Sep 05

Strong Legs Help Manage Knee Osteoarthritis

“I have to wear stupid heels when going up and down the stairs.  That kills my knees,” commented a client of mine who works as a stockbroker in San Francisco.  She was in her fifties, climbing office stairs several times a day in shoes never designed for it, and the pain had settled into her kneecaps.

After a visit to the doctor, she was told that she had an advanced form of osteoarthritis and that the degeneration of cartilage, bone-on-bone compression within the joints, and the advancement of age were contributing factors to her knee pain.  She didn’t want to accept that knee pain would dictate the rest of her life, so she signed up for training.  Instead of chasing individual muscle groups, we trained coordination, movement through different planes of motion, and the moments when her knees actually hurt.  After a few months of consistent strength and conditioning, she was hiking with her family and climbing up and down stairs in the stupid heels with significantly less knee pain.

Osteoarthritis is worth separating from arthritis in general, because other forms work differently in the body.  In the knee, it means the smooth cartilage covering the ends of the femur and tibia has thinned and roughened over the years.  Resistance training doesn’t rebuild that cartilage, and it isn’t a cure.  What it changes is the muscular system surrounding the joint.

The quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calf muscles constantly adjust force to control the knee while we move.  These muscles work like a car’s suspension system.  Strong muscles don’t eliminate every bump in the road, but they help the rest of the vehicle, which are the joints in our body, manage them.  Muscles also work as brakes.  Descending a staircase or stepping off a curb requires the quadriceps and glutes to control how quickly body weight travels downward.  Better brakes mean better control over how force enters the joint.

The most useful way to think about it might be engine size.  If a person’s legs are deconditioned, standing from a chair can require nearly all of their available muscular capacity.  However, after several months of consistent strength and conditioning, that same action of squatting up from a chair might require closer to half of the force produced by the working muscles responsible for that specific action.  Everyday functional movements such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, and getting up off the ground become relatively less demanding when a body conditioned through consistent, effective strength and conditioning practice is present.

The nervous system also plays a role.  People living with knee osteoarthritis frequently demonstrate weakness in the quadriceps and hamstrings, altered muscle activation, and reduced awareness of where the joint sits in space.  For example, when intense knee pain is present, common adaptations to compensate might include stiffening the knee, taking shorter, choppier, scuttle-like steps when walking, favoring one leg, or contracting every muscle around the joint at once.  Building strength and control through safe, effective exercise so the right muscles produce enough force can help alleviate joint pain.  Compound exercises that require several muscle groups to work together help develop that timing.

Cartilage is less like the rubber tread on a tire and more like living tissue that expects to be used.  The cells within it respond to loading, and appropriate movement sends signals that help maintain healthy cartilage.  Excessive stress can do the opposite.  The old wear-and-tear model can lead us to believe that using an arthritic joint will wear it out faster.  It’s worth speaking with a physical therapist or physician about what’s appropriate before starting a new routine.

The reverse step-down is a safe and effective exercise we use with our personal training clients to build control on the way down.  It trains the quadriceps and glutes to act as brakes, which is exactly what a staircase demands of the knee.

To perform the “reverse step-down,” stand on a low step or curb with one hand on a wall or railing for support.  Ensure you are facing the step to emulate a “backward stepping” motion off the inclined surface.  Slowly lower one foot toward the ground, taking about three seconds on the way down, while keeping your knee tracking over your toes.  Tap the ground lightly, return to standing, and repeat for five to ten repetitions on each leg.

The human body adapts to the demands we impose upon it.  Consistently building hip, knee, and ankle strength each week can pay invaluable dividends toward osteoarthritis management.  Strong legs can lead to longer hikes, less knee pain when climbing up stairs in stupid heels, and, most importantly, the freedom to keep doing the activities we enjoy 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.

Aug 28

August 2026 Coach Spot Light: Coach Paul Atienza

Coach Paul Atienza was born in the Philippines and moved to the Bay Area at age 6. He got into fitness through wrestling. Paul’s experience with the sport’s physical and mental demands, along with his kinesiology education, helped shape him into the coach he is today.

His interest in wrestling was sparked by watching the WWE (the largest professional wrestling and sports entertainment company). One of his idols you may know is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He wrestled all throughout high school.

In the gym, Coach Paul’s favorite exercises are the barbell back squat and pull-ups because they are his strongest lifts.

Outside of holding down the gym, you’ll find him hanging out with his cats, exploring new restaurants around the Bay Area, or at church.

Fun fact: His secret talent is being an exceptionally talented drummer. Give him almost any song, and he can pick it out by ear. Jazz is the one exception, and he’ll be the first to admit it.

One of Paul’s favorite quotes is “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.”

In the near future, Coach Paul has some big goals. He’ll be the first to say that his goal is to ensure his parents are well taken care of. Having grown up as the youngest in his family and been well cared for, he believes in giving back and caring for his loved ones. He also would like to explore more of the world, visiting countries such as Italy, Greece, and Japan.

If you happen to come across Coach Paul in or outside the gym, don’t be afraid to say hi.  (He’ll probably beat you to it!)

– Written by Coach Vincent Nguyen

 

Aug 28

Strong Legs Get us Up and Down From the Floor

When was the last time you got down on the floor and back up again without reaching for a chair, a coffee table, or a nearby wall?  For some of us, we might not think twice about this.

A new grandchild might change that.  Toddlers and boisterous seven-year-olds don’t do their business at table height.  They play on the ground, and getting down there on our hands and knees to join them is one of the more meaningful things we get to do.  It can also be daunting.  Standing over a stretch of carpet and calculating the trip down and back up is often overlooked when we think about a person’s overall strength and fitness levels.

The floor isn’t the only place where strong knees matter. Getting into and out of bed, standing up from a chair, and climbing a flight of stairs rely on the muscles around the hip, knee, and ankle joint.  Throughout recreational athletic physical activity, the bones, ligaments, tendons, and nerves of the hips, knees, and ankles carry us through a round of golf, a few games of pickleball or tennis, a hike, a bike ride, an afternoon on a paddleboard, and the training miles that lead up to a 5K, a half marathon, or a full marathon. Whether the destination is a finish line or the living room rug, knee strength is important.

The knee is a hinge joint.  Its job is to bend and to straighten, actions called flexion and extension.  The hamstrings along the back of the thigh draw the heel toward the back of the leg and create flexion. The quadriceps along the front of the thigh straighten the leg, creating extension.  Both muscle groups attach at the hip and travel down across the knee, creating anchor points for contractions that extend and flex the joint and provide reinforcement.

Hip muscles are commonly overlooked when creating plans to optimize knee health.  The hip houses the adductors that draw the leg toward the midline of the body, the abductors that carry it away, and the internal and external rotators that turn the leg in and out.  When these muscles are strong, the rotational forces reaching the knee are reduced.  Strong hip abductors and rotators help keep the knee joint in line and support patellar tracking.  Optimal hip strength can reduce the likelihood of the knee shifting beyond a healthy range of motion or turning inward or outward when it shouldn’t.

When the muscles surrounding a joint are strong, the bones at the ends of that joint sit in a better position, and bone-on-bone contact that might produce discomfort can be less present.  For those of us living with advanced osteoarthritis, strengthening the hip and thigh muscles can help reduce pain.  It’s worth speaking with a physical therapist or physician about what is appropriate before starting a new strength and conditioning routine.

The supine knee extension is a simple and effective exercise we use with our personal training clients to build strength around the knee.  It requires nothing more than a mat or carpeted floor, and it trains the muscles that straighten the knee while the spine and hips rest on the ground.

To perform the “seated-on-ground knee extension” exercise, sit flat on the ground with good posture, with one knee extended and the other knee flexed so the foot is flat on the ground.  While keeping the toes flexed toward the body, extend one leg as if you are trying to touch the back of the knee to the ground until you feel a slight muscular sensation in the quadriceps and kneecap region.  Repeat this movement for five to ten repetitions each leg.

The human body adapts to the demands we impose upon it.  Consistently building hip, knee, and ankle strength each week can pay invaluable dividends for long-term lower-extremity health by influencing the reduction of age-related joint pain and increasing overall functional capacity.  Strong lower extremities can lead to easier mornings, friendlier staircases, and, most importantly, the ability to get up and down from the ground 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.

Aug 23

An Overlooked Cause of Back Pain

Who is more likely to develop lower back pain, the framer who hoists heavy lumber all day or the programmer who has spent twenty years at a desk?  Most of us would bet on the framer. Heavy lifting looks dangerous, and desk work looks harmless.  However, an underused, deconditioned back can cause as many problems as an overworked one.

Carpenters, framers, and sheet metal workers put a lot of stress on their spines. Lifting stacks of heavy boards loads the vertebrae with compressive forces. Crawling through an HVAC duct all afternoon folds the body into positions that would make a physical therapist cringe.  After years of this work, the lower back can accumulate wear and tear that appears as stiffness, soreness, and life-altering spinal injury.

Lower back spinal underuse conditions are commonly overlooked. Consider the person who has spent ten, twenty, or thirty years commuting to work, flying across the country for sales meetings, or writing computer programs at a desk. These occupations involve low levels of physical activity performed in one position. The body adapts to the shape it is used to.  Over years of sitting in a desk chair with the thighs and torso at a ninety-degree angle, hour after hour of sitting molds the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the spine and hips into a position that is challenging to reverse.

When we sit, the hips flex to roughly a ninety-degree angle while the torso stays upright. Held there for hours, the spinal stabilizer muscles that run along the spine from the neck down to the hips have little work to do, and muscles that stop working become deconditioned. The glutes lengthen. The hip flexors, which attach the front of the spine to the pelvis, shorten and decondition as well. The deep core muscles supporting the front of the spine follow suit. The result is a collection of muscles that have become too short in some areas and too long in others, leaving the spine with less support than it needs.  Over time, that lack of support can also contribute to more serious issues, such as irritated discs and compressed nerves.

A deconditioned support system for the spine can disrupt everyday life just as much as a lifting injury.  Bending over to pick up a grandchild, loading groceries into the trunk, and pulling weeds in the garden require similar groups of muscles for spinal stabilization. Consistently practicing exercises that condition the spine and hips one to three times per week pays far more dividends than an intermittent, random session.

The straight-arm plank is an exercise we use with our personal training clients at every level, from novice to advanced.  This exercise uses gravity as the only resistance and recruits the abdominal muscles along the front of the spine, the paraspinal muscles along the back of the spine, the hips, and the arms all at once.

Lie face down on the floor with your hands under your shoulders. Press the body up until the arms are straight and the knees are extended, with your weight resting on the palms and the balls of the feet. Tuck the hips slightly toward the ribs and draw the rib cage toward the belly button to flatten the lower back. Gently flex the quadriceps to keep the hips from sagging. Imagine screwing your hands into the ground to activate your arms and protect your wrists. Hold the position for twenty seconds, then rest. If a floor plank is too demanding at first, do the same position with your hands on a countertop or wall, and progress toward the floor as your strength improves. You should feel muscular activation along the abdomen, lower back, and hips. Work up to two or three holds per day, and advanced exercisers can build toward a minute or more.

Holding a plank is a safe and effective exercise that builds muscular endurance in the muscles that stabilize the spine. Twenty seconds feels longer than it sounds. That brief effort recruits the front of the spine, the back of the spine, and the hips in a single movement, which is a remarkable return for such a small amount of time.

Consistently practicing exercises like the straight arm plank helps produce strong muscles, reinforced joints, and a stable spine, and most importantly, a lower back that stays happy, healthy, and strong 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.

Aug 15

What Makes a Personal Trainer Happy

Have you ever wondered what makes a personal trainer happy? It’s likely the first guesses would be watching a client lose ten pounds, add fifty pounds to their bench press, or cross the finish line of their first marathon. Those accomplishments are worth celebrating. However, the moments that warm a trainer’s heart the most are much smaller, and they arrive much earlier.

Someone interested in our personal training services recently reached out to us about developing a fitness routine two years after having her first baby. She explained that her body was doing things it had never done before. Her back hurt in ways it never had before. Her hips ached. A little extra weight had settled in. She had returned to work after maternity leave, noticed pain showing up everywhere, and decided it was time to get back in shape. We scheduled her initial consultation.

She arrived about ten minutes late, apologized profusely, and avoided eye contact. Her hair looked like she had just been shot out of a cannon. Her shirt displayed what appeared to be dairy stains, baby vomit, or both. Her socks didn’t match. Her pants were on backward. Anyone raising a small human while holding down a job knows this uniform well. A bit of trepidation came through in her voice as she described her current fitness levels and what she hoped this training program would accomplish.

Her experience makes sense from a functional standpoint. Pregnancy and childbirth ask a lot of the body. The abdominal and hip muscles stretch and decondition, posture shifts to accommodate a growing baby as the abdomen expands and stresses the spine and hips for nine months, and the months that follow involve hours of carrying, rocking, and lifting a rapidly growing human off the floor. Add a lack of sleep and a return to work, and it’s understandable that the back and hips might speak up in ways they never had before.

During the first session, we covered foundational movements. We walked through the simple dynamic stretching routine we teach all our personal training clients and practiced a push-up with a conservative incline, using a desk about thirty to forty inches tall. She admitted that performing a push-up from desk height felt a little embarrassing. She also agreed it was useful. Establishing a starting point, wherever that point is, is how fitness levels get re-established.

The next week, something amazing happened. She showed up fifteen minutes early and began the dynamic stretching routine on her own. She was decked out in a new fitness ensemble: a headband, hair tied up in a bun, an athletic shirt, matching shorts, exercise tights, and a brand-new pair of training shoes. She looked like she was preparing for a Division I college volleyball tryout. The fire had been ignited.

Witnessing that spark is what makes a personal trainer happy. The spark doesn’t show up as a number on a scale or a personal record on the squat rack.  Arriving early, wearing the right workout clothes, and practicing something as simple as a dynamic stretching routine sets a powerful tone that has the potential to redefine a person’s identity from someone in pain who might feel out of shape to a strong, happy, and healthy individual who exercises regularly.  When someone starts reinvesting in themselves, potential emerges. Potential is the raw material a coach works with when someone is ready to ingrain lifetime fitness into their identity.

Significant life events change the body. Giving birth, recovering from surgery, starting a demanding job, or caring for a family member can put exercise on the back burner for months or years. When we return, the starting point can feel humbling. Many of us have likely hesitated to begin because a desk-height push-up doesn’t feel impressive. In contrast, consistently practicing simple movements one to three times per week pays far more dividends than an intermittent, random session. Giving ourselves permission to start where we are is a valuable first step.

Helping people overcome these challenges has been my life’s work for more than twenty years. Watching someone overcome the physical changes of a significant life event, such as persevering through pregnancy and bringing a child into the world, is one of the greatest privileges of this profession. The spark becomes a hot-burning star that never extinguishes. For this client, her star lit up somewhere between a backward pair of pants and a brand-new pair of training shoes.

The human body adapts to the demands we impose upon it. Consistently practicing exercise helps produce strong muscles, reinforced joints, and a resilient state of mind, and most importantly, proof that a spark lit at any starting point can keep burning 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.

 

Aug 08

Exercise Gives Us Something to Look Forward To

“It’s kind of like going to the dentist,” exclaimed a gentleman who was interested in our personal training services. We offer two complimentary training sessions to potential personal training clients. These sessions help ensure our coaching style, environment, and plan are a good fit before anyone commits. When this gentleman arrived for his second session, his eyes were down, hands in his pockets, and he treated me like I was a highway patrol officer who had just pulled him over. When I asked how his first training session treated him, he compared the experience to getting a cavity filled.

I have nothing against dentists. They are miracle workers who have optimized my well-being more than I can imagine after a childhood of cavity history. I’ve also watched them repair a friend’s chipped tooth and give a family member a root canal that let her enjoy solid food again. However, when an hour of exercise ranks alongside getting a tooth pulled or checking into detention hall, something is wrong with the reason someone would want to invest their valuable time throughout their day in physical activity. Exercise is supposed to help us live happy, healthy, and strong lives. It shouldn’t feel like a sentence to be served.

It’s likely many of us can relate to this gentleman. Setting aside one to two hours a day a few times throughout the week for an exercise program can feel daunting. After a long day of work, the couch, a favorite show, and a snack are comforting and help us decompress. As humans, we usually gravitate toward the path of least resistance. If our history with exercise involves being punished with push-ups at high school sports practice or dreading the mile run in gym class, feelings of anxiety toward exercise can follow us into adulthood.

Nine times out of ten, the feeling after completing an exercise session is one people are grateful for. Stress from the day can decrease. The body feels looser, more energized, and a little stronger. We remind our personal training clients that the goal of a productive session is to feel better walking out of the gym than when they walked in.

How do we help the mindset catch up to the reward? Developing a sense of autonomy and self-government through consistent exercise throughout the week is a valuable first step. Exercise pays far more dividends when it is chosen rather than imposed. There is no rule stating fitness must look like a treadmill under fluorescent lights, slogging through a bout of mundane running on a moving sidewalk while looking at a cement wall for an hour. A bout of exercise-related physical activity might be a few games of pickleball, a hike among the trees at a state park, a morning dog walk, a group class with friendly faces, or a session with a coach who knows your name and your story. When we pick physical activities we enjoy, the desire to return to those activities increases.

Having something to look forward to is potent fuel for getting a workout in.  Perhaps before a session, take ten seconds to recall how you usually feel afterward.  After our clients complete a training session, they usually feel accomplished, decompressed, and glad they showed up. That memory can help carry us through the front door on the days motivation runs thin.

Giving yourself permission to take the hour and reserving it for yourself is important. The people who depend on us receive a better version of us when we are less stressed, more energetic, and physically strong. Over time, the sentence “I have to work out” can turn into “I’m someone who exercises, and I get to work out.” That shift plays a significant role in consistency. A lack of exercise puts the body in a deconditioned state.  In contrast, consistently practicing enjoyable physical activity one to three times per week pays far more dividends than an intermittent, random session ever could.

As for the gentleman from our complimentary sessions, his story is still being written. Our job as lifetime fitness coaches is to keep discovering ways to make the rewarding side of exercise more appealing than the less desirable side. The human body adapts to the demands we impose upon it. Consistently practicing exercise helps produce strong muscles, reinforced joints, and a resilient state of mind. Perhaps the appointment we keep with ourselves can become less like a trip to the courthouse to pay an overdue parking ticket and more like a standing date with the strongest, calmest version of ourselves, and most importantly, something to genuinely look forward to 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.

Aug 02

Strong Ankles Keep Us on Our Feet

Have you ever been walking across the parking lot, thinking about the next thing to get done on your to-do list, when the toe of your shoe catches the lip of the curb? Usually, there is a quick stumble, and we might glance around to see if anyone noticed. Most of the time we catch ourselves and keep moving. That little catch is worth paying attention to. It is your ankle telling you how well it is doing its job.

The foot is the first part of the body to react to the ground, and the ankle just above it tends to get taken for granted.  The ankle adjusts all day to stepping up and down curbs, stairs, and thresholds while our attention is somewhere else. For those of us who love their pickleball, golf, tennis, and hiking, the ankle is constantly adapting to uneven courts and trails. The strength and control of this small joint play a role in how safe and how smooth our lower extremity movement is.

The tibialis anterior and a collection of extensor muscles run down the front of the lower leg and pull the foot and toes upward. That upward motion is called dorsiflexion. Every time you take a step, these muscles lift the front of your foot so your toes clear the ground. When they are strong, you glide over that curb without a thought. When they decondition, the foot does not lift quite enough, the toe drops, and it catches on the very obstacles you meant to step over.

Dorsiflexion has a partner working on the other side. The calf muscles and the Achilles tendon point the foot downward, a motion called plantar flexion. When you step up onto a stair or drive off your back foot, these muscles generate the push-off that carries you ahead. The plantar flexors are a primary engine of walking. As the dorsiflexors and plantar flexors decondition, push-off fades, the stride shortens, and a shuffle can be present. A strong dorsiflexion to lift the foot and a strong plantar flexion to propel the body forward are what give us a fluid, efficient stride.

There is one more pair of motions worth knowing. The joint just below the ankle tilts the foot inward and outward, called inversion and eversion. This is how the foot adapts to uneven ground. For example, while on a hiking trail, a sloped fairway, or while playing tennis during a quick change of direction, these motions let the foot mold to the surface and keep you balanced instead of rolling an ankle. As the ankle allows the foot to hinge up-and-down and in-and-out, these movements are how the ankle helps us maintain a center of gravity over our feet.

Structured and consistent fitness programs that combine strength and balance exercises can help reduce falls. A lack of exercise puts the ankle joint in a deconditioned state. However, consistently practicing ankle joint strength and conditioning one to three times per week pays far more dividends than an intermittent, random exercise session. Ankle training is also safe, simple, and effective, and it scales to any fitness level.

Below is an exercise we perform with our personal training clients to strengthen dorsiflexion, the motion that lifts the foot to clear the ground. We call it the “leaning-against-the-wall dorsiflexion.”

Start by leaning against a wall with your hips and shoulder blades touching it, your knees slightly bent, and your feet positioned slightly out in front of you. Keeping your heels on the ground, lift both sets of toes upward off the floor. Keep your knees slightly bent and your hips and shoulder blades against the wall throughout the movement. Lift and lower the toes slowly and with control rather than bouncing. You should feel a muscular sensation along the outside of your shins and the tops of your feet. Repeat this movement for ten to fifteen repetitions, and consider two or three sets as it becomes easier.

The human body adapts to the demands we impose upon it. Consistently practicing exercise helps produce strong muscles, joints, and a resilient neuromuscular system. The ankles carry us thousands of steps a day. Perhaps we can give them a few minutes of deliberate attention each week, so we can keep stepping up and over whatever life puts in our path. Strong ankles are an invaluable asset to lifetime fitness, letting us stay on the move on a plethora of unpredictable surfaces, on the court or grass in the recreational sport arena, and on our feet 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.

Jul 28

NTF Coach Spot Light: Meet Coach Riley Carlos

There’s a good chance you’ve seen Coach Riley on the gym floor already, but here’s a little more of his story.

He grew up in American Canyon and played baseball for 15 years, all the way through the collegiate level. After all that time, he still hasn’t left the game. Currently, he’s coaching multiple travel baseball teams, ages 14 to 18. Add in ~6 months coaching here at NTF, and yeah, the guy stays busy.

Riley’s dad has played a big part in shaping his work ethic. His father, a former collegiate athlete with 25+ years of experience in the fitness space, was the one who pushed him early on. And that influence still shapes how he trains clients today. “Without his discipline and the way he pushed me, I wouldn’t be who I am today,” he says. It shows in his approach: motivational, supportive, and disciplined.

When Riley is not coaching, you can bet he’s got country music playing, a plate of enchiladas or tacos in front of him, and a warm chocolate chip cookie waiting for dessert. In the gym, he’s all about the bench press and pull-ups. But his real focus is on getting 1% better every single day, not only in the weight room, but also as a coach and as a person.

What keeps him coming back day after day isn’t the reps or the sets. It’s watching someone’s face light up when they achieve something they didn’t think they could—hearing them talk about feeling stronger, better, more like themselves. That’s the whole point. In his own words: “Come in, work hard, have a great session, be better than you were yesterday.”

When he’s not coaching, he’s on a golf course, watching baseball, or catching up on a show. Fun fact: He is not a fan of raccoons. 🦝 (We don’t ask questions — we just respect it.)

Next time you’re in for a session, be sure to say hi to Coach Riley!

-Written by Coach Vincent Nguyen

Jul 25

The Muscles Behind Our Everyday Grip

From the moment we pick up a toothbrush in the morning, our hands go to work without a second thought. We turn doorknobs, tap and swipe across phone screens, twist the lids off water bottles, thread a key into the front door, and carry bags of groceries from the car. By the afternoon, some of us ask even more of our hands by wrapping our fingers around a tennis racket, a golf club, or a set of gardening shears. The hand is one of the most remarkable parts of our anatomy, yet it’s commonly overlooked until a task that used to feel effortless suddenly doesn’t.  Most of us don’t think much about our grip until a heavy bag starts slipping out of our hands halfway across a parking lot or opening a mason jar almost makes us pass out from physical exertion.   Appreciating the hand’s anatomy and how hand, wrist, and forearm-specific strength and conditioning can benefit our functionality and productivity can be a valuable part of staying productive throughout our everyday lives.

The hand’s framework begins at the fingers, the small bones known as phalanges, which bend and straighten at the knuckle joints where they meet the long bones of the hand called the metacarpals. Those metacarpals connect to a cluster of small wrist bones known as the carpals.  This collection of eight small carpal bones meets the two bones of the forearm, the radius and the ulna, forming the wrist joint. This arrangement gives the wrist remarkable versatility, allowing it to bend forward and back, rock from side to side, and rotate. Powering the wrist joint’s range of motion is a network of muscles residing in the forearm, sending long tendons down through the wrist and into the fingers.

Both muscle groups run all the way from the fingers up toward the elbow, which is why forearm and hand strength are closely linked.  The two largest groups of forearm muscles are flexors and extensors.  The muscles running along the underside of your forearm are your flexors. The flexors curl the fingers and wrist inward, producing the grip that holds a toothbrush, closes around a railing, or grasps a jar lid. Now turn your hand over until you can see the backs of your fingernails.  These muscles straighten or extend the fingers.  These are your extensor muscles.

Rotation of the forearm brings in another pair of actions, supination and pronation. When the palm turns up, the forearm is supinated.  An example of a supinated hand is the position of an upward rotated hand when holding a plate of food. When the palm turns down, the forearm is pronated. A simple way to remember it is that lying face-up is the supine position and lying face-down is the prone position.  The palm follows the same logic. We utilize these rotating muscles constantly without realizing it, whether we’re turning a key in a lock, tightening a screw, or flipping a pancake.

Another valuable wrist movement is radial and ulnar deviation, which is the side-to-side hinge movement at the pinky and thumb side of the wrist. An example of radial deviation could be holding a cup in your hand and rocking your thumb upward toward your forearm. Dropping your pinky side down toward the floor is ulnar deviation. These small movements come into play every time we swing a hammer, cast a fishing rod, or hinge the wrist through a golf or tennis stroke, or throw a frisbee for our dogs.

When we appreciate that these muscles travel from the fingertips all the way up the forearm, it becomes clear why a little dedicated strengthening goes a long way. Simple, consistent resistance training, along with everyday habits like gripping and carrying objects around the house, reinforces the muscles from the fingers through the wrist and forearm. Understanding which muscles create each of these movements provides invaluable knowledge for building an efficient, effective routine that supports hand, wrist, and forearm function.

Our hands handle an extraordinary amount of work each day, from the first brush of the teeth in the morning to the last turn of a key at night. Strong fingers, wrists, and forearms are invaluable assets to an independent and active life, whether the goal is opening jars with ease or staying in the game on the tennis court. Perhaps we can take a little time to understand and care for these hardworking muscles so they continue to serve us well 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.

Jul 18

Strong Upper Extremities Traveling

A walk through an airport terminal reveals the surprising truth that traveling is a strength and conditioning event. Suitcases are hoisted off luggage carousels, carry-on bags are pressed into overhead bins, backpacks are slung over shoulders, and rolling luggage is towed across long stretches of pavement. Before a single vacation photo is taken, the body has already performed dozens of lifts, presses, pulls, and carries.

Travel highlights the upper extremities, a part of the body that is commonly overlooked. Our hands, elbows, and shoulders are the tools that manage nearly every physical demand of a journey. The fingers and forearms grip handles and railings. The elbows bend and straighten to lift bags from the ground to a hotel bed. The strength, functionality, and integrity of the shoulders are important assets when we press luggage up into an overhead bin or stabilize a heavy tote during a long walk to the gate. These same structures serve us at home when we haul groceries, open stubborn jars, pull trash bins to the curb, and push ourselves up from a chair.

For those of us venturing into our upper fifties, sixties, and beyond, travel often becomes one of the most anticipated rewards of a lifetime of hard work. Visiting grandchildren across the country, touring a foreign city, or embarking on a long-awaited cruise are the experiences that fill our calendars and our conversations. However, this is also an area of life when muscle mass and grip strength naturally decline if they aren’t maintained. A sore shoulder, a flare of tennis elbow, or fingers that fatigue quickly can transform an exciting itinerary into a source of anxiety. Needing assistance to lift a carry-on into an overhead bin can feel like a small surrender of independence that many travelers would prefer to avoid.

It’s worthwhile to understand how the upper extremity operates as a connected chain. The muscles of the forearms close our fingers around objects and generate grip strength. The biceps and triceps bend and straighten the elbow to lift and press. Above them, the shoulder is stabilized by the rotator cuff, a group of four muscles that hold the ball of the upper arm bone securely in its socket. Supporting the whole operation are the muscles of scapular stabilization surrounding the shoulder blades, such as the trapezius and latissimus dorsi, which anchor the arms to the torso. When one link in this chain is weak, the neighboring links absorb extra stress, which is often how nagging musculoskeletal injuries begin.

The encouraging news is that reinforcing this chain doesn’t require heroic feats of strength. Safe, simple, and effective resistance training performed two to three times per week can pay massive dividends. Bicep curls with light dumbbells strengthen the elbows and shoulders and also increase grip strength. Rowing motions with a resistance band reinforce the shoulder blades. Consistent practice of these movements builds a reserve of strength that mitigates the likelihood of injuries interrupting the adventures we’ve worked so hard to enjoy.

Below is an exercise we use with our personal training clients to strengthen the hands, elbows, and shoulders.

The “farmer’s carry” is a simple and effective exercise that mimics everyday life activities such as carrying groceries or luggage. Start by standing tall with a dumbbell, kettlebell, or even a jug of water in each hand, positioned at your sides. Choose a weight that feels challenging but manageable, such as five to fifteen pounds per hand. Ensure your shoulder blades are pulled down and back, as if tucking them into your back pockets. Ensure your spine remains rigid and your gaze faces forward rather than down at the ground. Grip the weights firmly and walk twenty to thirty steps at a controlled pace, then turn around and walk back. Ensure your shoulders stay level and avoid leaning to either side throughout the movement. You should experience muscular activation in your fingers, forearms, shoulders, and the muscles between your shoulder blades. Repeat this walk for three to five rounds, resting as needed.

Strong hands, durable elbows, and resilient shoulders are invaluable assets for lifetime fitness. Whether the destination is an overseas adventure, a grandchild’s graduation, or simply the grocery store across town, our upper extremities determine how confidently we move through the journey. Perhaps we can dedicate a few minutes in our weekly routines to reinforce these hardworking muscles so we can keep lifting, carrying, and exploring 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.