liquid fitness® follow along sequence
exercise: Squat Shoulder Press / Jump Squat Press
Tomas Anthony, founder and trainer, everyday athlete ®, teaches you how to train more intelligently for what you love. In this sequence, Tomas will demonstrate one of the essential movements of functional training, the squat coupled with a powerful upper body movement, the overhead press.
Archive for December, 2009
How To Squat Shoulder Press
Would you like to have an influence on how you die?
We do not choose when we live but we can decide what we do with the time we have.we all would like to live a full, healthy and less stressful life. I believe that: the choice is yours. There is ample data supporting the idea that we can have a profound influence on not only the quality of our life but ultimately how we die.
I begin with a recent excerpt from the NY Times Well blog by Tara Parker-Pope, and written by Gretchen Reynolds, published an article titled: Can Touching Your Toes Test Your Arteries? The article suggests that there is “a relationship” between our arterial flexibility and how flexible we are in our lower back, hamstring and calf muscles. Unfortunately, the test used in this study is not something you should try at home as it can be unhealthy, even dangerous for your back. (I wish the researcher had designed a better experiment and I question the value of his conclusions and ideas based upon his methodology and thus unfortunately his hypothesis seems very flawed.)
That said there’s an important take away that I think was missed in this: we all have a lot more control over how we influence the quality and length of our demise. In essence: We can choose how we die. While it’s true that we could be killed, injured or be the victim of random violence or disease, there’s less likelihood of this than us simply growing old and dying. Here are ways that each of us will probably go (data is from the CDC website)
Leading Causes of Death
(Data are for the U.S.)
Number of deaths for leading causes of death
- Heart disease: 631,636
- Cancer: 559,888
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
- Diabetes: 72,449
- Alzheimer’s disease: 72,432
- Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
- Septicemia: 34,234
what should be clear is here is that there is that 6 of the top 10 causes of death are directly effected by how well we take care of our physical and mental health throughout our lives. In addition, over 80% of the leading causes of death are conditions that most cases are directly effected by changes in lifestyle and exercise.
More importantly: if you want the quality of your experience to improve every day, no matter how long you live, if you did nothing else but improved your physical health you’d feel and live better. If you get stuck on the “how” to do this then stick around and ask questions. This is the purpose of this website and blog.
training for snowboarding, surfing and other board sports
exercise example: how to jump lunge
purpose: builds ability to reduce and produce force.
Benefits of Urban Training
One of the benefits of living and training in a large urban landscape is that there’s a lot of creativity, intensity and opportunity to improve ideas and methods. Over the past 15 years, I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of a grass roots fitness community helping everyday people excel at what they love.
Specifically, I’ve been interested in helping design, develop and implement training programs for board sports like surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding and other board -balance based sports. Each one requires a unique approach and training progression although they share some common traits. Over the next few weeks I will be posting a brief distillation of some of the movements and progressions that have been highly effective for each group.
Zero Weight Gain During Pregnancy Debate
The New York Times Well Blog recent sparked some serious debate when they published the following article on their well blog: Zero Weight Gain During Pregnancy
I posted my simple albeit short comment on the NYTimes Well Blog and I guess pissed a few women off. So to clarify, I decided to write this post in the hope that some folks might understand my perspective.
I know a lot of women who gained (and lost) a lot of weight (in excess of 50 pounds) during all their pregnancies. However, there was little or no concern because most of them were being actively monitored by the OB + Midwife, and were fit and healthy prior to getting pregnant.
All my clients (pregnant and otherwise) learn to take a proactive and healthy approach to eating, moving and playing so that issues around gaining weight during pregnancy or life are handled in a supportive and healthy way. Eating well is challenging and difficult for everyone but it is essential to good health.
My intention in writing comments is to be instructive and specific rather than simply post my opinion. If this appears to clinical or too “instructive” for some the reason is simple: My job is to help people make hard decisions that will get them feeling better and moving better through life.
- One very important methodological note that I did not express in my post.
I believe in the idea that Calories are not AS Important as Nutrient Value. Hence I would argue forcefully that Pregnant women should be MOST Focused on eating:
- Leafy Green Organic Vegetables
- Lean Sources of Protein
- High Quality and Pure Omega 3 Fats including from small fish and flax/other sources
- Supplement their diet with a well rounded “whole food” Prenatal Vitamin like New Chapter’s “Perfect Prenatal” or other. M.D./OB are not always on top of this.
- Find a great Midwife to work with and perhaps speak with someone who is Licensed in Prenatal Nutrition.
Here’s my NYTIMES POST.
“The demands of pregnancy can be significant even for non-overweight or de-conditioned women. The underlying message that should be taken away from these recommendations are simple. If you are interested in getting pregnant and having a happy, healthy and successful pregnancy and life after birth then:
Prepare your body and mind in advance by losing excess body fat , conditioning your body and beginning a “core training” program to strengthen your pelvic floor and other muscles for the demands of labor and beyond.”
how to jump squat
how to jump squat
a practical way to keep your body and bones strong and avoid injury.
jump squats are simple, effective and fun. when practiced correctly they are safe, functional and a great way to get your whole body moving. In this example, I teach you the basics of good form and areas of common problems that you want to look out for. Look for this new how to series to be available soon for download online and to mobile devices.
what will it take?
I got a call tonight. it got me thinking about my life and the choices I’ve made. some of us think that life happens to us that we are mere actors, scripted, and doomed. I feel differently but perhaps that’s because I feel like I’ve been given a second chance when none was supposed to come my way.
what will it take for you to realize that life doesn’t offer many second chances?
why would you waste any more time being miserable in a mindlessly job or routine?
how bad does it have to get for you to create a real life for yourself?
Survival is easy.
Purpose filled, meaningful life, hard.
but worth every minute.
I believe that moving is essential to finding out who you are and how to make yourself happy. we are all different but how we create a significant life starts with movement.
however, it’s hard to move if you’re weighted down by your past mistakes as your body literally carries them with you. every day. so, it’s time to let them go.
So, delete them. throw them out. Do whatever it takes to erase the past. forever. what you did before doesn’t matter. if you feel compelled to reconcile what happened in your past then write letters to all those people who have helped you. thank them. call them. go and see them.
Forget forgiveness right now. forgive yourself first. Exception: if you’ve done something terrible. then I’m sorry, but only a lifetime of hard work will help you and those you have hurt, feel better. start now. the faster you get going the better you will feel.
unemployed or underemployed?
if you are unemployed or underemployed, then there’s no better time to change. Lose everything: all the weight you ever wanted to lose literally and figuratively. I mean everything. all the needless crap that piles up in our lives and on our bodies. Beware: don’t fall victim to drugs, alcohol or worse. look no further than your tv to see what happens when a life implodes (A&E’s Intervention).
there are people and there are tools out there to help you:
- ebay
- craigslist
- AA
- others
Keep moving. Move to another land. surround yourself with good people. stay away from the bad ones. but whatever you do;
don’t stand still.
stress fractures and other overuse injuries
The best way to avoid stress fractures and other overuse injuries
I see a lot of people every month and hear about many more that suffer from overuse injuries. Many are completely unaware of the risks in what they are doing. Some don’t believe that what they are doing is bad for them. I hate to say it but sometimes our own obsession with trying to get fit is worse for us than not moving at all.
Our reasons for moving more should aligned with what we love. And while we may not always know how to train properly -vs- What seems to make us feel good, we should know why we are doing something and understand the risks / rewards. Unfortunately this is often not the case: I have met a lot of runners, particularly marathon distance runners, who suffer from overuse injuries of every sort including very serious lumbar spine injuries. Many tell me how much they love running. How it makes them feel great. And yet most of them are falling, literally, apart. There’s a disconnect here.
Repetition, while important, can also be very detrimental to our bodies. I believe that long distance running on pavement, year in and year out, is not good for anyone. This might make me some enemies but I think my beliefs are supported by a lot of facts.
Simple way to avoid repetitive stress injuries and stress fractures
There’s a good reason to add variety to your training. It helps prevent injuries by using different systems in your body. Commonly referred to as: “cross training”, creating a synergistic training program can be challenging in an urban setting but it’s essential. Why? By imposing different types of demands and/or levels of intensity, your body responds by building more capacity and specifically it also works hard to address these new demands in a multi-dimensional way.
Complexity vs Simplicity
Complex forms of cross training incorporating a wide variety and depth of types of exercise is the goal. However, in it’s simplest form cross training can be successfully accomplished through rotating your activities, pairing opposite demands and paying attention to how you are feeling. Example Pairs: Swimming and climbing, hiking uphill + surfing, tennis and Tai Chi, soccer and yoga, basketball and Pilates. The most important factor is making it fun and keeping it interesting. Cross training is ideally not simply stepping off a treadmill on to a “elliptical” machine. Cycle through forms like yoga/dance class/resistance training/running/swimming instead. IF you truly don’t have the time then make sure you mix things up thoroughly: Time/Intensity/Intervals/Machines/body weight/etc. This is not an easy thing to do but necessary to avoid common injuries.
Why Repetition is Good, But Variety is Better.
While we need repetition to learn new movements, it’s the progressive and incremental increase in demand that makes our bodies sing. In less modern times, people had jobs that forced them to move more and included a variety of intense and less intense demands: Walking, running, lifting, hiking, etc. Today this is not the case. Are so called “modern” industrialized societies do not require you to move at all. In fact, our increasingly “information based” jobs are causing vast numbers of people to stop moving all together.
To combat this we need only to look at the patterns of the past and integrate some new ideas into the mix. It’s not enough to “copy” what our ancestors did, as we are not them nor should we be. But we can learn from their experiences and the way that they moved for clues into improving our own health and fitness.
Old School Case Study: Mountain Climbing in 1938
I am an armchair mountain climber. I don’t think I’ll ever climb anything serious. But that doesn’t prevent me from I’m reading works by the greatest mountaineers. Most recently, I’ve been reading K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs, David Roberts. In one section of the book, Ed Viesturs describes how the mountaineers of 1938 had to hike in 360 (three hundred and sixty) miles before trying to scale the second highest peak in the world. What? That’s true cross training. It took them many weeks in some cases months to get to the mountains before they even started climbing them. Unconsciously, these people prepared their bodies for the strenuous demands ahead. Few to none of us train this way but we should. We should be training over longer periods of time and use extended training progressions to truly help our bodies and minds develop the ability to perform. This goes completely against every “fitness marketing” plan for every segment of the industry. It simply doesn’t sell. But it works.
So, next time you train, imagine that before you start you have to spend 75% of your time “getting prepared” and only 25% of your time actually working hard. Does this sound familiar?
- think more
- run less
- find something new to do
- move with more intention
- and less overuse.
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