Dec 11

Maintaining Strength and Muscle with Age

Sarcopenia can be defined as the loss of muscle during the natural aging process.  As people age, there are usually changes in their psychological, emotional, and physical health.  Shifts in family life, interpersonal relationships, or career settings create stimuli that prompt people to adjust to various demands as we age.  Along with matching the pace of life’s multiple stresses, connective tissue in the body endures them as well.  In the case of sarcopenia, skeletal muscle mass endures years of physical demands that could have been produced by physical stress from manual labor, underuse injuries, or an accident that might have caused a decrease in physical activity.

Something that is always certain in our lives is the sun setting and rising, which occurs three hundred and sixty-five times per year.  Some of us have seen this happen for more decades than others.  For those of us who have experienced the changes in the world for fifty to ninety years, a few physical maladies may have been experienced as well.

While there may be multiple contributors to sarcopenia and a decrease in muscle mass with age, there are other risk factors that become more prevalent with age as well, including decreased joint mobility, increased risks of falling and repercussions from the events of falling, decreased functional strength, and the introduction of metabolic disease due to low levels of physical activity.  Sure, our muscle size might not be as pronounced as that of a young man at the age of twenty-one or the pristine, majestic figure of an eighteen-year-old female gymnast.  However, that doesn’t mean we need to give up on the mindset of staying happy, healthy, and strong, or on counteracting the effects of aging on our well-being.

A common question we hear from our newer personal training clients is “How can I increase lean muscle mass when my doctor tells me my strength is decreasing due to my sarcopenia?”  A powerful question I often ask to generate potential remedies for this issue is: “What does your current exercise routine consist of?”  The answers vary from “nothing at all” to an illustrious story of biking two to three times a week, frequently walking the Vine Trail from north Napa to Yountville, or playing tennis, golf, or pickleball three to four times a week.

It should go without saying that individuals in the “nothing at all” category would benefit from starting with introductory-level, safe, low-impact physical activities once or twice a week, such as taking a ten-minute walk or practicing simple bodyweight exercises.  For individuals who are already active and engage in regular recreational athletic activities, they’re looking to fill a gap they know exists to counteract the effects of aging and sarcopenia.  My follow-up question for the already sporty and physically active individuals looking to counteract the advancement of age and sarcopenia is, “Do you practice any resistance training exercises?”  More often than not, I get the response, “What’s resistance training?”

Resistance training can be defined as practicing the action of performing a set amount of physical movements against a form of resistance that exceeds the demands of normal physical activity.  A common form of resistance training might be a squat, plank, or push-up.  In this case, the resistance is a strenuous movement in which the body resists gravity, and the joints move through a range that might not normally occur during a typical day of activities.    However, people exhibiting sedentary behaviors aren’t exposed to the physiological stress of resistance-training-specific bouts of exercise.  For example, will a desk worker who sits at their desk for five to six hours per day find themselves on the ground holding a plank for thirty seconds or pushing themselves up from a prone position twenty times?  Probably not.

The practice of training strenuous movements through controlled exercise-based stimuli that are outside the body’s comfort zone induces a positive feedback response at the microscopic level in skeletal muscle.  The SAID principle means “specific adaptation to an imposed demand.”  When the body is consistently exposed to resistance training, the likelihood of enhancing skeletal muscle size, strength, and neuromuscular coordination can be increased.

If the discovery of sarcopenia or decreased strength is present, it might be helpful to look at what is missing in the management of strength and conditioning exercises present in daily routines.  Recreational athletic physical activities are undeniably a critically important asset to happiness, health, and longevity.  Let’s not forget that the muscles allowing us to perform those activities need attention as well. Practicing full-body resistance training one to three times per week can help manage sarcopenia and age-related changes in strength.

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.

Dec 04

Good Posture-Keep Your Armpits Over Your Hips

Our brain is encased within the skull and sits atop the first vertebrae of our spine.  Featuring the central command center in which all of the decisions to send electric signals down our central nervous system to our organs and muscles, the brain is arguably the most important part of our body.  Without it, we can’t do much.  It should go without saying that the brain is a noteworthy organ that deserves care. The cervical vertebrae are a collection of seven uniquely shaped spinal bones forming the neck.  The skull sits atop the seven cervical vertebrae.  Featuring the ability to tilt the skull up and down, rotate side to side, bend laterally, glide forward and backward, and rotate in a gimbal-like fashion, the cervical vertebrae serve as an integral part of protecting and holding the head upright.

A network of cervical stabilization muscles connects the cervical vertebrae to the skull, connects each cervical vertebra, and connects the cervical vertebrae to the clavicle and shoulder blades.  These muscles are critical for granting structural support and powering the mechanical movement of the neck.  Ensuring these muscles are conditioned and managed to operate optimally enables the neck to function with less distraction of pain, tightness, or weakness.

The muscles, tendons, and ligaments that attach the skull to the cervical vertebrae provide structural support to maintain optimal alignment of the skull on the cervical vertebrae.  These neck muscles also serve as motors not only to move the head in various directions, but also to act as isometric stabilizers, keeping the skull in an uncompromised position.  However, when these muscles are damaged by a previous injury or deconditioned due to poor exercise adherence, the integrity and functionality of the neck can be significantly compromised.  If our neck can’t hold our skull in proper alignment, one could imagine the ability to see, smell, hear, or taste could be hindered if we can’t keep our head upright.

A cue we give our personal training clients throughout their training sessions is to “keep the arm pits over the hips.”  We get some puzzled looks when we mention this to our new exercise participants, who hear this odd terminology for the first time.  However, the cue pertains to ensuring a strong, well-supported posture to avoid injury and to reinforce healthy habits in their everyday lives.

Imagine looking at a human body in the lateral plane, or the side of a person’s body.  This would be viewing someone to see the right or left side of their body.  If a person has a curved back in which their head is stooping forward, the spine is bending akin to the structure of a fishing pole, which applies tremendous strain to the muscles of the back, the discs within the back, and the nerves that bud out of the spine to innervate the body’s organs.  This “hunch back” position creates undesirable conditions, leading to pain and dysfunction in everyday activities.  More often than not, this posture demonstrates that the armpit region isn’t lined up over the hips.

“Keeping the armpits over the hips” can be cued in both sitting and standing.  While viewing the side of someone’s body, draw an imaginary line from the ground that travels straight up through the heels, knees, hips, torso, armpits, and ears.  If a person stacks their body upright and lines those reference points in a straight line, their armpits will likely be over their hips, and a curve in the back won’t be as pronounced.  However, if the arm pits slouch too far forward anteriorly, a slumped forward curvature of the back is likely present.

Adhering to an exercise routine one to three times a week can significantly improve function and reduce the likelihood of back and neck injury.  A strong core and well-conditioned muscles supporting the body’s major joints are an integral part of being healthy and fit.  However, let’s not forget these small, yet invaluable cues, such as standing up straight, looking forward, and “lining the armpits over the hips” to refine our lifetime 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.

Nov 28

Strong and Healthy Feet

“Oh my goodness, those shoes are adorable.”  This is one of the many comments I hear when I eavesdrop on conversations among patrons and passersby when I’m out to dinner or grocery shopping with my wife.  Indeed, she is a true fashionista at heart, and you’ll usually find her dressed to the nines seven days out of the week.   For me, it’s either athletic shoes or flip flops.  Growing up a gym rat, dabbling in martial arts, and embracing the true relaxed mentality of displaying the image of Johnny Utah, who Keanu Reeves played in the epic nineties movie Point Break, one could imagine my choice of footwear is the polar opposite of a woman with the super power of effortlessly pairing her shoes with any outfit at any time of the day to produce a visually stunning and eye catching experience for any human within eye sight of her presence.  Unlike my wife, who has the elite fashion sense that parallels Marie Antoinette’s genius, fashion never caught up with me.

The appearance of our feet when we’re out in public is an entertaining and engaging experience.  Plus, if you look good, you usually feel good.  So, cute shoes are a good thing for people.  However, the foot beneath the intricate display of protective and supportive cloth that catches the eye of other humans who appreciate footwear aesthetics is equally, if not more, important to our everyday functional capacity.

The human foot contains over twenty bones and thirty joints.  Compared to other large joints of the body, such as the knees, hips, and shoulders, the bone-to-bone attachments of the feet are a highly organized system of connective tissue in a small area.  It’s worthwhile to appreciate the vast network of nerves, blood vessels, tendons, ligaments, and muscles of the feet.  The feet support our human functions as we stand from sitting, walk from place to place, and engage in recreational athletic activities.

The big toe, the arch of the foot, and the ankle are just a few features of the foot that support everyday functionality and human performance.  The main function of the big toe is to direct the body through the foot in a direction of travel.  If the big toe is injured or has an issue, such as bunions or advanced arthritis, that causes it to malfunction, normal walking activities can be significantly hindered.

The arch of the foot contributes to optimal control of ankle inversion and eversion.  Inversion can be described as “rolling the ankle,” where the arch of the foot turns toward the midline of the body.  Ankle eversion is the opposite action, where the arch of the foot collapses inward, and the pinky toe side of the foot rolls upward and away from the midline of the body.  If the arch of the foot inverts, the outer portion of the ankle joint can become unstable, leading to a tendency for the foot to roll after stepping off curbs, down steps, or during change-of-direction activities such as decelerating from jogging or running.

Ankle eversion occurs when the arch of the foot caves inward.  The collapse of the arch of the foot triggers a chain reaction that influences the inward collapse of the knee joint, which can decondition the hips and cause lower back soreness.  Along with the big toe, the arches of the feet and the ankle joints should be given equal attention to the other areas of the body when focusing on injury prevention tactics.

To prevent joint dysfunction, pain production, and presentations of imbalance produced by insufficient foot strength, the importance of practicing lower extremity resistance training, balance training, coordination, and mobility training can’t be overstated.  Examples of exercise practices shown to improve foot function include taking Yoga and Pilates classes, practicing ankle-strengthening and stretching movements, and paying attention to which shoes feel best on the feet during prolonged bouts of walking.

A simple and effective form of exercise we conduct with our personal training clients, targeting the muscles of the toes, foot arches, and ankle, is the heel-to-toe walk:

To perform the heel-to-toe walk, stand with both feet on the ground and toes facing forward.  While distributing your center of gravity toward one foot, gradually bring the opposite foot forward until it is just before your stable foot and touch your heel to the toe of the stabilizing foot.  Once your balance has been recalibrated to the new leading foot, bring the trailing foot around the stabilizing foot and repeat the same movement, traveling in a straight line.  Travel forward in this movement for about the length of five to ten feet.

Something as simple as the toes, sides, and tops and bottoms of the feet is critically important to our everyday lives.  Dedicating time to foot strength and conditioning can help us live happy, healthy, and strong lives.

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

Nov 20

Consistent Exercise Helps Reduce Joint Pain

Recreational physical activities bring joy to our lives.  If we have kids or grandkids, sporty physical activities such as heading out to the field to play catch or getting down on the ground on the hands and knees to interact with a 6-month-old infant, require the confidence, coordination, and strength to bend the knees, move from our torso, and depend on strong upper extremities.  Fun weekend recreational activities, such as a tennis match, eighteen holes of golf, a three-hour bout of pickleball, a run with a local running group, or a mountain bike trek through Skyline Park, depend on our health and fitness being at an optimal level.

Recreational physical activities serve as a form of exercise, contributing to fitness adaptations that support our overall health.  For example, playing a full point in a tennis match requires a tremendous amount of aerobic capacity, as it involves getting back to the line to serve or return a serve after sprinting in the previous point.  Getting done with a round of golf requires an individual to have enough stamina to endure three to six hours under the sun.  Riding up and down hills through technical and rocky terrain on steep, inclined trails on the side of a mountain requires balance, coordination, agility, and muscular endurance of the lower extremities, as fast-twitch muscles activate throughout a mountain-biking session.  The demands placed on the muscles during these activities put substantial exercise-induced stress on them.

The body’s musculoskeletal system adapts to the demands of physically exerting activities.  After three months of practicing and playing consistent tennis or pickleball, embarking on two to three-mile runs a few times a week, mountain biking, or walking the golf course creates adaptations for the body to have an increased amount of lean muscle mass, less fat mass, and the ability to endure longer bouts of physical activity before fatiguing.

While these adaptations are optimal for helping us become physically strong enough to interact with the things we enjoy in life, the body doesn’t just get stronger on its own.  The stress imposed on muscles throughout recreational physical activity also affects our joints and connective tissue.  Therefore, a plan to mitigate the effects of joint pain through a skillfully designed exercise practice is beneficial for the overall experiences we want to participate in and enjoy the activities we love.

Research supports that consistent compliance with strategically designed exercise practice improves performance in recreational physical activities.  A strong deterrent to engaging in physical activity is the perception of pain throughout and after the activity.  Who would want to play a few games of tennis if they know the byproduct is going to be a week’s worth of feeling like their knees got hit with a hammer?

To counteract the effects of joint pain during everyday and recreational physical activity, strengthening commonly used joints through exercise is beneficial for greater functional ability, reduced anxiety, and decreased joint pain during the activities people enjoy.  The knees, hips, shoulders, and lower back are among the most commonly used areas in recreational physical activities.  Therefore, a strength and conditioning plan to reinforce muscles powering those joints can contribute to a more optimal experience in our recreational physical activities.

Exercises that focus on the glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calf muscles support the hip and knee, and ankle joints.  Common exercises that activate the lower extremity muscles include squats, stepping, hip bridges, and calf raises.  The shoulder joints includes the upper arm, chest, and shoulder blades region.  Upper extremity pushing and pulling movements, such as rowing or pressing exercises, activate the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, biceps, triceps, and muscles of scapular stabilization.  The spine is a chain of bones that runs from the skull to the hips.  Muscles that reinforce the spine include the paraspinal muscles, abdominals, and deep intrinsic core muscles.  Exercises that will strengthen posture and core strength include planks, dying bugs, and other movements that maintain an upright, organized spine, such as the cat and cow pose practiced in Yoga classes.

Muscle soreness and pain are two different things.  After engaging in physical activity that uses muscles, we might feel a little sore.  However, after an activity, we might experience joint pain.  If we were to choose between the types of pain, delayed-onset muscle soreness seems more desirable than joint pain.  To decrease the onset of joint pain so we can engage in the physical activities that make life amazing, consistent compliance with a skillfully designed exercise practice is a productive habit to ingrain in our lifetime fitness journey.

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.

Nov 14

Prioritizing Core Exercises Fitness Routines

Let’s take a moment to reflect on a few simple actions that we do in our everyday lives.  The start of the morning usually entails rolling out of bed, standing up, and walking to our next location in the house.  It could be the bathroom, the kitchen, or scaling a set of stairs.  After our morning rituals have been completed, we might embark on an activity that includes sitting down to read, heading to town to run errands, or going to our jobs. Workplace activities involve a variety of situations in which our bodies are in different positions, including sitting in front of a computer, commuting in a car for extended periods, or attending meetings via web conference.  On the more physically demanding side, a workday might involve moving heavy objects on the ground, stocking shelves, or working with bulky equipment. The demands of balance, spinal stabilization, and core endurance are commonly overlooked necessities for these tasks.

A high majority of the working and retired population need their bodies to function properly so they can rotate from the torso, bend over to pick up objects, and get up and down from a seated position.  These seem like simple movements every human should be able to perform without thinking twice.  However, the repercussions of core weakness, in the form of deconditioned core muscles, overuse injuries, or neglecting the need to address a compromising musculoskeletal disturbance, are all too common.

A vital component of our body’s framework includes a series of connective tissues consisting of our bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles.  These components keep our body upright and allow us to exist in our everyday lives.  Similar to large steel columns that hold together multistory buildings, our connective tissue is organized to keep our bodies upright and able to rotate, lengthen, and shorten through the thousands of movements we conduct throughout our everyday physical activity.  Large steel beams, subfloors, and cross-members holding houses and buildings together are intricately designed to withstand forces from multiple sources.  Buildings can withstand thousands of humans walking on multistory buildings, wind pushing the building from side to side, and even earthquakes that violently shake buildings without warning.  The skeletal framework residing in the middle of our bodies operates similarly.

The center of the body includes the shoulder blades, spine, and hips.  This area, located between the armpits and hips, can be identified as our core.  The insertion point of the spine into the hips, along with the muscles that hold those joints together, has similar structural properties to those of steel beams, two-by-fours, and concrete that support buildings, maintaining the body’s upright posture.  The difference between our body’s infrastructure and a building’s makeup is that our body isn’t held together by steel beams, cement columns, framing screws, and mechanically inserted nuts and bolts designed to withstand the stresses of natural disasters.  Our muscles hold our skeletal framework together.  Without strong muscles, our framework can collapse.

Understanding and appreciating the location of core muscles that support significant attachment points can help improve functional activities.  For example, the spine consists of a series of vertebrae that stack on top of each other.  Each one of these spinal bones has a small multifidus muscle that connects one vertebra to the other.  These tiny muscles, which hold each bone in the spinal column together, maintain the upright position of the spine when standing.  Other muscles that connect to the spine, such as the abdominal muscles, help rotate the torso.

A simple and effective exercise we conduct with our personal training clients that has an immediate impact on strengthening core muscles is the straight arm incline plank.

To perform the straight-arm incline plank, 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.  Maintain this static position for a desired amount of time.  You should feel muscular engagement in the front of the shoulder, chest, triceps, and abdominals.  It’s essential to maintain a straight posture and avoid sagging in the lower back.  Hold this position for ten to thirty seconds.

Unlike the metal and cement infrastructure of five-story hotels that can withstand a substantial amount of force, our core muscles are organic structures that decondition if neglected.  However, the engineering of the human body promotes muscular growth after safe, efficient, and effective exercise has been applied to an area of skeletal muscle.  Remember to prioritize core stabilization and strengthening exercises when participating in a fitness program.  By exercising core muscles just one day a week, we can positively influence the body’s ability to maintain good posture, reduce the likelihood of injury, and stay strong throughout 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.

Nov 06

Tactics to Control Holiday Overeating

Clocks have officially been set back an hour, the sun is setting sooner, and a subtle nip fills the morning air.  As the majestic landscape of Napa Valley transitions from vibrant hues of green to shades of burnt orange, umber, and sandy brown on the grape leaves that line the countryside, we can sense fall is drawing to a close and winter is just around the corner.  Along with the changes of environment the cooler months bring us, the traditions of the end of American year-end celebrations bring about rituals involving common holiday feasts and themes at many households, workplaces, and schools.  November and December mean getting ready for a Thanksgiving feast, where a substantial amount of food is piled on the table, and we see holiday-themed treats brought home from school or scattered around desks and break rooms at our jobs.

The years’ end typically brings a sense of closure in preparation for the new year.  As we endure the colder, darker months, the tradition of having Thanksgiving and holiday treats offers a sense of comfort.  Some people take half the week off to spend time with their families during Thanksgiving week.  Kids come home from college and elementary school to take their winter breaks during Thanksgiving week.  Similar to coming home after a long day of work, kicking the shoes off, flopping on ones favorite recliner, grabbing a beer and flipping on Monday night football to let off some steam after a busy work day, the Thanksgiving and holiday season offer a broader sense of taking some time off from our usual hustle and bustle to eat comfort food and relax physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Let’s not forget the month immediately following holiday season, January 2026.  A popular theme that sparks a craze among people are New Year’s resolutions.  Common New Year’s resolutions include learning new skills, being a better person to those around us, and one of the most popular goals: losing weight.

It should come as no surprise that weight loss is a challenging concept to master.  Analyzing what foods we eat, modifying dietary habits, and exercising more can be a daunting modification to normal daily routines .  If we add in the splendors of indulging in holiday comfort foods such as cookies, a week’s worth of leftover turkey sandwiches, and enough mashed potatoes to fuel an elementary school’s rations for the week, we’ve built a blueprint for storing subcutaneous fat mass.  This would be a perfect formula for a bear that wants to hibernate through winter since it doesn’t have food available in the arctic tundra as it sleeps for a few months.  However, we’re not bears.  We’re humans.  When humans overeat for a period of weeks to months, we increase the likelihood of storing fat mass, which takes a tremendous amount of physical, mental, and emotional energy to shed.

With the threat of overconsumption present during these holiday seasons and deterrents to engage in physical activity due to cold and wet weather, the need for dietary awareness can’t be overstated.  A tactic we commonly discuss with our personal training clients to aid in managing overeating is to focus on eating treat foods on the same day as exercise.  This means that when we know a large meal is scheduled, engaging in physical activity or exercise is critical in counteracting the effects of converting calories to fat.

If calories are consumed during a day of inactivity, most of the calories won’t be utilized as energy.  For example, after sitting down all day to watch Thanksgiving football, drinking eggnog and apple cider, and snacking on the family’s delectable selection of buns, cookies, and fudge, a significant amount of calories is absorbed by the body.  When the body doesn’t use those calories as energy, they convert to fat mass.  However, if the body has a reason to shuttle those calories toward the regeneration of muscles that have been stressed from physical activity, those calories can be utilized to repair skeletal muscle.  Furthermore, burning calories during an exercise session or physical activity creates a gap for calories to be consumed due to the amount of substrate expended to fuel the exercise.  In other words, before we embark on a holiday food excursion, it’s probably a good idea to prepare our bodies by conducting some form of physical activity or participating in an exercise session to mitigate the effects of taking in the bliss of holiday food.

We don’t get many times where we can be thankful for family and friends and be in the same setting while enjoying a delicious feast.  We must cherish those experiences.  By preparing for events of indulgence by exercising and moving more on days we know we’re going to indulge in copious amounts of food, we’ll start our New Year’s resolution lifetime fitness goals off on a strong foot.

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.

Oct 31

Exercise and Enhancing the Journey as we Age

As the Earth circles the sun, it adds another year to its portfolio of time in its resume of existing in the universe.  Humans on Earth enjoy the ride, experiencing everyday interactions with friends, family, and co-workers.  Every year, we observe the weather becoming cooler or warmer, the sun rising earlier or setting later, and we learn new things about our relationships, careers, and our bodies.  Our journey through life can offer us challenges, some of the happiest moments, and lessons that change our direction and what we find important.

Age affects the functions of our bodies, which might influence our ability to choose which activities we engage in.  The advancement of age can affect our emotional, physical, and psychological well-being.  If our health and well-being are neglected, our journey through life can be significantly impacted, hindering us from achieving our goals and aspirations.  While we can’t negotiate with Father Time to go back in time, maintaining a consistent practice toward lifetime fitness can significantly enhance our life experience as we ride on the wings of time, using our bodies as a vehicle to take it all in.

Every few years, wrinkles on the cheeks, crows’ feet around the eyes, and maybe a few unexpected moles and freckles appear on the skin from time to time.  Some would say they add character to our appearance.  An important factor deserving just as much attention as the age-related changes on our skin are the cells residing under our skin. Maintaining the integrity of our muscles, bones, and internal organs can’t be overstated.

After a significant amount of years spent enduring the physical, emotional, and psychological stress of living over multiple decades, the connective tissue under our skin endures similar repercussions from the laborious activities our bodies undergo during physical activity or recovery from injuries and illnesses.  In other words, wrinkles aren’t just present on our skin due to the effects of age.  Changes in the body due to the advancement of age appear in the form of muscles becoming tighter, tendons and ligaments losing some of their elasticity and strength, reductions in bone mineral density, or cartilage degradation at the ends of joints.

After retirement from a successful career, people can be presented with invaluable gifts at that time in their life, as they enter their fifties, sixties, or seventies.  Monumental vacations that people look forward to for decades might appear.  Maybe a few grandkids have been brought into this world to spend time with.  The opportunity to engage in recreational physical activity, such as spending twenty or more hours per week playing tennis, golf, running, or pickleball, is more prevalent.  While these opportunities bring happiness, joy, and pleasure that can rarely be replaced, they require a body that has sufficient energy, can move in various planes of motion, and can get up and down from the floor with minimal issues.  It should come as no surprise that if one’s physical strength, mobility, coordination, and energy aren’t at sufficient levels, these post-retirement activities that occur later in life are challenging to obtain.  Therefore, the need to adhere to a consistent practice of exercise, stretching, eating the right foods, and limiting undesirable stress levels can’t be overstated.

The advancement of age doesn’t need to be an experience that appears suboptimal.  The human body is a vehicle for the person it belongs to, enabling them to enjoy the splendors and beauties our world offers, and granting us the privilege of enjoying the people around us.  Maintaining the body’s condition by exercising regularly, providing it with healthy fuel, and surrounding ourselves with positive people can deliver us to those invaluable moments in life.  Perhaps we can aim to ensure the next year of our life is the best we can be physically, mentally, and emotionally for years to come by focusing on our lifetime 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.

Oct 24

Testing, Practicing, and Training Your Balance

Humans function in dynamic environments and rely on the body’s automated responses to adjust to imbalances.  The body’s internal wiring is equipped with a vast network of neuromuscular connections,  granting the ability to immediately adapt to even the slightest indication of imbalance.  The human body’s infrastructure functions as a central processing unit, with hard-wired connections that contribute to everyday movements, including dynamic changes in direction, balance calibration, posture, and maintaining an upright stance.  A few factors playing a pivotal role in optimal balance include the reaction time of the eyes, the inner ear complex of the vestibulocochlear system, and the proprioceptive properties of the body’s skeletal muscles.

Presentations of visual imbalance can occur when a person needs to immediately direct their gaze to another location or turn their head, which can lead to dizziness.  If the head shifts to a different orientation quickly and the eyes are not conditioned to such an immediate demand, the brain may not detect the change in direction, potentially disrupting the body’s ability to maintain an upright posture. This could lead to disturbances in forward-to-backward, and side-to-side stability, resulting in a sense of instability.  Examples might include getting up too fast from a seated position.

Proprioceptive cells are located throughout the body’s skeletal muscles, which automatically trigger muscles to assist in maintaining balance during everyday human movement.  An example of the proprioceptive system of muscles adjusting to an imbalance in our environment might be the body automatically taking an additional step forward during a normal walking pattern after tripping over a crack jutting out of the sidewalk.

Vision plays a role in maintaining balance because it is one of the first stimuli our brain perceives when moving in a dynamic environment.  Before we even move our bodies in activities such as walking, the eyes scan the environment, providing information that helps our bodies prepare to make the appropriate movements to interact with our surroundings successfully.  Vision contributes to postural awareness, limiting excessive body sway, and triggering proprioceptive muscles to adjust to minor movements that might affect our balance.  Additionally, the eyes help us detect threats, which can prompt our bodies to move in a different direction to avoid potential injury.  For example, when walking through a crosswalk, the possibility of a car running a red light is rare but could pose a severe threat to our health.  When the eyes see this, the body immediately reacts with an increased sense of urgency, either to stop, take a lateral step,  or turn around to run backwards to avoid an accident.

An exercise we conduct with our personal training clients to improve balance is the traditional heel-to-toe walk.  This movement is commonly used during a test conducted by our law enforcement officer friends when testing a person’s balance after they have been cited for potentially being under the influence of a substance that hinders their ability to operate a motorized vehicle.  However, it serves as an invaluable tool of exercise that not only requires no equipment to improve fitness levels, but is rewarding when practiced often:

To perform the heel-to-toe walk, stand with both feet on the ground and toes facing forward.  While distributing your center of gravity toward one foot, gradually bring the opposite foot forward until it is just before your stable foot, and touch your heel to the toe of the stabilizing foot.  Once your balance has been recalibrated to the new leading foot, bring the trailing foot around the stabilizing foot and repeat the same movement, traveling in a straight line.  Travel forward in this movement for about the length of five to ten feet.

The brain is a processing center.  It’s only as good as the information coming in.  Sensory information comes into the brain via the data and feedback from the visual, vestibulocochlear, and neuromuscular proprioception systems. If this information is received in a faulty manner in a deconditioned sense of balance, it will elicit a diminished signal to address imbalances.

Stimulating and training components of balance can assist in improvements in turning the head, change-of-direction, and balance recalibration. Muscles shorten and lengthen in response to an immediate change in sensory input.  Exercise helps stimulate these mechanisms to process environmental feedback efficiently. It aids in maintaining and potentially increasing the speed at which we respond to situations that require balance to preserve our well-being.  Therefore, the more coordinated, strong, and conditioned to dynamic movements a person is, the more adaptable they can be to a presentation of imbalance.

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.

Oct 17

Tennis Elbow Rehab, Injury Prevention, and Pickleball Strength and Conditioning

Last Saturday, I capped off a productive work week with a ninety-minute pickleball practice session with my friend Nico.  After smashing a ball at each other, laughing, and exchanging light-hearted banter, we tapped paddles and commented on the amazing cardiovascular workout pickleball offers.  As two gentlemen entering our forties, it felt good to carve out time to practice a sport-specific activity and have fun away from the pressures of our work life and navigating interpersonal relationships.

Nico has about three years of pickleball experience.  I have a little more experience since I’ve been playing competitive pickleball since 2018 and have over four hundred tournament matches under my belt.  While we both have a similar sense of athleticism, my experience has put me a few skill levels ahead of Nico.

“You’re improving, and it’s fun to see you develop into a refined player,” I told Nico.  “It’s been a lot of fun, and I enjoy improving my game.”Nico replied,  then shifted the conversation to another topic: “What areas do you think I can get better at?”

A factor I felt was decelerating his progression was his grip on his paddle.  Instead of holding the handle of the paddle in the same fashion as a tennis player would hold a racket, he moved his hand up on the handle to where his index finger was on the paddle face, and the other half of the handle wasn’t being used to hold onto.  This modification appeared to impede his ability to hit the ball with his backhand.

When a shot went to his forehand, he would cleanly strike the ball and direct the shot to his desired location on the court in precise detail.  However, when the ball went to the opposite side of his body, and he needed to turn his grip over to where his knuckle faced the ball and his arm had to cross to his body’s midline, a sense of indecision was present in his body language.  His arm would contort to keep his forehand facing the ball, and his typical sense of confidence would diminish when he needed to switch to a backhand swing.  Therefore, I told Nico, “Your grip seems to slow you down from working on your backhand.”  Nico shrugged his shoulders with a look of dismay. “I have tennis elbow,” he commented.  “It hurts my elbow when I use my backhand.”

Tennis elbow is a common painful condition among racket and paddle sport athletes.  Also known as lateral epicondylitis, tennis elbow can be defined as an irritation, inflammation, or tearing of the connective tissue at the outer portion of the elbow.  The lateral epicondyle of the elbow is a bony prominence located on the outer portion of the forearm, on the same side as the pinky finger, just below the humerus.   This bony point is where the extensor tendons of the fingers and wrist originate.  The extensor tendons of the wrist and fingers bring the fingers and wrist toward the forearm.  These wrist muscles of finger and wrist extension have long, string-like tendons that connect to each finger and the carpal bones below the fingers.  With the anchor point being a common tendon attaching at the lateral epicondyle, these muscles act as pulleys to bring the fingers and wrist toward the back of the forearm.

In an effort to manage elbow pain during pickleball outings, I suggested Nico practice an injury prevention tactic we recommend to our personal training clients who experience tennis elbow, the eccentric dumbbell wrist extension:

Hold a dumbbell in one hand, resting on the knee in a seated position.  Use the other hand to assist the hand holding the dumbbell in bringing the wrist up to an extended position.  Release the hand holding the dumbbell and slowly lower the dumbbell downward for a count of five seconds.  Once the hand holding the dumbbell has lowered in a controlled and stable manner, use the free hand to assist the dumbbell hand to the starting position.  Repeat this movement on both hands for five to ten repetitions.

It wasn’t Nico’s lack of athleticism or incompetence on the court that impeded his progress.  It was the fear of physical pain being produced from using his backhand to strike the ball.  The backhand strike in paddle and racket sports requires stability, flexibility, and dynamically coordinated movements from the forearm extensors, which were precisely the areas that Nico felt pain in.  It became clear to me that this wasn’t a sport-specific technique issue.  It was an overuse injury caused by deconditioned forearm extensor muscles that couldn’t hold up to the demands of standard action in pickleball.

I suggested that Nico add a component of strength and conditioning to his pickleball routine.  Something as simple as completing one set of eccentric wrist extensions, a few times a week, to manage tennis elbow pain has the potential to significantly enhance Nico’s pickleball performance.

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.

Oct 10

Healthy Decisions in The Land of Chicken Fried Steak

A recent trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma, gave me the opportunity to connect with rarely visited distant relatives and experience the state’s iconic features.  Along with learning that the scissor-tailed flycatcher is the state bird, whose silhouette is featured on most license plates, I became familiar with the state dish: chicken-fried steak.  This was on almost every menu and displayed as a brunch special, from the most basic truck stop diner to the fanciest upscale restaurants.  The one-pound cube steak is coated in flour, deep-fried in oil, and doused with a fine coat of midwestern-style white gravy. Oklahoma’s state dessert, the apple hand pie, joins the deep-fried, flour-based food family.  Pairing these iconic Oklahoma-style hearty, rib-sticking, belly-expanding combinations in one sitting produces the perfect storm of calories that won’t make you want to eat for another forty-eight hours.

Oklahoma holds a special place in my heart due to the fascinating line of events in my family’s heritage that led to my existence in Northern California.  My grandfather was born in Oklahoma and relocated to California somewhere between the 1930s and 1940s to join the army.  One could imagine that, after being an official “Okie” with an upbringing in an agricultural worker family and being dirt poor in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, the opportunity to join the military and fly airplanes at a base with sunny and moderate weather located near Burbank, California, would be enticing to a young country boy coming from the Midwest plains.

Even though the consumption of deep-fried, hilariously calorie-dense food items containing processed carbohydrates goes against my intuition as someone who has studied how to help people have happier and stronger lives via optimal dietary decision making, I appreciated where this dish came from and how it served as a nutrient-dense meal for people who didn’t have the resources of healthier food options nearly one-hundred years ago.  My grandfather shared stories of his youth in Oklahoma, where his typical breakfast consisted of biscuits and gravy, and his evening meal was biscuits with meat.  He shared that the area he was in lacked the resources to produce the robust, fresh, and vibrant veggies and healthy items that are currently available in our sunny area of California on a moment’s notice.  We can go to the grocery store whenever we want and purchase eggs, any vegetable we want, and pre-packaged carbohydrates that are ready to consume with just five to ten minutes of preparation.  We have a significant advantage in terms of food resources and the ability to make healthier decisions compared to previous generations, who faced scarcity and lacked access to nutritious food options, particularly in the arid, bone-dry plains of Oklahoma in the 1930s which lacked the sophisticated organization and availability of healthier food options we currently have available.

Work and family obligations can pose challenges to dietary tactics.  Travelling can take us to areas where we lack the convenience of having our usual foods readily available.  As I journeyed through Tulsa, surrounded by neon-lit signs advertising chicken-fried steak and fried apple pie, I realized I needed to practice discipline and employ a few tactics to maintain healthy lifetime fitness habits.

To counteract the effects of my insulin skyrocketing and returning to Napa ten pounds heavier than usual due to consuming copious amounts of traditional “Okie” food, I practiced a few nutritional decision-making tactics we share with our personal training clients to help them when they travel.   Searching out restaurants before the trip and reviewing the menus of nearby eateries is a valuable tactic for making optimal dietary choices when we’re outside our usual healthy eating comfort zone.  There was a restaurant close by that offered side dishes along with breakfast, like a serving of yogurt, a side of eggs, or chicken apple sausage.  Additionally, I examined restaurant menu items featuring salads and appetizers with leaner protein options, including shrimp dipping dishes, hummus, veggie dishes, and grilled steak salads.

To help stay on track when traveling, logistics can lead us to places where food resources are uncertain. It might be helpful to research and map out a few healthy food options before we even step into the plane or get in the car.  Perhaps a store nearby offers packaged salads, or a restaurant features a menu with lean proteins and veggies.  We might be away from the comfort of the healthy food items we are accustomed to at home, but that doesn’t mean we need to fly off the rails completely and only eat what’s popular in a foreign land.  More often than not, there are healthy items available.  When travelling, set aside some time before departure to prepare, so that we can support our healthy eating efforts by surrounding ourselves with the most nutritious food items available.

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.