Summer is over, now get your fitness back on track!
Fitness and health are often compared to that of a roller coaster or set of stairs rather than a slope or straight line as we all wish it could be. What this metaphor refers to is a regression or plateaus that occur during a plan to achieve a goal. Many things can get in our way as we attempt to lose 10 lbs. or make strength gains, some of which completely derail your program, such as an injury or surgery, while some are expected but can be avoided like a training plateau. During the summer months, our biggest obstacles are distractions and libations.
There aren’t many things I like better than a cold maragarita on a hot summer day, but when I decide to drink alcohol, I’m putting my training and diet on the back burner, at least for a short period of time. Now that the summer months are over we can easily start making excuses for not working out or following our nutrition plan because, hey it’s Oktoberfest or football Sunday, or the crush, etc. Instead what we should be doing is making new commitments and goals to get back on track, first starting with a plan.
The best thing to do is identify what your fitness and/or health goals are at the moment. From here you make a S.M.A.R.T. Goal and create a timeline of which you would like to achieve said goal. Restarting is always difficult though, so my advice is to find or create a support group to help each other stay on track and motivate one another to do your best.
If you want to run more, join a track club. If you want to lose weight, join a boutique gym. Many gym and training facilities do weight-loss programs in the fall to help prepare for the holiday season and restart their current member who let things go a bit during the summer.
The most important thing to remember when getting back on track is that consistency is key. No matter if your workout is 15 minutes or 50, the important thing is that you are creating a habit. As I always say, it’s easy to workout when you want to, the days you don’t want to are what make the biggest gains. Going from thinking about to doing something every day is the important step every one must make personal progress, so stop reading about how to restart and go for a run!
200 Days: Recovering from ACL Repair
Being a personal trainer who specializes in sports performance and injury-prevention, it almost seems ironic that I would come away with an ACL Tear. The truth is, I tore my ACL, at least partially, 10 years ago. The summer before entering the Exercise Science program at CSU Long Beach I sprained my knee playing soccer, then 2 weeks later thinking I was okay, I played basketball and had an atrocious injury. At the time I was 20 years old, dumb, and broke, so I opted not to have an MRI. I knew had I torn anything that surgery would be necessary to continue my lifestyle, without risk of further injury. It was during this time that I began learning about injury prevention techniques. While in school I was able to use what I learned in the classroom on myself. I did well to strengthen the muscles that move and protect the joints of the lower body. These exercises paid off and allowed me to engage in many activities but not with the occasional buckling and movement in the knee joint. It was these incidents that would cause regression in my training and ultimately push me towards learning more about injury-prevention, and eventually becoming a professional in the field.
I often tell people that corrective exercises are as important as explosive exercises when training for sports-performance because if you are injured you can’t improve. Therefore, the healthier you can keep your body, the more your performance can improve.
I decided to journal my recovery from my day 1 of my surgery until I reach my full recovery. I will share experiences, emotions, and stories about my rehab. I’ll list tips for those who are looking to have ACL surgery. Hopefully my story of recovery will encourage any one who reads this to practice injury-prevention techniques so they don’t have to go through this long, arduous experience.
5 Reasons why couples who train together, stay together
It doesn’t take a doctor telling you how go exercise is for your health for you to realize the many benefits, but one that doesn’t show up on any medical exams is how exercise improves your life socially. This list will focus on the ways that exercise, specifically with your significant other, will improve your relationships with said loved one.
Sex Drive
Testosterone helps males both in the weight room and in the bed room. HIIT workouts and heavy weight lifting has been shown to increase testosterone levels in males. Increase in “T” means an increase in sex drive. Now introduce your wife or girlfriend into the gym where you can put your muscles on display while she strokes your ego with the occasional glance at your biceps. Sexual tension will be so high that the car ride home might be too much to handle.
Confidence
This is a benefit to anyone who practices regular exercise but couples who workout together are not only confident in themself but will walk confidently together knowing they are proud of themselves as a whole. We are arrogant creatures by nature, and while it may be annoying to have other guys look at your girl, there is always a bit of satisfaction knowing you have something they can’t have.
Accountability
The days when you don’t feel like doing anything, lethargic, tight and sluggish are the days you need to be sure together your workouts in. Even if you just stretch or perform corrective exercises, just doing something productive when you don’t feel like it will make the biggest difference in your training. Having a training partner like your significant other can be the motivator you need to get up off the couch and just do something. Sometimes just watching your partner get ready for the gym is enough to change your mind.
Endorphins
Exercise has been shown to help curb stress and increase the release of endorphins. Simply put, move around and you’ll be happy. Even if you and your boo just go on a walk around the neighborhood, the circulation of blood through your body and slight increase in heart rate will fire some endorphins and put you both into. a positive mood. Hell, you might even find this sparks good, constructive conversation. Instead of going to happy hour, try a new fitness class at a boutique training studio.
Security
No, not the strength to protect each other, which I guess could be benefit number 6. What I mean is learning to be secure with your strengths and weaknesses. You and your mate will most definitely have different strengths just as you do in personality, work ethic, etc. Training together can teach you to be secure with him or her being better than you at something. Being a highly competitive person myself, I actually love when Lisa is better than me at something. It motivates me to get better while being proud of her for being such a bad ass.
If you want to lift more weight, learn to use your glutes!
The biggest muscles in your body are the Gluteus Maximus and the Quadriceps Femoris. Most people have no problems using and developing their quads but struggle to increase maximal strength in both the squat and deadlift. A common reason for this plateau is both weakness and inability to engage the Gluteal muscles. For this reason, I recommend practicing neuromuscular exercises to learn how to engage your gluteals on demand.
Many people will use machines and bridges to target the butt and increase muscle cell size. While this is helpful in gaining muscle tissue in the butt, practices such as barre and Pilates are highly effective at learning control of the gluteal muscles.
The muscles of your butt don’t only perform extension of the thigh, which is the main function during a hip drive, or bridge. Your gluteals will also perform external rotation and abduction of the thigh. Learning to isolate these movements, which are commonly practiced in Pilates and Barre will help you to engage the muscles of your butt during many exercises.
Whether you are performing lunges, split squats, deadlifts or squats, your gluteal muscles should be pulling in your femur into extension, this driving your hips forward. To truly increase strength you mustn’t only build cell size, but also the ability to engage your butt muscles on command.
Diversify your training to maximize results
If you wish to improve range of motion one might think to start doing yoga. If your goal is to increase core strength you might think Pilates, and if you want to improve your strength you might wanna do CrossFit 7 days/week. If your goal is to improve your overall fitness you are doing yourself a disservice by doing the same workouts day in and day out.
The truth is most people should be diversifying their training disciplines on a weekly and/or daily basis. Finding time to squeeze in classes or workouts of multiple training styles will increase your overall fitness while also helping avoid over-usage injuries. Diversification will also help you stay stimulated and goal oriented. You can more easily see where adjustments need to be made to improve muscular balance, both antero-posterior and bilaterally.
Changing out your normal routine is as simple as signing up for a multi-discipline training facility, joining ClassPass, or making it a point to try a new workout style every month.
TRX exercises every golfer should be doing
Whether you’re a scratch or your just trying to get through a round without losing a ball, these 3 exercises will help create stability and consistency in your game.
Russian Twist
A combination of dynamic abdominal rotation and stabilization of the spine and hips is exactly what a golfer desires. This exercises accomplishes both. To increase difficulty, keeps your elbows locked and the hands as far away from your chest as possible. Add a squat and truly make this an explosive total body exercise.
Pistol Squats
While anyone can benefit from this well-known and well-hated exercise, golfers are especially the beneficiary of this single-leg exercise. Build stability in your hips by using your gluteus mediums tonmaintain square hips while balancing your bi-lateral leg strength. Increase difficulty by standing over your foot rather than leaning back, and use your handles for balance over leverage when possible.
Add a stork-dive between repetitions to increase the need for stability
Body Saw
This is one of those exercises that looks so simple you know it’s gotta burn. Only a short range of motion is needed to feel the effectiveness of this plank variation. Be sure to keep your tail-bone tucked and pulling your belly button to your spine as you push and pull your body like a saw.
Shred your legs with this forgotten training tool
It seems that only elite athletes and exercise masechists use this tool regularly and enjoy it. The benefits are numerous and include being cheap, accessible, and efficient. What more could you want out of a training device. What’s great about them is you can actually find many of them for free so while owning one is great, owning multiple is awesome. What is this great tool?
Hills!
They come in all shapes and sizes. They are found in most neighborhoods around the world. If you ask any Kenyan or Ethiopian runner they will most definitely speak with both respect and admiration for their favorite training hill. Hills aren’t just for runners though. We use hills all the time to straight lateral speed and explosiveness in young athletes. We also use the incline to challenge our members to build their gluts and hamstrings doing lunges and broad jumps up the iconic Laurel St Hill that our studio resides on. No other tool is will force your heart to beat faster, legs to shake with exhaustion, get results as quick as finding a big steep hill and owning it!