New class starting in November!!

You know what's better than being strong? Being strong, flexible AND having healthy joints so you don't get injured! Let's be honest: a lot of us don't even stretch on a regular basis, much less work on our mobility. We end up hobbling around from workout to workout, always in pain in some area, but convinced we can't spare the time to loosen things up. Unfortunately, this is totally a short term solution...eventually you will get injured (and you probably already have!) from a lack of mobility. Mobility and flexibility are different beasts - mobility movements always have strength and movement components, while flexibility exercises rarely involve strength. Practically, this means that mobility movements focus more on increased joint health than increased muscular length. People are most likely to hurt themselves where their muscles attach, which in my opinion makes mobility training more crucial than flexibility training for anyone looking to avoid injury.

SO...I'm starting a class in November at my new gym, Excellence, that will focus on increasing mobility while getting a kick-ass workout! It's gonna be Friday mornings from 6:30am-7:30am, and you can come for the month for only $40 or drop-in for $10. I'm so excited to be creating this new class...I would love you to check it out! You'll wanna be there if you're interested in:

*Circuiting mobility exercises with strength movements
*Getting stronger and more mobile/flexible
*Learning simple movements that you can add to your fitness arsenal
*Increasing your range of motion
*Living and moving more pain-free
*Building long strong muscles
*Releasing tension in the shoulders, neck, and spine
*Improving your posture
*Learning fun variations on common exercises (like pushups and planks)
*Sweating like a mofo

Questions? I got answers. :) Hope to see a lot of you there on November 8th!!

I heart squash

I don't know about you, but about this time every year I yearn for squash. The color, the flavor, the texture...everything about it reminds me of fall and my childhood. I remember my mom's dish in perfect detail - the acorn squash cut in half and the seeds scooped out, replaced with butter, cinnamon sugar and a pinch of salt. For years of my adult life, this was my go-to dish for Thanksgiving parties...I subbed out fresh minced ginger and cinnamon for the sugar. If you don't have time to bake it, you can stick it in the microwave, covered, for 6-8 minutes, and boom! You got squash. :) I'm excited to try out some of these recipes this autumn (especially the Southwest Stuffed Acorn Squash...I'm making that tomorrow!). Happy eating! :)

Where there's a will...

My husband pointed me towards an article in the latest Wired magazine...in searching for it online, I came across one published earlier this year that's more comprehensive and dealing with the same subject. Willpower. The findings of the latest studies are very interesting - let's look at the main point, and then figure out what it means for all of us.

Big Idea: Willpower is incredibly feeble. We have a hard time saying "no" all the time, and the more times we have to say "no," the easier it is to turn that "no" into a "yes." So if there were two hundred individual socks scattered around the floor and you had to bend down to pick up each one, somewhere around the 100th one (or earlier, depending on your own personality) you would probably say "Screw this, I'm going to go watch TV," leaving the rest of the socks to languish on the floor. Hmmmm...maybe this analogy only works well for parents...oh well, hopefully you get the idea. In practical terms, that means that your success at, say, eating a healthy and balanced diet has way more to do with your environment than you might think. How many times a day do you have to choose to eat an apple instead of a Snickers? Are nutritious food choices fewer and farther between in your workplace? Is there an office candy jar, and are donuts and bagels served at meetings? Every time you have to say "no," you're using up your precious store of willpower.

Willpower is limited and easily worn down...so what to do? Well, here are a few ideas:

1. Set your intentions as clearly as you can. What are your goals? To be healthier? To lose weight? Get specific about those goals...really think about what "healthy" or "weight loss" means to YOU. And this is important...once you've clarified your goals, try to bring them closer to the surface of your mind. The more conscious you make yourself of what you want to achieve, the more you'll recognize the obstacles (within and outside of you) to getting where you want to go. Once you've narrowed things down and focused in...

2. Shift your home environment. This is the area that's most under your control. Get rid of all the crap in your cupboards, just throw it out...that way the choices that you do have to make will be between one good-for-you option or another. If you have to say "no" to the ice cream every time you open the fridge, you'll end up saying "yes" more than you want to. When your home more truly reflects your intentions...

3. Shift your work environment. Pack healthy snacks to bring with you to work so that you're not trying to make a choice while you're starving (according to the article, we make poorer choices when we're tired or have low blood sugar). When it's your turn to bring the snacks for the meeting, bring nuts and fruit. Talk to your boss/coworkers about replacing the candy jar with mints or sugar-free gum - a quiet mention about rising healthcare costs would probably aid you in this one. ;)

4. Avoid temptation. The Wired article states that the most strongly-willed people that were studied "are able to intelligently steer clear of situations that trigger problematic desires. They don’t resist temptation - they avoid it entirely. While unsuccessful dieters try to not eat the ice cream in their freezer, thus quickly exhausting their limited willpower resources, those high in self-control refuse to even walk down the ice cream aisle in the supermarket." That's what all the shifting of your home and work situations is about - removing the crap so that you have plenty of willpower left over for other stuff, like exercise, reading, playing with your kids, or whatever you would do if you weren't desperately trying not to eat the chocolate in the cupboard.

Most of us will try to skip #1 and go right to the other suggestions...I'm guilty of this as well. I urge you, though, to take the time to figure out why you want to change, and who you want to change into. Pick up all the socks just this one time, give yourself a clean slate, and go boldly forward. Good luck!! :)

best laid plans of mice and personal trainers

Okay, so you're not gonna believe this...

Fate has dealt me a strange hand this year. It's been a very challenging time, demanding lots of growth and acceptance of change (which is awesome, and terrifying, and difficult). I left Zum and moved to Northwest Fitness and Conditioning, a place with a promising vision under a thin layer of sweat and drywall dust. And now here I am, a couple months later, announcing another move.

The fact that I'm reeeeeally excited about this move should tell you something, especially since I'd be hard-pressed to get excited about transition of ANY kind after the past few months! I'm going to be joining the awesome team of independent contractors at Excellence Health & Fitness! I've known the owner, John, for a while and I'm a huge fan of what he and his business partner Eli have build over the last several years. The space is beautiful, with high ceilings (and aerial silks! Aerial silks!!), a hardwood floor in the classroom space, a huge metal frame to hang on, and plenty of kettlebells and other toys to swing around. The trainers there are top-notch (and super nice). But what really sets the space apart from every other personal training studio (and gym) in Seattle is their vision of and dedication to holistic wellness.

We all know that being healthy and working towards the body you want takes more than just exercising. You have to take time to recover. You have to eat well. You have to destress and rebuild your muscles and your psyche. We all know this, but there are pieces of that puzzle that we all struggle with. I don't really have a problem eating well or exercising enough - I have a huge problem taking time for myself to relax and take care of my body. It's difficult to convince myself to focus on this one area, since I can always remind myself how well I do in the others! It'll be harder to ignore at Excellence, though, because this place is all about the whole package. Since the last time I checked them out (six months ago) they've installed a fantastic cafe with smoothies and healthy lunch options. They have a wellness center in-house that features chiropractic, massage and acupuncture. And they have a membership that includes all these things (though you can still choose your services a la carte). It's sort of like a one-stop-shop for wellness.

Yeah, I'm excited! I know I'll be personally inspired by this place and these people to make changes in my own life and the lives of my clients. So even though part of my brain is covering its ears and saying "No more transitions!!" the rest of my brain is skipping around and imagining how much fun it will be to work in this awesome environment every day. Thanks, Excellence, for bringing me on board! :)

Kettlebells 101

Here we are, folks...my very first kettlebell basics seminar. I've recently become a Level 1 Kettlebell instructor under Steve Maxwell and I'm so excited to share my enhanced knowledge with you!! Please consider coming out and learning more about how to use kettlebells in your workout...and even if you've been training with them for awhile, revisiting the fundamentals and getting your form analyzed will do you a lot of good! Tell your friends - my pipe dream is to have to schedule several seminars in September to meet demand. :) Here's the details...

And just for fun, here's a video of me doing some fancy Windmills...I won't be teaching this at the clinic, but it'll definitely be a part of the Kettlebell 201 course! ;)

Momma's got a new pair of shoes!

Well, okay, I don't actually have a new pair of shoes. But I DO have really exciting news...RenFitness is moving! My new space is in South Lake Union, right on the corner of Mercer and Fairview. It's called Northwest Fitness and Conditioning, and it is awwwwwwesome. I've been contemplating a move for awhile - I got my kettlebell certification (the experience of which is a future blog entry in itself) in New York and was excited to have a change of scene and meet/work with some new trainers. This place literally fell in my lap at the perfect time, and I couldn't be more excited. So what does this mean for all you lovelies?!

First of all, I will once again have a space with no membership or drop-in fees for my clients - you pay me and me alone. It also means you can only work out there with a trainer...no coming in and messing around on your own. But that also means you're free to belong to whatever gym you like (or just play on the playground like I do) and you can still train with me.

Secondly, I'm going to be offering kettlebell classes and clinics, and I'm really excited to get into more small group training. I've had a wonderful experience working with a rad group of women at Zum for the past few months, and it's fired me up to create more little microcosms of awesome. (I should tell you that after much deliberation they ended up giving their group the name "Ren's Bitches." I can't imagine why.)

And last but not least, the space (while unfinished - official opening day is September 1st) is tooootally awesome. Field turf, a huge sandbox filled with rubber pellets (springy!), speed and agility toys galore, kettlebells, built-in plyo boxes...it's kind of a personal trainer's pipe dream. So light a fire with me, guys...would love to see you over there! And tell your friends! :)

Chiropractic

Should you go see a chiropractor, and if so, when and for what kind of ailment? I recommend chiropractic (and specifically my chiropractors, a whip-smart pair that have taken care of me for years) fairly often to clients of mine when they ask about diagnosing and caring for an injury or certain aches and pains. I have a long and tangled relationship with chiropractic care, but have had enough people ask me about it that I thought I'd address the most common questions I get.

1. How can I tell a good chiropractor from a bad one? I've been to some bad ones...

This is what I hear most often from people - they've either had a bad/mediocre experience with a chiropractor or they haven't gone to one because they've heard negative feedback from their friends. In my experience, there are three important qualifications for a good chiropractor (or any kind of bodyworker/trainer) - time invested, types of treatments used and the holistic nature of their practice. Firstly, do they spend a good amount of time with you? Ask you questions about how you're feeling on that day, and get a detailed history? A good chiropractic appointment doesn't take 5-10 minutes...you should be with them for at least 20-30 minutes. That's the minimum amount of time it takes to get real assessments and treatments done. Also, the best chiropractors use a variety of techniques to treat the body - they don't just crack your spine and send you on your way. In my session today with one of the fab Mobility Plus chiropractors, Dr. Li did a movement screen with me, used a technique called distraction to loosen up my hips, had me resist certain movements, massaged my hand, and gave me rehab exercises for my foot. He adjusted my neck as well, but that was 5 seconds out of the whole appointment. I left feeling like he had addressed all my concerns specifically, and that he had used a myriad of ways to coax my body into loosening up. My third qualification is that they have a holistic practice, meaning that they recognize that you're not just a body sitting in the office. What has your sleep been like? What kind of stress are you under? Have you been sitting/standing more than usual? These are the kinds of questions all good bodyworkers ask, and your chiropractor should be no different!

2. I'm afraid of getting my spine cracked - isn't that bad for you?

To this I reply, look, anything can be bad for you. Too many calories, too much weight on your deadlift, an insistence on a particular kind of filtered water that leaves you dehydrated when you can't find any. The best thing to do is to find and work with a chiropractor you can grow to trust, and one that you know is invested in your well-being. If you're nervous about what a lot of people term "traditional" chiropractic, you're not alone...the best chiropractors out there will address your concerns head-on, and not do anything with you that you're not 100% comfortable with. I've already pointed out that the doctors I'm talking about have many ways of looking at and techniques for treating concerns, and can work within whatever limitations (physical, mental or emotional) a person has.

3. Okay, but why not just go to a massage therapist?

I get it, guys, I do...getting an hour-long deep tissue massage sounds a lot more fun that a chiropractic appointment. And I know some amaaaaazing massage therapists that are total miracle workers. I think the two therapies are pretty different - however, they work really well in conjunction with each other. Let's take, for example, someone who's having low back pain. A massage by itself can help alleviate the symptoms and help you feel better for a while, but not necessarily correct the problem (unless you have an amazing massage therapist, which is definitely a possibility). It could be that you have some structural issues, like a hip out of alignment or a couple vertebrae "stuck" together, that are causing the muscular tightness and pain you're experiencing. Those problems could be tended to by chiropractic, but if the muscles are sufficiently tense, they could pull things out of alignment again. You see what I mean? If you were to have a massage therapist and a chiropractor work on you within a few hours/day of each other, you could get yourself back to 100% a lot sooner.

4. I'm not in THAT much pain...if it gets worse, I'll go see somebody.

This, folks, is a big enough question that I'm going to leave it for my next post. I have a lot to say about this one... :)

Bottom line about chiropractic, in my humble opinion: There are crappy chiropractors, just as there are crappy personal trainers, chefs, doctors, and teachers. If you're interested in trying a chiropractor, the best way to increase your chances of finding a good one is to ask people you trust for recommendations. Chriopractic has helped me recover from a major auto accident, guided me through two pregnancies, hastened my rehab from ankle surgery and helped me heal my overuse injury in my left wrist - and these are only a few examples. Think about it! :)