How to Improve Your Control part 1

 

 

In both my random and intentional thoughts on fitness, I have been thinking about the need for control a lot lately. As you may be aware, I train a lot of athletes form the age of 8 all the way into their fifties and the one common thread that I have seen in all of these age groups is a lack of control especially (but not limited to…) their lower bodies. They usually lack the ability to control their ankles, hips and knees and or all of the above and as a result may possible be more prone to injury. Now please be aware of the fact, that most of these people are not noobs and some of them have been “working out for their whole lives.”

As then as you can see just training for fitness may not in most cases be enough to help counteract these potential risk factors for injury. What then can we do to improve this needed factor?

To answer this question we have to first understand the role of the brain in this quality. The brain is the control center of the body in that role is the ability to control joints and movement patterns. This works by learning and experience, for example your foot learns how to respond to terrain by walking over it. When you hit a hole it will shift and try to protect your ankle and other parts. But this will only work if have hit a hole before. This is one example in way that the brain learns to control a joint or to stabilize from an outside force that could cause harm if it wasn’t dealt with.

Another example is when a baby stabilizes his or her should when they are picked up by their arm.

So what happens when the brain doesn’t do this important reaction?

Usually it leads to some kind of injury such as when a foot over inverts and ends up “rolling” the person’s ankle or spraining it as a result.  So you see that this type of control is very important for our health and performance, especially over a lifetime of fitness and or sports.

Being aware of this fact and the need for this type of control should lead to the question of how we can improve this neurological quality and to increase our ability to get long-term fitness results.

I will endeavor to briefly answer this question and then follow it up with some practical movements in the next post to help improve this needed control.

Training this quality is not that complicated and pretty much is done in the same way that you: build strength, muscle, power and conditioning. You train with specific moves in mind for quality reps over time to develop this skill.

 

You go from the floor as means to help you easier learn how to control your extremities. Then to more of a loaded spine position, all the way up to standing and choosing exercises that make you control yourself. In fact you can even do this with one move: The Turkish get-up.

 

This complex exercise takes you from the supine posture all the way up to standing with the added benefit of strength development, cross patterning, shoulder stabilization and mobility. It however, is not the only way to do so.

Then you will want to continue that process and add in some gait related simple to complex movements such as (but not limited to) marches, skips, hops and jumps.

As you do and focus on quality movement with fewer reps to avoid break down, you will help yourself develop better control of your body and possibly your joint health and freedom as a person.

Come back next week for part two if this post that will give you some videos and explanation how to work this process in you training and for some ideas how to put them in without neglecting your fitness goals!

 

Getting your first Chin-up part 2

One of my friends and co-workers wanted to increase her upper pulling power expressed in the chin-up.  So we did some specific drills regarding this movement pattern. (Which, I will show you as this series progresses.) I loved her surprise and amazement as she achieved her fist and more chin-up in a matter of minutes. Now because she was already strong, she was able to apply her force to this movement. Some of you will be able to do the same as you apply this concepts’ others will have to build a some strength before you can and that is ok, just be ready to hit the bar! (Pull-up bar that is!) (If you haven’t read it yet, click here for part one.)

Now due to the nature of the chin-up and its primary movers the lats, a few things can happen in your body that won’t help your cause long-term wise. The first one of those issues is:

The rib cage flair or what we dubbed at the gym I work out of as, “The rib cage erection.” As I stated earlier because of the fact that the lats are the primary mover in this motion they have a tendency to pull back on the rib cage and bring you into spinal or lumbar extension and this is not the strongest position to be in.  So your first step is to learn how to keep your rib cage down and abs engaged. Now that doesn’t mean the certain exercises that do have you extend are bad. But just that if you want to boost your pulling performance, you will need to not extend on your reps.

No, no!
Yes , Yes!

Some anti-extension ab exercises:

Hard roll and x roll: 

Ab wheel roll out :

Hanging leg raise to boost performance

As you can see that these drills are anti-extension drills and train the abs to help you in your chin-up practice you will want to do these pretty frequently without going crazy. Now get to work on building your strength in these moves above and begin to apply them to your pull-up training and you may just get your first one before you know it!

Stay tuned for next week’s post in this series!

My Ten Fitness Commandments Part 6: Overcompensation

I hope that you have been enjoying this series and that you have been learning how these principles will help your training. Lastly, I hope that you figured out how to apply them to your own fitness and have gotten better as a result. As this series continues strive to add them all into your training, because as you so you will see that they are all part of the tapestry and when they are woven together in your fitness, you will get a tapestry of amazing results! (Click here if you need to read the last few posts in this series)

In light of that, this week’s point is a very important one and is often not applied well or it is taken too far. That principle is the overcompensationprinciple. This concept is absolutely essential if you want to get any results from your fitness. So ignore it at your own frustration and lack of results.

Before we begin to apply this principle to our training we need to understand how the body works. It is a basic exercise principle that our body has two phases when it comes to exercise, it is either at rest or being challenged by something that taxes it as we exercise. Then the body’s response to the eu-stress, it will then adapt and adjust to the stress. The result is more conditioning and strength and a leaner and better physique as well.

Now a failure to do so will lead to a lack of results and not breaking out of the rest zone as you train. That is why it is easy to get results when someone goes from the couch to doing anything, due to your threshold being so low. However as you go along, you will need to continually overload or use the progressive overload principle to continue to change and get to your goals.

So the choice is yours, you can either overload and get results and continue to do so in conjunction with the other principles that I have given and will in the next few posts. (If you don’t want to miss out on the fun subscribe.)  Or you can try to seek ease and comfort and end up not getting results. Then you can play the blame game by blaming others and your genetics. I hope that you choose to overload progressively friends!

Stay tuned to this blog and subscribe if you haven’t yet, because next week we will apply this principle with the overload concept. You will not want to miss out on it!

Is Your Mindset Holding You Back?

I can’t count how many times that this is the case. Most people have a lot more potential than they realize and never achieve it by a mindset. Sometimes it isn’t their fault and their poor mindset comes from others influence, who else lack a driven attitude. However, once you realize that you are free and that you can do better. The choice is on you, no matter what others may have told you or what they might say. As a bonus your breaking free may help them to do the same as well.

What is holding you back?

Break free from it for you and others. Don’t let a “lawn chair” hold you back you are a powerful being!

Get to it and get better!

Moses Correa

How You Can Break Through A Plateau

This last Saturday I was working with one of my favorite clients (they are all favorite) and I gave her two 12 K.G. kettlebells for a squat and press strength complex. She pressed them once and then needed to do a push-press to get the bells overhead after that. Which are fine, push-presses is a great exercise and I have seen people turn a push-press into a strict press with some spent training.However I felt like something was missing from her technique and that she just needed a quick refresher into the technique of “how to” of being stronger.

 

 

I then did some drills with her to help her remember the proper technique and “wham” she smashed her press with ease. Even on her “weak” side with way less difficulty. All that we did was worked on bracing drills and using tension to empower her pressing. That is what our post for today is about; using muscle tension to produce strength, safety and faster fat-loss.

 

 

 

Sometimes the thing that is needed to do a certain move is to learn how to use this technique. Think about something that you may struggle with and how you can never seem to develop or earn the move. This principle can help you to finally get “victory” over your struggle with that move or load.

You may think that this is a gimmick or that it won’t work for everyone, but please take the time to acknowledge that I am not trying to sell you anything. I am just giving you information that can transform your fitness levels to new heights and levels for free! So give it a shot, unless of course you have high blood pressure.

 

This particular practice involves tightening up every muscle in the body to produce force and power. This practice creates stability in the body and thus more power.  You also need to employ a particular breathing pattern (power breathing) that will also help you generate more strength in your lifts.

 

1. Tightening up your body to produce force:

This is what I call mind over muscle it is using the mind to brace and tighten every muscle in the body. To learn how to do this we will use the hard style plank. (It is easier to learn something without moving) Get in a push up plank position, now brace your abs as if you were about to take a kick to the gut. Then, squeeze your heels together and upper legs as well. Tighten your glutes squeeze them as if you were trying to break a walnut with your “lower cheeks.”  We will also move this up the body by “packing your shoulders” or pulling them down away from the ears. If you have gotten this right you will feel you lats almost cramp. Finally push your hands down into the floor along with your feet. If you have done this properly; you will feel like holding your plank got easy. But it takes a lot of energy to hold it due to the focus and using your entire body to hold it rather than a passive plank.

 

 

2. Power breathing:
Depending on whom you are and your experience with breathing drills, this aspect of strength enhancement can be a bit more difficult to learn properly. Tis can be a result of needing to learn how to breathe into the middle of your body first and not into your chest. This may take a lot of practice but don’t feel discouraged as you endeavor to learn it. As long as you are getting a bit better every-time that you do

This particular technique is done by breathing in through the nose to fill up your sides, back and abdomen. Then taking your tongue and sticking it to your teeth and finally breathing out with a hiss. If you have done this well your abs should be on fire.

 

 

Work on applying these principles into your working out if you are healthy enough to do so. As you do you find your numbers going up and also will be better suited for advanced exercises such as: pistols, planche holds, levers and so on. Just start with the plank and breathing drills. As well as putting these ideas to work in your lifting.  You will be pleased with your progress and possibly finally begin to do some moves that may have eluded you up until now!

“If you fail to…

“If you fail to plan you plan to fail”  Ben Franklin

This quote reminds me of multiple clients that I have worked with. Well intentioned people who want to get lean, healthy, stronger and move better. These type of people understand that eating better has a huge part in the process of achieving their goals and I believe that they in their heart of hearts want to . Yet, with all of their good intentions they never make progress and or end up on endless roller-coaster of progress and regression. They are always frustrated and feeling guilty over their failure to meet their goals or make any significant lasting progress.

In fact just the other day I had a talk with a member of my gym about this same issue. He is overweight and constantly on the “yo-yo” of weight loss and gain. He is always making resolutions and never able to even make it a week in keeping them. Every time I talk to him it is obvious that he wants to lose fat but he never does. Why? This post will give you a helpful answer to this question in my usual simple manner that could help almost anyone get the results that they need/want.

 

 

The solution for this type of person is simple; they need to make a plan of action and view achieving their goals as a process. Instead of trying to do it all at once, which will pretty much guarantee failure and frustration. I am aware that this will take a lot of energy to follow in the beginning. However, how much energy do we waste on regret if we don’t plan?

 

First: write down or know your goal.
You will be surprised by how many people don’t even know what their goal is.

Second:  Plan out the steps that you want to take.
Pick one thing that you know, you will rock at and then do it. This can be something such as; drinking more water or cutting back on sugar. Once you have gotten control of that thing, then move on to something a tad bit more challenging and so on.

Then keep this process going until you arrive at your goals. You will be glad that you did, if you do. If you choose not to follow this simple principle of planning; you will probably end up “stuck” in the same spot as you are right now! So the choice is yours friend. You can become successful in your fitness goals by planning and taking one step at a time or you can continue to be frustrated and getting no-where fast while you blame others for your issues. I know what I will be doing!

If you need help formulating a plan or knowing what to do I offer a variety of expert services to help you. If you follow them you can’t fail! Click here to view them and or to get in touch with me.

5 ways that you can get to the next level.

I am so frustrated! “I am not sure what to do in my training and I’ve plateaued. “Exclaimed one of my friends in utter frustration with his seeming lack of progress. I then being the good friend that I am, realized that I needed to talk him down off of his proverbial cliff. I first mentioned that the “plateau” effect can often just be that you simply need to be consistent in your training until you overcome whatever your challenge may be. Then secondly, it also may require that you need to take the next step that you have earned through constant practice.

If you share my friend’s challenge this post is for you or if you simply want to be challenged to get the full benefit of your time spent training. Then read on my friends because this post is for you and will help you overcome your challenge in being challenged!

As you read earlier if you have spent enough time on a movement or progression and have made it easy( E.G 300 2 hand swings a day) Then not only are you ready but you also will need to move to the next step to keep getting killer results. Believe it or not this is a lot easier than you think to do and I am about to tell you a few ways that you can do just that!

Way 1. Go from symmetrical exercise to asymmetrical ones:
You have followed the rules of your training program and you have smashed it and got crazy results. Whether it was a push up program and you have been doing two armed push-ups or two-handed swings. A very simple way is into doing a one arm push up progression  like uneven push-ups or begin to do the wonderful one arm swing.  As a bonus and because I consider myself a nice guy, here is a one arm swing video to help you do just that:


Way 2. Decrease your rest in between sets:
All that this approach requires is a stop watch, your kettlebell and mental toughness. If you have been doing a minute rest simply begin to rest for 45 secs or  40 secs and then go right into your next set. This will increase your conditioning and work capacity and strength, due to the new level of Eu-stress on your body.

Way 3. Do more reps in a set:
This is another way of increase your threshold and providing the body systems with a new level of stress. Once again as well as the rest of steps use good judgement. Don’t jump from 5 reps to 20, make sure that you form is consistent throughout your reps. Otherwise you will end up injured or burned out before you meet your goal!

Way 4. Do all of your swings or move in a more condensed time period:
In other words, if you have been doing 150 in the morning and in the afternoon then do 200 in a time or all three hundred in one workout. Once again this will be new stimulus to your brain and it will produce continuous results for you!

Way 5. Go heavier:

I have saved this one for lost because kettlebells can be expensive (but are a good investment) so you can work through all of the other steps and build yourself in strength and conditioning and then you will be completely ready for a heavier bell. So not only would you have prolonged spending money on a heavier bell but you will be in a much better place to handle the heavier bell.You would earned the next bell intelligently and still gotten crazy results in the process!

This post was all about helping you get to the next level without having to read every exercise text-book and listen to charlatans’ opinions on how to get better. Here are some simple ways that any body can do and get results in their training. Just pick one of them to do and or you can switch them every other workout or once a week or you can  stick to one particular mode. You now have options to help you get to the next level, get to work and get to the next level in your training!

Click here for my Free video series on how to get stronger  and leaner with pushups and body-weight training. Just it your e-mail in the box with the tag line BW video series and you will get it shortly!