6 FREE WORKOUTS FOR YOU TO DO OVER XMAS!

Back in days of yore in I think my 2nd attempt to get this blog up and running I did a series of free workouts.

They were designed to be completed at home with no equipment as well as being extremely time efficient.

This makes them perfect for the holiday break!!

Below are links to each workout that you are free to use before you finally come to realisation that nothing compares to the real stuff and you decide to make health and fitness a priority for 2017.

In the meantime get started with these simple workouts;

Workout #1 - http://fcfpt.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/free-home-workout.html

Workout #2 - http://fcfpt.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/here-it-is-free-home-workout-2.html

Woekout #3 - http://fcfpt.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/full-circle-fitness-home-workout-3.html

Workout #4 - http://fcfpt.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/full-circle-fitness-hoe-workout-4.html

Workout #5 - http://fcfpt.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/full-circle-fitness-home-workout-5.html

Workout #6 - http://fcfpt.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/full-circle-fitness-home-workout-6.html

No excuses in 2017!!

12 Tips to Tune Your Nervous System (article)

As you have probably gathered from my previous posts, I'm all for fine tuning your nervous system and this article from Anthony Mychal gives 12 tips to do this.

It's written from a physical performance output point of view but it holds true whether you're main focus is competitive sport, casual training or even just to perform at work at the highest level you can.

Some of these I've touched on before in various details and some I haven't so please give the original article read here but my biggest takeaways are:

- Enhancing performance is about balancing stress and recovery.

- The autonomic nervous system has 2 main branches with the sympathetic division which "excites"  (fight or flight response) and the parasympathetic that "inhibits" (rest and digest).

- You need to know when to excite and when to inhibit but most people stay "on' even when you don't need to be so you're going to run out of gas even though you're not physically expending any energy.

- Understanding the balance between the 2 sub-systems is is critical for optimal function

- A bad day energy wise is fine, it's simply you're body telling you "I'm just not up to it today and I can't really handle much stress today' so you HAVE to adjust what you'll spend your spoons on at work, at home and at play.

- A big event, physical or mental, requires big recovery so whether you have a huge presentation you just finished or a triathlon competition run on the weekend, make sure you plug in some recovery to get you back to a parasympathetic state.

- Don't hop from diet to diet, training program to training program and try and get a routine of some form. Every decision we make induces some form of stress and without a routine, even deciding what shoe to put on first creates minute stress. I am full of routines for the most part making decision making as little part of my life as I can. My morning ritual is fully ingrained in my brain because when the alarm goes off at 5:10am every bloody morning, the last thing I want to do is make 10 decisions before I even get to work!

- The easier you can kick your parasympathetic nervous system in and relax, the better you'll recover from any stress event meaning you can perform them more frequently. Yes you can induce high levels of stress which is how we adapt to workload but you need to be able to handle that stress and get rid of as well to get the balance mentioned above. Turning off is just as important as turning yourself on. If you need to turn on semi-regularly for sport or work then you if you stay turned on then you don't have another level to go to, and stress overtakes the body and you get sore, tired and sick. You HAVE to learn ways to disengage from reality and taking work and emails home with you isn't the way to do it. You hear of athletes sitting at home playing video games and gambling - this is what they're doing, just not in the best way they could be! I watch Friends and eat.

- Being able to nap is a GOOD thing and there's no medals for who can get up the earliest, do the most work, and stay up the latest. If you're struggling to sleep then you're in for a host of issues, GUARANTEED! I'd nap 2 - 3 times a week during the day and I want to nap right now before a school pick up but I gotta get this done!

- Train hard, recover harder! High intensity activities are great to do but again you need to make sure you are recovering even harder so that can manage the fatigue from them throughout the other parts of your life (work, family etc). Doing more bootcamps and group classes, both that have a ridiculously high emphasise of building fatigue (and not much else), is not the best idea.

- Reconsider your schedule and try and pace high stress events as evenly as you possibly can taking into account work, family and other outside interests. Trying to squeeze your weekly training into 2 days might not be a great idea with a 20 hour plane trip the next day!

- Celebrate special occasions especially after times of high stress as this can actually provide you some "closure" or a 'brain dump" of sorts that can 'officially" end the event and you can move forward rather then talking about it for weeks after it, what could I have done better etc. It's done - move on.

- Don't change all the time as new stimulus provides new stresser and when a stresser is new, it induces far more stress then after you've done it 5 times. Remember that great idea you had to start running again? That run around the block almost killed you but now you can do 5 laps before work. That's what new versus old stress looks like.

- It always comes back to breathing with me doesn't it! Learning how to breath correctly can control your heart rate and circulate oxygen around the body which will keep you in a parasympathetic state for longer assisting with all the things I just said above. And also if you don't breath, you die! A bit dramatic but you get the idea...

Your Hips Don't Go Out of Place (article)

This article came across my desk last week and I immediately knew it was the subject of this week's blog post.

The takeaways:

 - Health professionals, or even friends for that matter, who tell you that you;re back is out (out of what?) are contributing to your problem because if you hear something enough, then you'll start to believe it. Health professionals are not great at the language they use and will often diagnose issues you didn't even know you had but now all of a sudden that issue is now holding you back from doing certain movement and modes of exercise - even though you were doing them with no issue just last week!

 - What something "feels" like and what is actually happening are 2 completely different things. Frequent readers of this blog will now be aware that pain isn't what we all think it is and that we can have pain and no injury as well as injury and no pain - 2 completely different things.

 - Treatment professionals (chiro's, physio's etc)  are often sought out to treat these types of ailments but what are they treating? There's often no injury and you're back can't be "out" or you'd be in diabolical pain.

- The treatment can "work" as it's providing different and hopefully, positive input to your brain that can then send out different messages to the body that aren't pain signals reacting to a perceived threat.

- When episodes like this occur then you'll also tend to determine what was the cause and this leads to a fear avoidance of movement so you don't throw your hip out again. This can shift stress to a certain set of muscles or overload a certain movement and then you can have an actual problem of overuse and potential joint/muscle breakdown.

- If heading off to your treatment person for a mild adjustment is enough force to put your hip 'back in" then that implies that it's takes next to nothing to put it 'out" in the first place. This makes buying into strength training, that will actually help you a great deal, next to impossible

- Your body is made up of resilient structures  and it actually takes over 1000 pounds of force to deform fascia by even 1%...but that's light hands on treatment put your entire back into place...

- Treatments technique can decrease pain but not from anything physical but more psychologically. You believe that the treatment has put your back in, everything is well in the world, your mood improves and pain is reduced as the body has responded to your less stressful state and down regulated whatever threat it perceived prior to the treatment.

- If you believe strongly in a treatment type then it's probably doing whatever issues have good, but not for the reasons you think. If you an believe in something a lot cheaper, then you could save yourself a lot of money! In the end though the treatment does something that your brain likes and thus has a positive influence on your result but just remember it's often not changing anything physically.

- Once you are "aligned' then it's important to promote threat-free movement and loading as soon as you can to "cement" this position or state, a position/state that your body loves and perceives as safe.

I follow these types of pain management strategies in the studio all the while on my never ending crusade of pain education and stress management so if you need a hand with this type of thing then definitely get in contact with me.

You can read this article in full here.

If Breathing is so Easy, Then Why Can't You Do It Properly?

You might recall the "Stress = Pain = Stress" blog series from the middle of the year, a 10 part-er looking how stress, pain and breathing all relate to each other.

In a nutshell here's how it works:

1 - Our working/busy culture of today pushes out bodies and minds to the limits

2 - Over time all these what seem like small stress events accumulate fatigue and the body needs to down regulate energy expenditure as it's in a state of threat. Think buying up cans of food in the event of Armageddon. This down regulation of energy expenditure mostly presents itself in 2 ways.

3 - The brain perceives your current fatigued position as a threat and needs to decrease energy output so it decreases ranges of motion at the hips and shoulders as a decrease in range of motion means less calorie expenditure.

4 - The brain also moves to a sympathetic (fight) state which alters your breathing patterns. Instead of inhaling and exhaling full breathes through the diaphragm like you do in a parasympathetic (rest) state, you shift to taking shorter, harder breathes through your neck, shoulders and back.

5 - The vital part here is that diaphragmatic breathes circulates great volumes of oxygen all throughout the body where shoulder/neck breathing barely circulates any of that breathe at all, let alone oxygen. You're basically taking a small amount of air in and and pushing that same air back out again, taking no oxygen in whatsoever.

6 - When you're body tips "over the edge", those the niggling little aches and pains you normally don't feel, come with a rush and you are at a greater risk of injury as the body's defense system is "down". That nagging knee and back pain you have for no reason? That's not an injury, it;s a stress response for the body to slow you down and as above, decrease energy expenditure.

During the week I has a young lady come in for her first Be Activated treatment with me. She'd had a small taste from a friend before but never the full treatment.

The full treatment takes about 40mins and various activation points, in sequence, all over the body.

The aim of the treatment is make the body initiate everything, breathing and movement specifically from the inside out, not the outside in.

First up we activate zone 1 which is the diaphragm, psoas and glutes - the 3 most important muscles of the body.

When you are ins sympathetic state, these muscles can shut down and then other muscles take over - muscles not equipped to do their job and that is what leads to overuse and breakdown of muscles and joints.

So 5mins into the session this is what her breathing stated at and shifted to:


Notice how the diaphragm/belly area uses the muscle to release to increase her inhalation - she has pretty much tripled her oxygen intake in 5mins!

I also came across this image today also showing the importance of breathing;

And the link between cancer and lack of oxygen have been around for 80 years.

If you want to improve your breathing then a Be Activated treatment is just what you need so contact me to make a booking.

YOU AND POOH

You and I, we're about to take this relationship to a whole new level right now.

The subject: Pooh, and how relates to your eating and lifestyle choices.

This is an article that appeared on the Precision Nutrition FB  page last week, a page that I have referred to before bit instead of nutritional and stress relieving information, we're getting real personal today.

It's a decent read but here are the high, or low lights, depending how you look at it.

- Bowel movements can signal what you;re doing great or suggest health challenges before symptoms arise.

- You're after "good looking" pooh, whatever that means

- pooh quality can provide information on your core muscles, your gastrointestinal system, your fiber intake, your hormones, your stress levels, your intestinal health, hydration levels, food intolerance's, your activity levels and general health issues that stand between you looking good or looking bloated.

 -   Step 1 is to actually look at your pooh then identify it in this chart:


                                  

- Your shooting for a pooh in the 3 - 5 range with 4 being the optimal pooh - good times.

- You should be having a sit down 1 to 3 times per day

- They should be quick and painless with no straining required

- It should be brown but coloring can change if you've eaten certain foods (red for beets, green for leafy greens etc)

- It should stink but not to extreme levels

- If it sinks then your diet is high in fiber and if it floats it's high in fat - that's interesting.

- Look for long term trends and don't be afraid to have a pooh diary.

- There's been a fair push for gut health in recent times and for good reason because nutrient absorption is vital.

 - Gut dysfunction can can be causes by things such as nutrient deficiencies, autonomic nervous system problems, immune problems, hormone imbalances, blood sugar irregularities, irregular sleep, medications, aging and chronic diseases.

- Because of how hour gastrointestinal brain works, we don't feel pain when things are wrong in our gut

- The gut bone is connected to the brain bone which controls your autonomic nervous system, which controls every voluntary and involuntary function of the body and the state of your GI tract can affect message signalling from gut to brain which can bring on brain fog, anxiety, depression, mood disorders, ADD and ADHD.

- Physically you might have issues with weight management, asthma/allergies, autoimmune disorders, skin conditions, arthritis/joint inflammation, heart disease, narcolepsy/sleep disorders, migraines and kidney problems.

- Fix this by opting for minimally processed foods like fruit, veggies and fresh meat and taking your time with your eating.

- Bacteria in the gut (or gut flora), helps digestion and absorption by breaking down carbs and helping to create digestive enzymes but problem pooh can let you know that your bacteria levels are low which can be brought on by travel, a change in diet and antibiotics.

- Gut flora protects the body from pathogens, boosts immunity and makes certain vitamins

- Struggling gut flora = struggling gut function

- To build a lot of gut critters get into beans/legumes, fruits, whole grains, starchy veg ans also consider foods that contain probiotics (good bacteria) such as yoghurt, mold-enhanced cheese (what the?), fermented products and again minimally processed food options and don't be afraid to try fruit from straight off the tree.

- Avoid overusing antibiotics which kill all the bacteria in your system, not just the bad stuff.

- Your pooh is a reflection of what you eat and from the chart above pooh's 1 and 2 indicate constipation so you'll need more fiber.

- Everyone reacts to foods differently but the main offenders for food intolerance's are lectins (seeds, grains, legumes, nuts), gluten (grains), casein, lactose, immunoglobins (dairy) and fructose (fruit sugars) and other sugars and starches

- Must I mention processed foods again?

- Keep a diary for a week or two and rate how you react to certain foods, good and bad.

- If your pooh is small and hard then you might assume that you need more fiber but it may actually mean you're dehydrated as water is used to move waste through your gut and if there isn't enough water to do so then the body will draw it from somewhere else and now you have 2 issues such as cramping or dry mouth.

- Keep track of your fluid intake and have a look at water vs sugar/caffeine/alcohol intake.

- Your GI tract is connected to your central nervous system and allows your gut and upstairs brain to talk to each other. When you're stressed your brain and gut know this and to conserve energy in times of high stress, they slow down digestion so you might find yourself suffering from constipation, bloating and indigestion. When stress gets really high then you meet a dodgy dude called Gary. Gary Gastro.

- If you're a regular of this blog then you'll know I've blabbered on about decreasing stress forever so look back through the archives and check out to combat it but anything that results in you feeling relaxed during or after it is what you;re after, and do them regularly.

- Too much or not enough movement have negative affects on your pooh where doing nothing can cause constipation and doing too much can put you in that high stress area we mentioned above

- So in the and you want to look at your pooh everyday for the next week while also increasing your water intake and nothing else and document any changes - there's nothing like a good old fashioned pooh study is there?

You can read the full article here.

5 Overrated Training Methods (Article)

The author of this article is Nick Tumminello who is a "trainers trainer" of sorts as far as education is concerned.

Here he looks 5 training methods and how you probably shouldn't be all too  consumed and gung-ho with them (Paleo Crossfit with Chia anyone?)

I'll break this down Young MC style for y'all:

POSTURAL ASSESSMENTS

 - The curvature of your spine, whether it be extreme or near non existent is not associated with health and spinal pain (everyone has their "own' neutral spine)
 - Rounded/forward shoulders can be present with and without pain although greater range if motion is often obtained with a more erect posture
 - Rounded/forward shoulders may not be a key contributor to shoulder pain
 - A 1997 study found that not even 1 of the 427 people examined presented with the text book perfect head resting position proving there is no such thing as perfect posture and it is specific to each one of us
 - There is nothing to support exercise will lead to changes in posture as they are of insufficient volume and frequency to offset daily living activities

MOVEMENT SCREENS

 - Any scoring system has limited ability to predict injury and increased scores often do nothing to improve performance
 - Those with a current or recent injury, a known risk factor for future problems will tend to score lower which is obvious and just identities a risk factor we already knew about
 - Movement screens that only consist of low demand activities may not adequately reflect an individuals capacity, or their risk of injury for movements that occur with higher loads and speeds

CORRECTIVE EXERCISE

 - Every exercise when executed with constant guidance and feedback is "corrective"
 - Language is important here as a client being prescribed "correctives" will stay in a mindset of "being corrected" which is followed by over protection and low movement variation (staying in the safe zone)

CORE STRENGTH TRAINING

 - Core muscle strength plays only a minor role for physical fitness and athletic performance in trained individuals when compared with no or only regular training
 - This doesn't mean to not bother with training your core muscles but you probably don't need 3 hours of Pilates a week doing so
 - For the lifting crowd, Squats and deadlifts don't activate the anterior core muscles all that well so you do need to add some more specific exercises into your program to train them.

CORE STABILITY TRAINING

 - A study compared general exercise treatment versus general exercise treatment plus spinal stabilisation exercises and found that the general exercise treatment reduced disability in the short term (immediately after treatment) to a greater extent than the stabilisation enhanced treatment.
 - There was no difference in long term  follow ups either
 - Motor control exercises and general exercise appear equally as effective at treating low back pain and movement control impairment with disability being reduced considerably by both interventions.\
 - The type of treatment is not of great importance compared to being guided through a long term exercise lifestyle

In the past I've followed each of these methods blindly thinking it was the holy grail of personal training but over time I've learnt to use them for what they are, and stop using some of them all together.

You can read the full article here.

TED Talk on Getting a Good Night's Sleep

For the life of me I cannot work out why people would rather about think about things that can't be altered at 2am rather then sleep.

Regardless of what's gone on with my day, and some are very hectic with a disabled wife, a near 6 year old and small business, I can always sleep through the night.

There are times that I might not have "turned off" like I usually do and take longer then usual to get to sleep but once I;m out then it's lights out - literally!

I've posted about sleep before and here's another sleep related blog based off a TED talk by a neuroscientist

Jeff Lliff.

Here are my takeaways:

• The brain's intense electrical activity uses up a quarter of the body's entire energy supply 
• The first problem we need to solve is nutrient and oxygen delivery which the circulatory system does through blood vessels to every corner of our body
• Just as every cell requires nutrients to fuel it, every cell produces waste and that is the second problem that needs solving
• The lymphatic system has evolved to fill this need where it takes up proteins and other waste, collects them and dumps them into the blood so they can be disposed of
• The weird part is that the brain doesn't contain any lymphatic vessels at all so the approach the body takes to waste disposal won't work in the brain
• The brain has a large pool of clean, clear fluid called carebrospianl fluid (CSF) that fills the space that surrounds the brain and waste from the brain make their way out to the CSF which gets dumped into your blood, similar to lymphatic drainage
• There is a specialised network of plumbing that organises an facilitates this process
• What they found was that the CSF outside of the brain didn't stay there but was actually pumped back into the brain along the OUTSIDE of the blood vessels and flushed into the brain helping to clear away and clean the waste from spaces between the brain's cells.
• The brain is already jam packed and has no room for a second set of cells like the lymphatic system but the blood vessels extend from the surface of the brain right down to every single cell in the brain and the fluid travelling along the blood vessels can gain easy access to the entire volume of the brain, essentially repurposing the same set of vessels to perform a lymphatic response
• This entire system is unique to the brain
• The BBIIIGGG thing here is that this only occurs when the brain is sleeping where the brain cells seem to shrink which opens up space between them allowing CSF to rush through and clear allowing waste to be cleared out
• When the brain is awake it puts off clearing away waste and waits for a time sleep as it's busy enough when you're awake
• Getting specific about waste, there is a waste type called amyloid-beta which is a protein that's made in the brain all the time (you're making it right now) which in Alzeimer's sufferers builds up and fills the space between the brain cells and limits the clearage taking place later

Another notch in sleep belt!

You can watch the full 11min TED talk, which has some videos to help explain it better, here.

REDUCE ANXIETY BY 65% WITH 1 SONG

Back in June of this year I posted about a musical event that was broadcasted on ABC Classic 2 simply titled "Sleep" - an 8hr musical piece designed specifically to put you to sleep.

This week I came across an article where neuroscience says that listening to this one song can reduce anxiety by up to 65%!

The highlights of the article were:

- Scientists have actually found the 10 most relaxing songs on earth - big call but let's go with it!

- A study was conducted  where participants needed to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible but the puzzles were deliberately made to cause great stress

- They measured brain activity and physiological states such as heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate

- The song "Weightless: by Marconi Union was the song referred to in the title.

- The song was actually made in collaboration with sound therapists

- A recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found that health issues from job stress alone causes more deaths than Diabetes, Alzeihmer's or Influenza!

- Many participants became drowsy listening to 'Weightless" so don't pop on while driving

- The article lists the top 10 relaxing songs and the author also put together their own Spotify playlist of these songs that runs for about 50mins which is downloadable.

So if you head out for lunch in the park or walk home from work then give this playlist a go and see how you feel in the hours after it.

The full article can be found here.

How You Improve Yourself at FCF

I have a whole programming set up that I use with beginner clients.

Along with your goals there are certain levels I need you to reach to be able to do that.

If you come in from lying on the couch for 3 months then you can't really expect to be able to do a 60min session at 100% straight up...or ever really.

Most people have the same issues.

Fitness-wise they're on either side of the scale and pretty much fit into 2 categories.

On one side of the fence we have the interval group who have done a lot of short and hard interval work so their strong suit is being able to go hard for long periods of time and grind out more work when the going gets tough. Unfortunately they can't repeat this workload and each successive interval becomes less and less effective as the workout goes on.

On the other side of the fence we have the low intensity long duration group who can perform for a long time but a steady pace but they start to find the going tough when they need to even step it up a little bit.

Movement-wise everyone needs to learn to how to load their hips when bending rather then their knees, we need to learn how to use our back muscles and we also need to enter ranges of motion that we don't enter during everyday life.

With these common problems I have been able to develop a base session that I use for all clients upon their first session in the studio.

The session has 2 purposes:

#1 - My Assessment of the Client

#2 - Provide a Training Effect for the Client

Here's what it looks like.

Exercise Bike x 3 - 5mins

After being taught the ins and outs of diaphragmatic breathing then once you have the gist of it, do 10 - 20 breathes then in the same position move into some alternating heel drops, glute bridge isometric holds.

These first 3 movements are all leading into the final part of the movement prep portion of the session where we roll over onto our elbows and feet and perform breathing planks.

After a little drink it's onto the treadmill where you do a 2min run starting at the base speed of 8.0.

After another sip and after getting your breathe back a little we move into our first pairing.

We start back off with the glute bridges from earlier which leads into deadlifts. I have about 12 - 15 deadlift variations I use but we start with 1 dumbbell deadlifts from the an elevated surface which in our case is an aerobic step for 3 pairings.

Next up is a squat paired with the heel drops from earlier x 3 pairs.

Lastly we finish up with a threesome single leg exercise which on session 1 will be either step ups or split squats, cable rows and the breathing planks from earlier as well x 3 pairings.

Depending how fast you make it through the base workout section then we might use an extra pairing of push ups and pallof presses.

Lastly, we finish off with a 2 minute distance trial on the cross trainer starting at level 6.

By now most people have had enough and we finish up.

I have used this session for years now and it's pretty much perfect for a first session in my opinion.

You will have completed everything I asked of you during the session leaving and I feeling great about the initial session. You don't throw up and my carpet stays crystal clean.

Most of the exercises you probably haven't done a lot of or not the way I teach them so we'll be hitting different muscles or the same muscles differently (that made sense didn't it?). New stuff take more energy learn then to repeat stuff you already know.

Anything you do at this point will probably make you sore so I don't need you to end up in a position where you can't sit on the toilet tomorrow morning and barely make it through work. You'll get some soreness but I don't need to break you first up...or ever really (seems I'm on repeat).

Each exercise has it's own progression which again I all have upstairs so I can run these initial sessions quite easily in a group setting.

Instead of a 4 week program I have a "rolling" program as I've coined it.

Once you perform this session then you'll never do it again - every exercise will change somehow next session and the next session until eternity. At various points new exercises come in to replace others that builds on the level of difficulty of the previous variation. Some exercises will last 3 weeks, some 4 weeks and some 12 weeks depending on your limits.

My exercise progressions, depending on the actual exercise, is varied.

Some increase by 1 or 2 reps per session, some increase load each session for the same number of reps, some increase in duration per set and some increase in density per set.

For example for the cross trainer at the end you start at level 6 and let's say you reach .25 on the distance dial. Next session you repeat level 6 with the aim to beat 25 in the same 2min time span.

You beat that cos your a stud so next session we move up to level 7 with the aim again being to beat your 2min distance at level 6.

So if you beat it you've achieved 2 goals:

#1 - More Distance in the Same Time (Increased Density)

#2 - You Did That a Higher Level of Intensity

Most people will go all the way through to level 16 (the top of the mountain) and end up in the 50's, essentially doubling your distance in 2mins at twice the resistance from your very first night.

Yesterday I saw a Facebook post by some chick who used to be fit as a fiddle and looked every bit like it but over time and kids (they wreck everything god love'em), she now has a bit of cellulite were she never had it before but she is still very proud of how she can still do the things she used to be able to do such as hang off a stripper by 1 leg, even though she''s doesn't look as good.

Most people have an aesthetic goal which is fine but please understand, if you can only train for 20mins at a decent pace from poor fitness, or the exercise you can use is limited by a poor quality of movement, then you might need to train to be able to train.

That is no big deal either because as you an see above, you will be increasing your training and workload output each and every session so if you're diet is on point, your body will change regardless and once you reach the point where you can "train" then you can make huge strides quite dramatically.

WHAT A PT SESSION AT FCF LOOKS LIKE

A lot of the clients say that the toughest part is the stairs on the way in. There's only about 20 of them but it's a great accidental teaser for what's about to come!

You walk in and I'm there, writing away on my white board the workouts for each client that will be through tonight which is usually 3 - 6/evening.

As you can see I have my own language when I write these things up with all my abbreviations and shorthand but hey, time is money!

I don't really have hour blocks anymore but more so "I'll be there between 6 - 8pm and you get there when you can" type of thing. Depending on how tired you are you simply have to complete your program for the day which may take 45 - 50mins if you feel great or 60 - 70mins if you stayed up til 1am finishing that presentation for this morning - it doesn't matter.

So after you've transformed in the change rooms or popped your bag in the storage unit then it's onto the bike for 3 - 5mins of rolling the legs over to get the kegs moving a little and have a little chat about what's gone on with your day.

Included in that chat will definitely be the subject of the 6 - 7pm Vault on Gold 104FM which is hopefully in the golden age of music which we all know was 1986 - 1996.

After the bike you'll head down to the mat where you'll start with some diaphragmatic breathing to simply relax the body after a stressful day at work. The body doesn't work as well under stress then it does when it;s relaxed as stress is associated with tightening muscles and restricted range of motion - not exactly what we're after when we want to get active.

If you desire you can jump into some tennis ball and foam rolling work as well.

After the breathing there's generally a little prep circuit of core stability and glute activation work.

OK, now it's into the nuts and bolts and first up...the worst part.

To get it out of the way early we do a 60 - 120sec test on the cross trainer for distance. Starting at the base level you increase a level once you better your previous distance score. It's not unusual for a complete beginner get low 20's at level 6 then top out in the 50's at level 16 after a full run through.

Yep, results can be that good over time with consistency.

After a defibrillator it's all down hill from here I guess which is easy for me to say s I'm just watching you do stuff but anyway...

To make it easy to get around to everyone during the session I usually set circuits up in 3's which gives me enough time set everything up on the go but I can also see every exercise performed and correct what is needed.

Now I have a near 6 year old...boy...who won't sit still...and likes to talk about pooh all the time (of course) so all my yelling is reserved for him so the only increased volume you'll hear from me is some vocals along to the classic tune from 1991 in the background.

Anti Commando!

We'll roll through 2 - 3 these of circuits at a steady but doable pace. Like I said, if you're already tired then me making you more tired just to make me feel good about my personal training skills is what crappy trainers do.

I want you to complete what's on the board and that's it, no more and no less. Everything on the board is doable for you on that day. You've worked up to it in your previous sessions. Your technique is good. You're strong enough to do it as you lifted 2.5kgs less just last week, with ease. 

Everything is planned through specific progressions. I'm not a Youtube trainer - the dude that watched some wiz-bang exercise on Youtube then has all his clients try it the next day. The Grandma, the Mother of 4, the Executive, the Gardener even the homeless bloke he usually ignores.

At the end we will usually finish with a little treadmill as everyone hates running (don't they?) 

As you run along you can see the coming s of the Coles Express across the road, watching the line up of cars and thinking you should but a petrol station!

Well from what I've researched they only make on the food and drink and bugger all on the petrol so it might be as great in reality as it seems.  

After that you get to do a little stretch if you like and have a little lie down along a long foam roller which feels great and that's about it - but it feels great and relaxing.

I'll even ask what you you're having for dinner at this point cos I'ma great bloke.

You'll exchange your goodbyes with the other clients who you've had a joke or 2 with in the last hour, we'll confirm your next booking and off you go - all super and stuff.

And thata...is howa...itsa donea!!

Don't forget our 4 Week Summer Shape Up Program which starts on Nov the 5th, purposefully after the Spring Carnival so you can focus your efforts on this and this only! Pay up by Oct 25th for cheapo rate, do the program, look and feel great! (That was lame...)

4 WEEK FULL CIRCLE FITNESS SUMMER SHAPE UP PROGRAM!

As usual the year has gotten away from us and we've failed once again to look after ourselves!

Not to worry because you can pull a "reverse Nolte" ans in about 6 weeks from now you can have all of that taken care of.

Introducing the Inaugural FCF 4 Week Fitness Shape Up Bonanza Thingio!

It's not a challenge, it's not a competition, but what it is is an opportunity.

An opportunity for you to show yourself that you can do this.

This program is designed to help you find new limits to reach in regards physical fitness but not in a Commando type of way.

I don't yell - I have an almost 6 year old he I need to save that up for.

I don't "force" because being a small business owner with a child, 2 dogs, a cat and an ailing wife I know that energy resources are limited so you don't need to be trained to an inch of your life each and every session.

I also know that programs like these usually require you to be at peak physical fitness before you even start them, but not this one. It's largely pushed by you, how you feel that day and what you can give at that very point in time time - but by jeebus by the end of it you'll be surprised what in roads and improvements you can make in 4 short weeks!

So here's how it will work.

• 2 group training sessions per week in the studio on a Tuesday night 6 or 7pm and Saturday morning 10am that will take 45 - 60mins each. We could do the 3 if the group, or large portion of the group warrants it.
• You'll receive a workout book featuring various workouts that you are encouraged to do on your own but the full descriptions and the voice in your head from the studio sessions will feel like I'm right there (look in the tree's as I might be dressed as 1 of those clowns getting around).
• I won't set a diet but prior to the program you and I will personally go through your nutritional habits and see what major changes need to be made and then there will be weekly check ins as well to keep you on track. We will use an app to track nutrition though and we want to learn some things about nutrition so you can continue out in the real world.
• You'll have 24hr access to me via email and text (be reasonable - a mans's gotta sleep!) 
• We'll track weight and fitness throughout the program.
• The program will start Saturday November 5th and run until Saturday Dec 3rd.

So if this isn't enough for you here's some kickers:

• At the end of program for every kg you lose we'll return you $10 CASH! Drop 5kgs and get $50 - easy as that!
• You'll also receive the Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence...OK that was a Simpsons reference but we'll make a nifty poster of you and your achievements from the 4 weeks, highlighting all your hard work and results.
• For every friend you refer to the program you will get $50 off the price of the program

OK so to get your butt in gear here's how you can save:

• If you sign up and pay prior to Tuesday the 25th of October by 5pm - you can book your spot for just $250 of which there are 10 spots available at this price.
• If you procrastinate a bit and don't get your arse into gear until Tuesday the 29th of October by 5pm  - you can book your spot for a still modest $325 at which there are another 10 spots available at this price.
• Anytime after that will be the full $400 price tag cutting numbers off at 20 members.

NOTE: THE CUT-OFF DATES WILL BE ENFORCED!

Ill be doing a little mail drop next week around the local area for this so as part of our mailing list you get first dibs at this so do not hesitate to act!

Click this button below and you'll be booked in 2mins:

So get your friends together and make a pact to do 4 perfect weeks and see the huge difference it can make!

4 RITUALS THAT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPIER (MUST READ!)

This is a decent read, has a lot of big words and talks about parts of the brain us normals don't even know exist, but it's a very good read all the same and it might explain a little why you do the things you do.

The subject of the article is a neuroscience researcher Alex Korby (Korby to his mates) from UCLA.

I've dot pointed what I thought were the most interesting parts from it:

• Pride, shame and guilt all activate similar parts of the brain with pride being the most powerful of these at triggering activity in that region but it explains why guilt and shame are so big in our thoughts - it's actually part of our reward center
• If you worry a lot then in the short term your brain feels a little better because at least you're doing something about your problems and doing something is better then doing nothing
• Guilt and shame are horrible long term solutions so ask yourself "what am I grateful for" as gratitude boosts dopamine, a feel good hormone
• Gratitude towards others is also big making social interaction a very important part of one's life
• Being grateful also forces you to focus on your life's positive aspects which also increases serotonin
• Even if you can't find anything to be thankful for (c'mon, try harder), then simply searching for something is the main thing which is a form of emotional intelligence and here's the kicker - higher emotional intelligence means it simply takes less effort to be grateful
• Gratitude makes you happy and creates a positive feedback loop in your relationships
• When bad feelings completely overtakes you then you need to label negative feelings - is it sadness, anxiety, anger etc - which can then reduce their impact so do not suppress them!
• If something/s are causing you stress then make that decision, create intentions and set goals and you're brain can finally rest
• Make the decision but be sure that close enough is good enough
• You make a decision, your brain feels like it has control and this reduces stress
• When you make a decision on a goal and then actually achieve it, it gives you a far better boost then if it happens by chance (forced vs voluntary exercise benefits for example)
• Rejection doesn't just hurt like a broken heart, the brain feels it physically like a broken leg showing the importance of relationships but take this to a whole new level you need touch people (appropriately Donald!)
• Touching, like a pat on the back or a handshake, can make you more persuasive, increases ream performance, improves flirting and even boosts math skills
• Touching someone you love can actually reduce pain
• Long hugs! I actually read a few weeks back that a hug should last 20secs which may seem awkward but hey, the professionals are telling us to do so!
• 5 hugs a day for 4 weeks increases happiness big time
• If you don't have anyone to hug (what the?) then get a massage which can decrease stress hormones, help you create new habits, reduces pain, improves sleep and reduces fatigue
• When you're in a stressful situation then talking to loved ones feels a lot better then texting or emailing them
• Step 1 is to simply send someone a thank you email which can really start an upward spiral of happiness in your life

Here's the flow chart of all of this:

Gratitude - Better Sleep - Decreased Pain - Improved Mood - Improved Focus/Planning - Decision Making - Reduced Anxiety/Improved Enjoyment - Gives You More to be Grateful For - Keeps the Loop of Upward Spiral Going - Enjoyment Means You'll be More Social - Greater Happiness!!

This truly is one of best articles I've seen this year so take the time to give it a thorough read here.

FIND YOUR PAIN AND LOSE 50KGS IN 9 MONTHS

This headline seems a bit click bait-ish bit it's not.

This article looked a young girl who ballooned to 120kgs - a lot of weight in anyone's book.

As the weight stacked on at up to 10kgs per year, she still didn't see an issue with it.

She justified it with things such as she was never bullied about her weight, had lots of friends and her partner didn't care.

Her below par habits that blind Freddy could see still never caused a thought of concern - I have done the 2 dinners thing a few times myself though!

So all those things that we might be horrified with never bothered her and to make a change you really need to see that there's a problem.

Her pain ended up being not any of those issues above but the fact that her feet hurt so bad that she couldn't hold her weight up ans the pain was crippling.

Once she found her pain then all those other issues came to the front and all of the sudden you in deep.

Your pain might be physical (feel unattractive, over dress to cover up etc) or emotional (self sabotage through eating/lifestyle habits etc) but whatever it is you need to give into it and admit it. Only then can do something about it.

Now how she lost her 50kgs isn't really the issue here as anyone can do that - yes that anyone includes you - if they find their pain to fuel to do so.

Her first move of decreasing calories is definitely the first place to start a sit's easy to do now with all the calories app's available now and it cost next to nothing - just a wee bit of time each day.

And if you do the very first week correctly you can have huge confidence building weeks such as an 8kg weight loss.

That first week can keep you going for months so when you decide to start - see it through for an entire 7 days. Not 6 and half - 7!

Eventually you'll want, and need, to do more to keep betting results which is where exercise comes in.

So find your pain and that will allow you to make a start towards what you've always wanted.

You can read the full article here.

EXERCISE = BRAIN POWER!

This is a pretty interesting article actually that details a study showing that not exercise for as little we a week can have negative implications on cognitive skills as well as memory.

Activity increases blood flow which carries oxygen and fuel to the brain during it and also after it.

Now be sure that this isn't exclusive to gym training or otherwise, I would assume that any activity beyond a moderate level would be adequate so if you're on holiday then 1 single session for 20 - 30mins would be suffice to keep your brain well and truly oiled!

Check it out in detail:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/well/move/after-just-10-days-of-rest-brain-benefits-of-exercise-diminish.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=1

STRESS = PAIN = STRESS = PAIN PART 10: SPOONS ANALOGY

5 and a half years ago my wife fell ill with an auto immune disease called Guillain Barre Syndrome which pretty much leaves you paralysed. From that she has a very crappy case of chronic fatigue and no immune system, so a little cough for us is the full blown flu for her.

About a month ago she came across an article another woman wrote who has chronic fatigue syndrome where she talks about spoons.

When we get up we can slide ride out of bed, have some breakfast, jump in the shower, do some emails, walk to work, all without breaking a sweat. We can carry out whatever endeavors we need to do for that day and be fine with it, besides some slight tiredness come the end of the day. 

We have unlimited spoons pretty much.

For those with chronic fatigue, they have a limited amount of spoons to use each day with some days being slightly better and some days being way worse. So where we might use 100 spoons during a given day with all the things we do, they might only have say, 12 spoons of which do the same amount of stuff with.

You might say 12 doesn’t really go into 100 and you’d be right, so what they need to do is to decide what they’ll spend their 12 spoons on, meaning they have to prioritise what they’ll do each day.

Now I’m not saying you need to limit your spoonage everyday, but when you record a poor HRV reading then it’s telling you that you have less spoons to play with then yesterday. 

When you record a good HRV reading it’s telling you that you have extra spoons to play with for that day.

I think the spoon thing is a great analogy for all of this which is why I put this in!

STRESS = PAIN = STRESS = PAIN PART 9: HEART RATE VARIABILITY

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is used extensively during elite sport as it can provide an in-depth look at an athletes readiness to perform on any given day. Each player will react to the same stimulus differently so this is a great tool in individualising training loads and intensity for each player.

I use it every day as I’m still competing as a local sportsman and all you need to do is simply download an app (there’s plenty of them nowadays) and take a daily reading upon waking.

As this is geared towards sport performance most of them will give you a reading of “train hard today”, “train, but take it easy” and “take the day off.”

It will establish a baseline score from your daily readings from which it bases it's daily training advice from. Generally if you register a score above your baseline it will suggest for you to train hard that day. If you have a lower reading then yesterday then it will suggest to train, but take it easy. If you’re below baseline or you’ve registered a decreased score 2 days in a row then it will suggest for you to take the day off training.

I think this is something that everybody can benefit from. Even if you don’t exercise, it still gives you an insight into how stress has affected your body and how you’re dealing with it. You can also correlate these periods of less than stellar HRV scores with your work and lifestyle. When you’re on holiday you’ll more than likely test as fresh as a daisy but on that day where you’ve been up til 1am prepping for a huge presentation you have first thing in the morning, then you’ll test badly from poor sleep, high stress and lack of regeneration.

Remember stress in any form affects the body somehow!

Most, if not all of these app’s will also record resting heart rate (RHR) at the same time which is another great indicator to keep track of. Generally an elevated RHR above your baseline will again correlate with times of high stress, poor sleep etc.

As mentioned earlier, high stress can decrease immunity and you probably already know that you normally get sick in times of high (physical or mental) workloads. HRV and RHR readings can actually let you know you're getting sick before it actually happens so that you can be proactive (instead of reactive), making it priority to get extra rest before it gets out of control (bed ridden etc).

The app I use is HRV4Training which is only on iPhone for now.

STRESS = PAIN = STRESS = PAIN PART 8: HOW TO DECREASE PAIN

      

When addressing pain, especially chronic pain, then heading off to the physio or a chiro, isn’t going to solve all your problems.

The first thing you need to is to educate yourself on pain, how it develops and how it impacts the body in different ways. Remember that the actual muscle tissue is often fine and it’s your response that needs to be addressed so by simply understanding pain you may fear it less, and your perception of it might be altered resulting in faster and more sustainable recovery times.

Included in this re-educating portion has to be the language that is used to describe pain. Language feeds your beliefs such as “gardening hurts my back” which we now know doesn’t hurt your back – it’s the perception that it does that usually ends up causing the pain sensation.

Imagery of your pain can also have a negative effect and works similar to negative language related to pain. If you have a bout of lower back pain and you mentally image an injury there, then it can feed the evaluating and processing within the brain. It has been found that in chronic back pain sufferers, simply looking a back injury can induce pain in their own backs!

The second thing to do is to keep moving because by purposefully "not" moving, the body gets no positive input into thinking that the perception of danger can be decreased. The actual movements you do does not really matter either, it could be walking, it could be running, it could be jumping but just make sure that it is pain free movement. Performing movements that cause pain can cause a continuation of danger signals being sent out of which we are trying to actually dial down.

Once the initial pain sensation and/or threat has been put to bed then slowly re-introduce the movements that were causing pain in the hope of changing the negative perception of it into a positive one. Do not avoid them forever as that is how neurotags can develop.  You’ll want to use what’s called graded exposure for this where you might need to break down movements into segments before getting back to the full movement. 

So if squatting is a movement you avoided because of a sore back then you might start by simply lowering down 3 – 4 inches and working yourself down over time as your confidence with the movement increases and you become more comfortable with it.

During recovery there is every chance of a flare up or 2 but if you’ve done it right then the severity of the flare up will be minimal and you’ll now have the tools in place to deal with it leading to faster recovery.

Getting back to the central nervous system, being in pain will mean you’ll pretty much be in a constant state of sympathetic dominance which means you’re body will be working a lot harder than it should be just to function on very basic level.

Walking to the letterbox can become a workout in itself and with the body under constant threat, it gets zero chance to rest and regenerate. So when you’re not being active you’re should be trying to get the body as relaxed as it can be with diaphragmatic breathing and anything else you find relaxing (music etc). 

This will hopefully shift the body into a parasympathetic dominant state which is the only way you can regenerate.

STRESS = PAIN = STRESS = PAIN PART 7: HOW IS PAIN PRODUCED?

The body experiences a sensation where all of the new information of this sensation is sent to the brain for evaluation against the current information you have on this sensation. The current information is made up of what you felt and/or thought about the sensation in the past such as did it hurt, did it not, as well your personal beliefs on this sensation.

Depending on your evaluation the sensation will then be classed as safe or dangerous.

If it is deemed as safe then whatever pain you felt initially will decrease and go away pretty quickly.

If it is deemed as dangerous then the body will go into protection mode where it will send out pain signals to the area as well as shut off range of motion to the area by sending muscles into spasm.

This is all to stop you from doing anymore damage to the area.

This perception of danger will also cause a huge spike in sympathetic nervous system dominance.

Chronic pain occurs when pain perception is still high long after the initial injury, which has probably healed over time, or at the very least, has decreased it danger threat considerably.

Unfortunately when pain perception is still high and you’re still in a somewhat protective mode, then you develop what is called a neurotag. A neurotag is an encoded pattern in your central nervous system based on your evaluation process that can ingrain itself in specific and general movements - think along the lines of back pain while gardening versus back pain from simply bending.

Neurotags can be part of other neurotags that can trigger a similar response meaning if you have a lower back pain neurotag and a slipped disc neurotag, then activating one can activate the other so now you have 2 movements related to pain instead of one. 

Neurotags also reinforce themselves so more pain = more damage = more pain = more damage and so on.

The danger signals actually come from nociceptors and during prolonged bouts of firing such as chronic pain, they can become more sensitive which actually means they require less stimulus to activate and now the movement you used to be able to do with no problems and was perceived as safe, can now become an issue and cause pain.

This can get wired into your central nervous system causing all sorts of pain issues as now you’ll be getting pain signals from doing nothing but you haven’t sustained an injury.

Next Week: How to Decrease Pain.

STRESS = PAIN = STRESS = PAIN/ PART 6: WHAT IS PAIN?

The body’s tissue only experiences sensations and contains danger receptors, not actual pain receptors. 

This is important to know because when a sensation is experienced within the tissue, than all the information attained from that specific experience is sent to the brain and added to every other sensation stimulus you’ve ever encountered that is similar to this very one.

Pain correlates with danger, not injury.

If you suffer a dreaded paper cut injury, then you bleed which would initially send a dangerous signal to the brain.

The brain processes all the new information against the current information and as it’s seen this before and it knows that it isn’t an actual danger, then the pain signals aren’t sent out. 

You apply some pressure with a tissue and go about your day.

On the other hand of you slice your finger off chopping up the onions, then brain receives the same information but as you probably haven’t cut your finger off before, the information is skewed towards danger and a pain signal is now sent.

The end result is a pain experience.