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! :)

Top 5 Holiday Tips

Ah, "the holidays." Fraught with peril. I put "the holidays" in quotation marks because technically it's a couple of days that our media culture and inertia tries to turn into an entire season of eating crappy, running around  trying to buy gifts, and lying around the rest of the time watching football and It's a Wonderful Life. Stress, bad food, and lethargy..,whoopee!! No wonder we invented the idea of New Year's resolutions...

I say, let's resist! I say even though it's pretty nasty weather outside and there's all this pressure from everywhere to not take care of ourselves, light a candle for our country (or just your friends. Or just yourself!) and treat yourself well in the end of December. Here's a few ways to do just that - not all of them are fitness-centered, but they're all health-centered:

1. Whatever gifts you buy/make, do it with intention. You make the best choices when you're calm and centered, not when you're running around Target like an insane person shoving iTunes cards in your cart. Everyone I know has told me repeatedly that their favorite gifts to receive are the thoughtful ones, not the expensive or trendy ones. You'll end up feeling much better about the gifts you give, and be less stressed about finding them.

2. Spend at least 30 minutes a day moving your body and breathing. I'm not saying you have to get to the gym and work out for an hour and a half...trying to make time for your normal workout routine might make your life feel more stressful in this busy time of the year. But a little physical activity can keep the stress from turning into a neck spasm and low back tightness from turning into a herniated disc. Just do something, mindfully. If, on the other hand, the gym feels like an oasis in this world of crazy, then by all means get the heck in there as often as possible!!

3. Pretend it's already New Year's. I don't mean that you should bust out the champagne or (ill-advisedly) make out with your co-workers. I mean you should consider telling yourself that your New Year's resolutions are starting today, this minute. What do you want to do differently? How can you shift things in your life/thoughts to be more the person you want to be? Don't spend the next two weeks getting all the bad stuff in and over with so you can start fresh. Just...don't do all those things in the first place. I guarantee you'll feel better about yourself come January 1.

4. Get enough sleep. This season is infamous for the colds/fevers that get passed around (I've had half my clients cancel in the last week due to illness, and I'm home with my sick kiddo today). Between holiday parties and other shenanigans, our schedule gets crapped and we try to make up for it by going to bed later and/or getting up earlier. You can't really control your exposure to sick people or the weather, but you can control your rest.  Get. Enough. Sleep. Or. You. Will. Get. Sick. 

5. Enjoy food/drink in moderation - if you can't, abstain! Some people can't have anything alcoholic or sweet, even a taste - it sets off irresistible cravings and they have a hard time stopping themselves from overdoing it. For some of us, though, a little bit won't turn into a gallon...in that case, there's no reason to deny ourselves the fun and good feelings that comes from eggnog and homemade cookies. Just don't go crazy with it. 

Lastly, a reminder that all the deals listed at the top of this page are in effect through January. I'm meeting with several people this month to help them get started on a healthier path. BEFORE the New Year...lemme know if you want to be one of them! ;) 

NYC!!!

Last April I traveled to New York to train with Steve Maxwell, my favorite coach, and go for my Level 1 Kettlebell instructorship. It was really hard work and I felt physically unprepared (turns out a recent car accident had messed me up more than I knew) but I had an amaaaaazing time in NYC and felt like a badass after doing the certification.

This year I'm going back for more...certifications in Clubbells and Level 2 Kettlebells. It's starting to sink in that I have a LOT of work to do and only four months to do it. Trainer, train thyself!!! So here I go! As a part of this process, I want to post some workouts and videos on my blog (like this one, but with less sun) so you can follow along with  my efforts and maybe learn some stuff in the process. I'm also going to be posting pretty frequently about my work with my client Melina, who writes an awesome blog and who's going to be documenting her physical/mental transformation over the coming months. So the bottom line is check back in with this blog often, because there's going to be a lot of cool shit going on!

Also, the special prices on training (the "Buy Now!" thing at the top of the page) are going to be in effect until the end of January...please consider taking advantage of the deals!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go throw some kettlebells around...

Black Friday? Naw...Small Business Everyday!!

Shopping at big box stores is soooooo pre-recession. Supporting small local businesses is sooooo 2012. From now until Xmas, I'm offering a few screamin' deals for you and those you love. Because I care.

Like, seriously, I really do. :)  

You'll find a spunky Paypal button at the top of my blog - please use it! Here's some descriptions of what I'm offering - please email me with any questions! You can purchase as many as you want, for yourself or for others...

The Starter Kit! $80 gets you (or your secret Santa person) an in-depth wellness consult, movement assessment and take-away program. It's 90 minute of uber-personalized amazingness - a $150 value.

The Mobility Month! $30 gets you (or your partner) four mobility classes at Excellence Health & Fitness. The classes are a hour long and will increase pain-free range of motion and burn tons of calories! 6:30am on Fridays - a $60 value .

The Workplace Visit! $70 gets you (or your employer) a health/wellness program consultation for a business. Want to incorporate movement and health into the office but not sure how to go about it? Get someone in there who has fresh perspective and tons of experience - a $200 value.

The Monthly Management! $150 get you (or your mom) 3 one-on-one personal training sessions, once a month. Set goals, check in, get new exercises and strong motivation, and stay accountable in the interim - a $240 value.

Consider supporting your friendly hometown personal trainer this holiday season...I've worked hard to become great at what I do, and I would love to help you (or your best friend) get even healthier and more fabulous! :)

does this dress make me look dehydrated?

I felt like a bonehead. I'm a personal trainer, I'm an athlete, I'm reasonably self-aware...and yet on Sunday afternoon I found myself feeling depressed, irritable, clammy, headach-y and tired. And I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. Eventually, I tied how I was feeling to the fact that I had had several glasses of champagne at a brunch that morning (that's another story) and two cups of coffee during the day, but no water. NO WATER. #facepalm

Dehydration: it happens to the best of us. I was chronically dehydrated until I became a personal trainer at 23. I had grown up drinking fruit juices, tea and soda, and never drank plain ol' ordinary water. I also ran around like a crazy person and lived in Florida for most of that time. Studying for my first personal training certification, I recognized myself in the list of symptoms for dehydration:

*Dry, sticky mouth
*Sleepiness or tiredness — children are likely to be less active than usual
*Thirst
*Decreased urine output — no wet diapers for three hours for infants and eight hours or more without urination for older children and teens
*Few or no tears when crying
*Dry skin
*Headache
*Constipation
*Dizziness or lightheadedness
--taken from the MayoClinic site

Hey, I thought, I feel most of those things, most of the time. I wonder...I started to drink more water, and I started feeling better than I even had in my life. It was hard for me to believe that such a simple fix existed for all of those physical ailments. Of course, the question then became, how much water? In recent years there's been more media emphasis on hydration and more of a business in water consumption (plastic water bottles sold at Costco, fancypants aluminum and BPE-free bottles), and you seldom see someone at a gym or yoga class without a personal water source. How much should you drink? The common answer is 8 cups a day, and that's more or less correct. The more specificity the better (in my book), though...The Institute of Medicine suggests that for men, 3 liters (about 13 cups) a day is about right...the daily intake for women should be 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) a day. I like a super-awesome level of specificity, though, and that means linking water intake to body weight, so my favorite table is here:

 Body weight Daily fluid requirements (approximate)
10 pounds 15 ounces
20 pounds 30 ounces
30 pounds 40 ounces
40 pounds 45 ounces
50 pounds 50 ounces
75 pounds 55 ounces
100 pounds 50 ounces
150 pounds 65 ounces
200 pounds 70 ounces
--taken from Medicine.net

Keep in mind, too, that if you're sweating, you're also losing sodium, so you need to replace electrolytes as well. And you get water in food and in other drinks as well as just water - yet another reason to eat lots of fruits and vegetables! So how can you test if you're getting enough through all of your fabulous methods? The best indicator isn't thirst or even how you're feeling (though you shouldn't be thirsty and you should feel good) - it's your pee. Colorless or light-colored urine gets the thumbs up, darker yellow means you need to start drinking.

And not drinking champagne, like me. That, as I said, is another story. :)

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!!