Functional

There are a few words in the fitness industry that have been used so much they've lost their meaning. Some that come to mind: core, HIIT, Tabata and perhaps the most offensive, and one that I use often; functional.

Today, I'm going to provide the definition of functional as we use it at GAIN. And it has nothing to do with balance boards, Bosu balls or complicated kettlebell flows that are choreographed.

Functional fitness is having the ability to do a wide range of physical demands with ease.

The broad goal of all our programs is to help people feel confident and navigate life more easily. We use basic human shapes like squatting, hinging, pushing and pulling to create robust movement patterns that help outside the gym.

You may not jump on boxes, lift symmetrically loaded barbells over your head or climb a rope in real life. But you will need to move a couch, react quickly, move fast, get up from the floor and be generally useful.

Getting stronger and better at these movements have a direct carryover to your performance and function outside of the gym. Therefore, strength and conditioning is functional because it will help you do a wide variety of physical tasks with confidence and without hesitation.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Memorial Day at GAIN

Last year, for the first time, we hosted the workout “Murph” on Memorial Day and will be doing the same this year.

Mark your calendar:

Monday May 29th

8:30am-11:00am, start any time, finish by 11:00am.

Reserve on PushPress (UNDER EVENTS, not classes).

*does NOT count toward check-in limit for limited memberships

If you’re unfamiliar or could use a refresher, Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005. It has become tradition in gyms across the country to perform a favorite workout of his on Memorial Day to honor him, and all the others who served and lost their life.

The workout is both simple and extremely challenging. Like always, we will be scaling the movements and reps to make sure you’ll get a workout that can both honor those who served and give you a good workout sweat that is appropriate.

Whether that is the full workout or a modified version (examples below) with barbell push ups, walking or biking and ring rows. Some others have asked to do a different hero workout of their choice, and that is encouraged as well.

“Murph”

1 mile run

100 pull ups

200 push ups

300 squats

1 mile run

*partition reps of pull ups, push ups, squats as needed. i.e., 20 rounds of 5 pull ups or ring rows, 10 push ups and 15 squats.

Modified Version

walk 1 mile or bike 5000m

10 rounds of:

10 ring rows

10 push ups

15 bw squats

walk 1 mile or bike 500m

Modified version 2

Half Murph

800m run

10 rounds

5 pull ups or ring rows

10 push ups

15 squats

800mrun

I’m looking forward to a fun morning at the gym. Let us know if you have any questions!

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Upgrade Your Kettlebell Swing

Use these 3 tips to make sure you’re getting the most of your kettlebell swing.

1. Exhale at the top

Use a sharp exhale at the top while squeezing the handle, your butt and your belly. Breathe in while the kettlebell falls.

2. Break the handle

Speaking of squeezing the handle. At the top, squeeze hard and twist your pinkies down. You'll feel it from your wrists to your shoulders, arm pits and upper back. On the way down, briefly relax you grip before the next rep.

3. Spread the floor

But not too much. Screw your feet into the ground to create tension. When the kettlebell falls, push your knees apart from one another ever so slightly. Don't go so much you're on the outside of your feet. Keep your toes on the ground and push through your mid foot as you snap the kettlebell to the top.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Moving Dirt

There’s a big white flag in the gym depicting a shovel and a spoon.

It represents a powerful saying about training.

It was introduced to me years ago by former NFL player and strength training enthusiast, John Welbourn. His quote reads, “Training is like moving a pile of dirt. Some days you move a shovel full, other days you move just a spoonful. Either way, if you moved some dirt, you’re headed in the right direction.”

Not all training sessions will be heroic, so long as you moved some dirt, you accomplished something.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Not How Much, How Well

The bench press is a staple of weight rooms and gyms all over the world.

Too often it’s described as a meathead exercise reserved for bodybuilders. When performed with proper grip and tension, packed shoulders blades, a slight arch, and the correct bar path, its legitimacy as the best upper body strength builder is unmatched.

It’s not how much you can bench, but how well you can.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Muscle Memory

After correcting someone’s goblet squat this week, they proclaimed, “How did I forget that, isn’t muscle memory a thing?” 

Did you play sports growing up? If you played for a while, you may be able to close your eyes and think about exactly how everything of a certain movement felt. I spent hours as a kid shooting hockey pucks against the basement wall. I can think back and imagine exactly how the stick blade felt as it dragged across the cement floor. How I shifted my weight into my right hip so my right arm could lean on the stick, creating a bend that snapped the stick straight; propelling the puck ahead as I guided it wherever I wanted it by pointing the stick with my right arm.

I can imagine how softly catching and absorbing a pass feels, I still know what the timing is to take a mega slap shot - even though I haven’t done these things for years. It’s not muscle memory either, it’s your nervous system. After we practice a task so much, we commonly say it has become muscle memory, but really it’s the nervous system becoming efficient at the task.

Taking it back to a goblet squat. You’ll need to remind yourself of some of the more nuanced cues to clean up your squat or other more complex movements in the gym. It takes a lot of reps until you won’t have to concentrate on sitting back, pushing your knees out and maintaining weight on your mid foot. Just like it took me years and years to master a solid snap shot, it’s going to take a while for your muscle memory to take over your movement, and until that happens, try to notice how each and every rep feels.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Quote of the Week

I saw this quote on the Instagram from author and coach Steve Magness and had to share it. It echos one of our core values; consistency and moderation over intensity, be strategic not heroic.

Consistency compounds. Small steps repeated over time lead to big gains. Don’t aim to be consistently great. Aim to be great at being consistent.- Steve Magness

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Training Notebooks

Like most of you, I track my workouts digitally using TrueCoach.

The other morning, Hannah came into the garage with a brand new notebook.  She had filled another notebook with handwritten workouts. Something about that made me envious, and I longed for the days when I tracked my workouts with notebook and pen.

I started a training log when I was 16. All the bodybuilding magazines I was reading emphasized the importance of keeping track of your training to measure progress, and have a detailed history of what worked and what didn’t. A few years later, when I got my first coach and joined a strength and conditioning gym, I was handed a notebook and told to write everything down in it.

When the same squat, bench, clean or deadlift workout would come around, me and my lifting group would flip back through our notebooks to check our numbers from last time. We would try to beat the previous weight every single workout.

I continued logging workouts this way on and off throughout college and even tried a couple times in the early days of GAIN. I could never get back in the groove though, and maybe from writing them down so many times, I usually keep track of all the important numbers in my head.

Anyway, the point I’m getting to is that writing your workouts down in a notebook is really powerful. It connects you to your training in a unique way. It helps you learn your numbers, recognize patterns and be more progressed focused. Perhaps the reason I stopped writing my workouts down is there was always too much focus on progress, and getting bigger numbers. That tenacity is useful, but for periods of time, not permanently.

If you’ve got a race, or want to lock in a new consistency habit this summer, consider a training log to get more connected with your workouts.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

I'm Doing It!

I’m doing it I’m doing it!!!!

*An actual thought while running intervals recently.

Being smooth and efficient is hard. Occasionally, while running you can hit this sweet spot. Falling forward feels effortless and the body is properly aligned. Everything feels right. Effortless. Then it’s gone, and you try to find it again and again.

Technique is always a work in progress. At least, if you keep that mindset you can always strive to get a little better each time.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Barefoot Summer

The nice weather this past weekend had me hanging out barefoot in the yard. Join me this summer in prioritizing time without shoes and socks. Let your feet, and all the connective tissue, bones and musculature, work like they’re supposed to without sensory depravation chambers (shoes) lashed to them.

If you want to log some barefoot time, here are a couple tips. Despite seeming so simple, if you have’t been exposed to this for a long time, tread cautiously and build up over time. I wear minimalist shoes year round and am extremely particular of what I’ll put on my feet. That being said, I still only spent 10-15 minutes completely barefoot outside yesterday.

During daily life I always walk on hard, flat surfaces, like at the gym. There’s no variety, different textures or really too much of anything going on for my feet. When I’m hanging around barefoot, I’ll try to walk or even just stand on crushed stone, brick pavers, grass, gravel, big rocks and asphalt. All these different textures are unique stimuli and exposure for my feet that they don’t get most of the year.

If you want to be barefoot because you think it’ll be helpful for the rest of your body, you should already be considering what shoes you’re wearing as your daily driver. If you’re wearing ultra supportive, maximalist cushioning, and you want to be barefoot more, I would start with wearing a more stripped down daily shoe to get your heel closer to the ground, and start getting some feedback from your feet.

Don’t forget to roll out your feet with a ball. You can manipulate just the right pressure with a hard ball to those arches to help your feel start feeling like the powerful springs they are. You can stretch your toes with your hands as well.

Strengthen your feet, and make your body become more robust by logging plenty of barefoot time this summer.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Macro Talk Pt. 3

Tracking my macros for almost 4 weeks has taught me a lot about my habits and routines.

One of those is being more consistent with eating on weekdays and less strict on the weekends. Many of us do this with food and sleep. Pretty good during the week, but staying up late and eating junk on the weekends, every weekend. We create a routinely inconsistent pattern.

I’ve been trying to keep my weekends more like my weekdays nutritionally. I’ve identified the one thing that sets up me up for nutritional success, and maybe if you figure out what that thing is for you, you’ll make leaps and bounds in your progress.

For me, eating my oatmeal breakfast bowl (oats, protein powder and frozen berries) sets me up like nothing else.

It’s dense, fills me up, is tasty, and leaves me full for a many hours.

This leaves me feeling ready for an afternoon workout or run.  Each time when I try to skip this, mostly for the sake of variety on the weekends, I have a hard time hitting my numbers, or I get a chance to workout and don’t feel properly fueled. Making me alter my planned workout, or lately, I’ll just end up eating a bigger meal and skipping the workout all together.

Last week I thought I would stop tracking soon, but it’s beginning to get easier and easier to log my food, and I’m starting to see it mold my choices even more. I’m going to keep the macro tracking experiment rolling for now, and we’ll see where it takes me.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Keep it Moving

I’ve run a lot of ultramarathons. Over the past 7 years of running these long distances, I've learned that the most important factor in my recovery is to keep moving. The more I move, the better I continue to feel in the hours and days post race. And while you might not have an ultramarathon on your mind, we can distill important lessons from these extreme events to help our everyday life.

Whether you've just raced, you're sore from your first workout in 10 years or your legs are beat up from a tough hike, it pays to keep moving in the following days to aid in recovery. The simplest way to get moving is go for a walk, but sometimes doing a ‘recovery’ focused workout can be exactly what the body needs.

Here are 4 examples of a recovery workout:

1.

3-5 rounds

Bike 1000m or row 500m @ easy pace

10 lateral squats

10 plank to downward dog

2.

3-5 rounds

Bike 60 seconds

10 goblet squats @ light weight

10 ring rows

3.

Bike 30 minutes @ all day pace

4.

3 rounds

10 bw squats

5/s reaching SLDL

10 plank shoulder taps

5/s cross behind reverse lunge

5.

Sled drags for 10-15 minutes

Start slow, listen to your body, and remember, the goal is to feel better than when you started. Moving around when your body is sore and beat up will support your recovery despite seeming counterintuitive. Contracting the muscles will help your blood flow and pump the junk of out of your system. Motion is lotion, keep it moving when you’re feeling banged up.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Random Reminders

Things you’ll forget frequently and might need a reminder of:

You always feel better when you leave the gym.

No matter what, something is better than nothing.

Stop waiting for motivation.

Build habits.

Be responsible for your goals.

There’s no such thing as a perfect workout.

Easy workouts are just as important as hard workouts.

Go medium sometimes.

A week off is great only if it doesn’t turn into a month.

A fixed mindset, opposed to a growth mindset, can stop you in your tracks.

Eat to fuel your body to perform.

Go for a walk. If you normally wear headphones, ditch them. If you never do, listen to a book.

Drink water.

There’s no secret, it all comes down to consistency.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Exercised: Good vs Bad Running Form

I stumbled into running. I wanted to know how to run efficiently like the people I was watching in the 2016 Olympics. Before that I read Born to Run and it just made sense to me, that there was a best, most efficient way for humans to run.

My background in strength & conditioning and Olympic weightlifting allowed me to take on a skills based approach and slowly build up my abilities, efficiency and endurance. Over the course of a many years, and still today, running smoothly and efficiently is hard work.

Running form is a tricky subject. There is a dichotomy I tiptoe as a coach. I want to encourage people to get outside, run and have a good time. I also want them to do it safely, and for the long haul. In order to do that, your form needs to be good or it might catch up to you.

In his book Exercised, author Daniel Lieberman does an excellent job of breaking down the evolution of running, and dives into what good running form is and how to avoid injuries.

Lieberman recalls when he was in Kenya studying runners that he was fascinated how they all look the same. A stark contrast from watching Americans train, who have varying different strides.

He recommends 4 key points that differentiate good form and bad.

1. Avoid over striding. Reaching too far causes a stiff landing.

2. Cadence. Experienced runners keep between 170-180 steps a minute. Regardless of speed.

3. Learn forward. I say fall from the waist during my running technique sessions at the gym (BOOK HERE)

4. Land with your foot horizontal. Land on the ball of the foot, or slightly behind (mid foot in GAIN lingo) and kiss the heel.

Along with discussion on form, Lieberman offers sound advice for us all. Start slow. Many running injuries are from novices increasing mileage too soon. It takes longer for bones, ligaments and tendons to adapt when compared to your muscles and aerobic system. Another thing to consider is strength. Muscles propel you forward, but they also absorb force and stabilize. Give your ankles and lower legs time to adapt when starting out.

At the end of this section Lieberman reminds us, we can look at our ancestors for their technique, but we need to remember, they also didn't train (or live) like us modern humans.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Basic Running Drills

Running drills are excellent ways to groove technique and become a more efficient runner.

Technique drills are often neglected for a host of reasons. Looking and feeling silly, not knowing exactly what to do or misunderstanding the purpose usually is the suspect.

Whenever I work with a runner on their form and technique, we always hit these basic drills you can add to your routine. Use these during a warm up, or during your run when you start of feel off or out of whack. Running drills can reset your form and get you back on track.

High knees:

Focus on staying light on your foot and feel the mid foot land softly and the heel kiss the floor. Keep your shoulders over your hips and don’t lean back! This teaches you to open your hips and not over extend from your back.

Butt kicks:

Don’t bend at the waist, stay tall and lean from your belt buckle. Keep those elbows tight and hands back. This reinforces a good fall or lean forward and promotes pulling with the hamstrings. The single leg version of this is another favorite.

Skipping:

Find a nice rhythm and move those arms. Skipping is a great coordination and low level plyometric that will help with springiness, and important running quality, and timing and coordination.

If you need a running tune up this Spring, you can email me justin@gainsc.com with the subject: running technique inquiry.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

How Many Steps I Get

Walking is always a big topic of conversation at GAIN but lately it’s been on peoples’ minds even more. Each time I feel like we’re talking about it too much, someone mentions to us that they learned something new or had never considered a perspective before.

I wear a Garmin running watch. It tracks my steps each day and I rarely take it off. The benefit of wearing something like this isn’t just the day to day step count, but more importantly the ability to look back and spot treads. The longer you wear it, the better information you’ll gather.

Below is my step count for the past 14 days and what I did that day. I try to build walking in throughout the day. Park far away, use it as a way to warm up for training, especially running or early in the morning, and most definitely as a way to get Elliot to burn some energy. If you don’t get this many steps, don’t feel discouraged. Instead of making you feel bad, I hope to show you what you can do by being deliberate.

If you want to up your step count, figure out what your average is and add a couple thousand more. You can get that done in just one short walk.

Tuesday April 11 - 13,228

A big day of steps, mostly due to my first trail run since September. I also parked a quarter mile away from the UPS store in downtown Dover to send a package.

Wednesday April 12 - 10,235

A work out with a lot of farmer’s carries and a 1.5 mile hike with Nolan.

Thursday April 13 - 13,382

A sprint workout on the treadmill consisting of 3000m, grocery shopping, lots of chores around the house and a walk with Nolan.

Friday April 14 - 6,677

Lots of computer work and driving, coached two classes and a 20 minute workout in the afternoon.

Saturday April 15 - 15,890

Beautiful weather Saturday and this was all just from chasing Elliot around. We went on a 1.7 mile hike, 3-4 small walks and stayed outside the whole day. I did some mobility work in the morning, otherwise no training.

Sunday April 16 - 11,044

Some walking and running on the treadmill as a warm up to a bench press workout. Another nice day outside running around with Elliot. We did a shorter 1.3 mile hike.

Monday April 17 - 7,830

Busy computer day with lots of sitting and driving. Training was a short session of back squats.

Tuesday April 18 - 12,333

3.5 mile trail run, coaching and Elliot was really into “chase me” that night.

Wednesday April 19 - 13,541

A big training day. Mobility and moving around in the morning, deadlifts later in the morning and a short sprint workout in on the treadmill with lots of walking and jogging to warm up and cool down.

Thursday April 20 - 11,159

Morning mobility session and a lift in the afternoon. Grocery shopping and some work around the house.

Friday April 21 - 21,840

An outlier day. A long trail run of around 8 miles, plus coaching, and Elliot chasing.

Saturday April 22 - 10,937

Not much training today but lots of moving around.

Sunday April 23 - 5,504

Gave the body some rest after a lot of moving around for two weeks.

Couple things to note when I look at this data. These 14 days coincided with the nicest weather we’ve had and with me getting back out of the trails, both which pad these stats a bit. My activity level is usually higher in the summer months though due to more time outside. If you need more walking and movement in your life, It’s a great time of year to start building a new habit and taking advantage of nicer weather.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

How Many Calories Do You Burn?

The other day, Briana, from New England Nutrition and Exercise,  measured my resting metabolic rate using an MedGem indirect calorimeter. I sat still with the small device in my mouth and had to stay calm for 10 minutes. Before starting the test I avoided caffeine and food for 4 hours to get the most accurate measurement.

The whole time my nose was plugged so I had to breathe into the device. While I’m breathing, the device is measuring my oxygen consumption. With that information it determines my resting metabolic rate, or how many calories I burn if I were to just sit on the couch and sleep all day.

Using that number, I can be accurate with how many total calories I should aim consume each day. Briana helped me calculate that by multiplying my resting metabolic rate by an activity factor. The activity factor considers your occupation, daily movement and exercise to determine the right amount of calories for your lifestyle.

If you’re trying to make some changes, getting your resting metabolic rate is a good way to set yourself in the right direction. There are online calculators to determine your resting metabolic rate. Actually getting tested is the most accurate though. I clocked in more than 200 calories over the online calculator’s estimate.

I’ll be using this information to make sure I’m properly fueling my body and getting in enough calories to recover from big days of training.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Compounding

I go grocery shopping on Thursday mornings. The vibe of my local Market Basket at 8am is perfect. It’s not crowded and there usually isn’t a checkout line. Most notable, and you know this is big deal if you’ve shopped at a Market Basket, the parking lot is completely empty.

Despite having my pick of front row parking spots amongst the shoppers who arrived earlier than me, I always secure a spot far away from the entrance. As I walked in last Thursday I counted each step. It look about 187 steps from parking spot to the front entrance.

Let’s do some math.

187x2 (walking in to and out of the store) = 374 steps.

374 additional steps each week, and I go every Thursday. There are 52 Thursdays in the year 2023.

347 steps x 52 = 19,448 additional yearly steps from parking far away at the store once a week.

But there’s more.

I also walked to return my cart, because who wouldn’t, and back to my parking space. An additional 100 steps.

The small stuff adds up.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Need a Workout?

On vacation this week and need a workout?

If you’re on a road trip, short on time or space, hit up one of these workouts, they only take 10 minutes and don’t require any equipment.

Click below to take a look at Taylor’s E book.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain

Cut it Short

I have a piece of advice for all runners who are getting out there more and more frequently this Spring in preparation for some summer events. This advice is served as a reminder for myself too.

Cut your run a little short and walk to cool down.

I know. You’ll cover less ground in your given running window, and it will take you 10 minutes longer to finish. Not to mention in wrecks your average pace on Strava, so everyone will think you’re slow.

It will, however, give your body time to readjust. Instead of ripping the emergency break and stopping, giving your physiology time to runs its course and kickstart the recovery process can make a big difference on the next run, and the next run and the next run.

What’s a proper cool down feel like? An easy way is to check is your breathing. Once cooled down, your breathing should feel regulated, you could take multiple inhales with long exhales, at least 5-6 seconds, in a row.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain