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.

Jul 10

Stay Fit for Recreational Sports

An engaging and fun activity after a day of labor is playing a recreational sport.  Golf, tennis, pickleball, running, and biking are some of the most popular sports among our personal training clients.  Engaging in sports requires physical capabilities and athleticism, including the ability to endure long periods of potentially strenuous activity, consistent practice to refine the actions needed for the sport, and a certain level of strength, balance, and coordination.

Recreational sports are fun.  Golf, tennis, pickleball, running, and biking commonly fall into the recreational physical activity category.  Unless we’re in a competitive setting such as a tournament or league, engaging in these sports acts as a way for people to get their minds off the stresses of work and everyday life while getting a sense of accomplishment before the day ends.  However, even at the recreational level, sports can be taxing on the body.  Unfortunately, musculoskeletal injuries can occur when participating in activities that are seemingly safe and not too taxing on the body.  This is where injury prevention through appropriately selected exercise is critical for participating in the recreational sports we look forward to.

Injuries at the recreational-sport level can happen at the most inopportune times.  For instance, after a few weeks of picking up golf and working on the complexities of a golf swing in driving, chipping, and putting, lower back, elbow, or knee injuries can appear.  For those of us who enjoy racket sports such as tennis or pickleball, the stop-and-go motion when striking a ball can cause lower back, knee, or ankle pain.  Even a seemingly simple recreational sport, such as Bocce ball, can produce lower back stiffness and soreness from bending over to roll a wooden ball on a Bocce ball league night, which requires two to thirty rolls per event.

While the likelihood of enduring a traumatic injury such as broken bones from a fall or torn ligaments, tendons, and other significant connective tissue isn’t common, overuse injuries from playing constantly throughout the week and adding hours of recreational sporting activities add physical stress to the body.  After a few weeks of fun, consistent play, a few areas of soreness may develop.  Awareness and understanding that a maintenance program of injury prevention and sport-specific strength and conditioning can significantly enhance the enjoyment of these recreational sports and, more importantly, keep us within the arena of play by mitigating the likelihood of overuse injuries.

Common areas in the body that become stiff, sore, and sometimes painful enough to make us aware that something is not right after a bout of recreational sporting activity include the back, knees, ankles, and shoulders.  To offset the severity of these byproducts of discomfort, injury prevention tactics to these areas in the form of low-intensity resistance training and stretching performed outside the field of play can pay massive dividends not only toward optimizing performance, but also toward not having to worry as much about the suboptimal byproducts of pain and discomfort our favorite recreational sports might impose on the body.  Below is an exercise we use with our personal training clients as part of injury prevention and strength and conditioning to help offset delayed-onset muscle soreness.

For lower back, shoulders and hips, the “bird dog” exercise is a simple, safe, and effective tactic:

To perform the alternating “bird dog” exercise, start by lying on the ground with your hands under your chest and your knees under your hips.   With one arm in a stable position on the ground, lift the opposite arm out in front of the body and reach the fingertips as far as you can.  At the same time, extend the leg on the opposite side of the arm extended behind you to straighten it as far as you can.  Ensure the spine is as straight as possible.  Ensure the back of the head stays in line with the spine throughout the movement.  Additionally, maintain rigidity in your shoulder blades, spine, and hips to ensure your torso doesn’t rotate throughout the movements.  Furthermore, ensure you dorsiflex the ankle of the extended working leg by keeping your toes pointed toward your body.  You should experience muscular activation and a stretching sensation in the shoulder, core, lower back, and hips. Repeat this movement for five to ten repetitions on both sides of the body.

Recreational sports give us something to look forward to after enduring the stresses of everyday life.  The ability to decompress, sweat, laugh, and hone a craft in an enjoyable sport is an invaluable asset to lifetime fitness efforts.  Let’s ensure we stay fit for these activities so we can continue to get out and play 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 03

Complexities of Core Strength

“Imagine if your arms and legs magically disappeared from the armpits and hips.  All the muscles in the region between the armpits and hips are your core.”  These were the words of the fitness director who supervised me at a gym I worked at many moons ago.  I was selected to teach a small-group fitness class called “core values.”  To successfully provide class participants with a beneficial outcome from the exercises conducted in class, I needed to know which muscles fell under her definition of core and how to safely and effectively instruct participants in activating them.

“We don’t just sit around and do crunches throughout the class,” explained my boss.  “The idea is to build strength in the muscles that create functional movement in our hips, lower back, and shoulders.”

The description seemed a little extreme and morbid at first. Who wants to think about having their arms and legs removed?  However, the description immediately resonated with my knowledge of the human body’s anatomy.

A common understanding of “core” seems to focus on the abdominal muscles.  Social media feeds, advertisements on our streaming devices, and pictures of hyper-athletic young athletes on protein and sports drinks at the store display their six-packs.  Consumers are more than likely to focus myopically on the chiseled abs of the individuals modeling them.  These models have been expertly trained by elite-level fitness coaches, directed on what to eat by a dietitian, and prepared for three months for a shot that displays their midsections so defined and chiseled that they could grate cheese on their abs.  Add in the beauty of airbrushing, body makeup, AI images, and Photoshop editing, and you have an image of a human with the midsection of a Greek god.

Sometimes, this image of having Brad Pitt’s six-pack is what the general population perceives as the core.  While these fitness models have worked hard to develop a midsection worthy of TV, social media, or health supplement advertisements, that image doesn’t necessarily reflect the core strength’s missing pieces that help the general population be more productive and functional while staving off injuries.

Think of the way a caterpillar moves on the ground.  They have little nubby appendages that grab the ground as the segmented portion at the center of their bodies reaches forward to move them, little by little.  I would argue that caterpillars have a strong core, using my boss’s description of core muscles.  Insects with similar morphology to caterpillars are essentially all core muscles.  They don’t necessarily use their arms for much other than creating friction on the ground.  Humans have four extremities that are invaluable assets in our lives.  Somewhat similar to a caterpillar’s body, our spine has multiple segments composed of muscles, bones, nerves, and, most importantly, the spinal cord, which is one of the most critical assets for innervating our body.

To better appreciate the core muscles that create a significant impact on our productivity and functionality, which aren’t just for a six-pack, it’s worthwhile to look at the anatomy that connects the spine to the hips and the spine to the shoulders.  The hip girdle is a collection of bones that attach to the spine and the thigh bones.  The spinal column is a collection of the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral columns.  These sections of the spine consist of uniquely shaped bones called vertebrae, which stack on top of one another and provide specific properties of rotation, flexion, and extension.  The shoulder girdle is comprised of the clavicle and scapula, which are connected to the thoracic and cervical spine by ligaments, tendons, and muscles.

While there is a vast network of muscles that can fill the pages of an anatomy course guideline, the few muscles that serve as effective core-strengthening movements we teach our personal training clients start at the hips, abdomen, and shoulder blades.  The muscles surrounding the hip joints are among the strongest in the body and serve as structural reinforcement at the body’s center.  The glutes are among the simplest muscles to identify as hip muscles and are a safe, efficient place to start when focusing on reinforcing hip strength.  The muscles of scapular stabilization, which surround the shoulder blades and shoulder joint, help maintain upright posture when standing and sitting.  Larger muscles of the shoulder blade include the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, and teres muscles.  A multitude of muscles reside along the front, back, and sides of the spine, including the psoas and erector spinae.

The human body is complex.  A strong, durable, and resilient core undoubtedly reinforces people’s ability to live a highly functional, productive, and enjoyable life.   Perhaps we can take some time to educate ourselves on the different core muscle groups and specifically target the ones that truly make up the core of the body.

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.

Jun 26

Refining Balance and Posture by Standing Upright

The ability to stand upright on two feet can be perceived as a normal activity that doesn’t need much appreciation.  However, standing upright is an invaluable asset.  An example of a pivotal moment in our everyday life is getting out of bed first thing in the morning. This might look like pushing oneself up from a lying position, swinging the feet over the edge of the bed, placing both feet on the floor, and extending the legs to finish in an upright standing position.  Whether we literally roll out of bed or put a little more thought into it by strategically following an order of operations to pivot our bodies and gradually get to a standing position, we usually do it without a second thought.  We’re able to accomplish this seemingly simple task thanks to the brain’s sophisticated design and the body’s neuromuscular system that operates in an efficiently coordinated manner to bring us to an upright standing position.

Being the most advanced organism on Earth, humans are equipped with a system of a central command center and wiring that gives immediate messages to allow us to interact with our environment by walking forward, stepping side to side, standing up from seated positions, kneeling down, or performing athletic activities such as running, jumping, catching, or a combination of all three.   These complex activities are made possible by the body’s skeletal framework, neuromuscular system, and our ability to adapt by refining our skill set and fostering neuroplasticity in our cognitive functioning, enabling us to learn, improve, and develop competency in a physical activity.

A human’s ability to stand upright and travel forward relies on optimal posture, so the spine can remain relatively perpendicular to the ground and aligned with the center of gravity.  If the spine flexes or extends too far forward, backward, or laterally, the center of gravity that allows us to be upright can be compromised.  A shift in the spine that pulls the body out of alignment with its center of gravity creates a lean in a direction that bends the spinal joints beyond their natural range of motion, hindering balance and increasing the risk for spinal injury.  The more the spine veers away from its perpendicular position to the ground when standing, the more balance and coordination are hindered.

I’ve never been to France, but I have studied a little architecture and understand that the Leaning Tower of Pisa isn’t perfectly aligned with the ground.  It leans about four degrees out of an ideal centralized foundation.  For the leaning tower of Pisa, it’s worked for a few centuries.  However, for humans who have a spinal cord encased in vertebrae that both support as a foundational component that allows the body to remain in an optimal center of gravity while also transmitting neuromuscular signals from the brain to the body’s extremities, a spine that leans out of alignment for long periods of time significantly compromises health and everyday life functionality.

A hunched-forward posture shifts the center of gravity anteriorly and causes the spine to bend like a fishing pole with a hooked fish.  This not only contributes to a slew of musculoskeletal spinal injuries but can also increase the risk of falling forward.  Therefore, ensuring the body has optimal posture when standing and walking is critically important to our health and everyday life functional capacity.

Posture isn’t only important for everyday physical activity, but also critically important for a successful exercise session.  Maintaining spinal alignment throughout exercises reduces the likelihood of injury and promotes optimal posture in everyday functional activities.  An exercise we conduct with our personal training clients at the beginning of every training session that serves as an injury-prevention and postural-support tactic is scapular protraction and retraction.  To perform scapular protraction and retraction:

Lift your arms and bend them at about a ninety-degree angle, aligning your arms with your armpits and fingertips pointing in front of you.  While maintaining your elbows at a 90-degree angle and keeping your fingertips facing forward, glide your shoulder blades forward along your rib cage until you feel a stretch in the upper back and a muscular sensation in your pectoral region.  Reverse the motion and glide your shoulder blades backward against your ribs.  You should feel a muscular sensation in the muscles surrounding your shoulder blades.   Repeat this movement for five to ten repetitions.

This exercise promotes strength and endurance in the scapular stabilization muscles.  The muscles connecting from the scapula to the thoracic and cervical spine encourage the head to pull back in an upright position, where the skull sits congruently at the top of the spinal column.  Performing this simple exercise a few times a week can significantly improve posture, reinforce balance, and help us be more productive and functional in our everyday 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.

Jun 19

Being Comfortable in Uncomfortable Situations at the Gym

I grew up a gym rat, starting to go to a local gym in sixth grade.  The gym gave me something to do.  I saw how a room filled with inanimate, stationary objects used by other exercise participants offered a simple yet engaging and fulfilling aspect of my life that had been missing.  Over time, seeing what the other adults in the gym did made me curious about why they engaged in those activities.

My parents would drop me off at the gym about four to five times per week.  After school, I didn’t really have much to do.  I hated homework, wasn’t very social, and found TV increasingly boring.  The gym gave me something to do.

I recall having two complimentary training sessions with the personal trainers at the local gym I signed up for, as part of a “get to know the gym” service offered to new members for the first month.  I took up that offer and met with a vibrant, hyper-athletic young man who was excited to show me around.  During those two sessions, the trainer taught me to warm up on a stationary bike for ten minutes, then head to the gym floor and use the weight-training machines.

I distinctly remember a time when the trainer showed me how to use the upright seated chest press.  The first set, he told me to perform eight reps.  I rested, and he adjusted the pins on the weight racks.  This made the resistance heavier and also made the pushing action harder.  I distinctly remember a new sensation that was akin to a sense of pain that flowed throughout my chest and arms.  It was a burning sensation that almost caused a brief feeling of paralysis after the set.  Little did I know, this was totally normal.  The trainer looked at me and said in his quintessential teenager “surfer dude” nineties tone, “Good job, little dude!  That’s what you call muscle activation!”

As an eleven-year-old who never really experienced this sensation, I was in shock.  Was this pain?  Were my arms going to function the same way after this session?  Was this grown adult in front of me a psycho?  The trainer saw the expression on my face and let me know that this is what working out feels like.  He reminded me that pushing my body past its normal comfort zone produces feedback that rigorous work is underway.

As I was panting and holding my chest, he added, “You have to break the muscles down before you build them back up.  This is how you get strong.”  One could imagine that, as I was sitting on a chest press machine, holding my arms as if they were about to fall off, I was questioning his logic.  The next comment he said made me wonder if I should run out of the gym completely, “Now let’s do another set and finish strong.”  For some reason, I complied with his suggestion.  What did I have to lose?  The other alternative was going home to watch a rerun of The Full House Show or doing homework. The next set of the newly discovered “muscle burn” wasn’t as bad as the first time.  It was fun to learn that I could get better at exercising.

The next morning, I woke up with an odd sensation, like a sunburn after a long day at the beach, all over my body.  I moved around, grimaced as I put my shirt on, and noticed that sitting down was challenging. However, I felt something good about this feeling of soreness.  I felt I had accomplished something that wasn’t necessarily easy.

A few days after the delayed onset muscle soreness had subsided, I asked my dad to drop me off at the gym again after school.  I sat down on the same chest press machine “surfer dude” trainer had me perform a set of exercises on, moved the pin to ten pounds heavier than it was last time I sat in that machine, and performed ten repetitions, which was two more repetitions than what I did the first time I set foot in the gym.

Surprisingly, my arms didn’t feel like they were going to explode.  I had gotten stronger.  From that point onward, I went to the gym four to five times per week and discovered other exercises that put me in uncomfortable positions, which eventually became manageable, and demonstrated that I can overcome challenging situations in the exercise arena.

It may sound like something simple that many people experience at certain times in life, but the concept of “work” isn’t always comfortable.  However, the feeling of overcoming an experience that makes you work hard is special.  Even though exercise can seem daunting, completing a difficult task can help us feel more comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

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.

Jun 13

Resistance Training and Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis can be defined as a condition in which bones gradually lose density and become more porous and brittle over time. As the inner structure of the bone thins and hollows, the risk of a fracture increases. Ordinary daily moments that most of us never think twice about begin to carry more weight. This becomes more pressing as people advance in age.   Balance can become impaired, reaction time slows, and the increased risk of falling are a few symptoms that arise as humans age. Exercise can be utilized as a potent medicine to help counteract the undesirable effects of degenerative bone disease. Incorporating safe, consistent, and effective exercise, such as resistance training, helps manage the deleterious effects of age-related osteoporosis.

It may be useful to appreciate that bones are not a dead, static, inanimate object residing in our bodies. Bone is a living tissue with a blood supply and unique characteristics, similar to those of other organs in the body, that respond to how it is treated in everyday life. Much like a muscle, which adapts to a stressful stimulus and grows bigger and stronger, bone responds by resynthesizing, repairing, and reinforcing its structural architecture after a bout of safe, consistent, and effective exercise-induced stress.

Imagine a healthy bone, free of symptoms of degenerative bone disease.  That healthy bone is like a towering redwood rooted in the ground at Bothe State Park in St. Helena, with a dense, reinforced trunk anchored deep in the earth and built to sway through storms and hold steady through the occasional earthquake. In contrast, a bone afflicted with a high concentration of osteoporosis is more like a dried piece of cork left out in the summer sun on a hot desert beach on the southern coast of the Algarve region in Portugal. A piece of dried cork tree left out in the hot sun will have degenerated into a light, brittle piece of scrap wood riddled with tiny air pockets that can crack under a force that the redwood would barely notice. While this exaggerated metaphor of osteoporosis might suggest that bones can break under something as gentle as a brisk morning breeze, bones can grow stronger and become more resilient to withstand the stresses of daily human function if trained with intention through a well-designed exercise practice.

While osteoporosis can affect the entire skeleton, hip, femur, and spine fractures tend to inflict the heaviest toll on a person’s mobility, independence, and overall quality of life. Healing after injuries to skin, muscle, tendons, ligaments, and bones isn’t as efficient as humans age. A bone injury in a seventy-year-old has far more implications than that of a twenty-five-year-old. Therefore, the importance of injury prevention cannot be overstated enough when advanced forms of osteoporosis are present in a person’s life. The goal is not to be afraid of movement, but to use movement as our protection.

It should come as no surprise that research continues to support that resistance training is one of the most effective tools available for protecting our bones. A safe, effective, and most importantly, consistent resistance training routine can increase bone mineral density, build muscular strength, and refine balance and coordination.  The ability to stay upright and respond to potential threats to balance reduces the risk of falls and reinforces confidence during rigorous daily physical activity.

It also helps to clear up a common misunderstanding.  Resistance training is sometimes thought of as the image of a hyper-athletic man with a loaded barbell in a chalky gym full of other alpha males performing heavy squats, deadlifts, and bench presses.  Let’s be clear, this isn’t the only form of resistance training.

It’s helpful to think of exercise-induced physical resistance as the thing our muscles push or pull against.  Forces of physical resistance can be applied to the body using our own body weight paired with gravity, held in an isometric position, or with elastic resistance bands, a pair of light dumbbells, or a machine at the local gym.

We coach our personal training clients in Napa to rely on compound movements, which engage multiple joints simultaneously. Squats and lunges build the hips, knees, and ankles that carry us through the day. Push-ups and rowing movements strengthen the chest, shoulders, and upper back, and reinforce the muscles and bones of the upper extremities. Planks and other core stabilization exercises strengthen the trunk muscles that reinforce the spine. Resistance training isn’t necessarily defined as lifting the heaviest weights possible. Exercising with optimal technique under an appropriate form of resistance should be a priority to stimulate adaptation in bone tissue.

A diagnosis of osteoporosis does not have to mean the surrender of strength, independence, or the life we love. Our bones are always paying attention to how we treat them.  If we treat our bones with respect and listen to the exercises that harmonize best with our bodies, we can live happy, healthy lives while knowing we have strong bones.

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.