WHYYY Is The Hip Hinge Important?!?

WHY IS THE HIP HINGE IMPORTANT?!?

• Wanna get the most out of every rep?

• Wanna reduce the impact on your joints?

• Wanna jump higher?

• Wanna get the best possible stretch?

• Wanna reduce the tension in your neck/back/hips/knees while doing any of the above?

• Wanna prevent injuries - from working out or just in general?

If you answered yes to any one of these ?s, then the hip hinge is definitely important to you! Here's a video where I demonstrate the hip hinge movement pattern. You’ll notice I’m doing the movement pattern in the photo below too - you can see the 3 major things that make up a hip hinge:

1. booty back

2. head forward

3. spine straight

Proper Core Engagement + A Solid Hip Hinge = Strong, Effective Movement Patterns

It’s important to point out that the hip hinge & proper core engagement [which I break down here] often go hand in hand. Especially with movements like squats & lunges - you’re either doing both or you’re doing neither ;-)

When training, the key is to keep the tension IN your muscles & OUT of your joints/tendons.

**Results are earned by moving well**

Proper Core Engagement + A Solid Hip Hinge = Strong, Effective Movement Patterns that can earn you the best possible results from your training sessions. THAT’S why it’s important!

If you still have questions, just email me [hint: pics/vids help me give you specific feedback]!

Wanna Nail The Perfect Push-Up?!

WANNA NAIL THE PERFECT PUSH-UP?!

Here’s what you need to do:

• properly engage your core

• lock in those lats

[My last blog post is all about what both of those mean & look like.]

• keep in mind that push-ups are moving planks [if the plank falls apart your foundation of strength & control will disappear].

The more you train your body to move while maintaining a strong plank position, the more prepared it will be to do a standard push-up on the floor!!

To practice maintaining control of your plank the most functional approach is to do push-ups with your hands elevated. The higher you elevate your hands, the less resistance your arms need to work against. Therefore, progressively placing your hands closer & closer to the floor will prepare you for traditional push-ups.

Here’s a video that demonstrates the stages you might progress through in order to work up to a traditional push-up:

Once you’ve mastered maintaining your plank with your hands elevated & you’re ready to hit the floor, hand-release push-ups usually come in handy as the final stage before you start banging out traditional reps. [For hand-release push-ups, you lower down until you’re resting on your belly so that your body can get a mini break before pushing back up].] Here’s a visual:

What’s wrong with knee push-ups?! Nothing! The reason I prefer the approach of gradually placing the hands closer to the floor instead of doing push-ups from the knees, [aside from some specific exceptions], is because a push-up is a moving plank. The more you train your body to move while maintaining a strong plank position, the more prepared it will be to do a standard push-up on the floor!!

Alright, it’s time to get after it! Be sure to keep me updated on your journey by tagging the #bstrongsquad on social media!

WTF Does "Engage Your Core" Even Mean?!?!

WHAT DOES ENGAGE YOUR CORE MEAN?!

Ok, normally you hear:

• draw your abdominals in!

• maintain a neutral spine!

• engage your lats!

..... Wait, wuhhh?? LOL

Let’s try:

• no letting your rib cage puff out!

• avoid arching your lower back!

• don’t hunch/shrug your shoulders!

Those are pretty much telling you to do the same things as the 3 cues above. Yes, for real!

So why the confusing jargon?! In the fitness biz, we’re trained to use positive cues over negative [that “DO this” is better coaching than “DON’T do that”]... but, there are always exceptions to the “rules” & with core engagement, I find that the “negative” cues are far more recognizable & easy to process while you’re FREAKIN SUCKING AIR - hahaha.

Here’s a 15 second video that quickly demonstrates what those cues look like too:

I hope these tips help you to 1. better understand how to engage your core; & 2. better understand the language us fit pros use on the regular. Feel free email me if you have any questions for me too!

Avoiding & Overcoming Plateaus

Remember the feeling you had when you first kicked off your journey?! How you were SO excited about reaching your goal that you knew deep down in your gut it would 100% be your reality one day? And remember how that excitement fueled your motivation like gasoline does to a fire?! [Too bad that feeling doesn’t last, huh?! Hahahaha… but seriously… what the hell -__-] Well, very similar to the intense emotional connection you experience initially, your body experiences an intense physiological reaction while it adapts to your new lifestyle. That being said, finding that your results are coming along a lot slower after you’ve been eating right and exercising for a while is not only normal, it’s to be expected. But what if a month or 2 has gone by and your results aren’t just slow... you’ve made absolutely no progress... The scale hasn’t budged [which doesn’t mean you aren’t achieving results btw]; your measurements haven’t changed a bit; and your clothes still fit exactly the same… even though you’re just as committed to your workout regimen as ever and have been super disciplined with your meals. WTFFFFF?!?!?!!!

Ok, deep breath. First thing’s first. We have to come to terms with the fact that what you’re currently doing isn’t working. I know! I know… it DID work! And it got you amazing results!! I didn’t say what you’re doing is wrong! What I’m saying is that it’s just not right for you anymore. Your body has adapted. But here’s the good news: making little tweaks to what you’re already doing will likely give you the boost you need.

Here are some small changes that can lead to dramatic results:

1. Prioritize stress management. Here’s the thing: if your stress hormones are elevated, your body is in survival mode and believes it has bigger problems to worry about than changing itself to better suit your fancy. [Sorry, but it’s true…] The good news is that there are ways you can actively reduce your stress hormone levels! Getting ample sleep is most important; followed by staying well-hydrated and keeping active as often as possible. [Not active as in full-on working out all the time, because that would keep your stress hormones elevated - not help them fall. Going for leisurely walks and doing yard work or housework are all great ways to keep moving and reduce stress.]

2. Increase the resistance you’re using during workouts. The fancy term for the reason behind this is “progressive overload” and it’s the foundation of all quality fitness programs. Progressively increasing how challenging your workouts are is essential for building strength and triggering a physiological response in your body that will lead to visible results. If you’ve been using the same couple pair of dumbbells at home for months now, investing in and using heavier weights could be all you need in order to bust through your plateau.

3. Make other adjustments to make your workouts more challenging. There are other ways to ensure progressive overload in your training regimen beyond increasing the weight your lifting. The obvious options are to increase the length of your workouts or add reps/sets of the exercises you’re doing, but there are other options too! You could challenge yourself to do an exercise like step-ups using a higher step. Jump higher when you’re jumping. Play around with the tempo of your movements; for some exercises, [like core exercises], the slower you move, the more challenging it’ll be; and for other exercises, [like cardio drills], the faster you move, the more challenging it’ll be. Plus, always be sure to move through the full range of motion! The deeper/larger the range of motion, the more muscle fibers you recruit. The more muscle fibers you recruit, the harder you’re working!

4. Think outside the box with your eating schedule. For people who stay busy into the evening or workout at night, a common dilemma is the necessity of eating a late dinner. We know that we shouldn’t eat a huge meal right before hitting the hay, but eating 3+ hours before bedtime just isn’t possible! But who says dinner has to be our big meal?? Why can’t lunch be our biggest meal?! When I worked in gyms full time and would teach classes until 7:30/8pm every night, I’d eat a large meal at 2:00 in the afternoon, then my “dinner” after work [around 9pm] was a smoothie. Once I made this adjustment, I noticed that I’d wake up for my 6am clients and classes WAY less bloated AND far better rested because my body was actually recovering while I slept instead of trying to digest a massive meal.

5. Ask for help. As much as we try to educate ourselves and figure out the mystery that is our body… sometimes our educated guesses just aren’t cutting it. When we know better, we do better, and a great way to ensure we’re doing the absolute best we can is to invest in the guidance of an expert.

While we’re on that note, know that I’m here for you & ALWAYS ready to help! Shoot me a message anytime you need motivation, reassurance, advice or a listening ear.

Just Because It's Edible Doesn't Mean It's Food

We live in an age where society demands ultimate convenience along with an exceptional and memorable experience. What does this mean for our food? [PURE DISASTER! Just kidding… wellllll…] We’ve got lots of options that are ready to eat with as little effort on our part as possible [yay!] AND are packed with incredibly satisfying flavors [YASSS!]. But I think we all know intuitively that foods are suppose to be perishable, and that, in a lot of cases, foods having an extended shelf life is unnatural [whomp, whomppp]. Here’s the thing though… because this trend is fairly young - at least within the terms of the slow-moving, precise realm of academia - we’re still waiting on the proper amount of research that will allow us to fully understand how detrimental this transition in the food industry has been to our health. What we do know for sure is this: in recent decades, the rates of chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer have increased dramatically - especially in children [yikes…]. This dramatic increase in our deteriorating health most definitely coincides with the amount of ultra-processed, highly preserved foods we now have access to.

Here’s the messed up part: as the food industry caught onto the fact that people were becoming self-conscious about the changes they were seeing in their bodies and their health, they saw it as an opportunity to create even MORE processed foods that they could market in a way that appealed to the insecurities and concerns of the consumers. But here’s the reality: processed is processed… in fact, making a food that naturally contains fat “fat-free”, or a food that naturally contains sugar “sugar-fee” requires even MORE processing to remove those things… and in my opinion the more processed something is, the less recognizable it becomes to our body, [I defend this opinion with more info below!]. So beware of labels like “diet”, “lite”, “low-fat/fat-free”, “sugar-free”, “artificial sweeteners”, “fortified with” and “made with”, which are intentionally misleading you to believe it’s healthier. It’s not.

We’re still waiting on adequate research on the topic, but those “healthier” options, on top of being chuck full of preservatives like all ultra-processed and packed foods, are also loaded with all kinds of human-made replacements for fat, sugar and other nutrients because foods become weird textures and taste like absolute crap when the naturally-occurring nutrients get removed [gag!]. So it begs the question: does our body even know how to properly digest and metabolize these human-made replacements? Again, research hasn’t completely caught up with the current state of our food industry to tell us for sure, but here’s something we do know: we as a society are currently OVER-consuming calories [obesity rates are at an all time high].... yet somehow we’re also experiencing deficiencies of essential nutrients at alarming rates. Here’s an early study that brought this issue to our attention.

Our meals and snacks should both fuel AND nourish our body. When we are over-fueling, [excess caloric-intake], and under-nourishing, [insufficient nutrient in-take], at the same time, that’s a major problem! [Oh, and I highly encourage everyone to watch this documentary that dives deep into this topic called Hungry For Change.] So what’s going on here?!?! Well, it’s some combination of the following: 1. too much of what we’re eating lacks adequate nutrients in the first place, and 2. our body isn’t recognizing and properly absorbing the nutrients and their imitators that are added to processed foods during production.

What do I hope you’ll take away from all this information? Treat your trips to the grocery store like you treat what you see on social media - with healthy skepticism [HAHAHA! ] - but really though… Focus on quality always. The less a food has been altered before you eat it, the better. The less time a food has sat on shelves before you eat it, the better. And just because it’s edible doesn’t mean your body will digest and metabolize it like it would real, whole foods.