There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing. You take air in, let it out, and repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, I will share that I have seen people struggle for air as they train. My first experience with breath work was in 2012 when I started training with Kettlebells. I followed the protocols of Pavel Tsatsouline, founder of RKC and StrongFirst Kettlebell certifications. Tsatsouline is considered the father of kettlebells and is credited with showing how they can be used for strength. During my weekend course on how to become an instructor, we spent the first hour discussing breathing and performing breathing drills. One of the drills we would later learn, and practice was how to maximize force. In order to do this, you must synchronize breathing with movement. I know at this point what you may be thinking, “Doug, I’ve got breathing down, I’ve been doing it my whole life.” My response is, have you been doing it well?

     In Raja yoga, it is said that the consistent practice of breathing exercises makes it possible for the practitioner to arrive more quickly at the state scientists call REM (rapid eye movement), which is the pinnacle of maximum relaxation. The average person experiences REM at some point during their nightly sleep, but many yogis can attain it within only eight to ten seconds. It is for this reason that many of the best yogis don’t sleep much – they are able to reach the REM state faster than the average person.

     The first step to improved breathing is a renewed integration between the three levels: lower, middle, and upper (belly, lungs, and rib cage). We need to bring these together as one unit in the breathing process – a process that comes naturally to infants and children. Breathing this way enables a larger movement of the diaphragm, thus providing a full and thorough massage of the internal organs. I tell people that they want to feel as if they are swallowing air into their belly. Using that cue brings the focus to the belly and diaphragm area. An example of improper breathing mechanics is to elevate the shoulders when inhaling which brings emphasis and stress to the neck and chest area. If you’ve ever seen someone hyperventilate you may have observed this. A drill to correct this is to sit in a comfortable position with your fingers interlaced on the abdominal area. When you inhale, feel your belly expand into your hands. 

     As a coach, I increased the value I put on proper breathing because of the demand placed upon it during exercise. During rest, about 750 milliliters of blood- enough to fill a full wine bottle- flows through the brain every minute. Blood flow to the brain tends to increase a little during exercise just as it does in other parts of the body, but it will usually stay consistent. That changes when we breathe heavily. 

     Whenever the body is forced to take in more air than it needs, we’ll exhale too much carbon dioxide, which will narrow the blood vessels and decrease circulation, especially in the brain. In just a few minutes, or even seconds, of over breathing, brain blood flow can decrease by 40 percent. I’ve seen this happen when someone takes an aggressive inhale through the nose, followed by a shallow exhale through the mouth. In contrast to that, what I like to teach is for people to breathe in and out through the nose. The cadence is to have a 1:2 ratio of inhale to exhale time. If you inhale for 3 seconds, exhale for 6, inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 8, and so on. This can quickly bring the heart rate down during exercise and have a calming effect on the body. Many people think that it’s oxygen that only has purpose, and that the carbon dioxide we exhale is garbage. It’s the CO2 that helps to separate the oxygen from the hemoglobin in our red blood cells and deliver it to the cells and tissues that need it. I’m sorry for any investors in Oxygen Bars, but you’ve got it all backwards. 

     Breath work is not exciting to watch and I guarantee if I posted a video on Instagram I wouldn’t receive many likes, but it’s a game changer and can benefit you quickly. I recommend that you spend a few minutes each day intentionally practicing breath work, with the goal being that it will carry over to everything you do. 

     If you’re interested in diving deeper on the subject I recommend Breath, by James Nestor. 

Muscle inflammation from Lactate, Good or Bad?

     Strength training, and more specifically high intense strength training workouts (example H.I.I.T.) can create muscle soreness. For years, the source of what caused that muscle soreness was thought to be lactic acid. We have all heard about feeling the burn from lactic acid. Research in the last fifteen years has proven that to be incorrect. It’s lactate, which is a waste product from training, that creates soreness, a decrease in performance, and can cause inflammation in the muscle. Recent research on lactate has not only focused on metabolic related adaptations. It has been suggested that lactate may play a role in muscle cell myogenesis (the process of muscular cell formation). This process particularly takes place within embryo cells, but it is commonly accepted that satellite cells (muscle stem cells) may also differentiate into myocytes (muscle fibers), thus playing a significant role in muscle repair, maintenance, and growth. Simply put, the production of lactate is beneficial, but once it’s produced our body needs to flush it out.

     Going back to my early days of coaching, when clients told me they were sore from a workout, my answer was usually, put some ice on it. The R.I.C.E. protocol (rest, ice, compress, elevate) was the adopted way to treat an injury from possible overuse. Then I learned of how this protocol came about.

How the Myth Came to Be 

     On May 23, 1962, twelve- year- old Everett (Eddie) Knowles jumped onto a freight train in Somerville, MA resulting in his arm being completely severed from his body. The young boy was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where Dr. Ronald A. Malt, a young chief resident, attempted to save Eddie’s detached limb. Even though there had never been a successful reattachment of a major limb recorded in medical literature, Dr. Malt, and a team of twelve doctors performed the first successful limb reattachment in history.

     The operation’s success quickly became a global phenomenon. Newscasters swarmed the team of doctors to obtain essential facts about the miracle limb reattachment touted as one of the most monumental operations in medical history. However, the essential facts about the surgery were rather complicated and would not be understood by the general public. Instead, reporters focused on the aspects of the story that would be intriguing to the reader. As a result, the application of ice to preserve the severed tissue became the main focus of the story. 

     The use of ice to treat injuries and muscle inflammation was never part of medical protocol prior to the events of May 23, 1962, and the notion to utilize ice for tissue preservation was quickly published by newspapers around the globe. Subsequently, as the story was continuously retold by individuals not directly involved in the surgery, facts began to change. Eventually, the general public was quickly accepting the notion that any injury should be treated with the application of ice, regardless of its severity or how it occurred.

     After exercise, the goal should be to get waste out of the muscle and accelerate the recovery process. The lymphatic system is responsible for removing waste, but it’s a passive system. Activation of the muscles that surround lymphatic vessels is required to push out the waste. Movement is the natural facilitator for the recovery process. Normal amounts of movement (i.e., doing your normal routine, errands, etc.) will result in a normal rate of recovery. That’s when taking a brisk walk or low intense cycling on a bike are good options. One of my hacks has been to use an EMS (electronic muscle stimulator) to assist in this. This allows me to multi-task (such as draft articles like this one), while this small machine does the work. 

     Electronic muscle stimulation (EMS) is a physical therapy and fitness technique. It involves a machine that transmits electrical impulses through electrodes that are applied directly to your skin. The electrical signals trigger repeated contractions (tightening) of the muscles. The contractions can be short and frequent or long and sustained. This process is not all that different from the voluntary muscle contractions associated with strength training.

     Lactate is a critical component of energy metabolism. Although it has historically been blamed for muscle soreness, it’s not responsible for this effect and is, in fact, a fuel for many organs of your body. However, lactate does occur as a byproduct of intense exercise and the buildup of hydrogen ions that occurs when it’s produced is thought to be responsible for the fatigue and burn you feel during this type of activity.

     Your body has a natural process for clearing lactate that relies on proper kidney and liver function and oxygen. To enhance this process, perform light cardio exercise post exercise or you may want to consider using a machine such an EMS. 

   A few years ago, I took a course sponsored by Dr. Andreo Spina for Functional Range Conditioning (FRC). This course teaches a curriculum for joint strength, mobility development and body control. His system is to move your body, specifically your limbs, through their full range of motion articulating around a joint to maintain stability (strength) and control. What attracted me to this system is that it requires no equipment, isn’t overtaxing on the body and doesn’t require a lot of time. I’ve observed at the studio how people in general can lose their ability to move well if they don’t incorporate some kind of mobility work into their self-care.

     I started to notice my own mobility beginning to decrease a few years back. I’m just like everyone else and can gravitate towards the things I like to do and avoid the things I need the most. What I enjoy is strength training. What I need to spend more time on is mobility. Mobility isn’t a priority for most, until they start to lose it. We added a shoulder drill to our general warmup at the studio a year ago because of it’s importance. I started performing three reps of controlled articular rotations (CARs) for my ankles, hips and shoulders every morning and quickly noticed improvement. I should state that the first goal should be to stop things from getting worse.

     The key is consistency. I believe that if you give this simple 5–7-minute routine a try you should experience some improvements quickly. It’s not a panacea, but I do believe these drills can make a difference and provide positive benefits.

Here’s three videos demonstrating the three exercises.

Ankle CARs

https://youtu.be/L8RNyoggG-0?si=uYnBxTUtk_NjqCgC

Hip CARs

https://youtu.be/qagSc8y_jpc?si=fj4zqysy17_u3rgD

Shoulder CARs

https://youtu.be/8gpryi_W1GU?si=ohTfrAmJzaYnqBDs

Have a great weekend and please share this with anyone you feel may enjoy the read.

     I have a friend that eliminated drinking alcohol until March 1st, as a new year’s goal. Last week he told me how that was going to be cut short because he had a group of friends that didn’t get together for their annual meet up in December and made last Wednesday the date. Oh well, there’s always 2025. All joking aside, I know he’s getting right back on the wagon, and more than likely, will stick to it until March 1st. That’s a good example of how life is going to happen, regardless of what your plans may be. One of your goals is to have a strategy for when that happens. Let’s build on the tips I provided last week.

     Many people believe that motivation is key to helping them make a positive change and then stick to it. I disagree. Motivation can help, but as I mentioned in my prior post, it’s like a muscle, and it will fatigue. What many people lack is clarity on when and where they are going to implement the change. To successfully make a change, you need to determine the ideal time and place for when you are going to perform that task. By doing that, you are determining a specific space in your brain when that new habit will live. As I mentioned in my prior tips, liking your surroundings is important to eliminate friction in the process. Once you determine the where, now you can determine the when. They call this method implementation intention. Here’s an example:

Complete the following sentence- I will (behavior) at (time) in (location).

Scientists have found that if you use implementation intention you are more likely to follow through with your plans and stick to your habit.

“I’m going to perform a full body strengthening workout at the gym on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6am. I’m going to take a 30-minute brisk walk around my neighbor on Saturday afternoons.”

This technique can work with spending more time with your kids, meditation and to eating better. The more tightly bound your habit is locked into a specific time and location, the better the odds that you will take action.

Key Takeaway: Use implementation intention to solidify when and where you are performing your new habit. 

     Tim Ferriss has a technique he uses when trying to implement a positive change. He asks himself “How would this look if it was easy?” An example is eating healthy. Most people will eat better if they have healthier options prepared for when they are hungry. It’s too easy and tempting to stop by a fast-food drive-through when you know you are going home to an empty fridge and you’re hungry. To build the habit of eating better, you need to prioritize grocery shopping for healthy nutrient dense foods and then allow time for preparation. One builds on the other. I like to call this

priming the pump. I tell my members that scheduling the time to cook and shop is just as important as scheduling the time for your workouts.

     Regarding exercise, this determines when you can minimize distractions and have the most energy. Checking your email every five minutes during your workout is a way to lose your focus. At the studio, we have our members keep their phones in our cubbies to minimize the distractions. Planning an early morning workout following a night you know you must work late is a recipe for disaster. Select training times when energy is optimal.

Key Takeaway: Prime the pump by making things easy. Plan your exercise around when your energy is optimal. Schedule time to prepare healthy and nutritious foods ahead of time. 

     Stay tuned for next week’s post with more tips. If you’re in the Las Vegas area, enter the J & D Fitness New Year, New You Body-fat Challenge and compete with the chance to win $350! For more information, email me at Doug@janddfitness.com.

     Happy New Year! Each year, many of us arrive at this point ready to take on the world and make this year better than the previous. My goal is to provide you with some insight and practical tips that can make that dream a reality. Motivation and positive encouragement are important, but without a plan or system in place, you are depending on a miraculous change to simply occur. Let’s create a roadmap on how you can navigate a positive change.

     To make a positive change in your fitness level requires consistency with your program. The best workout will not work if you are inconsistent. Accept that things are always going to come up. What you want to avoid is morphing a single missed workout into a month of missed training sessions. Remember, you’re playing the long game. You want to make this the best year, not week, ever. Look at your training schedule from a 30-day perspective. If you plan on training three days a week, that

is the equivalent of thirteen sessions in a month. If you become ill or have something that comes up unexpected in your schedule forcing you to miss a session, commit to make it up within your 30-day period. This may require you to train on back-to-back days. Taking the time to look ahead at your schedule can be a critical factor in winning the battle of showing up. The schedule may not always be ideal, but your goal is to get a specific number of sessions monthly.

Key Takeaway: Plan and review your schedule 30 days at a time.

     Creating a positive environment for change is valuable. If you don’t like the place, you are training, pick a new place. We can become products of our environment. One of my goals at the studio is to create a positive environment for every person that walks through our doors. That experience starts with being greeted by your name when you enter, the inspirational quotes inscribed on the walls and the words of encouragement from the coaches during your workout. Unfortunately, in today’s society we can’t shape every environment we enter, but for our members, we strive to make them feel good simply by walking through the door. I credit this for the reason some people chose to continue working out in their home after the pandemic ended and the gyms globally opened back up. Changing your environment can be one of your most effective steps in making a positive behavior change.

Key Takeaway: Select a positive environment to train in.

     There are multiple components of fitness. Mobility, strength, body composition, muscular endurance, power and cardiovascular fitness. I am part of the camp that believes your program should be well rounded and address each of the prior mentioned. When striving for improvement, pick one to emphasize and focus on that. This approach also allows you avoid mental and physical burnout.

Reducing body fat, while improving strength and increasing the intensity of your cardiovascular workouts is a recipe for disaster and will lead you to burn out. Take the first three months of the year and concentrate on body composition and work to reduce body fat. Then shift into improving strength for months four to six. Make mobility the goal months seven to nine and finish out the year improving your cardiovascular fitness. Changing the bull’s eye on the target is a healthy way to help keep things feeling fresh. You’re making lifestyle changes. Remember you’re in it for the long haul.

Key Takeaway: Update and change goals every few months.

     Stay tuned for my post next week on how to make positive change more than a one week wonder.

   The last two weeks of the year is when many people start to mail it in, with the mindset that within a couple of weeks, they will have an official clean slate. The level of discipline is minimal around the cookie platter in the office this time of year. These days will soon be replaced with a ferocious drive to get things done. I recommend that the last month of the year be a time to reflect on the past year, but specifically on things that obstructed you from attaining your goals. Health and one’s overall fitness are a popular goal, so for the purpose of today’s post, I’ll share with how I feel you should approach picking goals, and then achieving them.

     Years ago, when I lived in NY, I trained a gentleman who worked in the garment industry in New York city. We hit a problem soon after he hired me. In the first two months, he missed a third of his training appointments, having to cancel last minute. Work issues consistently came up. We were trending in the wrong direction. I recommended we move our workouts to early mornings before work. He agreed to give it a shot. He went on to be very consistent in his workouts and rarely missed. Consistency led to him making noticeable improvements. When picking a goal, if it’s a goal you’ve struggled with in the past, think about what obstacle has been blocking you from reaching the goal. If you don’t address the problem, you’re doomed to repeat it over and over.

Takeaway- Trouble shoot the reason for past failures. 

     The next thing is to start small. We have all heard the suggestions of taking small steps in the beginning. For example:

    ·       Keeping the house tidier may start with putting one piece of dirty clothes in the laundry.

    ·       Be a better partner can start with making a cup of coffee for my partner every morning.

    ·       Reading a book every month may start with reading one page every evening before bed.

I tell my coaches that I consider it a win when we have a new member and they say, “That’s it?” at the completion of their first workout. I want to establish a feeling of accomplishment and not overwhelmed in the beginning. When creating behavior changes, you must feel that you can complete the task. The small wins amount to big changes over time.

Takeaway- Start small. 

     When working towards a new fitness goal, give yourself a realistic timeline. I commonly observe new members frustrated with their gains initially. I know losing 5 pounds in a month or increasing the weight you lift by 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs.) doesn’t sound impressive but remember you’re in the long game. Five pounds of fat loss leads to twenty, and before you can press a 20kg kettlebell overhead, you must hoist 10kg. Years ago, New York Newsday fitness columnist and author, John Hanc told me that he could coach anyone to run a marathon. He believed it so much that he wrote a book on how to run your first marathon. In the book, he explains how you need one year of training to complete a marathon. One year made the goal achievable.

Takeaway- Be realistic with the time to achieve your goal. 

     Goal setting requires thought time to create a strategy. Without a plan you’re hoping on luck and will power. Will power is a muscle and it fatigues over time. Living in Las Vegas, I have learned that you never want to bank on luck. Stay tuned for my post next week with more tips on how to make this year the best year ever.

     It was around 1998 that I started to hone in not only on the way a person moved as they exercised, but also the posture they maintained while doing it. It could be something as subtle as the turn out of their feet when they executed a lunge, or the position of their traps when they pressed a weight overhead. I was using the principle that your body will get stronger in the posture and alignment you maintain while exercising. Ten years later, I would listen to an educator at one of my conferences question and then challenge this approach. Brett Jones, a well respected and internationally recognized kettlebell instructor, stated, “We don’t all have the same bone structure.” It was his opinion that those skeletal and muscular anatomy pictures we all studied were misleading. The size of our trochanter, shape of the acetabulum, and femoral head all vary from person to person. This will affect how much you externally turn out your feet when you stand. It was his belief, that many trainers, did more harm than good forcing everyone to position their feet straight ahead when performing squats. “Our bodies are made up of bones which act as levers”, stated Jones. If we all have different alignments based upon our bone structure, can we define what neutral posture is?

     I believe we can. Let’s start from our feet and work our way up. When standing in neutral we want to establish four points of contact with our feet. This is regardless of if you are flat footed or have high arches. You want two points in the heel and two in the padded area just below the big toe and pinky toe.

     Next up the chain, you should be able to stand with full knee extension (example A below). This should give the appearance of your femur (upper thigh bone) is stacked above the bones of your lower leg. Everything from knee trauma to pelvis position to hamstring tightness can provide difficulty for someone trying to achieve full knee extension. You can also put the people who have joint laxity in this group. These are people who look as if they are double-jointed due to how they can push their joints beyond neutral.

     Following our chain up, we come to the pelvis. Anterior pelvic tilt, posterior pelvic tilt, and a rotated pelvis are a few of the common terms describing pelvic alignment which I observe at the studio. This is when I like to keep things simple. Consider your pelvis as a bowl filled halfway with water. Regardless of your size, you want the bowl level, so you don’t spill water. If you maintain an anterior pelvic position, you will spill water from the front. A posterior pelvic tilt will lead to spilled water to the rear. Excessive sitting (something we all do too much of), tight hip flexors (by-product of excessive sitting), and a weak core are a few of the common reasons for this. The ability to achieve proper pelvic positioning is critical for spine health, as it is the base of support for your vertebrae.

     Trying not to overcomplicate things, I’m going to group the final two areas together. Shoulder and head alignment. We can blame technology, such as our cell phones and desktop computers, for this troubling issue. Both put us in rounded shoulder positioning with our traps elevated up into our ears. The phones put our heads in a downward position. Look around at everyone next time you’re at the airport. The cues I like to use at the studio is to put your shoulder blades in your back pocket for proper shoulder alignment and make a “double chin” for good head positioning. I try to stay clear of telling people to pull their shoulders back because this sometimes leads them to elevate as they retract.

     What you need to do is imagine your body as a game of Jenga. You want to stack your body. Here’s my attempt to achieve a neutral posture. Hopefully a block doesn’t fall.

My motivation for this post came from a question I get asked frequently. “What can I do at home?” Spending 10- 15 minutes a day, standing in front of a mirror fixing and re-aligning your posture is a productive way to improve your overall health. It doesn’t require any equipment. It may eliminate a couple aches and pains along the way and can help you avoid future injuries due to poor posture. I understand toned arms and a smaller waist may be your primary goals, but don’t forget about this practice.

     I’ll see you at the studio.

     I recently read a book about the evolution of our breathing, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor. Nestor attributes many of the respiratory and other physical ailments common today, to how the human mouth became smaller, teeth became crooked, and airways became obstructed. He validates this theory on how the skull has changed over time. It’s a combination of what we eat and how we eat it. “Our ancestors chewed for hours a day, every day. And because they chewed so much, their mouths, teeth, throats, and faces grew to be wide and strong and pronounced”, states Nestor. He shares how he goes on this expedition into limestone quarries in Paris where he examines skeletons thousands of years old. It’s through our evolution of farming and cooking of our food that this change in the development of the skull and how we breathe. It’s easy to state that if we were forced to consume the foods we ate thousands of years ago with our current facial structure, that it would give us discomfort?

     What about how we currently move and lift things? As we have evolved to sleep on mattresses, sit in cushy chairs, and drive our cars, we have changed our bodies, but I’m not sure all for the better. The body is a great machine and can make amazing adaptations. When you use your hands for physical labor, your body will adapt by making your hands more callous. This allows you to handle things using your hands without tearing the skin. The same applies for movement. Dr. Andreo Spina, of Functional Anatomy, created a protocol of moving your limbs through full ranges of motion in what he has titled controlled articular rotations, or CARs, to re-establish joint health. We perform these drills at the studio and members are always surprised how challenging making circles with your arms or feet can be. The challenge comes from trying to achieve joint differentiation, where you don’t have to compensate by using the surrounding muscles.

     If you haven’t picked something heavy off the floor in a long time, it’s more than likely that it will cause you some discomfort when you attempt to do it. There’s a reason why moving companies have become popular over the years. Just the thought of carrying boxes off a truck for eight to ten hours is enough to evoke pain in some people.

     So how do we slow down this decline? Strength training. This probably isn’t earth shattering news for you, but the way you approach it may. Whether you are working towards improving strength, mobility, or body composition, there should be a level of some discomfort. When challenging the body’s mobility, it’s common for people to experience shaking. It’s a response from the nervous system. Just peek into any beginners Yoga class and you’re guaranteed to see shaking. This is when having a coach is truly beneficial, because it’s common for your body to move towards the path of least resistance. A coach can correct your form when you start to get off course. We are all wired to avoid work and discomfort. I believe we must understand that there is going to be some discomfort along the way. When was the last time you walked a few miles to the river to wash clothes against the rocks? We must accept this compromise as life has evolved and become easier.

     Picking something off the ground with a neutral spine may be hard. Squatting to a depth where your thighs are parallel to the floor can be tough. Walking two hundred feet while holding heavy kettlebells can produce some discomfort. Due to the lack of physical demand placed upon our bodies daily, we need to do these drills. Our bodies need it. Next time you’re in the gym, keep this in mind. This is discomfort, not pain, and you need to learn how to handle a little discomfort in your life.

     I’ll see you at the studio. 

     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.