Anti-aging
October 25, 2010
October 23, 2010
September 26, 2010
September 22, 2010
Similar Individuals
Every human that has ever existed has been an individual. Different aesthetics, different biochemistry and different biomechanics. This means each person needs a different regime in order to feed, exercise and correct their body and mind as efficiently as possible. With the number of combinations being infinite, you can see how much fun exercise coaches and healers can have attempting to unlock each client's unique code.
Despite the vast number of differences seen amongst people there remain some commonalities that will ultimately dictate whether a client succeeds or falls short of their goals, let's take a look.
Knowledge - Ever find yourself observing someone's form at the gym and catch yourself thinking, "Man, that cannot be good for his back" and "I bet his shoulders will hurt when he gets older". Well, you're right, it is only a matter of time before your subject gets injured. Your first piece of advice to him/her should not be how to correct the exercise but to go home and pick up a book or read an article on how to do things right, because they are either misinformed or uneducated. This applies to any aspect of health and wellness. Having a base of knowledge means calculated success.
Dedication - This doesn't just mean working hard when you exercise, it means looking for ways to improve a little each day. Assess your nutritional quality, posture, sleep patterns, injuries, personality traits and quality of life and physically write them on paper in order of importance. Re-assess them frequently and strive to improve the ever-changing top priority. This ensures that your habits will continuously become better and more efficient.
Love - Love contributes greatly to most decisions in life. I'm not talking about the sappy, hallmark kind of love. I'm talking about the love you have for yourself, your family, your values..etc. Usually, if you make the decision to begin training it means you want to reverse or change something that has happened to your body. You do this because you love your body. You most likely got this way overindulging in a certain luxury. You loved that luxury too much. If you want to make the journey easier and more enjoyable, learn to love exercise and clean nutrition. Eat for function rather than flavor and appreciate what healthy living does for you every day.
Excel at the 3 components and you will see positive changes in yourself.
September 14, 2010
Do You Have Good Glutes?
A fitness professional's attention to detail can be their best asset or their achilles heel. The efficiency with which our clients perform movements is totally reliant on the cues and corrections we implement. It is our duty to identify any improper patterns and compensations being performed.
A commonly seen problem in just about any fitness facility is poor glute activation. For those unaware of what activation is; it is a muscle's potential for recruitment and activity. In other words, can you contract a given muscle and if so how efficiently? From the biomechanics standpoint, glute inactivity is a large contributor to low back pain, postural misalignment and poor performance during exercise just to name a few. From the aesthetics standpoint, you cannot change a muscle if you do not stimulate the fibers that makeup its composition. So if you're one of the many sufferers of pancake butt and you're wondering why your glutes haven't firmed up after trying every type of squat and/or lunge in the book, there is your answer.
You simply have to learn to use your glutes.
You see, your brain controls all muscular function. It sends a signal via the spinal cord to one or many muscles based on the given task and tells them to lengthen or shorten. This is referred to as a contraction. When a muscle is inactive, the pathway from the brain to that muscle(s) is either non-existent or cloudy and the signal is not received as easily. In order to restore the connection, there needs to be a forced mental effort on behalf of the exerciser to think and feel that muscle working in isolation. Once the isolated function is regained, you can then reintegrate it into a more compound movement.
Now I'm sure you're all waiting in anticipation for the solution to this problem, so here it is. Activation issues can be solved by performing some simple pre-exercise movements to increase blood flow and neural response. Here is a simple one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARvJ-o0enoM
Cues: 1- Lying on your back with your heels close to your butt, toes off the ground.
2- Hands gently resting on glutes (to ensure the amount of activity occurring).
3- Focus on squeezing you butt as you push your heels into the ground and raise your hips up toward the ceiling. Hold for 1-5 seconds with a controlled return.
Repeat this movement for 1-2 sets of 6-10 repetitions. It takes less than a minute and makes a world of difference.
No Butts about it!!
September 10, 2010
It Seems Incredible that You Can Save Time, Be Healthier, Save Money in Only 30 Minutes
I'm eating more vegetables than ever and I am feeling great!
So many people say that eating healthy costs a lot more and takes so much time. I couldn't disagree more.
A large part of eating healthy means eating a lot of vegetables on a daily basis (ie 3-4 meals a day). You can pay up to 500% more if you buy the pre-cut vegetables. Or you could be spending up to 30 minutes a day with a knife and cutting board. With a busy lifestyle, time equals money, so you need a great system in place to help you stay on track.
Here is what I suggest: every Sunday afternoon go buy 7-8 different vegetables. Line up 10-30 ziplock bags (depending on how many family members you have). Put a bit of broccoli in every bag, a bit of cauliflower and so on... in less then 20-30 minutes you and your whole family will have all the vegetables you need for the week. And you will only need to clean your cutting board and knife once!
With this method, you only need to be disciplined once a week, every Sunday. Make sure you change up the veggies you choose from week to week. Now all you need to do is grab a couple of bags before you head out for the day and rinse them before you eat them. And... Oh YA! Rembember to eat them every day.
This will help you get lean, avoid colds, and have more energy. Seriously! Do it!!! Your family will appreciate it.
Thanks,
Jean-Michel Sauve