TrainAmazing

It’s true. I’m taking an online yoga certification program. ONLINE? You may say. “There’s no way you’ll get the bonafide experience, knowledge and indoctrination that a REAL yoga studio can impart” you may say! Well, 1- I guess I’m jumping on the online educational trend, despite having various other oldschool values; 2- it really works with my schedule; and 3- I’m not fully convinced that I need to go be in an enclosed space with a bunch of other very sweaty people and risk skin infections, unnamed respiratory pathogens and whatever else may be going around in order to learn how to coach what is essentially flexibility training with additional spiritual principles mixed in.

In other news, I’m really happy with how programming has been going with one of my personal training clients. To give the rundown… Here’s what we worked on yesterday…

• Warmup: stretching to warm up back, to include lengthening forward as well as transverse motions. Warming up backbends
• Warrior 3 for balance
• Chair pose for leg and back activation/ Posture
• Single Leg Bridges
• Sprints
• Box Jumps to Deep Squat
• KB Swings on both sides
• Farmer walks holding outer edge of bumper plates- for grip and posture
• Deadlift (light for technique)
• High Pulls (light for technique)
• Cleans (…)
• Clean to Front Squat (…)
• Deadlift (Heavier Weight)
• McGill Situps- for isolated core activation without help from surrounding muscles and structures.
• Bird Dogs (From Hyper-Extension to Knee->Elbow)
• Sprints for more extended period
• Turkish Getups (King of KB exercises)
• Cleans (Heavier Weight)
• Clean n Press (Heavier Weight)
• Check ending pulse BPM

I’m proud of all the work we got done and the wide range of modalities in play here. Mobility, though under-appreciated in the tough-guy, suck-it-up-and-lift-heavy-at-all-costs mentality, remains paramount to longevity and overall wellness spanning a lifetime. Without question, mobility improves quality of life AND complements all other athletic and daily pursuits. Plyometrics is both fun and a great way to practice things like sticking a landing in a deep squat (more on that later). Grip should also not be left out of a program. It’s usually not until someone gets an injury in the smaller musculature or structures that one recognizes the need to give these areas more love, speaking from experience here.

Posture, posture, posture. Healthy Spine, Healthy Spine, Healthy Spine! The more reading I’ve done on anatomy and the development of the spine in the human species over millions of years of evolution: from single-celled organisms, to those cells that could adapt better because they had a tail or other means of movement, to appearance of basic spinal structures, to spines without curves, to spines with only one curve, to the human spine with 2 anterior and posterior curves… I mean, this just hits my nerd-dom in the realms of architecture, biology, artistry, even cosmology and existential spiritual ways too numerous to describe here. What’s not to love? My point is, in all you do… take care of that precious archway of nerves, shock absorbers and keystones.

I went on a hike today!! The first one in a long time. 8.9 miles roughly. Longest of the steep inclines I’ve trekked. 4 miles up and 4 back down with a good distance from car to trailhead. That doesn’t sound like much but the angle was something like 45-70 degrees the whole time. It was nearly all loose dirt and rock. There were large red ants all over- two of which bit me. 1 got in my shoe and stung my ankle and another got in my shirt and got me below my collar bone. And to boot, they were continually getting on my shoes or clothing and I would have to swipe them off or kill them quickly because that sting was not so nice. Good 10-15 minutes of burning. I passed a giant spider perched in the middle of its symmetrical webbing with red and white markings all over its body. No thank you.

Bees and flies were flying around me to check me out at regular intervals and I’m genuinely surprised I didn’t get stung. Maybe they can tell a human who’s just trying to have good vibes and test himself- who knows? When I finally did get to the peak, it was anti-climactic because I was just ready to be done with it and quite concerned about the descent, being as the ascent was so tricky. And I was right. I fell over and slipped in ways that could have done real harm getting back down. Mind you this was a solo hike, no one was on the trail besides me and I didn’t have cell service. During many many portions, I was in a deep squat, sliding down to another foothold or plateau- several seconds at a time.

While completing this route did put the spark in my craw to upgrade my gear and become a legit mountain man- taking on many more gradients & expanses and feeling right at home in the toughest country (FANTASY? I hope not), I knew this trail was fully checked off with the biggest green arrow possible in my book. I sat in my car completely parched, chugged a quarter of a gallon of water that was resting in a bottle in my passenger seat, got back on the highway and sped home to a comfy shower, nice healthy meal and sweet sweet nap.

Closed out my day with a well-earned trip to the comic book shop to procure one of my favorite ASM issues with gorgeous artwork and some of my favorite characters tied into the plot as well as Wolverine, a title I don’t read on the regular but…. hey I was a beast today and Wolverine was my first halloween costume. I’m owning it.

Hope you had a great saturday. Always remember. Train amazing. Live amazing. God bless.