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Healthy Lifestyle vs. Busy Lifestyle

October 28, 2015 By Garrett

Well hello everyone! It has been awhile. It has been crazy busy around here lately! Like many of you, I have had to make some choices on how to manage time to get through the busyness. I wanted to share some tips that have helped me get through it all:

Prioritize– As much as we don’t like to admit it….we can’t do it all. There simply is not enough time in the day to do everything. We have to learn how to prioritize what is essential to our professional and personal existence. For me my family, friends, clients and fitness took priority. Things like social media, marketing, outreach and some other administrative things went to the back burner. A big reason why it has been so long since my last blog! I picked the things that were necessary for my business, my health and my family first
Control the things you can control- When we get busy we tend to feel like we lose control because there are so many moving parts. Sometimes, there are things that we can’t control. 14 hour work days, busy weekend schedules, family obligations, etc. are things we can’t control. However, a big thing I could control was my nutrition. I would prepare foods for the week on Sunday, I would only buy healthy foods when I grocery shopped, I made smart choices at restaurants. When people get busy they tend to eat poorly and thus gain weight. When there is no time to workout or the workouts aren’t as long or as intense because of our schedule we can combat this with the quantity and quality of the food we consume. Also, making choices through the day to move….. get up from the desk and walk around, parking farther away, taking the dog for a walk, setting aside time (no matter how little) to do purposeful exercise, and making active activities a part of your social gatherings all help.
Sleep– Getting the proper amount of sleep is huge in recovery, rejuvenation, and stress management. This is the time that our body repairs itself. This is the time that the body replenishes itself. Without it, alertness/cognitive function will suffer, energy will be low, fitness progress will be stalled and the risk of getting sick increases drastically. Everybody requires a different amount of sleep. A couple of ways that you can tell if you are not getting enough sleep is if you require an alarm to wake up, you have a hard time getting out of bed when you do wake up, you are sleepy through the day or if you fall right to sleep when you do go to bed. A majority of people do not get enough sleep at night and that is one of the most important aspects of your life where you literally make yourself better without doing anything!
Take your moments- When we get busy we tend not to take time to “smell the roses”. We move from one task to the next, rarely enjoying the process because we have so much to conquer. From a mental, physical and spiritual standpoint it is necessary to take a moment and appreciate the people and things around us. Whether it is in the morning sipping on some coffee or as you lay in bed ready to fall asleep, take time to reflect and appreciate what you are doing. It makes those hectic times worth it!

These tips have helped me in the past and will continue to help me. I hope they do the same for you. Now that I have resumed a more “normal” schedule I look forward to sharing more blogs with you!

Primitive Initiative™- Biomechanical Training

March 26, 2015 By Garrett

As mentioned in the previous blog the Primitive Initiative® is a movement oriented training model based on 14 fundamental movement patterns arranged in a specific sequence to maximize results. It combines biomechanical training with energy system sequencing to provide real life fitness for real life movements. This can be an “end all be all” program or can be supplemented into current training programs. Because this is a real life program it is specific to each person. If someone likes to do bodybuilding, power lifting, distance running etc. many of these movement patterns can still be implemented in each person’s training regimen for better results and less injuries.

So let’s get started……..what is “Biomechanical Training”? Well, that’s just a fancy way of me saying human movement training. I have identified 14 human movement patterns that are common throughout life. As young children we incorporate many of these as we learn to move and play. As we become older we either begin to become sedentary or very specific in the nature of our training. In either situation, we start to lose or neglect certain movement patterns. This gets worse and worse as we go through our life. The biomechanical training is designed to help reestablish the mobility and movement of the early years in our life.

Here are the 14 movement patterns that I have grouped into 3 categories:

Manipulative:

Throwing/Catching: To propel an object through the air from a limb and then to grasp and hold onto an object as it propels back to the body.
Picking up: Bringing an object up off of the ground and then bringing it back to the ground.
Pushing- To press against an object with force in order to drive or impel in the direction of the force.
Pulling- To exert force upon an object so as to cause or tend to cause motion toward the force.
Chopping- To make a quick stroke or repeated stroke in an arcing motion.
Carrying- To move an object through a distance while supporting it.

Locomotive:

Reaching- ability to touch, pick up, or grab by moving, stretching, or extending limbs.
Jumping/Landing: To spring into the air and then absorbing impact as the body is brought back to the surface.
Getting up: Bringing the body up off of the ground from a laying position to an upright position.
Crawling: To advance in a prone or supine position where hands and feet are in contact with the ground.
Climbing: Moving suspended from the ground with gradual continued process.
Crouching: To lower the body stance while bending at the legs.

Variable:

Transit: An act of passing through or over terrain.
Dynamic Methods- Activities that are fluid, connected, and skilled in their patterns. (Ok, I will admit this my catch all category for those movements that were hard for me to classify. Things like dancing, tumbling and fighting will fall in this category)

Some of these are self-explanatory, some are not. I will use future posts to further explore each movement and how to progress people through the movements. Much like any program design, progression is key. After all, if people have come to a point where they have not done a certain movement pattern since their childhood they are just as likely to injure themselves in a gym setting doing it as they would in a real life setting. That is why they need to be progressed. This we will leave for later, but for now, try to absorb the movements and look at your own programs to see what they might be missing. Next week I will discuss another fancy word: Energy System Sequencing.

Primitive Initiative™- The Movement for movement!

March 18, 2015 By Garrett

In my near two decade fitness career I have had the pleasure of working with many clients of varying ages, abilities, dysfunctions, and goals. In that time span I have worked with many Collegiate Athletes, budding youth athletes, obese and overweight populations, post-rehab/surgical clients, elderly populations, medical populations, the generally healthy, and even an Olympic athlete. With this wide spectrum of clients I began to find one common problem within each demographic: the lack of movement within their training programs.

I am sure that it is not a surprise for some of these groups, but it may come as a surprise for other groups. In my experience modern life has made us less and less likely to move. As the human race has evolved we have developed lifestyles of efficiency. Unfortunately this efficiency of life has made us inefficient operators of our bodies.

When we are brought into this world we are a blank slate, ready to absorb as much as we possibly can. Everything we learn is through experimentation and exploration. It is trial and error. The more error there is the quicker we learn. It is an amazing time in our lives. Everything is a new experience. We learn to smile, laugh, talk, crawl, walk, and run. We learn to interact with others. We learn to interact with and manipulate objects. We learn to play. Our play is wide and vast, almost limitless.

At some point in our lives we take one of two tracks. We either become sedentary or we become specialized. We may choose to play video games and watch tv instead of going outside and running around playing. We may choose to play organized sports. If we do play sports we start to specialize very early. Many sports have become year round with the school season sport, AAU sport, Travel leagues, and sport specific training. Our wide and vast movement patterns that we once had begun to disappear.

As we grow even older we go to college and take jobs that have us bound to a desk, hunched over a computer. If we have the time and motivation to go to the gym, we pick select exercises that are inefficient and may cover only a very few of the movement patterns that are woefully missing from our lives.

Due to this slippery slope of non-movement, as we age we are unable to perform certain tasks efficiently. Picking things up off the ground, reaching for a seat belt, getting up off the floor all become arduous tasks. Our joints begin to get immobile, sore, swollen and broken down. Sudden movements become risks of severe injury. If an injury occurs it will take nearly two to three times as it once did to recover fully from it, if at all. Chances are there will always be a limitation from the injury which ultimately will cause a compensation pattern. This will put undue stress upon another system or joint until there is another injury. Once this injury cycle is entered into it is hard to escape. Quality of function and ultimately quality of life is severely diminished.

It has been said that exercise is the only singular thing that reduces the risk of every known disease and illness and prolongs life. I submit that movement is the only singular thing that will enhance and extend functional capacity, reduce injury, and increase quality of life. My aim is to add movement back into fitness and into people’s lives.

Because of this I have created the Primitive Initiative®(notice the that I trademarked it! That’s how strongly I believe this is the direction that the field should be and is going). The Primitive Initiative® is a movement oriented training model based on 14 fundamental movement patterns arranged in a specific sequence to maximize results. It combines biomechanical training with energy system sequencing to provide real life fitness for real life movements. Whether you call it athleticism, mobility or functionality, Primitive Initiative® enables the human body to operate in all planes of motion, in all positions of center of gravity, at all levels of intensity, in varying bases of support with efficiency and proficiency. The Primitive Initiative® aims to add real human movement patterns back into fitness and exercise. This is the movement for movement, and I am excited to share this technique with you over the next several blogs!

Having fun on vacation and not letting it derail your goals

March 4, 2015 By Garrett

I don’t know about you, but the winter season has just plain worn me down! Fortunately, my wife and I were invited to our amazing friend’s destination wedding in Mexico this past week. We would have gone to their wedding even if it was in the Antarctica, but we certainly weren’t going to pass up a chance to sit in beautiful weather there at the peak of the cold here (if it makes you feel better we came back just in time for the big snow storm).

A vacation, much like a holiday, can certainly derail our lifestyle. Be it the travel itself, being out of routine, having less healthy options available, and not to mention all of the fun that can and should be had while on vacation. There is fine line between enjoying a vacation and completely going overboard. As I have said before, life is to be enjoyed, just not to the point where it is damaging to our health, function or attitude. Here’s how we had fun, but did not completely derail (and trust me…..we had some fun!)

Move- Every morning we got up and walked. We were dead set on getting the almighty 10,000 steps in. Walking is great on vacation because you get to explore the local culture, wildlife, terrain and scenery. We also brought along some suspension straps and threw them in the door frame in the room and did a good bodyweight workout. I tend to periodize my programs to peak before I go on vacation so that I can take a break, but doing a light workout and walking always helps me stay on track
Eat- On vacation it’s very easy to eat….and eat…and eat! We went to an all-inclusive resort, so there were buffets abound! IT is very easy to over eat and not eat well. What we did was we looked at breakfast as our healthy start to the day. The omelet bar, fresh fruit, water and coffee were the prevalent choices. Lunch was a little looser, but we still made an effort to fill up on fresh fruit, veggies, and salads. Snacks were sold at the gift shop but were healthy options like yogurt and hummus. This allowed dinner to be the meal where we could eat whatever we wanted. Surprisingly enough we stuck with good protein and veggies for the majority of the time.
Sleep- Sleep is so important, even on vacation. It is very easy to get carried away at night with all of the festivities and then wake up early to stake your claim on a beach chair. It could have been a combination of us being flat out tired, used to earlier bedtimes, or just being “fuddie-duddies” but we chose to not stay out late and party it up (don’t worry, we partied it up plenty….just didn’t stay out too late). The three nights we were there we were the first to leave the group and go back to our room. This allowed us to be able to get up the next day and feel refreshed.
Hydration- Being out in the sun, sweating all day and the occasional (or frequent) alcoholic beverage is a recipe for dehydration. We drank a ton of water to help keep the balance. We took water bottles to the beach, drank water at our meals, and made sure we chugged water before we went to bed and right when we awoke.
Breaks from the sun- It’s very easy to forget that your body is not used to being in the sun. It’s also very easy to not feel your skin burning the first day. We made sure that we were lathered up with the good old SPF, but we also took several breaks from the sun. We would go out for our walk in the morning and then grab breakfast and head back to the room for a break. We then go out to the beach for a bit, go grab lunch and then head back to the room. Then we would go out to a pool for a little while and then head back to the room to get washed for dinner and the evening festivities. This routine kept us both from burning!
Enjoy the view and relax- Hey, its vacation. It’s a time to relax and reset. It’s a time to enjoy and explore. We definitely made sure that we made time to relax. We both needed a bit of resetting from our daily lives and work schedule. The weather was great, the company was great, and it was a great escape!

Some things we saw on our walks — Some things we saw on our walk

Nutrition- The Magic Pill

January 30, 2015 By Garrett

Since I am not an expert on nutrition my well is starting to run dry. This will be my last blog on nutrition, at least for a little while. My last blog focused on being realistic. That concept flows nicely into this blog. Today I would like to talk about “magic pill” nutrition.

We live in a world that is filled with “the answer” to your weight loss or performance goals. These “magic pills” or magic nutrition programs boasts results unlike any other…..life changing weight loss, increased strength and stamina, getting ripped! And what’s more, you apparently have to do little effort for these results to be obtained (at least that’s what is advertised). Just buy this supplement or pay for this diet program and start your path to a better you!

Not too long after you start down that path you quickly realize that you either bought some snake oil or you actually have to put some effort into it. You see, there is no such thing as a magic pill. If something sounds too good to be true, it generally is. In my time in this industry the only magic pill that I have found comes from within: discipline.

Now, I must commend people on taking that first step down that path. After all, that is the hardest step they will ever take…..to make the decision to make a change for the better. And I will never take anything away from that!

But here is the thing……..I have never found a supplement or diet plan that worked without a certain level of effort and discipline involved. In most of the “magic pill” scenarios that I know about you have to follow a certain nutrition plan that either reduces calories, controls portions, cuts out processed foods or any combination of these. Some accompany this approach with shakes, pills, meal replacement bars, or full out delivered meals. And guess what….it works! People who stay disciplined to the rules of the “magic pill” product will have positive results.

Imagine that! Someone who is disciplined in controlling their calories, portions, and content of their food having positive results…………. Oh, and taking the “magic pill” too. Who knew? Well, I hate to break it to all those people out there who are doing one of these “magic pill” programs. It’s not the “magic pill”. It’s the discipline of eating right that will get you the results!

Finding out how many calories you should consume, how to divide those calories through the day, and where those calories come from should be the cornerstone of any nutrition program. This is the foundation. Without a strong, solid foundation everything else will fall apart.

Before you go throwing a lot of money towards these “magic pill” programs, start with the foundation first. Shop the periphery of the grocery store, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, eat quality proteins and grains, and avoid anything that is fried or has highly processed food/ingredients in it. The less man made and manufactured food the better. But be realistic in your approach. If you need the structure/accountability of a program or the ease of a prepared shake/meal or even a plan to start with then by all means look into these programs. But know that they will not be nearly as successful if you do not take care of your foundation and stay disciplined in your approach.

Healthy Lifestyle vs. Busy Lifestyle

Primitive Initiative™- Biomechanical Training

Primitive Initiative™- The Movement for movement!

Having fun on vacation and not letting it derail your goals

Nutrition- The Magic Pill

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