May 03

Good Posture and Keeping the Shoulder Blades Down and Back

Standing upright doesn’t seem like a task we should have to consciously put effort toward.  The ability to keep the body vertical with the head, torso, and legs perpendicular to the ground can be commonly overlooked.  That is, until the muscles, bones, and joints bracketing the supporting structures meant to keep the body in the upright standing position malfunction.  Once a physical complication occurs where the body’s structural integrity has a form of weakness in the neck, shoulders, or spine, the body can bend forward, producing a candy cane-like shape, and a curve in the neck and upper back appears.

An example of optimal standing posture for humans can be identified when the head resides neutrally over the spine and hips when in a standing position.  If we can envision a person standing upright and observing them from a lateral perspective, as if you can see the person’s sides of the ears, arms, and pockets, imagine a straight line traced through those three points.  The ear should be in line over the armpits, the armpits should be aligned perpendicular over the middle of the crest of the hip, and the hips should reside over the midline of the lower extremities.

Throughout our personal training sessions, we focus on consistently cueing and ensuring exercise participants maintain the practice of keeping their shoulder blades “parked down and back.”  This is an important concept and reminder that immediately addresses one of the primary causes of suboptimal posture, which is the forward tilting of the head that causes the cervical and thoracic spine to flex forward, creating a forward rounded shape that looks akin to a loaded fishing pole that has a fish attached to the end of it.  Without going into too much scientific detail, let’s try to imagine why it’s not good when the network of bones encasing our spinal cord is flexed in a position that looks like a deep-sea fishing pole being pulled on by a dorado fish off the coast of Uruguay.

The shoulder blades are two bones called scapulae that reside on the back of the rib cage.  The scapula has minimal bone-to-bone attachment to the arms, rib, spine, and collarbone.  Most of the connections from the scapula to the rest of the body occur via large muscles originating at the various borders of the scapula and attach to the skull, along the spine, and to the humerus.  Besides its attachment points to the clavicle and humerus, the scapula floats over the rib cage’s posterior aspect as it glides in multiple directions during muscular contractions.

The scapular muscles play a vital role in maintaining optimal posture when standing, sitting, and interacting in the various actions throughout our everyday lives.  The levator scapulae originates from the cervical vertebrae in the neck and attaches to the top of the shoulder blade.  Its function is to stabilize and elevate the shoulder blade.  The rhomboids originate in the middle of the back at the thoracic spine and attach to the middle, inferior border of the scapula.  Its function is to retract and bring the shoulder blade toward the middle of the back.  The large trapezius muscle spanning half of the back has various attachment points along the neck, scapula, and spine.  It helps play a role in scapular depression, the movement of the gliding of the shoulder blades downward.  These muscles are all connected to the scapula and play a critical role in serving as brackets to hold our head, neck, and top portion of spine upright.  If these muscles become deconditioned, the inverse motion of stabilizing the head and shoulders occurs, producing a kyphotic and slouched forward posture where the upper portion of the cervical and thoracic spine collapses.  These suboptimal neck and thoracic spine posture symptoms can be remedied via exercise, which assists in managing ongoing cases of suboptimal posture, neck, and upper back pain and dysfunction.

An exercise we perform regularly with our personal training clients who are relatively new to exercise is the “leaning against wall-wall press” exercise.  This movement is not only helpful in assisting in the development of muscle mass and connective tissue around the shoulder blades and upper neck, but is also an effective learning tool to educate exercise participants on how to organize their shoulders and neck to avoid movements that might afflict the neck and upper back via suboptimal posture.

To perform the “leaning against wall-wall press”, position your body flat against a wall with a smooth surface and plenty of room to move your arms.  While keeping the lower back flat on the wall, bend your knees to a slightly squatted position.  Extend your elbows to where your arms are at about a forty-five-degree angle and apply pressure as if “pushing the wall away behind you with your arms.”  Apply pressure against the wall for about five seconds, then rest for one to two seconds.   You should feel a muscular sensation in the shoulder blades and back of the upper arms.  Repeat this movement for five to ten repetitions.

Consistency, practice, and developing awareness are commonly overlooked themes when addressing a musculoskeletal injury.  Sometimes, for people who have been faced with the unfortunate condition of spinal issues, the knee-jerk reaction is to turn to anti-inflammatories on the racks of drug stores or to get a steroid injection from their physician to make the pain go away.  Without a muscular strength training regimen, pain-like symptoms, especially when linked to poor posture-related spinal injuries, can return sooner than we think.  By choosing strength training exercises that can be performed competently and avoiding injury during exercise sessions, spinal injuries caused by suboptimal posture can be mitigated to help us be a happy, healthy, and strong version of ourselves for years to come.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Apr 25

Becoming Comfortable Getting Up From the Ground

Before the time chairs were invented and humans needed to get up and down from the ground, in the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I would assume that activities requiring a flat surface, sitting, and sleeping mainly happened on the ground.  I’m sure cavemen and cavewomen probably had the sense to use rocks to build caves and forge other useful tools, but the invention of chairs, beds, and tables probably didn’t occur until a few thousand years later.  Fortunately, the human race has evolved into a sophisticated species where we are now granted chairs, beds, and tables, allowing us to rest our bodies from a standing position with less effort than it would take to perform these actions on the ground.

Tables and desks allow people to sit, eat, and perform work from a surface about the abdomen level.  The chair is a revolutionary invention that enables humans to be amazingly efficient.  Featuring a surface about eighteen to twenty-four inches off the ground, chairs allow humans to rest their buttocks on a platform when needed to rest, eat at a table, or conduct intellectual work at a desk.  Our predecessors from the Jurassic Park era weren’t blessed with the chair.  They would have to kneel or squat down to the rocky, dirt-covered ground, utilizing far more muscles in their lower extremities and exerting more effort than the current era of humans do when sitting down on the seat of a chair.

It should go without saying that the advancements in the features allowing us to efficiently function in our activities of the bustling and innovative inventions the human race has granted us have allowed us to live longer and work more efficiently.  However, our bodies can develop aversions in the form of restricted mobility and a dependency on having a chair around to sit down.  Over time, the body might forget how to get to the ground because chairs have phased out the need to do so.  That’s why we need to channel the lifestyles of our cave people ancestors and become more comfortable getting down to the ground.

We’re not saying to live like a caveman, build fires from flint and tinder, never wash your clothes, and run from saber-tooth tigers.  Life is pretty good here in the twenty-first century.  However, what happens if we find ourselves on the ground after an event such as a trip and fall?  What if we have limited mobility due to the advancement of age, an arthritic joint that causes pain when bending down, or we drop an important object like our phone or car keys, and are apprehensive because of the fear of getting back up after bending down?  I’m sure we can use our imagination if such events occurred to an individual with mobility issues.  Getting up from the ground could be a serious and daunting event if the ability to bend down, kneel, and stand up from the ground is hindered.

A myriad of contributing factors can afflict a person’s well-being and functionality, including an increased risk of falling, decreases in lower extremity strength, and a lack of overall conditioning of the body.  For example, as age advances, joints are likely to develop arthritis, making the changing of angles of joints painful due to a lack of cartilage padding at the ends of joints.  Additionally, it’s not uncommon to see fitness levels decrease as time goes on in a person’s life.  It’s easy to become complacent and lack concern for the degeneration of muscle tissue after retiring from a profession that requires concentrated physical activity.  There is a slew of contributing factors stemming from previous injuries in critical joints that commonly occur throughout a lifetime, such as strains to the lower back, hip, and knees, which can contribute to restrictions in mobility.  While the complications of advancing throughout the timeline of our lifespan occur, adopting a consistent and adherent fitness routine can stave off factors that cause pain, decrease mobility, and hinder overall human function.

Featuring ground-based exercises in a fitness program can create a sense of instinctual comfort with getting up and down from the ground.  Whether it be exercises in which one lies on their back, belly, side, or all fours on knees and hands, the very act of exposing oneself to the surface of the ground and venturing away from a standing position forges a skillset of feeling confident getting up and down from the ground.  Small group exercise classes, such as Yoga and Pilates, include exercises where participants kneel or lie on the ground every session.  Consistently practicing exercises that feature the action of shifting the body’s position to get down on the ground provides an invaluable asset to people who are at higher risk of falling, don’t want to fall, or have a lack of confidence when it comes to picking things up from the ground.

An exercise we feature in our personal training clients’ exercise programs to develop mastery and competency in standing up from the ground includes the “standing up from kneeling position split squat.”

To perform the “standing up from a kneeling position split squat,”  position your body next to a stabilizing object, such as a wall, chair, or post.  Take a large step forward with one leg to assume a “lunged” position.  You can use the stabilizing object to support yourself by grabbing or leaning into it.  Slowly bend the trailing leg so the knee gently lands on the ground.  Once your body is kneeling, push evenly through the leading foot’s heel and the trailing foot’s ball of the foot and return to a standing position.  Repeat this movement for one to three repetitions on each leg.

Strength and conditioning of the skeletal muscle are critically important for the ability to perform movements that allow us to get up from the ground.  Therefore, confidence, coordination, and competency in the skillset for getting up from the ground can’t be overstated.  Practicing movements that enhance muscular strength and endurance for the lower extremities can also regularly enhance the body’s ability to get up and down from the ground.  By ingraining a consistent exercise program that focuses on bending down to the ground, getting on the ground, and getting up off the ground, we can reinforce our body, mind, and habits to live happy, healthy, and strong lives for the long run.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Apr 19

Managing Arthritis and Osteoporosis- Strong Muscles Lead to Strong Bones

“My joints make some exciting noises when I get out of bed in the morning,” commented one of our personal training clients, Natalia.  “See?  Watch this,”  Natalia added as if demonstrating a magic trick.  Natalia bent down to pick her exercise mat off the ground, and a few grinding and popping sounds could be heard in her joints.  “Sometimes I think it sounds like I’m making popcorn in the microwave or grinding two marbles together throughout my back and knees.”

Natalia is a retired woman in her mid-sixties who enjoys traveling on expeditions to different continents two to three times a year, playing bocce ball, golf, and pickleball with her girlfriends, and loves hanging out with her grandchildren.  She jokes that she’s a certified Uber driver who works for free because when her son and daughter are at work, she picks up her grandkids from kindergarten and middle school and drives through Napa to drop them off at music lessons, sports practice, or their friends’ houses.  She might be retired from her previous career, but she keeps busy.

A consistent exercise routine assists Natalia in maintaining her physical and functional abilities so she can continue to do what she enjoys post-retirement.  The ability to hang out with her buddies while golfing and enjoying multiple seasons of bocce league throughout the year is something she holds near and dear to her heart.  Her recreational activities, as well as the ability to have energy to be able to interact with the various people who depend on her, are reinforced by her optimal fitness levels.  However, as demonstrated by Natalia’s sense of humor when she jokes about the audible crackling, grinding, and popping her joints make when she moves, she understands that general age-related progressions in bone and joint degeneration can occur.

Osteoporosis can be defined as a condition in which the quality of the structure of bones changes when bone mineral density and bone mass decrease.  “Osteo” refers to bone, and “porosis” refers to porous.  Combine the two words, and you have a term that means “porous bones.”  In advanced forms of osteoporosis, the bone’s molecular integrity can transform into a more brittle infrastructure.  Imagine the rigidity and strength present in a fresh piece of redwood that has been processed from a wood mill and is ready to hold together the framing of a new house.  Then, compare that piece of redwood to the bark of a cork tree set out to dry in the sun.  If osteoporosis progresses to advanced stages of bone degradation, bones that we depend on, such as the spine, hips, and lower extremities, can become porous and worn down like a piece of wood that has been set out to dry, to become a flimsy, brittle, and weak structure.

Another symptom that appears as humans progress in age is arthritis, the degradation of the cartilage coating the ends of bones.  Cartilage acts as a cushion and lubricant meant to aid in the efficient gliding of joints in actions such as when the knees flex and extend when stepping up and down stairs.  Advanced forms of arthritis feature cartilage degeneration at the ends of joints.  As joint cartilage diminishes, sensations and sounds of crepitus can appear alongside increased joint pain due to bone-to-bone contact.

Bone cells reside in the connective tissue family, like their cousins ligament, tendon, and muscle cells.  Equipped with a blood supply, bone cells are comprised of organic tissue that reacts to the environment they are exposed to, in which they can either grow and become more dense or atrophy and shrink in size.  A commonly understood concept is that when muscles are broken down from the effects of a concentrated exercise session, the muscles will heal over time and become bigger, stronger, and more durable to lift more weight and last longer throughout future exercise sessions.  Bones react similarly by becoming stronger and more dense when a consistent, safe, and effective exercise routine is applied.

Without going into too much scientific detail, bone cells and other connective tissue throughout the body react to exercise by adapting to the imposed demand applied via exercise.  In exercise physiologist lingo, we sometimes use the SAID principle, an abbreviation for “specific adaptation to imposed demand”.  If we apply the SAID principle utilizing exercise to imply a specific demand for bone strengthening, then exercise would act as a type of productive stress to disturb bone cells by the force applied to them by a form of resistance training.  As the bones detect this stress, their natural reaction is to regenerate new bone cells at the microscopic level.  Over a period of time of consistent and injury-free resistance training, more bone cells are produced, and bone mineral density can be significantly increased.  In contrast to how bones adapt to become stronger over time by practicing skillful exercise adherence, bones can shrink and lose mass when physical activity levels decrease or exercise is absent.  Additionally, developing muscular and tendon strength from routine exercise supports joints by helping them stay aligned, which can mitigate bone-to-bone friction present in advanced forms of arthritis.

Natalia has a healthy relationship with the current state of her bones and joints.  She’s lived on this earth for over fifty years, given birth to a few humans, worked her butt off in a successful career, and endured a few injuries along the way.  She understands that the framework of her body has endured some stress and that skillfully conducted exercise reinforces her bone architecture.  While exercise adherence is undoubtedly a staple in her life to reinforce her body, the most critical ingredient toward her success is her inspiration and drive to want to live her life throughout her sixties happy, healthy, and strong so she can enjoy the thrills of being a grandmother, a good friend, and never get off the roller coaster of adventure that is in front of her as she progresses throughout her post retirement portion of life.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Apr 11

Finding Time to Exercise when Time is at a Premium

Acquiring a membership to a local gym, attending small group fitness classes, or signing up for personal training has proven time and time again to aid in refining an individual’s health and fitness.  Building muscular strength, redistributing fat mass to lean muscle, enhancing mood, staving off risk factors for metabolic disease, managing stress, and contributing to an overall increased state of happiness are just a few benefits of adhering to a consistent exercise routine.  Memberships to a local gym, a series package to a Yoga class, or signing up for ten sessions with a personal trainer are potent catalysts to accelerate efforts in achieving fitness goals.  Attending a fitness class or ensuring you are on time for a personal training appointment motivates people to adhere toward exercising consistently because there is a sense of accountability to attending a scheduled fitness class that only runs at set times throughout the week.   Regarding personal training appointments, fitness professionals reserve an appointment for someone to exercise at a specific time.  Additionally, there is an obligation to attend such fitness services because they have been paid for with someone’s hard-earned money.  However, even with financial commitments and an accountability partner with a personal trainer who has been paid a premium amount to be available to lead someone through a customized exercise prescription in a private setting, people still find a way to avoid exercising.

One of the biggest obstacles for people missing their exercise sessions isn’t necessarily the lack of resources to exercise; it’s factors of time, gym intimidation, or simply the dislike of entering a gym setting filled with other sweaty humans.  Time is slim pickings for busy professionals and parents of young children.  Forty hours a week is a lot of time to devote to one’s work and family life, making it challenging to drive to a local gym, find a parking space, and enter a packed gym floor during rush hour right after getting off of work.  Activities such as soccer practice, music lessons, or making dinner for middle school-aged children are priorities for busy parents. There isn’t much time at the end of the day.

Due to the demands placed upon some people’s schedules, the last thing on their minds is ensuring to get exercise accomplished.  More often than not, people want to progress in their health and fitness status.  Losing weight, having more energy, living in less pain, and healthy management of psychological and emotional stress are things that pretty much everyone on the planet wants.  It’s no surprise that consistent exercise offers this.  Research repeatedly supports exercise’s beneficial effects on human lives by decreasing physical pain due to advancement in age, increasing bone mineral density to fend off arthritis and osteoporosis, increasing overall functional capacity, and aiding in managing psychological and emotional stress. So, what can we do to improve exercise adherence?

Having something to look forward to can make ingraining tactics in our weekly to-do sheet more obtainable.  If we look forward to something, we build a sense of healthy anxiety, similar to an “I can’t wait” type of feeling.  Perhaps finding a particular instructor at a Yoga or Pilates class whose teaching style you like could resonate with the pace and flow you like.  You might enjoy the conversations, sense of humor, or music an instructor plays at a spin or core fusion class featured at one of Napa’s local gyms.  Maybe it’s the colors on the wall, the lighting, or the smell of the fitness center that appeals to you.  Having memorable portions of the experience at a chosen fitness center can offer a sense of fondness that makes participating in exercise desirable, as opposed to an inconvenient thorn in the side when the hours of the day rapidly trickle away.

Another helpful contributing factor toward ensuring a goal amount of exercise throughout the week is accomplished might be getting a workout in before the day’s hustle-and-bustle begins.  In other words, paving out time to exercise by working out before work starts or before chauffeuring children around is a potently effective tactic toward exercise compliance.  Don’t let the day get carried away on days you need to exercise.  Otherwise, the likelihood of completing an exercise session is substantially less likely to occur.

It’s also critically important to choose an enjoyable exercise experience.  If performing heavy barbell lifts and jumping around like a bunch of chimpanzees while listening to Swedish death metal is entertaining, go for it.  However, if you’re forcing yourself to endure an experience of lifting heavy pieces of metal up and down while a cacophony of drums, guitars, and shrieking screaming are filling the airwaves, producing a sense of strife, perhaps that setting isn’t for you.  Understanding what produces an enjoyable and memorable exercise experience is key to adhering to a healthy fitness practice.  If someone resents an exercise setting, they’re less likely to attend and comply with consistent fitness efforts.

Finding an enjoyable, memorable, and fun setting assists in participating in more regular weekly exercise.  Sometimes, working out earlier before our workday starts is helpful. Avoiding exercises and fitness settings that aren’t enjoyable aids in adhering to a fitness routine.  No one likes doing things against their will.  So, choosing exercises that give a sense of enjoyment, accomplishment, and fulfillment is important for complying with getting weekly exercise sessions accomplished.  Try to have a good time in your fitness journey and reserve time for yourself to exercise so you can live happy, healthy, and strong lives.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Apr 02

Health and Fitness Maintenance Throughout a Busy Schedule

Entering a career as an apprentice after trade school, acquiring a paid internship after graduating from college, or starting a company as a self-employed proprietor or independently run business are impressive accomplishments in one’s career.  The substantial investment of time and energy required to develop a valuable skill set and forge a life where talent and passion can be applied to create a new life is a rewarding and fulfilling accomplishment.  After a solid position in the workforce has been established, a sense of comfort and stability in one’s path toward making a living in the profession they feel the most comfortable with can be a significant part of one’s life.  Sometimes, we forget about the amount of time and energy it takes to reach our current position in our career path.  Five, ten, or even twenty years isn’t unusual for people to finally reach their desired level of comfort in their careers.  Even after that amount of time, people continue to strive for new professional and personal goals.

The skill sets that offer optimal career outcomes, such as promotions within a workplace or an increase in business success, are usually due to the mastery of the skills necessary to excel and produce exceptional outcomes in that line of work.  Years of performing the same duties, continuously troubleshooting and resolving problems, and being immersed in a specific job skill produce the ability for people to conduct successful job tasks instinctually.  For example, general physicians can diagnose symptoms and conditions due to their rigorous educational training throughout medical school and residency.  They can treat patients and understand health concerns more quickly than the average person because they’ve practiced that skill set for a significant portion of their lives.  Law professionals, such as police officers and attorneys, are another prime example of individuals who have honed their job-specific skills to stay up to speed on the infrastructure of various legal structures throughout society.  Their understanding of the logistics involved in society’s legal structure enables them to speak eloquently and fluidly to the general public, educating them about legal topics without hesitation.  Advanced skill sets, such as practicing medicine and navigating legal logistics, take years to master.  Due to the in-depth studying and diligent efforts invested into their work, making decisions in what appears to be intimidating and complicated to the general population is second nature to doctors, lawyers, and police officers.  Could this process of instinctually understanding how to skillfully conduct work and resolve issues be applied to forging a solid foundation of lifetime fitness as well?  I’d like to raise my hand and say yes.

If a police officer, criminal defense attorney, or emergency physician were to call in sick one day, take a vacation, or take an extended personal leave, they could return to their jobs and perform the same set of tasks they did before their brief absence from their line of work.  In what appears to be an intimidating and stress-inducing set of job duties to the general population, the years of experience and study by advanced legal and healthcare practitioners allow them to pick up where they left off in their work duties and are akin to riding a bike after a brief absence from their line of work.

Comparing this to the world of lifetime fitness isn’t much different.  That is, if there is a strong foundation of eating healthy, taking time out for recreational physical activity, and ensuring to achieve one to three days a week of strength training, flexibility and mobility work, and injury prevention training.  What would happen if we spent the same amount of time on reinforcing our knowledge of exercises that are the best for our bodies and ensuring we consistently hone our skills in how to exercise utilizing tactics that are the best suited for our bodies, similar to the way a doctor, attorney, or street cop hone their skills?  It should go without saying that many more people would have a lower likelihood of metabolic disease, be happier, and be more productive throughout their everyday lives.  Additionally, having a body with an efficient amount of lean muscle mass, less fat mass, and less pain, along with an increased bandwidth in psychological and emotional well-being, could enable society and various workforces to operate at a higher level of productivity.

When advanced skill sets aren’t practiced, the quality of the subtle nuances of a particular skill is likely to diminish.  To avoid the possibility of our health being hindered, it is essential to prioritize exercise and not let it fall to the back burner.  If exercise isn’t adhered to consistently, an increase in subcutaneous fat mass, threats of metabolic diseases, or carrying emotional and psychological stress aren’t the only things that might affect our livelihood.  The very foundation and infrastructure of lifetime fitness efforts become hindered because regular exercise can quickly become a diminishing skill set if it’s not practiced consistently.  Just as we show up to work at our jobs and try to avoid calling in sick, ensuring to plan out consistent exercise shouldn’t be treated any differently.  Adherence to a consistent, safe, and effective exercise program should be viewed as part of our careers, and we should continually hone our skills in exercise so that we can not only thrive in our careers but also enjoy the lives we’ve worked so hard for to create a lifelong future we can thrive in.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Mar 21

Finger Strength-Get a Grip on your Fitness Routine

The small bones protruding from the ends of our hands meticulously function throughout our everyday lives to perform tasks with remarkable dexterity and precision, beginning first thing in the morning and maintaining their efficient productivity until the last moments before our heads rest on a pillow and we transition into a deep slumber.  These little bones are our fingers.  Sometimes referred to as digits or phalanges, the fingers are powered by small ligaments, tendons, and muscles that encircle each bone.  The fingers are equipped with a network of nerves that immediately receive a signal from our brain, which then travels through our spinal cord and ends up at the tips of each of our ten fingers.  This signal contains messages instructing our fingers to move harmoniously and in an intricately organized fashion to execute fine motor movements. These small organs, located at the end of our hands, don’t receive a lot of attention compared to other joints and muscles in the body.  Why are the fingers just as important as other commonly injured joints, such as the neck, shoulder, lower back, hips, knees, or ankles?  We probably don’t think twice about how important our fingers are until they have trouble functioning.  The anatomy of the fingers is more complex than what they first appear, and the condition of our fingers is critically important to our overall quality of life.

As I sit in my computer chair typing this article, I’m engaging in a tremendous amount of neuromuscular interactions by striking the keys with the tips of my fingers, utilizing the skills I was taught in grade school to type over sixty words per minute.  There have been moments when I’ve cut the tip of my thumb or one of the neighboring fingers, in which a band-aid had to be placed on that finger to lessen the impact of hitting a key so I wouldn’t be distracted by the annoying pain of each key click.  That seemingly small distraction also disrupted my efficiency in tasks such as grabbing a fork to scramble my eggs in the morning, zipping the zipper of my hoodie, and typing on my keyboard while answering emails and conducting administrative duties.  Who would’ve thought the seemingly simple activity of pressing down on a space bar, “e” key, or shift button could be taken away by a minor flesh wound?

For some members of the general population, a small cut to the tip of the finger is minor compared to other factors that hinder finger strength and everyday life human functionality.  Degenerative bone and joint conditions, such as osteoporosis and arthritis in the wrist and fingers, can impair an individual’s normal daily functions. These conditions not only cause pain in the fingers, wrists, and hands but can also lead to physical deformity due to the progression of arthritis.  After long careers of hand usage to conduct rigorous physical labor, such as swinging hammers as a craftsman, working with a knife as a chef, or being a massage therapist for years, arthritic physical side effects can appear in which the interphalangeal joints between each digit in the fingers can deviate in an abnormal direction away from normal joint congruency, creating fingers that appear crooked when compared to their normal straight alignment. Additionally, the deterioration of tendon and ligament strength within the fingers can occur over time if excessive stress is applied throughout a career of demanding physical activity.  The result of years of hard work using our hands can lead to a loss of strength, reduced ability to fully flex or extend the fingers, and impaired neuromuscular coordination throughout the fingers.

As the physical stresses of being a successful human in our society seem to appear at multiple angles, in addition to our finger and hand health, we don’t need to settle on the fact that we might be dealing with maladies that appear permanent.  We can always make an effort to improve our situation and progress towards a better outcome.  In the case of finger and hand performance, adhering to a consistent exercise program can lead to positive outcomes in enhancing finger and hand strength, allowing us to operate more efficiently in various activities that involve hand and finger movements.

A simple and effective movement we instruct most of our personal training clients to perform at the beginning of each training session includes a forearm, wrist, and finger warm-up:

Finger Flexion and Extension:  To perform the finger flexion and extension exercise, start by extending your arms in front of you at about armpit level.  Straighten the fingers away from the body until you experience a muscular sensation in the back of the hand, wrist, and forearms.  Reverse the motion by making a fist and squeezing with both hands, as if you’re wringing out a wet towel, until you experience a muscular sensation in your forearms.  Repeat this movement with both hands simultaneously for five to ten repetitions.

If we’re looking to improve grip strength or tactics to reduce wrist or finger arthritic discomfort, adhering to a consistent exercise routine one to three times per week is critically important.  Whether it’s completing a self-guided workout for forty-five minutes at Planet Fitness, attending Yoga classes, or setting aside time for an at-home exercise routine, consistency in an exercise program is a critically important asset in maintaining not only hand health but also the overall health of the body.  If you have time, try to incorporate a few finger-specific exercises into your routine before starting the day.  The results of a strong set of fingers has the potential to create a surprisingly happier, healthier, and stronger life for years to come.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Mar 14

Exercising for Something you Look Forward to

What inspires you?  What motivates you?  What makes you excited?  These questions can help us get up in the morning and get the most out of the time and energy we dedicate to activities throughout our day.  How?  If we answer these questions in a few sentences, perhaps we can either remind ourselves of what we enjoy doing or we can discover new goals we want to achieve.  The ambition to experience fun and invigorating new adventures, interact with energizing environments, or complete projects is fulfilling and rewarding.  However, monumental goals, whether short term or big and audacious, require a certain amount of energy, time, and preparation.  Having something to look forward to is potent fuel to prepare us for special moments, whether a few days away, three to four weeks from now, a few months, or even years.

The arena of lifetime fitness pays substantial dividends to our ability to enjoy what we look forward to.  A few examples of events that might produce feelings of excitement on the horizon for hard-working parents, employees, or the retired population can span anywhere from a weekend getaway to a nearby location or a trip to Europe in celebration of monumental accomplishments like a 60th birthday, a college graduation, or retiring after a long career.  Another example might be the draw to feel and look the best for a wedding for oneself or a friend.  Additionally, preparing for recreational sporting events such as a golf tournament, long-distance run, pickleball, or tennis tournament requires a refined fitness level.  Let’s not forget about a few of the more simple things that might occur every weekend that are a bright spot in our lives such as throwing a baseball with our kids or grand kids, walking or taking hikes with loved ones or friends, having the ability to bend down to pull weeds out of the garden, refinish a piece of furniture, or move a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer from one side of the kitchen to the other.  These activities don’t necessarily require a hyper-athletic fitness model like physique, but existing in our everyday environment with less fat mass, more muscle and strength, and extra energy unquestionably assists us in enjoying and savoring moments we look forward to.

Adhering to a healthy lifestyle, exercising regularly throughout the week, and abstaining from activities and environments that could harm our health doesn’t come without challenges.  After a long day of work, a cold beer, a few glasses of wine, and chips and crackers while paroosing through the multiple sources of sporting news, Instagram and Tik Tok feeds, and Netflix shows is psychologically and emotionally comforting and decompressing.  A homemade dinner consisting of vegetables, a lean protein, and a glass of sparkling water at the end of the day probably doesn’t sound as appealing as a slice of pizza or taco dish delivered from one of Napa’s amazing restaurants brought to our doorstep by Doordash.

As humans, we usually gravitate toward the path of least resistance.  It’s easy to eat whatever foods we think taste good without any care for the consequences they might have on the amount of fat mass we have on our bodies.  Lounging around and enjoying more than a few glasses of beer, wine, or cocktails after a long day of sitting at a desk for eight hours is relaxing and doesn’t take much effort.  However, if these activities of consuming too much unhealthy food and decreasing physical activity occur too often, the experiences we look forward to in life can be threatened because we didn’t take care of ourselves.

Finding a bright spot on the horizon that we embrace with anxious anticipation is a potent tool that helps fuel motivating factors to live a happy, healthy, and strong life.  Whether it be spending time with others, preparing for an event in which the body needs to be optimally conditioned, or planning a monumental vacation, maintaining a healthy and active life supports these events we look forward to.  It takes additional motivation, effort, and concentration to abstain from activities that hinder our health goals.  Additionally, it also takes effort to exercise two to three days a week and practice healthy eating habits.  However, if we dig deep and tap into what inspires us and focus on what we look forward to, perhaps building a path to be happy, healthy, and strong can empower us to enjoy the events we cherish in the future.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Mar 06

Train me to get up off the floor

“What’s the sport where the super athletic crazy guys jump on walls and scale them like a lizard?”  Asked Ophelia at one of her morning training sessions.  “You know, you see stunt men do it in Jason Bourne and John Wick movies.  They hang off walls, drop from cliffs, and land like cats after a broad jump from a twenty-foot roof top.”  She added.  “Oh, that’s parkour.”  Coach Slash, her assigned personal trainer for the session, replied.  “That’s a type of athletic discipline in which the goal is to get from one point to another the fastest way possible.  That sometimes means jumping from one roof top to another.”  Ophelia paused momentarily with a sly smirk. “I want you to train me to be able to do that.”  She snickered and added, “Either that or make it to where I can get up and down from the floor.”

Ophelia is one of our diligent and devoted personal training clients in her mid-sixties.  She is in exceptional health and maintains a healthy ratio of lean muscle mass to fat mass, show’s up on time to her bi-weekly training sessions fifteen minutes early ready to warm up and exercise, and, as we can see by her comments at the beginning of the page, she has a witty and spry sense of humor.  So, Ophelia is doing a lot of things correctly when it comes to practicing the art of lifetime fitness.  A consistent exercise ritual, a healthy diet, smiling, and laughter are a significant portion of her life.

As humans advance in age, events occur that make seemingly normal activities like getting up and down from the floor become challenging.  Past events throughout our lives can contribute to joint pain, mobility limitations, or muscular weakness.  The first steps when getting out of bed first thing in the morning can remind us that somewhere along the line in our life, we’ve tweaked our back, strained a shoulder tendon, or our joints have developed arthritis.

The byproducts of enduring the stresses of life have the likelihood of producing pain-like symptoms, contributing to the reduction of our normal physical activities, and changing the way we interact with our everyday life environments.  Contributing factors leading to increased pain and mobility impairment include sedentary lifestyles, poor dietary decisions, or lack of motivation to overcome and rehab significant injuries.  These examples are often due to neglecting the importance of staying active and exercising, which produces suboptimal lifestyle adaptations that might include the inability to perform simple human functions, such as getting up and down from the floor.

Superflous amounts of sitting for hours, consuming high amount of starchy and fatty foods during low levels of physical activity, endulging in drinking copious amounts of alcohol more than half the week, or putting routine exercise on the back burner are self induced examples of why people struggle to perform something as simple as getting up and down from the ground.  These examples don’t include living with an advanced form of arthritis and osteoporosis, a degenerative nerve disease, or recovering from joint replacement surgery.  Those extreme cases require a more advanced form of therapy and medical intervention.  However, human’s in our current day and age can significantly benefit from focusing on the low hanging fruits of success by ensuring to refine the issues that are right in front of them they have control over such as practicing healthy dietary choices, sitting less, moving more, and finding exercises and recreational physical activities they enjoy.

General advancement in age can be expected to occur every time we pass around the sun.  We don’t need cutting-edge research to demonstrate that a body that is a year older than it was three hundred and sixty-five days ago has bone, joint, and connective tissue that isn’t as new as what it was in the past.  While we know that the tissues in the body change over time, and sometimes the tissue becomes more brittle and our coordination isn’t where it was as teenagers at our athletic prime, one thing that we never want to disappear is our ability to get up and down off the floor.  Similar to when a baseball player doesn’t practice playing catch and the ability to catch and throw can decrease, getting up and down from the ground is a diminishing skill set.  Focusing on small goals such as managing weight, working on not overindulging too much in alcohol or treats, and practicing exercises that reinforce the ability to get up and down from the floor can help us to live happier, healthier, and stronger lives.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Feb 28

Strong, Mobile, and Durable Hips

Hobbies, traveling, completing weekend projects, and spending time with friends, family, and significant others require the ability to move and interact with the environment around us.  Retired and career-driven populations looking to start a family or who are already raising children depend on efficient human movement.  Whether it be working on refinishing a side table for our living room, sitting at a desk for eight to ten hours at the office, or carting a group of pre-teens to and from extracurricular activities or youth sporting events, our bodies need to function properly to support the people, communities, and projects that rely on us.

Bending over, getting up and down from a seated or kneeling position, reaching in front, twisting and rotating, or simply walking to and from the car seems simple.  That is, until a spasm in the lower back, pain in the hip region, or knee mobility limitations unveil themselves to hinder normal human function.  While a healthy diet, maintaining a reasonable lean muscle mass to fat mass ratio, and staying cardiovasculary fit are critical toward the success of our everyday life activities, a commonly overlooked component of our body that contributes to a substantial portion of our human movement is the hip joint and its sophisitcated network of muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, bursaes, and bone-to-bone attachments.

Residing smack dab in the middle of the body, the hips consist of the attachment of the spine to the sacrum, the pelvic girdle, and the right and left femur that inserts into the hip joint.  This dense, bony framework assists the torso in rotating from left to right and bending the torso up and down.  Additionally, the hip joint allows our lower extremities to stride forward when walking, scaling a set of stairs, or stepping up and over objects.  It’s valuable to appreciate the muscles that create such seemingly simple movements, granting us the ability to function successfully in society as bipedal organisms.

The hip flexor muscles originate from the anterior portion of the spine and the inside of the pelvic girdle and attach to the front of the femurs.  Deep, intrinsic hip flexor muscles such as the psoas and rectus femoris create powerful movements of hip flexion, better known as bringing the thigh closer to the torso and forward when we walk, climb up a set of stairs, or lift the legs to put on our shoes and socks.  The glutes originate at the back end of the hip bone and are attached to the back of the thigh.  Gluteal muscles are strong hip extensors that push the pelvis forward underneath the torso to assist in maintaining an upright posture.  Bringing the leg backward during the posterior path of follow-through when walking movement is also supported by the gluteal and hamstring muscles.  The abductors originate at the top of the pelvic girdle and attach to the inner bottom portion of the thigh and the top of the tibia, or shin bone, below the knee joint.  Moving the leg to the outside and away from the body’s midline is powered by the abductors.  Abduction means to “take away,”  for example, like someone is being “abducted by aliens.”  The difference is that aliens aren’t taking away our thighs.   Our hip abductor muscles are “taking away” the thigh from the body’s midline, utilizing muscular force by abducting the hip.

A movement that we conduct with our personal training clients every training session to ensure the body never forgets how to perform the normal daily function of walking, stepping up, or getting up and down from the ground is hip flexion.  The seemingly basic function of bringing the hip forward is commonly overlooked.  Hip flexion usually isn’t on the forefront of people’s minds until one can’t get up off the ground or has issues going up and down stairs.  Therefore, practicing the forward movement of the hip should never be overstated and practiced consistently.  An example of practicing hip flexion is the “standing leg kick stretch” within our dynamic stretching warm-up that is conducted at the beginning of every training session to activate the muscle of hip flexion.

Standing Leg Kick Stretch:  Reach your hand in front of you.  While keeping your supporting leg straight, actively bring one leg in front of you to touch your hand as if you are performing a kicking motion.  Ensure that the kicking leg is kept as straight as possible. You should experience a slight stretching sensation in your hamstring and calf muscles.  Repeat this movement five to ten times on both legs.

If a guitarist doesn’t practice their musical talent, they might not perform to their musically gifted potential because lack of rehearsing a movement that one seems to know like the back of their hand consistently becomes a diminished skill.  The movements of the hip aren’t much different if a seemingly innate skillset isn’t practiced.  Therefore, ensuring to consistently practice the movements our hips produce contributes to keeping the body’s physical conditioning in a fine-tuned and polished state to live happy, healthy, and strong lives.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

Feb 19

Going on Walking Dates for Physical and Emotional Health

The never-ending hamster wheel of stress hits us from all angles in portions of our lives where we spend most of our time.  An example might include spending eight to ten hours per day devoting our time and energy to our jobs, whether on our computers, phones, commuting in the car, or parked in chairs at the office.  Or, we might spend a superfluous amount of time absorbing electronic forms of entertainment, such as checking our phones every five minutes to see what text messages we may have received or what the hottest new thread of social media networks might be.  For parents of school-age children, the demands of ensuring children get to school or sports practice on time adds another set of tactics that can’t be left undone.  It’s easy for us to put other activities first before taking care of ourselves.  For those of us who have spouses, significant others, or friends that we enjoy hanging out with outside of employment and family life logistics, spending time with those people might be exactly what we need to separate ourselves from the perpetual fire hose of the stresses life imposes on us.  Scheduling a date to set aside your normal work life and taking a walk with a special person not only helps enhance physical well-being but also introduces much-needed time to decompress and enjoy social interaction with another human who doesn’t want your money, depend on you to make money for their business, and grants you freedom from worrying about other humans who depend on you.

Walking is an underappreciated form of fitness that optimizes human performance in a multitude of ways.  If we were to track the daily steps a server at one of Napa’s local restaurants takes, twenty thousand steps would be a minimum amount throughout an eight-hour shift of waiting tables. The physical demands of food servers, bartenders, and bussers require a sufficient cardiovascular system, a strong core to stand upright, and joints that can endure the stresses of being mobile for an eight-hour shift.  For workers who sit at a desk answering phone calls, working on reports, or answering emails, achieving ten thousand steps is a reach.  The desk worker, commuter, or stay-at-home parent might not have the same physical demands as a high-speed food server.  Furthermore, the type of stress an individual produces when completing the administrative logistics of managing schedules, answering phone calls and texts, and tabulating financial logistics produces a substantial amount of mental, psychological, and emotional stress.  By the time we come home to our families or loved ones, we’re pretty much a ticking time bomb full of enough stressful energy to unleash upon the first person in sight after stepping through the front door.

Research has repeatedly produced evidence that exercise is a panacea of solutions to not only enhance our physical well-being, but regular exercise also acts as a potent medicine to counteract psychological stress.  While going to the gym and adhering to gym sessions containing resistance training, entering a cycling class to get a sweat on, or following a Yoga instructional video produces significant adaptations toward enhancing fitness levels, it might be just another box to check off for an individual getting off an eight to ten hour work day.  If attending the local gym or participating in a spin or Pilates class doesn’t seem like the right fit, perhaps the simple act of walking with your spouse, friend, or child might be a useful alternative.  The combination of a leisurely walk with someone you get along with and look forward to sharing time with has the potential to decrease psychological and emotional stress while exercising muscles that might have laid dormant all day while working.

Scheduling walking dates throughout the week doesn’t hold the same expectations as completing a rigorous workout at a local gym or small group fitness class.  The demands of walking are more achievable than ensuring one must show up at a certain time for spin, Yoga, or Pilates class.  We can walk outside our dwelling and start moving forward at a slow pace with minimal expectations on when we’re going to start a walk.  The only requirement is showing up for a walk.  The chirping birds, trees waving in the wind, the bright sun, and the dimly lit moon don’t care when you join them for a leisurely walk.  So, take a walk when ever you want.  More importantly, if you find a friend who wants to join you on a walk with little to no expectation of physical exertion level and a flexible schedule, the benefits toward our lifetime fitness efforts are profoundly empowering.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com, or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

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