Jul 06

Pain Reduction and Exercise Adherence

Shedding a few pounds to prepare for a desired aesthetic appearance before a beach trip to the Amalfi coast in a few months, increasing lean muscle mass, or decreasing circulating cholesterol or insulin levels because the doctor said so, making a trip to the gym covers a lot of ground to enhance a human’s overall quality of life.  One of the most prevalent goals we hear from our personal training clients just signing up for a fitness program at our gym is to live with less pain.  Sharp spasms along the spine and hips when bending down to pick up objects from the ground, gingerly walking through the hallway after getting out of bed for those first few slow and tenders steps in the morning due to plantar fasciitis or heal pain, or simply struggling to open a jar of mayonnaise due to wrist and finger weakness can seem like quite the struggle. Pain presents itself in our lives more than we think.

A visit to the doctor or physical therapist regarding pain symptoms, we can expect to be asked, “How many minutes per week do you exercise?”  Some of us can answer that question with a simple knee-jerk reaction, “three to four days per week.”  However, an impressive amount of our society struggles to achieve one hundred and fifty, ninety, or even thirty minutes of organized weekly exercise.  If we connect the dots of why specific individuals suffer from pain, more often than not, it’s due to a lack of adherence to exercise.

It goes without question that safe and effective exercise assists us in a myriad of improvements to our overall quality of life.  Increased energy, increased strength, and decreased stress are just the tip of the iceberg.  People who exercise regularly usually comment about how sore they are after a long bike ride through a scenic country road, hiking one of the beautiful bay area trails, or playing three hours of pickleball with their buddies.  These active individuals might not comment about the pain they’re experiencing in their joints.  If people don’t mention the discomfort of pain, this usually indicates that people aren’t dealing with debilitating symptoms of joint and bodily pain from lack of physical activity.  A regularly active weekend warrior or recreational athlete doesn’t have time to be in pain.  These active humans probably have an exercise routine forged throughout years of practice they adhere so they stay out of the doctors office and involved in the physical activities they love.

Extrapolating further on what a doctor or physical therapist usually prescribes to a patient reporting bodily pain, the dose of medicine prescribed might be some anti-inflammatories.  However, any medical professional will recommend that compliance toward a routine exercise program will offer the monumental life-enhancing properties medication can’t provide.  Whether it is heading to a local gym and exercising a particular body part three to four days a week, attending Yoga and Pilates classes every week, cycling at a spin class, or meeting with a personal trainer for weekly appointments, the effort toward adhering to a consistent exercise routine has significant potential to reduce pain-like symptoms throughout the body.  Not only will conducting safe and effective exercise strengthen joints and muscles where arthritis, inflammation, and remnants of past injuries or surgeries presents themselves, but the adaptation from regular fitness training sessions increases aerobic capacity for muscles to endure longer periods of strenuous physical activity.  A muscle with a high capacity toward fatiguing means areas of the body can perform their functions optimally.  This means larger muscles responsible for significant compound movements throughout our everyday life operate at a higher capacity, and the likelihood of strain or injury decreases.

These adaptations from exercise don’t happen overnight.  Research supports that significant advances in muscular performance take at least ninety days.  We can use the most cutting-edge exercise equipment or follow the most innovative exercise routine in the world designed by Mark Walberg’s personal trainer.  However, if such state-of-the-art resources aren’t utilized consistently, or an individual falls off from their exercise routine, you can expect to see little to no progress in the outcome of their fitness journey.    Therefore, it’s important to note that compliance toward an exercise program sits at the top of the totem pole of a fitness improvement routine when it comes to the goal of pain reduction.

Reserve some time to map out weekly exercise plans.  Decrease distractions, turn the phone off, and put yourself in an environment where you can perform safe and effective exercises.  Complying with a regular exercise routine and dedicating time to ourselves on a consistent weekly basis is critical to decreasing pain symptoms and improving our overall health.

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

Exercising and Hangovers

“Why is it called a hangover,” said Ares, the god of war.  Hercules retorted, “Because when you drink too much booze, you’re going to hang your head over that rail and…”  I’ll allow the readers to use their imagination to envision the subsequent chain of events that occurred.

This interaction between these two mythical characters came from a scene in a 1990’s television series my mom and I watched weekly, Hercules:  The Legendary Journeys.  In an episode centered around how Ares was transformed from a god unmarred by injuries, illness, or any other affliction mortals endured, Hercules accompanied him to a night of debauchery.

They sang songs, flirted with ladies, and shared mischievous ventures while smiling ear to ear in raucous laughter.  Whiles Ares was in his human state, he still thought he was an invincible god.  Grabbing flagons of mead and bottles of wine, he consumed copious amounts of alcohol without thinking twice.  “Being human is amazing!  I never felt this way when I was a god!”  Exclaimed Ares.  After their night of partying like it was the first day of Marti Gras in New Orleans, they entered into a brief post-alcohol-induced coma.

The next day, Ares didn’t feel like a god capable of entering into battle and coming out the other end without a scratch.  Instead, he was tired, his eyes hurt when the sun shined upon him, and he was seen rolling around the ground, writhing in pain, followed by multiple prolonged trips to the restroom.  Being human was entertaining when Ares first started his escapade of drunken buffoonery. However, he learned the repercussions of indulging too much with a recreational substance and how too much of a good thing wasn’t that great the day after.

This episode came to mind during a personal training session I was conducting with our client.  Ferhago is a relatively fit CEO of a successful business in his mid-forties who enjoys training at our local Napa gym three times a week.  The energy, enthusiasm, and dedication he devotes to his training sessions are immaculate.  He’s so consistent, that a missed training session from Ferhago gives our coaching team the impression that the earth shifted.  However, a few hours before a training session last week, Ferhago sent me a text message, “I’m not sure I can come in today, I celebrated my wife’s birthday last night and ate too much ice cream and sweets.  I think I have a sugar hangover and feel like I got hit by a train.”

Impressed by Ferhago’s honesty, I could understand why he didn’t want to come in for training.  Ferhago abstains from consuming alcohol entirely for health purposes.  Even though he doesn’t consume alcohol, his “drug of choice” is tantalizing sweets like ice cream, cookies, and pies.  His regular rigorous exercise routine would be challenging if he felt anything like Ares did after his hangover.  However, my knee-jerk reaction was to go against Ferhago’s aversion toward training due to his sugar hangover.  I knew the best thing for Ferhago was to show up and train.

Overconsumption of sugar or alcohol gives the body adverse reactions.  Without going into too much scientific detail, the body essentially becomes poisoned after a certain amount of sugar or alcohol is consumed.  After we wake up from a bout of late-night drinking or treating ourselves to excess amounts of dessert, the next morning’s side effects are akin to how a starving octopus feels that has been out of the water for eight hours.  This toxic response puts our bodies in a state of stress.  As our bodies enter this damaged and stressed state, toxic chemicals course through our blood, and stress hormones run rampant.  Pain, irritability, lethargy, and gastrointestinal distress are the usual culprits following any hangover.

So, why did I encourage Ferhago to attend his regularly scheduled personal training sessions after he expressed he felt awful?  Other than our loyalty and tenacity we have invested toward Ferhago’s path to health, I knew that exercise has the potential to alleviate the suboptimal byproducts of hangovers.  Exercising puts our bodies through a state of physical, mental, emotional induced stress.  Our heart rate increases, our nervous system becomes stimulated, we begin to sweat, we grunt, we breathe a little heavier, and we use up calories.  After these bodily functions ensue from a rigorous exercise session, our heart rate subsides, we breathe at a normal state, and we start to relax a little bit.  Therefore turbulence our body endures throughout exercise evens out the physical, psychological, and emotional distress present from the byproducts of hangovers and we reacclimate to a relatively normal state of homeostasis.

I encouraged Ferhago to come in despite not feeling the best.  After seventy-five minutes of training, he not only performed at peak levels, but he felt energized, refreshed, and relieved he showed up for his personal training session.

Adherence to exercise is one of the most critically essential concepts that offer a successful outcome when exercising for health purposes.  Whether you are a mythical god who partakes in recreational drinking or an average forty-something-year-old human who eats a few too many late-night treats, we shouldn’t let the byproduct of these occurrences slow down our consistent journey to remain healthy.

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 22

The Basics: Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats

Calories present themselves in many scenarios in our lives.  On the back of any container or package of food at the grocery store, you’ll find the nutrition facts displaying how many calories are in a serving size of the container’s contents.  After consulting with a doctor about our BMI, our doctor might ask us what our daily caloric intake is.  Counting calories also includes a critical tactic most of society constantly struggles with, weight loss. Understanding how many calories are in the foods we eat is a part of our society that influences our decisions to consume types of food and quantities of foods.

Underneath the largely displayed number of calories on nutrition labels, three main categories are broken down into grams present in each serving size.  The big three in a serving size of food include carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.  Understanding the functions of these types of calories can aid our efforts to lower our BMI, lose weight, build lean muscle mass, and ultimately support our ability to make optimal eating decisions.

Carbohydrates are essentially sugars.  We find carbohydrates in commonly consumed foods such as bread, pasta, and fruits.  Depending on where we are getting our sugar sources, sugar can be harmful.  However, it’s noteworthy to know our body utilizes sugars quite often.  During intense physical activity, the cells in our body use sugars in our bloodstream as energy to contract muscles, which move bones.  Additionally, most of our body’s cells benefit from sugar sources.  After reading this article, this doesn’t mean our next meal should be a Pepsi and Snickers bar.  However, suppose the body is engaging in physical activity such as exercise via a long hike, resistance training routine, or a session of pickleball with your friends. In that case, we will benefit from carbohydrate consumption because the body utilizes sugar as fuel during increased physical activity.  On the other hand, consuming too many carbohydrates over the rate at which our body can use them as energy encourages our fat cells to absorb excess sugar.  This means the fat cells will store the sugars as subcutaneous fat forms and grow in size.

Proteins are the building blocks of structurally supporting connective tissue cells, such as our bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and skin.  By consuming adequate protein, the cells present within these structurally supportive areas of our body are supplied with protein to aid in the regions that might need repair.  Foods like meats, fish, tofu, nuts, eggs, beans, and Greek yogurt are optimal protein sources.  Following a bout of rigorous exercise, our bodies become stressed, and our muscles develop microscopic tears.  By eating a meal with an optimal source of protein, our damaged muscle cells will harness this protein and use it to rebuild damaged sites of muscle to become bigger and stronger.

Fats are present in many foods, mainly meats and oils.  Beef, chicken, and pork contain fats along with the protein present in them.  Other prominent foods in our diet comprised primarily of fat are butter, milk, eggs, cheese, and cooking oils.  Fats get a bad reputation because the image of extra fat under our skin might not be the most enticing.  Our body often utilizes fat as a fuel source at low activity levels.  When our body operates during times of low energy expenditures, such as sitting down or leisurely walking, our body breaks down fats to convert them to carbohydrates, which we use as energy.  Once again, this doesn’t mean we should fill our fridges with cubes of butter.  However, determining what types of healthy fats should be present in your everyday diets helps create healthy eating decisions.

“You are what you eat” is an accurate statement.  If we consume calories from suboptimal choices, our body will look and feel that way.  Regularly eating items such as Big Macs, burritos, or Panda Express’ orange chicken will make us look and feel like the calories present in those foods.  On the other hand, regularly eating lean cuts of beef, chicken, fish, tofu, veggies, and raw nuts influences our body to look and feel like we consume those foods.  Take some time to understand what calories are present in our foods to reinforce healthy and balanced dietary habits.

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 14

Challenges in Finding Time to Exercise

Doctor’s recommendations, news reports, and a multitude of research support the benefits of exercise.  A healthy weight, decreased stress, and increased overall mood throughout the day are enticing factors to be attracted to.  A plethora of reasons to exercise to support our overall quality of life can make a list of reasons to invest in routine exercise adherence that can fill up the word space of this entire page.  However, over half of our society struggles with ingraining exercise as a staple in their lives.  While the proof is in the pudding when it comes to unveiling the benefits of exercise, why is it so hard to devote at least fifteen minutes of daily exercise?

A pesky factor impeding us from exercising is time. Family obligations, personal appointments, and the forty-hour work week all require a certain amount of time, energy, and thoughts vested from us.  Picking up kids from school, making doctors or dentist appointments, or devoting a substantial number of hours toward our careers requires significant attention.  However, every human on this planet is granted twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.

Most of us know what we need to do regarding exercise.  We don’t need a doctor’s referral to drive to a nearby local gym, attend a Yoga class, or walk throughout the stunning Napa countryside.  So, what can we do if we don’t have time?  Or, what happens if we get so overwhelmed by the confines of our busy life schedule that we say, “forget it” and omit exercise completely?

A solution we recommend to our personal training clients who struggle to find time to exercise outside of their weekly training appointments is to identify exercise-themed days throughout the week.  For example, on the days our clients have training appointments reserved for seventy minutes worth of one-on-one guided fitness coaching, they commit those days as “exercise-themed” days.  This means nothing can get in the way of their exercise appointment on the days they meet for personal training appointments.  No partying the night before, no hair and nail appointments, the kids are already dropped off at school, or childcare has been organized before this appointment to allow this exercise reservation.  Therefore, the factors that could stress us out and make a mad dash for the gym while racing the clock is tamed down because of the reserved appointment.

This practice of reserving time on “exercise-themed” days is also effective outside of the personal training arena.  For example, some of the residents of Japan reserve a few minutes as the sun rises every morning to practice Tai Chi on their front lawns.  They have dedicated that time to putting life’s endless hustle on hold so they can focus solely on themselves to achieve the health benefits of the ritual of physical activity.  The layout of time allocation in our days aren’t much different in the busy lives we live in our society.  The Earth spins the same at our present location as on every other continent where there is a twenty-four-hour clock present.  The only difference for these morning Tai Chi practitioners is that they have made a ritual to practice their preferred exercise, akin to how we make a ritual of standing in line during a morning Starbucks coffee runs.  We can implement this same practice our Tai Chi friends do by turning our phones and televisions off and putting our busy lives on hold.  Once we pave this time out of our day, we can consistently focus on exercise tactics gifting us a healthier life.

Whether scheduling a time to attend a dance class, play pickleball with a group of three other friends, or take a long walk, reserving the time to do so is always available. It’s challenging to do these things if we don’t commit to dedicating time exclusively for ourselves.  Let’s put our technological peripheral brains on hold for a few moments.  When you return from a brief bout of physical activity, computers, phones, televisions, video games, and other technological dependencies will always be there.  I promise they aren’t going anywhere.  However, our time stays behind us if we don’t allocate meaningful activities toward the twenty-four hours we have.  Let’s take some time out for ourselves to give the gift of exercise to enjoy a happy, healthy, 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 08

Hiking is Medicine

“Wait, stop.  Can you hear that?”  Standing at the end of the quarter-mile hike up to the peak of Westwood Hills in Napa, my friend instructed me to halt my steps and listen.  A wide-eyed look of bewilderment formed on my face, “Hear what?” I replied.  She looked at me with a smile of satisfaction, “Exactly.  You can’t hear a thing.”

My hiking partner made a weekly ritual of hiking at different locations throughout Napa at least once per week.  She made efforts to find locations at each hike in which she discovered moments absent of the cacophony of cars traveling on the street, the beeping of construction trucks backing up, or the chatter of society interacting with each other.  This method of removing herself from the hustle and bustle of everyday life impressed me.  Not only was she achieving an efficient and effective form of physical activity, but her weekly hiking adherence served as potent therapy to enhance her everyday life.

Lack of overall fitness and increased psychological and emotional stress threaten our health.  Decreased movement is an ever-increasing epidemic in our society which causes a potpourri of metabolic diseases, psychological distress, and disruptions in the fulfillment of our quality of life.  Additionally, the demands we put on ourselves to support our financial situations, careers, and relationships with the people we care about have the potential to put tremendous pressure on our mental well-being.

Anti-depressants and medication designed to suppress metabolic disease can be helpful in taming symptoms of being overweight or overly stressed.  These clinically distributed medications from our primary doctors are potent tools to alleviate the repercussions of stressful lifestyles and metabolic diseases.  However, if these medications are the only solution people depend on, the need for more medication in the future has the potential to increase.  Depending on prescriptions handed out by our doctor can enter into a vicious cycle that causes more harm than good if actions aren’t taken to apply our own forms of therapy by getting out and smelling the flowers.

An effective form of decreasing stress while introducing healthy demands on the body is physically moving ourselves to a location where themes afflicting our psychological and physical state aren’t present.  My hiking partner’s example of hiking to one of the highest points in Napa, where large groups of people are present and the business of society can’t be sensed, is a compelling example of putting oneself in an optimally stress-free environment.  The cell phones were left in the cars, the parking lot was one-thousand feet below us and a quarter mile away, and the only other people we saw were those who passed us for a split second on a small dirt trail with the same mindset as us.  Cars aren’t allowed up these trails.  Cell phones couldn’t get reception.  And the only noise in the air was brushing leaves against each other as gusts of wind passed through tree branches, the skitter of lizards and squirrels crossing our path, and birds singing.  Hiking truly is a potent anti-depressant and weight-loss medication.

Highlighting forms of movement that fend off the stresses of life and offer cardiovascular and strength improvement exemplifies how exercise is medicine.  Perhaps we can utilize the resources of the beautiful world around us and leave the technological demands of our lives behind us for a moment to absorb the naturally occurring medicine present in the natural aspects of our world.

 

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 01

Healthy Choices on Business Trips

It’s my first time visiting Denver, Colorado, for a continuing education trip to enlighten a few of my fellow coaches and me to become smarter, more skillful, and better informed on the best practices in the cutting-edge research being presented at the ACSM fitness conference.  Honing my skills as a fitness professional, mentor, and consultant to our beloved personal training clients and marking a sash on my belt in my journey to visit all fifty states in the US were just a few highlights of this cherished voyage we’ve been looking forward to.

Presentations featuring key topics such as “exercise is medicine,” “you can still teach old dogs new tricks,” and “the power of play” was the most sought-after topics to observe and take notes on throughout this four-day conference.  It was a rewarding experience seeing that practicing specific topics like adherence to a regular exercise routine, bridging gaps between patients graduating from physical therapy protocols and merging into a fitness routine, and tactics to avoid injury were all models of our current program we apply to our personal training clients.

One of the most alarming observations we noticed among our fitness professional peers was the number of chips, cookies, and sodas present at the conference that was given out as a complimentary meal.  While attending a national conference gauged toward enhancing the integrity of the overall health of our society, we were surprised by the selection of food available to the attendees.  As skilled coaches holding certifications in nutritional consulting, this highly processed and pre-packaged food was the last thing we wanted to ingest.  We encourage our clients to consume processed and packaged high-carbohydrate foods sparingly.  This unmasked a significant issue reported by a fair amount of our clients who travel to industry events that are out of state in convention centers or hotel conference rooms; the need for more selection of healthy foods available at these events.

With three more days of learning and interacting with my peers, the last thing I wanted was to feel sluggish, bloated, and overall ill from consuming nothing but chips, cookies, and sodas.  Therefore, I chose to abstain from the snacks available to attendees.  While I appreciate the gesture of free food and feel incredibly fortunate to have a source of free food as a resource, I ventured elsewhere to see what my options were.

After opening up Google Maps and searching for a restaurant that had lean sources of protein and veggie-based dishes, I found the only restaurants available were Bubba Gumps, Chik-Fil-A, and Starbucks.  Even though our hotel had some salad options, paying over forty dollars for a salad and a portion of salmon didn’t justify my protest of veering away from the free highly-processed food at the convention center.  So, what did I do?  I went to Target.

You read that correctly, Target.  Usually, people can identify the compartment store Target as a place to acquire sunscreen, toothpaste, and body wash.  However, Target is equipped with a reasonably priced selection of bagged vegetables and lean protein sources.  As I cruised around the refrigerated section, I discovered bagged raw baby carrots, raw broccoli in a steamable bag, and snap peas.  In another cold goods section, I found roasted red pepper hummus, one of our “go-to” snacks we recommend to our clients looking to add to their “skillful snacking” inventories.   Additionally, I perused past a few selections of Greek yogurt and blueberries.  One last trip through the dried goods section led me to the nut shelf.  Within the shelves of nuts, shaved almonds and shelled walnuts caught my eye.  After procuring those items, I passed by a small container of honey that cost under three dollars.  Could this accent the plain Greek yogurt, blueberry, and shaved almond dish I had in mind?  You know the answer to that.

I now had a dish of lovely raw veggies, antioxidant-loaded berries, and a few protein sources to create an award-winning, delicious, and filling meal during my lunch break in my hotel room between seminars.  On the menu were carrots dipped in hummus and a homemade Greek yogurt blueberry parfait with shaved almonds and honey.  I was comfortably satiated after a fifteen-minute food escapade in my hotel room.  I traveled back down to the convention center and attended the remainder of our meetings and seminars.

Could I be seen as an outcast who takes the extra effort to take a five-minute walk to the Target store next to my hotel and compile my meal?  Perhaps.  However, taking this extra effort to explore the food choices immediately available within a mile radius reinforced my habits of putting nutritious food in my body while avoiding the unhealthier options within arm’s reach.  If we can take that extra step to explore what options we have around us in circumstances where we might not have the healthiest resources available, we can maintain our healthy lifestyle efforts in environments where suboptimal food isn’t immediately 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.

May 26

Shrugging Off Shoulder Pain

“Back in ’82, I could throw a football a quarter mile.  How much you wanna bet I can throw this football over them mountains?”  Uncle Rico, a character in the movie Napolean Dynamite, stated this.  Rico was in his mid-forties and hadn’t let go of his high school football dreams of being drafted into the NFL.  Even though Uncle Rico may have been living in another fantasy world where he could throw a football to the horizon, a small portion of his statement is true when we relate to our athletic experiences from our youth.

Athletes in their prime at younger ages can perform amazing feats of physical performance.  Baseball pitchers throw over ninety miles per hour.  Volleyball athletes with thirty-six-inch vertical leaps spike balls at their opponent’s faces with the force of a big rig truck creating a thunderous audible crack upon contact with the ball.  College football quarterbacks have been seen throwing over fifty yards from their knees.  The ability of athletes in their prime usually occurs at younger ages.  Why is this important to note?  The anatomy of their body has that “fresh new car smell” to it.  In other words, they haven’t been injured yet to slow down their performance.

A common injury following former athletic populations that have transformed into sedentary job settings is compromised shoulders. However, some of these shoulder injuries that might be perceived as remnants from high school pitching, throwing a football, or spiking volleyballs are less compromising than the injury that threatens our shoulder health in most society’s professions.  These injuries that sneak up unexpectedly in our everyday lives are shoulder underuse injuries.

As typical progressions of aging occur, we might get bumps and bruises along the way.  Additionally, individuals have an increased potential to veer away from the physical activities they enjoyed in their youth following their recovery from a significant injury.  Common shoulder injuries include tendonitis, bursitis, or inflamed rotator cuff muscles.  Rehabbing an injury poses a challenge both mentally and physically.    Pain isn’t necessarily the most desirable experience to embrace.  Add in the responsibilities we engage in throughout our careers of sitting at desks, driving to work, and enduring the stresses of being a parent and, paying a mortgage, and managing taxes, the time for our previous athletic career gets thrown at the bottom of the list of things to do.  Sometimes, it’s not the repercussions of the stress we impose on our bodies from being rambunctious, young, and active individuals. Lack of activity in the latter portion of our life significantly impacts our body’s integrity as we progress forward in the years to come.

Shoulder pain can be debilitating.  Anyone burdened with a history of afflictions to the normal function of the shoulder can relate to the limitations a bum shoulder imposes.  From reaching up in the cupboard to retrieve your favorite coffee mug to using a loofa to wash behind your neck during bubble bath time, a compromised shoulder throws a monkey wrench in the spokes of life’s normal physical activities.  Even putting on a seatbelt or sliding an arm into a zip-up jacket can be an obstacle when dealing with a cranky shoulder.

While it’s easy to blame what we did in our past to explain what makes up the present, it’s even easier to set aside what we need to do to make the present a better situation. For example, shoulder injuries from underuse have the potential to accumulate even more after an active, athletic career.  If the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones of a shoulder joint that were so active immediately stop moving, the connective tissue can stiffen.  This hardening of the connective tissue after five, ten, twenty, or forty years of underuse compounds exponentially over time.  Therefore, if left unused in movements that emulate the physical activities we performed when we were more active before our careers as adults took over, the shoulder’s functionality to maneuver in its ball and socket joint decreases substantially.

As a solution to continue participating in recreational physical activities that kept our shoulders active in the past, adhering to shoulder injury prevention and strength and conditioning tactics is just as much, if not more, critical toward the long-term health of our shoulders.  Dynamic stretching, mobility exercises, and shoulder strengthening exercises performed at a gym setting, with a skilled personal trainer, or at a reputable Pilates or Yoga class can offer these resources.  Additionally, the continuous use of the shoulder through various recreational physical activities around the house, such as sweeping, vacuuming, or gardening, positively impacts shoulder joint functionality.

It might not be the best approach to practice throwing footballs over mountains.  However, it wouldn’t hurt to practice and continue throwing something.  Whether it be a frisbee, a ball for your dog, or just some bird seed for the ducks out at the pond, continuing to use the shoulder joint throughout various modes of movement decreases the likelihood of permanent damage to this valuable joint.

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

May 10

Finding Time for Exercise

Doctor’s recommendations, news reports, and a multitude of research support the benefits of exercise.  A healthy weight, decreased stress, and increased overall mood throughout the day are enticing factors to be attracted to.  A plethora of reasons to exercise to support our overall quality of life can make a list of reasons to invest in routine exercise adherence that can fill up the word space of this entire page.  However, over half of our society struggles with ingraining exercise as a staple in their lives.  While the proof is in the pudding when it comes to unveiling the benefits of exercise, why is it so hard to devote at least fifteen minutes of daily exercise?

A pesky factor impeding us from exercising is time. Family obligations, personal appointments, and the forty-hour work week all require a certain amount of time, energy, and thoughts vested from us.  Picking up kids from school, making doctors or dentist appointments, or devoting a substantial number of hours toward our careers requires significant attention.  However, every human on this planet is granted twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.

Most of us know what we need to do regarding exercise.  We don’t need a doctor’s referral to drive to a nearby local gym, attend a Yoga class, or walk throughout the stunning Napa countryside.  So, what can we do if we don’t have time?  Or, what happens if we get so overwhelmed by the confines of our busy life schedule that we say, “forget it” and omit exercise completely?

A solution we recommend to our personal training clients who struggle to find time to exercise outside of their weekly training appointments is to identify exercise-themed days throughout the week.  For example, on the days our clients have training appointments reserved for seventy minutes worth of one-on-one guided fitness coaching, they commit those days as “exercise-themed” days.  This means nothing can get in the way of their exercise appointment on the days they meet for personal training appointments.  No partying the night before, no hair and nail appointments, the kids are already dropped off at school, or childcare has been organized before this appointment to allow this exercise reservation.  Therefore, the factors that could stress us out and make a mad dash for the gym while racing the clock is tamed down because of the reserved appointment.

This practice of reserving time on “exercise-themed” days is also effective outside of the personal training arena.  For example, some of the residents of Japan reserve a few minutes as the sun rises every morning to practice Tai Chi on their front lawns.  They have dedicated that time to putting life’s endless hustle on hold so they can focus solely on themselves to achieve the health benefits of the ritual of physical activity.  The layout of time allocation in our days aren’t much different in the busy lives we live in our society.  The Earth spins the same at our present location as on every other continent where there is a twenty-four-hour clock present.  The only difference for these morning Tai Chi practitioners is that they have made a ritual to practice their preferred exercise, akin to how we make a ritual of standing in line during a morning Starbucks coffee runs.  We can implement this same practice our Tai Chi friends do by turning our phones and televisions off and putting our busy lives on hold.  Once we pave this time out of our day, we can consistently focus on exercise tactics gifting us a healthier life.

Whether scheduling a time to attend a dance class, play pickleball with a group of three other friends, or take a long walk, reserving the time to do so is always available. It’s challenging to do these things if we don’t commit to dedicating time exclusively for ourselves.  Let’s put our technological peripheral brains on hold for a few moments.  When you return from a brief bout of physical activity, computers, phones, televisions, video games, and other technological dependencies will always be there.  I promise they aren’t going anywhere.  However, our time stays behind us if we don’t allocate meaningful activities toward the twenty-four hours we have.  Let’s take some time out for ourselves to give the gift of exercise to enjoy a happy, healthy, 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.

May 04

Decreasing the Risk of Falling

Balance is a unique aspect of our physical activity affecting many interactions in our everyday lives. For example, the ability to get up from a seated position, get out of bed in the morning after a six to eight-hour slumber, or disembark from our car seats require an impressive combination of movements occurring simultaneously to perform correctly.  If one of the neural pathways or muscles fails to fire in the appropriate sequence, one blip in the neuromuscular system responsible for a seemingly simple task, such as getting out of the car we use every day, can cause a loss of balance.

Losing balance can be related to the lack of ability to correct an imbalance.  Scenarios that compromising balance can be as severe as an accidental collision of the shin stepping into a small dog or as simple as scraping the bottom of the shoe on an even section of pavement.  The repercussions of losing balance can result in a substantial injury when the human body topples over from its normal vertical position and plummets to the ground.

Tripping and falling are noteworthy risk factors for individuals hindered by suboptimal abilities to correct the presentation of loss of balance, proprioception, and neuromuscular coordination.  If the body’s strength and fitness levels are deconditioned, the potential to trip and fall from a loss of balance is more prevalent.  Examples of abilities to correct an imbalance present themselves when a person bumps their foot on an object on the ground and can immediately address the disruption by reflexively placing their foot in a stable position allowing the body to regain balance.  Proprioception is the body’s natural awareness of understanding exactly where the body is in an environment without necessarily looking around to identify where the body should move.  A person with a well-conditioned core, hips, knees, and ankles can manage scenarios of imbalance due to the structural integrity of the ligaments, tendons, and muscles surrounding joints to allow the skeletal muscles to absorb the physical demands of erratic and intense movements following a correction to an event in which someone might trip and fall.

To assist in reinforcing these mechanisms that aid in the reinforcement of saving us from tripping and falling, adhering to a routine of exercise movements aimed at strengthening our core, hips, and lower extremities has the potential to decrease the risk of falling. For example, performing strengthening exercises such as squats, hip bridges, and planks are simple and effective tactics that target a broad surface area of muscles surrounding the spine, hip, knee, and ankle joints assist in reinforcing optimal balance.  Additionally, participating in Yoga, Pilates, barre classes, and other small group fitness classes oriented toward flexibility, mobility, and single-leg balancing movements optimize improvements in the ability to correct presentations of imbalance.

Decreased physical activity, recovering from an injury, post-surgical procedure periods, or the advancement of age combined with reduced adherence to exercise are top offenders when it comes to developing poor balance.  Setting aside time to maintain a strong and coordinated body through routine exercise adherence can significantly decrease the likelihood of tripping and falling.

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

Apr 30

Success in the Pull Up World

A success story occurred recently for one our Napa personal training clients.  After many trials and hard work, this exercise participant was able to perform one complete pull up.  Let’s call this exercise participant who works out at our fitness facility Arnold for confidentiality purposes.  While making our way through a weekly training session, Arnold was given the task to perform band assisted pull ups, a form of the pull up exercise that we instruct our clients utilizing the assistance of a strong rubber band wrapped around the top of the pull up bar which is then looped under the participants foot.  This technique offers assistance to the participant to pull their body weight while performing the pull up movement.  We decided to try a set of pull ups with out the assistance of the band.  To Arnold’s surprise, he was able to perform 3 full pull ups unassisted.

Arnold was elated because this was a tremendous victory for him.  He had never performed a pull up in his life.  As an adult, this was a monumental moment for him and me.  He comically exclaimed at the conclusion of his pull ups, “After 4 years of training at Napa Tenacious Fitness, even you can do a pull up!”  However, even after his comical reference for a sales pitch to promote his success, he reflected more seriously upon his experience.  This statement was also a realistic statement of the truth.  Having never been able to perform a full pull up in his life, there was no question that the 4 years of adherence to a training regimen of consistently performing a professionally designed resistance training program was necessary to be able to achieve this elite level of human performance.  To master the pull up, a tremendous amount of practice, dedication, and time need to be put into a training program. More than half of the population in our society cannot perform pull ups.  The performance of a pull takes a tremendous amount of strength, courage and coordination.  While there are people who can perform pull ups, I have seen less than 10% of the adult population able to competently perform one.

Arnold’s journey to achieving this goal is similar to that of an apprentice sushi chef or a culinary student entering their stage.  Staging is an unpaid internship test when a cook or chef works for free to gain a position in another chef’s kitchen to learn and be exposed to new techniques and cuisines.  Historically, traditional sushi chefs in training have been known to cook and roll rice for months to years before actually picking up a knife and cutting sushi.  As culinary students enter their stage to learn about the infrastructure of restaurants, their tasks may be to peel shrimp, scrub bones with a toothbrush, or clean dishes before getting firsthand experience on how to properly cut an onion.  It might take another few months to a year to learn how to make a sauce.  We can see a comparison to the years of development of the muscles and coordination that are involved in harmoniously interacting when performing a pull up and the years of busy work for culinary students as they put in their time for a promotion in the ranks.  Arnold’s journey of mastering the pull up is an example of refining a lifelong craft to improve the strength of his body.  Whether it be peeling shrimp, cooking rice, or performing band assisted pull ups for years, mastering your craft in the arena of your choice takes time, dedication, and passion.

Arnold had a similar experience to culinary apprentices.  He showed up on time for personal training appointments in Napa 3 times per week and put effort into every exercise.  The training sessions focused on a full body approach to strengthen his legs, upper body, and core.  Over this time, Arnold received adaptation in strength in his grip, forearms, and shoulder blade muscles.  Additionally, Arnold had to overcome his fear of heights and the rare possibility of slipping off the bar and falling.  As the story goes, after 4 years of showing up and facing these challenges, Arnold performed a pull up.  He can now do 7 in a row unassisted.

Arnold peeled the perfect shrimp in the back of the kitchen.  He cooked flawless rice for the veteran sushi chefs.  He put in the time to face his fears and work because he loves his craft of refining his body.  Sushi apprentices and culinary students cook food for people to express the love they exude toward their craft of preparing delicious meals.  Arnold’s commitment to the time he puts into mastering the health and wellbeing of his body allows him to be a strong, healthy, and fit for the people he loves. If you show up to master the craft you love, you will improve.

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.

Facebook
Google+
YouTube
Instagram