Break Time. 8/30 - 9/9



NO SESSIONS from 8/30 to 9/9. None!

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Hopefully many of you heeded the warning I put out last week about sitting and have been spending more time on your feet. Super important! Do it! Do it, more! Walk, stand, be tall; just avoid sitting. Hopefully you've had a chance to roll around on the floor and shove a ball in your psoas.... oh, who am I kidding but myself. Maybe two of you did, one for sure.. Thanks James!

But I'll keep beating the dead horse just for fun.

If you don't want to experience the exhilarating thrill of the lacrosse ball in the psoas, then perhaps try this stretch throughout the day.. every hour or so. It only takes 30 seconds. Sooooo that means that no one will do it.. but at least watch the video.

This is a really good stretch. Just make sure you don't go flopping around your spine. Keep it together and tight and use your glute to open the hips and stretch the psoas only.

If nothing else, use the lacrosse ball to massage your feet to relieve some of the new tension from standing and using your feet more.

Free Time:

Yes, to many people's dismay, we are taking 10 days off. That means that you will skip 4 sessions. Just 4. Not a big deal. 4. That's it. 4 workouts. This will not impact your Olympic careers, folks. It's good to take time off from exercise, so whether you agree with that or not, you're going to have to figure your life out for a mere 10 days.

Here's some stuff you can do while you hold your breath through the 10 days:

- Enjoy yourselves! Go do something that you'll enjoy, for $#@&' s sake. You don't have to constantly spend your recreational time in a state of misery to prove to everyone how healthy you are. No one cares about your pool of sweat from 6 push ups, so quit telling everyone about it and go do something more fun. FUN! Have it!

- Mobility. You all lack it. Period. each and every one of us has an issue or 15 that need to be addressed. How about giving those hips some attention? Your feet? Wrists? Shoulders? Don't know how? No problem. Check out MobilityWOD for some pretty effective Mobs. Just search for the joint you want to deal with. 10 days is enough to fix most anything that ails you.

 

- Trim your calluses! You don't need those sucker going from exercise accolades to torn "battle" scars. Nothing cool about that battle and it's really not a good story to tell. "How'd you rip your hand?" "This crazy workout! Ring-rows really tore me up." "....... neat?" You don't need that.

 

- Exercise on your own. You all know the drill. If by now you haven't figured out how to put together workouts, then we need to have a serious talk. Simple. Move your body (squat, lunge, push up, pull up); hold positions (plank, side plank, back bridge, bird dog); Sprint. Simple as that. Mix and match to your little heart's content. Get together with others. I know that groups meet at various times so either show up and see who you find or get on the facebook thing and see what happens.

 

- Get as deconditioned as possible so that you can make huge strides and gains when you come back. Keep in mind that most progress is made when a person is at their worst. So take 10 days to find your worst. This is easier said than done. Ice cream and Dr. Pepper are good. Throw a couch and a TV into the mix; even better. You see where I'm going with this. Wouldn't be the wisest choice, but a CHOICE nonetheless.

 

The bottom line is, do whatever YOU want with these 10 days. Their yours to enjoy and waste at your disposal. Have fun with it. The common phobia as that somehow everyone is going to miraculous explode in the 10 days.

 

Well, if you use exercise to justify questionable eating choices, then you're already in the wrong and unfortunately no amount of exercise is going to undo that. So good luck. If you have addressed your nutritional behavior, then you'll be just fine and your cortisol will settle and you'll find a nice homeostasis. Ideally, that is.

 

Keep in mind: you can gain strength/muscle/conditioning and store fat at the same time. Think about football players. That's how they make their living. So don't think that exercise will stimulate growth in some but magically won't for you. That's just insane, according to Mr. Einstein.