I'm all good now... and feel better than ever  

Keep moving forward,

Adriel

CFT-ISSA Personal Trainer Glendale

When I get on the treadmill, I go in a little trance.
I usually hold on one of the rails and close my eyes.
I'm see my work out results way before it happens.

Visualize during warm up what it is you seek -
whether confidence, strength,
be faster as a runner, physical attractiveness -
whatever it may be - mentally prepare by your warm up.

See it first!

Adriel

Happy Thursday!

As I walk by the front desk of my gym, I can
see the doctor scale over to my right, carefully
placed where all members pass to get to the weight room.

I do measure my scale weight, maybe every 4
weeks. Even once a week is fine but don't let the scale
number  be your choice assessment of training progress.

It can be discouraging.
You don't want to get discouraged do you?
You see, you're scale weight may not change much
and you can actually gain scale weight and still lose inches.
Get your scale and donate to GoodWill, throw it away or give to your enemy.

You want to be able to track ways to see changes
on your body. Use body fat percent vs your lean body mass.

You can look at changes with measurements, clothes fitting or even
just the mirror. You can even measure changes in the weight you lift (strength gains).

Be better,

Adriel

I HOPE you're awesome!

It's New Year tomorrow... and HOPE. A new year gives
you hope...a another year and another chance to,
quite literally, reinvent yourself and your life
the way you really want it. I HOPE you do that!

Have a happy New Year, my friend

Adriel

A man was hunched over at a bench I saw
earlier at the conference. It looked uncomfortable sitting.
I went up to him and asked "Are you okay?".
"I'm okay, my low back just hurts a bit"

"How did you hurt it? When did the pain first appear?" I asked.

He said he gets lower back pain when ever he stands or sits in one position
for long periods.

How about you? Do you get occasional back pain or soreness?

I observe people posture sitting at their desk or
while using their smart phone (not even cell phone is
seems) and with mobile Internet, many are reading while
standing and walking - always looking down at the smart
phones.

Look, it's going to strain muscles and if not now,
it will in time.

A healthy back has three natural curves:

* An inward or forward curve at the neck(cervical curve)
* An outward or backward curve at the upper back (thoracic curve)
* An inward curve at the lower back (lumbar curve)

Take an look at at the image in the LINK

Good posture helps maintain these natural curves,
while poor posture does the opposite — which can
stress or pull muscles and cause imbalance and pain later.

Keep a strong upright posture with your neck and
spine. Be aware of this when standing and walking.

The best way I could explain a easy to maintain
posture is sit or stand as if a rope is pulling
you at the top center of your head - imagine as if that thin rope
slightly tugging up keeping your ears, shoulders and hips aligned
as your you keep your chest up  and your rib cage forward.

What can you do for the upper back? If you're especially desk bound.
Use theraband and do shoulder retraction for the
shoulder bladed and shoulder stability.

Do some stretches. Get on all four - hands and knees
and round your back up towards the sky and drop
the belly down towards the floor, repeat the cycle
several times. Think how cats stretch.

Tilt and rotate head in all directions. Front, back,
side to side. You can add some tension using the
palm side of your hand on the the side of your head
when doing the side tilt.

Get up from the chair or move around and walk
instead of staying in one position too long.
Make a trip across the hallway of your office
or to the kitchen if you're working at home.

Keep moving - pain free

Adriel

You see, your breast are made
of soft tissue of fat, not muscle. skin and
a web of ligaments. When you lose weight, don't
you tend to see a reduction in your breast size?

Do you want your breast to droop more, later in life?

I didn't think so

Over 50 percent movement could be prevented with
a good sports bra. This covers cup sizes A to D.
For example, running strides can cause the breast
to sag as the breast can travel 1 inch and a half
and can move and up to 3 inches with size D cups.

That's with each stride. They move up, down, in,
out and side to side.
According to biomechanics scienctists who study
bounce. Think of your breast as travelling a
"butterfly" pattern.

Support those breast. As the saying goes,
"a good defense is a good offense". so your
action step: Fight sag by wearing a sports
bra. Support yourself. Try on a buy several
pairs and wear it during your physical exercise
activites.

Talk soon,

Adriel

A little soreness is fine but when an area really aches,
I just don't want to move. I'd rather stay in bed, read a
book and just veg out.

The other day, I was doing dead lifts then some back
extensions (on a roman chair) with rotations the and felt
fine during the work  out but somehow I tweaked my lower
back muscles (or just overworked it:-) A massage with muscle
cream would have been one choice.

I opted for a OTC heat wrap and a couple of Advils.

I picked up Thermacare self heating wraps that I
used for my lower back area. First, there is no scent
like some localized muscle cream that I know. This wraps
got tiny iron particles  generate a warmth without burning
the skin.

You can try two cups of Epsom salts in a hot bath, too, to help.

If you have occasional light muscle aches, try Arnica.
It's homeopathic and works great or muscle relaxing Tiger
Balm.

So if you need something quick for muscle relaxing
treatment, have a few of these items in you medicine
cabinet.

I'm all good now.

I hope you have a great weekend.

No pain, is all good

Adriel

I hope you're great!

There's a quote on my wall that reads:

"One never learns something so well
as when one attempts to teach it"  - Kent Krive

Have you noticed that the gift of teaching can empower
others to be better?

Do you get inspired to work out when you see a
well-built body?

Maybe your in a rut from training, maybe you just
need a little inspiration.

It's hard sometime. Why? Because, to see
results, sometimes it can take weeks or even
several months. Then next thing we notice,
we've quit being consistent. We use to go
to the gym 5 days a week is now 1 time (if
we're lucky"

What happened? What can you do?

Here's 5 tips to get you going:

Tip: 1 Create your transformation resources.

Go and read stories from magazine articles and books
of different people with similar weight loss challenges
and body structures and use them as your sources of
success information.

You see, we can all learn a productive, success tips
from any one's experience. We all leave golden nuggets on
our trail that we blaze.

Action step: go to your bookstore newsstand and
pick up several health and fitness magazine and sift and
search for inspirational stories. Again, make sure you
can relate to the person - lifestyle and body type.

You can start your goal/dream book. Find the
images of  bodies similar to yours and cut their face out
and add yours.

Put it in clear sleeves in a binder or paste in your journal.
Look at it several time each day.
Write  inspirational quotes and notes around it.
Put pictures that move and motivate you.

Tip 2: Where is the crowd at?

I personally like to see people around me and be part of a
group environment setting when I can however my work
outs are customized to my performance needs so I don't
mind working out alone.

I noticed a difference in my intensity when I work
out at my home gym versus the health club. I go much
harder at the gym.

The people lifting and moving inspiring me to work
out harder. Go where the crowd is and get inspired
by others in the same room working to make a
difference with their bodies. If there isn't a gym, find
a person locally. Remember many people have the same
frustrations and problems when training on their own.
Get in the energy vibration of others. If there
isn't a gym, start a small community group with people of
common health and weight loss interest.

Tip 3: Do Less Training.

Often times we're told to do more. Do more of this exercise
and more of this set. Do 10 sets of 12 reps. What ever itmight be, to get out of that funk, do less.
For example, to get you've been avoiding lifting, one way
to back is to go in and just do 1 or 2 reps and assess. How do you feel?
If you can add 2 more reps, do two more. If not, walk away from the
machine. Yes, use your instincts.

Often times, you'll simply feel much better, touching
the machine, picking up that dumbbell or tubing and moving
that you'll do more.

Tip 4: Give the magic of "WHY" a chance

Want to be lean, toned and in shape. Give
me the "magical" reasons. The reasons, your "WHY"
will take you back on track to your transformational path.

This requires you grab a pen and paper and
physically write it down. Go deep into this one.
Say "I'm going to (state your goal) so that (state
your benefits)"

I'm going to lose 15 pounds and lose several
inches, fit into my skinny jeans so that (I can look
extremely confident in my clothes)

Expand on the list of sentences... go on...
list all the things you'd like to do and be as detailed
as possible.

Write before going to bed to help the goals
get re-enforced. Pull out the biggest "Why's" and get  back
into proactive action.

Don't skip this step, it's probably one most
powerful tip in this article.

Tip 5: Rejuvenate through teaching.

I mentioned that quote in my office.
This method not only helps the student but the
teacher even more. I've been teaching my kids all that I
find benefits them and I'm amazed how repeating these
steps out to someone I find, often that I miss steps if
I instead just wrote in down on a piece of paper.

There is tine-tiny steps in some task that we do
a certain way that can often be overlooked.

For example, I have a paper shredder machine by my office
desk.

It's plugged in, power button is on but why is it
NOT working. Little did I know that the door to the unit
was ajar slightly and a sensor activates the
machine not to run if found the door to shredder is open.

That's a  small step that I could have overlooked but by
doing it by show and tell, I find this problem can happen.

By helping through teaching, say, someone to get
fit and become healthier, makes me happier, feel
re-energized to reach my own goals.

And listen, if don't need a degree or
certification to help someone.

I hope these tips can help you get unstuck and focused or re-focused again.

Life is a workout - look good doing it,

Adriel

I hope you're doing great.

I walked out of my gym and saw a boot camp student of mine riding by on mountain bike... It's was Todd.

"Yo!" I yelled as he had passed the gym
and was about to cross the street intersection.

I couldn't help but noticed how low his bike
seat was.

I knew he rode a pretty long distance from the route he told me about last time. But now I know one reason why he told me he felt so tired after his last ride...

He was riding a "hot" seat.

What do I mean?

If you want to be more efficient on the bike,
make sure your seat is at proper height for optimal efficiency.

If it's too low (like my bud, Todd:-) your legs will fatigue a lot faster because you engage excess use of the frontal thigh muscles and this also reduces recovery time for each pedal stroke.

If your seat is too high and you rock your hips left right, then will cause chaffing (between the legs - not good!) even if you wear bike shorts. Although, this will mostly happen when you spend much longer periods on the saddle.

The height should give you a slight bent at the knee when extended and your toes should not have to point down.

The motion should be fluid from the full revolution of each pedal stroke so you fully engage your hamstrings and glutes as well as your front thighs.

Make sure your seat is at proper height if you want ride better, faster, longer. Try it out yourself.

Who's looking out for ya ?

Adriel

'Til next time.. lift (weights) well & prosper!

Adriel Yapana