Tag: exercise napa

Strength, Coordination, and Endurance contribute to Everyday Balance

As members of the general population, we engage in a wide variety of physical activities.  Some of us participate in a broad range of hobbies and chores that keep us active, such as walking our pets, gardening, or completing home improvement projects.  For those of us who have children or grandchildren, our physical activities become …

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Functional Movement Training

What if getting stronger and preventing injuries wasn’t about doing more exercises, but about moving better? That’s the idea behind functional movement training. Functional movement training grew out of physical therapy, rehabilitation science, and strength and conditioning. Instead of isolating single muscles, it focuses on training fundamental movement patterns your body uses every day (e.g. …

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Dynamic Stretching vs. Static Stretching

There are two primary forms of stretching we use with our personal training clients: dynamic and static. Dynamic stretching is performed before exercise.  Dynamic stretching can be defined as the act of moving through full ranges of motion to create short, repeated stretches that prepare the body for exercise.  A few examples include arm circles, …

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Shoulder Injury Prevention via Muscles of Scapular Stabilization

Along with injuries and joint complications in the lower back and knees, shoulder injuries are among the leading causes of issues affecting everyday functional ability in the general population.  Upper neck and shoulder impingement, rotator cuff strains, and frozen shoulder are among a slew of conditions that can afflict people’s shoulder health, causing pain, weakness, …

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Weight Loss and Optimal Eating Decisions

We’re entering the fourth month of the year, and New Year’s resolutions are in full effect.  Learning new skills, progressing toward new professional goals, and refining one’s overall sense of psychological and emotional well-being are among the areas people most often seek to improve in New Year’s resolutions.  Let’s not forget one of the top …

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Importance of Sleep

Quality sleep should be one of the top priorities for supporting health and fitness goals. You can train hard in the gym and eat all the right foods, but if you’re not getting adequate sleep, your body and mind can suffer. Without sufficient rest, the muscles you work out during training sessions cannot properly recover, …

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Exercise Tip of the Month: Lateral Split Squat

Commonly seen Lower-body exercises at the gym might include squats, lunges, and leg presses. However, one overlooked movement that is critical not only for refining lower-body strength but also for reinforcing the structural integrity of the stabilizing muscles of the hips, knees, and ankles is side-to-side movement. The lateral split squat targets lower-extremity muscles involved …

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Posture Awareness During Squatting Exercises

“Make sure you look forward,” I cued Tina, one of our personal training clients, as she was performing a set of “zombie squats” during one of her training sessions.  Her eyes darted toward me momentarily to receive the instruction and then returned to looking straight ahead.  She immediately rotated her head upward, with her chin …

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Coach Alec Goes the Distance

On Sunday, March 1st, 2026, Napa Tenacious Fitness’ own coach, Alec Cornwell, participated in the Napa Valley Half Marathon. This was his first half-marathon, and he completed it in 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 57 seconds, exceeding his expectations and finishing strong. Coach Alec’s main preparation consisted of one long run over the weekend and …

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Sciatica Solutions and Strong Hips

Sciatica is a term used to describe pain, tingling, or numbness that travels from the lower back down through the hip and into the leg due to irritation of the sciatic nerve.  It forms from several nerve roots in the lumbar and sacral spine and travels through the pelvis, deep in the hip, down the …

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