If you have been training with us for any reasonable amount of time, you have probably been cued to keep your head and neck in good position during any multitude of exercises, from squats to planks. If you have been training with somebody else who is good, you’ve probably been cued similarly 🙂 If you have been training with somebody else or yourself, you may not have a clue what I am talking about but this is important stuff so read on!

Head and neck alignment is extremely important, whether you are talking about basic standing posture or mid exercise.  When we look at our cervical spine, we have 7 vertebrae. The upper 2 vertebrae and the muscles around them function differently than the lower 5 vertebrae (bottom of C2 to top of T1), with the former rocking and tilting the skull/head and the latter moving and positioning the rest of the neck.  That being said, they all work/move together to flex, extend, rotate and side bend the head and neck. Any time the head is positioned forward excessively, as seen in forward head carriage, the region of the upper 2 cervical spine is compressed as the head cocks back in order to keep the body upright,  Much of the lower region is then excessively stretched and slacked.  This is bad not only because of the effects it has on the head and neck, but also because of the effects it has the rest of the way down the body. If the head is out of position, the thorax is then pushed back, which will cause the ribs to be out of position, disrupt breathing and stress the mid and low back; all undesirable things to have happen.  In response to this, the pelvis will tilt forward and the low back will over extend, causing even more low back stress and hip issues.  This all occurs in order to keep the body upright and centered in space.  The body always finds a way to “right” itself.  So when something is off up top or down low in the feet, compensations occur each joint up or down to help keep things upright and level as much as possible.  This picture sums it up pretty well and simply.  The only thing it does not show is the cocking back of the head that usually occurs.

    This is just the tip of the iceberg.  You can imagine what might happen if your head or neck are out of position during a squat or a pushup.  If it distorts positioning in a standing posture, you better believe that it will cause dysfunction with movement and in turn, hurt performance.  So, next time we cue your head position during your workout, you will have a decent idea why. If you would like to prance around like an ostrich with your head way out in front of you, that is perfectly fine; just don’t complain when things start hurting.

There are many things that contribute to this and that result from this, from muscular issues to breathing issues. If we look at the musculature of the neck region, we can divide things into front, sides and back (kind of). Starting with the front (anterior), we have the Sternocleidomastoid, more commonly just called the SCM. This muscle is responsible for neck flexion, rotation to the opposite side and some side bending. It is the most superficial, or outermost, muscle on the front of the neck and is often overactive in many people. When someone has forward head carriage, you can usually bet that their SCM will be overactive. This muscle also commonly compensates for weak abdominal, psoas and diaphragm muscles further on down the body. When someone works their ABZ with boatloads of  crunches and situps, you’ll often hear complaints of neck pain. Well guess what? Its because they are compensating like crazy with their SCM to do the job that the rectus abdominis (six pack muscle) is supposed to be doing.

Deep to, or beneath, the SCM are the deep neck flexor muscles, the longus colli and capitis. While the SCM typically will pull the head forward in front of the body, these deeper muscles will pull the chin back in towards the throat and promote a good head and neck posture. They are very commonly weak in many people, especially those with neck and breathing issues. They also run along the same line of fascia as the diaphragm and psoas muscles, which all should ideally work together to provide a solid, deep base of stability for the rest of the body to work off of.  There are also multiple small muscles in this area that control movement of the various bones of the jaw, called the infra and suprahyoids.  For the purposes of keeping this article simple, we’ll leave them out of the discussion.

Moving to the back side, we can look at muscles that control the different cervical sections mentioned above (C1-2 vs C3-7). The suboccipitals (rectus capitis major and minor, oblique capitis superior and inferior) control the rocking and tilting of the head and neck w/ movement of the upper cervicals. With forward head carriage, they will cock the skull back and become overactive and painful, often leading to headaches and neck pain. Research shows that these muscles also have big implications with balance and body awareness. Though they are small little guys, they are extremely important.  It has been shown that the rectus capitis minor even has connections with the dura mater of the brain.  (Must be kind of a big deal)

Below here, we have layers of muscles that control extension of the rest of the neck. Cervical erectors (further broken down to iliocostalis cervicis, longissimus cervicis and capitis and spinalis cervicis) mainly help extend the neck, splenius capitis and cervicis help extend and rotate the head and neck to the same side, and transversospinalis (further broken down to rotatores, multifidi and semispinalis cervicis) muscles help extend and rotate to the opposite side.  These guys cover the gist of it. We also have levator scapulae and upper traps branching off to the sides from the cervical spine to control both the shoulder girdle and the neck (elevation and rotation to the opposite side as well as downward and upward rotation of the scapula respectively), which are usually overactive in this situation (though not always).

Between the front and back, we have the scalenes, which can be divided into anterior, middle and posterior.  These help to side bend, rotate to the same side and flex the head and neck.  They are very important with upper rib positioning and overall neck stability, and should assist with breathing. (ASSIST not take over)

Note how many different angles the various muscles on the neck run, front to back, side to side, curving this way and that.  It is a very complex area of the body and you can see that each “section” is, in all reality, connected.To sum the basic situation up. When someone has poor neck alignment, or forward head carriage for the purposes of this article, the SCM’s and suboccipitals will be overactive and the deep neck flexors and lower cervical extensors will be inhibited and/or weak (sometimes with levator and/or upper trap being overactive). Throw some rotation into the picture and you will be looking at side to side differences. We can go further down and look at overactive pec minors with underactive low traps, elevated versus depressed shoulder girdle, etc. For now, we’ll keep it at the neck but just know that the effects carry on down the whole body and that there will be some variation depending on the individual at hand.

The bottom line is this: Keep your neck packed in alignment with the rest of your spine and trunk and you will feel better, move better and perform better.

In conjunction with this, proper breathing patterns and diaphragm function are also very important to help keep muscles in the neck region balanced out appropriately. Without good diaphragm function and solid rib expansion, rib elevation will cause muscles in the neck, especially the scalenes, to overwork and flare up with inflammation and pain. This can obviously affect overall alignment and is a very important deal.  Heck, though I haven’t gotten into it yet, vision issues can also have influence and be influenced by this stuff.  It really is pretty amazing. 

Finally, talking about this anatomy stuff is all wonderful but when it comes down to it, you need to know how this looks in action, and this is the main thing I want to get across with this post.

This shows the basic good and bad positions to be in up top.  Notice how the head and neck placement affect the rest of the shoulder girdle.  This is also an exercise/drill that can be done to fire and/or strengthen the appropriate muscles either upright, inclined or face down.

This shows improper and proper neck/head position during a squat.   Notice how my back and hips are affected with the different head/neck placement.

This shows improper and proper neck/head position during a deadlift. Again, notice how it affects the rest of the kinetic chain.

This all carries over to multiple activities.  Hopefully this gives you some good ideas to help you out with life and training!  If you struggle with this issue, I recommend starting out with some “chin tuck” drills like I show in the first video.  Just do a few sets of 15-20 reps daily, starting straight up and then working to an incline and eventually face down.  Next, start consciously drilling the  proper positioning when you squat, deadlift, do pushups, etc.

When it comes down to it, you have two choices.  Be an ostrich or be a Beast with a solid and stable neck.  The choice is yours.

Who is ready to get motivated and amped up today?!!!

I just finished reading a great inspirational book called “Three Feet from Gold,” by Greg Reid and Sharon Lechter. I usually try to read at least one success/business book each month and this was a very fun and motivating read. The principles that the book goes through are based off of the classic “Think and Grow Rich,” one of my favorite books of all time and sure to be found on pretty much any successful person’s top five list. Three Feet puts these principles into story form and goes through the adventure of a character who is initially struggling with his life, and follows him as he changes his outlook and begins to transform his life into happiness and success. It follows him as he travels around interviewing many different successful people (these are real people who gave real insight for the book) about their own stories and wisdom; stories about overcoming adversity with passion and commitment to achieve success and happiness. In a nutshell, if you read this and are not totally motivated to go full force into working on a passion or goal of yours, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Anyhow, the book gives out principles of success as the story goes on. It is my goal with this article to highlight some of my favorites that I took from it and elaborate on how they can potentially help you or how they’ve played a part in my journey thus far.

The first one is two points that I am combining because they go together well.

“The most common cause of failure is quitting. Before great success comes, you will surely meet with temporary defeat.”

This is as straight forward as it comes and something that one would think would be common sense; however, the majority of people out there continually let temporary defeats beat them and they quit before they even give themselves a chance. Fitness is a great example here. Someone starts working out. Lets call him Bob. Bob wants to lose 10 pounds of fat and build some muscle. He trains for one month and he is no better. He gets frustrated and claims that working out doesn’t work and he can’t get in shape. 3 months go by and he again decides to give this fitness thing a shot. This time he works out for 2 months and drops a couple pounds of fat. Well with two whole months of training, he should surely be down at least 10, right?! He quits again because he just can’t seem to make it happen. Think about this: What if he hadn’t quit for 3 months and had been training for the full 6 months without a break. Imagine where he could have been then. This is what TONS of people do and it goes into another great point from the book.

“To succeed, you must have STICKABILITY.”

Whether you are talking about reaching a fitness goal or succeeding in a business venture, this is essential. “It takes years to become an overnight success.” Being in great shape takes more than days or months. It takes years of dedication and perseverance. When people aren’t magazine material after 2 months, they lose all hope and just quit. If they would stay with it, they would blow past their initial goal before the next time they decide to start over again after quitting. Careers and businesses take time to develop and grow. When I first started out training people after college, I had around 2 to 3 in home clients, with not a lot of income. I then started working out of a gym and GRADUALLY built up clientele. I KNEW that I wasn’t going to have my own facility with boatloads of clients coming through the door in the first month or even the first FEW YEARS. However, I had an end goal in mind and knew that I would make things happen. Fast forward to current day. We just passed our one year anniversary at my facility and we have a long ways to go with it. If we do a little bit each day to get better, it will compound over time. I’m sticking with it.

I overheard one of my coaches the other day, Dan Zwirlein, talking to some clients about his journey to where he is at with his training and body. Dan is a pretty big guy (and lean) and probably one of the best lifters in the country. Many people probably just assume that he is just naturally “big.” Dan explained how its taken years of hard work and dedication with training and diet to get where he is at. He has stickability; and it shows.

“The Knowing- There is a big difference between believing in something and knowing it.”

As I stated just above, I KNEW that I was going to make my dream happen. I had and have confidence in my abilities in this field and continue to better myself every day. So even though I wasn’t making tons of money or training superstar athletes right away, I just kept honing my craft and kept doing what I’m passionate about: helping the great clients and amazing people that I did have. If you do that good enough, then more people are going to follow. When I had my injury that kept me out of competition and heavy lifting for awhile, I KNEW that I’d get back to a high level again.  I did everything possible to get past the injury and come back stronger than ever.  When Dan injured his shoulder and was told he might not be able to lift again, he never once thought about quitting.  He worked his ass off to get back under a bar and never looked back.  Professional athletes don’t just magically end up in a prime time game.  They have a vision and a dream and they do everything necessary to make that vision a reality.  Every single successful fat loss client that I’ve ever worked with KNEW they’d transform their bodies and lives.  Don’t just believe, Know.

If you are venturing into your journey of transforming your body, KNOW that you will succeed. The mind controls everything. If you know that you’re going to make it, you will. Want to Deadlift 2 or maybe even 3 times your bodyweight? KNOW that you are going to get there and friggin smash it. Successful people in any endeavor don’t know what doubt is. They just go to war and don’t look back.

“Seek counsel, not opinions, and then pass it on.”
    There is a great point with this one about the difference between opinions and counsel. “Opinions are usually based on ignorance, or lack of knowledge, whereas counsel is based on wisdom and experience.” Lets go back to our friend Bob. While he is on his great quest to get in shape, he has plenty of negative “friends” giving their OPINIONS about A. how he is a clown for trying to get in shape, B. how he can’t get in shape; its just too hard C. how he needs to run tons of miles and do lots of cardio to get in shape (insert any other unfounded misinformation about training here). Most people that he knows give their opinions, which have no rationalized knowledge or experience behind them.

What Bob needs to do is seek out COUNSEL from an expert who A. KNOWS that Bob can reach his goal, B. Has actual KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM and EXPERIENCE with training and truly understands how to get him from point a to point b, and C. Supports him on his quest rather than ridicules him for trying to do something positive with his life.  Once he does this, he needs to pass on his new knowledge and wisdom to others who are in his original position. Not only will this help those who he counsels, but it will help him to grow and get even better himself.   I’ve learned this first hand through teaching interns and doing continuing ed material.

Back to the ridicule point…..I can’t begin to fathom why some people have close family and friends who literally make fun of them for trying to change their lives and get in shape (or start a business or make a career change, etc.) It is absolutely ridiculous yet it happens all of the time, which brings me to my next point.

“Run from people with negative attitudes.”

“People take in the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with whom they associate in a spirit of sympathy and harmony.” In other words, if you hang around negative deadbeats, you will probably be somewhat of a negative deadbeat yourself. Want to be a successful, positive person? Then hang around other successful, positive people. Want to get freakishly strong? Then train with freakishly strong people. Want to run a great business? Spend some time picking the brains of people who run great businesses. I think you catch the trend.

If the people you surround yourself with most do nothing but bring you down and stress you out, then maybe its time to change who you surround yourself with. Whether you are trying to change your body, your career, a relationship, etc. you have to be surrounded by the right people or it won’t happen. I have been fortunate enough to have many great mentors and many great colleagues, friends and partners over the years and I would not be where I am today without their help. If someone has a negative attitude, I run. If someone comes into my facility with a negative attitude, we try to change it. If its the rare case where we can’t change it, they’re gone. One negative attitude can disrupt ten positive attitudes. Can’t have it; plain and simple.

“Accentuate the positive and illuminate the negative.”

This is a big one. Many people tend to do just the opposite. They shun the positive aspects of a venture aside and accentuate the negative things. I have worked with hundreds of clients over the years and a common thing that I tend to see with people who are still on the beginning end of their training is that they focus on all of the things that they still HAVEN’T accomplished and totally disregard all of the great things that they HAVE accomplished.

For example, I might get someone who trains for 3 to 4 months and loses, lets say, 5% bodyfat and has gained good strength on most of their big movements, like front squats, deadlifts and pushups. They have also reached 6 new short term goals with their nutrition and are making great progress overall. However, instead of appreciating these good things that, if given the chance to compound, will turn into amazing, great, awesome things, they only look at the fact that their scale weight (oh dear don’t get me started) is only down 2 pounds, they still can’t see their abz all the way, they don’t feel perfect in those pants they bought, etc. etc. They focus on the things that they HAVEN’T accomplished.

What they need to do is appreciate all of the positive things that they HAVE accomplished, realize that there is still work that needs to be done and use it as motivation to CONTINUE to get better. As I said before, success doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve been training myself for around 15 years and I’ve still got a ways to go; however, I am very proud of the things that I have accomplished while realizing there is still more for me to improve upon. It is a great journey that I embrace fully. I’ve been training clients in some capacity for 7 to 8 years and continually try to improve. I’ve had my own facility for just over one year and am happy with what I’ve accomplished while still appreciating the fact that there are many improvements to be made. Its all about mini victories and continual improvement.  Appreciate the positives with what you have done but stay humble and strive for more at the same time.

We have some clients at our gym who I’ve worked with for multiple YEARS. They have literally transformed their bodies and lives. They appreciate what they’ve done. In light of that, they then find new goals to strive for and take things to another level. If you want to get to that other level, you need to appreciate each step and improvement that you make, because if all you do is dwell on what you haven’t done, you will never get to that higher level.

KNOW that you will get there and that you are killing PR’s and FEEL your body and your mind change and improve.

CHERISH the journey and become GREAT!
While there are a number of other things that I could cover from this motivational book, there is one more message I will use that really sums it all up. Give everyday your all and never quit on your dream or goal, because you just might be THREE FEET FROM GOLD.

Definitely give the book a read….And if you have any kind of goal or dream in mind, friggin go out tomorrow and start making it a reality.  Nothing can stop you but yourself.

 

 

Here is the second part to a previous article written by Dan Zwirlein. Whatever your goals may be, proper nutrition is huge.  If you didn’t already read the first part, check it out with the link below.  Take it away Dan!
——

In the first compliance article, I talked about why people have trouble seeing results from their prospective fitness programs. In review, this usually stems from what they are doing outside of the gym rather than inside the gym, and it has to do with their compliance/adherence to a nutritional plan. In this article, I want to expand on this idea and give more thoughts/tips on how to develop a more disciplined nutrition plan for better body composition.

A common question is “so then what do I eat?”, “what is healthy eating?” “what is considered clean eating?”. This is a hot topic in the nutrition today: what really is clean eating or what is healthy? Honestly, I don’t think there is an accurate description of what clean eating is and if you asked someone to give you a formal definition, I don’t think they could. That’s one of the major flaws with the clean eating concept: it means something different to everyone. There was a very good article just written about this topic and I suggest everyone checks it out. You can find it here (sorry, link unavailable). Basically, the article debunks the notion of “clean” eating; meaning there aren’t actually groups of clean and dirty foods respectively. For example, the body doesn’t have different processes for digesting, utilizing, and storing nutrients from so called clean foods vs. dirty foods; i.e., fat from cookies isn’t digested and stored differently than fat from avocado. Your body doesn’t know the difference between the macro nutrients it receives from these different foods. Obviously, there is a difference between the complete nutritional profile of a cookie and a vegetable, and you shouldn’t use this as an excuse to eat as much cookies and ice cream as you want even though it still fits your macro nutrient profile.

So what can we do with this information to make educated decisions about our nutrition? It doesn’t really change anything but the mindset, meaning you still should concentrate on eating nutrient dense foods a majority of the time. The 90% rule still applies but now your outlook on those supposed cheat meals is different. There is nothing unhealthy with enjoying a treat for 10% of your meals IF it is planned properly and accounted for in your total caloric intake. This way you don’t have to worry about it completely derailing your progress. Keep in mind though that something that is “unhealthy” might be “healthy” for someone else based on their goals or medical condition. Its all about the right context. HOWEVER, once again we are talking about 10% of your meals, which still means only about once a week. The biggest point I want to make is that your focus shouldn’t be on the 10% of meals, it should be on the 90%. The other thing I want to emphasize is the fact that these are planned single meals and snacks that must fit within your weekly caloric intake, not all day binges that some suggest.

The 90% meals should be a combination of protein, fat, and carbs in ratios that help you reach your goals. For weight loss, that means about a gram of protein for every lb of your targeted body weight. (The same is true if you are trying to put on muscle) So if you weigh 200 lbs but you want to weigh 185 lbs you would consume about 185 grams of protein. Fat intake would be up to half of your protein intake and carbs will vary based on your goals and activity level. For example, someone trying to put on muscle mass or an athlete will need more carbohydrates in their diet than the average person looking for weight loss. These are all estimates and can be adjusted as needed; they are just a good basic guideline to start with.

The sources of your protein, fat, and carbs for the 90% of your meals should be your main focus. Whole food sources including quality meats, eggs, fruits, vegetables and certain healthy starches and grains (depending on the goal at hand). A good rule of thumb is if it didn’t grow, run, fly, or swim then don’t eat it. For most people starting out, this is a challenge just in itself. Changing 90% of their meals to some combination of these foods will be enough to make a large difference. This is why in the previous article I talked about making small progressive changes that can lead to long term habitual change. I want to make another point clear however: calories DO matter. This means that besides quality, the QUANTITY of food still needs to be monitored. It doesn’t matter if you only eat things that I just mentioned, if you still eat too much you will not burn as much fat or lose as much weight, if at all.

What a typical meal should look like:

About a palm size portion of protein of your choice ( Grass fed Beef, Eggs, Chicken Breast, Pork, Salmon, etc., some type of vegetable, and a starch like a potato/sweet potato or some oats in equal portions. You should get your fats from the meat sources, eggs, avocados, and cook with things like grass fed butter, olive oil, or coconut oil.

This article is supposed to be about compliance right? So now lets talk about more ways to help with compliance within the framework of ideas I’ve been talking about. I think the best way to stay compliant within your 90% meals is to have a plan of attack and stick to the plan as much as you can. One of the best ways to stick to a nutritional plan is to limit your choices. Find a few meals that you like, are easy to make, and fit within the framework of your macro nutrient intake (carb, protein, and fats) and stick to them. There will always be ways to spice things up later or add more choices in. Limiting your choices early on helps you take the guessing work out of preparing food and inherently keeps you more disciplined because you only have a couple of meals to choose from. This also forces you to develop good habits. If you eat just about the same things everyday you can form a routine around these meals.

Preparing of multiple meals is also a great way to increase nutritional compliance. If you prepare all your meals ahead of time it keeps you on a plan, and like limiting your choices, you are forced to stay on your plan because the food is already prepared. A big barrier for a lot of people to stay compliant is meal preparation. There is work involved in preparation of meals, and when people are short on time or they just don’t feel like cooking, they look for something quick and easy. What types of foods are usually quick and easy to make? Not usually things that fall into the grow, run, fly, or swim category.

Decrease the amount of times you are eating out. This goes hand in hand with preparing meals ahead of time, which will limit the need for eating out as much. Lets face it, as I already mentioned, most people don’t enjoy meal prep so going out to eat or ordering something is an easy cop out; however, once you decide to go out your chances of sticking to a plan diminish quite a bit, because you really are no longer in complete control of what you are eating. It is easy to get off track when there are so many restaurant and menu choices out there. Not to mention, now you really are not in control of the portion sizes or what exactly is being used to cook the meal. By limiting the times you are out, you avoid temptation, stay on track, and best of all save money.

Limit alcohol consumption. This might be the biggest nutritional hurdle for a lot of people. They don’t realize how many extra calories they are consuming just from alcohol alone. For some it means getting rid of half a day’s worth or even a full days worth of meals in calories each week just by dropping alcohol consumption down! I am not saying to never drink alcohol, but it should be limited to a couple drinks a week or special occasions.

Drink Super Shakes. Even If you prepare all your meals ahead of time there will still be those situations where you need some nutrition in a pinch. Having a few go to super shakes that are quick and easy to make are a good way to stay on track and satiated until you have time to eat more whole foods. But remember, you shouldn’t just live off of shakes, it is necessary to eat whole food as much as you can.

Find out what a super shake includes here.

If all else fails try preparing all your meals from a lean eating cook book. There are many good options out there these days but I would recommend:

Gourmet Nutrition

Practical Paleo (Disclaimer: You would need to add in more carbs when using this one.)

4 hour chef ( Disclaimer: This is more than a cook book but a very interesting read.)

With this information in hand I don’t think anyone should have a problem making some healthier choices, especially if you take the time to make a plan and follow through with it. Using just some of the tips I’ve outlined in these two articles should give you everything you need to be successful. The key is actually making the time not taking the time. You make time for things that are important to you and what’s more important than your health?