This past weekend, I watched a few episodes of a docuseries on Netflix titled, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.” In this four-part series, author Dan Buettner travels around the world to five unique communities where large clusters of people live extraordinarily long and vibrant lives. It’s truly inspiring to watch not only how long these people live, but their quality of life. In each location, he distills what these people do that creates this outcome. I don’t think I’m ruining the ending for you by sharing that none of these tactics are quick fixes. If anything, it’s the long-term approach that makes them so effective. Can walking every day, gardening daily for 1-2 hours, and eating unprocessed foods empower us to live to 100? Some people may even question the legitimacy of these claims because they sound relatively simple. Watching the program, I couldn’t help but make the comparison to when people adopt a new workout for either fat loss or strength and stop after a few months because they haven’t achieved their goal. In this world of instantaneous results, we must accept that changing your body takes time.

     The mirror can inspire us towards change because we don’t like what we see. It can also discourage us for the same reason. Visiting that same mirror every day with the hopes of seeing one day a completely transformed image is what some of us want. This is where I believe pictures can help us stay motivated. Take a photo of yourself, and then take a photo again in six months. If you are consistent (training 3-5 days a week) in a quality designed strength training program, you should be able to see a substantial difference if you place the pictures beside one another. I like the paper towel analogy. If you take a sheet off every day, you will not be able to notice the difference day to day. Then look at the same roll 3 months (minus 90 sheets) next to a full roll and you can clearly see a difference.

     The same can be said about fixing a strength or mobility problem. Shoulder pain is a common ailment and much of the source of the problem comes from people going through life with poor posture. It’s going to take more than a few hours a week to fix the problem that was thirty years in the making. Internationally recognized physical therapist Sara Sahrmann states in her book Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes:

“…a posture should not be sustained for longer than 1 hour, based on studies of the effects of sustained forces. McGill and associates have shown that 20 minutes in a position of sustained flexion can induce creep in the soft tissues, requiring longer than 40 minutes for full recovery.”

Simply put, for time spent in a poor posture, you need to spend twice the amount of time in the corrected proper position. So those four hours you spent on the couch last weekend did you no favors.

     James Clear has written about this in his book Atomic Habits. He recommends starting small, being consistent, and then giving it time. It’s the time part that is the source of the struggle for so many of us. Roughly 98 percent of wines on the market are intended for immediate consumption or for limited aging of no more than 5 years. Just 2 percent will benefit from long-term cellaring. But those 2 percent are some of the best wines in the world and can deepen into something marvelous. Many of the best wines are made with the intention that the buyer will have to hold them for more than ten years. Waiting ten years to be happy with what you see in the mirror is too long, but next time you become frustrated with your gains over the last 6 months, remember to treat your body like a fine wine and give it some time.

I’ll see you at the studio.

     One of the things I try to decipher for people I work with is the difference between being challenged and feeling pain. The two sensations are sometimes confused and it’s more challenging than you may believe. I’ll use performing a plank in a workout to explain what I mean. The plank is a great exercise for strengthening the core musculature. We typically introduce this exercise to someone early in the training process at the studio. It’s a safe and effective exercise for strengthening the core, and a good way to improve someone’s proprioception or body awareness. We use what is referenced as a “Hardstyle” or RKC plank at the studio.

The goal is to squeeze or contract as many muscles as possible as you are in a prone position on your forearms and toes. When coaching the drill, I start with telling someone to squeeze their glutes first, this will insure they don’t arch their lower back and maintain a proper pelvic position. The next thing I’ll do is gently position my hand in the small of their lower back and tell them to brace or push against my hand. That increases the intra-abdominal pressure. I will instruct them to “pull-up” their kneecaps by squeezing their thighs. You can heightens someone’s focus to their thighs by lightly tapping their thighs. Finally, I’ll position my fist behind their upper arm and instruct them to press down again my fist. That engages their latissimus dorsi or lats. At that point it’s usually around 30 seconds and the interval clock beeps, signally for them to take a break. It’s tough, and it’s meant to be.

     The goal is not to simply hold the position, but rather to create as much tension as possible in that position. If you just hold the position without attempting to squeeze those muscles, you more than likely will feel discomfort in your back, knees, shoulders, and possibly your neck. Your muscles provide the required support to hold that position. If you don’t "squeeze" and tighten those muscles, you’re just sitting on your joints. Planks never become easy, because engagement of all those muscles will always fatigue you. The upside is that over time, you learn how to efficiently turn those muscles on. Sometimes frustration kicks in because people either can’t squeeze their glutes initially or can’t do it for prolonged periods of time.

     In those situations, I believe the key is practice. If you perform 3-4 sets of planks three to four days a week, you will get better at them. I recommend you start with 10 seconds at a time. Add five seconds every week until you hit thirty seconds. At the studio, we may have someone attempt a thirty second hold, taking a brief rest every 10 seconds. You must embrace the challenge to eventually improve. You will not improve by quitting.

     I recently had someone tell me “I don’t want to do planks; they are too hard!” I had to give her a little resistance because this same person had a past of lower back issues, and I knew that planks were one of the best things she could do to strengthen the area. As the adage goes, either use it or lose it. A strong core is needed for routine tasks, such as picking up a case of water.

     Forty-four-year-old comedian Kevin Hart was recently injured when he attempted to race ex-NFL star Stevan Ridley. He experienced tears in his lower abdomen as well as muscles in his hip and thigh forcing him to get around in a wheelchair. He later admitted that he had not attempted to run an all-out sprint in years and called himself “the dumbest man alive” for trying. This is from a person who exercises four-five days a week and has his personal trainer travel with him. A great example of how you can lose the ability to do something if you don’t do it from time to time.

     Do your planks, and I’ll see you at the studio.

     I recently joked in a post on social media that many people, once they get north of 45 years of age, start to wish they worked more on their mobility when they were younger. Visions of six pack abdominals and developed glutes drop in rank to aspirations of squatting deep and the ability to get off the floor without using your hands. When I perform consultations at the studio, “improve mobility” is rarely the top goal, but is included as something they wish to work on. I don’t use that initial meeting as an opportunity to lecture people on the value of movement, but rather as a time to listen to what they want. It’s after a few workouts at the studio that I can start to show how focusing not purely on one’s movement, but the quality of that movement, is the foundation of everything.

     Wikipedia defines pathology as the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. Poor movement can lead to pathology. To prove a simple example for context, if you continually move and live with your head in a forward position, shoulders pulled forward and the upper back area rounded, your body will adopt that position as it’s default position. In short, poor posture will become your new normal. This has been a daily struggle for me, as I remind my teenage son to fix his posture. 

The nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems will change their alignment and function over time based upon repeated faulty movement patterns. A person with a forward head position will have problems lifting their arm overhead over time. In 2013, the physical therapy world adopted movement as a system. 

     Reading this and looking at the above diagram may have prompted you to sit upright. It’s not uncommon for me to get buy-in from people when I explain how movement can change your body. The part that frustrates people is when I explain that the error happened over time, and it’s going to take time to fix the issue. It can be problematic when I attempt to explain to someone who has developed chronic back problems, that it’s going to require more than 3 sets of planks to fix their back. Minus the time we sleep (assumed eight hours a night), we have 112 hours a week. It requires more than those 3 hours you spend at the gym to ingrain a true correction in movement. You need to be aware of your posture and alignment when you’re sitting, standing, and walking. The good news is that fixing movement doesn’t have to feel like a HIIT (high, intensity, interval, training) workout or require equipment. Fixing movement demands you to be attentive to how you move throughout the day. I’ve made this mistake myself. I’ve performed farmer carries (walking while holding weights in both hands at my sides) in a workout with perfect posture, to finish and leave the studio walking in the parking lot with bad posture. To use a cliché, to click save on the word document, I need to be aware of my walking pattern all the time, not only during my workout. In the business of Big box gyms, it became an accepted protocol to have a lot of treadmills in your facility. Everyone knows how to walk, and walking is not intimidating to someone new to a gym. As stated by world renowned physical therapist, Dr. Shirley Sahrmann, “Many people don’t know how to walk well.” 

     It’s during physical therapy that some people feel they are wasting their time. The person rehabbing a knee surgery doesn’t understand how performing circles with their ankles is going to help them, or the person who just had shoulder surgery can’t comprehend why standing and adjusting the alignment of their ribcage is doing anything. Fixing movement isn’t supposed to burn or hurt. Exercises are not done typically to fatigue. It should be subtle. It needs to be re-enforced over and over, all day, and takes time to repair, but it can be repaired. Movement is a system of systems. It’s more than training a muscle in isolation. It includes lifestyle. Everything is interconnected.  

     In our new world of binge-watching television and staring at our smart phones for hours at a time, remember to move often and focus on the quality of how you move. Your body will be glad you did. If you are interested in getting a Functional Movement Screen (FMS), email me Doug@janddfitness.com to schedule your assessment. 

     After opening the studio in 2015, I wanted to create a fun competition for my members that would put their earned fitness improvements on full display. I’m proud to admit that the workouts we provide at our studio do improve mobility, strength, and help promote fat loss. Some people may improve at a faster rate than others, but overall, if you are consistently (I stress consistently) completing your workouts, you should see improvements. The issue is that it’s hard sometimes to see improvements in the mirror. If you wish to get leaner, it’s like looking at a roll of paper towels and tearing off a layer every day. You may not notice a difference in the circumference of the roll, until after 3 months, you put the roll beside a new roll. How about strength gains? We all tend to forget our starting point. That’s why I created the Torch Challenge in 2015.

     The Torch Challenge was an annual event where members of the studio competed against one another in 4-5 distinct categories. The events changed throughout the years, but to name a few we had in past years:

       »  The maximum number of inverted rows you could complete in 30 seconds using the TRX

           suspension system.

       »  Maximum amount of overhead presses you could compete in 30 seconds with an Ultimate

           sandbag.

       »  Total distance of pushing a weighted sled.

       »  Maximum wattage output on the Assault bike.

The event was rewarding for me and the team, but I decided to discontinue it last year.

     My reason for stopping the Torch Challenge was that it started to diminish one of my tenets at the studio. At the studio, we don’t promote a competitive atmosphere. I don’t want a beginner joining our studio, with the additional stress and anxiety that they need to keep up with the other members. When you join the studio, you are in a competition of one! You win by showing up and getting better. The only person you need to compete with is your old self. When I started to observe the negative effects the Challenge started to have on my members, I decided it was time to shelf the Challenge.

     I recently purchased Dr. Peter Attia’s book, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity. I strongly recommend this book. In the book, Dr. Attia defines the difference between medicine 2.0 (what we currently have) and medicine 3.0, which he hopes to usher in. Medicine 3.0 is all about taking preventive steps to improve your health. Don’t wait until you see the bad biomarkers to address a

problem, take a proactive stance, and get ahead of it. Exercise plays a huge role in that process, and he has coined this goal of working towards the “Centenarian Decathlon.” Dr. Attia states, “The Centenarian Olympics is a framework I use to organize my patients physical aspirations for the later decades of their lives, especially their Marginal Decade (the last decade of your life).” Some of the events he lists are:

        1.       Hike 1.5 miles on a hilly trail

        2.       Get up off the floor under your own power, using a maximum of one arm for support.

        3.       Lift a twenty-pound suitcase into the overhead compartment of a plane.

     In order to make progress, you have to keep score. To know you’re getting better, whether strength, body composition, or mobility, you need to continually assess. Inspired by Dr. Attia, I recently decided to bring back the Torch Challenge, but this time it will be different. There will not be a prize for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. There will not be an afternoon when we schedule the event. What I plan to do is create a list of events that members will be able to do, to see their improvements. People will be able to schedule a time to complete the events, and the only observer will be their coach tracking their reps and numbers.

     We offer a unique experience at J & D Fitness Personal Training and the Torch Challenge 2.0 will be a fantastic way to highlight that for our members.

     I’ll see you at the studio.