Step 1- Train Movement Patterns instead of Muscle Groups

I cannot overstate the importance of this paradigm shift.  It’s not about your hamstrings, glutes, and quads getting a good burn,  it’s bout being able to squat properly. If you find yourself asking what muscle is this exercise supposed to be working change your questions!!!  Ask if you are moving correctly….that’s the golden ticket.   If you want to feel good on a day to day basis then you must train your body to move well.  The better you move the better you will feel.  If you are 65 years old and you have trouble sitting down on the ground and standing up without using something to brace yourself with then you have no business going to the gym and hopping on a treadmill for 20-45 minutes, sweating your butt off while watching TV and calling that a job well done.  You did nothing whatsoever except cause your heart to beat faster, and improve some of your  “cardio.”  And when you get home that night you will still have trouble getting down to the ground and back up again.  If you are indeed that person it would serve  you much better to practice getting up, and getting down, over the course of 10-15 minutes, along with some basic crawling and mobility drills to help you regain some reflexive strength and flexibility.

Sample AT Home Primal Movement WOD

Crawl Slowly for 60 seconds  (on your knees or feet) -Knees under hips, shins stay parallel to the ground (this will keep your but low, and back flat) move your opposite limbs just like when you walk.

Sit down on the ground, and stand up 15 times (try to not brace your hands on your thighs)

Hold the hardest plank you can for 30-60 seconds

Repeat the above Circuit for 3-5 times, rest as necessary, proper movement is more important than speed

for more ideas  youtube movnat combos  …  tons of great stuff on there

Step 2- Don’t Eat Dumb Sh@#

I’m not sure I need to go any further with this.  ?  What’s that?   You don’t know what you should be eating?  Ok let’s try this.  Write down everything you can remember over the last week that you have eaten that did not help you lose any weight, or feel better (long term) or get healthier.  Take some time and make that list.  Now walk through your kitchen and do the same.  Everything you see that is not “good” for you write it down.    Now take a look at that list.    Are you ready?   Don’t eat that stuff.  Simple right?  Just remember this.  Your food supply should turn almost completely over every week, food should be perishable…cardboard is not.  

Step 3-  Write down Everything you eat, Everytime you Move, and how you feel at night

You may start by not even changing a darn thing, but just recording everything you do.   Writing down your meals and your exercises will page huge dividends and ultimately reveal to you what you are doing  or not doing to be successful.  By a notebook and just start.  Just start putting it down on paper.  You will be amazed at the results and positive changes that come from this step alone.

Step 4- Train with as many positive individuals as possible

Group training has  become all the rage.  And for a great reason.  IT WORKS   There is no working out by yourself that can compete with sweating, yelling, moving your best and your hardest, absolutely dying through a WOD, and then looking to your left and right  and seeing 5-15 of your closest buddies doing the same thing.  It lights a fire in you like nothing you have ever felt.  The energy is palpable when you walk into a class environment and it is contagious.  It spreads like a wild fire and does not extinguish until the last athlete yells time.  If you have not experienced it you are missing out and you certainly due.

Step 5- Never Weigh Yourself again

Simple.  Stop doing it.  There is no valid reason  (unless you are a fighter or wrestler or some other competitor that needs to know how much gravity they displace) ….let me repeat..there is no valid reason for you to know how much you weigh, or/and especially for you to worry about it.

and last but not least

Step 6-  Believe in the process, and believe in yourself!!!

You deserve to feel great.  You deserve to look great.  Now, if you take the steps above…if you commit to being better…..if you decide now that this is the worst shape in your life that you ever are going to be….then I have to be honest to you…the sky’s the limit.  Take that step, take the plunge, drink the kool aid and become apart of the revolution.  Take your Body Back!!!!

hope you had a good read.  if you are local  (i e) Buffalo area, I will be speaking at St. Greg’s on Thursday night @7pm.  Feel free to stop in and listen, it will only cost you an hour of time, and as always you are more than welcome to attend the intro class at 10am on every Saturday.

Best of Health