I just finished reading the article Fit to Serve: Reshaping Youth Fitness for the 21st Century by Dr. Ed Thomas. Read it! And then take a look at the Iowa Team Fitness page. That is where the above video came from so you can also just watch that. But if you are a parent, a coach, a trainer, an educator, grandparent, working person, athlete, human being you should care about this.

If you check out the Edge on Facebook you have probably seen some posts by other like-minded individuals and groups where we talk about “rejecting the awful normal”. What is that? It is a state of mind, a choice, actions, beliefs, and a philosophy that we follow. It is about deciding to do something, about taking action and responsibility for one’s own actions. It is about not lowering the bar so everyone can simply walk over it at the same height and receive rewards for merely participating in the form of ribbons, t-shirts and water bottles. We have enough t-shirts but not enough people who are mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually fit. The article by Dr. Thomas highlights the depressingly low standards that have been set for the youth, the future of our country, for far too many years and the realized consequences of those abysmal standards already. And things are only getting worse.

I hate being pessimistic or synical but this is something where the “norm” of today’s fitness standards for our youth – your son’s and daughters, brothers and sisters, current and future employees, future and current parents, must be changed! Not everyone has to be an athlete or have 6-pack abs. That is not the point here. The point is that we cannot maintain our military and first responder professions when 75% of young adults (in Iowa, aged 18-24) cannot meet the minimum standards for military service because the are not fit enough. The point is that health care is not a right but a responsibility. The point is what Rudyard Kipling said so many years ago that we are sadly still not understanding or seeming to care about enough to take significant action against:

Nations have passed away and left no trace, and history gives the naked cause of it–one single, simple reason in all cases; they fell because their people were not fit.

I strongly encourage you to read Dr. Thomas’ article and watch the video above if you haven’t already. We love fads. You’ll see some ‘new fads’ in the video that are being implemented into some schools here in Iowa. These ‘fads’: kettlebells, Indian clubs, movement, have been around for a long time. We’re just finally realizing that they still actually work when you use them and can be some of the tools in our toolbox for trying to fix the sad shape of our nation.

It can start in the school systems with bringing back proper physical education and empowering our youth to live active, healthy lifestyles that goes beyond simply physical fitness. Look at the research in the video, physical fitness and mental fitness are strongly linked! The mind and body work together. Once we start a movement in the school system it can spread to parents helping to teach and reinforce proper eating habits at home for themselves and their kids. Now that is a great genetic trait to pass on! The movement can then extend to the work place, encouraging employees to be healthy, active and then more productive…

The possibilities are staggering. But we have to start with a simple act of making a decision and being disciplined to follow the path it leads to each and every day. Are we willing to make the choice, take the action or are we going to merely continue to settle for lowering the bar rather than lifting one another up?

From some of my previous posts you have probably gathered that I am big on basics. This video is another great reason why…

Now, I don’t work with Madonna or any celebrities. I work with real people: athletes, parents, students and working professionals. I have been very fortunate and blessed to work with some individuals who are now pro athletes or compete at the top levels of their respective sports and skills. There is one constant for all these individuals… they learned how to do the basics. They started and stuck with the fundamentals and built their performance successes on that foundation.

It comes down to cutting out the excess – nutritionally, in exercise and in life. Nutritionally, less junk food like processed, refined and sugary “foods” is more room for nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and lean proteins. It is just as easy to put fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables in your cart at the grocery store as it is to put Little Debbie and Chef Boyardee. Less junk means more fuel your body can actually use for energy, tissue repair and growth, development, focus, immunity, and battling stress. And take out the nutritional garbage, stop dieting and start eating. Start with the basics of eating every 2-3 hours, eat natural/non-man-made foods, and don’t use a plate the size of those 18” rims you saw on that Escalade going down the road.

We don’t need 50 variations of one exercise, especially when most people can’t even perform the basic movement pattern properly. Squatting on a BOSU while doing a single-arm DB curl might look like serious fitness but it is a serious disservice to the individual, especially when it is probably someone who can’t even properly stand up out of a chair with only their own body weight to lift. We want fancy “functional” “core” lifts that magazines and infomercials tell us are the “secret” to fitness. Less is more. Learn how to move properly first. Learn proper posture, body awareness, form, technique, breathing, balance and coordination for each movement. Start with basic fundamental movements patterns - pushing, pulling, reaching, squatting, lunging, stepping and twisting in all planes of motion. Learn how to do them PROPERLY. Perfect and master each movement pattern. Less is more people. Cut out the garbage. It might not look flashy or fancy to work at mastering a movement but when you do the type of health, fitness and performance ability that you can build on that foundation will be amazing.

As you get stronger and your body is able to handle greater stresses, then you can progress. But you don’t need fancy equipment to do it with. You don’t need TV’s, magazines or 3 hour long high marathon workout sessions every day of the week. Work hard when you are working out and relax hard when you are relaxing. Less is more is also about taking time to recover and regenerate from the stresses of training and life. Incorporate things like regular massage therapy, Yoga, stretching and other relaxation, regenerative and recovery practices into your routine and lifestyle.  Less fancy equipment and watching TV while working out and fewer “celebrity” trainer “secrets” is more of what we need for realizing true fitness and increased performance.

As the saying goes,” all work and no play” leads to you paying for it later. Less stress and more recovery. Yoga and Massage Therapy are great for recovery and regeneration from exercise-induced stress and work-bills-leaky faucet-kids soccer games-what’s for dinner-back to school-holidays-birthdays-life-induced stress as well. When all we do is focus on work and other non-essentials in life and keep bumping our health down the priority list no wonder our health is as poor as it is in the country. If you have time to watch your favorite prime-time soap opera or reality show, you can find time to get in a workout, make a family dinner (not from a box, can or bag!), go for a family walk, have a game night, get a massage, do some stretching, read, get to bed a little earlier (sleep is great for recovery and regeneration!)… Less is more for not putting too much on your to-do list, setting realistic goals and expectations with work and honey-do’s at home. Pick something, get it done, and move on. Many of us (myself included) don’t do well if we try and do 50 things at once. Tackle one at a time, do it well and do it right the first time and move on. Whether it is life, exercise or nutrition, fewer excuses means more successes.

Pain is weakness in the body

As a massage therapist I hear the following statement a lot: “Wow! I never knew my muscles were that tight.” I work on a lot of different body types from professional desk jockeys, weekend warriors, to highly competitive athletes. A lot of them end up saying that same thing. We are far too disconnected from our bodies. Our minds are always going, always on, always being stimulated. But when we sit for hours a day, and even some athletes and very “active” people sit a lot, we lose something. We lose the ability to move. We have all heard the old saying “pain is weakness leaving the body”. Try this instead: pain is weakness in the body.

Pain is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong. But if it is to the point where you are experiencing pain then something has been wrong for a long time and you have just been putting fitness and life on dysfunction or you just had a bad accident. We don’t reach in to the trunk of our car and “all of a sudden” throw out our backs. It probably had more to do with years of being sedentary, sitting behind a desk, having poor posture and a weak core, and never lifting anything heavier than your remote control or plate full of food at the buffet than picking up that bag of groceries.

Living a healthy and active lifestyle is one of the best ways to take care of yourself, having and maintaining good body awareness or proprioception – how the body senses itself. Body awareness includes things like balance, coordination, posture, knowing where your arms and legs are without having to look at them. It’s also knowing how your body moves and is position during movements like activity and exercise. But, if you’re not active (sitting all day) or exercising then you don’t know how your body moves. Another old saying we have all heard: “if you don’t use it, you lose it! It is the same with body awareness. That is when “all of a sudden” happens. It is not something acute but chronic weakness that has been building and spreading throughout your body because all we do is stimulate the brain and drag the body along with it. We have been taking the wrong kinds of “medicine”.

Think of living that healthy, active lifestyle as medicine you take regularly in the form of activity like walking instead of driving; exercise including strength and conditioning training; eating lean meats, nuts, fruits and vegetables instead of stuffed foods that show you what your arteries are starting to look like; stress management in the form of sleep, lower intensity activities for active recovery, Yoga, stretching, deep breathing, massage therapy; and some other forms of physical health care like Massage Therapy or Chiropractic care for pre- and re-habilitation, and Physical Therapy when appropriate. Not popping pills so some Dr. can go to the Bahamas or because you are in pain all the time and “too busy” or “too tired” to do anything about it. You can always do something to know. And once you know you have the power to do, or not do, something about it.

Going into the Summit I was looking forward to Jason Brown’s hands-on KB session. One of my goals is to prepare for eventually attending the RKC certification weekend. One aspect of this intense 3 day certification process is the physical testing required for passing and attaining distinction of being RKC. One of the physical tests is the KB Snatch test requiring, as a male, to perform 100 proper reps, as determined by one of the RKC instructors, of KB Snatch (an exercise performed by explosively projecting a KB from the ground to overhead in one movement) in 5 minutes with a 24kg KB. This is a very intense and challenging physical test and should NOT be attempted without proper conditioning and training on the form and technique for this exercise! It is most definitely a test as a rite of passage and a personal test of discipline and commitment.

I had been working on this for the past month or two and had reached a point where I was able to perform 100 reps in 5:25 with a 50# KB that I have in my home gym arsenal. I was feeling pretty good about this. It was a lot of hard work paying off. I knew I was still a long 5lbs and 30seconds away from the goal of passing the test on my own, let alone at the RKC Challenge. And then came my trip to Chicago.

As a trainer and coach I knew I had a lot to still learn with KBs and was looking forward to a good review of technique and hoping to learn some new tips and cues. What I learned was that I needed to change a very basic but vital element of my set-up and technique on the KB Snatch, my hand position on the KB and my arm position at the start of the movement. Moving the KB down further into my palm while gripping the inside horn of the KB, allowing the handle of the bell to follow my life-line was one of the main points of change. Also, I learned I was not starting as internally rotated at the shoulder, having my thumb point behind me, as opposed to out to the side. These may not seem like huge technique points but they are, especially for a complex lift like the KB Snatch and other KB lifts where this is the desired starting position for the lift.

What did I take home from this lesson? I learned I was further away from reaching my goal and would need to take a step back to accomplish this. I have since been practicing an exercise I thought I was more proficient at than I really was. By practicing I mean I have been performing 3 sets of 5 repetitions on each side, 15 reps each side, 30 total each time I perform KB Snatch. No more than that. And each rep is done deliberately. I mindfully set up with proper foot stance, hand and arm position, after mentally going through the lift, and then attempt to duplicate that though process in movement. It is humbling. But it will be much more rewarding once I reach and surpass my goal.

Make sure that when you are training that you are mindful of your movements, preparation, training, competition, and your nutrition and recovery. We often think we are better than we are, even with the best of intentions. Does that mean the I/we are wrong in what we are doing? Only if we continue to make the same mistake after we learn of its existence. That is why it should never be just about the destination but the journey. That is how I, and you, can get the edge.

KBs have been around for hundreds of years for a reason

This past weekend I was able to attend another Perform Better 3-Day Functional Training Summit over in Chicago. As usual it was a great event with lots of amazing presenters by some of the best Strength Coaches, Personal Trainers, Physical Therapists, and Exercise Specialists in the world: Gray Cook, Lee Burton, Mike Boyle, Jon Hinds, Mark Verstegen, Chuck Wolf, John Brookfield just to name a few. One of the biggest movements going on right now in the fitness and performane industry is the continued and deepening understanding of getting back to the fundamentals of movement.

Why are the best in the country, best in the world trainers, coaches and therapists getting together, talking about fundamentals? As a nation we have more “gyms”, “health/fitness” clubs and rec centers than ever, we spend more money on fitness products than ever, there are more diets and weight loss programs and reality shows than ever, and we are fatter, unhealthier and move more poorly than ever. (we also pop more pills than ever and some even try to call it “preventative medicine!) There are a lot of people who want to be stronger, more flexible, more powerful, have more endurance, be leaner and “healthier”. These people are flocking to “fitness” club looking for the latest and greatest program  that will beat them into shape. Or they have a house full of home gym equipment that promised them it would shake, shock, vibrate, swivel, rock, or lounge them into shape with only a Wii bit of effort on their part. Why then, with all these advanced programs, pieces of equipment and reality shows, do we have so much failure?

Here is the secret to becoming elite or having an elite fitness level… do the basics better than anyone else. Learn how to move properly in the basic, fundamental functional movements first – pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging, reaching, twisting, bending, stepping. Master them. Perfect them. Do them with deliberate intent. Once you have the basics down you have a foundation you can build durable, balanced fitness and performance on. People may think all those fancy movements, classes and reality shows look pretty, fancy and sexy, but the reason they keep coming out with new ones is because they don’t work… unless you have mastered the basics, having a strong foundation that will tolerate the necessary stress to handle the more advanced exercises, with room to spare. Room to spare meaning even the most advanced exercises, as challenging as they may be, are not outside of your ability to move with stability, mobility, balance and coordination. This allows you to be stronger, more flexible, more powerful, and have more endurance.

Maybe it’s time we take aside the trainer who has their client try to squat on a Bosu with heavy resistance before they can even stand up out of a chair properly with their own body weight and tell them about getting back to the basics. And maybe it’s time we all took a step back to make sure we didn’t miss something like building a solid foundation. You can’t get to the top if the ground is slowly crumbling out from underneath of you. Do the basics better than anyone else. That’s how you become elite. That’s how you get your edge.

More specifically, when was the last time you were uncomfortable during a workout? Or uncomfortable at a restaurant? The more recent and more often you were uncomfortable, I say the better for you. And the better you probably feel when you come home after a long day, after working out in the yard or playing with the kids or even when you look in the mirror.

We are far too comfortable in our society. We are comfortable with being unhealthy and mediocre; with eating pills and supplements instead of real food. We are too comfortable with moving too little and eating too much. And we are far too comfortable with blaming others and turning away all sense of personal accountability and responsibility.

Yes, being uncomfortable can be a good thing. When you are the only one at a party not joining in on some improper behavior it can be uncomfortable. It might be uncomfortable, especially at first, to sit at a restaurant and not gorge and stuff yourself with 3 days worth of calories while everyone else around you is. And sweating from strenuous exertion during your workout might be acutely uncomfortable as well. But it is much better than being comfortable during your workouts.

Comfortable is sitting at home on the couch with the AC on instead of sweating at the gym. Comfortable is watching TV while you happen to be on a treadmill or elliptical instead of a couch rather than hitting good old fashioned pavement or grass with your own two feet or on two wheels (that actually take you somewhere). Comfortable is a mechanically advantaged weight machine that makes you feel stronger than you really are, allowing you to think you are getting a workout because that is what you were told when you signed up for with your membership or exercise subscription plan. Being comfortable keeps you where you are.

Uncomfortable is getting out of your comfort zone and doing more than what you are used to in order to elicit a specific change or adaptation to the imposed stress. Uncomfortable is learning how to and then actually getting down and doing push-ups with proper form and technique instead of just using a chest machine or bench press (every Monday). Uncomfortable is progressing from a basic push-up variation like a half-arm or bent-knee push-up to a full push-up as your body and mind gets stronger and can tolerate the increased demand on the stressed systems. Uncomfortable is doing squats (& not curls in a squat rack), deadlifts, pull-ups instead of pull downs, body weight and free weight exercises over machines… and learning how to do them properly, through full ranges of motion, with proper control, specified speed of movement and deliberate and intent muscle activation.

Uncomfortable is sweating and occasionally groaning through a tough set or rep. If you are not more than occasionally uncomfortable with your workouts then you are a little too comfortable with where you are at with your health, fitness, function, and nutrition. Get a little uncomfortable! If you are just starting out it might take merely going to the gym that first time. It might take learning how to balance some asymmetries that have been causing you chronic, constant pain or only occasionally keeping you from sleeping at night. Try learning some new exercises, like push-ups, pull-ups, burpees, swings, chop and lift, or get out your bike and take the family for a ride. Then go crazy and get really uncomfortable by taking some fruit and yogurt to snack on at work instead of the coffee and cookies that you know everyone else will have.

Like I said, being comfortable only keeps you where you are at. If you are OK with that then by all means stay comfortable, probably at home in sweats sitting on the couch eating popcorn and re-runs of your favorite TV show. Or, maybe, comfortable for you is running the same x miles every day and doing the same workout routine you have been doing for the past x years with the appropriate results to show for it. Get uncomfortable! Don’t hit the snooze, don’t turn on the TV, don’t pick up the same weights you’ve been doing for too long. Take some accountability and responsibility for your actions and choices and get uncomfortable! Who knows, you might get comfortable (in a good way!) with the results you’ll see!

We are all on our own journey in life. Some as leaders and some as followers. We need both in life. But right now we have so many followers and so few leaders that we are stuck going in circles. No one can make up their mind about what foods to eat or not eat or what the best workout is. We have t-shirts, water bottles, and other “motivators” to try and get people off the couch and move. Group fitness classes promise “fun, fun, fun” instead of a workout. Health and fitness clubs look more like social clubs than a place to go and challenge yourself with a workout. Life is a journey. Fitness is a lifestyle. If you don’t want it for yourself then you will always continue to follow the herd and settle for the status quo over achieving personal excellence. After all, someone else might feel bad if they can’t lift as much as you or run as far as you so why lift or run at all.

When I first started working out I would look to see what older kids were doing in the weight room. I would try and learn how to do things properly and emulate those that were like how I wanted to be. I looked for role models. I looked to who I thought were leaders. Now I am still learning how to tell the difference between a leader and a follower, but often times it is pretty obvious. As Dave Ramsey (financial guy) says in his Financial Peace University series: “if you want to be rich, do rich people things; if you want to be skinny, do skinny people things”.

If you have a goal follow the leaders or blaze your own trail for others to follow. Don’t be afraid of failing. We learn from mistakes and failures if there are consequences. Pain heals. Feelings may hurt but only for awhile. But living a life of perpetual underachievement, constantly settling for mediocrity is a far worse consequence than not getting a ribbon for participation. If you want the big trophy you have to put forth big trophy effort. Just remember that sometimes the big trophy isn’t a trophy at all but sometimes it comes in the form of a feeling, a sense of accomplishment, the ability to do something you have never done before, avoiding something unpleasant… it goes on. The possibilities are endless when you break away from the herd and find your own path. Who knows, you just might be surprised at what you can accomlish when you lead instead of follow. And I know we could sure you use a lot more leaders and far fewer followers right now.

Sounds like a great system, huh?! Just the way we were made. Our bodies are incredible machines that no man-made system could ever match. Watch figure skaters, skiers, and snowboarders at this year’s Winter Olympics and you can easily see the amazing potential of this system and its capacity for grace, beauty, and function. Watch as an infant develops into a toddler and watch as they learn to lift their head, roll, stand, walk and eventually run and play.

Now… take a look at your neighborhood park this spring and summer and see how many kids are not out there running and playing. We’d rather sit and pretend to run, throw, swing, kick, MOVE with some game system on our TVs. Can a video game really be that much better than real life? With today’s absurd rate of child obesity, and obesity rates as a whole, in our country and the world it seems that we would rather sit and pretend to live than truly go out and do it. I guess clicking a remote and pushing buttons on a controller are better than fresh air, open space and a little imagination. But those things aren’t readily available to all and for the rest of us they’re not safe anymore. Get off the couch and get out and find a park with plenty of room and safety for everyone. Some things to bring with you… common sense, snacks, maybe some sunscreen depending on the weather, and who knows maybe even a bike, ball or Frisbee.

Plug in and play the original game system this summer. Go out and actually bowl, play tennis or baseball, swing some golf clubs, ride a bike, paddle a canoe, run, or play kick the can or some freeze tag with your family and friends. Outside. In real life where you have to actually move your body and not just a controller. Feel the game by playing it. And have fun doing it. You might find that this system really is better and you can be better by using it a lot more often.