Fatten up for the Holidays?

Fatten up for the Holidays? 

‘Tis the season for emotional-eating, over-eating, over-drinking, sugar, fat and fried foods. Oh My.  

 Your plan-pact must be made by and with yourself before you go in.
Here are TWO strategies to remember, plus one bonus point. 

1.  Be present. Enjoy your choices.

Effortless. Simple. Yes. Luxurious…hopefully.

But, does that mean you really need to treat yourself to death?  Okay then.  How about first pick the protein rich treats?  These days, appetizers are everything you want them to be, small bites, nourishing and delish.

The empty high calorie treats are the ones that keep you hoping, bite after bite, that the next one will somehow give you more oomph, more satisfaction.  It's only after eating the whole tray, practically, that you realize they were tasteless. Then it all just gets uncomfortable, which is not luxurious at all.  Those empty calories are not free.

2.  Moderation, the best of both worlds...
Try it on for size.  Remember, how you’ve worked your ass off (literally) from last year's binge?  You’ve already invested your time (scheduling, getting there and doing the exercises). The sweat-equity you put in, burned off most of last year's calories that would have otherwise declined into hefty storage sites.  Sure, a restart to your program is ALWAYS a good plan (New Years Rezo).  But don’t make it harder for yourself now if you don’t have to. 

Hold off on those empty calories as long as humanly possible.  If those fried pork rinds, donut holes and cookies are stashed around the office, move them into one location that doesn’t require a frequent visit. Out of site, out of mind.

This year if you had to eat from the automat too much, or eat from the road on one too many business trips, this is a little quick-fix secret for the high social season.  Spandex.

Shapewear (spanx, instaslim) helps you feel the edges of your body again—which makes you feel good and look good.  The high-tech spandex layer seconds as a feedback monitor too:  if you feel like you’re “gonna bust”, stop eating.  And start drinking?  Well…then you might end up falling on the floor.  You’ll pay for those empty calories one way or another.  Sparkling water anyone?

Bonus. 
Quality Sleep.
Late nights, early mornings, where lack of sleep accumulates and doesn’t support your healthy choices.  Bad, and not in a good way, bad impact on your metabolism and on your mental health.  Sleep deprivation leads you straight to those high calorie items for a short boost, but still leaves you feeling tired.  Rest up.

Bruce Lee's Ping Pong Fu

Bruce Lee's Ping Pong Fu

Adding a twist on Olympic Ping Pong

Feet speed and agility

If you have feet, don't take them for granted.

We use them without thought most of the time.  But remember, a foot injury can change your world.

The discussion of power-force generation for speed and agility is a good one but tries to truncate one body part use without the other.  Here's an interesting Q&A link about "Quick Feet and Agility Drills".  As difficult as it is to think outside the box, with the popularity of Pilates infiltrating the dance, fitness and sports performance domains, the box is slowly changing shape into a global training perspective.  In 21st century training, squaring the circle is not optimal. 

This "Bulgarian" lunge is remniscent of Joe Pilates style Russian Split.  No we don't do Pilates...




We see how the sports industry is evolving.  The modern dance world is changing shape too.  But traditional Ballet continues to cripple their dancers for the sake of something that can never be questioned--tradition.  But when and how does tradition take hold?  Can it evolve?

One message the dance world gives to the sports world is this: "Get all of your body weight out of your heels!"  And, sports training weighting into the heels adds balance to that message. 

However, if you want speed and agility, you're not going anywhere fast if all of your training and stances are coached by pressing all your body weight into the heels.  The arches of the feet help distribute weight through the bones of the feet, and the muscles of the feet got to be resilient.

So yes, you need your feet for speed and agility.  Now is the best time to strengthen and train with an all-encompassing understanding of their power.
 

Core, How About Parkour?

Core, How About Parkour?
Now that we have a core, it's time to move with it!

In an amazing article, "Too Old, Too Fat, Too Weak For Parkour" by Ryan Ford, Ryan suggests an expansion into Parkour regardless of age, size or anything else, is possible. It's an empowering idea.  It looks easy.  But as we now know the easier it looks... doesn't always mean that it didn't require a massive amount of effort, focus and humility to make it look so easy, and fun. 

Parkour for all?  Why not. 

Ryan Ford has put together some incredible vids that introduce you, the beginner, to this highly coordinated movement art. Ryan picked 5 moves to work toward for increased mobility in Parkour: full squat, passive bar hang, wall support, basic quadripedal, and jogging.  If you've (n)ever thought about crawling backwards, here's one of his instructional vids to check.



Is Parkour only for the young? Looking at some of the amazing advanced students, many of the traceurs are young men.  The advanced traceurs apparently create with ease something extraordinary, without breaking their neck, or a sweat, in the process.  The question remains, will they be able to do Parkour at 50+?  Does it matter?



More informed, with cross-training (Pilates, Gyrotonic, Yoga, SportsMedicine), we can not only want to move with ease, we can train to move with ease throughout our entire lives.  Of course,  embarking on this Parkour adventure, as with everything else, will require skill and prep, risk analysis in any environment, awareness of one's own ability not someone else's.  And it must be mentioned, a healthy sense of play throughout the rest of our lives shouldn't hurt, too much.

ULTIMATE PLANK VID

Ultimate Plank Vid
by Men's Health

LOOK NO FURTHER for perfecting your PLANK challenge.
(Thanks to my friend and colleague Andre Levitt for posting this on his fb page.)

22 Plank Variations
22 new plank variations:
Posted by Men's Health on Wednesday, September 16, 2015

REVIEW: The Elevation Training Mask

REVIEW:  The Elevation Training Mask

Just pay me now for saving your future brain cells!  We'll start with the low cost of $79.99.

I'm serious!  These are accidents just waiting to happen.  Have your AED's charged and ready.

I can't figure out what people think they are training for here: Maybe it's someone with a strong desire to be resuscitated at the gym.   Do you really want to work so hard to forget your name today, tomorrow or what day is it? Are they training for pearl dives without scuba equipment? Even the Aegean pearl diver has the better sense than to stay under too long.   Ever hear of necrosis?

You may not know this but your brain requires oxygen.  And using this mask will not make you stronger, faster, give you more endurance, and it most definitely won't make you smarter. 

It doesn't simulate the effect of high altitude training--only altitude itself or a highly expensive, humungous hypobaric chamber can do that. 

Sure you'll feel the burn--in your lungs.  This is what it feels like to be an asthmatic exercising. It will not train your anaerobic threshold--sprints with unobstructed breathing will do that, or power lifts with unobstructed breathing is the way to go. It's no fun to have asthma.

It will not improve your cardiovascular capacity--but high intensity interval training by cycling, walking, running, sweating, breathing works just great.

You may injure your already aching heart--got to be nice to this muscle.

I beg of you, do not let your children near this thing.  If you have training questions that you think this mask will short cut, THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS.  Get a real trainer.

Key Access to the Core

Key Access to the Core:
FIND the key to the deepest layer of your abdominal wall.
It's deep. It's subtle. It's easy.
Quote of the day: I hate the core! 

Remember:
1. Less is more. If you try to power through, you will miss the important support of this deep transverse core muscle.

2. Follow your natural exhalation and notice your lower abs sink. 
Try not to tilt the pelvis or tighten the quads, gluts for this. 
Try not to tighten anything really. This is very very very different from any exercise you've ever done. Just follow the exhalation at first.

3.  Don't beat a dead horse. If this isn't happening for you, tell a really funny joke while you are doing a "core" exercise and pull in your gut on the exhalation, okay.  It's a start.

To progress, you can work your way backwards from here.

HINT:
Sucking in your gut is the exact opposite of what your trying to achieve.

Yes it's important to breathe easy--not just hyperventilate.  And most importantly, don't stop breathing on my watch.

SIMPLE RESPIRATION STRETCH.
Take a few deep breaths. Then begin to slow and elongate the inhalations and the exhalations. Toward the last few seconds of one of those exhalations, gently pull in the lower part of the abdominal wall a little bit more.

Once you feel this gentle drawing in or "hollowing" effect, sustain the transverse abdominal contraction for a moment before the next inhalation.