5K or nah?

I didn’t want to do it. I woke up this morning thinking I’d just do something else. Afterall, I really wanted to make up Thursday’s WOD which I had missed. Of course I wanted to do that one, 3 rounds of a barbell complex consisting of three sets of hang squat snatch + overhead squats. Right up my ally! Woo-hoo! I am doing the barbell complex today… forget that 5k, NOT DOING THAT!    I’ve done that 5k test before, several time as a matter of fact. Why should I do it again? Why today? I’d really rather get under that barbell.

I started explaining the workout to the athletes, briefing them with goals and strategies on how to approach the 5k. I was aiming to get them pumped up to take on the 5k row. I could see the excitement and nervousness in their faces. It started to make me feel that same sort of excitement and nervousness too. Then I remembered why this is such a great test.

It is much more than a physical endurance test. It is a mental test as well, maybe even more so. The goal is not going out too hot or too fast resulting in a big drop in pace. The goal is not ending up crashing and burning, resulting in a grueling and miserable experience. The goal is to go out moderate paced but not too slow because you can’t really make up lost time at the end. The goal is to be able to keep yourself at a pace where you can increase at the end, a sprint to finish sort of feeling. The goal is to be within your best and worst times… no pressure. There’s a point in the second half where you start to think you should be going faster. It’s a trap, it’s a trap. Keep the pace and avoid the want to get faster. Wait, wait, hold onto the pace, stay focused and on course. Watch the monitor and listen to your breathing. Legs, arms, arms legs. You can do it. Victory isn’t in the PR (unless you have a PR). The victory is in the satisfaction of completion. The wobbly legs standing up after putting in the work. The victory is doing something for yourself that is a positive contribution towards your health and well being. The victory is getting sweaty and out of breath.

Needless to say, I never touched the barbell today. I still plan to make up Thursday’s barbell complex at some point, maybe next week. But it’s days like today that make me feel accomplished, capable and proud of myself. This is why I love CrossFit.

By the way, I did not set a PR today but it was between my best and worst times. It was 4th best time overall and off 9 seconds from by PR.

 

Fitness In 100 Words

According to an article written by Greg Glassman for The CrossFit Journal, published on October 1st, 2002 What is Fitness? The definition of “World-Class Fitness in 100 Words” is completed with the final 6 words reading “regularly learn and play new sports”.

So let’s make a mission, in the true spirit of CrossFit. Let’s take some time this week and apply our fitness outside the box.

Go hiking, biking, walking, running. Go skiing, skating, rock climbing, or zip-lining. Practice handstands or candlesticks, yoga or stretching. Try bowling, billiards or indoor mini-golf. You are only limited by your imagination!

Truth Be Told…

Truth Be Told…

Realize… if you don’t BUY any junk food, you won’t HAVE any junk food to eat! There! I said it.

Now, Let’s dig in and be a bit more honest with ourselves…It is true, you are what you eat..

If you fuel your car or truck with cheap gas, do you notice how the engine is a bit sluggish? The same goes for your body. Compare the cheap gas to the food that is not so nutritious. If you eat poorly, your body performs poorly. I’m not only talking about during wods. I mean in general, Your brain does not function at its best, your reaction time is compromised, your attention is waning, and so on…

If you want peak performance, you need to treat yourself like a beautiful race car. …

Ask yourself… are your previous choices the best fuel for your engine?

This is behavior change and habit stacking.

So rather than taking away and feeling limited, have you ADDED in more veggies or fruit? Here’s an easy opportunity to give yourself a tune up and get race ready.

If you are not eating veggies and fruit by now please start to reframe the way you look at your plate.

Start with this 40% veggies- 30% protein- 30% starch (and avoid added sauces) No added sugar! NO candy, cookies or chips on a daily basis. These should be the exception or on an occasion for a treat.

Get ready for the car show!

Not Going to the Death Lepard Show

Not Going to the Death Lepard Show
Larry Lepard is an investment manager whose sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet on the road finally caught up with him.

“I wasn’t eating well, I wasn’t working out, I wasn’t doing the right kind of stuff, but I didn’t know what the solution was,” Lepard, 57, confesses.

The only solution doctors offered: “Here’s a pill for that.”

Instead of giving up, Lepard sought his own solution and walked into CrossFit New England. Lepard told them, “I want to get into good shape. Is that something you can help me do?”

The response: “Absolutely. … There’s one thing you gotta do: You gotta show up.”

Larry did exactly that. Since starting CrossFit, Lepard improved his fitness dramatically, and he’s convinced that it’s critical for people over 50 to start a fitness program to avoid what many believe is an inevitable decline due to aging.

“That deterioriation can be really pushed back as a result of … a commitment to an hour a day of moving,” Lepard explains.

“It’s about kicking ass into your 90s and not being decrepit in your 60s,” according to CrossFit New England affiliate owner and head coach Ben Bergeron.

The only thing you have to do?

“Just keep walking through the door,” Lepard says.

CrossFit – Skill Development Forever

ByCrossFit December 10, 2019

The CrossFit program aims to develop a fitness that is broad, general, and inclusive. To truly pursue and attain this degree of fitness, athletes of all developmental levels should continually strive to learn and master new and more challenging skills.

The 10 general physical skills (or capacities), which provide one of CrossFit’s definitional models of fitness, suggest there is much to be gained from persistent and dedicated skill development.

The first four of these capacities are organic adaptations. Improvements in these come through training. Training here refers to any activity that improves performance through a measurable organic change (measurable changes in biological tissue) in the body. Conversely, the final four capacities on the list are largely neurological adaptations that come about through continued practice. Practice here refers to any activity that improves performance through changes in the nervous system, a result of neuromuscular patterning.

We often continue to push ourselves and our clients in training — always seeking heavier loads and quicker times. However, it is less common, especially among more developed or advanced CrossFit athletes, to also continue to practice and push the limits of skill development and neurological adaptations.

Eschewing the more difficult work of pushing existing skills beyond their current threshold in favor of simply refining the core list of common movements to the point of specific efficiency blunts continued development. Neurological capacities will not be broadly developed if the athlete continues to perform only in ways that are already familiar. Challenging an existing level of skill with a new variation of a well-practiced movement or unique combination of movements is absolutely necessary in order to reap the full benefit of CrossFit’s methodology. And, importantly, the acquisition of a new skill is as objective and measurable as lifting a heavier load or achieving a faster time; i.e., you could not previously perform the task and now you can.

The challenge with learning a difficult new skill or variation of an existing skill is that the process necessarily includes a period of time when the athlete will struggle. In order to develop new skills, one must voluntarily place oneself squarely back in the beginner phase. This is often difficult for experienced athletes who have developed a self-perception of competency. However, it is important to properly consider the beginner phase of development, because in this phase, the largest adaptations are made. This is where the distance between inability and competence is the greatest. For example, the beginner weightlifter makes gains at a pace that any competitive lifter would die for later in their career. Regularly tapping into this vital beginner stage is a valuable tool for anyone pursuing broad fitness.

Speaking more specifically, let’s turn our attention toward handstand push-ups and presses to handstand. These movements offer a great study in the nature of skill development. While there are training adaptations that come with handstand practice, such as increased strength and flexibility, the greater demand relates to neuromuscular patterning; i.e., coordination and balance. This only becomes more true as an athlete gains capacity and advances.

CrossFit trainers are skilled in the art of making many difficult movements accessible for the beginner. A good trainer will guide new athletes through a progression, celebrating the small victories along the way. For example, the trainer may start an athlete with a full range of motion push-up, then progress to a dip, then pike push-ups on a box, then finally move to the wall. This process may take years.

A great trainer will understand this process is not just for the beginner and continue this system with intermediate and advanced athletes. An athlete who is comfortable with strict handstand push-ups can be challenged to perform them from a deficit, with their chest against the wall, or freestanding.

A press to handstand may even be encouraged to start a set of handstand push-ups instead of kicking up. This endeavor alone contains its own long-term, progressive challenge and is best begun by practicing the negative or descent from handstand.

Many athletes will need months to reach the point of simply supporting themselves on their hands for the first time. Conversely, some athletes will take to the base skill quickly. Athletes in both categories will need a path forward from their starting point. Skill development therefore must be thought of as a progressive endeavor from day one, regardless of capacity.

Trainers can also strategize to program movement variations that allow for skill practice without accumulating excessive volume or fatigue. For example, even an advanced athlete can benefit greatly from practicing (rather than training) a movement like the muscle-up. This is not always optimally accomplished by simply performing more reps of the full movement. Bringing the athlete back down to the low rings to refine technique can pay dividends, as this allows them to practice performing more perfect reps before fatiguing than they could if they were performing the full movement. This technique is often used with weightlifting movements by simply adjusting the load; it is not necessary (and often counterproductive) to lift at a high percentage of your 1-rep max to develop and/or improve technique. With gymnastics movements, the load is your body weight. Finding creative ways to reduce that load to refine technique is just as important as it is for something like the clean or snatch.

One way to reduce load is simply to lower the rings so the feet are touching the floor. Muscle-up practice can be made easier or more difficult by modifying the height of the rings and how much assistance the athlete uses from the legs. 

Although it can be daunting to constantly recreate the struggle of the beginner, the dividends make the investment worthwhile. No matter where an athlete falls along the spectrum of experience, they should always seek new additions to their skill set. Trainers should take responsibility for guiding their athletes through this process. It is not enough to simply bring a new athlete up to a baseline of acceptable performance. The diligent and professional trainer striving for excellence should continually educate themselves in order to encourage and continue to push the development of even their most advanced athletes. If athletes have stalled out or fail to see the benefits of learning new skills, this can often be attributed to a trainer who lacks the skill set or education needed to further athletes’ development. In order to improve and build upon existing skill sets, commit to seeking out new ways to challenge your athletes and yourself as a trainer.

 

https://www.crossfit.com/essentials/skill-development-forever

Three Meaningful Components of a Fitness Program

Do you want to know what they are ?

  1. Safety
  2. Efficacy
  3. Efficiency

Do you want to know WHY?? The explanation is simply fascinating! 

Watch (listen to) this video  Technique, Part 1

Adapted from Coach Glassman’s Dec. 1, 2007, L1 lecture in Charlotte, North Carolina, and originally published in the CrossFit Level 1 Training Guide.

In no small part, what is behind this program is the quantification of fitness. This means we put a number on fitness: work capacity across broad time and modal domains. You can assess one’s fitness by determining the area under his or her work-capacity curve. This would be similar to a group of athletes competing in 25 to 30 workouts. Include a range of activities—like three pulls on the Concept2 rower for average watts to a 10-mile run—and a multitude of workouts in between. Compile their overall placing across these events, and everyone then has a reasonable metric of his or her total capacity.

This quantification of fitness is a part of a broader concept that is at the heart of this movement: We call it evidence-based fitness. This means measurable, observable, repeatable data is used in analyzing and assessing a fitness program. There are three meaningful components to analysis of a fitness program: safety, efficacy, and efficiency.

The efficacy of a program means, “What is the return?” Maybe a fitness program advertises that it will make you a better soccer player. There needs to be evidence of this supported by measurable, observable, repeatable data. For CrossFit, we want to increase your work capacity across broad time and modal domains. This is the efficacy of this program. What are the tangible results? What is the adaptation that the program induces?

Efficiency is the time rate of that adaptation. Maybe the fitness program advertises that it can deliver 50 pull-ups. There is a big difference whether it takes six months versus nine years to achieve that.

Safety is how many people end up at the finish line. Suppose I have a fitness program. I start with 10 individuals: Two of them become the fittest human beings on Earth and the other eight die. While I would rather be one of the two fittest than the eight dead, and I do not know if I want to play, I am not going to attach a normative value to it. The real tragedy comes in not knowing the safety numbers.

These three vectors of safety, efficacy and efficiency point in the same direction, such that they are not entirely at odds with each other. I can greatly increase the safety of a program by turning the efficacy and efficiency down to zero. I can increase the efficiency by turning up the intensity and then possibly compromising safety. Or I could damage the efficacy by losing people. Safety, efficacy and efficiency are the three meaningful aspects of a program. They give me all I need to assess it.

This quantification of fitness, by choosing work capacity as our standard for the efficacy of the program, necessitates the qualification of movement. Our quantification of fitness introduces qualification of movement.

For the qualification of movement there are four common terms: mechanics, technique, form and style. I will not delve into them with too much detail: The distinction is not that important. I use both technique and form somewhat interchangeably, although there is a slightly nuanced distinction.

When I talk about angular velocity, momentum, leverage, origin or insertion of muscles, torque, force, power, relative angles, we are taking about mechanics. When I speak to the physics of movement, and especially the statics and less so the dynamics, I am looking at the mechanics.

Technique is the method to success for completion of a movement. For example, if you want to do a full twisting dismount on the rings, the technique would be: pull, let go, look, arm up, turn, shoulder drop, etc. Technique includes head posture and body posture. And there are effective and less effective techniques. Technique includes the mechanics, but it is in the macro sense of “how do you complete the movement without the physics?”

Form is the normative value: This is good or this is bad—“you should” or “you shouldn’t” applied to mechanics and technique.

Style is essentially the signature to a movement; that is, that aspect of the movement that is fairly unique to you. The best of the weightlifting coaches can look at the bar path during a lift and tell you which lifter it is. There are aspects to all of our movements that define us like your thumbprint. It is the signature. To be truly just the signature, style elements have no bearing on form, technique or mechanics. Style does not enter into the normative assessment, is not important to technique, and does not alter substantially the physics.

These four terms are all qualifications to movement. I want to speak generally to technique and form to include all of this, but what we are talking about here is the non-quantification of output; that is, how you move.

By taking power or work capacity as our primary value for assessing technique—and this reliance on functional movement—we end up in kind of an interesting position. We end up where power is the successful completion of functional movement.

This is not about merely energy exerted. On a graph, you could put work accomplished on the Y-axis and energy expended on the X-axis. Someone could potentially expend a lot of energy and do very little work by being inefficient. Ideally, what that individual would do would see little energy expended for the maximum amount of work. Technique is what maximizes the work completed for the energy expended (Figure 1). For any given capacity, say metabolically, for energy expenditure, the guy who knows the technique is going to be able to do the most amount of work.

Suppose I take two people at random and they are both trying the same task. One is familiar with how to deadlift, and one is not. One knows how to clean, one does not. One knows how to drive overhead, one does not. Suppose they are loading a truck with sandbags. The one familiar with lifting large objects and transporting them is going to do a lot more work.

You can have the argument as to who is stronger. For example, you can use an electromyogram and see with what force the biceps shortens. If you are defining strength as contractile potential, you may end up with the guy with enormous contractile potential—but not knowing the technique of the clean, the jerk, the deadlift, he cannot do as much work.

Figure 1: Technique maximizes the work accomplished for the energy expended.

We, however, do not take contractile potential as the gold standard for strength. Strength is the productive application of force. If you cannot complete work, if you cannot express strength as power, if strength cannot be expressed as productive result, it does not count. Having enormous biceps and quadriceps is useless if you cannot run, jump, lift, throw, press.

This is related to safety, efficacy and efficiency because technique (quality of movement) is the heart of maximizing each of these.

He or she who knows how to do these movements when confronted with them will get a better result in terms of safety. Two individuals attempt to lift a heavy object; one knows how to pop a hip and get under it (clean), and the other guy starts to pull with a rounded back. I can tell you what is likely to happen to he or she who does not know how to lift. If you want to stay safe, you better have good technique, good form.

Efficacy, for any given contractile potential, for any given limit to your total metabolic capacity, he or she who knows the technique will be able to get more work done and will develop faster. If after six months of teaching you how to clean it still does not look like I would like it to, you will not get twice body weight overhead more quickly someone who looks like a natural. You want an effective program, you are going to have to move with quality, you want to get the result quickly—technique is going to be pivotal to your success.

Technique is an intimate part of safety, efficacy, and efficiency.

We can see how this manifests in CrossFit workouts by way of a comparison. I want to look at typing, shooting, playing the violin, NASCAR driving and CrossFit. What these domains have in common is that a marked proficiency is associated with speed. Being able to shoot accurately and quickly is better than quickly or accurately.

You may try to get a job as a typist because you do not make any mistakes. However, for this perfection, you type at a rate of 20 words a minute and only use two fingers. You will never get hired. Playing the violin fast and error-free is critical for a virtuoso. However, someone who gets through “Flight of the Bumblebee” in 12 minutes is not there yet. A NASCAR driver wants to both drive fast and not wreck. In CrossFit, a perfectly exquisite Fran is worthless if it takes 32 minutes.

And yet, it is presented to CrossFit coaches as, “Should I use good form or should I do it quickly?” I do not like my choices. One is impossible without the other.

Technique and speed are not at odds with one another, where “speed” is related to all the quantification of the movement: power, force, distance, time. They are seemingly at odds. It is a misapprehension. It is an illusion.

Can you learn to drive fast without wrecking? Can you learn to type fast without making errors? Can you shoot quickly without missing? Eventually, but not in the learning. One is impossible without the other.

You will not learn to type fast without typing where you make a ton of errors and then work to reduce the errors at that speed. Then you go faster, and then again pull the errors back in, then go faster and pull the errors back in. You drive faster and faster and then you spin out in the infield or you hit the wall.

If you are a race driver and you have never spun out, gone out in the infield or never been in a wreck, you are not very good. If you are a typist and you have never made a mistake, you are very slow. In CrossFit, if your technique is perfect, your intensity is always low.

Here is the part that is hard to understand: You will not maximize the intensity or the speed without mistakes. But it is not the mistakes that make you faster. It is not reaching for the letter P with your pinky and hitting the O. It is not hitting the wrong note that made you play faster. It is not missing the target by two feet that made you a better shooter. It is not running into the wall that made you a faster driver. But you will not get there without it. The errors are an unavoidable consequence of development.

This iterative process of letting this scope of errors broaden then reducing them without reducing the speed is called “threshold training.”

In a CrossFit workout, if you are moving well, I will tell you to pick up the speed. Suppose at the higher speed the movement still looks good: I will encourage you to go faster. And if it still looks good I will encourage you to go even faster. Now the movement starts falling apart.

I do not want you to slow down yet. First, at that speed I want you to fix your technique. What you need to do is continuously and constantly advance the margins at which form falters.

It may be that initially at 10,000 foot-pounds per minute my technique is perfect, but it falls apart at 12,000 foot-pounds per minute. Work at that 10,000 to 12,000 foot-pounds per minute mark to fix the form, and soon enough you will have great technique at 12,000 foot-pounds per minute. The next step is to achieve that technique at 14,000 foot-pounds per minute.

At first, the technique at 14,000 foot-pounds per minute will suffer. Then you must narrow it in. That is the process. It is ineluctable. It is unavoidable. There is nothing I can do about it. That is not my rule.

We are the technique people. We drill technique incessantly, but simultaneously I want you to go faster. You will learn to work at higher intensity with good technique only by ratcheting up the intensity to a point where good technique is impossible. This dichotomy means that it is impossible at the limits of your capacity to obey every little detail and nuance of technique. Some of the refined motor-recruitment patterns are not going to always look perfect.

I do not know of a domain where speed matters and technique is not at the heart of it. In every athletic endeavor where we can quantify the output, there is incredible technique at the highest levels of performance.

Suppose someone set the new world record for the shot put, but his technique was poor. This means one of two things: one, either with good technique it would have gone farther, or two, we were wrong in understanding what is good technique.

Technique is everything. It is at the heart of our quantification. You will not express power in significant measure without technique. You might expend a lot of energy, but you will not see the productive application of force. You will not be able to complete functional tasks efficiently or effectively. You will not be safe in trying.

There is a perceived paradox here that really is not a paradox when you understand the factors at play.

To Squat (below parallel) Or Not To Squat, That Is The Question

To Squat (below parallel) or not to squat, that is the question. So many debates on this subject such as… what about my knees? Won’t they get damaged? I’ve heard it’s not good to let your knees go past your toes.

Consider this, when you see a child playing, often times you’ll see them in a full depth squat,  torso vertical, knees tracking out over toes, heels down in contact with the floor. This is what your body is meant to do and is capable of.

Over the years we have shortened our muscles, tendons and ligaments by doing (or not doing) specific movements with our body. Through this course of action, we have taught our body how NOT to squat. You become a sum of what you consistently do. However, squatting is an essential movement.

“In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia, and one between the femur and patella. It is the largest joint in the human body. The knee is a modified hinge joint, which permits flexion and extension as well as slight internal and external rotation.”

Regular physical activity helps maintain joint function, including strength and range of motion in the knees.

Strengthen the muscles that support your knees. Developing strong thigh muscles — especially the quadriceps, hamstrings and abductors — improves range of motion, protects knee cartilage and reduces the stress you place on the knee, says Richard Willy, an assistant professor of physical therapy at the University of Montana School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences.

This is one example of why the basic squat is an essential functional movement and here’s your challenge.

  1. Watch the above video and try for your self
  2. If you are unable to squat as demonstrated in the first video, don’t worry, there’s two more videos to help you
  3. Stay dedicated and perform the squats regularly
  4. Chart small improvements in range, ease of movement, improved points of performance, quantity, etc…
  5. Understand “range of motion is non-negotiable is long as it’s pain free”

 

 

 

Bridges, Tunnels, CrossFit, Infrastructure

Infrastructure. Noun. Definition, the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (eg: buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. “The social and economic infrastructure of a country”.  Infrastructure has become a popular topic recently due to the 2021 Infrastructure bill proposed to reshape the economy.

Bridges, tunnels, highways, power, water and energy facilities, mass transit and even waste removal are the very systems that support the functionality of our cities, country, and our economy. If that’s so, what  is the infrastructure of the human body? Let’s take a deeper dive. There are 10 main systems in the human body, four of which are responsible for facilitating other systems.

  • Skeletal system is made up of over 200 bones, it holds the body together, gives it shape and protects organs and tissues. It also provides anchor point for the muscular system.
  • Muscular system facilitates movement.
  • Cardiovascular system is a pipeline that includes the heart, blood vessels and blood. It also delivers oxygen, white blood cells, hormones and nutrients throughout the body.
  • Nervous system is a communication network of nerve cells used to transmit information and bodily functions. It is comprised of the brain, spinal cord and many other nerves.

We can draw some parallels from the infrastructure of our society to that of the human body.

Therefore, it would be fair to say that if we can rebuild those parts in society, we can also rebuild those parts of the human body.

If reshaping the economy by creating jobs results in stronger bridges and tunnels, faster transportation, and more efficient water and waste management then we can do the same with out bodies.  We can reshape our sickness to wellness and our wellness to fitness. We can build stronger bones via exercise. We can build a faster cardiovascular system by revving the engine. We can fuel our body as well as the high grade fuel we pump into our fancy cars.

So while we all have an opinion on the infrastructure of the country, it is time to all take a stand on the infrastructure of our own body. It is after all the one single thing we have control of.

Synonyms for infrastructure are basis, foundation, support.

Eat (well) Sleep (deep) Train (exercise) Repeat (keep doing it – every day)

 

 

 

Get Fit, For A Change…

If you have ever tried to start a new healthy habit or perhaps eliminate an old one you know difficult change can be.

Our bodies are adaptation machines however and will adapt to the stimulus they experience most frequently. One way to prime your body for change is to exercise. Exercise causes a whole host of changes in your physiology that can make learning a new habit or skill easier. It is also a great replacement for bad habits you are trying to eliminate. Whatever your goal may be fitness can play a huge role in your transformation. The most important part of change is starting, taking action towards your goal. Even if you slip and fall it is way better than never having tried at all.

“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” -G.K. Chesterton

That’s why if you are interested in pursuing a new career, relationship, or habit you should make it a priority to dedicate time each week to rigorous physical exercise. Exercise has numerous physical benefits but it goes beyond that. The way you eat and the way you move your body has a direct impact on the way you think, your mood, and how you make decisions.

Improving cognitive function can give you the energy and mental stamina to make other great changes in your life. Numerous studies have shown significant brain benefits as a result of both cardiovascular and resistance training routines. Exercise has been proven to increase the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin and other neurohormones like the endorphin dopamine. These act on the opiate receptors in our brain to reduce pain and boost pleasure.

“Nothing will work unless you do.” -John Wooden

Exercise has also been shown to stimulate the growth of the hippocampus, synapses, and glial cells in your brain. The hippocampus is responsible for memory and individuals who exercise are able to better recall information.

Synapses are the junctions where our cells communicate with one another, sending signals throughout the body that guide our actions. Exercise stimulates the growth of synapses which helps reinforce learning. The stronger we develop neural pathways through our synapses the stronger we reinforce the pattern. If you are trying to learn a new routine or information exercise can help.

Glial cells provide support and protection for cells in the brain and central nervous system. Exercises stimulates the growth of these cells helping you literally build a bigger brain. It is believed that a bigger brain leads to enhanced cognitive function.

Exercise also increases blood flow, improves our hormonal balance, and aids digestion and insulin sensitivity. These are all tremendous factors in our ability to be alert and energetic. If you are looking for the attitude, attention, and focus to make positive changes in your life then exercise will help you.

If you don’t know where to begin when it comes to fitness or any other change you want to make in your life get in touch with a coach who can help you. A coach will help you evaluate your situation and come up with a plan that fits your needs and lifestyle. A community that is focused on fitness and self improvement will also help you stay dedicated to your goals.

5 Health Metrics That Are More Important Than Weight

For some strange reason American’s have chosen the scale as their favorite way to track progress around their health. People derive their sense of self worth based on the number facing up at them from between their feet. If you’re someone who draws any sort of emotional reaction, positive or negative, from the scale then you may want to self reflect and consider if there are better options out there. 

The funny part is that weight is such an inconsequential and ambiguous predictor of substance. Just consider this. If you have three avocados-one freshly picked and hard as a rock, one brown soft and ooze, and one firm ripe and tender-which one are you going to slice open to make your guacamole with? It shouldn’t matter if they all weigh 170 grams right…

What you are made of, how you feel, and what you are able to produce are all factors of way greater significance than your weight. 

What you weigh is going to constantly fluctuate. You may lose weight and be less healthy. You may be well hydrated one day and performing well then get totally thrown off because your weight went up a pound or two. This number doesn’t say who you are as a person or how healthy and fit you may be. It’s just an arbitrary number. Stop letting the pounds run your life and change the way you feel about yourself. Instead try one of these alternative ways that measure success off the scale!

Body Fat Percentage

Body fat percentage is an alternative way to track your progress and provides much more actionable information than just your weight in pounds. This takes into account your lean muscle mass. In this way you can actually gain weight in muscle which would consequently reduce your percentage of body fat. This is a clear example of how gaining weight would make you healthier. Plus as you add more muscle to your frame you will burn more calories at rest. The fat will disappear faster and faster on it’s own!

Measurements

Taking specific measurements is a great way to achieve the goals around the way you want to look. Measuring neck, arm, waist, hips, thigh, and calf circumference can help you transform your body without ever worrying about the scale. Losing two inches off your waist will make you look and feel like a whole new person!

Habit Tracking

One of the best replacements for weighing yourself is to instead track daily health habits. If you track metrics like sleep, hydration, servings of veggies, daily walking, and other relevant habits you can focus on the right behaviors to make you look and feel great in the long run. This takes discipline but it is essential to long lasting transformation.

Performance Metrics

Switching your focus to the weight on the bar is a great alternative to the scale. People will often train harder and longer in pursuit of strength and performance goals than solely for aesthetic purposes. If you push yourself more in training the results will speak for themselves!