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Tag: warm-up

A Stretching Routine for People That Hate Stretching: Part 2

July 30, 2021
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Do you sit behind a desk or at a computer all day? Do you stand in the same spot or do the same repetitive task day in and day out? If so, then chances are you are experiencing some form of neck, back, shoulder etc. pain. With more and more jobs today becoming less physical and the fact that people are typically moving less overall it isn’t any wonder why people’s flexibility and mobility are going to hell. If you feel stiff, tight, suffer from muscle aches and pains or find it harder to simply do everyday activities then the following program may help bring you some relief. 

As the old saying goes “if you don’t use it, you loose it”. Just like if you stop exercising your muscle’s will atrophy (shrink) the same goes for flexibility and mobility. If you don’t regularly work on being mobile and putting muscles through their proper range of motion you will become less and less flexible and begin to lose optimal mobility. 

I can hear everyone now. “I don’t have time to stretch.” “I hate stretching.” I get it. I am busy just like everyone else and  yes, I do not enjoy stretching. That is why I try to find and/or create simple, realistic solutions to everyday problems.

The following stretching routine takes about 10 minutes once you get it down. Follow along with the video the first few times to learn the routine. It is simple to do and will leave you feeling better than when you started and definitely much looser. If you are consistent, over time you will begin to improve both your flexibility and mobility.

This program is great to do as part of your cool down after you exercise. It is also great to add to your morning or evening routine. It works great immediately after a nice warm shower or bath.

Give this program a try for a few weeks and let me know how it works for you? 

Yours in health.

Kevin

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Stretching for Those That Hate Stretching Series

March 19, 2021
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| Health and Wellness

An Amazing Yoga Flow

If you hate stretching and mobility work raise your hand? If you need stretching and mobility work raise your hand? If you love stretching and mobility work raise your hand? You weirdo. LOL Just kidding. The fact of the matter is a lot of people hate stretching and mobility work. These same people however typically need this type of work the most. So what’s the answer? Create short, fun and easy to do routines that people who hate stretching will be more willing to do. Don’t worry people who love stretching. This series has some great stuff for you too. 

Now more than ever with more and more people sitting for their jobs, binge watching hours of Netflix and sitting in traffic there is a huge rise in poor flexibility, mobility and aches and pains. That’s where this series comes in.

Since I am not a yoga instructor although I kinda play one on TV after our virtual boot camp classes. I wanted to seek the advice of a professional. So I asked my good friend and amazing yoga instructor Kristen from Iris Mind-Body http://irisstudiosnj.com on Instagram iris.mindandbody  to help me out by creating a short, fun, easy to perform yoga flow that works on improving flexibility for all the major muscle groups. These stretches/poses can also help reduce stress, decrease pain and help people feel great. This is a great addition to your morning or evening routine and before and/or after a workout.

Please give it a try and let us know what you think.

Namaste!

Kevin

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Killing Two Birds With One Foam Roller

March 10, 2021
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| Health and Wellness

I hate birds. I mean really. All they do is make noise, fly around and crap on everything. Who needs that? LOL. Before P.E.T.A. loses it on me I am totally kidding. I love animals of all shapes and sizes. What this post is referring to is the  old saying “we can kill two birds with one stone” or we can accomplish two things at once. These two things are killing stress and anxiety and killing bad posture, back, shoulder and neck pain. There is a third benefit. If you do this before you work out it can increase your performance a small percentage. So, what do you have to do to receive these awesome benefits? Your gonna have to read on if you want to find out. 

Most people use foam rollers to painfully work on tight muscles and adhesions. I am not a big believer in this for most conditions, but that is for another post. One thing foam rollers are useful for however, is to decompress and align the spine a bit and to help improve posture. I learned this trick from my late great mentor Charles Poliquin many moons ago. He liked to use it with his athletes before a workout to improve strength during the workout. 

To do this this exercise simply lie on a foam roller lengthwise (Use a 36″ foam roller). Keep your feet flat on the floor and your arms next to your body relaxed with palms up and elbows slightly bent. Lie there for 10 to 15 minutes. You most likely will notice that when you first lie down your neck is hyperextended, and your lumber (lower back) will have a large arch. Over the course of the 10-15 minutes however your spine and the muscles in the anterior (front) of your upper body (pecs, deltoids, scalenes, pec minor, biceps, etc.) will relax and gently stretch due to gravity. This leads to decompression of the spine and allows your spine to align more naturally. This can help decrease pain, improve posture and performance. Today this is more important than ever with so many people working at a computer all day, sitting too much, and looking at their phones, and tablets. 

To make this awesome and easy exercise even better I decided to combine it with another beneficial activity. I thought “well I have to lay here for 10-15 minutes which can be kind of boring” So. I decided to “kill two birds with one stone” and add my daily guided meditation practice while I am lying on the foam roller. I love the apps Calm and Headspace. I like to switch back and forth from time to time but you can choose whatever works for you. Doing this not only gives me benefits to my physical body but also my mental capacity by decreasing stress, anxiety and improving focus, relaxation and performance. A super win-win. 

I love to do this either as part of my morning or bedtime routine. Feel free to experiment and find whatever works best for you. I cannot recommend this enough. Please give it a try and let me know what you think?

To your health,

Kevin

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If You Want To Hurt Yourself Working Out, Then Do This.

March 1, 2021
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Over my 20 years of training almost every population of people, there are a few disturbing trends that I see. One of the most pressing trends is failure of people to properly warm-up before they workout. Not warming-up is a sure-fire way to get injured and derail your progress, motivation, and results. So if you want to get hurt and have a less effective workout don’t warm-up.

Point blank, before working out or doing any sport or physically demanding activity you need to warm-up. There is always at least one client that arrives late and misses the warm-up and proceeds to just jump into the workout. Have you ever seen a professional football, baseball, soccer, hockey etc. player before a game? How long are they warming up for? At least 20-minutes. They warm-up to prepare their bodies for the ensuing sport/exercise, to prevent injuries and to improve performance. These are highly tuned, professionals in peak shape and condition warming up. Do you think the average person who sits all day for their job and is not highly active for 95% of the week and not in peak shape and condition can forgo warming up? Hell to the nah!

Now the good news is that you don’t have to spend 15+ minutes warming-up. For most people, a short 5-10-minute dynamic warm-up will suffice.

Important to note, I said dynamic warm-up.  A dynamic warm–up is “moving while you stretch” or stretching through a joint’s full range of motion and preparing muscles for more intense exercise to come. It is not beneficial and can also be detrimental to do static stretching just before vigorous physical activity. Static stretching involves stretches that you hold in place for a period of time, without movement. This allows your muscles to relax into stretch. You do not want to relax into stretch before a workout.  Save static stretching for the cool down and/or off days to work on your flexibility.

The video below shows the dynamic warm-up I have used with hundreds of clients with a ton of success. Before you begin elevate your body temperature and heart rate by doing 2-3 minutes of a light jog, bike, jumping rope, jumping jacks etc. Then begin the dynamic warm-up.

Give it a go just before you start your workouts and lower your risk for injures, improve your performance, flexibility, mobility, and balance.

One thing to note is that even though there are limited studies to prove or disprove any of the benefits of warming-up. Through 20-years of “in the trenches” experience with hundreds of clients of all age groups, I can vouch for the effectiveness of doing a proper warm-up and cool down and the long term benefits they provide.

To your health.

Kevin

Quick and Effective Dynamic Warm-up

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