Evolving your body: More than what you think

Good Thursday to you Internet Friends

I haven't written in awhile due to lack of inspiration/time. However, once again I find myself at a point in my training life where I find that my perspectives are evolving and I think it may be beneficial for some of my readers (if there are still any!) who currently find themselves in a rut with their workouts/body/performance.

I recently had the opportunity to have a six week placement at a fantastic private physiotherapy clinic in Burlington, Ontario with an extremely talented and knowledgeable clinician with over 20 years in the field. This preceptor has done an incredible job at helping me continue to fine tune my approach to looking at the body, including my own.

I won't mention their name, as I haven't asked their permission to blog about them, but this physiotherapist has a strong Pilates, yoga, and manual therapy background and does an excellent job at combining all three to give patients what they need to get better and avoid injury in the future.

My first day in this clinic I was excited and apprehensive to see 4 Pilates reformers staring me down. Now, I've always turned my nose up at Pilates proclaiming "Pilates is bad for your lower back, and is not an efficient form of training...it's just another fitness fad to make money".  However, I thought why not give my preceptor's evening reformer class a go, since it was better than sitting on my but charting.

All I can say is … holy potatoes! I engaged muscles I never knew I had and have finally had a deep abdominal "a ha" moment. In school we are taught how to engage the deep stabilizers of the pelvis in one or two ways on our back and on all fours. My preceptor quickly taught me that engaging those muscles in isolation is all well and good, but if you cannot engage them when they count during everyday movement and exercise then they are essentially useless…. Pilates taught me just that.

Another wonderful thing I discovered about Pilates is that it is like yoga… but more… flow-ey, at least the way my preceptor taught it. We used our muscles in a way to lengthen and engage full range of motion. I found that after the class I felt fantastic. It is a great adjunct to my overall training.

Upon some reflection I had another a-ha moment. I had always dismissed training such as Pilates proclaiming that building muscle and functional strength is the "only" way to train. However, as I age (as we all do), strength training can only bring you so far without mobility.

I'm seeing something interesting happening in the fitness world with the heavy lifters. I don't know if it's because my friends are becoming older along with me, or if this is a true evolution of the industry, but mobility training is starting to become an essential part of over all body health and performance.

I kind of always knew this in the back of my head, and about 5 years ago made a solid effort to increase my flexibility. However, the more and more I learn about the body from a functional and injury prevention/rehabilitation perspective, I find that mobility training is way more than just stretching.

So to avoid further rambling, I'm going to put in point form some stuff that I have learned since last September on incorporating mobility into your sport/lifting/training program.


1. Breathing is way more important than you think it is: After I wrote this, it seemed kinda silly. Of course breathing is important Robyn, you need breathing to live and stuff. However, I've noticed through observation of myself and clients that we often do not breathe properly. Breathing seems pretty straight forward. However, as you are moving, working, stretching.. etc notice how you're breathing. Here are some common things I have noticed that contribute to inefficient breathing...

• Holding your breath: no brainer, don't hold your breath. However, pay more attention to your breathing during the day and notice when you do so (it's probably more than you think). Also, when people hold their breath they tend to tense their neck and upper back… bad news bears.

• Upper chest breathing: a lot of us, especially when stressed/working hard, breath with the top of our chest (think everything pec/boob up). Efficient breathing involves the entire lung, including the lower half (think belly button to bottom of pec/boob). When stretching/lifting/stressed out think about breathing from your belly, mid-chest, then upper chest last.

• Inhalation/exhalation timing: Some people will exhale when the abdominal cavity needs stabilization naturally. However, a lot of us don't or simply don't think about it. This is even more likely to happen during everyday movement. It feels weird at first to be constantly thinking about when to exhale, but eventually it becomes habit. The idea is simple…. we want the spine and pelvis to be as stable as possible when moving and lifting, so, ideally, we want to be exhaling and thus engaging the deep abdominal muscles during these movements. For example, when getting up from a chair, ideally, you should exhale and engage your deep abdominals (that's a topic for another day). The amount of exhalation and deep abdominal activation will vary on the amount of load you are moving (your body vs. deadlifting weight).

2. What is your body actually doing?!: This is something that I see as being a subtle/often overlooked contributor to overuse injuries. To go into depth on this topic is way beyond the scope of this blog post, so I'll just use this point to put a little birdy in the back of your head to pay attention to your body when you're using it.

• Cervical spine and head: your c-spine is your neck and your head is… attached to your neck. A lot of the time slight changes in your head and neck position during movement can lead to injury/pain over time. Something common I see is people "leading with their chin". This is especially apparent when people deadlift or squat. When going into a deep squat or deadlift the body actually needs quite a bit of thoracic (upper back) extension and hip flexibility (which a lot of us are deficient in since we SIT too much). Therefore, the body will naturally compensate by "poking" our chin out and extending through the neck. It looks like this….

Holy neck strain batman

VERSUS

Some sneaky chin poking/c-spine extending moments can also occur when driving, working on the computer, and going from seated to standing. So pay attention to what that head is doing!!!

• Thoracic Spine: Ohhh the t-spine. My love hate relationship. The t-spine can cause all sorts of problems. I actually contemplated going straight to lumbar spine/pelvis because mines so terrible and I'm not sure how the picture will turn out. As mentioned previously, lack of t-spine flexibility causes all sorts of issues in the head and neck (i.e., the head and neck will extend to obtain the extension lacking in the t-spine). Climbers and people with crazy back muscles I'm talking to you! If your t-spine is hypomobile/inflexible this will effect things above and below your upper back and just make everything so much less efficient. An example of an inflexible t-spine is when you generally look like this….

Notice the considerable rounding of the subjects upper back contributing to forward head posture and overall generalized sadness

So instead of being a douche-bag  unhelpful and just telling you to "stand up taller and don't round your back", how about I give you a simple thing to do to help your back extension.

First you need two towels (or a foam roller if you have one)….

two towels

Second, fold the two towels in half and then roll them tightly into a log type situation….

old-school foam roller

Finally, place the log towel down longitudinally (along your spine) and lye down on it starting at your bum all the way to your head. You can put your arms over your head to increase upper back extension or make your arms into a cactus to open the chest…. as so….

arms above head (not in cactus) for ease of viewing 

I would keep your knees bent to support your lower back. Here's some cactus arms….

Muther fudging cactus arms

If this position is too easy for you (the towel longitudinally along your spine that is), you can alternatively put it horizontally across your upper back. I like to do this with a foam roller at various hypomobile sections of my upper back. Cactus arms/arms over head still apply to this towel position.

Ok jeeze. I think I'm gonna leave it there. I'm not sure how this blog post started about me now loving Pilates and turned into me taking pictures of myself with a towel, but it is what it is.

There are, indeed, other parts of the body that we must be aware of (like everything below the belly button) that I'll try and make a post on before the ridiculousness of my 4th unit of physio-school ensues.

Any questions/comments are always appreciated. They actually keep me motivated to keep posting.

Stay strong!

~Byn

Pre Workout Nutrition: Sorting Out the Confusion

Hello Internets!

I’ll start by apologizing for the delay in this week’s blog post. A combination of a busy and blog-blocked Byn equals delayed-ness in posting.

However, one of my clients has sparked my writing topic this week by asking a question I have heard a lot over the years, “What should I eat before coming to work out with you, why and when?”



Is it time to eat yet?!

This question is usually spurred after a first session or a wicked hard high intensity workout. Why? Because this is when we notice most how nutrition affects our performance when being active.  If we don’t eat properly for the workload we are about to ask our bodies to handle, we can easily go from a superstar to a wet piece of gym towel in minutes.

This often leaves us feeling out of shape and frustrated, which is less than motivating! So, if this scenario sounds familiar to you, try some of these tips to improve your workouts DESPITE your fitness level.

Tip #1: Do NOT eat within the hour before a workout

This is something I learned from my exercise physiology professor, and it has changed my workouts (specifically when I go climbing).  It can seem counterintuitive at first glance and I often get perplexed looks when I preach this all important concept.

When and What You Eat is Important

It is true that we need fuel to exercise, but eating within the hour before starting to be active is setting your body up for metabolic failure.

What we need during exercise is to have level blood sugar so our cells get what they need. If you eat, say, 30 minutes before working out your body will spike in insulin levels to deal with the blood sugar rise.  This is bad because when you start exercising you are in a hypoglycemic state, as insulin tells all the sugar to go into your cells to be used or stored. This leaves you feeling sluggish, light headed and weak.

Now, the beautiful thing about exercise is that it suppresses insulin release due to two hormones called norepinephrine and epinephrine. So it is ok to eat once you have begun to exercise, as insulin will not be released and you will not become hypoglycemic.

For example, say you have a volleyball game at 6. You ate lunch at 12 and now its 5… and you’re starving. If you wait until you are already playing volleyball to eat that granola bar and banana your blood sugar will stay much more level than if you eat it on your way to the game… causing you to play better.

A note of caution with this…  I would not recommend downing a banana right after the warm up before an intense circuit training class. What you eat is important as well…

Tip #2: Choose Appropriate Food Depending on Your Impending Workout  

As afore mentioned, eating a banana right after a crazy warm up (*cough* Bobby*) and right before an impending ass kicking is probably gonna make you vomit. So –what- you eat is also as important as when you eat it.

I don’t recommend falling into the volleyball scenario mentioned above, but hey life happens. So if you do find yourself staring down an over-enthusiastic trainer holding a sledge hammer with an empty stomach, reach for something that will digest very quickly and is bulk free.

There are several options you can choose from, including glucose gels to energy drinks. These are a quick fix and I do not suggest falling into a habit of using them on a regular basis, but keep some with you incase crap hits the fan and you have a Bootcamp at 5. 

Gels often don’t taste the greatest, but I prefer them to energy drinks as they often contain less sugar, for example try Clif Bar energy shots. Gatorade has come out with a new line of pre- during and post- workout nutrition. I haven’t tried these supplements myself but those are another possibility to avoid puke-age. DO NOT drink energy drinks… they are not the same thing… they are very very bad for you.

The goal, however, is to eat 2 to 3 hours before your workout. What you should eat should depend on what you are about to do. I am a fan of high intensity training, and for this you want to make sure you have a low fat, high carbohydrate meal with some protein.

Some examples could include;

·         Banana and half a class of orange juice with 8 almonds: The banana and orange juice is light, quick digesting and high in potassium which will allow you to avoid cramping and keep you going through those burpies.

·         Small Chicken Salad with Fruit in it: This is a good choice for 3 hours before. Two hours may be pushing it as the roughage may not sit well. It really depends how your body handles food. For me, I have to stay away from too much roughage if I want to avoid heart burn, but some people it doesn’t bother them. Make sure to have fruit (i.e. grapes, blueberries, strawberries) for those quick digesting carbohydrates that will help you last longer.

·         Fat Free Yogurt and Berries: You’re probably getting the idea that fruit is a good thing before a workout. Fat free yogurt is a great paring because you’ll be getting some protein, which is important to maintain your blood sugar and is very very light.

·         1 Piece of 12 grain Toast/ 1 Tbs of Peanut Butter and 1 Banana: This is my favourite pre-workout meal not only because I’m addicted to peanut butter but my body handles it very well.

·         Apple and a Handful of Walnuts

So as you can see, you’re eating light, nutritious foods with something quick digesting.  The most important thing is to listen what your body is telling you. If you eat an apple and walnuts 3 hours before and you feel like you have 0 energy to finish a class, re-evaluate and try something different.

Tip #3: Please Drink Water

This can either be the easiest or hardest thing for people to do in my experience. You either hate drinking water because you were raised on pop and Sunny D or you don’t mind drinking it, well at least that’s what I have found.

Drinking plain and simple water before exercise is very important for performance, which a lot of people don’t realize. Most of us think that we just need to drink during a workout, when we are sweating. However, if you go into a workout dehydrated your body will be struggling to keep up with your crazy fitness instructor, personal trainer, workout program, workout partner… you get the idea.

So how much water should you drink? Simply put, you need 2-3 cups 2 hours before a work out and ½ to 1 cup directly before a workout. There’s no playing around with this one… that’s what you need. So drink that water!

I find putting stickers on my water bottle helps…



Mmmmm Water!



That’s it for this week! My regular followers may have noticed a lack of vlog action. I hang my head in shame as this regular vlogging thing seems to be harder than I first anticipated…mainly the editing.

I’m not giving up though! There will be more to come, I promise.

As always, questions, comments and suggestions make me VERY happy!

Stay Strong

Byn

My First Blog! Abdominal Workout!

Hey Internets!

Here is my very first vlog! It's a pretty simple abdominal workout, but I didn't want to get to fancy.

Enjoy