By Adam Milligan, President, EQUIVITA
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Having worked in the fitness/ allied health industry for over 20 years has provided me the ability to be with people through major life changes of births and deaths, marriages and divorces, devastating traumas and illnesses as well as great personal achievements and successes. Through all of this I have been able to experience how each person’s individual care-of-self has played a role in their ability to navigate these life events. And while there are few consistent guidelines, the constant that I can say with certainty is those that keep their body moving are more resilient to whatever life brings.

One of the negatives of the work that I do is seeing the other side - when people don’t maintain focus on that which is most important. This happens sometimes when I run into former clients at social settings and the conversation inevitably is about how they are doing physically and it brings to light the challenge of keeping a body moving.

Recently I had one of these experiences where the man that I had helped to get past some significant back pain told me that he - years after he had worked with me - had emergency back surgery. Now, back surgery is not something that you want but when you add the word  “emergency” it makes it worse. Much worse.

He made comments like “if only I had kept up the exercise” and “wish I would have known”, and as much as I want to agree and say of course if you had only kept up your exercises you wouldn’t have had to endure the pain and surgery, the only reply I can say is that we can never really know. Because there are really too many variables.

To see a shortened stride or feel a tight muscle is fairly simple. Identifying the cause and interplay of the movements of the body is harder, but even that is not enough when it comes to working with people. How you sit, stand, lay and move throughout the day all play a role in the physical stress and torque to the body and so does your hydration, nutrition and stress. When you start to consider all of the things that are involved you start to see that it is far more complex than  being able to avoid surgery.

This complexity leaves some overwhelmed and ignoring while others take a more western medicine focus of trying to fix one thing. I am a believer in keeping as simple as possible, even though Care-of-the-self is the most important thing, if you see it as too vague then just remember that there is no substitute for movement. Maintain your focus on that which will enable you to keep your body moving and you increase your resiliency and adaptability.

As always, let me know how I can help.

Adam

by Carla Fox RYT500, TFT
Part 1
Part 2

​The last two installments of this blog series addressed disconnection from oneself, over commitment and how these things begin to manifest in life. You can read those if you click here! In this piece we begin to look at how yoga can be effective in addressing the physical forms of So how do we move through this gap, and into our true selves? Here is the part where things start to open wide and some movement, on all levels, can begin to happen. Tools!
It is the beginning of restructuring one’s approach to the world. Feeling and living the recognition that doing more, or adding onto what is already probably too much in life is not going to cultivate the sense of peace that many are missing. It is in doing things differently that we start to feel our way back to ourselves, the felt sense of our wholeness. Which again, was never gone. It was never not there. This is about overcoming one’s elementary stress, the stress of being separated from your own way of being, or one’s core spirit. Separated from living your own truth. This is not the same as the external stressors of circumstance in the world. The external stressors and how they are handled are road signs. They are the indicators of how we are within ourselves. The goal is to find the tools that help move elementary stress into vitality, the energy we need to thrive in our lives; to use tools to move into living, relaxing in our authenticity.
Yoga, by its very definition is something to serve this population. It is to yoke, to join. It is the act by which wholeness becomes realized and witnessed at the same time. Taking the human being out of elementary stress, and bringing them into vitality to experience their birthright of joy and success.
We want to awaken some awareness in the physical body. Practices are needed that wake up the rhythms that exist within us as particular beings, those rhythms that match the universal, natural rhythms of the earth. When you begin to live and move with the rhythms of nature, your mind becomes more lucid and more peaceful and your health improves. Your entire life becomes easier. Maya Tiwari The Path of Practice: A Woman’s Book of Ayurvedic Healing (New York: Wellspring/Ballanatine 2001), 5. Simply beginning with a body scan, observing all the parts of the body, is a safe, effective way to get in touch with sensation that may be dulled. Movement based on body sensing, briefly guided, and then encouraged for each individual to explore independently offers the chance for people to step into their own inner guidance. The challenge there is in allowing oneself to hear it and follow it. This practice has potential to unearth deep, powerful coding from the physical form. Women have wisdom in their bodies that need an outlet, and once given that outlet, the effect can be strong in restructuring patterns for the individual and their community. Because women have always been the guardians of life’s wholesome practices, when we strengthen our health and spiritual power, we also strengthen the health and wisdom of the men, children, and communities around us.” Maya Tiwari The Path of Practice: A Woman’s Book of Ayurvedic Healing ( New York: Wellspring/Ballanatine 2001), 5. The positive effects of asana have been documented any number of places at this point in our history. In relationship to women relaxing into their authenticity, it could be said that trying on any number of practices until you find one that is “juuuust riiiiight” would be the way to go. Take a page from Goldilocks. One form of practice in the physical body that serves very well to begin to hear what is just right is restorative yoga. To relax is to rest deeply. This rest is different from sleep… Relaxation is a state in which there is no movement, no effort and the brain is quiet. Judith Lasater Relax and Renew ( Berkeley, CA: Rodmell Press 1995), 5. Rest is where we digest. This includes our food, our information, our emotions, and our experiences. Everything we consume must be integrated in some way. Rest is the time when change can occur, and restorative yoga offers the guidance for the body to allow rest to occur on all levels.

To learn more about restorative, you can join a class at EQUIVITA, next class starting Monday, July 25th! The next piece in this blog series will delve into the energetic, mental, emotional and other subtle effects.

Adam Milligan, President EQUIVITA
It has been a rough day and all you want to do is go home, get food and curl up in front of the television, but your program has you scheduled to workout. How many times have you found yourself in this scenario? This point of deciding whether you stick to your plan or change it is a challenge and all the harder if you actually consider it to be a decision point.
Here's the thing, it is not a time for decision because the decision has already been made. When you set the goal you made the decision and the only way to achieve the goal is to follow through.
 
Fitness goals are only realized through consistency.

At a recent Fit U we discussed goal setting and goal attaining as if they were separate roles and, for discussion purposes, imagined that these roles were played by different individuals. The goal setting is performed by the role of manager, parent or master and the employee, child or padawan is responsible for completing the steps that will lead toward the goal. When you are in the "manager" role you are able to set long-term goals as well as determine the path to achieve those goals. The "employee" role is to complete the tasks as outlined by the manager.
 
If consistency is necessary, then achieving your goals is about following your to-do list. The more clear and concrete that the "master" makes the to-do list, the easier it will be for that list to be followed. The list cannot be seen as a suggestion or something that can be modified by the "padawan" because the padawan role is about the short term.  The secret to goal realization is placing a higher value on the long term than the short term, but if you are in the role where you are unable to see long-term then your decision making won't include the big picture.
 
That is why when you are in the doer role you can't allow yourself to usurp the decisions that you made as the planner. And as the planner the more you clearly you can envision what you want, objectively assess how well you are doing and realistically provide the next steps the easier it will be for the doer to stay on track.
 
Whether you find it helpful to think in terms of these two different roles or not, setting aside time for the sole purpose of planning can help you to gain clearer understanding of how your actions fit what you want. If they don't fit, then something needs to change because setting unrealistic goals is setting yourself up for failure and a lot of unnecessary stress - stress that will work against you whatever your goals happen to be.
 
As always, let me know how I can help.
 
Adam

​​by Tami Wise, Transitional Fitness Trainer

You might notice my ‘jumpsuit.’  At the time I asked Carla to add my face to a prisoner body, it was due to the play on words ‘arrest for growth’ ie.’ Ahh, rest for growth.’  Turns out is was more prophetic than this female body was aware.  Rest does influence growth hormone production;  the amount of time spent in Deep Sleep, or the delta wave(the slowest of the brain waves) is where you find as much as %70 of a persons daily growth hormone production...if that person is a MAN! 
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Perhaps the most potent stimulator of growth hormone(GH), in men is sleep.    GH is released in pulses, or the peaks/surges.  If we are are trying to increase our metabolism, we want to peak longer and more often(@Drew Lizon ‘that’s what she said’),  we need to spend more time in deep sleep.    

DON’T CHEAT! IT’S SLEEP!

According to the National Sleep Foundation’s website, from ages 18-64 adult humans need between 7-9 hours of sleep daily. (I love infographics, and the National Sleep Foundation has created a lovely one titled Sleep Duration Recommendations)  Considering that there are essentially 4 stages of sleep that we cycle through, and multiple times, in a good sleep session, it is important to provide adequate time for the work of sleep.  This passage from an article on Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep, provides a short review of the phases of sleep(in case I don’t get another opportunity to say this, sleep scientists are no longer sure that sleep cycle progression is this simple, but that doesn’t impact the percentage of time spent in the wave(s) we are focused on either, so I am choosing not to ‘go there’ today):
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1. During sleep, we usually pass through five phases of sleep: stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These stages progress in a cycle from stage 1 to REM sleep, then the cycle starts over again with stage 1. We spend almost 50 percent of our total sleep time in stage 2 sleep, about 20 percent in REM sleep, and the remaining 30 percent in the other stages...
2. The first REM sleep period usually occurs about 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep. A complete sleep cycle takes 90 to 110 minutes on average. The first sleep cycles each night contain relatively short REM periods and long periods of deep sleep. As the night progresses, REM sleep periods increase in length while deep sleep decreases. By morning, people spend nearly all their sleep time in stages 1, 2, and REM.

As much as 70% of GH is released in that slow wave Delta Sleep, the 30% space spent in stages 3/4.  CRITICAL for much of the endocrine ‘restoration/update,’ of your body and growth hormone is absolutely in that group!  Here is the kicker, if you deprive yourself of sleep--or botch the sleep cycles--for reasons not well understood or agreed upon, your brain will prioritize REM sleep.  The agreed upon belief is that you don’t release GH in REM sleep.  It is consistently observed that if you experience poor sleep, either too little time spent sleeping, or disrupted sleep, that the following night the brain will proiritize REM sleep and disrupt the deep part of sleep in ways that can significantly reduce the GH pulse to the body...YUCK!  So you need that deep wave, Delta sleep, to get that GH kick back...MEN! 

How can you increase the amount of time you spend in deep sleep? Essentially, it’s like anything else, making sleep a priority is a good start--get more, better rest.  Simply we will consider the day influences and the night influences, of more rest and better rest.  

The amount of slow-wave sleep observed in a given sleep period, is heavily influenced by what you did when you were awake. Another way to consider this, ‘how did you accumulate sleep-promoting substances in your brain toDAY?’   To trigger them is in our control.  (correct wording? cuz I’m sure that’s an incomplete sentence...but my brain is in meltdown)

It is thought that body heating activities, whether through immersion in a hot tub or sauna, or intense prolonged exercise; activities where thermo-sensitive neurons detect an increase in our brain temperature, which exceeds a certain threshold(mayday MELTDOWN)--produce a kickback! KICKBACK: increased need for the cooling brain support of delta sleep. We have thermoregulatory mechanisms that keep us in safe good working order...fiddle with em.  

Like wise, in a short term study(observation of 14 males ages 18-35, over 48 hours),a  crazy low-carb diet(ie. 2400 kal daily, comprised of 1% carb, 38% protein, 61% fat) showed significant increase in deep sleep and a decrease in REM sleep.  Since the results of this study are tied to a 2 day application, I would want to know if these results held up over years of that dietary plan!!  I mean this sounds awful if you’re me(Pasta-Hound Wise), but everyone’s playground has different equipment.  

Speaking of drugs, there is a lot of info on the effects various substances have on deep sleep.  So I am going to light-touch on this.  Alcohol in healthy people(nonalcoholics), in  higher amounts is thought to shorten deep sleep and lower the power of the amplitude of the delta wave.  A drink(a standard drink is defined as one 12-ounce bottle of beer or wine cooler, one 5-ounce glass of wine, and 1.5 ounces of 80 proof distilled spirits) can have a light sedative effect on the body and deeper relax one into rest--it’s also believed the body’s tolerance to alcohol’s sedative effects probably develops rapidly.  SSRIs they think increase deep sleep, but can fiddle with the cycles of sleep(verdicts out).  Melatonin supplements: one article I read said melatonin could increase GH by %150(kinda feels like somebody wants to find a ‘magic bullet’).  I could not find a study that would back that claim to that degree. 

To quote Bob Seger, ‘Workin’ on our night moves,’ let’s start with duration. Going back to that sweet infographic from the National Sleep Foundation, 7-9 hours of sleep a night seems to hold merit.     Below is a list of sleep tips, copied from the National Sleep Foundation’s website, to help you find better rest at night(I left the links active because they connect to interesting and helpful posts):

•         Stick to a sleep schedule , even on weekends.
•         Practice a relaxing bedtime ritual .
•         Exercise daily.
•         Evaluate your bedroom to ensure ideal temperature, sound and light.
•         Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows.
•         Beware of hidden sleep stealers , like alcohol and caffeine.
•         Turn off electronics before bed.

​When I read on the National Sleep Foundation’s website, ‘most importantly,  make sleep a priority,’ I thought, ‘that’s stupid,’ well maybe it’s not that stupid. I’m not innately driven for a lot of sleep, so I actually have to consciously make that amount of time to sleep, a priority. 

Sleep is sophisticated work.  Memory consolidation and ‘brain clean up,’ recuperation of the entire mind-body system, are just a couple of the ‘simple’ duties of sleep.  Admittedly, reading for this article has sparked in me 2 things; the desire to read more on brainwaves and sleep so as to influence them, and to actively contrast my daily rest with my daily functioning.  Whether male or female, effective cycles of sleep influence a lot of what I call ‘good living--having the energy and the mood to enjoy living. 

Now as best I can tell, sleep research is in a sort of rapid-revolution state. In a future series of article shorts I intend to examine sleep in greater detail--specifically how disrupted sleep impacts a host of body systems and their functioning.   

Seriously!  Time for WORK!  Women, it looks like we produce greater GH, and in more even doses throughout the day.  Where do we get our greatest GH kickback?  EXERCISE!  Really?! So rest up ladies!  Remember, growth hormone influences your body to burn fat as fuel, build muscle, keep your bones, skin, and maintain healthy hair--big pay off...BIG!  Article Shorts will return with a review of what women need to know about how to influence growth hormone in the female body:  what will champion and what will check GH production for the     DOUBLE X!
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1. [unattributed] National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm#dreaming]: para. 3 [July 25, 2014]
2. [unattributed] National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
[http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm#dreaming]: para. 6  [July 25, 2014]

Carla Fox RYT/PYT

​“I do not seek perfection. I simply seek to remember who and what I am everyday. I seek the people and places and practices that support the expanding of this awareness in my day, in my life, in my choices.” Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Over the past couple of years I have observed a seemingly growing portion of the female population experiencing over commitment in their lives. (To be clear, this is not exclusive to the female of our species, only that it has been observed more first hand in that sex by the writer. It is my hope, that this serves anyone who nods their head to any of this or thinks, “I have felt that!”, female or otherwise. This is for anyone who recognizes this and wants to do something about it for themselves and the world they live in.) The most interesting part of it is that the commitments are mostly external. Few, if any, are made to herself. There is a fundamental misalignment with the individual and their own personal path to joy of being or living in their spirit. The inauthentic gap we experience in our own lives drives us to cover up the emptiness with some kind of distraction or stimulation. (Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, KRI International Teacher Training Manual Level 2 – Vitality and Stress (Santa Cruz, NM: KRI 2008), 65.) Now, it may be said that this population has always been there, and that I started noticing it because I began to see and feel it in myself. What does it look like and feel like? Here is what I have felt, seen and come to understand as signs of this over commitment that takes one out of the dynamic balance so many of us are navigating toward:

Feeling so busy that there isn’t time for the things you know are “good” for you.
Doing everything else before allowing the possibility of doing what you love.
Feeling an ambiguous lack of ease or harmony.
Hoping that “catching up” on everything will make you feel at peace.
Feeling envious or judgmental toward others who seem to have/take time for themselves.
Good, old-fashioned anxiety.
Good, old-fashioned depression.
Hearing the running tape in your mind that everything is “great!” or “ok!” because you can’t pin down a specific reason to feel out of sorts.
Feeling like you must be the only one selfish or ungrateful enough to feel this way.
Feeling the need to apologize even when you’re not sure why you’re apologizing.
Fatigue
Insomnia
Addiction

It’s true that a lot of women live a life that is on the surface pretty great; decent health, a job, a family, friends. We live in an era where women have many more options than they used to, and there is a drive, internal and societal, to utilize ALL of those options now and to use them all well, to their fullest expression. No pressure. And still within all of that, there is this sense of something missing. There is a feeling of imbalance that is seeking its level. Often with the idea that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. That there is an action to be taken that will change it. That if one just does MORE. That there is something one must DO to feel better, to get better, to BE better. Often in tandem with that is the feeling that its out of one’s hands. That there’s nothing one can do about it, or that this is just life, and that’s how its supposed to be.

​“Living with depleted energy for years without end can result in high-grade levels of chronic stress; drained nutrients… and sometimes depression that won’t go away. By the time we reach our forties and fifties, sometimes we are so accustomed to fatigue, low energy and exhaustion that our bodies simply don’t know any other way of being.” (Nora Isaacs Women in Overdrive (California: Seal Press 2006), 10.) It is that which makes this state of being so ambiguous, because it feels almost normal. The American Psychological Association notes that 70% of people realize they could use help, but only 7% seek it out. (Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, KRI International Teacher Training Manual Level 2 – Vitality and Stress (Santa Cruz, NM: KRI 2008), 35.) Yogi Bhajan, the master of Kundalini yoga, called this cold depression. Living with a constant low to moderate level of stress as your baseline.  It has been my experience and observation that this all starts out quietly, and gets louder and more symptomatic.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna experiences a time where he is overcome with weakness in a moment where he needs to act. He is in duality about the circumstances of a battle where he has loyalty to both sides. Krishna steps in and reminds him to look into his own true nature and transform his consciousness instead of focusing on the external circumstances. Once this disconnect was healed, Arjuna was able to move with courage, integrity, and compassion in each action on the battlefield.
Herein lies that amazing irony of it all. It is by deeply relaxing into oneself that all of this duality starts to fall away. That it almost takes care of itself. All the potential for harmony already exists, it does not need to be made. It does not need anything to be fixed “first”. The other hilarity is that learning deep relaxation… is really hard work.

In western medicine, this can look like a million things. And it IS a million of those things. It is anxiety, lethargy, resentment, headaches, muscles aches, digestive upset, and so many other things. What we are talking about here is the overall source and at the same time overall effect from those million things that are diagnosed and treated. They are inextricable. It is said that when Native American medicine men talk to the sick, they usually ask three questions: When was the last time you sang? When was the last time you danced? When was the last time you told your story? That lack of each person's version of singing, dancing and storytelling is what we seek to address here.

More on this next time!

​Adam Milligan, President EQUIVITA


For a few years there has been an increasing amount of support for the idea of increased protein consumption directly around resistance training exercise. Manufacturers have designed supplements specific for ingesting pre, post and even during exercise. The idea behind this push is that during resistance exercise you can cause muscular damage that will then need to be rebuilt stronger. And that there is an "anabolic window" for the ideal rebuilding which is right around the time of muscular damage.

Intuitively, this story makes sense. If you need building blocks to make the muscles stronger then having those blocks readily available should make the building easier. This story connects because it is believable.

If, however, you start to look deeper into the story you might begin to question its believability. During an activity where you are breaking down the muscle - which is another great story that we will save for another time and suffice to say that it doesn't happen nearly as often as presumed - you are not building. The rebuilding happens at rest, not during exercise.

So, why would so many studies indicate that post-exercise protein is so important? Aside from the obvious benefit to supplement companies and the psychological benefit to the individual, the answer may be found in the article, "The effect of protein timing on muscle strength and hypertrophy: a meta-analysis" (Schoenfeld et al. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2013, 10:53).

Through analyzing the data from protein ingestion studies, Schoenfeld concludes that "Any positive effects noted in timing studies were found to be due to an increased protein intake rather than the temporal aspects of consumption...". Total amount of protein ingested being the determining factor as opposed to when that protein was consumed.

So, how much protein should one eat? According to the literature, those consuming twice of the standard recommendation for sedentary people saw the greatest benefit. This puts the protein intake around 1.6g/kg bodyweight. Of course, if I were trying to tell a good story I would let you believe that all you need to do is increase your protein intake and your muscles would grow burn more calories and shed any unwanted body fat. I think you know that it is just not that easy.

As with any supplement or nutrient, your body will only realize a difference if it has an unfulfilled need. Consuming more protein will only make a difference if you are creating a demand in your body for those building blocks. Without the activity to create the need, that increased protein will just be used by the body as increased calories which could go to increased stored calories as fat.

Balancing your macronutrients (FAT, CHO and PRO) to ensure you are getting enough but not too much can be tricky and, no doubt, there will be continual research that will disprove things that we currently believe, but if you listen to your body you can find the balance that is right for you. Research and normative data are best used as guidelines and should always be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism.

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