The journey to the center of our bodies. What on earth is the core?
“Today class, our experiment is to stay in the gym for 12 hours and ask every person what their goals are.” A landslide will mention “core” “abs” “stomach.” It is our obsession. Another experiment is to watch any informercial, pushing an obscure fitness product, and see how many times they mention “core” or “abs.” I’ll be willing to bet its more times than they mention anything nutrition related. I mean why eat well when you can do crunches, situps and use the shake weight and get ripped. That is until you realize you have to do 250,000 crunches, JUST to burn enough calories to lose one pound of fat…YES just one pound. You can do crunches until you are blue in the face but it won’t eliminate your stomach fat. And on a side note, whatever new product is out there, it won’t speed the results up any faster. So why do we do crunches? Well duh, its to get an 8 pack!
Abs are made in the kitchen, no matter how hard you work your “abs” you cannot outwork your diet. If your nutrition is not up to par, your stomach will not be either. “So what is the core?” “Why do we have to work it?” “How do we work it?” I answer all of the above!
Lets start with what the “core” actually is. The National Academy of Sports Medicine defines it as the Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar spines and also the Lumbo-Pelvic-Hip complex (stabilizes the body during weight bearing functional movements producing and reducing forces). WHAT? Time for an anatomy lession! PS do not fall asleep, it gets better.
Anterior
Rectus abdominus- The “abs.” A key postural muscle that flexes the lumbar spine and can aid in respiration
Posterior
Erector spinae- lower back muscles that extend the vertebral column
Multifidus- deep musculature that runs from the base of the cervical spine to the sacrum. Main job is the stabilize vertebrae in the vertebral column during movement
Lateral
Internal Oblique-Compresses abdomen; unilateral contraction rotates vertebral column to same side
What do you believe you can accomplish? What do you believe you can accomplish with your eyes closed and without thought of quitting or giving up?What is it inside of you that drives you to accomplish the impossible, the improbable and the exceptional?
This clip above is a perfect example of what happens when shut our eyes and keep going. Ignoring pain, forgeting about past failures and inching our way to victory. This can be you. This can be me. This can be anyone. Inside of all of us is a deep rooted fire that knows no quit and no defeat. It is up to you to believe in it.
Things will not always go your way, in fact more times than not it won’t. However, all things are possible through hard work and perseverance. And all things are possible through fitness.
Sir Francis Bacon (ironically enough) once said, “Knowledge is power.” I firmly stand behind this statement, particularly since we, as trainers, are in an ever changing industry. As trainers, it is our duty to keep up on the newest trends and the latest research to better serve our clients and supply them with exemplary results. But does the learning stop there? Should we just read exercise science journals and acquire high level specializations and certifications? We would be best served to answer that question with a resounding ‘No.’ There is more information out there that is applicable to our journey as health professionals. Personal training encompasses so much that books from all different industries can apply to our jobs. Here a four of my favorites:
Motivational Interviewing by Miller and Rollnick
Motivational interviewing is a technique used by clinicians to overcome the ambivalence that keeps many people from making desired changes in their lives. Personal trainers can find this technique particularly useful in the first client interview and when clients are not getting the desired results, for one reason or another. Adding this to your repertoire adds another level of professionalism and expertise to make you a high class trainer.
Working with Emotional Intelligence by Goleman
Similar to motivational interviewing, emotional intelligence expands on psychological importance of being able to read emotions in clients and in our selves. Understanding our client’s emotions, day to day, is an important skill to realize and utilize because of the dynamic that most clients bring us every day. This book does a great job of explaining the concept and also how to implement it into everyday life.
Relationships 101 by Maxwell
John Maxwell is my favorite writer, regardless of industry classification. In this book, he details how to create long lasting relationships with people. Of any skill, relationship building is the most important. Personal training is relationships; how fast and how many we make determines our success or failure as a personal trainer.
21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by Maxwell As an educator, I would always tell my trainers that personal training is about leadership and most importantly about influence (John Maxwell’s definition of leadership). This book has shaped me as a professional, more so than any other. The lessons, or laws, Maxwell presents can be applicable in any client-to-trainer relationship. This book is a must-have for any fitness professional.
I have found that readings from other industries or specialties have made me a better fitness professional. Knowledge truly is power and what we do with that power is even more important.
Oh you thought I meant steroids? No, juicing is not about adding extra hormones in your body, this is about increasing your energy levels, improving your immune system and being healthy. OK. Lets start over. Recently, I decided to start adding juicing into my regular diet. I had heard the benefits of juicing but wasn’t clear on ALL the benefits it had and what it could do to my body. So, me being me, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try it. The first juice I had tasted like roadkill. No seriously it tasted that bad but again, me being me, I was able to force it down. Over the next few weeks I tried several different types of juices and found some miraculous things. My energy levels were boosted, my workouts were better and I felt healthier (a relative term but I acutally feel this way).
Not only do I feel better but the taste of organic kale, beets and other vegetables has improved dramatically. So you may be asking why would you start doing that? Or how can you stand to drink that stuff? And probably you are asking what are the benefits? Well, I want to cover all of these topics. Lets start with what juicing actually is.
Juicing is typically done through a juicer, whereas combinations of different fruits and vegetables (preferably organic) are put into a machine that mixes it together and creates a “juice.” What is lost through the juicing process is the fiber. Most juicing purists argue leaving the fiber out of the juice allows the body to absorb the nutrients faster, I tend to believe this as well because fiber naturally slows down digestion. It does take a lot of vegetables/fruits in order to get a sizable amount of juice (this is why I buy the juice instead of doing it myself). Locally, I have bought juice from the Lexington Juicery and also found a brand of juice at Whole Foods called Suja that acutally has an expiration date longer than juice made at the juicery. This is helpful to me so I do not have to go to the juice store everyday.
OK JB. What are the health benefits?
Well there are many. Here are a few:
1. Digestion- very little energy is needed to digest fresh fruits and vegetables. Thus, juicing increases the effectiveness of our digestion system. This is important when considering how long it takes to digest a pound of lean beef.
I’ve often wondered about certain strategies gym goers employ. The one strategy that has vexed my mind is a ritual of sorts and a lot of people do it every day. You know if you do something every day and expect a different result, that makes you crazy rightJ. It is at like the Holy Grail, the very reason people come to the gym and try to eat right, it’s the difference between a good day and a bad day, it is the end all be all. It is stepping on the scale! Don’t try to pretend you don’t do it because we all are guilty, especially in a place where there are scales and we are trying to lose weight, gain weight or stay the same. But the very fact people are control by this instrument, this measurement of body mass can be alarming and skewed. The end all be all may not be “all” its cracked up to be.
Let’s back track for a second. What are we trying to do? Most people? Answer is losing weight. Statistics show the most common goal for any gym goers is losing weight. But that should really be the goal? The answer is yes and no. If you are 50 lbs overweight and you need to lose 50 pounds then I would say losing weight would be a great goal for you. However, if you are trying to lose 10-20 pounds, does it really matter what the scale says as long as your body fat changes? Of course not! I use to tell clients all the time; if I could have you weigh the same weight you are today and look 100% different, would it matter what the scale said? 9 times out of 10, the number didn’t matter.
Read the rest of… Josh Bowen: End All Be All (Tales of the Dreaded Scale)
Sports teaches us about ourselves. Who we are, who we want to become. They also teach us about drive, the inner fire that tell you to keep going when it hurts or not to quit when you want to.
The above video is a true story, an inspirational story if you will. A story, on some level, we all can relate too; the fight to not quit when things get tough and the inner fire to keep going when you don’t want to. Derek Redmond was an Olympian, a world class athlete who was competing for his country. There could be no bigger honor than that, to be on the largest stage in sport.
The unfortunate part is the way the story seems to end. Derek, in a position to take home an Olympic medal, pulls his hamstring in the semi-finals of the 400 meters at the 1992 Barcelona Olympiad.
To work your entire life to get one opportunity and your body just says “No.” What happens from there is the definition of courage and a “never give up” attitude. Derek knew in his heart and mind he had lost but he would not quit, he would finish. He picks his broken body up and carries it, with the help of his father, to the finish line. Take a second and reflect, have you ever quit something? Have you given up on your fitness goals and past achievements because you don’t believe you can do it anymore?
Use this as an example that life will always build walls you must break down and obstacles that you must climb. It are these missions that truly define us as human beings and we must remember that nothing and I mean nothing is impossible.
Just never quit. Never quit on yourself and never quit on your dream. The time is now.
First things first, I am not an endocrinologist (only play one on TV J) and I am not a registered dietician. I like to think of myself as a problem solver, a MacGyver of sorts. Because in all reality that’s what we do as trainers, we solve problems with the knowledge base that we have, no matter how unconventional it is. With that said, there are a lot of theories out about people lose and gain weight. With the rise of obesity at an unparalleled high, people are trying to get healthy and lose body fat in record droves. From Atkins diets to the Zone diet, to the weird tropical fruit diet and my favorite the carrot stick and apple diet (holy cow!), people are trying to find the quickest way to lose weight. The fact is there is no easy way, if it were easy the obesity rates would not be where they are now. We would not be spending billions of dollars on medications that control weight related diseases. This is not an easy process by any stretch of the imagination. However when I look at weight loss books and these fad diets, I rarely see anything about a person’s hormones. When in fact it is your hormones that decide where and how much fat you store. That’s a fact. Throw the calories in vs calories out out the window, your hormones are in the driver’s seat. Lets take a look at them:
Fat Burning Hormones- hormones that when present in your body, will help you burn body fat
To preface this entry I would like to say the following; I am very opinionated and if you are easily offended, quit reading now.
Now, that we have crossed that bridge I’d like to get into the subject at hand.
I was in the Baltimore Airport recently and I went to the magazine stand to look for some reading material. There were dozens of different magazines covering subject’s matters from money to parenting to exercise. However, I started to see a trend that did not set well with me. It seemed like every magazine cover was obsessed with physical characteristics highlighted by “Ripped Abs in 30 days” “Lose 30 LBS without Dieting” or my favorite, “Reduce Your Belly Fat by Eating this Fruit.” If that isn’t bad enough, the covers of these magazines make things worse.
On the “Muscle Mags” you have an Incredible Hulk like figure with muscles in places most people don’t have places. On the other side of the coin the magazines aimed at women have relatively thin, almost emaciated cover models. What is going on here? What is the “media” trying to tell our society?
Now, I have no issue with the people on the covers of these magazines, they are in great shape (in most cases) and it’s their job to look like that. I myself have trained; physique athletes, a Miss America contestant and other “body conscious” athletes. I have no issue in competing in something that judges your body in some way. What I do have issue with is the projected image of what is beautiful and in shape. It is unrealistic for the average people that picks up one of these magazines and expect to look like these people. Most of these individuals have been athletes all their life, have put in the hard work to look the way they do and have a great genetic profile. Should that stop them from trying? No! But should it convince them that because they saw this on a magazine cover that they are inadequate if they don’t look this way? Our society’s opinion on what is acceptable, beautiful and realistic is warped.
I have driven over 300,000 miles in the last 6 years. It wasn’t until recently I started to feel the extent it was having on my body. I woke up one morning and my hip was killing me and my shoulder ached, I just thought it was from hard workouts. Possibly, but when I evaluated the situation I realized I am in the most amount of pain when I drive a lot of miles in a short amount of time. Having the knowledge of how the body works, I can understand and appreciate the havoc sitting can have on one’s body.
The fact is MOST jobs are now sedentary jobs, where people; sit at a computer, sit in meetings, sit in a car or airplane and basically sit on the rear end all day. I realize this is part of it, everything in this world has become technologically advanced where people are more sedentary in the work place than ever before. That’s ok. No, really it is, because I am going to show you how to overcome this (more on that later).
Here is a stat for you that you may want to sit down for: According to a poll of nearly 6,300 people by the Institute for Medicine and Public Health, it’s likely that you spend a stunning 56 hours a week sitting on your butt- staring a computer working or watching TV trying to think about work. That is a lot of time in one position. Let me tell you how much that effects your body.
Let’s start with the lower half first, when you sit your hip flexors and hamstrings become shorten (not a good thing). This can lead to improper movement patterns leading to pain in various regions of the body. Also, since you are planted on your butt, your body sees no use for your glutes or your core musculature so they become lengthen or turned off. This is also, not a good thing. Your glutes act as the powerhouse of the low body allowing you to generate the most amount of power. If you have faulty glutes the lower back must pick of the slack.Everyone with lower back pain raise their hand! Is this starting to make sense? I hope so. So the technical version of the story is lower cross syndrome, whereas your hip flexors and hamstrings become shorten and your glutes and core musculature become lengthen and nonexistent. This contributes to knee pain, back pain, neck pain and many other types of “pain.” “JB, all from sitting??” YES!
Now, let me complicate the situation a little more. You decide to workout and you go to the gym and you find your favorite 5 machines. What do those machines have in common, you have to sit! Oh no! What good does that do? Sure your chest and arm muscles may look tone, but you still have pain in your lower back. Not a good trade off if you ask me. But are you asking me? I hope so, here are some tips to not sit so much and correct some of our imbalances.
“I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It won’t always get you to the top but it will get you pretty far.”
Margret Thatcher
As a society we have grown into people who are looking for the quickest and most efficient way to live our lives. Cars, microwaves, computers, the internet were all invented to make our lives easier.
Health and fitness is no different. Go to any magazine stand and look at Muscle and Fitness or Shape magazine and you will see pages after pages of advertisements for the latest muscle builder or fat loss supplement.
I’ve always pondered what it would be like to survey 1000 people and ask them one question; If you could have the body of your dreams without working out or dieting by taking one pill per day. Would you do it? The only catch is it would knock off 10 years to your total life span. What do you think people would say?
I have a gut feeling it would be an overwhelming amount of people that would take the pill, taking the easy road to success, cheating their bodies, their mind, their soul and their lifespan.
The problems these days are people are not willing to get their hands dirty and not patient enough to stick with anything long enough to make it count. We have been programmed to believe quicker, efficient is better.
I disagree, efficient is not better, effective is and what trumps everything is quality and hard work. It’s not easy to go to the gym 5 days a week and work your butt off. It’s not easy to juggle kids, marriage, jobs and try to get healthier or have the body you have dreamed of. It’s not easy and it never will be.
My rant today is nothing short believing in you. Believing that the hard work you are putting in is worth it. Believing that anything and everything is possible with hard work, determination and preparation.
As humans we were meant to struggle but we were also meant to persevere under any and all circumstances. You don’t need the easy way out, you don’t need the quick fix and your life will not be complete without the effort it took to get what you want.
We will not lose….ever.
That’s my rant for today. Repeat after me; I WILL NOT LOSE. I’m out.
