Low and Slow

In fitness we like talking about hard efforts, HIIT training and sweaty workouts. We often neglect, perhaps because it isn’t as sexy, low intensity training. This is the total opposite of the hard hitting, lay on the floor type of fitness we’re often exposed to.

Low intensity training isn’t about burning the most calories, or even having the most time efficient workout. It’s about slowing down, breathing well and moving more. The example that I bring up everyday, that everyone needs to do more of, is walking. But it can also be an easy 20 minutes on the rower or ski machine, or a casual bike ride.

Lower intensity works on your endurance and is good for you heart. It can help you recover in-between bouts at the gym and shouldn’t make you sore. If you’re a gym rat always trying to add more in, try adding 60 minutes of low intensity work, like an easy run to your weekly sessions. If you’re a gym beginner and you want to build some healthy living momentum, prioritize talking a walk everyday.

In a world where we’re always looks for the next best thing, slowing down and doing some low intensity work might be just what you need.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Floor Time

Getting up and down from the floor is an often cited longevity test. Put simply, you should be able to get yourself from a seated position on the floor to standing, without using your hands. This is a monumental task. Passing not only says you have some good hip mobility, knee stability and ankle mobility, but that you’re less of a fall risk, or if you do fall, you can get yourself back up. 

What can you do to improve this? Spend some time on the floor! It’s uncomfortable, and maybe a little awkward, however, it will show you tight spots, and teach you how to find comfortable position over time. Take a meeting on the floor or your next phone call or spend the next episode of your favorite TV show trying to sit on the ground. It makes a big difference. 

The other things we can do are in-gym. We can master single leg exercises, like splits and reverse lunges. We see those shapes and movements when we’re making a ground to standing transition. Which, is the other exercise you can work on - Turkish Get Ups. These are literal practice of getting from laying to standing with a kettlebell in your hand. 

I like this as a “health screen” for yourself. If you want to be strong and independent, you need to be able to get up from the floor. Spend a little less time in a chair and a little more time on the floor and it will make a world of difference! 

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Stretch More!

There’s a crisis. Too many people are unaware of the drastic changes some daily stretching can do for you. As a society, we have become allergic to stretching, and I’m not sure why. Walk into any gym on the planet, and you’ll be faced with dozens of people who hate stretching, warming up and cooling down.

I want to break this formal barrier. You can stretch anywhere. In fact, it’s probably better if you did it away from the gym. It’s another chance for some movement, and connection with your body. An opportunity to break up the sitting, check in with yourself and feel better.

The benefits are so obvious, I can think of a reason you shouldn’t give yourself some love and do some daily stretching, breathing or mobility work. Get on it!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Goals and Rules

We all suffer from this thing called perfectionism. When we want to do something, we want to go all in or bust. Sometimes, this works great. More often however, it leads to a quick failure and abandonment of the goal. At the nutrition chat last night, Briana made a really good point, rules are things you follow, goals are things you aim for.

We all think that goals are rules for us that cannot be broken, and if we break them, game over. If we shift our mindset though, and realize goals are what we’re striving for, and that a little bit of failure is okay, we’d be much better off. The same could be said about the goals we choose, I think we can do a better job of setting the bar lower.

What I mean, is choosing specific goals that are actually do-able for you. Goals are tricky because we don’t want it to be too easy. If we hit the mark easily every time, is that too easy of a goal? Maybe, but that will build momentum and allow us to take on more challenging goals.

In closing, maybe you should have an easy goal and a stretch goal. Or maybe you just need to set the bar a little lower in order to build some momentum for other, loftier goals down the road. Don’t forget there’s 10 days left in the September Habit Challenge. If you got off to a rocky start, there’s still a chance to work on improving yourself over the next 10 days.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Squeeze

Someone asked me how to get better at opening jars. I said, all the grip training you’re doing must be helping with that. She of course asked, well what am I doing for my grip?

Grip strength is a side benefit of many exercises in the gym. In fact, grip strength is a good predictor of total body strength. Carry variations, deadlifts, hanging/pull ups, inverted rows, dumbbell rows, gorilla rows, rope climbs, sled drags and the first several that came to mind. It’s important to note, and this is what our jar opening discussion led to, you have to squeeze what your holding.

When you grip the bar firmly, say during a bench press, not only are you getting benefits of improving grip and forearm strength, you’re actually turning on more muscles throughout your arms and shoulders. Getting all the muscles to fire will help you maintain good form and get more bang for your buck in training.

In summary, if you’re holding something in the gym, be sure to squeeze it, hard, like you’re trying to melt an ice cube in your hand.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Ask the Dietitian

On Thursday evening, at 7pm, Briana is coming to the gym to do a Q&A about all things healthy eating.

If you’ve come and chat with her before, it might be a nice reminder of things as you start dialing it back in for the fall. If you’re overwhelmed and aren’t even sure what protein is, this is for you.

Hope you can make it!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Deep Nutrition

In the past month, more people than ever has asked me about collagen, how to get more and if it really does all the things it says. To be honest, I’m a supplement skeptic. Everyone asks, if I take it, will I feel better? No, probably not, and it’s important to note that’s not what supplements are anyway. They’re to supplement what you’re currently eating and taking in for nutrients, I doubt that any of us will notice a drastic effect from adding in collagen or protein powder or BCAAs or what have you. Cumulatively, with other positive lifestyle changes, like more sleep, better hydration, managed stress and frequent training will handle most of that load. We can use supplements to bring up a deficiency or to get more of something that we don’t often get. That’s where collagen comes into play.

In the great book, Deep Nutrition, Dr. Catherine Shanahan goes over her Four Pilars of Health. She uses these principles of healthy eating for humans, not by forcing this restricting diet over this one or that one. These principles can be added into any current diet of someone looking for health benefits without the dogmatic, in-your-face style we’re used to with diet books.

First, what is collagen anyway?

“Collagens are extra-cellular proteins that give skin its ability to move, stretch and rebound into shape…Collagens aren’t just in skin; they’re everywhere, imparting strength to all your tissues… [they] hold our outermost layer of skin together, unite adjacent cells in all your glands and organs, they’re in the bones, heart valves, brains, liver and lungs. Bundles of collagen form extended strips and sheets in sturdier tissues like ligaments and tissues that surround your joints and hold your skeleton together.”

Deep Nutrition, pg. 306-207

One of her principles is to eat meat off the bone. This way, without remembering to make a smoothie with collagen power in the morning, or take a daily pill, you can get a hearty dose every now and then. Shanahan recommends making soup with bones or drinking bone broth to get all the collagen building nutrients.

Before you reach for the latest and greatest supplement, try a slight modification in your diet. Cook some cuts of meat with bones to get some tendons and ligaments, order the bone marrow for an appetizer and make a hearty soup with some bone broth.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Halfway Habits

Yesterday marked the halfway point of our September Habit Challenge! I often talk about perfectionism slowing us down or stopping us all together. I was quite proud of my 13 day push up streak I had going. Ironically, the first day I went to the gym in September, I forgot to do my push ups.

It didn’t occur to me until the next morning when Hannah asked if I had done them the night before. Totally forgot, didn’t even cross my mind once all day. Come Sunday, I was unmotivated for my daily total. Once I got around to them after dinner, they were hard, it felt like I was back on day one.

The important thing is that I didn’t miss twice in a row. Streaks are motivating. However, if you miss your streak, the productive thing to do is forget about and build another. Don’t quit for one mishap, it’s no big deal.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Daily Check In

I’ve found a nice side benefit of my daily push ups. Since I’m doing them every day, same amount of reps and not within a typical workout structure, I get a daily check in as to how my body is feeling. Some days I bang them out and feel pretty good, a couple times, I got a big rush of energy doing them, or yesterday after spending the day hunched over traveling, they showed me how stiff my body was.

After finishing my push ups when we got home, I knew I needed to spend a little time moving around and stretching out. Pretty obvious after a long travel day, but without the check in, I might not have taken action on doing something about it.

You might have a daily check in routine already without even knowing it. Maybe it’s foam rolling, seeing how your body responds to the pressure and if it feels like it normally does. It could be hanging out in a squat, or doing a daily mobility drill like a deep lunge, box hip opener or couch stretch. It might be a combination of all those depending on the day.

What’s important, is that you develop a way to check in with your body and see how it’s doing each day.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Airplanes

Airplanes are one of the noticeable areas where you can see the benefits of training. Fitness people, myself included, claim that improving shoulder mobility will help with overhead bins. It’s a bit of a cliche thing to say, but i’s so obvious when you see people trying to lift their suitcases into the overhead bins. There’s also quite a bit of strength required, especially if you’re an overpacker.

I’m impressed when I see someone toss their bag up there effortlessly, since it’s certainly not the norm.

These are the moments for you to appreciate what you do in the gym. To realize that you’re building skills that will not only keep you healthy, but independent and confident as well. Rarely do these test show up like physicals feats in the gym. More often, they’re lifting you own suitcase, carrying groceries, or going for a pain free walk.

Sometimes, it feels like you’re making no in-gym progress, but I promise you’re making out of gym progress.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Get Organized

Yesterday we went on a boat to do some whale watching off the coast of Ponta Delgada. As we headed out of the port, the boat floated and crashed and bobbed in the waves. You had to have a tight grip on the handrail if you didn’t want to get knocked. Watching people move to get a different view while the boat moving was a bit comical.

I was most impressed by the life guard on the boat. He stood on the bow, feet firmly planted, knees straight, hands crossed behind his back, with no support. He wasn’t subjected to the waves and bobbing like everyone else. He knew how to stand and not lose his balance. He was organized.

He created tension in his feet, hips rotated out, butt squeezed and I imagine his core was engaged. It’s the same stance to take before performing a heavy squat in the gym, or the top of a deadlift or kettlebell swing. This was a great example of how things we do in the gym can teach us how to be more stable and have better balance. I’m not sure if this guy trains or not, but if we threw him into a gym and put a bar on his back, I’m willing to bet he’d have no trouble figuring out how to squat.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Planks and Shoulders

Planks are tricky. They’re often categorized as a beginner core exercise, but like many core exercises, the better understanding you have of them, the more effective and more difficult they become. I like starting people with them to get them to feel what it’s like to brace, or create tension throughout your body. The better alignment you have, the more tension, the more difficulty. As you become better at bracing, planks go from “where am I supposed to feel this?", to “wow that’s really hard.”

Today, I want you to bring awareness to what your shoulders are doing while holding a plank. In both a high plank or a low plank, we want to see external rotation, think pit of your elbows forward, to create the most stable position. This s easier to imagine during a high plank, especially if you’ve done some yoga or have been doing barbell push ups at Gain.

While doing a low plank, that means no hands together while the forearms are on the ground. We want to see parallel forearms because that’s showing us the shoulders are in a more stable position. It’ll be harder, for sure, but also more transferable to other exercises. Bench pressing, push ups, inverted rows, push presses and even medicine ball slams all require this tension through rotation.

Next time you’re doing a beginner exercise, ask yourself, are you making this as challenging as it should be?

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Frequency

For many years, I’ve been terrible at push ups. That wasn’t always the case, until about 6 or 7 years ago when I had a shoulder injury I couldn’t seem to get past. While they no longer aggravate my shoulder, I’ve stayed away from this simple fundamental exercise for no reason other than by taking many years off them, I became quite bad at them. A set of 10 is maximum effort and never mind being able to do 20 or 30 in a row.

Instead of practicing them and slowly building up my tolerance, I became someone who doesn’t do push ups anymore. I would occasionally do a few sets here and there, and every single time, proclaim that I need to spend more time doing them but not do any at all.

When the September Habit Challenge started, I knew that’s what I needed to work on. For the last 8 days, I’ve done 30 push ups everyday. After the first day, I thought I might need to lower the number to 20, or maybe only 15. It was hard, harder than I wanted it to be and felt they should be. I went slow, did small sets and spread them out throughout the whole afternoon. Same thing the next day. On the fourth day though, I cranked them out in two sets of 15!

The practicing everyday, or doing them frequently, has allowed me to adapt to doing push ups. They feel good on my shoulders, my range of motion is becoming better and I feel stronger doing them. Sometimes, when we want to get better at something, we need frequency in order to improve. When I was doing push ups once a week, I didn't see the progress like I am while doing them everyday.

When something is important to you, or you want to improve, add in some daily practice as a way to kickstart your improvement and build some momentum. As legendary strength coach, Dan John, says, if it’s important, do it everyday.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Friday Question

When you find yourself running around, stressed and have too much on your plate, ask yourself:

Is this truly necessary?

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Heights

Yesterday, while exploring the island, Hannah and I came upon this park with a trail hat navigates the boundary. We walked down the steep road, afraid our tiny car would get stuck if we drove. Once we got to the bottom, we found a popular swimming spot beneath a large waterfall.

I pulled up the description of the trail, which said, follow the pipeline. Well, there was a large pipe running up the hill where the waterfall was coming from. We found some stairs cut out of the earth and followed that up to the pipeline. Then, several cement stairs took us to a platform, where a grated metal catwalk joined the pipe. This large pipe was the start of the trail. The thin grates, bent in some places, navigated over the pipe, high in the air with a handrail on one side.

If you’ve known me for a while, you know that I’m not a fan of heights. I hate ladders, don’t like looking down and had a panic attack on the Golden Gate Bridge many years ago. After reading Atomic Habits though, besides right now, I refuse to identify as someone who’s afraid of heights. Sure, I still am, but the way to overcome it is to identify as someone who isn’t afraid at all. That’s what I was telling Hannah yesterday and I was squeezing the handrail with all my might.

Our self identity can trap us sometimes. Being someone who eats healthy, or who can never stay on a diet, or who hates exercise can all be crutches that we create for ourselves. Careful what you identify as.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

It's All About the Ankles

A common question I get about running and hiking, how I do it without hurting my knees? The secret of fluid decents, rocky down climbs and even stairs is that it has nothing to do with your knees, but instead, everything to do with your ankles.

We want to react to and absorb the ground using range of motion from our ankles. This prevents your knees from getting overworked while your body is absorbing the tremendous amount of force as it slows you down each and every step. The same holds true for something most of us do everyday, walk down the stairs.

If I either, don’t have the proper range of motion in my ankle joints, or if I don’t understand how to use them, I’m going to feel that downhill/downstiars in my knees. They are providing the extra motion I need to make it to the next step.

A way we can stop this in the gym is how you squat. If you heel likes to come off the ground when squatting or lunging or hinging, you may be finding a work around that ankle joint. Single leg movements and squats, done with correct form, can teach you how to get range of motion from your ankles and not by letting your knees slip too far forward, instead of letting the ankle do most of the work.

It’s important to note, letting your knees come forward, is not a bad thing, so long as you have the ankle range of motion to do it. A common cue a beginner trainer will use is don’t let your knees come over your foot. This can work to clean up a squat, but eventually teaches the person to not load those ankles.

In closing, here’s a boring answer to the question, do ankle range of motion drills, keep squatting and keep hinging and keep lunging. In the photo below, you can see Barbara’s knee coming forward, past her foot. However, her weight is back, hips are loaded and not only is she demonstrating a perfect hinge pattern, but she’s doing an excellent job of getting ROM from her ankles!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Done

I hope your habit challenge is off to a good start. I got my push ups done easily on day 1, but forgot about them on day 2 until just before bed. I didn’t want to carry around the calendar with me while traveling, so I found an app called Done that is a habit tracker.

There’s several of these available, but this one is easy to use and you simply check off that you’ve done your habit each day. I like it because I can set a reminder notification.

If you’ve had trouble the past couple of days, settle into a routine today since it’s your first day back at the gym or work. Most importantly, if you haven’t had a great start, simply pick it up today and keep going!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Habit Challenge Starts Sunday

Be sure to grab a calendar/ habit tracker sheet from the gym today or tomorrow.

It’s up to you exactly how you use it, but I want you to write your habit on the bottom, and check each day that you complete your new habit. If you don’t get it, mark that down too and get back on track the next day.

REMINDER: Gain is closed Monday for Labor Day. Enjoy the long weekend.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Back Squats and Speeches

You have a powerful, accessible tool to shift your mood, enhance your focus and to calm down. It’s called breathing. Since our autonomic nervous system handles most of our breathing, we don’t think of it often.

Last weekend, I watched something really interesting happen. I watched Alex give a best man speech at his brother's wedding. What I saw that most people didn’t, was him take 5 big deep breaths, in through his nose, out his mouth just before grabbing the mic and standing up in front of 200 people.

This protocol, a full inhale, partial exhale, called superventilation, over oxygenates your blood, giving you a bit of a rush, an energetic feeling. We first learned it 18 months ago at the Art of Breath Seminar. We use this protocol right before a lift to get our mind right, open up the airways and get mentally prepared for a challenging effort.

I watch Alex do that daily. When he’s preparing for a heavy back squat, a consultation with a new client or he’s gearing up for a 400m sprint. He can use the same protocol to center himself, and get prepared to give an important speech to a lot of people.

Using different breathing protocols, stolen from yoga, free divers and meditation practices, we can elicit different moods or responses. We can affect the carbon dioxide in our body, open up different positions and most importantly, affect our state, or the condition of our mind and body.

I often talk about how gym skills are transferable to life skills. This moment, that no one else saw, that elapsed over 15 seconds, was the embodiment of using the gym to help in life.

If you’re still struggling with your September Habit Challenge, ask us about breath work. If you’re not ready for a full on meditation session, this is a nice gateway. We can use different patterns to help sleep, change tasks, recover, or get a rush of energy.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Snowballs

Are you struggling to come up with your new habit? Not sure what to choose from because 3 or 4 things need improvement? I urge you to focus on one. We’re bad at coming up with goals. We’re all overly ambitious and bite off more than we can chew. I want to avoid that in September by having you really dialed in on one habit, one goal.

When selecting your habit, choose one that will have snowball effects and maybe help other things as well. For example, if you want to drink less wine, a vague, hard to measure goal, why don’t you set a bed time or drink more water instead? You may drink less wine by focusing on winding down earlier and hitting the sheets consistently.

These snowball habits are the jackpot. Find habits that will bleed over into other things. That way, instead of juggling too many changes, you can focus on one and get a kickstart in some other areas. Above all else, keep it simple.

If you want more details, James Clear, my internet superhero, has a well detailed post about what he calls the Domino Effect.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach