I was recently asked for advice that I would give teenagers about exercise. Nike already stole my short answer (Just do it!) so I’m going to give a little bit longer one in this post.
For teens who aren’t already exercising: Exercise is the single best thing you can do to help yourself ward off the hazards of being a teenager. Studies have shown that teens who exercise have higher self-esteem, higher grades, and a lower chance of being obese or becoming obese in adulthood. Exercise is also an excellent way to ease the emotional pain and angst that are so common in teens.
If you’re already an athlete: My advice to you is not to focus strictly on one sport. Many coaches will tell you differently, but it’s very important to cross-train. For one thing, most successful pro athletes played more than one sport when they were young. More importantly, if you’re only playing one sport, you’re only using one set of muscles. It’s important to engage in different activities to prevent muscle imbalance. Having muscle imbalances can increase your risk of injury.
Playing more than one sport also reduces the chance that you’ll burn out on the sport you’re really passionate about. Plus, it’s more fun to play more sports!
Whatever you do, get moving. It helps your mood, your physical health, and your grades. Every bit helps!
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As a fitness professional, my health is at the center of my life. I have a lot of equipment that most people don’t own, because for me, health equals happiness, so spending time and money on it is a no-brainer.
I’ll start with the less exotic things that anyone could own without breaking their budget:
When I sit at my dinner table, I sit on an exercise ball to keep my core strong and my body stable. It’s a small change once you make the adjustment, but it produces real results over time.
I have a standing workstation where I do all my computer work. It helps me stay moving and avoid the back pain and negative cardiovascular effects of sitting all day.
I have a foam roller that I use on a daily basis that helps me keep my muscles loose and pain-free.
I have a lot of standard exercise equipment, like kettle bells and resistance bands, but I have a few less common ones too, like indian clubs and a BodyBlade.
Now for the bigger investments:
I have a LifeGear inversion table that I use on a daily basis to relieve spinal compression. I also have a Migun therapeutic infrared massage bed that I use for 25 minutes each day.
I have made a lot of nutritional adjustments to optimize my health and stay energetic. I have a wheatgrass machine and a nutribullet, I drink only filtered water, and my diet is all dairy-free, gluten-free, and organic.
Most people are not willing to make a lot of these changes, but as I said, my health is at the center of my life, and the healthier I am, the happier I am, so it’s more than worth the sacrifice.
We often hear about how our sedentary jobs are going to kill us from inactivity, but one profession that has the opposite problem is nursing. I was recently asked by a reporter if she had any specific exercise advice for nurses. I thought I’d share it with you here.
Any of this advice applies equally to restaurant workers, delivery people, or anyone else whose job keeps them on their feet all day. If you know anyone like that, by all means share this post with them!
Nurses stand, walk, bend, lift, push, and carry all day long, and all of that is very hard on the body. The top priority for exercises when it comes to nursing is to avoid and alleviate the pain and injury so common to the job. Here are a few exercises that should be done a few times over the course of the day to prevent these problems:
Neck streches–
Stand up straight with your head level. Place one hand behind your back as if standing “at ease”, only with the back of your hand on your lower back. Put the other hand on top of your head, and gently pull your head to the side until you feel a stretch. You should feel the stretch in your neck, shoulder, and a little bit in your core. Hold for 20 seconds, then do the other side. Do this once an hour to help keep your neck muscles loose and balanced.
Chest and shoulder stretch–
Stand up straight with good posture. Put your hands out to your side, and rotate your hands so your thumb is pointing backward until they’re pointing at the wall behind you. Press your shoulder blades together, and hold for five seconds. If you do this once an hour, it will help prevent back, shoulder, and neck pain caused by constantly leaning over your patients and looking down at their charts.
Hula-hoopers–
Put your hands on your hips and slowly swivel them around like a hula-hooper. Do this five times per side every hour. It will help keep your hip and back muscles stable and balanced, preventing low-back pain.
Standing row with tubing–
Attach some exercise tubing (just medical tubing with some grips on it) to a coat hook or something else relatively close to eye level on the wall. Holding your hands thumb-side up and your arms straight out in front of you, pull your elbows straight back toward the wall behind you. Do three sets of three reps 12-15 times, at least three times per week.
An unexpected tip–
Walk backwards and sideways at least 10-15 feet a few times each day. Believe it or not, this will help you stay balanced and prevent injury, as you’re periodically recruiting muscles that you don’t normally use.
What you shouldn’t do–
Bench presses, bicep curls, leg presses, leg extensions, and sit-ups on the floor. All these traditional exercises promote over-development of some muscles and the under-development of others. These muscle imbalances can put you at risk for injury, and they don’t promote the kind of stable, pain-free body you need to do your job.
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By now we’ve all heard the studies: sitting is killing us. 45% of women and 37% of men spend less than 30 minutes per day on their feet while at work. Out of all the people who responded to a British survey about the matter, 80% of people thought that they sat too much.
So, you probably know the risks of being sedentary: hypertension, diabetes, weight gain, some cancers. Even knowing the risks, it turns out, doesn’t make most people get up and move. So how about let’s focus on the benefits, eh?
Everyone has periods of low energy on the job, but rather than reaching for coffee or Red Bull, but studies have shown that even short exercise like a walk around the building can be more effective (not to mention healthier) than caffeine for energizing you.
Need to come up with an idea for a presentation? A Stanford study found that going for a walk (especially outside) can boost creative output by 60%.
So get up and get your blood (and your ideas) flowing. Here are some quick exercises you can do on the job for better health and performance:
Chair squats: keeping your spine straight, hands either on your hips or out in front of you, sit on a chair (a kitchen-type chair is best) and stand back up without using your hands. 3 sets of 6 to 10 of these.
Lunges: 3 sets of 6 to 10.
Balance: hold one leg up for 20 seconds each leg.
March in place: 3 times for 60 seconds.
To develop even better balance, try the previous two items with your eyes closed.
Arm circles: 10 seconds forward, 10 backward, 3 times.
Stretch your hand by pulling back on your fingers one by one. This will prevent carpal tunnel and trigger-finger repetitive motion injuries.
Walk forwards, backward, and sideways back and forth to create balance in your legs and prevent injury.
Use tubing for back pulls–anchor the tubing around a door handle, and hold on to the grips. Standing with feet shoulder width apart, pull both elbows back in a rowing motion, pulling your shoulder bladed together.
This is just a start. There are many small exercises that you can do to stay moving at the office. Even a couple of minutes per hour is enough to see significant benefits.
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Last week, we talked a little bit about TPI golf fitness assessments and how they can predict your specific golfing abilities and weaknesses. This week, I want to show you one of these assessments and talk a little bit about corrective exercise.
There are 16 basic physical screenings that can determine your weaknesses as a golfer, and the first one I’d like to share is called the “Pelvic Tilt Test.”
Let me show you:
The objective here is to test the mobility of your hips and lumbar spine, and your ability to control the position of the pelvic posture. The ability to move and control the position of the pelvis is important for optimizing power transfer from your lower body to your upper body during the golf swing.
If you can’t perform this test without shaking, and with minimal knee and leg movement, here are some corrective exercises:
Quadruped Pelvic Tilt (Cats and Dogs):
Get down on your hands and knees with your thighs and arms perpendicular to the floor. Without bending your elbows, try to bend your spine so that your stomach gets closer to the floor, making yourself sway-backed like a dog. Then, lift your spine up into an arch, like a cat. Repeat this back and forth and then find the middle or neutral position. Hold this neutral position for two breaths.
Supine Pelvic Tilts to Neutral:
Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Try to tilt the pelvis back and forth (arch the back and flatten the back), trying to simultaneously limit any chest or upper body movement. Make sure when flattening the back, the abdominals are braced.
Torso Backswing:
For a right-handed player, stand facing the mirror. Cross your hands across your chest like I do in the video. Get into a good golf posture. Rotate the shoulders in a clockwise direction and resist hip rotation. Reach maximum rotation but don’t force a stretch. Hold the position for one second. Rotate the shoulders back to neutral position.
These are just a few exercises you can do to increase pelvic mobility. It’s important not only to do this on your own, but also to have a TPI certified trainer help you with them. There are some posture quirks that this test can reveal to the trained eye, and we can get much more specific in terms of what can be corrected.
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I always try to keep up with the latest knowledge available to fitness professionals. This past week, I traveled across the country to upgrade my knowledge and check out the cutting edge of golf fitness.
I visited golf’s premiere trade show, the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida. While I was there, I attended a TPI fitness professional certification class in order to keep my knowledge fresh.
Dr. Greg Rose, founder of TPI
When I first got my TPI certification, I was one of only 4,000 TPI-certified golf fitness pros in the world. Now there are more than 18,000 of us. It’s become the standard in golf fitness. Touring golf pros travel with an entourage of experts, from swing coaches to doctors to nannies. Nowadays, 23 of the top 30 tour players travel with a TPI fitness pro. 16 of the last 18 major tournament winners have a TPI pro in their stable. The job of the TPI fitness pro is to assess the body as a continuous chain of kinetic energy.
TPI’s philosophy is that every there isn’t one perfect way to swing a club, but there is one correct way for each golfer, and that is determined by the golfer’s body and how it moves most efficiently. To achieve an efficient swing, a golfer has to be screened by a TPI pro, who can give a detailed assessment of biomechanics, physical fitness, movement quality, current health, and history.
In Orlando, I was able to refine my assessment techniques. Because the body is an interconnected system, some of the techniques are not that obvious. For example, if you cannot perform a squat with good form, you will most likely have a swing fault called “reverse spine angle.” By observing and correcting subtle links between your mobility and your golf game, I can consistently improve your score.
If you would like a COMPLEMENTARY assessment by a TPI certified fitness pro, contact me at (518) 281-3772
Once we’ve completed the screening, we’ll use the results to create a unique plan for you, including fitness training, corrective exercise, stretches, and movement patterns.
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Even people who consistently stick to an effective health and fitness routine can sometimes fall out of the habit. Getting back on track can be challenging – unless you find ways to rebuild a strong desire to start exercising again.
Here are some ways to give yourself the mental kick in the pants that you need to stop procrastinating and get up off the couch:
Use it as an excuse to get me time. If you lead a life of chaos where it seems like every moment of your time is consumed with obligations, use a consistent exercise routine as an excuse to spend some much needed time to yourself.
Put away your fat clothes. It’s a lot easier to put off exercising when you can hide underneath clothes that make you feel like you’re not as out of shape as you really are. Take all of the clothes that allow you to hide your extra pounds and put them in a box.
Make yourself an irresistible offer. If you want to crank up your motivation to get in shape, promise yourself an entire weekend of frivolity, a shopping spree, or maybe even a new toy like a flat screen TV, or a new dining room set.
Turn it into a social experience. It is likely that you have a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, or a family member who also needs to lose weight. Grab a partner and make a solemn pact to force each other to stick to it.
Take a good look in the mirror. When all else fails, get undressed and stand in front of a full length mirror. Take a good look from the front, turn to the side, and even turn around and look back over your shoulder at your backside. If you need to lose even 10 pounds, the mirror will be more than happy to show them to you.
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As many of you know, I’ve worked in fitness for two decades. Over that time, I’ve accumulated some wonderful quotes that I return to over and over again whenever I need inspiration to get up and do what needs to be done to stay healthy. Here are a few of them:
* “Don’t let an old person move into your body.” -Dr. Wayne Dyer
* “Exercise is not just for healthy people. Exercise can improve back pain, arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, vascular disease, asthma, parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, angina, and heart attacks.” -American Medical Association.
* “You are never too old to get in shape. At different times, I have engaged in many different activities. I value staying active.” -Senator John Glenn
* “Exercise, improves energy, self esteem, heart, and lungs. It will improve muscle tone and greater function of bones and joints.” – American Physical Therapy Association
* “Research has confirmed that even moderate exercise performed regularly helps protect us from disease and prolong life expectancy.” -James Todd, MD, VP of American Medical Association
* “Regular exercise can help prevent coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, depression, and some cancer, and fitness reduces the lifestyle-limiting effects of osteoporosis and arthritis.”-Mayo Clinic
* “Exercise helps elevate a person’s mood, even short workouts. 8 minutes was all it took to help reduce a persons feeling of sadness, tension, fatigue, and anger.” -Duke University
* “Get off the couch.” -Theo Ratliff, Detroit Pistons
* “Turning off the television and getting the family physically active are the best ways to keep off the unwanted pounds and for everyone to stay healthy.”-Dr. Barbara J. Moore, President of Shape Up America
* “Exercise can improve your mood, relieve moderate depression, and help delay the onset of disabilities and life threatening disease.”-Terrie Wetle of the National Institute on Aging
* “Scientists found that together, lack of exercise and poor dietary habits were the second largest underlying cause of death.”-National Institute on Aging
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Your core muscles are important for your golf swing, but they’re also important for your resistance to injury and balance. Also, let’s face it, for a lot of people the “six-pack” abs look is the holy grail of fitness for a lot of people.
Unfortunately, many popular exercises for your core can actually be damaging, and almost none of them offer the fat loss and increased definition promised by so-called experts.
Here are six exercises that can damage your posture and aren’t the best way to strengthen your core:
Number one:
Crunches.
Yes, the classic, simple crunch. It does strengthen your abs, no doubt about that, but it only works one muscle group (the rectus abdominis). As a functional fitness trainer, I’m not a fan of any exercise that works one muscle group in isolation. Exercises like these can lead to imbalances that result in a hunched-over posture and an injured back.
Number two:
Supine leg raises.
I’m sure you’ve done these before. This exercise is where you lie on your back and repeatedly raise your extended legs, kind of like a reverse sit-up where you lift the bottom half of your body rather than the top. This exercise works the hip flexors more than the abs. As I mentioned before, so much of your life is spent with these muscles in flexion that this doesn’t help your body balance and strengthen the core muscles you need for golf and life.
Number three:
The Ab Roller.
This is an infomercial stand-by that advertises amazing results on your abs, but it actually works your hip flexors and arms more. It doesn’t provide enough resistance to truly build strength, and supporting your body with a rigid piece of equipment like this won’t build muscle balance or agility.
Number four:
V-sits.
These punishing exercises are a staple of sports training, but here’s the thing: this is another exercise where you’re actually doing more work with your hip flexors than your abs. It also pulls on your lower back without actually strengthening it.
Number five:
Russian twists.
This exercise is where you sit on your bottom, lift your feet slightly off the ground, and then twist left and right, tapping the ground on either side of you with two hands. They’re a real grind…literally! Your limber spine is not meant to rotate in this fashion, and repeatedly doing this exercise actually damages the facet joints in your spine, leading to back pain.
Number six:
Bicycles.
No, not the two-wheeled kind. The kind where you rest your lower back on the ground, strain your neck to lift up your head, and twist your body back and forth and kick your legs in the air like you’re either riding a bicycle or throwing a temper tantrum.
Many of your day-to-day activities involve flexion of the abdominal muscles. In fact, while you are sitting down your abs are in flexion, and that constant flexion can lead to a shortening of the ab muscles and an imbalance that puts you at risk for injury. What these no-no exercises have in common is that they worsen the problems people often have with their posture. If you contact me, I can show you how to strengthen your core without worsening your posture or creating imbalances that can hurt your golf swing, and even worse, hurt you.
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The thoracic spine is a section of twelve vertebrae in between your lumbar spine and cervical spine. (“Thoracic” comes from the ancient Greek word thorax, for “chest.”) The lumbar and cervical spines get a lot of attention, as they cause people a lot of pain.
However, the thoracic spine is just as important to pay attention to as the neck and lower back, since the mobility of your thoracic spine is related to your ability to prevent pain in the cervical and lumbar regions.
As you get older, your thoracic spine gets stiffer. Because of that, we tend to turn the head at the neck (cervical spine) or rotate at the lower back (lumbar spine). A thoracic spine with good mobility can help to avoid or relieve both low back and neck pain by allowing more rotation in the mid-back.
There are a lot of warm-up exercises, like hip crossovers and scorpions, that focus on rotating the lumbar spine to limber up before golf. But actually, good motion in golf is about turning the hips and shoulders, not the lumbar spine.
The best way to get hip and shoulder motion is to focus on the thoracic spine, not the lower back. One great exercise to increase your thoracic spine mobility is this simple tennis ball exercise I got from another TPI Certified instructor, Mike Boyle:
“What you are going to do to mobilize the thoracic spine is to perform a series of simple crunch type exercises while lying on two tennis balls taped together with masking tape or your can even put them in a sock. It’s a simple exercise that you can do at the gym or even in front of the TV. Place the tennis balls under your back with one ball on either side of the spine. Begin at just above bellybutton level. With the balls in position do five crunches. You should feel the balls pushing into your spinal erectors (the big muscles on either side of the spine). The balls are actually pushing the vertebrae slightly forward, in effect creating motion (mobility) at the level of that segment. A series of these crunches can be done all the way to the top of the shoulder blades. The end result is often a large increase in shoulder turn.”
-From Mike Boyle
Doing exercises like this can not only increase your ability to swing a club efficiently, it may also help alleviate pain in the lower back and neck. It’s important to remember that your body is a linked system, and what hurts isn’t always the part that needs treating.
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