Tagged: pilates

Tuning Up – My Insights from Yoga Tune Up

For the past week here in Ottawa I was a participant in a great course called Yoga Tune Up teacher training, where I got to spend seven full days with a bunch of very dedicated professionals getting tuned in to the yoga world a bit more.  While I’m still processing everything that happened during the week, I wanted to share my initial observations with my readers and clients because there were a few things that jumped out at me right away I wanted to share.

The people who attended this course with me were from several different corners of the fitness industry.  There were yoga instructors, CrossFit trainers, powerlifters, dance instructors, and even just regular people who wanted to learn more about yoga or had taken the class and wanted to learn how to present it themselves.  Why did I take it?  It is very rare that courses come to Ottawa, and I have known one of the main instructors for a couple of years and have a lot of respect for his knowledge and what he brings to the fitness world with his intention.  To be fair, the course was not entirely what I expected and I would not have taken it if I knew what the days were going to entail, as I have no intention of being a yoga instructor – but here’s some things that I took away that are valuable to me.  Even if a course isn’t exactly what I’m looking for, my belief is that even if you just get one thing out of it, then it still has value.

The Concept of Sankalpa

On the first day we had to come up with a Sankalpa, or a basic statement that sets your intention around your yoga practice, or simply your life at that point.  It is something you are supposed to repeat to yourself in order to guide your thoughts and what you intend to do.  In business this could be called a mission statement (although they are usually a lot longer).  In some meditation circles it could be a mantra.  The great thing is, the simpler it is the better – one sentence can be enough.  Sometimes it can be oriented around something you intend to improve personally or within your practice.  It is well established that once you repeat something to yourself enough, your brain and body start to believe it.  Coming up with a simple statement allows you to touch base with who you really want to be, even if you have to fake it until you make it for a bit.

I would suggest that everyone come up with something like this.  Repeating it to yourself under times of stress or when you need to focus on your real intention can be really eye opening in the moment.  I know it certainly was for me once I figured out what it is.  If you want to know, just ask me.

People Need to Follow Their Inner Voice

When I was getting to know the other participants, a common theme came up constantly through the week very similar to my own.  The people had a regular job that they hated, took a class and loved it and realized that they were doing the wrong thing and decided to do something that they liked instead of something that they hated.  What a novel concept.  I did the same thing almost 15 years ago when I left my high paced stress filled retail management job.

I’m a firm believer that if the universe is telling you something, then you need to go and do it if or when you can.  If you can’t manage it right now because of other circumstances, then start planning to get there.  I have a client right now who is already planning for her retirement and what she wants to do with her life, but she isn’t retiring for another five years.  Even if it takes a few years, for the rest of your life at least you will be working on your authentic purpose rather than wasting away day by day doing something that you hate.  Like Jim Carrey said in a recent clip that has been making the rounds of the internet: “you can fail at what you don’t want, so why not take a chance at doing something you love?”

Mobility and Strength aren’t Mutually Exclusive

With the group that we had in the room, it was a great mixture of both “flexy-bendies” and pure strength people, but the greater thing was that everyone was open minded and listened to all points of view without judgement.  The thing that emerged (at least from my perspective) was that the really mobile people didn’t have a ton of strength, and the really strong people didn’t have a lot of mobility.  It is almost like a large parabolic curve with the x axis being strength and the y axis being mobility and you should aspire to be somewhere in the middle – but it is really hard to get there.  There is also a well known correlation between having too much range of motion and not being able to control your joints at end ranges, which can easily lead to injury (something I address constantly with my clients).

The point there is to have a balance – but the one thing that they reinforced during the course (and quite well) was that you can’t achieve a good position of strength if your position is faulty.  This means when you are trying to achieve a strong movement or even just to walk properly it is important to begin with proper spinal alignment.  So many of us walk around with massive forward head posture and bound up thoracic spines and externally rotated hips, and then we go to a place where we sit all day staring at computer screens lower than our eyes should be, get into cars where we cram ourselves into seats that push everything forward, and sleep with three pillows.

I came out of this course feeling much more mobile than I have been probably in years, and with a renewed sense of who I am and my purpose in the world.  It reinforced my path to me and made me aware of things that I had let slip over the past while.  Moving forward through life can only be done properly if you have a sense of where you want to be, so sometimes just getting a bit of a wake up call is really valuable, and that’s worth the cost of ten courses to me.  I also had a great time and met some incredible caring knowledgeable people who I’m really happy to now be networked with as possible resources for my clients and colleagues.

If you want to know about Yoga Tune Up, visit www.yogatuneup.com and check out a class in the area, it might just be worth it for you.

What Goes in My Grocery Cart?

Nutrition is obviously a hot topic these days, with everyone touting gluten free this and sugar free that.  Basically if you read enough on the internet, everything is going to kill you.  Here’s a bit of a hint – everything IS going to kill you eventually.  Really what you want to focus on is staving off the effects for as long as you possibly can and not letting yourself develop a chronic degenerative disease that might make it happen sooner.  My grandmother recently turned 100 years old, and still puts salt on things, eats butter and has two sugar cubes in her instant decaf coffee every day plus a hit of sherry once in a while.  I also share a Coke with her once a year.  She also lives an incredibly stress free lifestyle, which I think is one of the major contributors to degenerative disease today – but I digress.

While at the store this morning I thought I might post about exactly what I shop for and why, and hope that it might give you some insight into what a “fitness person” eats.  So here’s what was in my grocery cart this morning, which is pretty typical of 90% of our food intake:

Apples                  Tomatoes            Bananas               Cheese

Grapes                 Cucumber           Green Beans      Whole Wheat Wraps

Broccoli                                Strawberries      Kale                       Lactose Free Milk

Greek Yogurt     Brussels Sprouts               Oranges               Brown Rice

Peppers               Sweet Potatoes                Peppermint Tea

Tofu (we feed this to our daughter for fat and protein – and she loves it – yes, I know about soy)

Cheerios (my daughter also loves these as a treat but I eat them too for breakfast sometimes)

Total Cost:  $53 (at our local FreshCo) for enough to cover us for about four to five days.  We typically spend about $80 per week on groceries.

We get our meat from a local butcher because it is better quality – I rarely buy meat from the grocery store unless they are having a big sale on something in bulk.  Most of our meat is fish and chicken, but I also buy ground beef and sometimes a roast for convenience.  Once a week we do a slow cooker meal which covers us for 3-4 meals so it is easy for my wife to simply reheat if I am working late.

You might notice that there’s nothing from a box or that’s frozen.  This isn’t always the case – we buy frozen fish because it is cheaper and my butcher doesn’t carry it and we buy frozen peas because they are convenient and cheaper as well.  We don’t drink pop, or any juice.  I drink coffee that I sometimes make at home but I typically buy one from Tim Horton’s 5 days a week when I’m on my way to work.  I put cream and sugar in it because it tastes better that way.  If I want a snack I’ll eat fruit, yogurt or banana chips from Bulk Barn since I’m allergic to nuts and can’t eat those.  My post long run recovery drink is chocolate milk and sometimes my wife puts it in her coffee at home.

Here’s another shocker – I don’t take supplements.  No protein shakes, no BCAA’s, nothing beyond a simple Vitamin C to help reduce the risk of illness.  I found through trial and error that protein powders don’t make my system happy and the added juice and sugar add up to a ton as well.  Not that this is necessary, but I made a decision a while ago to basically cut back on anything artificial or that has chemicals in it, which any protein powder does.  And you can tell me until you’re blue in the face how yours comes from 100% natural ingredients, but the truth is, your powder still got made in a factory with 20 others that are simply boxed and shipped to other companies and there are still fillers and additives in it.  So basically I get 80% of my nutrition from real food, and the other 20% is the occasional 1-2 times a week I grab something when I’m out.  About once every other week my wife and I order in Thai food like normal people.  I follow the 80/20 rule – if you do the right thing 80% of the time it likely makes up for the 20% that you don’t.

I also have a ten month old at home – we feed her pretty much the same stuff that we eat at this point because she loves to feed herself and imitate Mom and Dad.  She loves beans, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, tofu, brown rice pasta, and especially strawberries.  For breakfast we often make her toast with almond butter and she loves it.  She has been exposed to pretty much everything (all fish, nuts, major allergens except for honey) and has no food allergies.  She doesn’t like too much animal protein because of the texture at this stage, but she will eat fish and chicken if we hide it or if she’s hungry enough.

So there you have it – the grocery and eating habits of a not perfect personal trainer and a regular human being.  I know that nutrition is a personal choice for many people so if you want to comment, that’s fine – I just might not listen.  I’ve spoken about nutrition before, and lots of people either over complicate it or simply don’t manage their time well.  They hit the snooze button 3 times and skip breakfast.  They don’t bother making lunch at home and spend hundreds a month eating out – which also leads to unhealthy choices.  Instead of whipping something up that’s healthy and easy at home (which you can easily do in 15 minutes) they stop and pick up something packaged or fast food.  Always remember – this is a choice.  If you choose to do that, then fine, but don’t complain about it.  It is really easy to make a simple change and manage your life and time better so you can live longer and feel better.  If you’re going to make a change, don’t make it for 6 weeks or a “90 day challenge” – make it for the rest of your life and commit already.

I hope it helped – feel free to comment, subscribe and share!

Your Body Is Going to Hate You in 10 Years

Weekly (actually almost daily) on my Facebook feed I see debate and discussion about various fitness modalities and “the best way” to exercise.  Wow, that was an awesome leg workout!  I almost puked!  I can’t walk today thanks to @awesomeharcoretrainer!  #feelbeatenup.  Inevitably these are posted by folks in their 20’s and 30’s who are getting into workouts that are pretty advanced, and likely in no way appropriate – but they do get the desired results.  For a brief time people can have bulging muscles, lower body fat (or nicely flexed pictures) and post pictures of themselves doing things like obstacle races or really heavy lifts, even if they have terrible form.

Then there is the other side of the equation.  The majority of my practice deals with injuries, and a lot of these are things like tears of various things, joint replacements, spinal herniation and overuse issues.  Most of these people are in their 40’s and older, but this is not a hard rule.  My youngest client who had a hip replaced was 46.  Knee replacements are fairly common once people who are active get into their 50’s and 60’s.  Disc hernation when younger tends to lead to chronic back pain for many people until they decide to either get surgery or figure out a way to manage their lives in order to live without pain.  I see this as a really sad thing.

My aunt (who was obese at the time) announced one year at Christmas that she was getting a knee replacement because it was the only solution to her knee pain.  When I suggested that possibly losing 50 pounds might help her more there was a bit of an awkward silence in the room.  As you all know, holding my tongue isn’t exactly something I do well.

One thing I often say to people is that “I wish I had seen you ten years ago.”  My belief is that if people were properly educated on what exercise can do to their body long term they might think twice before getting into hardcore heavy lifting, fast ballistic movements and things like hardcore competition without properly progressing themselves.

The point of this article is very simple:  people don’t think about the long term damage they are doing to their bodies and what it is going to be dealing with years down the road.  This could also apply to the general population, but especially applies to people in the fitness industry who are supposed to know a bit more about their physical well-being and how to improve others than the average person.  Just recently there was a gentleman who during a CrossFit competition actually severed his spine during a heavy lift and will never walk again.  Another recent article had a high level runner fracturing her femur – 500 meters from the finish line of a race – but she dragged her self across the finish line anyway, risking her life in the process.  She likely will never walk properly again either and she has small children at home.  Professional athletes, while achieving incredible things in their careers often have their physical health or even their lives cut short dramatically due to the abuse their body has to adapt to through training.  These are obviously outliers, but for every one of these examples, there are thousands of regular people who suffer daily with things that likely could have been either prevented or eliminated entirely given the right amount of care.

There are also people who commit to fitness (for a short time) and do a cycle of working out for a few weeks, then come up with every excuse under the sun why they can’t continue – until the next time.  In January these are called “resolutionists”.  For a lot of people they will be inspired by something and maybe follow through for a few months, and then go back to the same cycle they had in the past.  Then, in five years they are heavier, sicker or get injured and wonder why.  Here’s a thought – make a commitment for a long period of time and stick with it.  You should be exercising regularly (in whatever capacity you want to) for the rest of your life.  Time after time I meet with people, they stick with a program for a few weeks or months, and then something happens in their life so that they won’t continue (notice I said won’t, not can’t) and then a year later it’s “oh, yeah – I should start working out again.”  Then I meet with them a few more times, with them fully committed and then inevitably it happens again.

So my simple words to you:  look forward.  See yourself in 10 years and ask yourself what type of body you want to have.  What do you want to be able to do?  What do you want to have accomplished?  We do this all of the time for our careers, but neglect the one thing that is going to carry us forward for the rest of our lives.  And get started.  Now.  Just do it the smart, responsible way and don’t let your body hate you.  It really doesn’t want to, after all.