Most workout programs are geared towards two types of people: those chasing aesthetics (building muscle or losing fat), or those pursuing performance. If these are your goals, then you can find plenty of fantastic programs out there that will lead to your success.

However, in my coaching experience, most people with 40-hour work weeks, families, social lives, and countless responsibilities often aren’t chasing a specific aesthetic or performance goal. Their goals usually look something like this: they want to be able to keep up with their children at any age, indulge in fun outdoor activities, maybe play on a local sports team after work, look good naked, maximize their health, and minimize their aches and pains.

Most of my clients are simply looking for a balance of strength, mobility, muscular endurance, and cardiovascular endurance. They also want to accomplish all of these goals while minimizing their time commitment.

The average person isn’t interested in leg days that leave them so sore they have a hard time getting out of their office chair the next day. They don’t want high-impact exercises that leave their joints achy and vulnerable to injury. They simply want workout programs that give them the best bang for their buck.

If your goals look like those above, then look no further. Here is your new workout program.

Program Structure

To achieve maximum results with minimal time commitment, you will perform three workouts per week, each spaced out at least two days apart. One workout will be focused on strength, another on muscular endurance, and the third on cardiovascular conditioning and mobility.

• The strength workout will be centered on heavy, low-impact, compound exercises with low repetition sets. This will be a full-body workout to maximize the intensity, and will include a key compound exercise for every major body part. During strength workouts, your rest will be 90 seconds between each set.
• The muscular endurance day will be focused on higher repetition sets of callisthenic movements. This day will revolve around bodyweight exercises which will provide you with muscular endurance, stability, and coordination. During callisthenic workouts, rest 30 seconds between each exercise.
• For your cardiovascular conditioning and mobility workout, there are a multitude of options. You could choose activities such as swimming, rowing, or cycling. For the sake of programing, I am going to use an activity that is free and easily accessible to everyone: running. Now I know some of you out there absolutely do not enjoy running. If this you, feel free to swap in your own cardio activity. If you are willing to run on this day, the mileage will be very low, focused mostly on sprints and short distance runs of 2-4 miles. Sprints and short distance runs will alternate every week in this program. During sprints, take two minutes rest between each set. The distance runs should be run straight through and timed to track improvement. You will perform a short mobility routine after your run or sprints are completed.

Always perform a warmup before every workout. If you do not have a warm-up routine, I provide a sample provide below. Add any other movements you would like to make sure you’re fully prepared for each workout.

1. Circle each arm forward 5 times and backward 5 times
2. Circle the hips 5 times each way
3. Circle the head 5 times each way
4. Perform 5 light lunges on each leg
5. Perform 5 slow squats, pausing at the bottom
6. Perform 10 easy mountain climbers on each leg
7. Perform 10 high knees on each side
8. Perform 5 slow push ups
9. Hang from a pull up bar for 15 seconds

The Everyday People Fitness Program: Monday – Strength Day

Time Commitment: 40-45 minutes

• Deadlifts (regular or trap-bar): 3×5
• Flat bench dumbbell press: 3×5
• Standing bent over rows (with dumbbells, barbell, or landmine): 3×5
• Bulgarian split squats: 3×4 each leg
• Standing shoulder press (with dumbbells or barbell): 3×5
• Farmers walks: 2x100ft

The Everyday People Fitness Program: Wednesday – Cardio and Mobility Day

Time Commitment: 20-40 minutes

Week A:

• 100m sprint x10 (max effort)

Week B:

• 2-4 mile continuous run (or equivalent cardio of your choosing)

Mobility:

• Horse stance: 20sec hold
• Downward dog: 20sec hold
• Cat and camel: 20 reps
• Cobra: 20sec hold
• Deep squat: 30sec hold
• Deep lunge with side twist: 15sec hold each side
• Pigeon pose: 20sec hold each leg

Repeat circuit x 2

The Everyday People Fitness Program: Friday – Muscular Endurance Day

Time Commitment: 25-35 minutes

• Push ups: 4 sets, stop 2 reps before muscle failure
• Pull ups: 4 sets, stop 1 rep before muscle failure
• Bear crawl: 3 sets, as far as possible
• Hollow holds: 4 x max hold for time
• Hip bridges: 4 x 20 reps
• Bodyweight squats: 3 x 25 reps
• Lateral lunges: 3 x 5 reps each side

Programming and Exercise Selection Explained

This program was designed with the most demanding workout of the week, strength day, as the first workout. This allows you to utilize the weekend for rest and have an additional rest day between your callisthenic workout and strength workout to allow for maximal recovery.

Some will look at this program and question if three days a week enough work. But if you aren’t chasing a physical extreme or high performance measure, then this program will be more than enough to keep you active, healthy, strong, and conditioned. This program revolves around large, compound exercises. All of the exercises besides the dumbbell bench press are done while standing, which requires much more stabilization and recruits more muscles than if you were seated or on a machine. With this routine, you will hit every muscle in the body and utilize a wide array of movements.

Strength Exercises

The deadlift was chosen as it is the king of exercises for the posterior chain, the muscles that run down the back side of your body from traps to calves. The deadlift will create power, stability, and explosiveness in your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. This is a taxing, full-body movement. Form is crucial on the deadlift, as with any loaded movement. Remember to keep a neutral spine from neck to lower back, allow a little bend in the ankles and knees, use your hips, and engage your lats for a tight grip.

Dumbbell bench press was chosen over traditional barbell bench presses because of the safety of the exercise. With a barbell, your shoulders are locked in place, and if you don’t have the stabilizing muscles required for the exercise, injury will occur rather quickly. We are trading off a small amount of extra muscular activation for a huge increase in safety.

Standing bent over rows can be done with a barbell or dumbbells. This exercise will challenge your stability, every muscle in your back, and activate your arms quite well. While doing this exercise, keep a neutral spine, push your hips back, and have a small bend at the knees. Form is everything; don’t use momentum to lift the weight.

Bulgarian split squats will challenge your single-leg strength and stability, while creating less stress on the knee than traditional forward lunges.

Standing shoulder presses require a high amount of core activation, and will challenge your shoulders immensely. Make sure you have the mobility to comfortably lift weight above your head before you proceed with this exercise.

Farmers walks are an old favorite. Laborers for centuries have used this technique to carry heavy objects from point A to point B. Luckily, our lives have gotten quite a bit easier, so this exercise is now a luxury with perfectly symmetrical weights and nice handle grips. Farmers walks will challenge your whole body, and give you a handshake your colleagues will be envious of.

Callisthenic Exercises

Push ups have been a staple in fitness programming since Leonidas led the Spartans. Push ups challenge your entire body, and require a strong core to prevent the hips from sagging or butt from raising. Keep your body in a straight line at all times, and have your elbows at 45° from your body.

Pull ups are important functionally and for strength. They help you utilize your scapula and force proper posture. Use strict form, not momentum, and use assistance if you need it.

Most of us haven’t crawled since infancy. The bear crawl will challenge your shoulders, arms, and core more than you could have ever imagined. This is an important exercise for coordination, motor pattern function, and stability.

Hip bridges are the callisthenic version of the deadlift. Great for the posterior chain, and may even boost your bedroom performance.

Squats are an essential human movement pattern, so we incorporate them with body weight to lessen the stress on the spine and still get that great muscular activity in the legs.

I am a big proponent of lateral strength. These movements are often neglected, leaving us vulnerable to injury in everyday activities. Lateral lunges will strengthen the muscles, ligaments, and tendons of the knees and help bulletproof your lower body.

The hollow hold is used as the basis for all of gymnastics core strength for a reason: it works! Lay flat on your back with your arms stretched out behind you. Next, suction-cup your lower back to the floor, lift your feet six inches off the ground, and lift your arms up until your shoulder blades are off the floor. Now hold until your body shakes and your core strength gives out.

Sprints, Cardio, and Mobility

Sprints utilize a great amount of muscular explosiveness, and are your best bet for improving your VO2 max, which measures how well your heart utilizes oxygen. Sprints can be done anywhere from grassy parks to beaches, or on any road.

I am a firm believer that every human being is capable of running at least two miles continuously. With that said, a 2-4 mile run is all you need to maintain a base level of cardio conditioning, and this low mileage is easy on the joints. Running is free, always accessible, and a natural human movement.

The mobility routine combines all of the best yoga-based mobility exercises to loosen up your body after your cardio session.

A Simple Plan for Well-Rounded Fitness

There you have it. A simple, effective, and well-rounded program that will fit within your lifestyle. Is this program going to give you perfect health? Of course not. You still need to eat right, move more throughout the entire day, take time to destress, and spend quality time with loved ones.

However, this program will lay the foundation for you to be strong, mobile, and conditioned. This program will elicit maximal results while being easy on your body and your time. There is no excuse, get out there and get after it!

Crunched for time? You don’t even have to leave the house:

Simple Does Not Mean Ineffective

The post The Workout Plan for Everyday People appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Tempo training is common for upper body and core movements, but is often neglected for lower body exercises. Why should you use tempo training for your legs? It all starts with the hips. The perfect squat is about as rare as the perfect running stride. About 90% of the time, any athlete who comes to me for training has dysfunctional hips. Damn you, chairs!

Think about how many hours per day you sit in a chair. For the average American, it’s about 13 hours.¹Sitting creates a myriad of problems from our ankles to our necks, but it devastates our hips and lower backs.

It shortens your hip flexors and hamstrings, which throws your hip function out of whack. There are so many moving pieces, from the piriformis to the iliopsoas group, that need to fire correctly in order to squat well.

If even one of these muscles is tight, not firing, or atrophied, all of the rest of the muscles involved in the hip will be affected by overcompensating and taking on additional stress. That creates a snowball effect, which can spiral out of control if not properly addressed.

The Tempo Training Solution

The solution to hip dysfunction is not to rush through exercises and add in explosive movements. We must take an approach that will correct the muscular imbalances and teach these muscles to fire correctly once more.

We can use tempo leg training to fix these imbalances while continuing to build your muscular endurance and stability. For those unfamiliar with this style of training, you are simply performing longer, more controlled repetitions of any given exercise.

A lift has three main phases:

1. Eccentric – the lengthening or loading phase
2. Isometric – the static or holding phase
3. Concentric – contraction or shortening phase

Each phase of the lift can be manipulated, or we can program a tempo for all three phases. The tempos of these repetitions can vary depending on the goal. Some examples of time under tension tempos may look like this:

• 5:5:5 – In this example, we are taking five seconds in each of the above phases to draw out the movement and increase our muscular endurance.
• 5:3:1 – This tempo slows down the eccentric portion of the lift to create a demanding load phase, but emphasizes an explosion out of the isometric phase to create a quick concentric lift.
• 1:5:1 – Here we focus on the isometric phase and really contract the muscles during the hold at the bottom of the lift to create stability.

Tempo Training Exposes Malfunction

Even if you are one of the very few who don’t suffer from muscular imbalances and dysfunctions, tempo training can still be useful for you.

Tempos allow you to feel exactly where your technique falters in lower body movements. There is no such thing as too good when it comes to technique, especially if you want to stay injury-free.

The easiest way to accomplish all these tasks is with extremely long time-under tension repetitions. This tempo is going to be very slow and challenging, so leave your ego at the door.

For each movement, start with only bodyweight. That means only your body, no bar, no weights, nothing additional. You can always add weight after you feel comfortable with just your body.

These movements will address all of your sticking points and help you pinpoint exactly which muscles are imbalanced and where in the movement your dysfunctions are limiting you.

Having trouble getting out of the hole? You will be able to feel even the slightest lifting of your butt and arching of your back when coming out of the bottom of the squat. Is your ankle dorsiflexion a problem?

With this technique you will feel exactly where and when your mobility begins limits you within a lower body lift. Is there a certain depth where your knee collapses inward during the lunge? You get the point.

Incorporate long tempo repetitions to get rid of your muscular imbalances. [Photo credit: J Perez Imagery]

Tempo Training Corrects Your Malfunction

There are three major lifts that I use to correct all of these lower body malfunctions:

• The squat
• The reverse lunge
• The deadlift

For each movement, take 20 seconds to perform the eccentric phase, pause for 20 seconds to hold and contract your muscles during the isometric phase, and take 20 seconds to slowly ascend during the concentric phase.

These are extremely long repetitions lasting a minute each. You want to start with long tempo repetitions to really slow down the movement and feel exactly when and where you have problems.

When you perform these long reps, you should pace each phase evenly. For example, in the squat, in the eccentric phase your legs should be about parallel after 10 seconds; the other 10 seconds are used to slowly get into the full-depth squat.

During the isometric phase, you should be in a full squat, holding and constantly forcefully contracting your quads, glutes, and various hip muscles.

The concentric phase should be the eccentric in reverse. At the 10-second point you should be close to parallel, and the final 10 seconds of your ascent will lead you to the standing position.

Even with the deadlift, you will perform the movement with no weight and very slowly at first. The purpose of these exercises is to focus on your technique, so you should still pretend you’re holding a bar.

Don’t let your arms flop all over the place. Your muscles should be engaged throughout this entire slow movement. In the deadlift, you will still have proper form with your shoulders slightly back, neutral spine, and ankles in a slight dorsiflexion.

During each movement, you want to fine-tune your body awareness. Close your eyes. Feel where your discomfort and tightness are. Feel which muscles get fatigued quickly during contraction. Feel where your weight is distributed and if one side is taking on too much of the load.

Feel free to switch up the variations of these movements. If you’re an Olympic lifter, start out in the overhead squat. If you are a frequent CrossFit competitor, you may want to use the front squat.

Maybe you prefer the trap bar deadlift. Same thing, have your arms as you normally would by your sides, instead of in front of you. Just remember to always start with your bodyweight.

All athletes should practice maximum squat depth and a full range of motion in each movement to utilize their full mobility. Not accustomed to a full-depth squat?

Hold on to a support at first while performing the movement until you get your bearings and mobility squared away.

Put It to Use

This is a great training method to create additional stress on the lower body muscles which can often be neglected. With these long repetitions, you will certainly overload the muscle past its current capacity. Mix this technique with explosive movements to maximize your lower body training.

These techniques will benefit every athlete. Given the hip health of the average American, they are techniques that everyone needs. Incorporate long tempo repetitions to get rid of your muscular imbalances, dysfunctions, and to hone your technique.

More on form and function:

How to Fix a Good-Morning Style Squat

Coaches, help you athletes move better:

The 4 Phases of a Solid Strength Program

Reference:

1. Ergotron. “New Survey: To Sit or Stand? Almost 70% of Full Time American Workers Hate Sitting, but They Do It All Day Every Day.” New Survey: To Sit or Stand? Almost 70% of Full Time American Workers Hate Sitting, but They Do It. Ergotron, 17 July 2013. Web. 04 Oct. 2016.

The post Rebuild Your Hip Function with Tempo Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

With the emergence of YouTube and celebrity athletes on Instagram, there might be more misconceptions now than ever before about athletic training.

High school or even collegiate athletes may see celebrities like Terron Beckham (an NFL prospect and former bodybuilder), performing supersets of deadlifts followed by backflips, and think this is the ideal way to train. I can’t blame them. If I was 18 and saw a guy who is built like Terron Beckham, I would probably think this is the best way to train also.

But these celebrity athletes are successful in spite of their dangerous training, not because of it. 

When it comes down to it, athletic training is fairly simple. For maximum effectiveness and on-field success, every athlete should have the following staples in their training program:

1. Posterior chain strength work
2. Sport-specific training
3. A proper hip and spine mobility program

The Root of All Power

The posterior chain is a group of muscles on the backside of the body, and includes the glutes, hamstrings, and erector spinae. There is no sport on the planet that does not rely heavily on these muscles or the posterior chain as a whole. Have you ever seen a world-class football player with a small butt and hamstrings? I didn’t think so. Look at Serena Williams; her posterior chain is a marvel to every fitness professional.

The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body. A strong gluteus maximus works together with your hamstrings to generate a huge amount of force and explosiveness. Your erector spinae safeguard your spine, and provide an enormous amount of stabilization to the core. If these muscles are not strengthened and conditioned, you will be guaranteed to perform sub-optimally in your sport.

A strong posterior chain will allow you to be quicker and stronger off the line after a snap in football. It will help increase your vertical jump, as well as your change of direction strength and speed in basketball. It can control and charge forward a scrum in rugby. During your golf swing, it will greatly increase the control of your weight distribution during your backswing, and allow you to explode forward with power when following through. In short, a strong posterior chain is essential for power, explosiveness, support, and control in every sport. 

So how do we develop one? The most effective exercises to develop a strong and conditioned posterior chain include:

• Deadlifts
• Kettlebell swings
• Prowler or sled pushes
• Barbell glute bridges
• Barbell hip thrusts
• Bulgarian split squats
• Straight-leg deadlifts

If you want to excel in any sport from tennis to football to bobsled racing, it is time to make posterior chain training a staple in your athletic programming.

Get Specific

Sport-specific training includes exercises that mimic the exact demands of your sport. We will take the most popular sport in America for an in-depth example of sport-specific training: football. The actions required in the sport of football vary by position; however, there are some common threads.

The first is the reaction time from the snap of the ball. We can improve this with reactionary drills. A basic example of a reactionary drill would a coach blowing a whistle to command a change in position, from a player being on their feet, to going into a burpee. The player must react as quickly as possible to the whistle.

An advanced example of a reactionary timing drill would be a player running 5 yards away from a coach, then right before the player turns around, the coach would throw a tennis ball on either side of the player. The player would then have to immediately react to catching the ball upon turning around at the 5-yard mark. The player wouldn’t know where the ball is being thrown, hence their reaction would have to be very quick upon turning around.

The next action required in football is an explosion off the line. This movement requires the posterior chain strength and speed that we talked about before. The exercises listed above will provide strength and conditioning for the posterior chain in the weight room. To practice explosiveness on the field, players can use short burst sprints.

My personal favorite training exercise for explosiveness is sand sprints. Sand sprints deliver the perfect environment for maximizing explosiveness. They require players to be powerful enough to drive through layers of sand to get a solid footing for a big push off. They then require players to have a quick stride or cadence to not get stuck in the sand. This combination produces a strong and quick athlete.

In football, after this explosiveness comes a short sprint which requires multiple changes in direction, whether you are a defensive end or a wide receiver. These short sprints are accompanied with pushing and jostling for position. This should be practiced by mimicking gameplay scenarios. Players should go head to head on the line and rehearse plays.

Athletes may also incorporate pushing and pulling exercises for said jostling of position. These exercises should require full body stabilization to be as sport-specific as possible. In football, you are pushing and pulling while standing and moving, so contrary to popular belief, doing seated rows or bench presses won’t be the best exercises to replicate the demands of the game. Instead, the exercises should be complex, compound movements requiring full body stabilization, rather than exercises that are mostly for isolation of a body part or a competition-specific lift. For pushing, this would mean performing plyometric pushups or medicine ball chest passes. For pulling, it would mean standing bent over rows or landmine rows to elicit as much full-body stabilization as possible.

Sport specific training may seem obvious, but it should be. If you want to get good at your sport, you have to practice every facet of it over and over again. The message I want to drive home: ditch all of the fancy accessory work and drill for your sport. 

Pick apart every action required in your sport and drill those actions over and over, in pieces and as a whole. Was it annoying to have to run the same route 1000 times in practice through the course of a season? Maybe, but it worked, and it is the most effective way to get good at that route.

When picking strength and conditioning exercises, pick those that are most closely related to the demands of the sport, and don’t get caught up in fads.

Get Your Spine and Hips Mobile

I know this gets beat to death, but it is absolutely crucial! If your hips and spine do not have proper function, your body and performance will suffer immensely. Your hips are central to every single movement in the body, and your spine is your lifeline. Treat them with the respect they deserve. Sitting destroys our posture, so we have to compensate for this and build back our hip and spine function with a specialized program.

Flows have become increasingly popular to deal with this issue, and are quite effective. You can find video tutorials for these all over the internet, including Chris Holder’s Cal Poly Hip Flow.

When picking a flow to strengthen the hips, I would focus on one that emphasizes lateral (side to side) movements. Almost all of our exercise movements are done in a linear plane or from front to back. Lateral movements are highly neglected, and are important for any athlete. They strengthen the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and tissue around your lower extremity joints and spine that are often overlooked. This is a main reason I prefer qigong to yoga, since many qigong exercises are done in a lateral plane, and most yoga poses are done in a linear plane.

Lateral lunges with variations of torso stretching should be included in the flow. You can stretch the torso away from the dominant leg in an arching fashion to mobilize and strengthen the iliopsoas muscles, or towards the dominant leg to require further stabilization of the hip joint, knee, and adductors. Cossack squats are another favorite lateral movement and are quite effective.

Finally, deep squatting should be included in any flow program to achieve proper hip and spine mobility. Try variations of the deep squat with internal rotations of one leg, external rotations of one leg, side twists of the torso, and vertical arm reaches. You can even practice holding an overhead deep squat with a broomstick or pole for an intense thoracic mobility and strengthening exercise.

No matter what you include in a flow, the main priority should be ingraining proper hip and spine mobility. In the Western world, our hip and spine health is so poor that this really does need to become a staple in athletic training for safety and proper biomechanics.

Train Simply for Athletic Excellence

There you have it. No splits, no front flips into pistol squats, no BOSU ball snatches. Just simple and effective training protocols that elicit maximal performance. Keep the programming simple, have every exercise geared towards a specific goal, use the three pillars above, and you will excel at any sport.

Before you can develop the body, you must hone the mind:

3 Guiding Principles for Every Athlete

The post The 3 Indispensible Elements of Athletic Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Shoes so cheap they could be a stocking stuffer? With a price tag of $19.99, that could be a possibility with FITKICKS. FITKICKS are a minimalist shoe with a zero-drop rubber sole and a polyester shell that fits like a sock around the rest of your foot. These shoes are so comfortable it feels like you aren’t wearing any shoes at all. They can be worn by anyone, whether you’re an active runner or someone who just wants a comfortable shoe to wear to the mall. They are stylish, comfortable, and can even help correct your running form.

Before I get into the details, a brief disclaimer: When buying minimalist shoes for the first time, you should be aware of the transition period required to get used to them. Minimalist shoes have very little cushion and support. If you have been wearing regular, heavily-padded shoes for years, then you will need a fair amount of time to get used to such a bare bones shoe.

If you don’t gradually ease into the use of these shoes, you could leave yourself vulnerable to injuries, blisters, and soreness. The foot and ankle muscles often need time to build back up their strength after years of being surrounded in cushion. Proceed with caution when transitioning to minimalist shoes. The phrase slow and steady applies here.

A Minimalist Shoe for Every Occasion

I found FITKICKS when searching for a new minimalist running shoe about two years ago. I was hesitant to buy a running shoe online, but for $19.99 I figured what the heck, why not give it a try?

These are zero-drop shoes, meaning there is no incline from the toes to the heel; they are simply flat. The sole of this shoe is very minimal. I am talking about a little over a quarter of an inch in total cushioning. You can feel almost every detail of the ground beneath your foot. At the same time, they adequately protect the feet from any sharp objects, as I have run over small shards of glass and sharp rocks on trails without any consequence.

These shoes are amazingly comfortable and truly feel like soft socks. With the stretch of the polyester shell, they don’t feel tight, even though they conform to the foot. I wear them just about everywhere, from running trails to weight training sessions to obligatory shopping trips with my girlfriend.

When it comes to running, FITKICKS more than hold up. My first pair lasted approximately 900 miles of running and countless more miles of walking. Contrast this to the average shoe which lasts 300-500 miles. My current pair, which are shown below, currently have about 300 miles on them, and still look brand new with the soles barely worn. I have run a PR half-marathon in these shoes, beating my past best by about 2 minutes.

The durability of these shoes is hard to beat.

One caveat is that these shoes will show the weaknesses and flaws in your running form. You absolutely can’t heel-strike in these shoes. If you land predominantly on one side of your foot or bear too much weight on a certain part of your foot, you will feel it. Because there is not much cushion, these shoes make the exteroceptors on the soles of your feet hyper-aware. All the muscles in your feet, which are often neglected, will be challenged while wearing FITKICKS.

FITKICKS are a great natural coaching tool for running. These shoes will force you to run lighter and quicken your cadence. I had one client use them, and he ripped a hole in the top polyester layer above the big toe after only 150 miles. However, it helped correct his form. FITKICKS made him realize that he was plantar flexing way too much in the landing phase of each stride, and that he was running on his toes rather than the ball of his foot.

They are stylish as well. I have heard great reviews from many female clients and friends who enjoy them for their design. I often hear that they are like a more minimalist, comfortable version of TOMS.

With the design, comfort, price, and form-correcting benefits of FITKICKS, these shoes are a no-brainer for the runner who prefers a minimalist shoe, or the style-savvy individual. After two years of wearing these shoes just about every single day and running in them 4-5 times a week, I can tell you their quality far exceeds their small price tag.

Looking for something not quite that minimal?

A Racing Flat With an Appetite for Dirt

The post A Minimalist Running Shoe for Under $20 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

And here I am.

Sitting on a bench above a floor that is sticky with remnants of various soft drinks and candy cemented deeply into the tile grout lines. The air conditioning is no doubt five degrees too brisk for any warm-blooded soul as goosebumps creep across my skin. This barren wasteland is a shadow of its former glory. Yet, even on a Wednesday at 4:15 pm, dozens of bodies still wander through this domicile of shopkeepers.

I close my eyes hesitantly. I count to one hundred to make sure anyone who was in my peripheral vision beforehand, is now but a former figure, far beyond sight. I open my eyes with suspense. Who will this adventure capture?

Garrett, Meet John

There I see John, aligned directly in front of me as if fate meant for our paths to cross. John is a taller gentleman, an inch or two above six feet. Unfortunately, what he has in height, he has more of in mass. His waist pushes the belt on his Dockers to the limit of its tensile strength.

Despite his dreadfully slumping shoulders and forward neck posture, I can immediately tell John is a powerful man in our society. The Omega stainless steel watch on his left wrist is a telling sign of an illustrious career with many successful accomplishments. His Allen Edmond wingtips match the same rustic tone of his belt. John’s deep blue eyes show intent, focused on a mission that he surely will not fail. The fluorescent light from the towering, two-story mall ceiling almost bounces off John’s pale skin. His arms swing violently with his quick stride, even if his legs lag behind. John’s chestnut-colored hair does not create any drag, as it is neatly combed, affixed to his side-part, and well-trimmed.

Just before our paths are about to cross and before John can become a distant memory of my mall reconnaissance, a quarter falls from my hand and rolls into his right foot. And so our relationship begins.

John’s knows his health isn’t what it should be, but he doesn’t know what to do about it. [Photo credit: CGP Grey | CC BY 2.0]

The Trouble with John

John is a part of the corporate world. I sympathize, as I once worked in this environment and know the daily demands office workers face. We begin talking and I realize just how many things John has going on in his life. John is part of the senior management team of a prominent logistics firm. Aside from the 60 hours per week he spends at his stressful job, he belongs to a separate board of directors and a family of five.

?

I am John:

• I am John’s under-utilized musculoskeletal system: A powerhouse of a frame with broad shoulders lying beneath a layer of hefty lipids.
• I am John’s creaking knees: My cartilage is being ground down from the weight of each step and an improper gait.
• I am John’s shrinking subacromial space: A result from years of bad desk posture slowly pinching me between John’s acromiom and rotator cuff.
• I am John’s adrenal gland: Constantly producing copious amounts of cortisol, which negatively affects my friend, John’s endocrine system, and decreases the amount of stem cells in John’s brain.¹
• I am John’s vitamin D deficiency: I have been correlated with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Diseases, depression, and lower testosterone levels. I am in utter shock that I exist, since John lives in Florida.^2, 3

To put it lightly, John knows his health is not optimal. He knows he should do more about it, but he has been caught up in the chaos of life and has let health’s importance slide by the wayside. We sometimes forget how crazy our lives truly are. We have more responsibilities now than ever before, from our demanding jobs, to family and social obligations, to household chores, to the countless errands that always need running.

It is no wonder why Americans fall into the trap of fast food and a sedentary lifestyle. Our everyday lives are truly exhausting.

John explained to me the many exercise programs he has tried before, and how each of them failed because they went against his lifestyle. These programs were trying to block off strict, one hour timeframes, which don’t work for John’s work or home schedule. Those programs never became personal. They didn’t take the time to dissect John’s life and find ways to work with him. Instead, they were trying to mold John to fit their program.

This is not the recipe for success I envision working for John. Luckily for him, I am an experienced corporate health consultant who is used to working with busy and successful people like him.

I am Garrett:

• I am John’s new performance and health coach.
• I am Garrett’s will to produce a transformation: I will make sure that John begins to view his body as the most vital asset he owns.
• I am Garrett’s cerebrum: Thoughtfully constructing a comprehensive approach to health which will excite John into action.
• I am Garrett’s beating heart: I will care deeply about John’s success, as if we were connected by the blood that courses through my valves.
• I am Garrett’s commitment to excellence: I will ensure that John receives a well-rounded program that encompasses his psychology, lifestyle, habits, nutrition, and fitness, and includes top notch instruction and implementation.

John’s Challenges Meet Garrett’s Solutions

To be successful with John, I need to make his schedule a priority and treat his time as scarce, since in the business world, time is money. I need to create solutions which let him multitask and give him the flexibility to perform these actions throughout the day. I need to create habits with John, not a strict diet or workout program that he ultimately will not enforce. I will integrate these changes into the four most prominent sectors of John’s life: his psychology, lifestyle, nutrition, and fitness.

I am John’s psychology.

While driven, I sometimes lose sight of the other important factors of my life. I am overburdened by the immense amount of information I must process. I sometimes let the stress of my job overwhelm me and make me a negative person. This negativity can spread into my marriage, which creates small rifts causing more stress. I worry more about short-term tradeoffs with my time, than long-term health outcomes.

I am Garrett’s solution.

With a life this stressful and non-stop, John must have a positive outlook. A positive mindset will reduce his stress and keep his family life running smoothly. To incorporate a more positive mindset, John will simply replace his negative thoughts with positive ones. Whenever John has any negative thought throughout the day, he will immediately think of two positive aspects about his day or the changes he is making. This could be as simple as, “It really is nice outside today,” or “I’m glad I took that ten minute walk this morning.” These positive thoughts will actually rewire the synapses in John’s brain to fire positive thoughts more often, and eventually John will become a more positive person instinctively.⁴ John is beginning to realize the real, tangible losses associated with poor health: healthcare bills, years of life lost, etc. He will begin investing in himself with small, healthy habit changes throughout the day, instead of creating short-term tradeoffs which prioritize mindless entertainment, laziness at home, or extra office work.

I am John’s lifestyle.

I am constantly crammed and revolve solely around work. Stress is a staple of my existence. My sleep is deprived. Sedentary has been used on more than one occasion to describe me. I miss the warmth of the sun and the sound of nature. My mornings are chaotic and my nightly routine involves watching TV, followed immediately with bedtime. I am not an optimal reflection of John.

I am Garrett’s solution.

John will create a well-rounded morning and nightly routine with 3-5 short activities he enjoys. These will encourage good mental, emotional, and physical health. He will stick to this routine every workday. To better deal with the immense stress, John will perform three-minute blocks of diaphragmatic breathing and meditation whenever he feels overwhelmed throughout the day.

John will set aside a seven-hour window in which he will go to bed every night with no exceptions. This sleep will enhance his productivity and make sure sleep deprivation never gets in the way of his goals. John will actively work on maintaining a healthy posture no matter what position he is in throughout the day. He will take more breaks outside during the work day and he will get outside during the weekend to get a change of scenery from his office and home environment. This will make sure he is integrating a more natural, sun-filled lifestyle.

I am John’s nutrition.

I am poor in quality and overindulgent in quantity. Over the years, I have been degraded to mostly contain quick solutions that are convenient, no matter what they may contain. Fast food is a regular item within my regime, and one that is consumed most nights of the week during the drive home at 7pm. I do not give John the fuel necessary to optimally perform. Most days, I am hydrated more with soda than with water.

I am Garrett’s solution.

Strict diets will not work with John’s frantic schedule, and neither will counting macros or calories. John needs to pick up nutritional habits which will be easy to implement, no matter the time crunch. I have picked John’s brain and come up with three easy go-to snack foods that John will carry at the office and in his brief case, making sure he always has healthy options on hand. These snacks are a trail mix containing a variety of nuts and dried fruit, grapes, and carrots. These snacks will keep John satisfied throughout his hectic days instead of eating nothing for several hours and binging on fast food once he goes into starvation mode.

I will encourage John to have family dinners and get involved in the kitchen with his family. John will infuse water with herbs, fruits, and vegetables to create a better hydration experience. He will carry this water wherever he goes and it will be the only drink he has throughout the day besides his morning tea. John will balance of all his meals with an equal amount of protein, produce, and non-produce carbohydrates to incorporate a healthy, balanced diet. He will focus on whole foods and the quality of those foods, rather than the size of his plate.

I am John’s Fitness.

I am quite literally non-existent; John is confined to a chair, couch, or a bed for almost every hour of the day. Programs have not changed me in the past, because I do not have any particular performance goals, nor is this a part of my life that is of concern. I do not enjoy exercise, thus I do not value this as a priority.

I am Garrett’s solution.

I know John does not enjoy working out, he is not a physical person, and he does not have any particular goal other than to lose weight. I am going to incorporate the habit of constant movement throughout the day. John does not want a workout program and he won’t utilize even the most meticulously programmed routine, so I have to think outside the box. I will implement the following habits to create more movement throughout John’s work day:

• Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
• Getting a standing desk in his office
• Taking small breaks outside to walk around during brainstorming sessions
• Changing out two meetings per week to be walking meetings
• Incorporating a Pomodoro app to make John take necessary breaks to move around every half hour.

I will encourage John to get active with family and friends during the weekend to help relieve his stress and live a balanced life. He will focus on small, continuous amounts of movement throughout the day, not a workout regime.

And now we go to work, implementing the habits laid out above and utilizing creative solutions to ensure John’s success while working with his life.

Make time for your health:

Train at Home on a Time Crunch

References:

1. Bergland, Christopher12. “Chronic Stress Can Damage Brain Structure and Connectivity.” Psychology Today. Psychologytoday.com, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

2. Miller, Joshua W., Ph.D, Danielle J. Harvey, Ph.D, Laurel A. Beckett, Ph.D, Ralph Green, MD, Sarah Tomaszewski Farias, Ph.D, Bruce R. Reed, Ph.D, John M. Olichney, MD, Dan M. Mungas, Ph.D, and Charles DeCarli, MD. “Vitamin D Status and Rates of Cognitive Decline in a Multiethnic Cohort of Older Adults.” JAMA Neurology 72.11 (2015): 1295-1303. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2015.2115. Web. 07 Sept. 2016.

3. Kerr, David C.R., David T. Zara, Walter T. Piper, Sarina R. Saturn, Balz Frei, and Adrain F. Gombart. “Associations between Vitamin D Levels and Depressive Symptoms in Healthy Young Adult Women.” Psychiatry Research 227.1 (30 May 2015): 46-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.02.016. Web. 07 Sept. 2016.

4. Stillman, Jessica. “Complaining Is Terrible for You, According to Science.” Inc.com. N.p., 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Sept. 2016.

The post I Am John’s Lifestyle Change appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Everybody tells you their diet is correct, and every other diet is wrong or sub-optimal. Sometimes we become cult-like victims to diets even if they are not optimal for us and we do not enjoy the food. We continue to suffer because we are convinced this is the diet to help us reach our goals.

Despite its importance, nutrition has become increasingly confusing. Why has it become so difficult? We have too many damn diets constantly thrown at us; paleo, gluten-free, high carb, ketogenic, vegetarian, diary-free, the list goes on and on.

Everybody tells you their diet is correct, and every other diet is wrong or sub-optimal. Sometimes we become cult-like victims to diets even if they are not optimal for us and we do not enjoy the food. We continue to suffer because we are convinced this is the diet to help us reach our goals.

But there will never be a blanket diet that will work for everyone because every single person, is different

We have different genetics, lives, taste buds, amount of digestive enzymes, goals, you name it. When it comes to your food journey, I can’t tell you exactly what you should eat. No one can, except for you.

Take Charge of Your Food

The good news is you don’t have to subscribe to one tribe. Create your own! Be explorative and take charge of your adventure through food. Here are some guiding principles to help along the way:

• A common thread among all of the heathiest diets is that they all stick to whole foods as much as possible: meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, eggs, and fish.
• Eat a wide variety of produce. Focus on what is in season to help your budget go further, and the dirty dozen and clean fifteen list to learn which foods should be bought organically and which are fine conventionally.
• Incorporate many different herbs and spices. Buying one new spice and herb per week will only run you about $4. If you do this for several weeks you will soon have a spice cabinet and herb selection that will rival world-renowned chefs.
• Healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and grass-fed butter all have unique tastes and compliment meals differently. Pair different cooking fats with different meals to really enhance your taste buds.
• Explore different cuts of meat. Often we go with usual staples such as chicken breast or lean cuts of steak, which have the least fat and flavor. Try alternatives like thighs, loins, ribeyes, shoulders, maybe even organ meats.
• Create fruit, herb, and vegetable infused waters to enhance your hydration experience and make sipping water more enjoyable.

Be Creative and Do Your Research

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your macros. I have athletes who do amazing with meat. Others have better success with legumes for protein. Some do very well on high amounts of carbs. Others love a ketogenic approach, while some react badly to it.

You have to find what works best for your body. To pretend that there is a strict macro ratio, or universally better sources that everyone should stick to is preposterous.

Lastly, do your own research. We live in this beautiful internet age where you can find recipes everywhere online that fit your preferences.

Plan your grocery trips around the recipes you would like to make that week. Create your own tribe, focus on eating a wide variety of whole foods, and make it fun!

[Headline photo credit: Pixabay]

More on exploring nutrition that will work for you:

Starving on a Full Stomach

The post Create Your Own Nutrition Tribe appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It is easy to get caught up in trendy accessory work or fancy exercises and tools, although time and again we are reminded that Mr. Miyagi was right: the most basic ways of training are almost always the most effective. Want to bicycle kick a goal in a soccer game? Practice the bicycle kick every practice. Want to deadlift 500 lbs.? You’re going to have to deadlift consistently. The same applies with calisthenic or bodyweight skills.

In this article I am going to outline a simple progression to help you master any calisthenic movement using a technique that is not so secret: motor patterns.

You’ll never be able to do a human flagpole unless you practice the human flagpole.

Drill the Pattern

Creating a motor pattern is ingraining a movement into your central nervous system by doing it over and over again. The best way to do muscle ups, planches, and handstands is by doing them over and over again until they are permanently embedded in your central nervous system. The key to this technique is to always practice the full movement or position. I consistently see more advanced bodyweight movements being broken down, with athletes isolating certain parts of the movement. This neglects the motor pattern and is not the best way to condition the muscles for the movement. Now I know what you’re thinking, “but I can’t even do one muscle up, so how am I going to get better at them?” The answer is by performing these exact movements, but with various levels of assistance.

Instead of breaking down the movements into steps, perform the full motion of the exercise in this order of assistance: a plyometric box, assistance bands, and a partner. The plyometric box will support almost all of your weight in the beginning (the only move that will differ is the handstand where a wall will be used). A plyometric box can also be used to shorten the lever arm if needed. For example, putting the box under your thighs in the planche or under the hips in the human flag instead of at the end of the lever, which would be at the end of the feet. Over time put less of your weight on the box or wall, and use more of your strength to perform the exercise.

Once the movement with the plyometric box becomes comfortable, use various levels of assistance bands before moving on to working with a partner. Your partner can critique form and give you a little momentum boost or a tiny bit of extra support. For example, in the human flag your partner should be all the way at the end of your feet, just barely supporting them with a couple of fingers. Your partner can also help increase your muscular endurance. Start holding the human flag by yourself, then have your partner give you two fingers or support after five seconds, four fingers of support after ten seconds, and support a good portion of the load after fifteen seconds. For handstands, use a partner to form two columns on either side of your feet with their hands. When your feet begin drifting forward or backward too much, your partner will give your feet a small push back to the center.

Mastering the Muscle Up

This technique is simple and effective. When I first started getting into advanced calisthenics I could not perform a single muscle up. I could do nineteen strict dead hang chest-to-bar pull ups, but I couldn’t get past the transition of the muscle up. I had the strength and conditioning, but the movement felt foreign. I tried tons of different progressions, breaking down the movement, isolating certain parts, but still, nothing. Then one day it clicked, why not just do the full movement? Once I started using assistance progressions to establish the motor pattern of the movement, I finally became comfortable with the full movement and the muscle up came easy. I did my first muscle up in less than two training sessions. The next week I could do three repetitions without any assistance, the week after that five, and so on.

Since that day I have used assistance progressions to motor pattern almost every advanced calisthenic movement. I have seen clients who were stuck on certain movements for months, have a breakthrough in just one or two sessions using this simple training technique.

Here is the full list of motor pattern assistance progressions for the muscle up:

1. Start out standing with two feet on a plyometric box in the height of the dip position.
2. Next, squat down while performing the muscle up but keep all of the weight on the box, rather than using your upper body strength. Do this over and over. This is the best way to get used to the false grip, the transition, and the overall feel of the movement.
3. Over time, put less of your weight on your feet and use more of your upper body strength to perform the movement. Once you can perform five reps using two feet, use only one foot to hold your bodyweight. Then use only the tiptoes on one foot.
4. Next, use an assistance band under your knees. Start with a band that gives you 50lbs of assistance, then use a band with 30lbs of assistance, and a band with 15lb of assistance.
5. Finally, have a friend push up the bottom of your feet for a little momentum.

Work on the on the full movement every single time to master the motor pattern, then make the assistance less and less as you become stronger in the movement.

Master the Basics

Training new and advanced movements with this technique will make progressions and programming seamless. There is no need for accessory work or complicated isolations. You will progress by building muscular endurance in each assistance. For static hold movements such as the planche, human flag, or levers, lighten the assistance when you can perform a static hold for 30 seconds at the current progression. For repetition movements such as the muscle up, handstand push up, or one arm pull up, build up to 5 repetitions at each assistance level before progressing. If you can’t perform the movement with full assistance, then you most likely have a mobility impairment that would need to be addressed before training.

Always perform the full movement to pound that motor pattern into your central nervous system. Get out there, be creative, find new environments, have fun, and soon you will be swooning people with your calisthenic skills.

Protect your body from the aches and pains of bodyweight training:

Prep Your Joints for Muscle Ups

The post Motor Pattern Training for Advanced Calisthenics appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Corporate culture in America and the Western world often falls victim to the false theory that constantly grinding through work leads to better results. This is almost never the case. Just as the human species is not meant to sprint or lift weights for eight hours straight every day, we also are not meant to grind through our work mentally for hours on end.

As a former office worker and corporate health consultant, I have put together a list of practices I commonly advise both workers and companies to implement to create more balanced, productive, and happy workers.

Get a Standing Desk

A standing desk is necessary if you’re going to have a long-term career in an office. Chairs are orthopedic death-monsters waiting to cripple you and bask in your misery. A standing desk will increase blood flow throughout the body, help you avoid joint pain, lengthen the tendons and ligaments that are constantly flexed while sitting, and will create a psychological sense of freedom. With adjustable standing desks, you can choose to sit or stand at any time, and many find this makes sitting more comfortable when they can constantly transition from sitting to standing and vice versa while working.

It is usually easy to request a standing desk from HR, especially if you induce a health-related lecture. For corporations, it is more important now than ever to invest in employees as workers are increasingly job-hopping. If you can make a case that a standing desk will help your productivity, there is no reason for your company to say no.

If You Sit, Be Nice to Your Joints

If a standing desk is not a possibility, here are ways to make sitting easier on your body.

Sit with a nice, tall posture, with your shoulders rolled back and down. Your chest should be pushed slightly outward and your feet should be flat on the floor. Your neck will be in line with the rest of your spine, not leaned forward. Your feet, legs, knees, and hips should all form 90-degree angles. Perfect posture will protect your joints as best as possible, condition your muscles while you sit, and ingrain good postural habits that benefit you outside of the office.

Keep your muscles engaged while you sit. You can do this with mini bands. Mini bands come in packs of 3 or 4 for about $10. They come in different elasticities, making them easier or harder to stretch. Take a mini band, slip both of your legs through it, and wrap it around your ankles or upper thighs. While sitting, move your feet and legs apart, hold the position with the band stretched. Pick an elasticity that you will be able to hold stretched open for about a minute. While holding this position you will be activating your abductors, your gluteal muscles, your core, hamstrings, multifidi, and erector spinae just to name a few. If you get tired, simply close your legs for a few minutes and rest. Do this off and on throughout the day for muscle activation. You can also put the mini band around your thighs, just above your knees, and do small marching knee steps until fatigue.

Without the bands, you can do calf raises on the balls of our feet every now and then to engage your ankles, toes, and calves. Regularly perform crucifix stretches to get the upper back, shoulders, and neck out of keyboard posture. Roll your wrists and wiggle your fingers around to keep from getting stiff hands. No matter what you do, always strive for some minimal movement while sitting.

Working in a cubicle doesn’t have to be a death sentence for your health. [Photo credit: Pixabay]

Go Outside

Every hour or two, take a 5-minute break to go outside to breathe fresh air, see actual sunlight, and get out of the office atmosphere. Most Americans are vitamin D deficient, which affects our mood and cognitive health. A few breaks throughout the day can easily add up to a half hour of sunlight per day, even while working. Sunlight will give you a mid-day boost and help your productivity come back to life. If other employees can take smoke breaks, you should be able to take nature breaks.

Find a Tranquil Spot to Relax

If you can, find a nice getaway spot in your office building. At my first job, I knew the gym was typically empty from 9:00 to 11:00 and from 3:00 to 4:30, so I would go in there and just lay on a mat and close my eyes for five minutes to unwind or meditate. At my last job I would go to the top of a stairwell no one used and I would stretch or just close my eyes for a minute. Your little getaway can be anywhere from a grassy median in the parking lot to an empty, unused conference room.

Flex Baby, Flex

Muscle contraction is a powerful thing. It gets your blood flowing, releases endorphins, and feels incredible. You know when you first wake up in the morning and you flex your legs as hard as you can; it feels like God is personally pumping steroids through your thighs. Well, it feels the same way after being sedentary for hours. Animals do this every time they get up from a resting position to get ready for movement. Go outside or in your tranquil spot, start from your toes and work your way up to your head, flexing and contracting every muscle.

1. Go on your tiptoes to flex your calves.
2. Straighten your legs as hard as you can and target your quads and thighs.
3. Press the heels of your feet together to squeeze your glutes.
4. Contract your core like you’re getting ready for a punch.
5. Extend your arms to target your triceps. From here go straight into a mean bicep and upper back squeeze.
6. Extend your arms straight down to flex your pecs.
7. Finally, use a wide open jaw to contract your neck muscles.

This might sound eccentric, but it feels incredible. Try this a couple times a day at work and you will feel like a new person.

Walk the Stairs

Taking the stairs is a small change that adds a lot of activity to your life over time. If you struggle at first, make it a challenge to see how far you can get without taking a break. Keep track each day and be proud of your improvements. Get coworkers involved to make it fun and a competition.

Walk at Lunch or During Meetings

Walking is the original movement pattern. Walking is so beneficial for your muscles, joints, and mental health. Walking as often as possible is also a great way to lose weight. If you have an hour at lunch, take however much time you need to eat, then walk the rest of your hour. Walk with a friend and have a nice chat. Instead of grabbing a conference room for a meeting, suggest a walking meeting if it doesn’t require you to be on your computer.

Crawl or Do a Few Pushups

If you really want to spice up your day or you are really in a fog, get down and do five, ten, or twenty push ups. If your hips and back feeling tight, crawl on your hands and feet for a few yards. You probably aren’t going to break a sweat, but you will be surprised at how alert you will feel after a little bit of movement. Push ups are a great way to stretch out your torso after sitting for a long period, and crawling is great for your legs, hips, and shoulders. These are both simple, full-body movements, that engage almost every muscle in your body. Perform just a few reps and feel your energy come back to life.

Drink Plenty of Water

Hydration is important in every aspect of your life, no matter how active you are. Hydration will keep you focused, while also preserving your organ, brain, and muscle health. Most people are terminally dehydrated. If you’re thirsty, it’s already too late. Start your morning off with a large cup of water to go with your tea or coffee and continue to refill your cup throughout the day. Keeping water at arm’s reach on your desk will ensure that you are constantly drinking it. This will also give you a good reason to get up every hour or so to walk around.

Meditate and Regroup

If you’re having a rough day, head over to your tranquil spot, and clear your mind for a few minutes with some light meditation. Take three deep, diaphragmatic breaths to regroup. Prioritize your day and tell yourself to take one step at a time. Stepping away for a few minutes will give you a completely refreshed perspective on your day or assignment.

Shift the Culture

With the grind-through-it work philosophy prevalent in society, it is more important than ever for companies to invest in their employees’ health by giving workers more freedom with small breaks intermittently throughout the day, and creating an environment that encourages personal well-being.

If you are more productive, more creative, constantly engaged while at work, and bringing in better results, there is really nothing your boss can complain about. Let your work speak for your actions. Hopefully your company will take notice and create an environment that invests in all of its employees.

Here’s more to hep you counter the negative effects of sitting:

Corrective Posture Exercises for Chronic Sitters

The post Shift the Culture of Corporate Health appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Running quantity has trumped quality for a long time. When I worked in a corporate office, I heard countless people congratulating themselves for running 10 miles over the weekend in 2 hours or finishing a 5k in 35 minutes. These people had no business running more than 1 mile, let alone 10.

Running is an essential function that every human should be able to perform correctly. But most people don’t. In the next year, up to 80% of runners will be sidelined with an injury.

Running quantity has trumped quality for a long time. When I worked in a corporate office, I heard countless people congratulating themselves for running 10 miles over the weekend in 2 hours or finishing a 5k in 35 minutes. These people had no business running more than 1 mile, let alone 10.

This isn’t elitism, or about having to be fast to run, but rather the necessity of needing a good base of speed in order to be safe. Completing a marathon or adventure race may earn bragging rights, but most people never think about the damage they’re inflicting on their bodies.

Running 26.2 miles with poor form is the equivalent of taking a jackhammer to your knees and hips. It’s time to stop running endless miles just to punch a hole in your belt.

You might be able to go out and survive that six-hour marathon, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. [Photo courtesy Pixabay]

Speed Over Distance

Basic running technique has to be established before work can begin on speed and inefficiencies.

This includes learning to land on the mid-to-forefoot, having a relaxed jaw, hands at or just below 90 degrees swinging lightly with the opposite leg, landing softly, a slight forward lean from the ankles, and a good posture.

Speed is often overlooked, but is a very important factor for safe running. If you’re running slowly, there’s a good chance you’re running sloppy. 

Every human should be able to run a mile in 8 minutes with proper form, and as a coach, this is my requirement for clients to progress in mileage. If you can’t run an 8-minute mile, there’s a good chance you’re not able to open up your stride, quicken your cadence, or don’t have adequate muscle conditioning for the length of your run.

I do not have a specific formula as to why the time frame of the mile should be 8 minutes. But I have found this to be a sweet spot for beginner to intermediate runners to improve their running form and speed.

Kind of like the “what the hell effect” in kettlebell training, we don’t have specific reasoning to describe exactly why certain programming is so effective. But through experience, we know it works, and that’s what matters.

To run stronger and faster, address the following three major inefficiencies before speed training and tacking on the miles. 

Unable to Open Up Your Stride

There are two possible issues if you are unable to open up your stride: your mobility, or the way you land and carry over to the next stride.

If mobility is the issue, look at obvious problem areas. Are your hip flexors tight? Can you dorsiflex your ankle properly without discomfort? A few weeks of mobility drills for problem areas should increase your stride length.

If your mobility is okay, assess the landing and carry over phase of your running. Upon landing on the mid-to-fore foot you should focus first on pushing back and off of the foot, then transitioning into quickly extending the leg behind, and lastly pulling the heel back towards the butt then forward to carry in to the next step and complete the motion.

By maximizing not only the push, but also the extension and pull of the leg, you will maximize the power and length of your stride. This will also help you keep proper muscle engagement throughout the run.

Cadence is Too Slow

A common problem with beginning runners is they simply are not turning over their feet quick enough. Efficient running occurs at 180 steps per minute. It is common for beginners to run with a cadence of 140 to 160 steps per minute.

At these low cadences, you are either spending too much time on your landing, adding unnecessary height to each step, or your muscles are not properly engaged.

Spending too much time on your landing creates immense pressure on the joints. Drills like barefoot running on soft surfaces, running backwards focused on light and quick steps, or kicking the heels to the butt quickly help you become light on your feet.

Spending too much time airborne in between steps makes you look like you are bobbing up and down. This inefficiency places greater strain on the joints when landing. Again, practice pushing back, extending the leg, and having an active pull upon impact, rather than bouncing up and off the leg.

Lack of Muscle Endurance

While running, the muscles of the posterior chain and core should be engaged throughout the stride.

When many runners learn the push, extend, and pull method of the landing, they often become sore in the hamstring and gluteal muscles because they are not used to this muscle engagement during a run.

The same goes for sore calves and ankles when they learn the proper way to foot strike. This is why changing running technique should be done gradually.

If conditioning is an issue, a combination of concentric and eccentric leg exercises will help add muscular strength, stability, and control.

Exercises to create a stronger runner include calf raises, reverse lunges, and barbell hip thrusts. Plyometric exercises like box jumps or jumping lunges are also fantastic for conditioning and develop explosive power.

When working on plyometric exercises, it is important to not rush through them. Every rep should have maximum explosiveness and muscular contraction. Do not do plyometrics to muscle failure.

Adding Speed and Mileage

Working on sprints will increase your VO² max, conditioning, explosiveness, mental fortitude, and lean body mass.

Beginners should start with shorter distance sprints, anywhere from 50-200 yards. Once you are better conditioned, incorporate longer distances like quarter-mile sprints.

The final progression would be half-mile and mile interval sprints; however, these are reserved for more advanced runners. Sprints should be treated like plyometric exercises. Recover fully between sprint sets and every sprint should be a maximum effort with excellent form.

Once you have built a decent base through strength development and speed work, you can start to expand the mileage. Increase your mileage as long as it falls around the 8 minute per mile rule.

Train running anywhere from 2 to 6 days per week, but for every distance-running workout, do one workout focusing on inefficiencies and speed work for beginning and intermediate level runners.

The 8-minute mile rule is a fantastic way to work on weak spots and create efficient running form, all while progressing quickly and safely.

For example, if you can run 2 miles in 18 minutes, look for limiting factors, work on speed, and wait to move on to 3 miles until you can run 2 miles in 16 minutes. Most times, after correct technique and mobility issues are addressed it becomes an issue of conditioning.

However, if you can’t maintain the same form from mile 1 throughout your run, then there is no reason to increase mileage, and it is in your best interest to improve technique at your current mileage.

Figure out which part of your running form is lagging and work specifically on that issue. Then work on speed while slowly increasing the mileage within an 8 minute per mile time frame.

Run Right, or Don’t Run

If you want to run to improve your health, then learn how run the right way or you’re far better off walking.

If you have had any joint pain, shin splints, foot pain, tendon pain, or complete stagnations in your running within the past 6 months, check your form and speed.

Even as a recreational runner, I still check in with my coach each month for a review and an outsider’s perspective because I’d rather have perfect running form now, than play shoulda-woulda-coulda sitting in an orthopedic surgeon’s office when I am 60.

You want speed work? We’ve got speed work:

Start Strong, Finish Fast

The post The 8-Minute Mile Standard appeared first on Breaking Muscle.