Category: General Information
I Am A Healer – There, I Said It.
Years ago I had a client who had torn his rotator cuff during a simple movement. The funny thing was, he didn’t even know it until he got an MRI on the area. He had come to me with some shoulder pain and I did what I do and strengthened the area, thinking he had simple tendonitis and it resolved in a few months and he went back to regular lifting.
The “holy crap” moment came when he got the results of his MRI, and his orthopedic surgeon said that he actually had a full tear in part of his rotator cuff. What the surgeon also said was that his shoulder was so perfectly strengthened to within millimeters of the tear that his shoulder could function without a problem even though he had an injury that should have required surgery.
Over the years I’ve had many examples of this type of thing within my practice. Hip replacement? Golfing within four months. Achilles tendonitis? Took four weeks. Massive spinal trauma due to getting hit by a truck twenty years prior? Resolved issues and can perform at work and home without issue. Four herniated discs? Skating and lifting things again within six months. Powerlifter with a chronic hip issue that wouldn’t allow her past parallel? Competed in provincials several months later. I had a woman come in with a diagnosed tennis elbow she had for over a year and resolved that in 40 minutes by popping it back into place. She’s still good months later. Bodybuilders who have shoulder issues? Retrained and fine after a couple of weeks.
I actually got an email a few months ago from a client with two knees that were essentially destroyed due to lack of cartilage I worked with three years ago – who said she is still walking 20 miles a week and her knees are totally fine.
Here’s the funny thing – sometimes I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. I know a lot about the body and how it responds to force and how to strengthen things really effectively. This is simply a confidence issue stemming from years of bullying and neglect at home where I had to fight to prove that I was good at anything and even then got ignored so gave up a lot.
Recently though I’ve had a bit of a mind shift. I’ve taken a look at the success I have had over the years with clients of many shapes, sizes and ability levels and realized that while sometimes I keep putting myself down, I have actually affected and helped a ton of people in a very positive way when it comes to “fixing” injuries and getting people moving without a problem again. I’ve also encountered some incredibly rare conditions that I have had the luck to be able to work on and gain experience with. My brain just seems to work in line with movement and force so that I can make logical sense of things and actually get to the root of the issue.
So what’s the point of this? I guess it is a simple statement that I’ve realized that I can embrace this skill. It is something that I was meant to do. Something I’m really good at and can help people with.
Last year in a course they asked us to generate something called a “sankalpa” which is a yoga word for a simple statement that you use to focus yourself and discover your inner being. The first thing that popped into my head after thinking about it was “I am a healer”. My other inner voice pushes that away and tells me I’m not good enough, but recently I’ve been able to shift into another way of thinking finally.
So there is is: I am a healer.
The exciting thing about it is that there are still many avenues I can explore, directions I can take and methodologies I can learn in order to increase the level of skill I already have. I’ve gone down a couple of those paths, but now it is time to make it a direct focus and really get into the practice (not that I wasn’t already). It feels good to have that type of mind shift, even though it has taken a long time.
We are all on the Earth for a reason, and as much as I tried to push it away and ignore it, this is simply my calling. I’ve known it for many years but now I’m just declaring that it is time to stop that and embrace it instead. Expect to see some changes to the practice in the near future.
Got a problem? Injury? Strange condition that you want to improve? Come at me bro. Want to feel better, move better? Tried everything and nothing seems to work? Try this. And the great thing is that it can be applied to many communities from heavy lifters who tweak something to the elderly who have been living with problems for years.
With the support of my amazing family and community and clients I know that I can make some changes that will only enhance my ability to help people and make them well physically again. And with any luck help more people that recently thought that there was no help for them. Wish me luck and of course, if you know of anyone that might need help please just let me know.
A Concept of The Ageless Person
When I was getting into fitness and health I read a lot of books. One of the most interesting ones I ever read (and have ever read to this day) was one called Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra. Now, whether or not you believe in metaphysics or not, one of the principles of his anti-aging formula was the fact that your mind ultimately controls your body. I tend to believe in this, so about twelve years ago I decided that age was just a number and that I was going to do my best to simply stop aging.
There is a confirmed difference between chronological age (the age on your birthday cards) and your biological age. Your body tissues can either age faster or slower based on what they receive in terms of nutrients and stress. Obviously things like smoking, eating unhealthy foods or having a high level of stress is going to age you faster. That’s why your friend in the cubicle behind you who might be a year or two younger can look like they are about to keel over and have to retire while you remain relatively the same.
I’m now going to reveal something that some of my readers may not know. I just turned 40 years old. Not a massive milestone in terms of age, but I also know a lot of forty year olds with hair loss, wrinkles around their eyes and who can barely climb up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath.
So I’m going to show some interesting pictures that I have – note these were taken over 10 years apart:
Taken over ten years ago at a birthday party
Taken last week.
I’m not doing this to brag, and if you looked closely at those pictures you would see the streaks of grey in my hair (although I still have all my hair unlike many of my 40 year old compatriots). But the point I’m trying to make is that I think we are all capable of arresting time and our physical well being if we are smart about it.
By the way, in terms of fitness level, I’m about the same as I was in 2005 – maybe even a bit better in some respects only because I have gotten away from heavy lifting and severe long distance training. I can still pick up 200 pounds without throwing out my back and squat and do pullups and bench press the same I could ten years ago. I can jump on the highest plyo box I can find several times. I can run a 22 minute 5k even though I had a heart problem that seems to have resolved itself over the past year. My clothes are the same size and so is my scale weight. As long as I keep an eye on it, my body fat is relatively the same as well. I am injury free. Some people would say it means that I haven’t improved, but our bodies after 30 are always in a constant state of decline, so 10 years later to be able to do the same or more than I could is actually quite ahead of the game.
My grandmother turned 101 about a month ago. Before you jump on the genetics bandwagon, however, my grandfather from the same side died of a heart attack when he was in his 50’s and both of my other grandparents passed away in their 70’s. I often wonder how my Grammie managed to live so long, and I can only pinpoint one specific thing – she lived a relatively stress free lifestyle. I try my best to do that as well.
So can we reverse the aging process or arrest it? More evidence is coming into light that the answer is yes – as recently as November 2014 scientists reversed the aging process in mice and it has shown potential for human trials as well by gene manipulation. However, gaining technology towards reversing your age isn’t going to happen any time soon. We can all take responsibility for our lifestyles and how they impact the again process.
My take on it is that we should all strive to lead a lifestyle that allows us to live with as minimal stress as possible, and this means even things that are considered positive activities like over exercising, dieting to extremes and working until our bodies start to break down. There is a fine balance to all things in life. Also remember, adding things into your daily routine like extra sleep, meditation and just doing things that you enjoy or get good feelings from (an example for me would be music) can also help with staying young.
Feel free to throw in your two cents on the topic, and who knows – maybe I’ll post another picture in ten years and see how things are coming along!
How To Get Results – A Tribute to Russell P
It’s never nice when a client has to stop working with you for whatever reason it may be. Recently I found out that one of my long term clients, Russell P had to move to another city. I thought as a result I’d take the opportunity to write a quick tribute to him, because the way that he approached his training made my job really easy, but can also serve as an example to anyone out there who wants results on how to get them with some help from a trainer if you feel you need it.
Listen to and Trust your Trainer
When Russell and I met, he had been training for a marathon and managed to get Achilles Tendonitis. At the time I was working for a chain gym and he asked for someone with a running background and who knew about injuries. As luck would have it, I do well with both. At our first meeting Russell outlined his training program and one of the first things that I did was cut his mileage in half immediately. Now, Russell had eight weeks before running his first marathon so he thought I was crazy.
But, he listened. We strengthen and mobilized his ankle and got him back into a regular running rhythm and eight weeks later he completed his first marathon. It wasn’t fast, but it was done. Russell was simply trying to do too much too soon and his body was fighting back – quite common with runners.
Two years later running the same race (where he beat his old marathon best by over 30 minutes) we had a goal established that he probably could have tried to push more, but he chose to listen and just hit the numbers we had talked about, which is what brought him success.
Russell could have easily done something else or told me that he was doing what I asked and done something else, but that’s not like him. He has always trusted in the process. We do get input from each other, but the whole point of having a coach is to have them tell you what to do to succeed.
Just Show Up
I can probably count on one hand the amount of times Russell and I missed a session with a last minute cancellation. Even if he was hung over, tired or just generally stressed he still always showed up. Sometimes we wouldn’t get the best out of him that day, but what we did was always better than doing nothing. Once he committed to a race, it was there and 100% done. Before he decided to leave we had his goals planned out into 2016.
He was also excellent at following his programs without overdoing it or doing anything silly. If we had an off day planned, he took it – or if he had to make up for a run he missed he put it there. He never did too much again after that first injury.
Over time we even learned that we had to factor in two weeks after any major race in order to let his body rest and gave him time to recover and do nothing for a while. This should never be a problem for any coach because all you’re doing is giving the body what it needs after a big performance, which is recovery.
My point is that 98% of any success is just showing up. Many time it would have been easy for Russell to text me and say he couldn’t make it, but his training and progress were a priority that he made time for and as a coach this is something that makes it a lot easier to get results.
Plan Ahead
Any good coach will be able to plan out a schedule for a client, but Russell was especially good at thinking ahead and long term. Not only would he plan for what he was going to do workout wise when he was away, he made it a priority or scheduled workouts with friends while he was travelling. His family lives in England and even when he was over there for a week he still got his workouts is because he planned what days he was going to do them ahead of time.
We also planned his race schedule year to hear with one big goal (last year it was riding a bicycle from London to Paris, this year it was a ½ Ironman triathlon) and didn’t change it. He already has his priorities scheduled into 2015 and is committed to the process. There are little goals along the way, but the main focus can’t be month to month – it was to be one event and I always prefer if it is an annual goal, not a bunch of them (maybe twice a year at most).
Doing this ensures that your focus is always on the main event you have prioritized. It doesn’t mean that you can’t do a 10k race on your way to a marathon goal of course. And that brings me to my final point:
Roll With The Punches and Be Realistic
Sometimes life gets in the way. Russell and I at the beginning of the season had a ½ Ironman triathlon scheduled for the end of his race season (his first). However, the way that the summer fleshed out and with many work and life changes we both mutually agreed that it wasn’t a good idea to push for the distance when the training he was able to do would have resulted in a less than 100% result. He still completed his first Olympic distance triathlon with flying colours and hit all of his goals along the way.
Sometimes you need to assess if your life can really manage to get you the training that you need. I run into this quite often with fitness competitors who have jobs, families and lots of stress and have a hard time sticking to things. Health and well-being in my opinion should always be the top priority, and things like races and shows aren’t going anywhere any time soon. If you have to put a goal off temporarily due to something getting in the way – do it.
Want to do a ½ marathon but couldn’t get in your long runs? Try setting a PB at the 10k distance instead. You can still get a fantastic result and maintain your training and health, while also lowering your stress at the same time and taking pressure off so that the training that you can manage to get in isn’t wasted.
I hope that this brings some perspective into your own training. I’ll miss working with Russell on a regular basis a ton (we’re going to work together coaching virtually in the new year), not only because we have had a great relationship face to face but also because of all of the reasons labelled above that makes doing my job well so much easier. If you have a trainer take a look at the list and maybe there might be one thing that you could honestly say you can step up and improve a bit. I’m sure your coach will thank you for it and be able to get your results to you that much faster.
Also, if you’re reading this and are interested in coaching, my virtual services are available for the month of December at a 20% discount – five months for the price of four. Contact me for more details. Have a fit and healthy holiday season!
Overweight Teens Helped by Weights and Cardio – And Man Lands on the Moon.
A recent study in the Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics found conclusively that for teenagers between the ages of 14-18, a combination of weight training plus cardiovascular work is the best way to “fight teen obesity”. This is the headlines that went up all over the country and internet saying that the amazing findings of this study were that if teenagers did strength training and cardio work combined instead of just one or the other, they would lose more weight.
This is news?
I hate to say it but that was my first reaction. However, when I took a closer look at this study I found that there were in my opinion some flaws in the methods used to determine this conclusion.
Basically this study, which you can read HERE took 304 overweight teens and put them into four groups, one of each doing only strength training OR cardio, one doing nothing, and one doing a combination. They did this program for 22 weeks (almost six months!). They were also given diet counselling. At the end, the group that did the combination of both was found to have lost less body fat overall (compared to the strength training group), but their waist size decreased the most – by a whole centimeter. That’s not even one whole pant size.
Therefore this shows that a combination of aerobic exercise and strength training is better than strength training alone or cardio alone. Again, this isn’t news to anyone (I sincerely hope). This has been proven time and again to be the best approach for those of you out there who are looking to drop inches and pounds.
But when we look a little closer, the criteria for what they consider “overweight” has some flaws. They cited overweight as at or above 95th percentile of BMI or 85th if there was one or more risk factors or health condition already existing (like diabetes). So this means that a teenager with a BMI of above 28.5 (the cutoff for 95th highest BMI percentile according to statisticians) is overweight or obese.
Do you know what that means? An 18 year old who is 5’10” and 180 pounds qualifies for this study as an “overweight teen”. A BMI of 24 actually falls into the 85th percentile of qualification. So if my daughter is 5’3” and weighs 135 pounds according to this study she is overweight. Oh, and another note – when she turns 18, even if she is the same height and weight suddenly she has dropped to the 74th percentile. Does that make sense?
Pretty much any athletic teen is going to weigh at last that much and sometimes more. Using BMI as a method of overweight is a highly flawed criteria in my opinion. There’s a lot of other flaws. They obviously weren’t all following the same diet. Who knows how many workouts they actually completed on their own. It didn’t indicate if any of them were athletes previously, inactive or high level performers. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch for a 16 year old football player to be 5’8 and 160 pounds but have very low body fat and high muscle mass.
This football player is overweight according to this criteria.
So this made national (actually international) news because we heard about it up here in Canada. I guess it was a slow news cycles, what with war in the Middle East and a deadly epidemic spreading around the world.
The simple fact is that kids today don’t get enough exercise. Currently 59% of adults in Canada are overweight or obese in Canada (as of 2012). We can blame a lot of things here. Increased screen time, lack of physical education and after school sports programs, deteriorating nutrition both at home and at school and simply the fact that overweight parents tend to have overweight children because kids learn many things from their parents, not the least of which is eating habits. The medical industry unfortunately can’t or won’t help because many doctors have no clue about proper diet and exercise habits themselves. Many doctors I have worked with or attended have been relatively clueless about these things because it really isn’t their job to know about it even though they are expected to.
However, if you do have a young teenager or someone younger at home then the good news is you can keep their weight down. Guess what’s a great way to get both cardio and resistance exercise without a gym?
Sports.
Whether your kid is an individual sport kid (like I was – I ran track, did cross country skiing and played all racquet sports) or a team sport kid (like my sister who played basketball and hockey) there are a couple of dozen options available for each type. And even if the cost is prohibitive to a budget for things like hockey, there are tons of community resources available in any city for parents who want affordable exercise for their kids. Even something like martial arts isn’t ridiculously expensive, teaches really great fundamentals of coordination, discipline and uses lots of strength at the same time. Finding time as a busy parent can be hard, but what’s the priority – a healthy, happy kid or a promotion at work?
The sad thing is that I have trained kids as young as 8 and 10, and they could barely balance enough to walk slowly on a treadmill. Kids just simply don’t learn these things when they are developing any more. I could go on a rant about parenting and education these days but I’ll save that for another time.
So if you have a teen that is struggling with weight, maybe a good option is to get them to put down the Ipad, register them for a few sports or activities to see what they enjoy doing and get them being active and moving around more. Long term they will be much better off for so many reasons. Maybe even do it with them if you need help as well. Things like martial arts or even group exercise are easy to do with your teenager. Take your kid for a run or a bike ride on the weekends instead of staying inside. Take the whole family out for a long hike without any technology.
Like I said at the beginning, it isn’t news that kids need more exercise, or that a combination of things is likely to help them lose that extra centimeter. But it starts with actually getting them involved with exercise.
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Therapy and Exercise Refined 