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Fitness and the Process, Fitness and the Goal

9/2/2022

“Absorption in projects threatens to obscure the beauty of the process.” This quote is from Midlife: A Philosophical Guide by Kieran Setiya. And in this book the author differentiates work that is being performed for a goal separate from the doing of the work itself. He names these as Telic and Atelic where atelic work is done for its own sake. Think of having a hobby that is just for enjoyment and not as a side hustle to supplement income. This, he says, enables a greater focus on the now and enjoyment of the doing.

I, of course, thought about fitness and how if the focus is just on achieving a goal there can be lifestyle altering intensity, but it is not sustainable.

For instance, if you are only focused on losing 50 pounds, what happens to your fitness plan once you have achieved that goal? Statistically we know that you will start gaining weight.

For me, I have always held the belief that if you have a body then you should take care of it. And while the specifics of what is included in taking care of your body will vary, the primary intention of caring for one’s self stays the same.

But this is not the same as finding enjoyment in the activities of taking care of yourself. True, there are certainly some who really enjoy the feeling of exercising, but there are many who don’t. For this group exercise is pain, discomfort, hot, sweaty and, frankly, something to be avoided. So, how to address this issue where even people who hate the feelings of exercise, need to be exercising?

Without doubt this is a challenge. This is not just an individual challenge but also one that challenges the healthcare of our entire nation. If we humans don’t find enjoyment in the doing, then we probably aren’t going to do it, whatever it is, unless we are forced.

And this leads directly back to why people spend so much time, effort and money on activities that are simply for their enjoyment. If we believe Professor Setiya this is how people find happiness and true enjoyment in their lives, and they do this not because they are forced but because they want to. But I don’t think that this is the same as saying that people must enjoy everything about the activity. For instance, a gardener who might hate weeding can accept that it is a necessary role for the bigger picture of what they do enjoy.

Similarly, while it may be hard to find enjoyment when you are in the midst of your cardio exercise, you could adapt your focus to the bigger picture and how great it feels to know that you are taking good care of yourself. And taking good care of yourself, physically, is the basis of the 5 Keys Fitness Process. You may not enjoy each Key equally, but each deserves its attention in your program and by using the system you can feel how great it feels to take good care of you.

As always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

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Neti Note

9/2/2022

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A lot of folks start picking up their neti pot as Autumn approaches. Here is your friendly reminder to replenish the moisture of the cilia afterwards by putting a little oil in the nose. You can use any type of oil that you’d ingest or even ghee. Use a finger, a q-tip or a little dropper, little dab will do it, light coating, works like a charm!

That step gets skipped a lot, and missing it can dry out the the cilia making it tough for them to do their job.

Warmly,
Carla

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Toning and Stretching for Your Diaphragm: The Basics

9/2/2022

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Photo by Elaine Bernadine Castro from Pexels

“The beauty of freediving. It gets you experiencing the underwater gardens up close in just a single breath!...It’s like scuba diving, but without an air tank – just yourself, your pair of lungs, and thousands of fish species,” writes free diver, David Hamburg. Free divers take breath training to the limits; with training, they are known to be able to stay underwater for minutes at a time–experienced free divers are able to last as many as 10 minutes (I just choked on my saliva). While dives like these take more than stretching the diaphragm, when you start to stretch your muscles of breath, you can radically open up the potential of your human body!

Last month, we had the opportunity to map the diaphragm, with the support of 2 graphics to give you a sense of how the human diaphragm looks, where it is located, and finally how it influences ease and/or tension in the hips, in the shoulders, and in the global sense of feeling tense and tight in your body or more relaxed and at ease in your body. While the diaphragm should always work (since this is the main muscle of breath), one's ability to control how the diaphragm works is a great tool to develop. A while back Carla and I took the opportunity to record a video teaching diaphragmatic breathing, to help the viewer practice finding their own diaphragm and controlling the breath with it–hence mapping the diaphragm.

This month I wanted to build on some ways to provide that muscle with tone and stretching. As with any other human muscle, there are ways to tone, condition and stretch your diaphragm. There is a lot of room for play with this work, so our aim today is to drive home the foundation of what challenges the diaphragm to work well, and receive stretch.

Training for your diaphragm:
When it comes to toning the diaphragm, taking time to work with the breath practice taught in our video linked here, for increasing sets of time, will set you on the path to habituating effective diaphragmatic breath control, and toning that muscle. Likewise, once you have a good connection with this practice lying on the floor, you may also practice it seated, so you could take a moment during the day and artfully breathe while seated, at work perhaps.

In the video below I will take diaphragmatic breathing through a set style activity, and then we will challenge our ability to inhale into the diaphragm by lengthening the torso, or by twisting as you try to pull a full inhale. Finally you will experience how to stretch the psoas and iliacus area of your pelvis, using the same breath techniques covered at the start of the video.

Stretching Your Diaphragm Video

Breath practice and breath practice in combination with movement can relieve tension and impairments associated with prolonged sitting. If you really want to get weird, try searching how free divers turn hyperventilation into a tool to stretch their diaphragms and in turn, turn their bodies into deep sea diving wonder tanks. Have a question about anything covered in this piece, or previous blog posts, my email address is always accepting queries!
twise@equivita.com

In robust health!
Tami

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The Least You Can Do

9/2/2022

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Fitness over a lifetime will include times where you are focused on goals and achieving new milestones or personal records for your body, as well as, other times when other aspects of your life take primary focus and your fitness goals are centered on maintaining. During these times your program should be based on the minimum to maintain.

You may have heard it recommended that you should go through your closet and get rid of any clothes that you haven’t worn in a year. This is similar to how the body treats skeletal muscle. If it hasn’t been used, then it must not be needed and can be broken down to be used as energy.

This has often been summed up with the simple phrase “use it or lose it.”

So, how often do you need to use the muscle to remind your body that you need to keep it? Well, since we are all different there is a wide range of days between bouts of resistance exercise that will remind the body to keep it around. A good guideline is to do your resistance exercise once every 5 to 21 days, with the frequency increasing with age because as we age the body gets more efficient and better at getting rid of muscle it feels is no longer necessary.

But, before the body starts to break down the muscle it will start with the energy systems within the muscle. This is why coming back to lifting after some time off, even just a week, can feel so much harder. Even if you haven’t been gone long enough for the muscle loss to start, it certainly can feel like it because you have lost the energy to power the muscle at the same level. And, of course, without the energy to power the muscle at the same level, you won’t be able to lift at the same intensity to remind the body to keep the muscle.

The good news is that these energy systems come back quickly and after your first “Welcome Back Workout” you could be back to where you left off.

Remember, it is much easier to maintain muscle than it is to convince the body to build new muscle. So, during those times when exercise is not your top priority, plan to do the least that you can to ensure that you don’t lose too much of what you had worked so hard to gain.

And, as always, let me know how I can help.
Adam

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To the Point

9/2/2022

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The foot has 28 bones, 30 joints, and over 100 muscles, ligaments and tendons. Our feet are the foundation of our body, both physically and metaphorically. They support us, carry us to our destination, push us up… and where our feet are in physical space plays a role during our physical exercise. Trainers and group exercise leaders will usually give some guidance as to if you should be pointing or flexing the foot during a specific exercise, but why does it matter? Well, to put it simply, each one works a different part of the leg, and activates different muscles.

So what happens when you flex your foot? Dorsiflexion of the foot happens when we push through our heel and the toes come towards the shin much like if you were standing. During dorsiflexion, the front of the leg is engaged and active, including the shins and quads, while the back of the leg (hamstring, achilles) is lengthening. It also helps keep the foot, ankle and knee in proper alignment. When you point your toes (also called plantar flexion) the reverse happens; the front of the leg is lengthening and the back of the leg, including the hamstring and calf, is engaging.

As an experiential experiment, try laying supine (on your back) or maybe sitting on the couch with your legs out straight. Point the toes and sense into the muscle engagement in the legs. What comes online and what feels stretched or lengthened? Now try dorsiflexing the foot, pushing through the heel and pulling the toes towards your shins. Again, notice what changes happen in the muscles. Next, try a single leg lift, once with a dorsiflexed foot and once with a pointed, or plantar flexed, foot. How do they compare? Another example to try is hip raises, or bridge pose in yoga terms. Try raising the hips with the feet flat on the ground, pushing into the ground with the heels. Then, try pointing the feet, being on “tippy toes,” and notice the difference in which muscles are in charge of the movement.

But which one, dorsiflexion or plantar flexion should you do during exercise? Well, as a prior college professor loved to answer, it depends! It depends on a number of factors, including what muscle group(s) you are focusing on, what specific exercise you are doing, and let’s not forget that each individual is different in the anatomical makeup and health of their foot and ankle which can play a part in determining this. If either of these, dorsiflexion or plantar flexion, is difficult due to tightness, tension, pain, muscle weakness, etc., focusing on foot mobility can help strengthen the foot muscles, improve flexibility, and ease pain. Medical News Today has a good listing of foot exercises that can be done easily at home in just a few minutes, making them great daily practices!

Best,
Katherine

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Fitness and the Process, Fitness and the Goal

Neti Note

Toning and Stretching for Your Diaphragm: The Basics

The Least You Can Do

To the Point

EQUIVITA

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