Friday Challenge: Squat Text, Motion is Lotion and Journalling
This week I want to focus on perpetual motion and the idea of capturing ideas for further examination. Here's the challenge: 1. Squat Text: This challenge will serve two purposes - a) work on your hip mobility b) make you aware of how much texting you actually do. Every time you stoop over your phone to send a text message, drop into a full squat to do so. If you text a lot, your hips will become quite mobile. If you don't, good for you. 2. Motion is Lotion: This is not as ag


Beach Ready
As the weather heats up and summer and summer is just a few weeks away, we all feel the urge to shed a bit of fat so we can be ready for the beach. While having a sculpted or shredded physique shouldn't be your main fitness goal, staying lean is a worthy pursuit and demands good choices and a healthy lifestyle. So before you go to the local GNC and load up on fat burners and cleanse kits, let's assess three areas of our lives and make sure you're getting the most bang for you
Mobility Monday Episode 27: Killian Jornet
The limits for running are constantly being pushed further, with challenges increasing in duration, length, and risk. Marathon have extended to ultramarathons, which are opening up areas of mountain running at altitudes where breathing in is like sucking through a straw. Killian Jornet, a Spanish ultrarunning and ski mountaineer champion and has pushed his competitors even further, with blisteringly fast mountain ascents and descents. What was once technical climbing using ro


Friday Challenge: Sun Exposure, Early Rises and Morning Activity
With summer just around the corner, the long days are upon us. The sun greets us upon waking and lingers on past dinner. I encourage you to live the seasons. While it's ok to hunker down in the winter, it's also appropriate to increase your activity in the summer. Here's the challenge: 1. Sun exposure. Sun tanning is like drinking - encouraged in small doses, but damaging if performed in binge sessions. Try to get 20 min of sunlight on your skin every day. If it's warm enough
Thoracic Spine Mobility
Your upper (thoracic) spine, is supposed to have a natural kyphosis in your upper spine, the region which starts at the base of your neck and ends at your lowest rib. This helps to absorb weight and shock and the demands of gravity on your body. However, many people have excessive kyphosis, which results in hunchbacks and an eventual Dowager's hump. Excessive kyphosis, that brutal anatomical position where your head is distended well in front of your body, your upper back pro
Mobility Monday Episode 26: Kino MacGregor
The title of this video suggests that Kino will be talking about backbends, but the focus is more on opening the hips. By positioning your pelvis, you can get deep into your hip flexors, or iliopsoas. Take note of the how deep and long your hip flexors run when you rotate and bend backwards. This allows you to start getting at your spine as your hips release after long days of sitting and driving. #mobility #hips #stretch
Friday Challenge: No Negativity, Mindfulness Drills and Full Squats
The challenges for this week will make you a better person in all respects. I implore you to give them a shot. 1. A full week of no negative thoughts. Get used to reframing. Life is about how you react to things and not so much about what happens to you. You will not complain, harbour animosity, or entertain negativity this week. Instead, you'll let things be as they are. See what this does for you mentally and emotionally. 2. Mindfulness drills. Being mindful while we are en
Fasting
Here's a repost of a blog post I wrote for another site two years ago about my experience during a fast. Accompanying the increasing popularity of Paleo/Primal lifestyles is the concept of Intermittent Fasting (IF), a feeding schedule which consists of extended periods of fasting followed by a feast which occupies a short time period. Don't eat for a long time, then refuel hard. The key is the pulsing cycle of feast and famine, flooding the body with nutrients then an abstin
Mobility Monday Episode 25: Ido Portal
Redefine your movement pattern. Move beyond aesthetics and towards complexity of movement. This is another post with Ido Portal, an interview where he claims that we are the best movers on the planet. Our function goes deeper than our skeletal muscles. it is time to rethink your exercise philosophy and upgrade your movement vocabulary. Learn new skills and immerse yourself in other disciplines. Free your body and untap your potential. #movement #mobility #physique
Sort Out Your Wrists
As a result of days spent driving, typing on the keyboard, hunched over our desks, our wrists have become weak. We don't spend much time bearing our bodyweight on our hands, as the need to crawl was eliminated early in childhood. However, this leaves us with weak wrists which cry out in pain and limit our capabilities when performing pushups, handstands, and other hand balances activities. Limited mobility in our wrists also puts us at further risk of injury such as carpal tu