Ladies Who Lift

According to the National Center for Health Statistics less than a quarter of women regularly strength train.  That my friends, is a distressing number! 

Now more than ever women should step up at the gym, grab the weights and leave the cardio machines behind.  Women are becoming more empowered, making their presence known in the work place, politics and media.

The weight room should be part of this movement.

I’ve never met a female who lifts regularly that is not confident in her own skin and isn’t encouraging others to jump into a program.  Instead of comparing their bodies to others and pointing out their own flaws, women who lift inspire others and encourage them to improve themselves.  It’s pretty simple, you have to do the work to look a certain way but it’s worth it.

Here are three things to look at: what you’ll get out of it, the hesitations you have and how to actually get started.

First lets go over a few of the MANY health benefits to lifting, strength training or “clanging weights” whatever you want to call it:

• Boost your metabolism: Burn more calories long after your workout with the muscle that you build
   
• Improved Libido & Sleep: don’t we all want that?
   
• Reduce Cancer Risk: Less oxidative stress = less ability for those cancer cells to thrive
   
•  Increase Confidence: Lifting is a physical & mental beautifier!
   
• You Feel Strong & Yes, Sexy:
  
  Second let us debunk the many myths that may be holding you back from starting a strength workout program:
   
• You’re afraid you’ll bulk up - Ladies our bodies have up to 30 times less the amount of testosterone – the hormone that increases muscle mass – that men do, we’re simply not built to have bulk.  Your muscles will get more defined and beautiful, dare we say they will be “toned” and tight.
   
• Cardio will burn more fat – The more muscles you have the more energy you expend (metabolism!) so strength training should be the priority because the elliptical machine will never give you that rapid fat loss.
   
• You need to lose weight before you start lifting – I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this one!  You will see quicker results after a month of lifting then you will after a year of cardio. 

Lastly, lets go over how to get you started:

• Hire a trainer – If you are new to strength training or don’t really know how then this is the most efficient way to see results and know you’re getting the most out of your workouts.  They are professionals that will teach you proper form, which is essential to executing a strength-training plan properly.   
   
• Attend a small group class – I emphasize the small group class so that you don’t just become a number.  Classes are a little more budget-friendly then a trainer but you always want to make sure you are doing the exercises properly; a smaller group will encourage that.

Ladies, lifting weights will benefit your health long term and the added bonus is you’ll look damn good too!

Santa Monica Personal Trainers Can Help Guide Intermittent Fasting

Have you ever noticed that those that preach, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” are usually trying to sell you breakfast? Not that breakfast is bad, but research has shown that skipping a few meals now and again could actually benefit your health. This practice is known as “Intermittent Fasting.” Not to be confused with “starve dieting,” intermittent fasting (IF) has shown to be in line with how our ancestors ate.

Unlike our traditional standard of eating three square meals a day, plus snacks, our forefathers and foremothers from long ago tended to consume foods intermittently, while still maintaining the ability to function mentally and physically at a high level.

Research in animals suggest that (IF) can keep at bay, and at times, reverse cancer, diabetes, heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders. It’s believed that by fasting, certain tumors will starve due to the reduced inflammation and removal of damaged molecules.

"Fasting alone is more powerful in preventing and reversing some diseases than drugs," said Satchidananda Panda, an associate professor of regulatory biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California. Panda also added, “"Intermittent fasting helps the body to rejuvenate and repair, thereby promoting overall health."

A person’s circadian rhythms also have a lot to do with the wrong and right times to eat. The body has been known to respond differently, depending on the time of day it’s consumed. Research shows that in the years before artificial light, humans were more dependent on the natural patterns of day and night, causing more consumption in the earlier parts of the day. A study done in 2013 suggested that people who eat earlier in the day had improved results when it came to weight loss in overweight and obese people.

Panda said that it may be challenging for people to fast intermittently, instead of eating three meals every day. Eating breakfast is often promoted as a weight-control aid, but recent evidence has suggested it might not be, the researchers said.

Working closely with a Santa Monica personal trainer is a great way to stay on top of any dietary changes you might make. Setting up a meal plan, will help you get the most out of your workout routine. When searching for Santa Monica gyms, there really is no better place for personal training in Santa Monica than 34 North. 

6 Tips to Stay Healthy While Traveling

Traveling can be the best and worst of experiences. Whether you’re traveling for fun or on the road for business, it’s challenge to stay healthy.  I’ve traveled extensively over the years, and managed to pull it off in a fun and healthy way!  Here are my top tips that will keep you healthy on the road.

1.       Prepare to eat well – This is the most important step in traveling healthy. Spend the time and do your research beforehand.  This can be a challenge, but these ideas can make it a little easier;

a.       Find out what places nearby serve the type of food you want to eat.

b.      Book a hotel with a kitchen and have some grass-fed beef delivered to your location. 

c.       Bring healthy snacks

d.      Limit alcohol with lots of sugar mixers i.e. go for fresh lime juice instead of margarita mix

2.       Stay Active – You know you feel better when you workout. So make it part of your travel schedule.

a.       Hit up the hotel fitness center or local gym. Book a hotel that has a good fitness center—or has a business relationship to a nearby fitness center.

b.      Walk everywhere, unless you are in 6-inch heels. When you’re in a walkable city or town, walk to appointments, restaurants, etc. rather than taking a cab.

c.       Do Squats and Lunges. Go to the back of the plane and rip a few super circuits. Get that blood flowing baby!

3.       Meditate - Meditation is a great way to reduce stress, sharpen your mind, and increase your mental awareness. Also, you can do it just about anywhere. Set aside 10-20 min each day. Focus on your breathing and relax. A perfect time to do it is while on the plane. Screaming babies will be “chill” after your mediation session.

4.       Get enough sleep – A bad way to start your trip is to go out the night before and tie one on. I can tell you this from experience(s).  Rest is as crucial as exercise when traveling. Your body can be beat up and stressed from being out of its normal environment.  So first things first, get a good sleep before you leave, and then schedule times for rest and relaxation when you are on the road.  Do your best to get a least 7-8hrs of sleep. I know it can be hard but it will make a huge difference.  “Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” - Thomas Dekker

5.       Drink plenty of water - "I think it’s very important to drink lots of water." —Victoria Beckham.    I know that’s not the most scientific of reasons.  We all know how important is it to drink water, but it becomes essential when you fly. Planes have low humidity, which causes dehydration. Dehydration can cause problems ranging from mild discomfort caused by dry skin and scratchy eyes to potentially life-threatening issues, such as problems with breathing for people who have respiratory conditions like asthma. Dehydration can also lead to fatigue, says William L. Sutker, MD, chief of infectious diseases at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

6.       Bolster your immune system- Airports are always crowded. The air quality is terrible, filled with germs, viruses, and bacteria. A healthy immune system is the best way to fight off sickness.  Try this:

a.       Bring hand sanitizer - Wash hands before and after getting on and off the plane.

b.      Take your supplements – Here is a solid list.

c.       Drink Greens Powder – Some greens always do a body good. Check out the 20 best greens powders on the market.

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang.

Safe travels my friends.

Stay healthy,

Kevin

Kevin Atkinson is a Coach/Business Development at 34-North, Performance Expert,  BS Degree, Exercise Sport and Science, Oregon State University, NASM – CPT, Co-Founder at Renegade Roasting Co and avid world traveler. 

Gymtimidation

Gyms can be intimidating.  Regardless if you’re just beginning your journey to fitness or you’re a hardcore gym rat, walking into a class of individuals performing complex exercises in hive like unison can freak you out a little.

I call it “gym-timidation.”

I’m guilty of being intimidated in the gym and as a result I became discouraged in the pursuit of something I deeply wanted to do. It made me feel terrible.

There are ways to beat intimidation in any form. Whether you are preparing for a fight, attempting a super advanced lift, taking your first strength class, or giving a presentation at work, a proper mental state can transform your feelings of intimidation into ones of inspiration and accomplishment.

Here’s a few tips on how beat fear and accomplish your goals.

State of mind

A determined and calm state of mind is paramount for beating intimidation. Telling yourself “you can do this” and mentally visualizing yourself accomplishing the task at hand are two very powerful ways to help build confidence and calm your mind. Create a daily mantra stating your goals and say it first thing when you wake up in the morning and before you go to sleep at night.

It’s a journey not a destination

Don’t focus on the end result but instead live in the moment. As esoteric as this sounds, it’s an extremely practical skill for any task that requires your attention. When practicing, focus only on what you’re doing in that moment to improve that specific skill. My personal challenge was doing routines on the gymnastic rings. When I thought about the whole routine and how insanely difficult it was, the result was jerky movements filled with nervous tension. But when I could just “chill” and break down the movements one at a time, everything flowed and transitioned beautifully.

The importance of focusing on the little things can’t be overstated. The most successful trainees are those who take very small progressive steps. Training in this manner creates a foundation strong enough to develop high-level techniques while simultaneously ensuring continuous progression.

Consult with you coaches

Feeling intimidated about performing advanced movements or doing something new is completely normal. Talk to your coach to lessen your anxiety. It’s our job as coaches to COACH you. Not just teach you how to move, but to provide you with all the necessary tools to be successful in your endeavor.

The answer to beating intimidation lies within.  You have the power to change how you feel.  Focus on your skills, be consistent with your training, be patient with yourself and talk to your coaches / mentors.

Follow these methods and you can accomplish anything you want.

The Ultimate Hack for Back Pain & Other Chronic Ailments

I’ll have to start with my usual disclaimer that I’m not a doctor, nor do play one on the internet. This post is lengthy, but it is one of the most important discoveries of my life. This story starts near the time of my birth. My earliest memories of my father involve his back pain. The restricted activities, the special chairs, ointments, gadgets and all the corrective stretches. Oh, and the professional care. The doctors, chiropractors, surgeons, massage therapists, osteopaths, energy workers and acupuncturists. For him, it actually started in 1970, when he was 28 years old. My mother was pregnant with me, and against his wishes, his mother decided it best to move in with both of them. He experienced a low back spasm and sciatica so intense that he passed out from the pain. By the time I was a year old, the pain had become chronic and the multitude of treatments began. In 1987, he had a back surgery after a MRI showed a disc protrusion. Then, as often happens with back surgery, things got even worse. Today, at the age of 73, the chronic back pain still controls a large portion his everyday life. 

I was never exposed to any team sports as a child, which I’m sure had quite a lot to do with my father’s chronic pain. By the time I was in middle school, team sports were mandatory for PE and the previous lack of exposure made for a horrible experience. Any kid who has been subject to intense bullying knows the dread of PE. It’s no surprise that I became obsessed with weight training as a young adult. My biggest fear? Hurting my lower back. For good reason, I held a belief system that the human spine is poorly designed and inherently fragile.

I always warmed up judiciously and wore my lumbar support belt without fail. Yet I hurt my low back over and over again. Sometimes it would hurt for a couple of days and other times for a couple of weeks. Heavy squats were my nemesis but I also hurt it in random indirect ways, like on a 45 degree leg-press sled or just racking dumbbells. In 1994, when I was 24 years old, I had a life-altering event. On a cold and rainy San Francisco morning, I was training my back and began with heavy bent-over barbell rows like I had so many times before. I felt an intense pop in my lower back and immediately fell to the floor. I spent most of the next two months lying down and contemplating how I’d get through the following day, let alone continue my career as personal trainer. I felt as though I had fulfilled my father’s legacy. 

My father was quick to recommend several of the specialists he was seeing. I saw chiropractors of half a dozen different disciplines, massage therapists, acupuncturists and energy workers. Nothing made it better. After two years of treatments and continued symptoms that ranged from needles in my feet to sub-scapular spasms, I finally got a MRI. It revealed a disc herniation between L4 and L5. Three of my other discs showed severe degeneration and I also had degenerative osteoarthritis. The orthopedic surgeon recommended immediate surgery and flatly stated that I could no longer lift weights nor engage in any strenuous activity without risk of becoming crippled. Based on the outcome of my father’s back surgery, I wasn’t eager to follow in his footsteps. There were also things that just didn’t make any sense about the injury. Sometimes the pain would vanish for a day or two at a time. I also didn’t understand why I was getting all of these other weird physical symptoms in places that had nothing to do with the nerves that were exposed to this specific disc protrusion. Every professional care provider had a different but equally vague answer. “The human spine is very complicated and we’re still learning a lot about how to treat it.” This wasn’t a very comforting explanation when considering letting one of these guys cut me open. 

About a year later, I was still in constant pain, but against the surgeon’s advice, I continued to exercise. I was just very, very careful. Most of it was seated, I always wore my lumbar support belt and had also added a variety of salves, ointments and anti-inflammatories. It seemed that I was rarely in pain when I was actually exercising, though I’d intuitively expect the opposite. My life was much different. I was no longer training people and instead wore a suit and tie, commuting to an office every day with my special carseat for added lumbar support. On one of these drives, I was listening to a guest named Dr. John Sarno on The Howard Stern Show. Evidently, this wasn’t he first time he’d been on since he had “cured" Howard’s chronic low back pain. I didn’t understand quite how he did it, but person after person called into the show with stories about how Sarno had also fixed their back pain.  

Figuring anything was worth a try, I ordered his book "Healing Back Pain" and read through it in a few days. In about two weeks, I was about 80% better. A couple of months later, I was completely symptom free. Yes, you read that correctly. After years of pain, I was symptom free because I read a book. Here’s where I will now humbly attempt to summarize a man’s life work in a blog post. Dr. Sarno earned his medical degree from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1950 and later became board certified in Rehabilitation Medicine. By the early 70’s, he realized that his patients rarely improved. Here were some of the questions he began to ask about chronic back and neck pain: 

• Why has lower back pain quickly reached epidemic proportions, ranking only second to the common cold as the reason for missed work? 
• Why, after millions of years of evolution where humans have continually endured physical hardship, would we suddenly become unable to preform basic day-to day-functions without pain? 
• If there are structural evolutionary inadequacies in our bodies, why is it that they have started causing chronic pain in only the last fifty years? 
• Why would directly working the affected area with ultrasound, massage therapy and exercise often provide temporary relief for a structural injury as opposed to further aggravate it? 
• Why is chronic back pain only prevalent in industrialized nations and why have the numbers climbed so dramatically in the last twenty years? 
• How could the physiological structure responsible for protecting your central nervous system be completely devastated by something as innocuous as picking up a child or sleeping on a soft or hard surface? 
• If your spine is injured, why would only very specific activities like sitting in a chair or standing cause pain in that area, but not other actions that involved the same area such as riding a bike or cooking? Or vice versa? 
• When a MRI shows identical spine abnormalities in different patients (such as the exact same disc protrusion between L4 and L5), why are the symptoms so wildly different? They might include sciatica in the left leg and in others the right. Some might have local pain while others get cramps in their calfs. Some have shooting pain in the buttocks and others have no symptoms at all. 
• Why do most patients’ pain get considerably worse after a diagnosis supported by a X-Ray or MRI? 

What Dr. Sarno discovered is a phenomenon called Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). Myositis simply means a physiological alteration of muscles. While this alteration is often incredibly painful, it is also harmless. The way TMS works physiologically is by acting out through the body’s autonomic nervous system. This is the part of the central nervous system responsible for all those involuntary functions of organs like your heart, stomach, lungs and liver. It also controls the circulation of blood. Most TMS manifestations are a mild restriction of blood flow to a target tissue, resulting in a lack of oxygen to that area. If that tissue is a muscle or tendon, this will cause mild pain to severe spasming. If a nerve is involved in the oxygen deprivation, in addition to pain, there may also be numbness, tingling and weakness. That’s why exercise usually helps as opposed to hurts. It is temporarily forcing oxygen rich blood to the target areas that are being deprived. In the case of an actual structural injury, say a torn ligament, this would not be the case. 

So why would the autonomic nervous system do such a horrible thing to us? Well, that’s where things get really interesting. Believe it or not, it’s our unconscious mind trying to protect us through the art of distraction. Over the accumulative years of our everyday lives, there are many things that make us angry- most of which we are never consciously aware of. Like a well that is slowly filled over time but never emptied, this anger accumulates and eventually turns to rage. When the amount of rage in that well reaches a critical level and threatens to spill over into consciousness, the brain might create this diversion of pain. 

I know what you’re thinking: that it makes no sense for your brain to cause debilitating, chronic physical pain just to avoid confronting some previously unconscious rage. To fully understand this, we’ll need to go back to some of the roots of this work. Freud conceived of three components of the emotional mind, later labeled as the parent, adult and child. The parent and adult are found in both the conscious and unconscious mind and play a role in TMS, but it is the child that is key here. Just like an actual child, this part of the unconscious is self-involved, dependent, charming and very often illogical and irrational. Unlike a real child, it is also endlessly angry. This angry, irrational part of your unconscious would opt for you to face this incredibly painful distraction than what it deems to be an intolerable amount rage. 

So what kind of people are subject to this kind of unconscious rage? Pretty much all of us. Sarno believes most of it comes from three different sources:

1. Rage that was generated during the time of infancy and childhood. 
2. The daily rage that comes from the pressure we put on ourselves to stay driven or be perfectionists. 
3. The rage that results from all of the little unacknowledged pressures of everyday life. 

Although we’re all subject to repressed rage from these sources, certain personality types have been shown to be more susceptible to TMS. Here are some of the traits that often tend to cause symptoms: 

• Perfectionists: Projects have to be done perfectly, always needing to complete one task or another. Ignores own needs and feelings to complete tasks and putts well over 100% into everything they do. A clear picture of how everything should be and always has too much on their plate. 
• People Pleasers: Usually adhere to what social, cultural or religious norms deem to be as “good” spouses, parents, children, employees, friends, etc., while failing to address their own needs. Often attempt to be the peacemakers during arguments, don’t speak their mind in confrontations and usually go along with others to avoid disagreements. 
• Legalists: Always feel their view is right and tend to think the world would be better if more people thought like they did. Takes them a long time to make a decision because they are so worried about making the wrong choice. 
• Stoics: Have a hard time expressing their emotions so they often hold them in. Embarrassed to cry in front of friends or family and feel a sense of control in their life when able to control their emotions. 
• Driven by Anxiety & Fear: Always worried that a situation might yield the worst possible outcome. Nervous meeting new people, afraid people will reject them if what they were really all about were discovered. Fearful of the worst possible outcome of doctor's visits. 
• Low Self-Esteem: Question their ability to do things competently, get anxious in crowded rooms or when meeting new people. Do not feel like they are as well liked as others and do not feel like they deserve praise or compliments. 
• Hostile and Aggressive: Low tolerance for those who make mistakes, easily subject to road-rage, little events make them react in an extreme manner. When involved in a conflict they are always convinced the problem is someone else’s as opposed to theirs. 
• Dependents: Like it when other people make decisions for them. Being alone is frustrating and upsetting for them, prefer others to take the lead when making plans, avoid jobs that they know will be a challenge. End up in relationships where they are the one being taken care of. 

So now you know why it happens and how it works. So how do you fix it? Well, you actually just started to. The foundation of a TMS cure is knowledge. The biggest pill to swallow is that you don’t have a physiological problem, you have a psychological one. The only thing harder to believe is that accepting this diagnosis begins to pull the veil back from the ploy of the unconscious, thus making the distraction of pain ineffective. It’s like you’re saying to your brain, “Sorry, buddy. I know what you're doing and the jig is up.” Many people, like myself, were cured just by reading the book. Others require a bit more work and benefit greatly from psychotherapy. 

There are many factors that play into how hard TMS might try and hang on. The amount of repressed rage has a lot to do with it as does one's willingness to mentally let go of the idea that there is something physically wrong with them. If you have lived with chronic pain for months, years, or even decades, this can be an incredibly difficult thing to reconcile. The pain and all the routines around it have become part of your identity. Some people’s pain comes out of nowhere, but more often there is what Sarno calls a “trigger”. This is the occurrence that mentally anchors the original cause for the ongoing chronic pain. Some triggers make no sense at all. Why would the strongest bundle of muscles in the human body get “thrown out” from the act of picking up a child or lifting a box? Other triggers are more believable such as car accidents and sports injuries. In my case, I was totally convinced that lifting 315 lbs from a vulnerable position on a cold morning could absolutely crush one of my discs and cause pain for the rest of my life.

However, the fact remains that even if the lift did herniate my disc, the symptoms that resulted made no medical sense in relation to that specific injury. Actually, it is much more likely that the herniation was already there, along with all the degenerative discs that the scan revealed. The MRI only psychologically validated that I had a crippling injury, reinforcing the efficacy of the brain’s distraction tactic. The fact is that most people have disc protrusions but never have symptoms. A study at the University of Copenhagen compared X Rays of 238 patients that complained of back pain with those of 66 other patients that had no pain at all. The difference in the X Rays? None. Every single one had degeneration of the discs and the presence of spondylosis (bone spurs). In 1994, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report that showed disc bulges and protrusions on MRI’s in 64 out of 98 men and women who had never had back pain. 

I’m in no way saying that it isn’t possible to physically injure your back, but it is very important to remember that the body has an amazing capacity to heal itself. My wife was back to walking on the fibula that had a transverse fracture only five weeks earlier, and was sleep-deprived while taking care of a one year old during the entire healing process. When months or years go by without relief after stepping off of the curb wrong way or sleeping on that soft mattress at your in-laws’ house, there if most likely a psychological cause at hand. 

Aside from the reading and therapy, there are some other actions you can take. Most of them have to do with refraining from anything that cements the idea that you have a physiological problem. Have you stopped exercising for fear of re-injuring yourself? It’s time to start back up. Are there specific stretches and exercises you do for your back injury? Stop them all. Do you have a special lumbar support seat for your car or office chair? Get rid of it. Do you wear support belts or braces? Take them off. Dr. Sarno even eventually stopped recommending any physical therapy for his patients because he felt it was doing more harm than good by validating the idea of a physical problem. 
Here are a few other actions you can take:

1. Contemplate Your Rage: The bummer about dealing with the unconscious is that you’ll never really know what’s lurking in there. However, you can make some good guesses and start to really be with those things that make you angry. This isn't so easy when you're in pain. The greater the pain, the harder it will be to concentrate on feelings, but that’s all part of the brain's strategy. 
2. Self-Talk: This is a matter of your conscious mind addressing your unconscious mind. Don’t be afraid to speak out loud and tell your brain that you are on to its shenanigans. Demand that it increases the oxygenated supply of blood to the areas that are in pain. Be forceful and even try yelling out loud. Remember, you are dealing with a selfish and irrational part of your emotional mind. 
3. List it Out: Get all that rage out on paper. Make a list of all the pressures you feel and manifestations of the personality traits I listed earlier. Life is beautiful, but it is also often infuriating. Your partner and children might be the greatest source of joy in your conscious life, yet the greatest causes of rage in your unconscious mind. It’s hard to admit you might resent your own children to the point of rage, but its much more common that you’d believe. 
4. Journaling and Meditation: Are you too busy to write for a few minutes each day or just sit in silence? Then this one is especially important for you. The alleviation of TMS is based on your ability to think your way out of it. If you do not have the mental space in your life for a little introspection, this will be incredibly difficult to achieve. Create some protected time for you to work through this and it will pay dividends. 

Over the years, I’ve had some reoccurrences of back pain, some worse than others. Some people never experience pain again after fully embracing the cause of TMS, but I seem to need some gentle reminding now and then. This last holiday break, I was at the gym just hours before flying out to spend time with family. It was going to be a long trip in order to cover my wife’s family and my own in two different parts of the country. My wife was in a cast after breaking that ankle, and we were traveling with our baby and daughter. I didn’t finish all the work that I had intended to before leaving, and I get stressed out as it is when going home to visit my family. As I contemplated all of this during my first set of deadlifts, I felt a sharp spasm in my low back. By the time I arrived at my in-laws, it hurt to breath. I spent all night unable to sleep, drenched in a painful sweat. For three days, I popped muscle relaxers and pain pills and even tried lying in the snow to relieve the spasming. I was so convinced that I hurt myself deadlifting, that I forgot all about TMS. But the pain started shifting into all sorts of weird places that didn’t make physiological sense. That night, I opened up my Kindle and decided to download Sarno’s more clinical dive into the syndrome. I got 33% into the book that night and in the morning, the pain was gone. 

I just can’t describe how insane of an experience it is to go from that level of pain and then have it just turn off. The transformation was just as mind blowing as it had been twenty years prior. As fate would have it, I ended up marrying a psychotherapist who specializes in pain psychology. Just a few weeks later, I started getting spasms in my my left gluteus and oblique after a challenging workout. I insisted to my wife that it was TMS, and she began leading me through a series of questions when I yelled, “I’m just so damned angry that I understand what is causing this, yet it still happens! I know there’s nothing physically wrong with me, yet I keep falling for this trick that my brain plays on me!” I immediately felt the warm rush of blood into the spasmed area and the pain vanished. I actually felt it, like someone opened up a valve. This experience really validated how valuable talk therapy can be for this syndrome. 

In Sarno’s later work, he identifies many other medically mysterious chronic disorders that are most likely varieties of TMS, operating under the same psychological premise. Some chronic ailments on that list include shoulder, neck and arm pain, gastrointestinal disorders, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, migraine headaches and even some skin disorders. If the cause and effect of your problem is murky in medical logic and wrought with contradicting remedies, it’s worth examining TMS as the possible culprit. Location substitution is fairly common with tougher TMS cases. This is when pain stops in one area only to start in another. This is the brain’s attempt at continuing to distracting you from the unconscious rage by moving the pain to another area or even spinning up a completely new malady. Some patients speak of how they underwent a shoulder surgery only to have pain appear in their “good” shoulder shortly afterwards. Others report to be free of their chronic back pain only to get an ulcer later in the year. After my most recent experiences, a psychological cause for a physical ailment is now my default consideration as opposed to my last. 

The financial momentum behind back and neck pain remedies alone is staggering. Between 1997 and 2005, treatment costs increased 65%, reaching $86 billion a year. The larger category of chronic pain affects over 100 million American adults. This is more than the number affected by the combined cases of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. If the work around mind-body practices and self-healing gained even incremental traction, the suffering of millions of people could be eliminated. If you have suffered from chronic low back pain, I sincerely hope this helps you as much as it did me. Keep in mind that everybody’s recovery looks different. Don’t give up if it is taking a while. Although it’s very hard to believe while in severe pain, TMS and its many equivalents are essentially harmless. Don’t take a diagnosis as the final word of your fate. It has now been proven without doubt that structural abnormalities in the spine are massively common, yet seldom painful. Things can and will get better. You can be free of pain again. 

-Elijah

Resources:

Healing Back Pain (the original book I read in the late 90s)
The Mind Body Connection (the more in-depth clinical book I recently read)
Danielle Szasz (my wife and practicing pain psychotherapist) 

7 Ways to Get the Most Value Out of Your Personal Trainer

Many consider personal training to be a luxury, an optional expense for those lucky enough to afford it.

But if you’re truly serious about getting in optimal shape or need to reverse the damage of an unhealthy lifestyle, personal training is an absolute necessity, especially if you lack the knowledge and motivation to do it on your own. 

You may be thinking, “You’re crazy, I can’t afford personal training!” 

No, I’m not crazy.  If you can’t do it on your own, how can you afford not to get a personal trainer?  The price of training is nothing compared to the long-term costs of chronic illness.   

Whether you have money to burn or are on a tight budget you still want to squeeze the most value out of your personal training dollar.  Here’s how to do it:

1.      Show up early and do your movement prep/mobility routine before the session to maximize your time.  Nothing puzzles me more than the clients who show up for their sessions right on time or even a few minutes late.  A responsible personal trainer isn’t going to skip the mobility work and warm-up just because you didn’t arrive early to do it on your own.  This is a waste of valuable training time and your money. 

2.      Disconnect from the outside world.  Be present and devote all of your focus on the session.  You have to train with intention if you ever want to enjoy your time and see results.  Nothing detracts from a training session like a cell phone.

3.      Switch your mindset from a workout to movement practice.  A “workout” is a task, something to cross off a To-Do List.  Movement practice is something you approach with an eye on mastery.   Remember, fitness is a journey not a destination.  It’s not about “being perfect” it’s about focusing your attention to squeeze every drop of value from each rep and set throughout the entire training session.  There’s a distinct difference between surviving a set of ten squats and mastering ten perfect squats.  Surviving is to simply do the minimum standard and check the box.  Masterful execution focuses on maximizing every single rep.  Which do you think is more beneficial?  This is the single biggest reason why individuals within a group can do the same training program and have wildly different results.  I see this divergence between clients or members in our small group fitness program all the time!

4.       Ask your trainer for homework!  Any personal trainer worth hiring will be more than happy to give you homework – mobility drills, extra movement training, nutrition advice, or life hacks – tasks that augment the work you’re doing in the gym.  Take advantage of this valuable resource you have at your disposal.  After all, you’re paying for it.   

5.      Execute your homework and report back to your trainer to let them know you did it.  Here’s a secret, holding up your end of the deal will instantly make you a favorite client because 99% of clients never follow through.  Good personal trainers LOVE clients that want more and actually follow through.  I will bend over backwards for clients like that and I know all the trainers at my gym feel the same way. 

6.      Surrender control during your training session and accept the lessons your trainer wants to teach that day.  This is a tough one for you type A personalities.  There is nothing worse than a client that tries to dictate how they should be trained.  Trainers go on autopilot with clients that won’t give up control. 

7.      Once you’ve found a personal trainer you like, commit to the long haul.  A body transformation doesn’t happen in 12, 24 or even 36 sessions in some cases.  It takes time and consistency.  Phony infomercials and wild marketing claims have given people unrealistic expectations on the time it takes to see results.  Be mindful that your level of neglect and bad habits prior to training is a big factor in determining how long it takes to undo the damage.  The other biggest factor is your commitment to the work outside of the gym, nutrition and rest in particular.   Changing life habits isn’t easy.  You’ll be challenged both inside and outside the gym, but remember to stick with it!  If you quit before the job is done you’ve thrown away all the money you spent on previous sessions.  A terrible business decision.

Apply these principles to your personal training sessions and the fitness return of investment will be priceless: A strong body and optimal health. 

Sounds like money well spent. 

Be Strong, Move beautifully

Tanner Martty

Santa Monica Gyms Recommend Massage to Improve Post Workout Recovery

Why wait until you’re sore to go out and get a massage? The first couple of days after a workout can be the toughest, especially if you’re just getting back into exercising on a regular basis. Those muscles that you forgot (or never knew) you had can feel inflamed, leaving you barley able to move. Which then leads to the potential of delayed visits back to the gym. The importance of momentum in regards to regular physical activity shouldn’t be ignored. Taking proper steps and safeguards to ensure a positive, relatively painless exercise regimen is imperative to keeping your long-term health goals within reach. 

A couple of ways to ensure you stay connected to your fitness plan is making sure your post-workout routine includes plenty of stretching and massage, while pairing up with a Santa Monica personal trainer. A study done in 2012 by Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a researcher at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, showed that getting just a 10-minute massage following your workout can improve your recovery time. Before and after putting eleven healthy subjects through strenuous workouts, Dr. Tarnopolsky administered biopsies on all of the participants’ legs. Following their workouts, subjects were given a 10-minute Swedish massage. The results were as follows:

“The brief massage affected two specific genes in the muscle cells. The first gene decreases inflammation caused by exercise; similar to the relief you get from certain pain medications. The second gene turned up production of mitochondria in the muscles. These are the power houses of cells. They use oxygen and the broken down products of food to generate energy needed by the cells. As muscle cells become adapted to endurance exercise, the number of mitochondria increases.”

Many Santa Monica gyms, like 34 North, recommend getting a massage to help speed up your post workout recovery. Staying healthy should the number one priority for you and your personal trainer. When seeking out personal training in Santa Monica, make sure your trainer is staying connected to you and keeping your well-being in mind throughout your entire fitness plan and process. Not only should they be involved in your daily workout routine, but also they should hold you accountable to staying in the best condition to reach your fitness goals.

Source (Massage Improves Post-Workout Recovery – Men’s Fitness)

Building or Burning that is the question?

Building or Burning that is the question? or getting over the guilt and getting back to work or whatever else you want to call it!!

For as long as humans have existed on planet earth, the cold and inhospitable climates of winter have encouraged our kind to bulk up and eat incessantly during the harvest season.  This tradition is still in existence today despite the abundance we enjoy all year round, the only difference is that now we eat out of obligation to the holidays and feel guilty about it.

I say “we,”  but in truth not everyone I know feels this way, especially not those that train hard and take meticulous care of their bodies and there's a pretty good reason for this too.  For starters I think its important to separate two distinct aspects of our physical bodies with regard to diet and exercise.

1- Is your Physical development, your raw physique  your functional athletic self.

2- Is your Body fat percentage.

These distinctions are important because when I hear people talk about losing all of the results they have attained in the gym, due to falling off the training wagon, and indulging in fine delicacies for a few weeks it tells me they have not made this distinction about themselves yet. 

Firstly this is because they are either too new to the training game or haven’t been training very effectively.  Those who train effectively, and are well developed know full well that time off and extra calories are just fuel for the engine, and that the good hard work they have put into their bodies will take care of them even with a little layoff.  Also its important to recognize that simply by stressing about overindulging, you are more likely to store your christmas ham as fat, due to the release of cortisol that stress brings about.  Cortisol is a stress hormone that we all release which can temporarily weaken our immune response and increase body fat storage.

Transforming your body into the legendary masterpiece you desire is not a part time summer job for high schoolers, it is a full time career, one that has no foreseeable retirement date.  The only solace I can give you about it is that it gets easier and more rewarding as time goes by to look and feel the way you want to with only slight adjustments to your behavior.

Making the distinction between physical development and body fat percentage is the important lesson here though because most people are rating their success with fitness on a body fat scale, which fluctuates regularly, while physical strength, power and muscular development takes longer to amass, but can last a lifetime, with only moderate upkeep.  This personal anecdote will help elucidate this point for me.

I’ve had a healthy obsessions with strength and health since the age of 15, and despite my love of all things healthy, I’ve always been on  the bulkier side of things, strength and size came easy, but cuts were hard to come by.  You know those kids in high school that do jack shi* and have a six pack…. well that was never me, though i knew a few of them and they certainly weren’t training like I was. It would seem, still today  that  my body loves to hover around 13% bodyfat,(a measurement you should acquaint yourself with if you check yourself out  in the mirror every time you pee).  Nonetheless i’ve have always had a pretty muscular physique and i just assumed having a six pack or being cut up was not in the cards for me. 

This all changed when my girlfriend (now baby mama) and I decided we must have candida overgrowth issues, because how could we not?  Afterall candida is a yeast in the large intestines which thrives on sugars and can out populate our healthy intestinal flora and cause a wide array of health issues.  Its preference for all things carbohydrate, is the main reason we suspected our selves to be victims.  The main way beat Candida is by starving it of its favorite food.  4 long weeks of no sugar and no carbs starts to really change you, a lot, mentally and physically,  and to really shake things up i decided to go for a 5 day liver detox afterwards, basically eating nothing, but drinking fresh juice and taking herbal teas and tinctures.  The whole experience was pretty hardcore and in the end i felt great, my body fat dropped to a miraculous  7% which  was astounding for me, and lo abs, cuts and all,  i even took some myspace mirror selfies to commemorate my success.  Bam!!

Anyway the purpose of this story was to make the point about body fat % vs physical development.  If your whole purpose in going to the gym  is to burn off the extra calories you ate during Christmas, or dessert last night  then you are working towards a goal which has no long term benefits, and  the moment you stop exercising is the moment you stop receiving the bounty that this form of training has to offer you.  Essentially this relationship to  exercise is the equivalent of living check to check without putting anything away for retirement.  Functional strength training pays the bills now and for all time, and  you may have noticed from my story that i didn’t mention exercise at all during cleanse, and i did very little,  it was all diet that transformed my body, thanks to all of the foundational strength and physique work i had already done.  To repeat that point….IT WAS ALL DIET!  Since we know you’re never going to kick the habit of indulging in holiday pies, you might want to focus your training efforts on developing something a little more timeless  than a lower body fat percentage.  And should you decide you want to shred some unwanted body fat, remember most of you are really only 5 or 6 weeks of strict dieting from being the leanest you have ever been, possibly even having a mean six-pack.  That said, enjoy yourself and continue to strive for improvements in your physical development, strength, your freedom in movement, and your passion for life!

Thanks for tuning in;

Brian Zerega
Strength Coach, and Bodyworker at 34 North Gym, Santa Monica Ca.

9 Natural Cold Remedies to Get You Through This Season

“I never get sick!” These are the famous words I often exclaim right before getting sick. The viral culprits hang out in invisible droplets in the air we breath and on the things we touch. With over 200 strains out there, they can make make you miserable on a scale of a-drippy-nose to phlegm-coming-out-of-your-eyes. Between the office and kids in preschool, exposure is pretty much inevitable and the best offense is usually a good defense. My first job at the age of 14 was in natural food and supplement retail, so I have a long history of experimenting with any remedy that dodges antibiotics and sugary lozenges.  Disclaimer 1: Links are for your convenience - I’m not an affiliate. Disclaimer 2: I’m not a doctor nor do I play one on the internet; these findings are based on my own self-experimentation. Here are my favorites:

1. Echinacea/Golden Seal  Echinacea is extracted from the Eastern Purple Coneflower, found in North America. It is used to both prevent and reduce symptoms of colds and flus. It was commonly used by Native Americans and even adopted by early settlers before the boom of pharmaceuticals. Echinacea raises the body’s natural immune function by increasing white blood cell activity. This increases interferon and stimulates blood cells to take out the invading microbes. It’s often paired with Golden Seal, another Native American favorite used to boost the immune system and fight infection. Golden Seal can also be diluted and used as a gargling tincture to help sooth inflamed mucous membranes and facilitate healing. I prefer the liquid suspension in alcohol, but you can get it without. I don’t mind the taste but it sends some people into conniptions, so you might want to dilute it in a little juice. 

2. Ascorbic Acid Yup, this is good old vitamin C, the oldest cold remedy on the block and the active ingredient in many products like Emergen-C. However, with pure high quality ascorbic acid, you bypass all the sugar, binders and artificial flavors that often come with chewable and other powdered versions. This antioxidant helps protect cells from damage caused by free radicals and bolsters the immune system. Because it is a water soluble vitamin, it is possible to mega-dose when starting to come down something at 1,000mg, several times a day. There’s a lot of recent pushback as to its efficacy, but it’s one that I feel really helps - especially in the early stages. If you take 1,000mg in plain water, be prepared to make an award winning bitter-face. 

3. Oregano Oil This powerful antiviral contains carvacrol and thymol to help ward off many micro-organisms that are out to do you harm. It improves sinus congestion and will also help relieve a sore throat. Warning: if you put that liquid dropper right into your mouth, it will burn like the devil. If you dilute it in some juice, it is much more bearable but won’t taste anything like the marinara sauce you might expect. The mere suggestion of this remedy has instantly cured my daughter’s sore throat. Talk about a powerful placebo! 

4. Garlic Another immune-booster, this superfood also has antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal effects. As always, whole fresh foods are the best form to ingest. However, pounding a half a dozen crushed cloves a day just might end in divorce, the loss of your job, or both. There are some good odorless garlic tablets out there that will still leave a bit of an aftertaste or funky burp, but nothing close to the ensuing dragon breath of the raw or cooked variety. 

5. Zinc Most colds symptoms derive from the rhinovirus that likes to hang out in your upper respiratory system. When taken in the form of a lozenge or syrup, zinc can help help prevent the virus from multiplying. Avoid the ones that are really just candy with some zinc added in. Zinc is also used as a fire-retardant in lumber, but keep using your fireproof suit when doing any stunts, regardless of how much you are taking for your cold. 

6. Apple Cider Vinegar this stuff is one of those cure-all products that I can’t recommend enough. It’s a very powerful detoxifying and alkalizing food that helps steer the body away from the acidic state that cold viruses thrive in. Like many of these other liquids, you probably want to dilute it. Shooting a straight tablespoon will stop most people in their tracks. If your friends think they are tough when throwing back Jaegermeister or whisky, give them a shot glass of ACV and see how they fare. 

7. Lots of Water Being sick does all sorts of things to your body to cause dehydration. Fever, coughing and sneezing are some of the less gross things that increase your need for more fluids. When your tank runs low, your immune system will be further compromised, so keep the water coming. I’ve found the best defense against dehydration is convenience, so get yourself a BPA free container to keep the fluids coming. 

8. Sinus Rinse This is so old school, and so effective. A sinus rinse usually involves mixing a prepackaged saline solution with distilled water and using a delivery system to blast it in one nostril and out the other nostril. If you are congested, this will surely loosen everything from your nose, ears and throat. Not only will this help mend a sinus infections when avoiding antibiotics, but it will do wonders to avoid getting one in the first place. The cold and dry winter air often dehydrates your nasal passages, making them more vulnerable to allergens and other nasties that can sit there and eventually cause infection. If they are already impacted with snot, getting that stuff moving will reduce the chance of an infection and make you feel much better. I prefer the squeeze tube variety over the pot because it is easier to clean. The last thing you want to do is squirt mold into your infected or dry sinuses. Pro-tip: It’s kind of gross and doesn’t make for a good first-date activity. Pro-tip 2: Do it over a sink, not your silk couch. 

9. Bone Broth Not only is this delicious and great for your joints, but a homemade stock contains calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur and tons of trace minerals - a.k.a. sickness fighting awesomeness. Primarily using pasture-raised chicken bones will also ensure a good dose of cysteine which helps to thin mucus so that you can get rid of it easier. Add some pepper and spice to it to increase the snot expiatory effect. Here’s a link on how to make it yourself, in massive quantities nonetheless. 

Elijah Szasz runs SPARK6, a digital creative agency for good and can be found here.