That's Awkward

To my loyal fans and followers (all three of you*),
       You may have noticed recently this blog has started to head in a health & fitness sort of direction. This isn't so much because I desire to turn this blog into a FitBlog, but more because thats where my passion currently is at this moment in time.

So if you love pizza dipped in chocolate batter, deep fried and then covered in another chocolate coating, fear not, this is Nate-Radio, it defies categorisation the way cats defy being treated as inferiors!

Over and out Radio Fans!

Functionality Rant

The fitness industry is a flawed industry. Walk into any commercial gym in the world and you will find people working hard and not getting results, people not working hard and expecting results, people spending money for results they won't get and people getting results that aren't what they need.

This is not the fault of the paying customers. Everyone in those gyms deserves the results they want, or at least the results they are willing to work for. However, the notions of what is healthy, what is desirable and what is good for us has been skewered beyond all recognition for a reason as simple as this: $$$.

Fitness is not about: being skinny, having big muscles, benching big numbers or looking awesome in your matching Nike dry-fit compression gear. It's about being fit to function. Being able to control your body efficiently under a range of different circumstances, whether that's climbing a ledge, pushing your malfunctioning car or running from zombies.

Sure, lifting the entire weight rack on the Lat Pulldown is impressive, but it's not functional. Leg Pressing a thousand pounds impresses your friends but it doesn't impress the joints in your lower body. The same goes for cardio equipment, treadmills are designed to simulate running, but running on a machine is not the same as functional running. The flat belt does not account for the ever-changing terrain of the outside world. Air conditioned rooms cannot replace the wind resistance of the great outdoors. These differences may seem small but they make a difference. Running five miles on a treadmill is much easier than running five miles on a dirt track, if you find that hard to believe, try it for yourself.

When it comes down to it, the one and only thing I want you to gain from this post is that fitness is about being able to use what you've got. Train for the right reasons. There are a lot of things out there telling you the opposite- don't listen to them, ask yourself: How is this making me a more effective machine?

If the answer is: "It's not", then find something that will.

And thank me when you're not a zombie =) 

Push Ups Rock!!

The push up (or press up for those of you from British backgrounds) is perhaps the most easily identifiable resistance movement in the world. It is accessible (all you really need is a working body and a floor), it is simple and it is loaded with benefits.

The raw power behind any push up comes from the pectorals (your chest) and the triceps (the back, or posterior, side of your upper arms) much in the way your typical bench press would. For this reason, a lot of people who enjoy resistance training assume that the push up can be replaced and even improved by substituting it for the bench press.

This is not the case. In fact, it is quite far from the truth. On the bench press, the body is sandwiched firmly in place between a bench and gravity. There is little core stimulation, for the most part your body is held in place and your arms and chest do the work.

The pushup however, is performed with your body in the air, all those muscles must contract and stay tight, after all, a rigid structure is much easier to move than something that flops all over the place. Someone once said it to me like this: "You know those planks we do, where we're forced to hold ourselves off the ground, tighten our stomach and just wait for the pain to overwhelm us? Well, a pushup is basically a plank where you go up and down."

It's like doing two extremely effective exercises in one hit. Killing two birds with one stone (not possible), etc, etc.

On average, a standard pushup moves about 70% of your weight. This changes based on where your weight is located, your unique body proportions and whichever fitness magazine you believe, but 70% is a fair estimate. The problem with this is that for some people, 70% is too much and for others that weight is far too little.

Never fear, this is where progressions and regressions come to the rescue!

Progressions and regressions are simply fancy gym jargon for tweaks and techniques that make certain exercises easier or harder depending on your individual needs. Progressions are more difficult and regressions are slightly easier. Some people, especially (in my experience) young men, shun the idea of a regression and will simply push and push and push themselves with an exercise that is too hard until they either get discouraged and quit (or proudly go about it with poor form). Others will see a progression and impatiently try it, disregarding the proper technique needed to do it properly in the process. Keeping that in mind, I beg that you would heed this one piece of advice with an understanding and open mind.

Proper Form Is King.

What I mean by that is that if you can't do something with good form, no matter what it is, you should be meek and lowly of heart and humble yourself down to something that you can perform properly. Poor form robs you of the true benefits of exercise and can lead to disasters later down the track (chronic back pain, anyone?).

So, for the pushup, here is a 5 step regression to progression standard:

1. Wall Pushup: Perform your pushup with your hands against a wall, keep your feet together a step away from the wall. Inhale as you lower yourself forwards and exhale as you push back.

2. Incline Pushup: Use a chair, bench, table or anything else that is sturdy and matches your level of strength. Put your hands on your surface of choice and perform your pushups inhaling and exhaling as you did on the wall pushup. Remember, the lower your surface, the more difficult the pushup.

3. Kneeling Pushup: Perform a standard pushup from a kneeling position. Be sure to keep your weight forward and your palms a little wider than shoulder width. Keep your weight forward and push through the ground, exhaling as you come up. You want the emphasis to be on your upper body so avoid using your legs and back to assist you.

4. Pushup: Congratulations, you've built up a to a proper pushup, now do them until their easy! Remember to keep your body in a straight line, nice, tight and rigid like a solid beam of concrete.

5. Diamond Pushup: Form a triangle below your chest with your thumb and pointer fingers. This puts a great deal more weight on your triceps and you will certainly feel it!

From there, you can progress further to assisted one armed pushups, single arm pushups and even bar pushups (where you are performing pushups from the top of an elevated bar), however, we won't go into that, as frankly, those movements are crazy enough to warrant a post of their own.

Starting with the wall pushup, which 99% of people should be able to do right through to a standard pushup, all these movements are attainable to you regardless of your age, gender or strength. When you can perform two sets of twenty repetitions (twenty straight wall/incline/kneeling etc pushups) move on to the next progression. Give yourself time and be patient. Don't try again until the soreness from your last attempt abates. Keep a sheet of paper (or a note on your phone) and track your progress. The pushup is a fantastic exercise that really does benefit your entire body. I strongly urge anyone and everyone to try it out.

All you need is a floor.

Run Free, Young Grasshopper!

 Running is the original mode of fast human transportation, we have been doing it for many thousands of years. Our ancestors ran for food and for pleasure, it is built into the very cells of our bodies as part of a 'fight or flight' reaction. When things were dangerous, those who came before us fought. When it was too dangerous, they ran. The only reason that you are able to read this today is because all of your predecessors were better runners than those who weren't so lucky.

As far as I know, most of us are not in any danger of being chased away by lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), so lets drop that side of the coin and talk about running for pleasure. As far as we know, the earliest competitive races were run in Ireland in the Tailteann Games in a 1829 BC, a good thousand years before the first recorded Olympics. Running back then was surely different from what running is now. For starters, nobody had iPods, Nikes, heart-beat monitors or TV screens in front of a moving conveyer belt, they had the cold (it was Ireland, after all) wind in their hair, the ground beneath their feet and the world of the track before them. Nobody cared about reaching the 60%-80% fat burn zone and nobody checked their scales when they got home. Why? Because running is fun.

In our current superficial day and age everybody wants payment for their efforts. If you do something, you get something, it is not a courtesy but an expectation. In the corporate marketplace, that is a fair philosophy, but when it comes to fitness, well being, health and happiness, that is not the way the world works. If you are running to fit into some smaller jeans, to develop a ripped six pack or for any number of other self serving reasons, chances are you're going to hate what you're doing and give up quickly. However, if you love running for the pure sake of being outside, moving over the earth the way you were designed to do, feeling in touch with your movement and surroundings, you will reap rewards you never even knew you needed.

HOW?
Have you ever seen anyone pick up a golf club for the first time and nail a hole-in-one? How about a bullseye on their very first dart? Chances are you have not and will not. Golf and darts are technical skills that rely on flawless technique- you need years of training from professionals who have learned themselves over many years just what to say and do for you to improve. Same with any sport, swimming, basketball, tennis. Poor technique leads to poor performance and injury.

And it's the same with running.

Just because the ability to run is naturally hardwired into our system doesn't mean we know how to utilise that ability. Yet, how many people run without ever hearing a single word about 'proper form'? People get up and they run. They don't go very far and pretty soon they start to hurt. This isn't because running is evil and a waste of time, it is because they are not doing it the way it should be done. If you tried to play golf holding the club upside down, chances are you wouldn't enjoy that much either.

So here's the lesson that you should take from this post and apply to your lives:
In order to run free and be free to run, these are the cues you should repeat in your head every time you hit the track- these are taken from Christopher McDougalls excellent book Born To Run, for the simple reason that it is brilliant, straightforward and easy to apply.

1. Easy: Make your steps nice and easy, don't force it. Don't take long strides, just nice, short, easy strides at a pace that is comfortable for you.

2. Light: Once you've mastered easy, focus on making yourself weightless. Picture your feet barely sweeping the ground as you float along the track.

3. Smooth: When you're easy and light, make it flow like a smooth rolling river. Think of yourself as a tide rolling down the track.

4. Fast: If you master easy, light and smooth you'll already be fast.

The biggest mistake people make when they run is pushing themselves too much too soon. You don't jump straight into a hot bath and running is the same, you must ease into it. Start slow, build up from there, push yourself if you feel like a challenge, ease off if you don't. Do it for the right reasons and let yourself enjoy it.

And don't forget to smile, after all, running is fun.