Jul 25

Using Exercise to Adapt to Changes in an Aging Body

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jul 17

Simple Exercises to Improve Life as we Age

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jul 10

Weight Loss Goals and Focusing on What is in Reach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jul 02

Regaining Confidence after a Knee Injury

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jun 26

Progressing toward challenging exercises safely and appropriately

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jun 20

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jun 14

Refinements in Balance Using Safe and Effective Exercises

              Have you ever felt a little imbalanced first thing in the morning?  For instance, bending down to put your socks on followed by tying your shoe laces might be a little slower than normal, traversing a set of stairs might seem like your body is shifting more lateral than usual, or bending down to retrieve Tupperware out of the bottom drawer in the kitchen causes a shift in equilibrium.  Could these presentations of imbalance be caused by the advancement of age, a deficit in critically important nutrition factors such as inadequate hydration or suboptimal food choices, or the deconditioning of connective tissues throughout the body? 

              Perhaps we could examine challenges in everyday balance through the lens that our bodies become imbalanced due to a combination of factors caused by aging, suboptimal health choices, or previous and current injuries.  We can also view balance-based regressions as a helpful reminder to address our imbalances.  If we want to improve our everyday functional performance by reinforcing our balance, purposefully addressing areas of imbalance, and setting attainable goals to enhance proprioception, coordination, and overall everyday human performance, we have the potential to positively influence optimal balance for everyday life activities in the long run.

              Setting our standards to the athletic performance of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalie Portman’s role in Black Swan, or Simone Biles’ gold medal Olympic feats might be a lofty goal to meet.  It’s worthwhile to appreciate and admire these athletic accomplishments of humanity.  However, less than one percent of the world’s population can even begin to think about replicating the movements of the world’s most athletic people.  For everyone else, setting a standard of always maintaining optimal balance should be more than just avoiding falls.  Continuous practice to reinforce balance via a combination of strength, flexibility, and mobility training can help us with normal activities we perform everyday, like getting in and out of the shower, walking up curbs, or interacting with our grandkids or peers that are ten to thirty years younger than us that join us in recreational physical activities.

              Injury prevention, balance, and coordination are among the most important themes we focus on for our personal training clients’ goals throughout their fitness journey when designing their exercise prescriptions.  If an injury occurs, work can’t be done to improve components of a person’s health and fitness.  Ensuring exercises are conducted safely, while also being aware of potential risk factors, is critically important.  Being proactive and addressing potential “what could happen” events during exercise helps reduce the likelihood of exercise-induced injuries.  This becomes increasingly apparent when practicing balance-based exercises.  Instructing a person to stand on one leg for a few seconds when they haven’t been in that position for years can pose a risky situation.  First things first, ensure your safety and understand the potential mechanisms of injury that can occur when participating in balance improvement-themed exercises.

              Next, we focus on progressions in balance.  To discover how to improve balance, testing balance is crucial in determining a person’s level of balance.  Discovering the point A to get to point B should never be left untouched.  For example, a basic test is the isometric split stance test.  To perform, start with both feet placed perfectly underneath the hips.  Then take one step forward and stay in that stance for ten to fifteen seconds.  Test on both legs.  If the position can be maintained on both legs, give yourself a pat on the back and progress to another appropriate balance test.

              A suitable progression from the isometric split stance is to narrow the stance width.  From the previously described split stance, move the lead foot slightly toward the midline of the body, thereby narrowing the stance.  This position narrows the body’s center of gravity. Applying a compromised position away from what a person comfortably considers a normal stance introduces the demand to require more focus and muscular engagement to ensure the body doesn’t deviate laterally and maintain an upright position.  If this position can be maintained for ten to fifteen seconds without wobbling and requiring the feet to be moved to address the imbalance, progressing to a more advanced balance exercise might be appropriate.

              Further progressions in balance-based exercises include heel-to-toe walks, lifting one foot and standing on one leg for an extended period, or stepping up and over objects for repetitions.  While all of these tactics are useful and apply invaluable assets to fitness, strength, and overall human performance in everyday life, understanding one’s current state of balance and identifying one’s imbalances can’t be overstated.  Before venturing into balance-based exercises, test yourself out first.  If needed, find a trustworthy fitness professional, physical therapist, or physician who can offer a safe and effective balance test.  After a foundation has been established, a scalable, safe, and effective strength and conditioning plan can be developed to make progress in balance for everyday life activities.

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 06

Strength Training Using Gravity and Bodyweight as a Form of Resistance

              Research has shown that strength training helps people be more productive, live in less pain, and mitigate the detrimental effects that aging may have on the body.  Adhering to a consistent and effective form of resistance training can be beneficial to humans at any point in their lives.  Whether it be a young child in the single digits of age practicing gymnastics or tumbling, a teenager participating in a high school early flight weight training class, a regular participant at a local gym who utilizes the weights machine at a local gym, or a retired grandparent conducting body weight exercises in a small group fitness class, resistance training applies productive physical stress to the body and can significantly increase the productivity, functionality, and enjoyment of peoples lives.

              Skeletal muscle is a type of connective tissue that produces mechanical force and moves bones closer or farther apart from joints, creates rotational movements in joints, triggers isometric forces to prevent bones from moving against external resistance, and responds to stimuli from the external environment.  Stemming from the capillaries in our blood vessels that deliver oxygen to our muscles, nerve cells that send electronic signaling to the matrix of skeletal muscle and connective tissues that transfers a lightning fast message from our brain to make our bodies move, to the hormones produced throughout strength training, exercising following a safe, organized, and appropriately designed exercise session promotes factors that positively influence longevity.

              To become stronger than our initial status of existence, we need a type of stimulus to adapt to.  Strength training adaptations can be connected to the SAID principle, which stands for Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands.  The body is hardwired to heal connective tissue after a form of physical stress has occurred.  A cut on the hand after scraping a knuckle against a wall develops a scab, and after a few weeks, the scab is largely replaced by new skin.  When a bone breaks due to a traumatic injury, the usual treatment is to apply a cast to the area for a few months, allowing the bone to mend and heal back to its initial solid, beam-like structure. 

Our skeletal muscles aren’t much different when it comes to healing after a bout of rigorous resistance training.  However, we’re not talking about tearing apart our skeletal muscle like slicing through a lean cut of steak and expecting it to heal.  Muscle resynthesis occurs at the cellular level, where muscle fibers, blood vessels, nerve cell connections, and chemical reactions take place after a muscle has been stressed and its microscopic environment has been disrupted.  Following a bout of resistance training, the structure of muscles slightly deteriorates.  The body’s natural response is to heal.  It’s the demand of resistance training and working past a point at which muscles are comfortable that induces this type of stress and recovery process.  After the muscle recovers from a day or two of resistance training, it generally becomes stronger, develops the ability to absorb increased concentrations of oxygenated blood flow, and exhibits a more pronounced coordination of neuromuscular connections from the brain to muscle signals.  Therefore, after the stress of resistance training occurs, muscles become stronger, more durable, and more coordinated.

              Just like flour is a key ingredient in bread, pasta, and pizza, “resistance” is a critically important component to triggering the production of strength, coordination, and durability in muscle cells.  A commonly grasped concept of resistance training is seen when exercise participants visit a gym, grab a pair of dumbbells, and perform a set of bicep curls.  While dumbbells are a useful form of resistance, they’re not the only tool available to induce productive muscular stress.  Fortunately, a few centuries ago, our buddy Isaac Newton discovered a form of resistance that is free of charge, and, if you live on Earth, is available everywhere:  Gravity.

              Resistance has many definitions, but in the context of utilizing physical resistance for exercise, resistance can commonly be understood as impeding, slowing, or stopping the effect of something moving toward an object or place.  This concept can be applied to someone performing a squatting movement.  When cueing squatting exercises throughout our personal training sessions, we instruct exercise participants to bend their knees, apply slight dorsiflexion in the ankles, and lower their hips slowly and in a controlled manner.  This slow and controlled downward movement requires muscular activation from the core, hips, knees, and ankles to support a structurally reinforced position, as gravity pushes downward when the body enters slightly compromised movements past its comfort zone during squatting exercises.  This resistance to gravity applies stress that triggers an adaptation response in the muscles responsible for squatting.

              While squatting movements utilizing only gravity as a resistance source are a simple and effective exercise that requires a lower learning curve to perform competently, gravity can be applied in a variety of ways to implement strength adaptations.  The simple straight-arm plank, push-up, or bird-dog movements require only a few ingredients to influence strength adaptations: a human, the ground, and gravity.  Resistance training can be an intimidating term when it comes to exercising.  Remember that resistance training is incorporated into some of the most foundational forms of exercise, such as the common push-up, squat, or plank.  We can utilize these simple, effective, and low-learning-curve exercises to conduct an efficient and effective exercise routine, helping us live happier, healthier, and stronger lives.

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

May 30

Managing Stress Outside Your Comfort Zone

A mad dash from the Narita airport, figuring out how to turn on the network and Wifi connection on my phone, and hoping that we don’t get lost on the way out to find our private driver to our hotel triggerd my body to produce a bit of stress hormone to circulate throughout my blood stream.  Needless to say, an increased heart rate, shaky hands, and a minor indication that I was hyperventilating, due to the small micro-quivers of my body, led me to believe I was feeling a little anxious as my wife and I stepped foot into a new world.

Fortunately, things weren’t as bad as I made them out to be.  The driver hunted us down and ensured we were on our way to our hotel.  Additionally, it appeared that my phone had connected to our out-of-country phone plan, and my test text messages, sent to my friends to let them know we had arrived in Japan, were successful.  My apprehension of being lost in a place where no one spoke my language, my peripheral brain in the form of my phone not working, and us being deserted in the middle of nowhere slowly dissipated.  We could not have enjoyed our two-week vacation to Japan more. We experienced the splendors of the picturesque country, ate food that we don’t usually see in the States, and took in the accommodating, organized, and uniquely intricate and rich culture of Japan.

After arriving at our hotel around midnight Japan time and “who knows what time it was” our time, I finally tapped the key card to our hotel room and stashed my suitcase in the nearest corner I could find.  As I sat down to decompress from a full day of getting to the airport, taking a twelve-hour flight, and overcoming the anxiety experienced similar to what Tom Hanks felt when he was deserted on an island in Cast Away, I noticed I was wide awake in a time when my intuition was telling me that I should probably be tired after being awake for close to twenty four hours of enduring travelling logistics.

Could it have been jet lag?  Being present in a different time zone in which my nocturnal and diurnal sleep-wake cycles were disturbed due to the lack of sunlight at a time when my body was used to seeing the light of day, when it was nighttime?  Or, could it have been the leftover amount of adrenaline, epinephrine, and other catecholamines that caused my heart rate and blood pressure to increase from my mini panic attack earlier in the evening?  Hard to say.  It could have been one of those things, a combination of events, or I could have just been triggering my inner hypochondriac and looking too far into things.  One thing I did know was that I was off.  And I knew that to tame the psychological and emotional stress induced by travel, taking some time out to care for my body was a pivotal next step in establishing a sense of homeostasis to manage stress throughout my monumental travel experience in Japan.

Throughout my studies in exercise physiology in college, various mentorships, and therapy sessions, I found that one of the most effective tactics for relieving stressful situations was to focus on what was immediately in front of me.  I tapped into the lessons my martial arts instructors and therapists taught me, a style of meditation that I’ve held onto for years, to alleviate situations similar to the fiasco of physiological, psychological, and emotional stress I was experiencing in my first few days in Japan.  These lessons were simple and focused on something every human has in front of them and must do to function in any environment: breathe.  To recalibrate my body and reduce the noise that causes me to worry, I made sure to take time out every morning to meditate and focus on my breathing.

Otherwise known as a breathing exercise to calm someone down, my breathing exercise consisted of closing my eyes and breathing through my nose ten times.  I focused on long yet shallow breaths.  There wasn’t a time limit on my breathing.  I was the one who called the shots on my breathing.  How long did it take?  Who knows, who cares?  Aberrant thoughts of how work was going at home, what our next travel plans were, or why I felt shaky didn’t seem to matter at the moment. I was working on my breathing because I knew that if I could breathe properly, I was in control.  And if I were in control, I would be safe.  That calmed me down.  I dipped into this breathing tactic to temper the spikes of anxiety and stress I felt throughout my trip while I was away from home.

Sometimes, traveling can take the form of business, family visits, or venturing into unknown lands, like my epic journey to Japan.  Being away from home base for a few days, or in my case, weeks, can produce feelings of separation anxiety from what is familiar at home.  At home, I know my alarm clock is set for the times I prefer every morning, my phone always works, I have a car that’s right outside my door that can get me from point A to point B in a moments notice, and I can have the foods I want stored around me for me to summon at the snap of my fingers.  Being away from home can evoke feelings that these things might no longer be there.  These feelings of anxiety might not only be triggered by travel, but by undesirable news we might see or hear on social media, the newspaper, or from our friends.  Additionally, the interactions in our careers might pose a challenge that triggers stress.  However, like many things in life, this stress passes.  Reflecting on my “welcome to Japan” panic attack, I’ve learned that stressful moments when travelling pass.  One thing that we can control right away during anxiety-ridden moments is to focus on our breathing.  Once we know we can breathe, oxygen nourishes our brain, heart, and skeletal muscles, allowing us to function like normal humans.

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 24

Keeping Fit in a Foreign Land

A few months of telling clients, fellow coaches, and friends that I’d be leaving the continent for three weeks to embark on a much-desired trip to a faraway land have finally come to fruition.  Being fortunate enough to be able to travel and take a hiatus from my normal daily work life has been a plan that’s taken two years to formulate.  I finally reached a place I’ve been thinking about visiting since childhood.  My voyage to Japan began last week.  I’m right in the thick of a fairy tale come to life as I venture through the train systems of Tokyo, where the locals switch trains at breakneck pace, hike through the bamboo forests in Kyoto, and rifle through the ocean of food stalls and iconic restaurants in Osaka.

My experience in Tokyo felt like I was on a roller coaster ride the moment I stepped out of my hotel.  The early morning commute consisted of locals in their business attire power walking to one of the subway train entries.  I was told the best way to get around and experience Tokyo was to use the innovative and hyper-efficient train system.  Being uninformed about the pace at which people engaged in using the train was a shocking experience.  The sports blazer-wearing, suitcase-carrying businessman and the well put-together businesswoman in high heels all moved at the pace and mindset of ants in an assembly line, traversing the tunnels of the train station.  They all moved in an intensely organized rhythm as if they had a specific task to ensure the integrity of the nest was supported by their mission to get to their job.  The organization and efficiency of movement utilizing the train system were impressive.  My wife and I could keep up with the intense tempo of hopping on the train, waiting a few stops, and then being transported into a new set of stimulating and exciting environments of the Tokyo neighborhoods.

As surprised as I was by Tokyo’s heart-pounding, adrenaline-inducing train environment, I felt I had a slight advantage due to my adherence and compliance with my fitness routine, which I practiced at home.  Without a foundation of fitness and healthy lifestyle habits, I could see how I would have quite a challenge keeping up with the ferocious tempo of movement in the Tokyo train systems.  It was also motivating and refreshing to see the advanced age population who appear to have suffered from a form of degenerative disc disease with their back hunched over and using a cane to hold themselves up were able to keep up with the pace of the busy hive of workers needing to get to their location on time.  My fear quickly subsided after the shock of entering the train system, making me feel like I was in a mosh pit at a Swedish death metal show. I adapted my mindset to match the pace of movement required to efficiently function in this form of transportation throughout one of the most densely populated metropolises in the world.   The last thing I wanted was to have one of the most athletic grannies honed by the school of hard knocks of riding on the Tokyo subway system their entire life run me over from behind and trample me while pushing their cane into my backside while they caught the next train.  I was amazed at how people perform their best work when they are kept busy, despite their age and physical limitations.

A theme we discuss regularly with our personal training clients is adopting a form of fitness meant to reinforce our ability to manage the demands of stress and challenges we endure in our everyday lives. Whether it be waking up in the morning, making breakfast, or getting out of the front door to drive across town to work on time, having a suitable form of health and fitness is a pivotal component to supporting such lifestyles.

My three weeks in Japan became a type of lifestyle I needed to learn how to adapt to.  Living in four different hotels in three weeks and acclimating to different paces and cultures of other areas was a new type of stress and challenge I was exposed to.  Even though I have a relatively solid foundation in maintaining optimal parameters of health and fitness that counteract joint pain, fatigue, and psychological and emotional distress, the new stimulus of being in a foreign land introduced a set of challenges.

There wasn’t any time to get to the hotel fitness center, acquire a temporary gym pass, or attend a small group fitness class. We had things to see and amazing food to eat, and we had to plan for the next few days, all while matching the pace of the Japanese culture of human interaction we weren’t accustomed to.  Travelling and being away from home for business or pleasure offers new sources of stress in ways we can’t necessarily prepare for.  However, if we consistently practice staying healthy and fit before we venture out on a trip for a while, we’ll have a set of tools in the form of lifetime fitness that offer us invaluable assets to get the most out of travelling successfully.

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.