Happy Small Biz Saturday! Deals available till midnight on Sunday!

I think small businesses make the world go round, and I shop them whenever possible. I'm self-employed, partly because I'm ridiculously stubborn and think I know the best way to do everything, but also because being on my own allows me to react organically to the demands of my profession and my clientele, as well as incorporate any new ideas/information rapidly into my world view and operation. In short, it's hard work, and I wouldn't do it any other way.

I'm offering a couple HUGE deals this weekend - please consider taking advantage of them, either for yourself or someone you care about! If you live somewhere other than Seattle, I'd love to train you via Skype, so don't let distance scare you off! :) Here's the options (which you'll find under the "All-Around Awesomeness" payment menu at the top of the blog):

Starter Kit ($50): 

*consultation

*movement evaluation (FMS)

*corrective exercises for the month

*take-home program to get you started

*follow-up session in one month with program adjustments

So that's 2 sessions, each of which are a hour long...I'm not mathematician, but that's about $100 off these services at their normal price!

Gift of Health ($40):

*consultation

*movement evaluation (FMS)

*corrective exercises

*take-home program

*fancy gift certificate mailed to you (or available for pick-up)

Again, about half off my regular prices!

Happy small business shopping!! :)

the edge

I was asked to speak to some aspiring personal trainers at NPTI yesterday - I said I'd be psyched to share some of my work with ultimate frisbee athletes and the movement evaluation protocol I've developed for ultimate. But as I prepared for the talk, something very quickly became apparent...I wanted to share my approach and talk about the pitfalls and successes of the past year, but I also needed to share with them the deeper thing, the guy behind the guy, of what this year has meant to me. It took a while to condense my mixed feelings around this tumultuous time, but I finally narrowed it down to two talking points, which I tried to emphasize throughout the talk.

1. The best systems arrive from necessity, and should be constantly reexamined and updated.
My movement evaluation, which has become a calling card of mine, is a perfect example. It's a service I can (and now do) offer to any field athlete wishing to tighten up energy leaks in their movement and minimize their injury risk. It's simple, a minimal time commitment (30 minutes), and tells me most of what I need to know to be able to set someone up on a strength program. I created it because at the beginning of last year I was asked to be the strength and conditioning coach for the Rainmakers and do my best to help 27 athletes not only make it through their first professional ultimate season unscathed, but aid most of them in going directly into their club season (which ended in October). I signed on in February, and the first game was in the beginning of March. I had one month to get them game-ready, and most of them were coming into the season deconditioned and/or nursing injuries. I knew that I needed to assess where each athlete was, and give them specific tools to help them improve that state quickly, and I saw no way to do it other than an evaluation. I spent a week doing research, trying out different movements, recording videos for the mobility and stability "fixes" I was going to employ, and running things by my husband, who's been famously injury-free most of his 14-year career on Sockeye. It was a whirlwind weekend, but I managed to get all the players in and out of the evaluation with no major snafus. I was excited about the data collection portion of the eval as well...it seemed to me that I knew of common "frisbee injuries," but I'd never had an actual sample population to test my theories. I found some new things, and confirmed other suspicions. It was a huge success in my mind because I'd managed to make a personal connection with each athlete, give them information about their body and the way they moved that most hadn't ever gotten, and give them the tools to start changing patterns that were leading (or had lead) them along the road to underperformance and getting hurt.
Since that time I've done evaluations for several individual athletes, and also worked with Seattle Riot throughout their season, starting with evaluations. It's probably single most important piece of work I've done in my career, and it was developed because it HAD to be developed. I'm currently in the process of updating it to include some power testing - that element of player evaluation was done at the combine for the Rainmakers, but that's not the case for any other teams I'm working with. Constantly reexamining any pieces of your system for flaws, asking for feedback, and being willing to let your ego go and do something else if what you had is no longer serving you...that's one thing this year has taught me.

2. We do our best work when we're at the edge of our competency.
Real talk? I was terrified when I was approached to be a S & C coach. I had the necessary certifications, the book knowledge, and a 13-year-long career in personal training and teaching classes/seminars. But I acutely felt the weight of the responsibility to a group of people, to a sport I'd been on the sidelines of since college, to guys that were good friends of mine. This was a national stage, and a new one at that. I knew I would be doing many things for the first time, and the possibility of failing them or disappointing myself was real and immediate. I almost said no. But I knew that I couldn't. It was what I'd always wanted - I just didn't think I was ready. What I've learned, though that experience and many others that have followed hot on its heels this year, is that you're never ready for things like this. Not being prepared, not feeling 100% sure of yourself, is a necessary part of any real innovation, any true steps forward, for yourself and/or in your field. You're driven to know more, grow more, and synthesize new information. You're also forced to accept help from others, through reading or talking to experts, and to listen to the people you're working with and value their feedback on your approach. You're required to be humble, and at the same time, step forward confidently, and it's ridiculously difficult to keep from freaking out.
But man...this year, while being one of my most difficult and tiring and stressful, has also been my favorite year. I've become more thirsty for knowledge, positively self-critical, and will unabashedly take anyone to coffee that I respect and think I can learn from and exchange information. I barely recognize myself. And my business, well, it's going really really well. Better than any time in the last 13 years. Because I'm ridiculously passionate about what I'm doing, and light years away from where I was in January, where I was thinking maybe I'd go to film school. I feel great about the focus of my training, and about my trajectory - things have never been so clear. And even though I'm still living at the edge of my competency (working 12-15-hour days at USAU Nationals for two frisbee teams is the most recent example), I'm not really afraid any more. It's starting to feel thrilling, living there. And I think if more of us lived there, we'd be better trainers, better people, for those who are working with us to get better, stronger.

I'm not sure how much of this got through to the people in that room yesterday, but preparing to speak to them certainly made me realize how lucky I've been this year, to have so many athletes trusting me, and so many professionals willing to share with me and make me better. I'd like to thank all of them, and let them know that none of them are off the hook in that regard...I'm thinking that 2014 is going to be even more amazing. :)

the gift of the sternum turn

When I was working out of Zum, I had the incredible pleasure of working with Jeff Haller, a truly gifted Feldenkrais teacher and mover. Having grown up a dancer, I had a great sense of how my body should look, but not a great connection with how movement should feel in my body. I also had a bad habit of sidling around my weaknesses, creating shortcuts to perform exercises instead of addressing my imbalances and working through them. It's pretty impossible to get away with that when working with a good Feldenkrais instructor...they can see through the bullshit and gently (inexorably) encourage you to look at the reality of what your body is telling you.
One day a group of us trainers were working with Jeff on the idea of organizing your body by paying attention to your skeleton...stacking the bones on top of each other instead of making your musculature do a ton of work just to keep you standing or walking. He had me walk towards him as naturally as possible, then pointed out to the others that when I stepped on my right foot, my sternum turned slightly to the right. When I stepped on my left foot, my sternum also turned to the right. He had me stand on my left foot and try to turn my sternum slightly to the left. It was as if my body just didn't understand what he was asking. I felt like Ben Stiller in Zoolander, "I'm not am ambiturner." I sweated and fell over and tried again, and finally managed to orient myself over my left leg. And the whole time I was thinking, geez, no wonder I have such a hard time balancing on my left leg! No wonder my left leg is weaker! No wonder, no wonder...he had us experience this idea of getting yourself properly oriented over your legs in whatever position, walking, running, shifting slowly from foot to foot. It was amazing to feel all the muscular energy I was using to keep myself from falling be redirected into movement I wanted to be making.
In the past couple years I've been experimenting with the sternum turn myself and with my clients, and I've seen dramatic results. I was having a lot of knee pain and IT band tightness while trail running...I slowed down for a week and really concentrated on turning my sternum slightly when I ran so that as my foot landed, I was well-balanced over my foot...my pain disappeared. I showed it to my husband...his knee pain and issues while sprinting and doing single-leg movements disappeared. My clients have been able to correct their knee instability just by focusing on turning slightly toward their standing leg. And in my mobility class this morning, I had my people do two reps of a single-leg exercise with no sternum turn (facing straight forward) and five with a sternum turn...they all said they felt more balanced and stronger with the sternum turn. So I think YOU should give it a try, if you're interested in a little lab session! :)
First walk around a bit. If you can, have someone watch you, or walk towards a mirror, as naturally as possible. See if you you turn more one way than another, or if you tend to keep your upper body straight ahead. Next, try standing on one foot with your body straight ahead and just notice what muscles are working to keep you there. Then turn your upper body just slightly towards your standing leg and see what changes. Do you feel more stable? You can then take this into other movements like walking or running, or single-leg squats or whatever. It's...kinda magic. Watch MC doing a squat progression here...you should see the subtle sternum turn at the bottom part of the movement, when most of his weight is on that leg. And let me know what you think when you try it! :)

Make it Rain

What an insane month!! I signed on to be the strength and conditioning coach for Seattle's first professional ultimate frisbee team, the Seattle Rainmakers, and have been head-down workin' since then to bring all the knowledge and expertise I have to bear for the benefit of the team. This is an incredible opportunity for me to put to use the knowledge I've gained in the past few years while working with frisbee players and my other clients...it's being amazing to work with a group of smart, high-level, hardworking athletes.

My first goal as a coach was to do an in-depth evaluation with each player. I created the assessment using my own work with frisbee players and athletes as a guide, ascribing to Gray Cook and Michael Boyle's theory: mobility first, then stability, then movement. I started by talking with them about their injury history, any current physical concerns, and their activity level at the moment. Then I assessed their movement patterns, identifying imbalances and pinpointing the places where improvements could be made to reduce the risk of injury and increase power. I took the guys through specific "fixes" for these areas, and sent them off with (hopefully) a better sense of the guy-behind-the-guy for issues they were having.

Here's an example of a diagnosis, a fix, and the follow-up I did with the athletes. Watching one athlete perform a series of free squats (no weight) I noticed that his low back was rounding under at the bottom. I pointed it out to him, asking if he could slow the movement down and keep a neutral spine the whole time. When he was unable to, I had him try a no-weight deadlift. I asked him to keep his knees slightly bent and his back neutral, hinging his hips backward until his body was parallel to the floor. He was unable to get close to parallel, so I was able to determine that the problem in the squat movement was poor hip mobility. I showed him the fix, the Frog Stretch (awesome movement), and later sent him a description of it, including how often/long/when he should do it. We went through a few different movements, with me looking for different things each time, and I ended up with a full body profile of each athlete and a sense of where to place them on the training continuum.

I'm gathering incredible data right now, and have just finished the first round of videos for the team workouts I'm leading this season. Thanks to the MLU for bringing me on, and I'll keep you posted about the work I'm doing with this awesome group of people. Learning a lot, giving a lot, super pumped. :)

Frog Stretch

Kettlebells 101!

Another seminar coming your way! :) 

RSVP at ren@renfitness.net, space is limited!

Injuries

Working out isn't easy. If it was, they would call it something else. 

In that spirit, let's look at why and how a lot of injuries happen in the gym. Often, people don't listen to their bodies and try to push past warning signs. Then they end up injured, frustrated, and feeling bad about themselves. Other times people use the wrong muscles/joints to perform movements and end up putting excessive strain/force on places that can't handle it - boom, there goes your hamstring. And occasionally someone will smack themselves with a heavy object or fall over. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that all of these situations (even the last one) is largely preventable by focusing on two aspects of movement: attention and a proper warmup.

Everyone pays some degree of attention while working out, of course. But there's a difference between paying attention and being attentive. If you're talking to your friend while you're lifting, you're not being attentive. If you're thinking about what you're going to make for dinner while you're doing goblet squats, you're not being attentive. Whenever you're moving, try to think specifically about what you're doing...for instance, with the goblet squat, think "Weight in the heels. Shoulder blades engaged and dropped. Push up with the glutes and bring the tailbone underneath at the top. Keep the bellybutton pulled in. Breathe." If that seems like a lot to think about, that's because it is. Moving your body in complex ways requires complex thought - if you're not checking in on all levels, you're not getting the most out of your movement, and are at risk for tweaking your knee while you're spacing out! As a trainer, it's my job to not only be that voice for my clients, but also help them develop that nuanced voice for themselves. You know, for all those times when I'm not yelling at them. :)

So what's a proper warmup? I'm sure you've heard by now that it's important to get the blood circulating before you do a ton of stretching or big movements. A few minutes on a rowing machine or jumping rope or some cardio equivalent is always a good start. After that, though, the kind of warmup you do should be determined by the content of your workout...in other words, your warmup should be as specific as possible to the work you're going to be asking your body to do. For instance, if you're going to be doing a lot of leg/core work (squats, deadlifts, lunges) I would do some kind of full body check-in, a dynamic warmup for the quads/hamstrings, and something like inchworms to integrate the upper and lower body. I'd also do some mid-back activation to get the spine warmed up and ready to support weight. What I WOULDN'T do is a lot of pushups and pullups or other upper body exercises. When in doubt about whether to do an exercise as a warmup, ask yourself, "How will this help me prepare for what I'm about to do?" If you can't answer that questions, skip it and find something else that will serve you better. Pay special attention to areas where you struggle - if your hips tend to be super tight and you know you're going to be doing Windmills in your workout, try a hip opener like this or this to get your range of motion opened up. 

If you're warmed up appropriately and you're being attentive during your workout, you should be able to move your body in the best and most pain-free ways available to you, and minimize your risks in the gym. :) 

5 Itty-Bitty Challenges to Get You Moving in the New Year

Inertia is a terrible thing. It is also a wonderful thing. A body in motion tends to remain in motion, but GETTING going can be really difficult! Here are some low-commitment, low-stress ways to break the cycle of sitting on your ass and wishing you were living more healthfully. :)

1. For a week, while at work, set an alarm to go off every hour. When it does, do 2-5 minutes of stress-relieving activity (roll your neck around, stand up and stretch, massage your hands, take some deep breaths). Spent on a regular basis, even this small amount of time will connect you more with your body and keep muscles and joints from locking up. You'll feel much more inclined to move after work if you've kept moving during the day!

2. Think about six things you want to do that are active...these can be first-time things or favorite things. Have you always wanted to canoe around Greenlake? Do you love hiking Mount Si? Write these ideas down, then figure out which of them you want to do this month, which one next month. Put them on a calendar and get excited about them. You'll find yourself behaving differently knowing that fun activities are waiting for you for the next half a year...

3. Each day for a week, take a look in your fridge/kitchen cabinets. Find something that you know isn't good for you and throw it away. Sometime that week (you don't have to do this once a day) buy something you know is better for you to replace it. One of my favorite rules of thumb for shopping in grocery stores (learned from my friend and nutritionist Aimee Gallo) is this: stick to the edges. In general, the perishable stuff is there (deli, dairy, breads, meat, produce) while the stuff with lots of preservatives (box cereals, canned vegetables, candy and chips) is up and down the aisles.

4. Get up five minutes earlier for a week. Spend those five minutes doing something nice for your body or mind. Meditate, do some Sun Salutations, roll on a foam roller, stand outside and take long slow breaths while you take in your environment. Five full minutes, at some point before you start your day. 

5. Put a piece of workout equipment in the middle of your living room. This could be a yoga mat, a couple dumbbells, a treadmill, a medicine ball. Seriously, put it smack in the middle of the space so that you almost trip over it (but don't do that). If you have to walk by it all the time, or look past it in order to watch TV, you will use it. You might even pull out some other stuff and use that too, or inspire someone else in your family to use it. If it starts to become part of the background clutter, switch it out for something else!

Try one or more of these and see if you feel the wheels being greased at all...and let me know what your experience is! :)