings.

3) Undoing dysfunction caused by “bodybuilding” methodology. Although it can be fun to do a “pump” session now and again to make our biceps look big through death sets of biceps curls, i’d postulate that this can be incredibly damaging to upper extremity health. A lot of guys will be quick to run to doing curls for their upper body, but neglect doing things like pullups or rowing movements that use the entire upper body as a coordinated unit. Then, if/when they go to do things like pullups and rows, they become dominant in the elbow flexors with poor motor control of the lats and scapular stabilizers. This can result in biceps tendon inflammation, shoulder irritation from poor ability to centrate the shoulder joint in the socket, and even elbow pain. The solution? Do your bicceps curls, but try supersetting with static  pullup bar hangs, pullups done with good form, brachiating, etc. Brachiating is a way to build grip strength and shoulder stabilization without overuse of the elbow flexors that many gym rats are so good at using.

Now that you’re loaded with an “adult” rationale for playing on the monkey bars for your health, head to a playground near you and start playing!

Along with the help of Josh Leeger and Dr. Kwame Brown, Frank has finally landed on an excellent program for developing play-based programs and to help ignite a culture of play in our community. What i love about this is not only the rich source of movement quality and training knowledge that comes behind this certification, but i have also been personally touched by an amazing group of people that support the cause.

Play is something that is often missing and/or is undervalued in our society, perhaps because it isn’t measureable or spreadsheet-able, but more and more research is coming out about the importance and value of play for all ages of people. In addition, this is a chance for trainers and fitness enthusiasts to be part of something larger than oneself, one’s training, and one’s knowledge base–it’s a chance to extend physical training to the larger constructs of community and environment. Branch out of sets and reps from time to time, experience nature, human connection/interaction, and you might be surprised at the joy you can receive through playing and sharing the gift of play with others.

Helio Gracie, father of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, once said (paraphrased) that youth and vitality was in the legs. He was right. When we lose strength, endurance, balance and mobility in the lower body, we lose our independence. This is especially important as we get older and our naturally-aging body starts to decline in function.

Continuing with the discussion of lower body function for health–and expanding on Father Gracie’s declaration–the legs are essential to health for several reasons:

1) Easier Daily Movement. The legs contain the largest musculature in the entire body which are essential for activities of daily living such as picking things up off the ground, walking, getting in and out of cars, etc. (Duh!)

2) Strong legs=Less Back Pain. Leg strength and mobility is strongly correlated with reducing spinal injury and chronic back pain.

3) Fat Loss Benefits. For those interested in fat loss, because the legs are the largest muscles in the body, they have the greatest potential for burning the most calories, and also have more endurance to sustain longer bouts of exercise. Therefore, if you want to lose weight, call in the heavy artillery of the lower body to help blow torch fat. The best bang-for-your-buck lower body movements are squatting, lunging, step ups, jumping, and running.

4) Muscle Building Benefits. For those interested in muscle building, just doing bench presses and sit-ups is horribly ineffective (i’m looking at you frat guys). Because the legs are such a large portion of the body’s musculature, they also have the ability to produce more force, thus allowing for more weight to be lifted. The legs are much better suited for packing on size than just upper body exercise alone. Ask any strength coach worth their weight in protein powder, and they’ll tell you that one of the most time-tested ways to put on size is heavy squatting and eating everything you can find. Heavy back squatting, when one can perform safely, is tailor made to pack meat on one’s frame. It is one of the most biomechanically efficient ways to put load on the body, which elicits not only powerful effects on total body musculature, but also releases a cascade of anabolic hormones into the bloodstream. Free steroids, yay! And the best part is that you didn’t have to borrow your roommates car to go down to Tijuana and snag some homemade mexican steroids that were likely processed in a bathtub laboratory.

Hey bro, just a heads up: it doesn't matter how many popped collars you got, if you aint squattin', then forget about selling tickets to this gun show you keep talking about.

5) Leg training is the best laxative. Squatting movements act like a pump for the internal organs, which allow for peristalsis (wavelike contractions of the digestive tract that move food downward) to more efficiently take place. This aids in circulation, digestion and elimination of bodily waste. I’d be willing to bet that those who are chronically constipated also exhibit poor breathing patterns and a severe decrement in the ability to squat functionally.

This guy has no problem building muscle with heavy squatting, and i bet he aint constipated either.

6) The legs are the second heart of the body. Muscular contraction of the legs, along with the help of one way valves in the veins, bring blood and lymphatic fluids back up into the heart for re-circulation. Those that think the heart is a pump are only partially right. If you look at the size of the heart in relation to the rest of the body, as well as where the heart is placed (upper 1/3rd of the body), it isn’t strong enough to pump that much blood throughout the entire body. Therefore, when one has been diagnosed with heart problems, it would be amiss to just blame the heart for being weak and not looking at total body function. The entire musculature system of the body helps to aid in circulation and oxygenation of the body’s tissues. The body is a unit, so give your heart a break and start moving more!

One way valves act as a pumpjack to push blood back up the body against the oppositional force of gravity

7) Foot/ankle function helps Cankles: The rocking motion of the foot/ankle act similarly to an oil pumpjack to assist in this motion of muscular contractions that assist in pushing blood back up into circulation. Those with swollen ankles could benefit from having a more functional foot/ankle. Those with a “duck-footed” posture (feet turned out to the sides) lose the natural rocking motion of the ankle that initiates the pumping of fluids back into circulation. Activites like rebounding on a minitrampoline, along with some ankle mobility and foot strengthening/balance activites, are great for moving lymphatic fluid and blood back up the body. For those that can handle more impact, jump rope, skipping, hopping, jumping, and bounding activities are also excellent for the aforementioned benefits. Another side benefit of these forms of impact activity is increased bone density or prevention of bone loss.

Ankle rocking acts like a pumpjack to push fluids back into circulation.

If you haven’t distilled the take-home point from this blog post, don’t forget to work and train the legs in your movement practice!

Fitbusters vol. 1 is about the Reebok EasyTone sneakers that retail for 110 bucks and claim to shape and tone your buns by a whopping 28%!

Here’s the video:

And here’s our response…

Do personal trainers actually work out? And what keeps them motivated to move?

I can tell you that many personal trainers DO NOT actually work out. This may come as a shock to some, but it’s speaks to a larger socio-cultural issue in regards to our views about movement.

Let’s take a look at an analogous perspective first. I had a professional chef once tell me that, after a long day of cooking gourmet food for the restaurant he worked at, he often comes home and throws on some macaroni and cheese and a polishes it off with a budweiser. You may think that a chef would make himself a nice duck l’orange or chicken cordon bleu with a wild mushroom risotto as a reward for a hard day of work, however, the truth is that most chefs are probably sick of making gourmet food all day long. Personal trainers aren’t exempt from this same phenomenon in relation to exercise.

Now, before you break out the rulers and start smacking wrists, let’s consider that personal trainers are people, too, and often fall off the bandwagon of healthy living just like the everyone else. Some trainers give up regular exercise altogether, but some find another way to keep themselves motivated to move. It is the latter group of trainers that can share a valuable philosophy for those seeking to make movement less of a drudgery and more of an enjoyable experience over the lifespan.

The antidote to the disease of sedentarianism seems to be solved by not working “out”, which is nomenclature that needs to be workshopped. To me, working OUT means going outside of oneself to elicit a change without subscribing to the internal wisdom, abilities, and possibilities of one’s internal selves. From my observations of those that are the healthiest and most fit are those that work IN, and they do so by working within their own abilities, doing the best they can that day. Another observation is that they tend to do less regimented workouts and focus more on play. Yes, just like a kid, the most fit people play. Play doesn’t just mean swinging on a swing set or playing hopscotch, although those are fair game, too.

PLAY-(n)-engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose (dictionary.com)

Personal trainers and fitness professionals that commit to moving long term usually start to exhibit higher and higher levels of play. Even if they claim to follow a strict program of exercises on a spreadsheet with weight percentages and heart rate zones meticulously mapped out, they still tinker and play within the program itself. I see this as a subtle sign of that person’s inner desire for play and creativity. True states of play, meaning those that are free from all expectations, is rare in adults because it is a scary state for adults to be in at first. Play has no direct purpose, mission or objective. And we all know that adults need a reason behind everything. Once someone can let go of purpose and working OUT all the time, they can enter their movement practice with an open mind, free of the stress of expectations. This allows for the key of possibility to open the door of FUN in movement.

In my own recent musings with movement, i treat each movement session (notice how i didn’t say “workout”?) as a way to explore the realm of possibility at that particular point in time. I’m always testing myself in new and unique ways with the realization that my health and fitness goals will take care of themselves when i am enjoying what i am doing first, free from stressful expectations and approaching this practice with exuberance for the belief that my body might be able to do things and teach me things that i never thought possible. Programming and limiting myself to strict sets and reps all the time blunts this realm of possibility.

Now before i get written off as some kind of hippie counter-culturalist proposing that everyone throw away their heart rate monitors and workout logs, let me just say that i am not against these things. If one has a particular competition (i.e.-road race, weightlifting, triathlon, etc.), then there is merit to monitoring progress and progressing in a steady fashion to avoid injury and overtraining. However, blindly following programs all the time does not teach anyone how to listen in to their bodies, it instead outsources those duties to a piece of paper. Even though this may be a safe route because it locks someone in to statistically safe parameters, it doesn’t allow the individual to explore in the realm of possibility. For example, what if athletes, for 3 months out of the year (during the offseason), chose what they wanted to do as long as it was some form of movement. They could be encouraged to try a bunch of new sports, activities, etc. This, along with mental relaxation from the rigors of competition, could make moving exciting again as they rediscovered new ways in which their bodies could move. It could also make their bodies smarter and more resilient by challenging it in new dimensions.

So, to try and sum up my entire rant, i believe a missing link in health is playing in the realm of possibility. Stick to your programs if it provides peace of mind, however, i encourage everyone to step outside for a while and cater to the curiosity of what their body’s may or may not be capable of. This could mean including an element into ones workout that is random, or perhaps even spending weeks or months away from structure. This is especially important for those in high stress jobs who spreadsheet and forecast their working life, only to attempt to do the same with their movement practice. Could play be the skeleton key that unlocks the stress of life? 

I dare you to play…TAG YOU’RE IT!

Before the anti-marxists come down on me for presenting some socialistic ideals, i’d like to say that this recession has surfaced a problem that this country has been fighting for a long time. Deeply embedded in its roots and most apparent in Generation Y, “invidualism” has taken it’s toll on our collective experience in the world we live in. We all fight day in and day out, surrounded by 3 walled cubicles (actual or virtually implied), looking to get ahead in the world. This individualistic mentality, to hold the torch at the top of the mountain, has eroded our potential for progress. We look to outsource everything in order to hone in on the prize, whatever that may be. Our society has placed so much value on recognition, that it has prevented social mobility from moving upward.

As a species, we have survived, not on our own individual efforts, but on our ability to creatively think and execute plans as a group. In the times when our country has fought off hoards of british soldiers during the british revolution, we combined militia forces and waged guerilla warfare on the british. It certainly wouldn’t have been won by Paul Revere trying to showboat and pick off each of the opposing soliders one by one…especially with a slow loading musket rifle. The same is true with Kobe Bryant. Although Bryant is a stellar player, he is only as successful as the team that supports him.

The same holds true in the business world. Greed never accomplishes wealth, albeit in the short term, at best. I think the recession is a good thing. It should, ideally, be a way to slough off poor business practices, force others to improve their services, and put priorities into perspective for business and consumer alike. We have adapted over thousands of years to work creatively together to solve problems, what says we can’t do it again? Many people look to Obama to clean-up the political and economical mess, however it requires a group to get it done.

In the fitness world, we largely have a system based on trainers micro-managing active lifestyles. What if fitness professionals, instead of promising to blow-torch the fat off of the clients bones in 3 hours/week, we encourage accountability and group collaboration? Putting accountability onto the client is a solid way to get them to think about lifestyle change, instead of just blindly accepting a bunch of scientific facts that a fitness professional tells them. We often lose sight of our goals or don’t adhere to our behavior changes because we largely don’t understand completely the value of such behavior(s). I encourage everyone to listen to the internal dialogue you carry with you the next time you eat a doughnut or a large order of french fries. Have you ever really tuned in? The results could be enlightening…and not just the sugar rush.

1) Harmonious action:

seek first to take away what you don’t need before adding more
It is not uncommon to always be looking to add more of what we think we need instead of taking away what we don’t need. Adding more into a system that isn’t balanced to begin with throws us off balance, in disharmony with ourselves and our surroundings. In the case of exercise, some think that more is better, however, there are consequences for over-exercising such as: stagnation in progress, overtraining syndrome, overuse injuries, mental exhaustion, adrenal fatigue, etc. There needs to be a balance of work and rest in order to elicit a healthy change in the body. Yielding to challenges and trying not to control what we can not is a virtuous lesson indeed.  In the case of eating, many seeking weight loss goals look to add supplements instead of first taking away the poor food choices that are taking them further away from their goals. It seems to simple at first, however, supplements will never make up for good quality food. Seek first to add quality whole foods to balance the diet, then add what you feel is needed.

2) Dynamic Balance

choose movement that balances your lifestyle, not just what some expert thinks is best for you

Even though research can be important in helping us improve our health and fitness by providing statistically safe protocols, there are still many variables that cannot be controlled for. This is where instinct ultimately comes in handy. The body has a clever way of telling us what it needs if we learn to listen in. Even if a certain workout or nutrition program has been proven in a lab or by a certain group to be effective, it may not be ideal for you. The highest levels of health and fitness come from tuning into those instincts and finding where the balance lies within oneself. Some people can handle more cardiovascular exercise than others, whereas others can handle heavier bouts of resistance training. If it resonates with you and you feel good, you’re probably on the right track. We need to be cognizant of our lifestyles and choose a movement practice that complements our goals and supports our ambitions in the present.

Stress comes from disrupting the dynamic balance within oneself. Stress, for the purpose of this article, is measured by the distance between what one believes they should be doing and what one is actually doing at a given point in time. If you feel like you need to sweat today, then go for a run. If you feel tight, overworked and exhausted, maybe a light warm-up, some foam rolling, and mobility with some meditation thrown in might be a good call. Ultimately, no amount of super athlete workouts, precision set/rep schemes, or carb counting can account for the accuracy of instinct when one learns to tune in.

3) Oneness

You are not separate from the rest of the world, you are connected to the rest of the world.

How does your health and fitness choices relate to family health, friendships, social health, community, and/or global health? Does the exercise you participate in involve others or help to enrich the lives of others besides your own? Even though our society is more individualistic than ever before, it is important to stay healthy and do so in a way that helps raise the health of all those around us. Instead of going for a walk or going to the gym alone, why not call a friend to join you once in a while? Stay active by volunteering your time at a non-profit, such as a homeless shelter during a weekend or two throughout the year.

4) Cyclical Growth

Even though we have recreated an artificial environment for ourselves, amidst fluorescent lighting and manufactured air being pumped into to our houses and offices, we still are affected by the change in seasons.

Change up your routine, eat seasonally, always have a random variable in place. Specificity has a price and overtraining and overuse syndromes are directly related to repetitive stress by doing the same thing over and over again without variation. The human animal is the most diverse animal on the planet, having the ability to run, jump, skip, swim, climb, crawl, etc. Even though we are not the best at any one physical task, our movement should reflect the celebration of the myriad of movement possibilities. This will not only break the monotony in movement practice/training, but it will also help make a smarter motor system, resistant to injury, overtraining, and boredom. Even if one wishes to train for a specific event, such as a marathon or strongman competition, it is still important to vary the stimulus among training sessions and have a dedicated off-season of varied movement (e.g.-between workouts, change the movements slightly such as replacing a barbell bench press with dumbbell incline presses). I use the off-season time to try new things, recover, clear up any injuries from hard training, and have fun without filling the mind with competition.

The needle, our breath

The thread, our movement path

That sew the body’s movement potential together

If one does not have an intention, a goal or direction, in mind, then one’s vision is clouded, leaving stagnation and frustration in seeking true movement potential. The needle, one’s breath, is the guide that keeps us together, even when there are difficult spots to move through. If we lose the cadence of our breath, we lose our focus, unraveling ourselves into higher levels of fatigue. This loss of focus also pulls and tugs at our intention and makes us question where we are going. When we go back to our breath and keep our focus steady, we can push on. If the right thread is not chosen, the correct movement for our intentions, then we will fall apart along the path that we have chosen, for it is not suited for the task.

Find your honest intentions, practice breath awareness and focus, and choose the right movement path to get you where you need to go.

Those who can remain calm on the outside, making their movement effortless, even in the wake of intense bouts of movement, will be the one’s who must achieve higher levels of fitness and movement potential. Is it any wonder that the best athletes in any sport make their movement appear effortless, their gaze deadset and unwavering, their speech firm and monotonic?

I awake, rouse myself from my slumber, and wait for my good friend Josh to arrive at my house to embark on a journey 70 miles to the south of San Francisco. The destination: a small place called “Jack’s Gym”.

We stopped for coffee along the way at 7am. After sitting in our car for a few minutes postulating about the man we were about to meet, a tiny red Toyota MR2 speeds next to us. A bright eyed-man, just shy of 6 feet tall wedges himself out of the tiny sports car. We exchanged formalities and he invited us up to his gym (called ‘Core Strength’), to show us around. Exuberant with knowledge and excitement, Deric Stockton was quick to share his knowledge about training and his unique philosophy on training. You would think, being a 40-year old powerlifter squatting almost 800 pounds, he would be quick to talk about periodization schemes, how to increase speed on the bar, and assistance exercises to load the body with more weight.

However, what we found was quite the contrary. Deric has developed his own paradigm of training that focuses on developing awareness of the deeper layers of the body. So many of us nowadays are unaware of our bodies, leading to instability, poor posture/movement patterns, and pain. Deric’s philosophy centers around getting the muscles to not only contract, but also to relax so that their action potential is much greater when the time comes to move, which allows for improved performance AND decreases in injury prevalence. Deric spends just as much time on recovery, if not more, as he does training. Much like a Tai Chi master, Deric has figured out that the key to health and strength lies in balancing the Yin and Yang.

As we followed Deric through the evergreen hills of Ben Lomond, we arrived at a small garage space called “Jack’s gym”. The door opened up, and the scent of rubber, and oxidized iron sent back memories of personal records achieved in garages similar to this in years past. This is where strength is practiced, built and celebrated. The tools used are simple, no shiny chrome dumbbells or towel service here. Not unlike a NASCAR mechanic’s shop, the tools slightly rusted and worn, covered in dust, pictures of heroes and past personal records, we readied ourselves for a tune up. After doing some joint mobilization drills that Deric showed us, we were ready to go to work. Today was Bench Day. Always intimidated by the Bench Press since it was one of my weakest lifts, i was hesitant to go heavy. I’ve never Bench Pressed over 235 in my life. After some technique work and some great coaching cues, i managed 10 reps with 225! Then, following that, i pushed out 255 for a triple! I couldn’t believe it, i was stoked. After that we followed our workout up with some assistance exercises, including Dumbbell floor presses for reps. I ended up pulling out 14 reps with 85 pound dumbbells! Stoked. This was a testament to how strong the body can be when the body’s joints are in the right position and working together.

Gleeming with accomplishment, we left the gym to head back to Deric’s house for some grub. After eating, we sat in his living room chatting about Tennis (one of Deric’s favorite sports). Nobody believes a big guy like him could move around on a tennis court, but he plays regularly and is apparently pretty solid at it, too. We watched a tennis match on TV as Deric pointed out the superiority of one player over another and how in elite athletics, athleticism can only be extended by those who harbor ever-increasing strength and power. Ultimately, those that are the strongest and most powerful will be the most successful athletes after the skill has already reached elite levels.

We said our good-byes, although we could have stayed and hung out all day and talked shop. Deric, out of all the strength guys i’ve met, seemed to harbor a peace of mind about him that i haven’t seen anywhere else. He has cultivated through his years of wisdom an inner strength as well as an outer strength that resonated with both Josh and I. He gives us hope that our society hasn’t lost it’s physical culture, reminding us that we can still be strong AND healthy. I hope we can all preserve all of those garage gyms out there, building communities of strong people who challenge themselves no matter what their ability level, age or limitations. The realm of possibility was pushed that day even, as Deric’s training partner lifted over 400 pounds in the deadlift…and he has two bilateral hip replacements! Amazing indeed.

The Iron game has been threatened and challenged by nay-sayers who, through fear, have sought to eliminate heavy lifting, saying that it is “dangerous”, “contraindicated” or “Unnecessary”, however, for those whose life it has enriched, it is something that will live on, even if it is in garages all over the country. When done properly, heavy lifting can be a very positive stimulus on the body, and Deric is living proof of that.

More info about Deric can be found on Liz Koch’s site www.coreawareness.com (there is an audio interview there with Deric and Liz, as well as a link to Deric’s seminar, which will be hosted at his gym called “Core Strength” in scotts valley, ca on July 25th)