I'm sure we all remember this song as a kid that taught us all of the joints in the body and how they're all connected.  However, if we taught it as the title reads, it'd be a VERY short lesson on human bones.  

My goal for the next four weeks is to review the four major joints and how mobility, or lack thereof, can impede range of motion, throw our lifts out of whack and affect our overall strength and possiblity for injury.  This week I'll be talking about the ankle.  

The ankle is usually the last joint anyone talks about.  Its usually the shoulder, hips or knees that first come to mind when discussing mobility.  However, as any good coach will tell you, it all starts with the feet.  Your feet are your foundation.  If your foundation is off, that means the rest of your positioning is off. By having someone do an air squat, I can immediately tell if they have flat feet, tight calves or for the ladies, consistently wear heels.  I'll start with a VERY brief anatomy lesson.  

Whenever I refer to the ankle, I generally mean the calf muscles, which consist of the gastrocnemius (gastroc) and the soleus, of which the gastrocnemius is the larger of the two and having the larger impact on mobility.  The gastroc is connected to either side of the end of the femur (thigh bone) and connected to the heel via the Achilles Tendon.  Because the calf is connected to the femur, it comes into play whenever the knee is bent or straightened i.e. squatting.  So how do tight calves mess up a squat?  Let's take the movement step-by-step.

Imagine yourself standing at full extension and about to perform the eccentric (downward) portion of the squat.  The first motion is the unhinging of the hips.  Once you unhinge the hips, the glutes and hamstrings are activated (keep in mind that the hamstring is attached to the tibia or the shin bone).  As you proceed further downward, the knees stay in relatively the same spot assuming proper mobility: right over the mid-foot area.  However, if you have tight calves, they won't allow the femur to slide back when the hips unhinge.  The tight calf muscles then pull the knees forward over the toes, bringing the heels off the ground and putting your knees in danger of an injury.

If you find yourself with tight calves, make sure to get them nice and warm, especially now during our squat-intensive program.  Some good movements include the inchwork, both pre- and post-wod and the "wall stretch" (place your toes high up on a wall/column and pull your body towards the wall).  During your band stretches post-wod, place the band closer towards your toes while stretching the hamstrings and point our toes towards your shin while pulling on the band.  You'll feel a great stretch in the calf area.  Bend the knee slightly to stretch the soleus, which sits underneath the gastroc.  You can also attack the calves with a foam roller and a tennis/lacrosse/golf ball.  Do it...your knees will thank you.

If you need any further explanation on these or any other stretches for your calves, click on the "Contact Me" link on the right-hand side of the page.  

GO BIG BLUE!!

At the end of the day and you look in the mirror, are you going to be happy with your decisions?  

Its always You vs You!  Seize the moment!!

I wanted to talk about one of the underlying physiologicial reasons as to why CrossFit works.  Its called E.P.O.C.: excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.  Simply stated, its the number of calories burned after your workout above your normal resting rate due to the workout.  Its more commonly known as the "after-burn" effect.  Studies have shown that this after-burn effect could last anywhere from a few hours up to 48 hours post-workout!  In other words, if you normally WOD on M/W/F, when you show up on Wednesday, you could quite possibly still be burning calories from Monday's WOD!  

For example, lets say that my resting metabolic rate (number of calories I need to ingest just to stay alive) is 2,000 calories/day.  After a typical WOD, that rate could increase up to 2,300 calories.  Now my body is burning more calories at rest.  However, the body's response isn't the same with every type of exercise modality.  

Even with my personal clients, I hear people say that they need to get "cardio" in.  If done properly, anaerobic training IS your cardio, while throwing, squatting, lifting and jumping all at the same time.  Here's the kicker: even though both aerobic (running) and anaerobic (CrossFit) elicit an E.P.O.C. response, anaerobic exercise, especially high-intensity exercises with weights elicits not only a much greater response, but the after-burn effect lasts for much longer!

Am I saying to stop doing aerobic exercise?  If you're performing the same number of aerobic sessions as anaerobic sessions, yes.  You're actually doing more harm than good.  You're stunting your strength gains, muscle growth and some other very cool physiological improvements.  Aerobic exercise is great as an active recovery (bike, run, row).  However, there's much more of a benefit from anaerobic training with weights in addition to the carry-over effect.

Happy exercising!

Each insurance company has their own set of rules, regulations, standards, paperwork, etc.  In addtion, most patients have custom insurance products that carry its own set of rules and paperwork.  This makes it almost impossible to get a straight answer when needed most.  According to one doctor, 

A young patient complaining of extreme fatigue, for example, might benefit from a $40 blood test that could confirm infectious mononucleosis in 10 minutes. But a doctor cannot order the simple test without first checking with the insurance company to see if it is covered and if there are any constraints on where the patient’s blood can be drawn and the test run.

In addtion, doctors are having an increasingly difficult time keeping up with the ever-changing drugs that are covered by each insurance company.  Doctors are sent weekly notices as to which medications are now covered, making tracking almost near impossible.  How so?  

Those doctors that are able to hire Office Managers or Office Administrators to work with all the insurance companies.  However, most doctors run single-physican practices and cannot afford the expense to outsource this work to companies that specifically deal with insurance companies on the physician's behalf.  So they are left to find the 21 hours/week to follow-up with insurance companies to ensure their patients receive the care they deserve.  

We've all seen the food chart but many have us have paid very little attention to that triangle-looking thing.  Here's the old version (circa 1992), the one we all know and love.  Within the past 6 years, the food chart was replaced by this one.  The only difference between the two is the addition of exercise on the latter.  However, the actual food groups really haven't changed: grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, oils, meat and beans.  This sounds like a relatively healthy meal, right?  Here's the kicker that 90% of people fail to realize: regardless of how we classify foods, our bodies only recognize foods as 3 categories and reacts to them accordingly.  Can you guess what they are?  Carbohydrates, proteins and fats.  I'll now classify the USDA Food Pyramid under those 3 macronutrients:

*Grains: carbohydrate

*Vegetables: carboyhydrate

*Fruits: carbohydrate

*Milk: carbohydrate

*Oils: Fat

*Meats and Beans: Protein

Its pretty obvious to see why 75% of the American population will be considered obese by 2050!  Now, you're probably wondering why milk/dairy is classified as a carbohydrate.  Remember, your body reacts to only 3 categories of food.  When it recognizes a carbohydrate is being ingested, the body releases insulin to control the amount of sugar in the blood.  When you ingest any dairy product, your body treats it as a carbohydrate and reacts accordingly.  

But milk is still healthy, right?!  Eh...depends.  Where does most dairy come from?  Cows.  And what are cows usually fed?  Very cheap meal that consists of mostly corn.  Why corn?  Because corn is highly subsidized, making it much cheaper than alfalfa and obscenely cheaper than allowing the cattle to graze naturally.  Not to mention that cows are housed in horrid conditions, coupled with the farmers injecting hormones and antibiotics into the cattle doesn't make for healthy meat and/or dairy products.

With the mention of fat, people tend to conjure up images of lard, Crisco and grizzle.  Definitely not!  I'm talking about more of the healthy fats: avocados, olive oil, coconut oil/milk, nuts, etc.  These have a bigger place in our diets than we are led to believe.  Healthy fats actually allow us to feel satiated while still ingesting the vitamins and minerals we need.  Add half an avocado to your dinner and see how much less you eat.  Grab a handful of almonds as a midday snack and you won't crave that frappiccino...as much :).  

Sadly, there is no improvement with the new food "plate".  Even though the plate is a bit easier to understand, the breakdown is roughly the same and in a decade or so, the USDA will again wonder why America is still getting fatter.  Here are the first two sentences of a mantra called "World-class fitness in 100 Words":

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.  

*6 eggs

*1 pepper, diced

*2-3 slices of bacon, diced

You can add some additional vegetables or anything else you would normally add to an omlete or scrambled eggs.  Just keep in mind that this all will be put into a muffin pan.  Before filling the muffin spaces, you can either line the pans with muffin liners or just use non-stick spray or olive oil.  I filled six of the muffin spaces halfway with scrambled eggs.  I added the peppers and the bacon, then topped off the spaces completely with the eggs.   

Place the tin in the oven at 350 degrees for anywhere from 15-20 minutes.  You can test the them by placing a knife through the muffins and if the knife comes out clean, they're done.  I'll be honest...I didn't really know what to expect.  But I was definitely pleasantly suprised with the results.  

These can easily be used as a a mid-morning or mid-day snack just as easily as breakfast on-the-go.  The best part is that you can place the unused muffins in a storage bag, throw them in the fridge to be eaten for another day.  

Bon apetit!