kelly starrett

Is Sitting is the New Smoking? Is Strong is the New Skinny?

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Spend a few minutes scrolling through your news feed on Facebook, you’ll inevitably come across someone posting spirited words of inspiration.

Diagram A:

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Diagram B:

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Very spirited posts indeed.

Let’s start with “strong is the new skinny”…

I recently read a Huffington Post article that made a great number of points about the concept that “strong is the new skinny”.  I have to say that I agree with many of the points made in the article.  I felt that the author made some really good points that seemed to be deeply tied to her preferences.

I’ve never preached skinny.  I actually think that “thinning out”, “getting skinny”, “slimming down” are all as annoying as “strong is the new skinny”.  Strong definitely is strong.

What’s even cooler than saying that “strong is strong” is building up a person’s confidence to the point that they are about to explode with ambition, drive and the pursuit of their own form of greatness.  Whether “getting skinny” or “getting strong” is the path to jump starting a person’s legacy, it doesn’t matter to me.  Use whatever fuel gets you moving.

I once trained a 12-year old hockey player in Detroit, MI, who will remain nameless.  At 12 years of age, most males are just starting to figure out their bodies, muscles, etc.  They are on the brink of puberty, so this makes sense.

This young man was one of my favorite training sessions of the week, by far. I always looked forward to working this kid because I could tell that he didn’t have much confidence, and his Mom- after a few training sessions- praised my efforts by telling me that her son really looked up to me as a coach.  I praised him every chance I got.  High-five’s, knuckles, shouting and clapping when he succeeded was my formula.    As with any enjoyable client, his strongest trait was that he listened.  He was coachable.  He may have been smaller and weaker than other kids his age, but he was willing to listen to my advice and follow through with my suggestions.

A few months down the road, after never missing a scheduled training session, he walked into our training center smiling from ear to ear.  “I made the Peewee A team (hockey), I am the strongest on the team and a girl at school said I have big muscles”.

Naturally, I laughed, particularly at the end part of his comments.  I was ridiculously proud of this kid.  His entire demeanor had changed over a course of months.  Not necessarily from an introvert to an extrovert, but definitely from a kid that lacked confidence to a kid that realized he could accomplish whatever he wanted if he stuck to the recipe and did the work.

Strong may not be the new skinny, but building strength, both physically and mentally can change a person in a matter of weeks.  You’d be surprised at home many people, kids or grown-ass adults have displayed a new-found confidence from improving that strength, ability to move, performance and most recently… their composition of their body.

So, I really don’t care what you choose to refer to “it” as,  but in this situation, strength is confidence.

 

Next, “Is sitting the new smoking”?

Kelly Starrett thinks that it is, and while Kelly Starrett isn’t god, he is certainly a massively influential face in the movement world right now.  Right up there with Ido Portal.

The truth is that I don’t think that comparing sitting to smoking is really a good comparison.  I understand the message that people are aiming to convey by saying that over-indulging in sitting is kind of like smoking, but sitting is sitting, and smoking is smoking.

Everyone needs to sit at some point.  Quite honestly, I enjoy sitting.  It usually means that I am reading a book, listening to music, watching the waves roll in on a lake, watching NHL hockey (as I am right now) or writing.  All great activities that I thoroughly enjoy.

I don’t punish myself for sitting and nor should you.  However, I also don’t sit 8+ hours day for my career.  That fact, makes me consciously accepting of times that I sit.  I feel that I earned the right to sit, rest my feet, relax and reboot.

The magnitude of the negative effects that sitting has on a person should be related to each person and their unique situation.

If you’re a person that remains seated and stationary during most of the waking day, you probably need to be more conscious of your sitting.  You probably need to move more.  You probably need to consciously focus on an improved posture for sitting.

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Photo credit: bodybuilding.com

You probably need to consider a standing desk (if you can have one where you work or at home), you probably need to take more walking breaks throughout the day.  You also probably need to be more aware of the structural changes taking place with your body as a result of such prolonged periods of sitting.

If you sit too much, you just need to be aware.  Don’t get compulsive about it, just be aware of the events that are taking place as a result of sitting so much.

Also, if you are sitting for prolonged periods, understand that you need to be consistently diligent about off-setting the effects of sitting.  Here are some simple things that you can do:

1)  Open up your thoracic spine using the tennis ball peanut.

2)  Yoga (donate 30-60 minutes of your time, you’ll feel great after)

3)  Rapid circulation (aka:  exercise)

4)  Foam roll aggressively and then hold this stretch…

Although sitting affects us all differently (just like getting punched in the head affects us all differently), the rules of unwinding and off-setting the negative adaptations of sitting can be somewhat generalized and still provide tremendous benefit and relief.  As I have said in the past, our bodies are extremely complicated and yet at the same time, extremely predictable.

So is sitting bad?  For some people, yes, it’s a slow road to a whole host of future issues.  But sitting is not evil and there is no need to pull your hair out if you sit down for a while.  Just be aware of how much you are moving around, and do you best to increase it or sustain that movement for the long haul.

Smoking, on the other hand, is terrible.  I cannot think of one benefit that anyone receives from bucking a dart.  I have an orthopedic surgeon colleague that was telling me a story not too long ago about a patient that he saw in his clinic.  This particular patient was in severe pain from bone on bone knee articulation.  Obviously, the average person is supposed to have nice lubricated cushion of meniscus, but this lady had worn through her cushion.  So, bone on bone grinding was taking its place.

Surgeons do extensive health checks for any patient that is a candidate for total joint replacement.  Upon conducting a health check on this lady, it was identified that she was a heavy smoker.  By heavy, I am talking about a pack of cigarettes per day, if not more.  This is common for orthopedic surgeons to see during consults.

After taking this patient’s knee through range of motion tests, exhaustive questioning about symptoms and an evaluation of her x-rays, the doctor told the patient that she was in fact over-due for a knee replacement.

“I would like to see you again in a week for another series of tests so we can properly schedule your surgery”, the surgeon told her.

“Another visit?!  I can’t afford that!”, the patient responded.

“Why is that?  It’s important to make sure that you’re able to make it through the surgery, it’s in your best interest ma’am”, said the doctor.

“I won’t be able to buy my cigarettes if I have to drive down to the clinic again”, the patient said.

The irony in this story is that the patient had terrible bone quality from smoking, diabetes and no meniscus in her knee from her lack of activity and her weight.

But she just couldn’t give up those cigarettes.

Sitting is not smoking and smoking is not sitting.

 

 

Cheers to moving more, sitting less and the pursuit of your greatest self!

KG

Kelly Starrett: The View Hosts Attempt to Become Supple Leopards

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How to Become a Supple Leopard Squatting

 

Yesterday, I caught a couple of clips of the segment that Kelly Starrett (creator of mobilitywod.com) led on The View.

Yes, that’s right, The View.  I couldn’t be happier for the guy.  He put out free content for 365 days straight before building an audience that allowed for a website makeover, fitness product launch and a subscription based service to his content.  Awesome.

I have spoken highly of Kelly on this blog in the past, and my opinion has not changed.  Some of his methods seem to cater to the extreme fitness seekers, but for the most part, I value a lot of his concepts.  I think that he is a breath of fresh air in the fitness industry, and many of his ideas will stick.

The picture above is a snapshot that I took during the segment.

I think that it is brilliant, and Kelly’s commentary during the segment was slightly more polished with less jargon than his famous YouTube videos are.  It was funny watching the co-hosts attempt to follow Kelly’s lead and squat.

Forgive me, but I don’t know their names, but the male host was blabbing his mouth the entire time, essentially avoiding the squat drill.  I like his fabricated joke about calling his gardener to tend to his garden instead of doing it himself… I bet the “audience applause” sign lit up like a Christmas tree on that one.  If his writers didn’t set him up with that one, I bet he walked into the studio that morning bursting at the seems to crack that one-liner.

Real talk:  In my experience, if a person will not participate in a movement sensitive drill on my asking, it is typically for a reason.  No one wants to feel dumb, and that is never my intention of implementing the drill.  When the person refuses to participate after verbal instruction and my visual demonstration, that is a red flag to me that they probably lack the movement capability to successfully complete the movement.

I would bet that Mr. Jokey cannot squat for shit.  

The female co-host, Kelly I believe is her name, did her best.  Hell, at least she participated.  I found it ironic that she was wearing giant stilettos, which most of us know by now have wrecked females feet since their creation.  Fixing the ankle joint in that static/plantar flexed position all day will strip you of your ankle mobility faster than you can imagine.  Factor in that a lot of females wear heels for their careers and also out on the weekends, and that is a lot of poor ankle mobility we have on our hands.

Anyways, Kelly tried to squat and she maybe broke a depth that allowed for the backside of her thighs to reach parallel to the ground (which doesn’t mean that her femur bones reach that depth).  At that point, she hunched and locked up.

For your viewing pleasure, here are the clips:

I also love that Kelly announced that sitting is the new smoking.  I probably didn’t coin that term, but in my social circle, I have been saying it for years.  I should get shirts made and a website set up.

Another important point in Kelly’s brief segment where he says that many of the orthopedic problems that people experience today can be prevented, by that person, on their own, at home.

Brilliant.

We can take care of ourselves, we just need to take the time to seek out good information and then execute that information and make change.

How to you know what classifies “good information”?  Let me guide you here folks… I will continue to post links on this blog to resources that I truly value while giving my take on things, and hopefully you can find some value in all of it.

Here is the first resource of value… buy his book:

How to become a supple leopard book cover

@ Amazon.com

Cheers to doing your own gardening and supple leopards!

KG

 

The Brilliance of CrossFit

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crossfit logo

The day that I opened by mind and stopped hating on other methods of building physical fitness is the day that I realized that I could write a book, teach it and be a resource to the masses.

If you’ve spent any time lurking around this blog, you’ve undoubtedly come across some posts where I take some jabs at the fitness phenomena known as CrossFit.

While I am not endorsing CrossFit in this post, I do have to pay this fitness monster a few compliments.

Because you see, CrossFit, while not completely in line with my thought process and methodology, has achieved some feats (in a matter of a few years) that hundreds of other fitness fads have failed at miserably.

This post is devoted to acknowledging these feats.  Yes, CrossFit, I am going to pump your tires for a bit here, but that doesn’t meant that you and I are buddies by any means…

Community.

The first thing that I noticed about CrossFit, all silly training methods aside, is that they have built a community that is unlike any other.  And they did it record time, as CrossFit was founded in 2000.  We all probably know someone who is a member of a CrossFit “box”, and you have probably heard this person (in conversation) talk about how great it is to workout with the support and encouragement of other CrossFitters.  I hear it all of the time.  It’s the same attitude and encouragement that you receive when you are apart of an athletic team.  No one wants to see anyone else fail.  The attitude seems to be that although the workouts are accomplished on the individual level, the greater victory is that everyone finishes the race.  I can get on board with that.

Intensity.

CrossFit has given people the hope that working out doesn’t have to be centered around cheesy aerobic bars and headbands, water weights, hamster training (withering away for life on the treadmill), or Jazzercise while blasting the Tina Turner on a treble dominant boom box.  It brought “cool” back to giving a training session an all out effort, using every god-given muscle to complete physical tasks.  It brought the idea that it’s ok to put the “work” back in working out.  A little effort never killed anyone, although pushing it too far has definitely hurt some people.  Breathe a little intensity back into your training.  You’ve probably got another safe gear to switch in to.

Positive body composition shift.

This builds off of intensity.  I like that Cross-Fit doesn’t preach the same old song and dance about working out and it’s benefits for fat loss.  Yes, I talk about this a lot on this blog, but I also stress the importance of fat loss as BY PRODUCT of working both hard and smart.  Work capacity style training sessions will burn fat like none other, especially when using total body lifts and sub-maximal loading.  Assuming the person doesn’t injure themselves or cause long-term internal damage from the training stimulus, it is safe to say that training sessions that involve metabolic resistance-like efforts are going to rip fat off of your body.  I’ll even go as far as saying that you can avoid an alterations in your diet (for a little while) and see great results.  Lord knows the number of people who would rather exercise over tweak the basics in their diet.  It’s habit, I get it, change is difficult for me too.

Iron and women.

Women are afraid of rough hands and bulky bodies.  Okay, this might be a bad stereotype, but in my experience most women hate the idea of loading a barbell and lifting it with their silky soft hands.  Heaven forbid ladies, you roughen them up a bit.  CrossFit made this cool also.  When you walk into a CrossFit gym, it’s common to see no cable machine or rubber coated handles of any kind.  It’s mostly iron.  Skin on iron.  Those women who survive the first few weeks of torture, seem to end up becoming addicted to moving weight with hands on iron.  You wouldn’t believe the kind of resistance that most strength coaches and personal trainers get when attempting to integrate barbell work into a clients training regimen.  I applaud you CrossFit.

Crazy lifts.

CrossFit has done what even strength coaches and highly educated personal trainers could not.  They made olympic lifting “cool”.  The people in my social network that regularly attend CrossFit training sessions think that Olympic lifting (snatches, cleans, jerks, etc) is the greatest thing ever.  In CrossFit’s infancy, I know for a fact that these lifts were being taught half-ass.  It was disturbing to think that they were even posting videos on their website, basically showing the crime being committed.  Over the years, however, I have noticed that they have progressively taken steps forward in the reinforcement of technique during such lifts.  If nothing else, it’s encouraging to see gym owners/trainers taking the time to coach before loading them up for a WOD.

Bright minds surface.

Guys like Kelly Starret are the greatest thing that has ever happened to CrossFit.  I say no more.

Rogue.

Rogue training equipment is brilliant.  I have been looking for rugged training gear that is meant for un-polished concrete for a while.  I always wondered why I couldn’t find anything that could be used OUTSIDE of the controlled gym environment.  The fact that the bumper plates from Rogue are recycled from used car tires and have minimal bounce when dropped, are a major turn on for me.  I can support this.  Part of the problem of a person’s struggling commitment to fitness is the dullness of the place where fitness happens.  It’s like going to school when you were younger… you knew that you had to go but dreaded waking up for it every day.  Get outside, train in your garage or your basement.  Don’t be reckless, but don’t be afraid to switch up your scenery to keep your training fresh and interesting.

The Wrap Up…

I feel like I just went to confession.  I purged myself on this blog just now.  But as I alluded to earlier in the post, I have to stop holding grudges against ideas and methods that I don’t like. Life is too short, there is value is just about everything.  The sad part is that the strength coach community does the same thing.  I won’t fall victim to being narrow-minded.

Since adopting this sort of open-minded thinking, my writing skills (book-wise) have improved tremendously.  I no longer feel pigeon-holed to writing about any one technique.  “Cornered” might be a better description.  All methods work just fine when executed properly, it’s just a matter of assessing yourself both physically and mentally, your goals and then getting to work.

 

 

Cheers to some positive things that Crossfit has brought to the table!

KG