Aug 22

Weight Loss Goals and Healthy Decision Making

“I’m not sure why I can’t lose this extra five pounds,” exclaimed Aramis, following a successful training session consisting of a slew of advanced resistance training and cardiovascularly challenging activities.  “I eat salads every day, I cut out carbs in the morning, and I jog three miles twice per week,” Aramis added, “I also get my butt kicked by you guys twice per week as well, which is far more intense than my leisurely jogs.  I can’t seem to get past this five-pound barrier of weight that’s been attached to me for the last three months.”

Aramis has been training under our personal training services for over a year.  The accomplishments he has achieved while navigating past obstacles, including physical and medical issues, have been an amazing feat.  Having been diagnosed with two bulging discs in his lower back and advanced arthritis in his hips and knees, he diligently follows injury prevention, mobility, and strength training tactics to reinforce his pain points throughout his body so he can participate in the activities he enjoys, like jogging and being able to join recreational excursions with his friends and family on vacations.  For a sixty-five-year-old gentleman who has seen his fair share of injuries to major joints of the body, he’s doing pretty well.   From my standpoint as Aramis’ professional lifetime fitness coach, I thought Aramis received an “A” on his report card for achieving his fitness goals.  So, why was he so distraught over losing a measly five pounds?

To some people, five pounds seems like a massive amount of weight to shed.  Depending on the physical composition of an individual, twenty pounds can be seen as a significant amount, or losing three pounds can be a substantial obstacle toward success.  Distribution of fat mass and muscle mass contributes differently to the digital reflection of mass when stepping on a scale.  For someone who has been exercising for over a year, following a consistent and regimented resistance training program, the body will likely have more lean muscle mass.  In contrast, sedentary individuals who lack regular exercise practices are likely to have a higher amount of fat mass on their bodies.  When a person consistently exercises and engages in physical activity for three months, it is more likely that they will decrease their fat mass and increase their lean muscle mass.  In Aramis’ case, he has been exercising consistently weekly for over twelve months, placing him in a category where his body has a high concentration of lean muscle mass.

Aramis is doing everything right when it comes to a sixty-five-year-old man who practices a healthy diet and exercises regularly.  One of the first things we examine that serves as a form of discovery of what gaps can be filled at points of plateau is the decisions people make.  I interviewed Aramis by asking him just a few discovery questions, like “Do you drink any coffee in the morning?” and “Do you eat any dessert after dinner?”  Aramis replied that he enjoys a caramel latte with full-fat milk a few times a week after taking his morning jogs.  He also shared that he enjoys a few pieces of chocolate-covered peanut brittle after dinner.  It seems like nitpicking, but those two or three caramel lattes and extra bites of chocolate peanut brittle add up throughout the week.  Seemingly small details, such as justifying treats like a whole milk latte and one or two bites of chocolate at the end of the day, have the potential to significantly derail fat loss goals.

Even with the consistent efforts of exercise Aramis was completing, the insulin-spiking effects of lactose and additional sugars in his caramel latte weren’t helping him following his jog.   The calories he burned after his jog were quickly overwhelmed by his caramel latte.  If this process is repeated three times per week, the body will develop into one that resembles a person who consumes three lattes per week.   Add in the intermittent chocolate peanut brittle feeding periods after dinner that seem like “a few bites,” and Aramis’ body has probably consumed an entire bar throughout a week.  If we do the math, three lattes plus one bar of chocolate peanut brittle per week can equate to five pounds of fat mass.

It’s common to experience plateaus in fitness journeys, even after consistently and effectively exercising regularly, eating foods that promote overall well-being, and engaging in regular recreational physical activities.  One of the reasons people thrive when following healthy lifestyle efforts is that losing fat, fitting into new clothes, experiencing less joint pain, avoiding stomachaches, moving more efficiently, and sleeping better feels amazing.  Just like our friend Aramis, people still want to achieve more by losing a small amount of weight, even though healthy lifestyle tactics have been ingrained into their lives.  When we reach a standstill, even after consistent exercise and healthy dietary habits have been established, examine the decisions made throughout the week that could be hindrances, and then make the necessary adjustments to support further progress in lifelong fitness efforts.

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

Walking with Purpose

The challenges of everyday life hit us from various angles.  Whether it’s the stresses of work life, a struggle in an interpersonal relationship, or the worry of a health problem, stray thoughts that stimulate worry, anxiety, or any other undesirable emotion consume a significant amount of energy.  While electronic devices that are meant to connect us to our phones, the internet, and streaming entertainment grant us the ability to talk to our loved ones and friends, clock into work, or watch the highlights from our favorite sporting event when ever we want, this freedom to be connected to electronic devices such as cell phone, ear pieces, or smart watches can create stresses that can put our minds on information overload.  It should go without saying that the revolution of AI and the acceleration of communication technology help us live more successful lives.  However, just like many things in life, if we use these amazing features too much, we can become saturated with the overstimulating information technology available to us and miss out on some of the gifts our world offers when we are in an environment that allows thoughts, feelings, and actions to occur without the use of an electronic device supporting our every action.

An invaluable resource that every human is equipped with is the ability to take a walk around the block.  Even if deadlines at work, a quarrel with our spouse, or news about the next terrible thing has been broadcast over our news updates on our phones, social media networks, or Fox News, we can all put our phones and smart watches on the counter, turn the TV off, and walk outside for a few minutes.  Putting our phones on the counter and taking a walk outside can enhance our everyday quality of life in numerous ways that we don’t even notice until we step outside the door and leave the confines of electronic connection behind us for a few moments.

A simple walk around the block has the potential to keep joints moving and reduce joint pain, offer emotional solace from stressful situations, and burn a few more calories throughout the day.  Sometimes the attachments to electronic devices that give us instant satisfaction via the ability to communicate with a text message, email, or phone call from our wrist or earpiece can keep us tethered to the need to check every alert coming from our connection to technology.  Before we know it, a simple rabbit hole of answering a few text messages on our smartwatches can lead to viewing the vast array of notifications that come with using the interface of our cellular devices.  We can develop an attachment and dependency on our electronic devices, making it challenging for people to disconnect from them.  The very thought of leaving one’s phone outside of their car is considered taboo.  Some people think we can’t operate our lives without a phone.  However, we can take a walk without a phone, avoiding the distractions of answering text messages, replying to emails, or taking a phone call.  If we take the phone watch off, set the earpiece on the counter, or put the phone on silent and set it next to our nightstand, and then take a walk, the cellular device will still be there when we return.  I promise.

Give yourself the gift of detaching from the confines of technology and take a walk.  Take a look at the trees, birds, and the beautiful Northern California countryside in which we live.  There are very few areas in the world that have the majestic natural beauty that Napa is blessed with.  Don’t look down at your phone or watch; look up at the blue sky, the mountains, and the greenery of redwood trees and vibrant green vineyards.  This simple act of walking to remind us how good we have it and taking a moment away from our technological connections has the power to reinforce our bodies, free up psychological and emotional bandwidth, and open up a different part of the mind that might have been put on hold.  Give yourself the gift of walking with the purpose to live a happier, healthier, and stronger 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.

Aug 07

Progressions in Balance for Everyday Life Activities

Balance can be defined as the ability to stand on one leg, regain one’s center of gravity after losing it, or walk in a straight line.  Depending on specific circumstances, balance can significantly impact a person’s quality of life.  Sometimes, people in deconditioned states of fitness find the seemingly simple act of getting up from a sitting position and standing up to be an activity that presents a slew of balance challenges.  Fitness goals, such as mastering the skill of standing on one leg for an extended period, can be a moderate to challenging goal for most members of the general population.  For hyperathletic individuals in whom balance comes naturally, dynamic activities such as squatting or jumping on one leg are another goal of balance.

As professionals in the coaching and personal training field, who have offered our services to individuals at various levels of health, ranging from individuals recovering from injury or surgery to elite athletes, our fitness center has witnessed a vast array of balance levels among our exercise participants.  One of the most important factors that has aided exercise participants in improving their balance is to meet them where they are in their current level of balance and apply appropriate progressions.  To build strength in the core, hip, knee, and ankle muscles, a safe and effective exercise regimen offering an appropriate amount of challenge is integral to promoting strength, skill, and confidence in a person’s balance.

A critical success factor for improving balance is to identify and address imbalances in the body.   To discover levels of imbalance and determine the most appropriate exercises to address them, it’s essential to understand the presentations of imbalance that pose challenges in everyday life activities.  For the individuals in their mid-forties to mid-fifties blessed with their offspring blossoming into ages six to twelve years old, there might be a few other young energetic humans running rampant in various settings we’re usually not used to having such boisterous activity in.  For example, if a young human is chasing after a ball, playing tag, or practicing their first base slide on a hardwood floor in our homes, the need to evade a human who has now made their body into a projectile might arise in a short amount of time.  Therefore, the ability to change direction immediately, move one’s feet from one area to another in a split second, or possibly hop, skip, and jump without thinking twice might need to happen when we least expect it.  These activities to evade dangerous situations and regain balance are crucial for preserving one’s health and avoiding a devastating injury.

Regaining balance after a scenario that causes a presentation of imbalance can’t be overstated.  The action of immediately jumping out of the way of a moving object travelling directly at a person at a speed threatening to one’s health produces a need to recover from an imbalanced state.  However, regaining a safe and steady position after a sudden jolt of needing to evade a physical object colliding with the person is equally important.   Mastering the ability to stand on one leg for ten to thirty seconds is challenging.  Once that tactic has been mastered and a person can stand on one leg for thirty seconds without having to adjust their balance or fatiguing, another appropriate progression would be to add a type of movement that requires the body to dynamically introduce a presentation of imbalance and then recover from it for a certain number of repetitions.  A relatively moderate to advanced balance-based exercise that we instruct our personal training clients to perform is the lateral step over. This movement not only helps with lower body functional strength but also aids in regaining balance from lateral presentations of imbalance.

To perform 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 it, landing on the opposite side.  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 ensure 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.

The action of shifting the weight from one side of the body to the other, moving the feet laterally or backwards at a faster-than-normal speed, and planting the feet and decelerating from a fast-twitch movement is an important part of balance that is commonly overlooked.  Balance isn’t just demonstrating the ability to stand in a static position.  Optimal balance also includes the ability to recover from an event that causes the body to shift from one location to another and requires regaining balance.

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 01

Healthy Shoulders Make us Successful Humans

Reaching back to slide your arm into a zip-up hoodie, fixing a bun or ponytail in your hair, or simply lying on your side while sleeping in your bed shouldn’t be too challenging.  However, for those of us who have endured an injury to one or both of the shoulders, a seemingly simple everyday life action can seem like a complex and challenging decision on whether or not to make a movement that causes pain or discomfort.

Comprised of a network of unique bony attachments, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves, the shoulder has unique capabilities that differentiate it from other joints.  The attachment of the humerus to the scapula and clavicle enables a full range of motion, which sets humans apart from other creatures.  Imagine if we had the shoulder design of a crab, cat, or lizard.  We wouldn’t be able to engage in the activities that have enabled us to become the most advanced organism on Earth.  However, it’s worthwhile to appreciate the differences our shoulders have when compared to other phyla in the world.

Our crustacean friends have shoulder joints that attach to their arms, equipped with little pinchers that grab onto food and transport it to their mouths.  If you’ve picked up a live crayfish and seen that they can only pinch something that’s in front of them, you can see the limitations of their shoulder joint.  Cats are one of the most agile and athletic species of land-dwelling mammals in the world.  However, they have similar limitations to those of Mr. Crabs.  They can’t reach behind their body.  Lizards have unique abilities to stay close to the ground and skitter along walls and crawl into narrow cracks. A lizard can abduct its arms out wide, but it can’t reach its arms up over its head or behind its body to touch its back.  We have quite the privilege of being able to move our arms in various planes of motion that grant us the ability to do something as simple as reach out in front of us and bring a cup of coffee to our mouths, to something as sophisticated as practicing and refining our ability to throw a football ten to thirty yards to a moving target.

So, why would we want to compare our shoulder joints to crustaceans, felines, or reptiles?  While we are the top of the food chain and the most successful species on Earth, if we don’t tend to our shoulders and ensure they are strong and able to move in optimal range of motion, our shoulders will devolve into the same shoulder limitations as crustaceans, reptiles, and felines.

Our personal training clients sometimes present a plethora of musculoskeletal injuries that may have been caused by using a dominant hand more than the other, a previous traumatic event such as a car crash, or the development of a degenerative connective tissue condition.   Shoulders that have endured unfortunate afflictions that affect a persons range of motion, strength, and structural integrity of the connective tissue within the joint that haven’t been properly managed via skillfull exercise decisions create scenarios in which the arm starts to move in the same manner as that of a crab with a pincher bringing a piece of debree from the bottom of the ocean to their mouths.

At the beginning of our client’s training sessions, exercise participants are required to perform a series of dynamic stretching movements that prepare the body for exercise.  Included in this routine are over ten tactics that pertain to shoulder muscular activation, range of motion practice, and education on how to move the shoulder correctly through various planes of motion.  One such technique that makes a big difference in a person’s fitness journey is shoulder protraction and retraction:

To perform scapular protraction and retraction, lift your arms and bend the elbows at about a ninety-degree angle, and elevate them until they are in line with your armpits.  While maintaining your elbows at a ninety-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.

Equipped with the ability to reach the arm in front, across the midline of the torso, to the side, overhead, and even behind the body, the shoulder is an invaluable asset allowing humans to interact successfully in their careers, recreational sporting activities, and even simple everyday functions such as using our phone, working on computers, cooking, shopping, or driving.  Understanding and appreciating the range of motions of the shoulder is critical for successful and efficient functionality in everyday human 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.

Jul 25

Using Exercise to Adapt to Changes in an Aging Body

After a three-hour competitive pickleball session with a few of my pickleball peers, we sat on the bleachers outside Vineyard Park in Yountville. Covered in a fine coat of sweat and sunscreen, we admired the picturesque landscape to the east.  Miles of trellised grape vines paved a vibrant green blanket of grape leaves and native California foliage across the land, leading up to the hills and mountain ranges that were speckled with patches of vineyards, rustic-looking buildings, and rocky protrusions as the line of sight traveled upward to the tip of the mountains.  One of my favorite views is the summit of a hill that can be reached by hiking to the legendary Stag’s Leap site, starting at the Rector Creek Reservoir trail.  That site brings back a sense of nostalgia from when I took a four-hour hike with one of my best friends.  He shared that the area we hiked to was named after a legend of a stag that the indigenous people of Napa were said to be hunting.  The tale has it that the stag evaded the hunters and cleared a rocky formation over ten feet high.  This glorious landscape, along with stories of the hikes I’ve taken in the mountains to the east of the pickleball courts, brings a sense of joy after concluding a heart-pounding, sweat-filled, and adrenaline-inducing session of smashing a wiffle ball at my opponents for three straight hours.

One of my fellow pickleball peers shared with me that pickleball was his favorite way to exercise.  I can relate, as I’m not fond of staying on a treadmill, staring at an electronic device, to burn the same amount of calories as I would engaging in one of my favorite recreational physical activities.  The thought of staying on a treadmill for anywhere over five minutes chills me to the bone.  He also added, “I haven’t felt knee pain until I started to play pickleball, though.”  He said, “I played tennis for years. Pickleball quickly became my new point of interest because it was new, fun, and gave me something different to work on.  But, after getting to age forty-five, and picking up a new sport, my knees ache after playing so much pickleball.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise that, along with the advancement of age, maladies in our joints can appear in new spots that we’ve never had before.  My grandfather and dad were physical specimens when they were my age.  They woke up earlier than I and any rooster that “cock a doodle doed” before the break of dawn, worked their hands to the bone, got home later than everyone else in the house, and went to bed after everyone else was safely asleep.  However, after they retired, they would occasionally experience back pain, knee pain, or a crick in their neck.  After observing firsthand that joint pain can occur in the most roughnecked, knuckle-dragging, and hard-nosed people like my dad and grandpa, I realized that investing in learning tactics to manage age-induced joint pain was a crucial part of being able to enjoy my life to the fullest.

Aging and the appearance of joint pain are usually an inevitable part of life’s progression.  Cartilage surrounding the ends of bones undergoes general age-related breakdown. Muscles aren’t the same as they were in our youth.  Previous injuries that didn’t seem so bad in the past might unmask themselves and re-appear in certain areas ten to twenty years later.  However, exercise is one of the most effective ways to reduce the likelihood of unexpected and severe joint pain.

Age-related joint pain can occur in various areas of the body.  Some of the most common sites of joint pain we observe in our personal training clients are in the knees, lower back, and shoulder joints.  These areas often emerge as pain points after years of manual labor or previous injuries.  To mitigate joint pain, the last thing we want to do is avoid moving.  Lack of physical activity triggers muscles to stop growing and adapting to the demands of everyday life.  Therefore, discovering safe and effective exercises that target strengthening the knees, lower back, and shoulders is critically important for managing age-related joint pain.

An effective index of exercises we prescribe for our personal training clients, to reduce joint pain, is to prioritize the muscles of the knee, lower back, and thoracic spine.  These portions of the body contain muscles that serve as the base of support for common areas of joint pain.  Learning how to engage the scapular and core muscles that surround the ribs and thoracic spine helps reinforce the neck, upper back, and lower back.  Consistently practicing movements that increase the range of motion of the hips and ankles helps the lower extremities take on the brunt of the load when engaging in physical activities that involve lifting and recreational athletics.  Exploring exercises that are enjoyable, safe, and supported by research to help alleviate joint-related pain has the potential to support a happy life while reducing joint pain.

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 17

Simple Exercises to Improve Life as we Age

As humans circle the sun, adding another year to their lives, some things remain the same, while others change. Thanks to the discovery of our buddy Isaac Newton in the late 1600s, we know that the presence of gravity remains constant.  Until our sun goes into a supernova a few million years from now, we’re pretty much guaranteed to have gravity pressing down on our bodies and adhering us to Earth’s surface.  In contrast, something that always changes as we circle the Earth is our age.  Unless we figure out how to hop in a DeLorean with Michael J. Fox and travel back in time in a blaze of 1980s cinematic glory, we’re more than likely not going to travel back in time, let alone reverse the effects of aging as we have more birthdays.

The gradual effects of aging include a few things we may not want to hear about that happen to our bodies, including the addition of some wrinkles on our skin, discomfort around our knee joints, and a symphony of exciting popping and cracking sounds after getting out of bed in the morning.  At certain periods in life, we may discover that we are no longer the vibrant, late-teen masterpiece of a human we were in our youth.  Things slow down with age, and we may not be as strong, fast, or mobile. However, something that is always within our reach and that we can improve is the ability to sharpen our mind, body, and spirit by utilizing the gift of exercise.  More often than not, people usually feel better following an exercise session.  Similar to the fact that gravity is always present, the ability to feel good after a workout is also always available.

A potential obstacle that can arise when starting on a fitness journey is finding a place to start.  Should an exercise newbie begin with a few classes at Orange Theory, acquire a few packages at a local Yoga or Pilates studio, or hire one of Napa’s finest personal trainers?  These are critically important factors in improving the overall quality of life as humans age.  However, starting on a new fitness journey can be a daunting task to pursue because people often don’t know where to begin.

A key theme in our personal training program for new clients is to focus on mastering movements that don’t require any resistance training equipment.  Techniques that shift the body’s position to hold the mass of the body resisting against gravity create a rigorous environment in which the body must use its muscles to resist against gravity.  These movements, which don’t require resistance training equipment like exercise bikes, treadmills, dumbbells, or fancy cable apparatuses, offer a lower learning curve, making them a welcoming entry-level and conservative approach to integrating exercise into a person’s lifestyle.  Below are two examples of upper and lower extremity body weight exercises we regularly program into our newer exercise participants’ exercise prescriptions to develop a sense of mastery and competency in their exercise performance:

To perform the incline push-up, place your arms on an incline surface that is approximately hip height.  While keeping your arms straight and your hands just underneath your eyebrows, lean forward in a plank position.  Gradually bend at your elbows to lower your torso toward the inclined surface.  Descend to the point at which your elbows meet your ribs.  Once the torso has achieved its targeted depth, reverse the motion and push yourself up to your initial position.  You should feel muscular engagement in the front of the shoulder, chest, triceps, and abdominals.   Repeat this movement for five to ten repetitions.

To perform the lateral split squat, take a large, lunge-like step to the outside of the body to where your legs are abducted away from each other.   Ensure both toes are facing forward and the feet are flat on the ground. Bend one knee and shift your hips laterally to one side of the body while straightening the trailing leg.  You should feel a muscular sensation in the glutes, quads, and inner thigh muscles.  Pay special attention to making sure the trailing foot remains flat on the ground.  Simultaneously pull in with the extended leg until you return to your initial position.  Maintain the “lateral split stance” position throughout the exercise, repeating the same movement until the desired number of repetitions is completed.  Repeat this movement for three to five repetitions with each leg in both the leading and trailing positions.

Simple and effective tactics stimulate mastery and competency throughout our exercise efforts. As we live longer, challenges present themselves at unexpected times, and physical activity may not necessarily seem like it gets easier. However, by reinforcing our bodies with the gift of exercise, we can always make efforts to make life better for the next day with a stronger, happier, and healthier lifestyle.

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

Weight Loss Goals and Focusing on What is in Reach

Reduction of subcutaneous fat mass, decreasing cholesterol, looking sleek and trim to fit into your best friends brides maid outfit she intends for you to wear in three months at her wedding, getting ready for a cruise through Greece in the Mediterranean basin, or simply losing some pounds to feel better physically, emotionally, and mentally fuel a goal that gives people a reason to endure the rigors of dieting and hanging out on a treadmill for hours at a time.  This goal is weight loss.  Whether it’s a recommendation from your physician, motivation induced by viewing a few social media feeds about diet and exercise, or self-inspired motivation to shed weight and decrease fat mass, the goal of losing weight stands among the top motivating factors to revise lifestyle habits.

A few commonly recognized effective tactics to lose weight include burning calories through physical activity, monitoring the amount of calories consumed throughout the day, and avoiding the temptation to head to the freezer after dinner and enjoy a few spoonfuls of ice cream.  These tactics may seem obvious to most of the population, but why do seemingly simple tactics, such as getting more exercise and tracking what you eat, seem as mind-boggling as matching up the squares on a Rubik’s Cube when it comes to establishing weight loss strategies? Perhaps it’s not focusing on what needs to be done, but rather on what we can change to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

I can recall one of my mentors at a previous gym I worked at explaining to me that losing weight is easy: “All you have to do is exercise more and eat less food.”  If I were to tell potential personal training clients who come into our fitness center for the first time this, we’d probably be out of business.  Why? Because people are really smart.  The general population knows that consuming too much sugar, consuming too much alcohol, and sitting at a desk and not doing anything about it is bad for the human body.  So, why can’t people adjust their habits to include eating less food and exercising more?  I have an answer that everyone can probably agree with:  ice cream tastes really good, and throwing back a few beers while watching the first week of football season with the guys after a long week of work is fun.  And, who wants to hit the gym at 5 PM after spending an impressive amount of emotional energy at work for eight to ten hours?  In other words, activities that require less energy and involve consuming amazing-tasting food that triggers fat mass gain are usually more enjoyable and easier to participate in than focusing on weight loss tactics.

The words “I want to lose twenty pounds” have more context than just the six words included in the phrase.  To understand how to lose this additional mass attached to the body, it’s worthwhile to recognize how it got there in the first place.  Most likely, an individual who weighs twenty pounds more than their desired weight has eaten too much of the wrong foods and hasn’t moved enough over the past year.  However, unveiling the types of foods consumed excessively and the activities lacking helps paint a picture of the contributing factors that led to an overweight status and how an individual arrived at that point in the first place.  A tactic that we’ve seen incredibly helpful in successful weight loss with our personal training clients is to focus on skillful decision-making when it comes to food selection and physical activity.  Elaborating further on skillful decision-making by understanding and educating oneself on the mechanisms of suboptimal decision-making versus optimal decision-making makes a significant difference in weight loss success.

Losing twenty pounds in a week is challenging and borderline unrealistic to achieve.  Unless a parasite has been contracted after accidentally drinking standing, rank, unfiltered water from a pond in a Saudi Arabian desert and an acute case of gastrointestinal distress occurs, we’re probably not going to lose twenty pounds in one week.  We need to reassess what’s within reach, which can come down to the decisions we make.

Sometimes referred to as “low-hanging fruit,” short-term and attainable goals can be accomplished through actions that yield an outcome that doesn’t require a lot of time.  A dietary short-term and achievable goal might be to focus on the types of food that end up on your plate at dinner time.  For example, suppose our dinner plate is full of bread, rice, pasta, and cheese. In that case, we’re just begging to absorb unused carbohydrates and fat into our fat mass that usually resides on the back of the arms, abdomen, hips, and the “love handle” area on the lateral aspect of the abdomen.  However, a decision to support weight loss might include limiting oneself to no more than three nights per week of having carbohydrates and cheese on the dinner plate.  This tactic has the potential to decrease the amount of carbohydrates consumed later in the day, when activity levels are low, which is typically around dinner time when humans generally move less and expend fewer calories as energy.

Adjusting skillful decision-making by limiting the number of dinners that include carbohydrates on the plate or restricting the amount of starchy, sugary, and fatty foods at nighttime is an attainable tactic for most people, as their decision to say “yes or no” is directly in front of them.  One could imagine that adhering to a goal to make a decision, saying “yes or no” to certain situations at the end of the day, is an easier task than “eat less food and exercise more.”  Instead of focusing on the daunting number of pounds to be lost, perhaps concentrating on tactics involving how many times one can say “yes or no” to excessive desserts, alcohol consumption, and late-night carbohydrate-dense dinners is a more attainable tactic to support long-term weight loss.

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 02

Regaining Confidence after a Knee Injury

Our knees are one of the most critically important components of our bodies, allowing us to perform a vast number of human functions throughout the experiences we participate in while we exist on Earth.  Along with the ability to eat, breathe, see, and hear, humans are granted an ability that we depend on more than we often consider, the ability to walk.  Ever since we took our first steps as toddlers, humans have been granted the unique ability to travel from one place to another using our lower extremities.  If we couldn’t walk, we’d have a hard time performing simple tasks, such as using the bathroom, going to the kitchen to make a sandwich, or getting to our cars, which we depend on so much.  Along with breathing, the topic of walking seems like something that isn’t necessarily given much thought.  However, after an injury profound enough to impede the ability to walk normally hits someone, it’s easy to understand how the seemingly simple action of walking can be taken for granted.

Any injury that affects a person’s ability to operate efficiently throughout their days isn’t wished upon by anyone.  One of the most debilitating injuries that affects a significant human function, such as walking, occurs in the knee joint.  A few examples include sprained or torn cruciate ligaments, tears in the meniscus, or fractures to the thigh, shin, or kneecap following a fall.  Once such injuries occur, walking can become quite a task, requiring a person to think in advance about their usual activities.

Following an injury to the knee, people may need to walk with a cast, a walking boot, crutches, a wheelchair, or a motorized wheelchair.  These mechanisms aid people in their recovery by keeping weight off the affected joint, which requires passive healing following surgery or immobilization.  This period, during which as much pressure as possible is taken off the joint in the first month or so following the injury, is crucial for the successful recovery of the tissue damaged by the injury.  Initiating meetings with a physical therapist can’t be overstated in terms of the importance of recovering and getting back to everyday working capacity.  However, even after recovery and clearance from physical therapy have been achieved, a sense of uncertainty and thoughts about how the joint was injured can impact confidence in participating in normal physical activity.

Traversing a set of stairs, getting in and out of the car, or simply bending down to pick up an object can produce shooting pain in the knee throughout the acute stages of recovery following a knee injury or corrective surgery procedure.  The pressure on bruised bone, cartilage, and connective tissue affected by a traumatic strain or tear, or the healing of a reattached tendon or ligament, can send enough signals of pain to make some individuals tear up and vocalize obscenities to the nearby public audience.  Any torquing rotational force, such as turning and planting the left foot to exit the driver’s side of a car, may feel unstable and weak.  These examples of potential post-knee recovery circumstances illustrate common scenarios that can make a person apprehensive about their usual daily movements during knee recovery.

To assist in reestablishing a sense of confidence throughout movement after a knee injury, strength training has the power to significantly increase the structural integrity of the knee.  Fortunately, the human body is equipped with the ability to adapt to exercise-induced stress by creating lean muscle mass.  Along with understanding the mechanisms of injury that might re-injure the knee joint, educating oneself in exercises that strengthen the muscles crossing the knee joint is invaluable for regaining confidence in knee strength and ability.

The hamstrings, quads, hip abductors, hip adductors, hip internal and external rotators, calves, and ankle muscles play a crucial role in stabilizing the knee.  When starting a strengthening routine for the knees following a successful physical therapy and passive recovery plan, simple, safe, and effective exercises may include supine hamstring and glute-specific exercises.  The supine position refers to the body position of lying flat on one’s back.  Lying down supine and exercising the lower extremities produces less compressive forces on the knee than conducting standing exercises.  Additionally, keeping the repetition amount lower is also useful during this period to decrease the number of repetitions on the injured joint.  A low-impact, safe, and effective supine exercise we conduct with our personal training clients who might be afflicted with knee pain includes the isometric supine hip extension. This exercise is commonly known as a “bridging” technique.  Here’s a brief explanation of how to perform it:

To perform the supine isometric hip extension, start by positioning yourself flat on your back on the ground with your arms extended and your knees bent.   Press your feet into the ground and lift the hips upward until a brief muscular sensation is experienced in the hamstrings and glutes.  Once your hips are extended upward, hold this position utilizing your glutes and hamstrings to stabilize the hips in an extended position for ten to thirty seconds.

Identifying movements that may exacerbate knee pain from a previous injury is crucial for mitigating knee pain.  However, it’s essential to educate oneself on the muscles and connective tissue that provide the knee with its reinforcing capabilities to prevent future injury.  After a presentation of injury has occurred, whether it be a minor scare or a life-changing event, taking time out to understand what muscles promote future injury prevention has the power to help us avoid future injuries and proceed to a healthy, happy, and strong quality of life.

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

Jun 26

Progressing toward challenging exercises safely and appropriately

“So, when do I get to use the dumbbells?” said Blaze, as she passed by me in between her sets of completing a round of step-up exercises.  Caught off guard slightly by this question as I was attempting to avoid electrocution during some maintenance work in the gym as I was doing my best impression of an electrician changing a light switch, I replied, “I suppose we can look into the previous exercises you’ve completed these past few months and evaluate what the most appropriate next steps of exercise progression would be for you during future workouts.”  Blaze paused, making eye contact and absorbing the conversation.  I added, “It’s important that you demonstrate mastery and competency in the techniques the coaches have prescribed to you.” Blaze nodded as I continued, “For example, once those step-up exercises you’re performing on a fourteen-inch step look absolutely flawless, we’ll put some dumbbells in your hands.”

Blaze has been an exercise participant who has engaged in our services for over six months.  As a busy executive at the peak of her career, preparing to retire in her mid-fifties, she utilizes our services to schedule appointments that can’t be interrupted by her busy schedule.  She shows up on time, has a flawless attendance record, and even though she travels throughout the states and internationally for business endeavors, she always communicates with the coaching crew to ensure she attends her twice-weekly training sessions.  Equipped with a few musculoskeletal maladies that have resulted from previous sporting injuries, the development of lower back, hip, and knee arthritis, and a schedule that creates enough stress-induced pressure to make a rice cooker explode, Blaze has a flawless compliance record when following her coaches’ instructions throughout her training sessions.

So, why haven’t we put dumbbells in Blaze’s hands yet?  She’s a stud muffin of a personal training client, and she pretty much has a 4.5 GPA when it comes to listening to the coach’s instructions and cues, which reinforces that showing up is a critically important component of achieving successful outcomes throughout a fitness journey.  As much as I emphasize the importance of compliance, adherence, and consistency in an exercise program for achieving positive outcomes in a person’s life, quality of exercise performance is a key component in advancing toward more sophisticated and challenging exercises.

The idea that challenging the body through safe and effective rigorous forms of physical activity induces a positive adaptation in muscular size and strength development is a commonly understood principle that people usually don’t need to be reminded of.  However, exercise is a very risky activity to participate in.  In other words, entering any exercise arena, whether it is self-led, in a small group fitness class setting following the lead of a fitness instructor, or under the supervision of a certified and experienced personal trainer, needs to be approached with caution.   A thorough review of potential exercise-induced risk factors is necessary.  Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for exercise participants to endure injuries from a training session.  Exercise-induced injuries are the last place anyone should experience a strain, sprain, tear, or, at worst, a traumatic injury in which someone falls or has something fall on top of them.

If there could be a takeaway message for reinforcing the importance of participating in more challenging exercises, it would be to understand that form, technique, and focus are just as, if not more important, than paying your taxes on time.  Using Blaze’s step-up exercise as an example, the optimal form of a step-up involves standing in front of an inclined surface, such as an aerobic step, curb, or stairs with a height ranging from three to twelve inches, while being mindful of the body’s starting position.  Feet should be forward, with the toes perpendicular to the inclined surface, hips underneath the rib cage with the gluteal and core muscles engaged, armpits should be over the hips, and the neck should be aligned by ensuring the ears are lined up over the armpits.  After an organized posture has been established, one foot needs to stride forward onto the step, ensuring the heel and balls of the feet are placed on top of the box and pressure is evenly distributed between those points.  Additionally, the shin should be slightly glided forward before doing any stepping-up movement.  After establishing the position of bringing the foot to the inclined surface, the pressure distributed on the heel and ball of the foot should be “pressing through the floor” as the body steps up onto the inclined surface, ensuring an organized posture is efficiently established throughout the movement.  This may seem like an earful to comprehend the dynamics of a seemingly simple movement, such as stepping up onto a surface that is only a few inches high.  However, if an exercise participant in our fitness center doesn’t demonstrate they can do these movements, there is no way any of the coaches are going to put a weight in the exercise participant’s hands.

If a simple step up is performed without following protocols of demonstrating optimal posture and foot pressure placement, potential compressive forces occurring throughout the spine, knee, ankle, along with many other risk factors, are more likely to occur.  We enter into a situation akin to walking through a warehouse full of kerosene while smoking a cigarette if we add two ten-pound dumbbells to the exercise participants’ hands while they are performing the exercise incorrectly.  If the neck, thoracic, and lumbar spine are bent forward when they should be aligned in a rigid-rod-like position without weights in the exercise participants’ hands, an additional forward force from the dumbbells will cause the spine to bend forward even more.  If the heel is not pressing through the inclined surface and only the front of the foot is producing the pressing motion, overly compressive forces are applied to the knee joint, producing suboptimal friction throughout the knee joint and hindering balance while stepping up and down.

Conducting resistance training effectively can’t be overstated.  Before grabbing a set of dumbbells, take a few weeks to practice exercise tactics to ensure the exercise can be performed safely, efficiently, and effectively.  After feeling like you’ve gotten the “gold star” sticker on your performance, maybe it’s time to grab a set of dumbbells.

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 20

Bend, But Don’t Break-Maintaining Knee Strength for Longevity

A list of benefits of maintaining a consistent fitness routine and adhering to physical activity can fill the remaining space on the front and back of this page.  A commonly understood example that might appear on the list could include shunting the effects arthritis has on joints when bone-on-bone contact occurs in its advanced stages.  Another reason people prioritize exercise to improve joint health is to avoid living with constant pain.  The appeal to interact with the physical activities that define who we are trigger us to pursue remedies to joint pain, such as having adequate endurance to play a few rounds of pickleball with friends, having the capacity to walk a golf course getting a full round of eighteen holes in, or not worrying about our strength when picking up our kids or grandkids after they take a digger at the park while chasing after a pigeon.  It should come as no surprise that exercise is a medicine for the maladies that occur as we age.  Along with other age-related surprises that occur throughout the body, knee pain tends to make its presence known from time to time.

Knee pain, whether caused by arthritis, a previous injury, or deconditioned muscles, is one of the most prevalent topics we address with our personal training clients.  Dysfunction in the knees could be caused by a lack of activity, the byproducts of a significant injury, or a genetic disposition that causes an imbalance to the structural architecture of the knee joint.  Even though a damaged knee may not possess the same flexibility and strength as it did ten, twenty, or forty years ago, tactics to improve its performance and functionality can be applied to ensure this important joint doesn’t give out completely.

The knee joint resides in the middle of the lower extremities, between the hip and ankle joints.  The joints of the hip, knee, and ankle work in unison to create coordinated movements in walking, stepping up stairs, stepping over obstacles, and a multitude of other functions that we don’t even notice occur thousands of times per day as we interact with our everyday environment.  Sometimes we don’t notice how important our knees are until the ability to bend and extend the knee or plant the foot to push off produces enough pain that thinking about performing a simple movement, such as stepping up a curb, needs to be considered and prepared for.

The muscles crossing the knee joint and attaching to the femur, tibia, and fibula are designed not only to help with moving the knee joint to flex and extend, but also act as reinforcing brackets to aid in the management of the bones shifting past their maximum range of motion through the various planes of motion we operate in.  Focusing on exercises that build muscular strength, promote collagen production, and enhance neuromuscular coordination helps ensure the knee doesn’t exceed its limits.  The optimal strength of the muscles surrounding the knee joint helps mitigate strains, decreases the likelihood of advancing bone-on-bone contact, and enables the knee to function properly when walking, stepping up, or getting up and down from the floor.  Therefore, understanding the muscles that cross the knee joint and ensuring to exercise those muscles shouldn’t be understated.

The hamstring is a muscle that is easily identifiable.  Every human with two legs has two hamstrings.  Located on the back of the leg, the hamstring originates from the area underneath the gluteal crease and spans down the back of the leg to attach to the inside, center, and back of the shin bones.   This dense and long muscle performs two primary actions: extending the hip and flexing the knee.  The primary muscle of hip extension is the gluteus maximus. However, the hamstrings also aid in the posterior lifting of the femur during the follow-through movement of walking and stepping up an inclined surface.  Knee flexion can be defined as the posterior bending of the leg where the shin and heel move closer to the femur.

The simple act of walking requires the participation of the hamstrings in forward stride and follow-through when walking forward.  As the femur moves forward, hip flexion occurs.  This means the thigh is being pulled forward by the hip flexor muscles that originate at the core and hip girdle and attach to the thigh.  An automatic engagement of knee flexion occurs during this forward striding movement.  The hamstrings are responsible for this bending movement of the knee when the thigh strides forward and elevates to produce forward movement.   After a forward stride has occurred and the foot lands, the follow-through stride occurs when the foot pushes off the ground, causing the entire leg to move backward.  This simultaneous alternating movement enables the forward movement of our bodies, allowing humans to move forward and walk.

If the hamstrings perform suboptimally due to deconditioned muscles, the lifting movement during forward walking can be hindered.  Imagine what our legs would look like if we didn’t have a knee joint and only a hip joint.  We would be stepping forward like we had a full-length cast on our legs.  This is what can happen if the hamstring muscle is deconditioned.  The follow-through movement of walking can also be hindered if the hamstring muscles are weak.  After the forward stride portion of walking is complete and the foot is planted, the hamstring propels the thigh backwards.  If the hamstrings can’t support the backward action for the follow-through movements of walking, the leg won’t move backward, and strides will become shorter, resembling a shuffle rather than a normal walk.

Another important factor is that if these muscles that produce the bending action of the knee don’t occur regularly, the body has no reason to adapt to the demand of walking.  When mechanical movement around the joint is lacking, the ends of the bones can become more brittle, and the cartilage surrounding them can deteriorate at an accelerated rate.  If the body is in motion, it will adapt to stay in motion.  However, if the body doesn’t move, it will adapt to being immobile.

The ability to bend the knee and move the legs forward and backward contributes to our ability to move ourselves around to function in our everyday lives.  If we can be mindful of what muscles are located around the knee and support the simple acts of walking, stepping, and getting up from the ground by practicing consistent safe and effective exercise routines, we can equip ourselves with a set of knees that will support us to live happier, healthier, and stronger lives.

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