Jun 05

Building a Strong and Resilient Lower Back

“All I did was bend over to pick up a bag of dog food,” Wolfgang explained as he eased himself onto the bench at the beginning of his training session, clearly wincing in pain as he put his hand on his lower back. “I hear about people throwing their backs out moving couches or refrigerators.  But, dog food?” Wolfgang’s story is one we hear often. Back injuries tend to occur unexpectedly during everyday movements such as reaching into the trunk of a car, scooping laundry off the floor, or pulling weeds in the garden.

Lower back pain is public enemy number one in the world of annoying, and sometimes debilitating, musculoskeletal ailments.   Some of our personal training clients seek out our services to build strength after a lower back injury.  A few examples might include recovering from conditions such as bulging or herniated discs, stenosis, or a pinched nerve. Fortunately, the human body responds positively to consistent, appropriately selected exercise by becoming more resilient.

Appreciating the design and structure of the lower back area is a useful tactic for creating a game plan to address common pain points.  The lumbar spine consists of five vertebrae stacked at the base of the spine. Those vertebrae anchor into the sacrum, a triangular bone formed by five fused vertebrae that connects the spine to the pelvis.  The hip joint is where the thigh bones attach to the pelvis.   Understanding how these areas work together and how they become deconditioned helps us protect the lower back before complications arise.

The spine is like the central column of a building, and the surrounding muscles are like the steel reinforcement that brackets it. A concrete column remains rigid not because of the concrete alone, but because of the surrounding steel framework embedded in and around it, sharing the load. The same is true for the spine. On the front side of the body, the deep abdominal muscles and hip flexors, such as the iliopsoas, stabilize the anterior spine and help control pelvic position. Along the back of the spine, the paraspinal muscles run beside the vertebrae like sturdy brackets. These muscles are built for endurance, holding the spine steady hour after hour while we sit, stand, and move throughout the day.

Residing at the center of the body are the gluteal muscles, which act as the anchoring bracket where the spine’s column meets the foundation of the legs. When the glutes are strong and active, they keep the pelvis centered beneath the torso, reinforcing the spine’s vertical structural architecture. The glutes also power hip extension, the motion that propels us forward when walking, lifts us up a flight of stairs, and raises us out of a chair. When the glutes become weak, smaller muscles in the hips and lower back are forced to compensate, which can produce stiffness or pain.

Deconditioned core muscles and inactivity can gradually shift the workload onto less structurally sound connective tissue, which aren’t optimally designed to withstand rigorous physical activity, such as the paraspinal and multifidus muscles along the spine or smaller ligaments of the lumbar spine, pelvis, and hips. The spinal muscles end up doing work better suited to the hips, glutes, and core.

By the time a bag of dog food or troublesome weeds enters the picture and creates a scenario for a back injury, the act of bending over isn’t necessarily the cause of the injury. Sometimes, those simple daily movements in which an everyday tactic results in a lower back injury are the straw that breaks the camel’s back due to deconditioned muscles around the core and hips.

Building a more supportive team around the spine does not require complicated equipment. Regular walking, balance practice, and core stabilization exercises all earn a place in the exercise prescriptions we design for our personal training clients. A simple and effective movement to start with is the sit-to-stand:

To perform the sit-to-stand, begin seated in a sturdy chair with your feet flat on the floor. Reach your arms forward, press through your feet, and stand all the way up until your hips are underneath your shoulders. Then lower yourself back into the chair slowly and with control. Ten repetitions performed two to three times per week is a safe and effective starting point.

The slow lowering portion of the sit-to-stand activates the glutes, hips, and spinal stabilizers to share the workload as a team, rehearsing the skills the body needs when bending down to pick something up off the ground.

Consistently reinforcing the bracketing and framework around the lower back and keeping the spine supported as a sturdy, rigid structure can reduce the likelihood of lower back injuries.  When we invest in the muscles surrounding the spine and hips, we give ourselves a sturdy foundation to keep living 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.

May 31

Strong Calves help with Balance and Coordination

“I almost went down stepping off the curb at the grocery store last week,” Frieren mentioned as she laced up her shoes for her morning training session. “I caught myself, but for a second I really thought I was going over.” She laughed it off, but the look in her eyes told the rest of the story. That small, surprising wobble after an unexpected misstep off a curb can turn a routine movement into a moment of adrenaline-inducing alert and apocalyptic fear.  A sudden loss of balance, such as stepping off a curb and rolling an ankle, stubbing one’s toe, or misjudging the height of a step’s decline, could result in a multitude of injuries when a person plummets to the ground.

We probably don’t want to hear that balance, proprioception, and coordination can be negatively affected by being overweight, deconditioned fitness levels, or advancing age.  Fortunately, the human body can improve its fitness levels when the appropriate exercise strategy is applied.  A contributor that assists the body in remaining upright is located at the bottom of the leg. The muscles of the foot, ankle, shin, and calf are doing more work than they tend to get credit for. When the muscles of the lower leg are optimally conditioned, the small wobbles of everyday life can become more manageable. However, when the muscles of the lower leg are neglected, seemingly simple movements like stepping can threaten a person’s well-being.

The gastrocnemius, commonly known as the calf muscle, runs along the back of the lower leg, connecting the Achilles tendon and anchoring into the heel. Its primary job is to lift the heel off the ground.  Every step we take during a walk asks the calf to lift the heel and produce force through the ball of the foot. Climbing a flight of stairs asks the calf to spring us upward from one step to the next.  Standing up from a chair, pushing off when walking or running, and reaching up to grab something from a high shelf all draw on this little workhorse.

A commonly overlooked movement is the downward movement of the heel when we step down off a curb, descend a flight of stairs, or lower ourselves into a chair.   The calf is asked to control the speed at which the heel returns to the ground. That deceleration is what keeps a step down from becoming a jolt.  Additionally, this heel-to-ground deceleration is a similar action that helps us catch ourselves when a foot lands a little off target. The calf is a brake as much as it is an engine. We coach our personal training clients to think about both jobs, because everyday function and productivity depend on both.

The calves respond very well to simple, consistent practice.  A simple and effective tactic to coach our personal training clients is the eccentric calf raise.  It’s a relatively easy-to-learn movement that requires no equipment and can be done in less than a minute while you are waiting for coffee to brew or waiting in line at the store.

To perform the eccentric calf raise, stand behind a stabilizing object, such as a sturdy chair, or near a countertop, where you can lightly rest your fingertips for balance. With both feet flat on the ground, press up onto the balls of the feet, lifting the heels as high as feels comfortable. Pause briefly at the top, then lower the heels slowly toward the ground.

The slow-lowering portion of this movement is critical because the controlled descent is like stepping down from a curb. Ten repetitions performed two or three times per week are a sensible starting place. Over time, that small dose of practice rehearses everyday life movements in stepping and recalibrating balance when necessary.

Balance is a coordinated neuromuscular symphony among many aspects of the body, including the inner ear, eyes, brain, core, hips, knees, ankles, and calves. When one of those contributors is underprepared, the others must work harder to compensate. Strengthening the lower leg gives the rest of the body a reliable foundation by contributing to increasing confidence in footing when stepping on and off curbs, navigating uneven sidewalks, managing a change of direction in a crowded farmers’ market, or carrying groceries from the car to the kitchen.

For our friends and neighbors who want to keep walking briskly, climbing stairs without a second thought, and moving through the day without that small wobble of doubt, the calves are not a glamorous place to put attention.  However, focusing on calf strengthening is an invaluable asset for promoting optimal movement patterns for everyday functionality and productivity. The dividend, paid out over years of everyday movement, can appear as enhanced steadiness, independence, and the freedom to keep doing the things we love while staying happy, healthy, and strong.

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.

May 23

Treat Foods are Good for Lifetime Fitness

People often ask me what my favorite foods are.  I always give my honest answer enthusiastically. “Pizza, donuts, and ice cream,” The reply is usually paired with a look of bewilderment, “Then how do you stay so fit?”

I suppose that’s a fair question. I maintain a healthy body fat-to-muscle mass ratio, and I have owned a personal training center here in Napa for over ten years.  I could be considered a walking contradiction.  Yet those foods hold a special place in my heart.

The textural contrast and toothiness of a professionally made donut from Winston’s is an unexplainable pleasure I look forward to every week. Making pizza has become a real hobby. I mix the dough every week, fuss over the oven temperature, experiment with different yeasts and water-to-flour ratios, and rotate through cheeses and toppings until it tastes right.  I enjoy happily engulfing my masterfully designed pizza with gusto.  Additionally, I love being on a never-ending journey to discover the world’s best artisan ice cream, always searching for mind-blowing, innovative flavors with good mouthfeel rather than tasting like chalky frozen milk.

So how do I enjoy foods that seem like they would detonate an explosion of diabetes and increase fat mass while remaining relatively lean? I indulge in these foods about once per week, and I think of them as “treats,” not “cheats.” That one distinction matters. A cheat sounds like you broke a rule and got away with something. A treat is an experience purposefully earned and enjoyed. Most importantly, treats are something to look forward to if you know they’re waiting for you after earning them.

Staying on the beneficial side of the “treat vs. cheat” line takes a little structure. During our personal training clients’ nutritional consultations, we work interactively to establish foundational dietary management strategies that prevent “treat food” consumption from becoming a daily habit. Too many treats, too often, is a potent ingredient for subcutaneous fat to begin accumulating, leading to the development of insulin resistance and elevated stress hormones, which produce suboptimal health issues.

A successful tactic we’ve seen in our nutritional consultations is limiting the indulgence of treat foods to days when rigorous exercise or physical activities in the form of strength training, cardiovascular exercise, or recreational activities are present. Challenging exercise sessions give the body the ability to absorb extra calories instead of letting a surplus go unused. The other part happens inside the muscle.  Resistance training creates small amounts of stress and microscopic damage in muscle tissue.   Muscles respond by repairing those stressed areas. During that repair period, skeletal muscles become far more responsive to insulin and pull sugar from the bloodstream for energy, drawing in amino acids and protein to rebuild stronger, more durable muscle cells that adapt to the demands of rigorous physical activity.  Periods of physical activity make muscles hungry, and a treat meal eaten that day is put to much better use than one eaten after a day on the couch.

Let’s be clear, working out does not turn treat food into health food.  Treat foods supercharge insulin production and have a ton of calories.  The beauty of bread and cheese piled together isn’t a nutritional powerhouse.  However, enjoying those foods once a week is acceptable. Eating them every day is a different story, and we do not need to be rocket scientists to see where that road leads. A steady stream of sugary, starchy, and fatty food, day after day, raises the odds of insulin resistance, which can open the door to diabetes and a slew of metabolic diseases.  Additionally, overconsuming treat foods is a fantastic way to store a steady supply of undesirable subcutaneous fat under our skin.

Deciding ahead of time when your treat day is can be a fun game to play by surrounding them with at least three days of clean eating beforehand.  A day of “clean eating” could look like days when sugary, starchy, and fatty foods are set aside, and lean proteins, vegetables, fiber, and plenty of water are prioritized instead. On the treat day itself, get your rigorous exercise in. Spacing your treats out this way gives your body time to reset between indulgences, mitigates the slow creep of subcutaneous fat accumulation and metabolic disease, and spares you that heavy, sluggish feeling that comes from too many rich meals in a row. Best of all, you still get to eat the foods you love.

Swearing off pizza, donuts, and ice cream forever sounds like a mundane lifestyle that produces rules that are waiting to be broken. Making intentional decisions, earning your treats with a stretch of healthy eating and a good workout, and then enjoying every bite without a without feeling too guilty sounds doable. Plan it, work for it, and savor it, and perhaps we can utilize treat foods 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.

May 19

Walking with Intention

Somewhere between the ages of six and eighteen months, humans accomplish one of the most remarkable feats in our species’ physical development.  We figure out how to crawl, and not long after, we push ourselves up onto two wobbly legs and begin walking.  Becoming bipedal is one of the defining traits that make humans unique.  Once we master this skill, walking quickly becomes so automatic that most of us stop noticing it altogether.  We wake up in the morning, walk to the kitchen, drive to work, walk into the office, and not a single thought about the miraculous coordination required of a sophisticated automated network of neuromuscular signaling for any of those actions enters our minds.

That is, until walking is taken away.  A lower extremity surgery that puts someone on crutches for months or a medical event that introduces a wheelchair into someone’s life can change a person’s world almost overnight.  Suddenly, the most ordinary tasks become significant projects.  Going to the bathroom, retrieving the mail, or moving from the couch to the dinner table transforms from normal daily activities into events that require planning, effort, and assistance.  The loss of walking puts into perspective how much we take this ability for granted.  It would be similar to the disruption that would occur if our cell phones, our cars, or our televisions were suddenly taken away.  Our world would look quite different without these tools we depend on every day.  For those of us who don’t have afflictions that hinder our ability to walk, we shouldn’t take the simple act of walking for granted.

Walking holds an impressive list of health and fitness benefits that often go unnoticed.  Taking a walk outside of normal daily activity burns calories, builds endurance in the lower-extremity muscles, and refines coordination needed for everyday functionality.  The act of taking one step in front of the other is more sophisticated than we tend to realize.  The hip flexes, the foot moves forward, the leg steps over any objects in the way, and then the leg drives backward to propel the body into the next step.  This coordinated sequence engages the ankles, knees, hips, and portions of the spine in a way that few other activities can replicate.

We coach our personal training clients to think about walking as a stimulus that the body responds to.  Similar to strength training, walking needs to be consistently trained so we can perform optimally in everyday activities for years to come. When the body is consistently engaged in walking, it responds by producing synovial fluid that lubricates the joints of the foot, ankle, knee, hip, and spine.  This consistent practice of walking provides healthy compressive stress to the bones, reinforcing their structure and mitigating the progression of osteoporosis.  Additionally, consistent intentional walking keeps the muscles and nervous system primed to continue walking for years to come.

When walking is removed from the daily routine, and a sedentary environment takes its place, the body adapts to that stimulus and becomes deconditioned.  Muscle mass decreases, the rate of synovial fluid production slows, and bone mineral density regeneration declines.  The body adapts to whatever we put it through.  The question is what kind of adaptation we want to give it.

A commonly overlooked benefit is the therapeutic value of walking with intention by putting the phone down, setting the earpiece on the counter, and stepping outside for twenty to thirty minutes through an environment that isn’t controlled by a two-by-four-inch screen.  Most of us spend a substantial portion of our day staring at a glowing rectangle, whether it’s a phone, a computer monitor, or a television projecting light into our living room for hours.  A twenty-minute walk through a neighborhood or a park puts us in an environment where the actual physical world is right in front of us.  We can hear the birds chirping, see the green trees and the blue sky, smell the air, and feel the day’s temperature on our skin.  These sensations are easy to miss when our attention is dedicated to the digital world.

Walking is a gift.  We were granted this ability before we could even form complete sentences as toddlers.  When we walk with intention, we get to combine the physiological benefits of stimulating the joints, muscles, and nervous system with the mental and emotional benefits of stepping away from the constant pull of the digital world.  Make some time this week to walk with intention.  Take twenty to thirty minutes to step outside, look up at the sky, and feel the world around you.  Walking with intention is a powerful tactic to help us 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.

May 08

Knee Arthritis and Knee Strength

It’s not unusual to hear that a person invests decades of their life giving their all to support their career and family. Whether logging years in a physically demanding trade or being active in high school, collegiate, or recreational sports, a common bodily signal tends to surface in one’s forties, fifties, and beyond. The knees start to send a message. That message usually arrives as morning knee stiffness, a grinding sensation when climbing stairs, or a dull ache that settles in after a long day on their feet.

People with similar knee pain symptoms may be experiencing the early or advanced stages of knee arthritis. Arthritis is a degenerative joint condition in which the smooth cartilage that normally cushions the ends of the bones gradually wears down. Healthy cartilage allows the joint surfaces to glide smoothly during everyday movements such as walking up stairs, squatting down to pick something up, or kneeling. When that cartilage thins or becomes roughened, the bones experience increased friction and pressure where they meet. In the knee, this occurs where the femur, or thigh bone, meets the tibia, the larger bone of the shin. This deterioration can result from the natural advancement of age, the accumulated stress of a physically demanding career, overuse from years of athletic activity, or previous injuries that never fully healed.

It is worth noting that the effects of a demanding career or a vigorous athletic history do not always show up immediately. A person who ran marathons in their thirties or played collegiate sports may not feel the consequences in their knees until ten or twenty years later. The same is true for someone who spent years doing physically demanding projects around the house or going up and down stairs on a job site.  Additionally, sitting for years can contribute to the deterioration of knee cartilage due to the lack of stimulus from underuse of the joint.  If the lower extremities remain inactive from sitting for years over the course of a career, reduced blood flow to the supportive muscles and connective tissue in the joints can accelerate knee arthritis.

The good news is that the advancement of knee arthritis can be productively managed to offset the joint pain and dysfunction arthritis brings to the table, and it does not necessarily require cortisone shots, surgery, or expensive exercise equipment. Strengthening the muscles surrounding the knee joint is one of the most effective strategies for managing arthritis symptoms. When the muscles around the knee become stronger, they absorb a greater share of the forces generated during everyday movements such as walking, climbing stairs, or moving dynamically to get in and out of cars. This reduces the compressive load placed directly on the joint surfaces and decreases the bone-on-bone friction that causes pain.

The primary muscles that support and protect the knee joint are the quadriceps, the hamstrings, the hip adductors, and the hip abductors. The quadriceps run along the front of the thigh and are responsible for straightening the knee and keeping the kneecap tracking correctly during movement. The hamstrings run along the back of the thigh, flex the knee, and act as stabilizing anchors that prevent the joint from shifting too far forward. The hip adductors, running along the inner thigh, provide medial stability, while the hip abductors, located on the outer hip, control lateral shifting of the knee during weight-bearing activities. Together, these four muscle groups function like a set of reinforcing brackets holding the knee joint together from all sides.

One exercise we regularly prescribe for our personal training clients managing knee arthritis is the seated knee extension, which targets the quadriceps directly and assists in patellar alignment. When the quadriceps develop greater strength, endurance, and structural integrity, they help prevent the underside of the kneecap from scuffing against the surfaces of the tibia and femur, which is one of the primary sources of pain in arthritic knees. To perform the seated knee extension:

Sit on the floor with good posture. Extend one leg with the heel resting flat on the ground while keeping the other foot flat. Flex the toes of the extended leg toward the body and gently press the back of the knee toward the floor until a light muscular sensation is felt in the quadriceps. Hold briefly, then release. Repeat five to ten repetitions on each leg.

Following a weekly knee joint strengthening routine can reduce discomfort when climbing stairs, make getting up from a seated position more efficient and less painful, and noticeably reduce knee stiffness first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. When the muscles surrounding the knee grow stronger, the joint is better protected, which allows a person to be more productive and engage in the physical activities they enjoy. Developing stronger, more resilient muscles around the knee is one of the most accessible and sustainable ways to protect joint health and maintain an active, fulfilling 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.

May 02

Benefits of Prone Position Exercises

Injuries, joint conditions, and pain-producing areas among our personal training clients commonly occur in the lower back, knees, and shoulders. In terms of which area of the body is most affected by pain, the lower back seems to be public enemy number one, followed by the knees as the second most compromised area, and in third place, the shoulders. Experiences throughout life in physically demanding careers, previous athletic practices, or coming out the other side of a significant injury can have effects on the back, knees, and shoulders. While musculoskeletal pain is closely linked to dysfunctional body movements, there are tactics to mitigate and manage these conditions. Understanding what worsens the affected areas and which tactics provide relief is key to optimizing daily productivity when managing chronic pain.

When an exercise participant reports significant pain during our personal training sessions, one of the first things we teach our clients is what not to do during exercise. A common flaw we see in our personal training clients’ performance is letting the head tilt forward, with the chin closer to the chest and the eyes pointed downward, producing an excessive kyphotic curve in the cervical and thoracic spine. This suboptimal posture produces the rounded shape of a fishing pole with a fish on it. This excessive curvature of the thoracic spine, which is the twelve vertebrae beneath the cervical spine of the neck, creates a vicious cycle of complications in multiple areas of the upper and lower back. When the chin is tucked towards the chest, and a person’s gaze is downward, the shoulders tend to internally rotate towards the midline of the body. This inward rotation of the shoulders caves the chest in and separates the shoulder blades on the back of the body.

When the shoulder blades slide forward along the rib cage, a position known as scapular protraction, the head of the humerus, which is the ball at the top of the upper arm bone, simultaneously rotates inward. This combination of hyper-internally rotated shoulders and protracted shoulder blades shortens the pectoral muscles along the front of the chest, pulling the torso into an even deeper forward curve. Prolonged staring at phone screens, looking at computer monitors during desk work, and leaning over a steering wheel while driving during long commutes contribute to excessive forward-leaning posture. Over weeks and months of repeating these activities, the body begins to accept this rounded, forward-leaning posture as its default. The result can lead to chronic pain, reduced range of motion, and decreased productivity in normal daily functioning.

A remedy to this forward collapse is to train the muscles that pull the body in the opposite direction. This means strengthening the posterior chain, which includes the muscles along the back of the body. Exercises that require the body to extend, reach back, and maintain spinal alignment help reverse conditions that cause forward collapse of the torso. One of the most effective and accessible ways to accomplish this is through prone exercises.

Prone exercises are performed with the body facing downward, either lying flat on the belly or positioned on the hands and knees. Both orientations naturally recruit the posterior chain, including the muscles surrounding the shoulder blades, the glutes, and the spinal extensors. These are precisely the muscles that become underactive and weakened when excessive kyphotic posture takes hold due to the cumulative demands of everyday life.

One of our favorite prone exercises to prescribe for our personal training clients is the bird dog. To perform a bird dog, begin in the prone quadruped position on your hands and knees, with your wrists directly beneath your shoulders and your knees directly beneath your hips. Maintaining a neutral spine, simultaneously reach your right arm forward and extend your left leg backward, as if someone is gently pulling your hand and foot in opposite directions. Hold this extended position for two to three seconds, feeling the muscles along the back of your shoulder and glute engage, then return to the starting position and alternate sides. This movement trains the muscles that draw the shoulder blades back toward the spine and extend the hip.

Prone exercises such as the bird dog do not require equipment, just a comfortable surface, a few quiet minutes, and the intention to invest in your body’s long-term health. Many of our personal training clients incorporate bird dogs into their morning routine before heading out for recreational physical activity or a long day on their feet. It is a simple and effective way to counteract the postural demands that the rest of the day will inevitably impose. We recommend performing bird dogs two to three times per week, completing two sets of ten repetitions on each side.

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 24

Built to Last: Strong, Sharp, and Aging with Power

“Who’s that handsome guy?”  My grandpa remarked after looking at his reflection in the mirror after I gave him a fresh haircut.  It was nothing fancy.  I simply used his clippers, stashed in his bathroom drawer, to trim the back and sides of the scraggly, unevenly grown hair sprouting from his scalp in random places.  Like ninety percent of the men in our family, he was the patriarch in our family who had the iconic “solar panel” of baldness that creates a clearing of hair on the dome of his head, caused by male pattern baldness.

After a slight snicker, he asked if we could take a picture of him and me on his phone.  I knelt down next to his wheelchair and snapped a shot.  Immediately after the picture, I showed him how it turned out.  We shared the same awkward “McCawley-style” smile that didn’t look like a smile at all.  In fact, we both had the same smile, opening our mouths like chimpanzees and showing our teeth.  We never developed the trait of being photogenic and having the quintessential angle at the side of our mouth that created dimples.  However, one could see that we were happy and having a good time.  In fact, it looked like two guys who were having a night on the town in our teens.  My grandpa even remarked, “It looks like we’re about to go raise some hell on a Friday night.”  One can’t help but laugh after hearing a remark like that immediately after taking a selfie with a one-hundred-and-two-year-old man.

The fact that my grandpa actually knew what a selfie was made my jaw drop.  This guy was born in the 1920’s, lived through the effects of the great depression and the infamous Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, had to bail out a plane in World War 2 after a bomb was dropped through the wing of the plane when he was twenty years old, and had overcome prostate cancer on multiple occurrences.  “How could he even know what a selfie was?” I thought to myself.  For a human who was over a century old and had literally seen the world evolve from a time with no computers and rotary phones, to the creation of the iPhone, his ability to adapt to the world’s changes was amazing.  Even though my grandpa was stubborn, a tad ornery, and didn’t hesitate to simply walk out of the room the moment he disagreed with something, he sure enjoyed his one hundred and two years of life.

A few months after this experience, my grandpa passed away.  I remember the laugh we shared that day after I gave him a haircut.  For someone who experienced a few suboptimal conditions throughout his life that could make anyone sad and frustrated with the cards he was dealt, he sure knew how to laugh, smile, and make others feel like they were part of something.

Research consistently shows that a healthy diet, plenty of sleep, and adequate exercise support longevity.  It should come as no surprise that, with advancing age, the likelihood of bone and joint deterioration and a few surprise medical conditions can present themselves when we least expect them.  Additionally, short-term memory loss, hearing distortions, and impaired eyesight are likely to occur more as age progresses.  However, something that is commonly overlooked when addressing lifespan, which my grandpa demonstrated, is our ability to be healthy by interacting with people and simply smiling.

Adhering to habits of eating the right foods, getting enough sleep, and exercising two to three days a week creates an advantageous environment for people to mitigate general age-related conditions.  However, an invaluable tactic toward getting as many healthy years as possible that can significantly expand our health span is taking some time to smile, laugh, and maybe crack a lame joke to make the people around you feel less tense.

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 17

Strength, Coordination, and Endurance contribute to Everyday Balance

As members of the general population, we engage in a wide variety of physical activities.  Some of us participate in a broad range of hobbies and chores that keep us active, such as walking our pets, gardening, or completing home improvement projects.  For those of us who have children or grandchildren, our physical activities become increasingly complex.  At a moment’s notice, we can be climbing up and down a set of bleachers at a youth basketball game, or we can be summoned to play catch to warm up a vivacious young baseball player at a twelve-year-old’s baseball game.  Let’s not forget those of us who can’t call their day complete if we don’t make it out to the golf course, tennis court, or bike ride up the Napa Valley vineyard trail two to three times per week.  Interacting in environments requiring our bodies to move with minimal restrictions is critical to the success and fulfillment of the activities on our agenda.

A topic that can’t use enough attention that can either optimize or deter our physical activities is balance.  If we have optimal balance, we’ll more than likely have fewer issues holding us back from getting the most out of the time we invest in our physical activities.  However, if balance is compromised by conditions that impair the body’s ability to function properly during physical activity, our comfort zone narrows, and our ability to engage in the physical activities that bring us joy and a sense of accomplishment can be limited.

Balance can be defined as the ability to control the body’s position and movement to stay stable, respond to changes in one’s physical environment, and move confidently through daily activities.  Examples include stepping up onto a curb, moving laterally to navigate around obstacles while moving forward, or lifting up the feet to clear objects on the ground while maintaining control. When a misstep or trip occurs, the ability to quickly regain proprioception and reestablish stability becomes essential to prevent a fall.  Whether it be a gust of wind producing challenges to move forward, a pet or toddler running rampant on the ground that might take out ones legs and cause a tripping hazard, or waking up in the middle of the night to navigate through a dimly lit environment, the various components of proprioception, awareness, confidence, muscular strength, coordination and endurance are invaluable assets to a person’s balance throughout daily physical activities.

Strength provides the muscular support needed to control these movements. Muscular endurance allows that control to be maintained over time as fatigue sets in.  Optimal neuromuscular coordination allows the brain and spinal cord to efficiently send signals to stimulate muscles and be more reactive to the various presentations of the environment a person interacts with.  While many features of the human body support a person’s balance, themes of strength, endurance, and coordination are foundational to balance and can be attained by consistently practicing safe, efficient, and effective balance-focused exercises.

An exercise we instruct our personal training clients to consistently practice during their exercise session that emphasizes lateral movements, change of direction, and acclimating to stepping over objects includes the lateral step over:

Stand to the side of an object that is about mid-shin height.  Lift the foot closest to the object and step over the object, landing on the opposite side of the object.  Situate your balance on the foot that just landed, then lift the trailing foot up and over the box to land beneath your hips on the other side of the box.  It’s important to make sure the toes are high enough so that they do not scrape the top of the object.  Repeat this movement on both feet for five to ten repetitions.

Recovering from previous injuries and generalized age-related conditions can affect a person’s balance.  Additionally, it’s not unusual to see health and fitness levels decline due to a deconditioned state when focusing on an eight to ten-hour workday throughout one’s career.  Sedentary lifestyle conditions can persist for years, making it challenging to regain adequate health and fitness.  While complications from lifestyle, work life, and health and physical maladies can occur at any time, that doesn’t mean we have to accept the repercussions of decreased fitness and the toll these challenges take on our bodies.  By choosing simple, safe, and effective balance-based exercises and practicing them once or twice per week, one’s balance can be significantly improved.

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 16

Functional Movement Training

What if getting stronger and preventing injuries wasn’t about doing more exercises, but about moving better? That’s the idea behind functional movement training.

Functional movement training grew out of physical therapy, rehabilitation science, and strength and conditioning. Instead of isolating single muscles, it focuses on training fundamental movement patterns your body uses every day (e.g. squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, rotating, and carrying). These movements build strength, coordination, balance, and real-world durability using free weights, bodyweight exercises, and multi-joint movements.

This approach gained popularity in the early 2000s alongside the rise of CrossFit, boot camps, and performance-based group training. This shift moved fitness culture away from aesthetics alone and toward performance and longevity. Functional training helped make compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, and presses foundational, reduced reliance on machines, and emphasized mobility and injury prevention.

Today, the industry has evolved from “training muscles” to “training movements.” At Napa Tenacious Fitness, we apply these principles to help our community move better, build strength, and support long-term health and performance.

-Written by Coach Vincent Nguyen

Apr 16

Dynamic Stretching vs. Static Stretching

There are two primary forms of stretching we use with our personal training clients: dynamic and static.

Dynamic stretching is performed before exercise.  Dynamic stretching can be defined as the act of moving through full ranges of motion to create short, repeated stretches that prepare the body for exercise.  A few examples include arm circles, hip circles, and leg swings.  These movements help warm up the body by mobilizing joints and activating muscles through a full range of motion in a controlled, purposeful way. This prepares the body for movement and reduces the risk of injury during training.

 

In contrast, static stretching involves holding a muscle in a fixed position for a set period (typically 15–60 seconds). This approach is most effective after a workout, when the goal is to help the body cool down and relax. Static stretching can improve flexibility and may help reduce post-exercise muscle tightness. A common example is the half-kneeling hip flexor stretch, which targets the front of the hips and thighs.

 

–Written by Coach Paul Atienza