5 Simple ways to be Healthier (Simple does NOT mean Easy)

I love fitness! I love the concept, the challenge, the known and the unknown when challenging my fitness or the fitness of my clients/athletes. I love when someone has that "Aha moment"(thanks Oprah) when they grasp the healthy idea or movement exercise that has eluded them. Most of all I love success!

Running is simple (unless you look at it like an engineer). Eating fewer calories is simple. Even writing a training program is simple. Running 100 meters in 12 seconds is simple. Losing 100 pounds is simple. But not 1 of those things is easy. Some things in life are hard. You will spend far more effort trying to make your life easier than you would fortifying yourself against the struggle and enjoying your health.

Getting fit and staying fit is really very simple:
1- Improve your flexibility
2- Improve your stability
3- Improve your ability to move efficiently for your every day activities
4- Achieve a healthy weight
5- Eat for balanced hormones and muscle strength.

That is 5 SIMPLE things master so you can be healthy and extend healthy life.

1 - Keeping yourself flexible or having mobility can allow you to, as the word implies, keep you more mobile. If you are more mobile then you can can move more efficiently, easier and better. When we can move better then we can move more, allowing us to keep up with our kids or even grandkids.
Find a flexibility program that you can do daily a little while before bed or before you go out for the evening. Hold each stretch for a minute- Low back, hamstrings, calves, chest and Hip flexors. Your body will thank you by moving better longer. Do not get too creative. Just find what is stiff and try to make it move better. Find what is stuck and unstick it.

2- Improve your stability - The ability to stand on one foot/leg is an essential skill for walking. It can also come in handy if you are are texting and step into the street in front of a car. The ability to be stable in most positions you body can get into is a great way to avoid injury. However, you cannot train for everything. A stronger, more stable mid-section with strong abs, hips and low back can be enough to avoid most injuries that do not involve outside forces (like the car we mentioned).
Keep a strong core by holding plank for 60 sec, side plank 30 sec each side and a table top (face up plank) for 60 sec. Don't worry if you cant hold for the entire time, build up to longer and longer. See how long you can hold. Basic exercises done for a simple amount of time, 60 sec or 30 sec.

3- Improve your ability to move efficiently for your every day activities. If you just sit at a desk all day and you are transported there via a floating chair then you ONLY need to maintain minimal function to keep your body from getting sick. If you have to walk from the car to the office; shop for groceries, sit down on a toilet, play with your kids or do anything that requires movement you should train for it.
Go play on the monkey bars with your friends- start slow so you don't get hurt. Go to the gym and pick up something heavy- hire a coach or a trainer to show you what to do. Do deep breathing activities to improve how well you breathe. Get down on the floor and  get back up as fast you can 10 times, try to do it faster tomorrow. Stick to simple exercises but make them challenging by adding speed or changing directions.

4- Achieve a healthy weight. This 1 simple thing is probably the hardest thing to do but yields the best outcome almost regardless of how you get there. Surgery, exercise, metabolic medication and lifestyle modification will all help you lose down to a healthy weight. A Healthy BMI, one below 25, is a great way to delay most cancers, reduce orthopedic injuries and lengthen life. No matter what healthy method is chosen it should be done for life as long as it works.

Choose a simple diet of healthy foods and daily exercise to keep your heart and mind healthy. A diet higher in protein, lower in carbohydrates and with a healthy balance of fats can keep your weight down and your body functioning smoother.
 
5- Eat for balanced hormones and muscle strength. A higher protein diet with healthy fats from mostly plant sources can help you to keep your hormones, especially insulin, more balanced. Especially when combined with proper exercises and well timed nutritional intake the right foods can balance your hormones and help to build lean muscles. It is simple to stay away from breads, sweets and pastry. The problem is we often associate these things with something like love or Mom or Gramma or Christmas or something other than a means of sustaining our bodies.
Choose things you can gather, hunt, raise or pluck. I have never seen a loaf of bread growing in the field. I have never seen flakes in the field on a stalk. It is not always easy to choose the cleaner way of eating but it is simple. Know yourself. Know what you are really craving and eat only what can fuel you. Choose to find pleasure in things that will still leave you healthy long after the food is finished.

Choose a simple way of eating, exercising and stretching to keep yourself younger and healthier. These simple ways of eating and moving can improve brain function, increase insulin sensitivity, make your muscles stronger and more supple and make your life more full. If you are giving up sweets or bread for more quality time with your family and more life in your years then i would argue that you are making a healthier choice for you and your family.

Now go live simply and cleanly. Go live healthy!

Olympic and Election Year Health

For me the the best things in life come around every 4 years: the Olympics! I really enjoyed watching the Olympics on all the NBC channels this year. The technology and footage was just amazing! Others are absolutely glued to the television watching Election year debates and how quickly candidates fluctuate in the poles. I don't watch much TV (other than some Olympic sports and biking and running) or read the newspaper very much- I find them to be tough on my well being. This year we are offered political choices that seem to be as divisive as ever.

I believe quite fully in the American Dream, I feel like I get to live it EVERY day! The American Dream seems to have taken a very sharp turn somewhere. Somewhere we have skipped over the desire of humans to do useful work. Scrubbing toilets is useful work, the American dream says that if you work hard, use your brain a lot and get over your belief that you are "too good" to clean toilets then maybe you can invent something that takes the place of you scrubbing that toilet. That invention can make you a millionaire.

I will give you my take on this dream:

My American Dream says that if one works hard and wishes to improve their standing in life they can do so. I can push myself, as I feel every American should, to improve my input into this society and, as you raise your standards you can help those who are struggling to raise theirs. I choose making us, as a country, stronger and healthier as my means to living the dream. As I find ways to better my health and wealth I am encouraged, as a citizen of the USA and of the world, to improve the health and wealth of others. Effecting massive change on the health and wealth of this country is my dream. Making what i consider a good living at this chosen profession is My American Dream.

 I do not fear that we will fail as a society in my lifetime. I do not feel that we will continue our trend toward an ever growing obesity epidemic either. We are Americans after all. We don't back down from a fight. We show the world just how rebellious we can be. Be rebellious in the fight against obesity, it will benefit your health and well being as well as the health of the economy. We use P90X, Sweatin to the Oldies, Tae Bo and Insanity:the Asylum to lose millions of pounds and become healthier than we ever thought.

DO NOT buy in to over eating as the "American Way!" DO NOT take being sedentary as the "American WAY!" We have the best athletes in the world, just look at our Olympic medal count! How can we have the best athletes and the highest level of obesity in the world? The sport of running has more participants, by far, than competitive eating. We should demand more of ourselves! We are the greatest nation after all! If your local, state or federal government imposes some rule or law that you feel infringes on your right to choose a gluttonous soda or trans-fats it is because you have not demanded better of yourself, you were irresponsible or too ill to make a better choice for yourself. Feel free to vote that politician out of office. Then show them that you can be responsible for your own healthy actions. Do not go it alone! Get help if you need it.

Get out and exercise to the best of your ability! Challenge yourself to do your part as a citizen. You can vote only every 4 years but you can make healthy choices that can effect the economy for the long run every time you eat. Choose more vegetables, lean protein sources and healthy fats like avocados and olive oil. Stay away from sugary foods, especially high fructose corn syrup and processed foods. Go out and participate in a sport or activity that brings you closer to your friends and family. Just DO NOT SIT THERE AND COMPLAIN!
GO! Be ACTIVE!
Make healthy choices like an industrious, productive and healthy American. Bring our greatness to a new level.   

The Dumbbell Snatch is your Secret Weapon

The Dumbbell Snatch

1 “Secret Weapon” for a Leaner Tummy and strong, sexy legs (and maybe a new PR)

The dumbbell snatch is a version of the Olympic lift, the snatch, performed with a dumbbell in one hand. You move the dumbbell from the floor to above your head in one explosive movement.

The dumbbell snatch is a full body movement and most of the major muscle groups come into play, particularly legs, shoulders and core.

As we wind down our run up to the Olympics I want to bring some attention to an often overlooked Olympic sport: Weightlifting. “But Andy, this is an endurance training blog! How can you put a power exercise in here?!” Simply this: Training for Power is missing from most endurance athletes workouts. Period! As an endurance athlete (triathlon, duathlon, marathon, half marathon, long bike ride), if you train for power you can become more flexible AND stronger while making your swim, bike and/or run form more efficient.

Let me explain: The Dumbbell Snatch is great for engaging the core quickly while stabilizing the hips, shoulders and trunk for a seamless and efficient transfer of power from the legs to the shoulders. The bottom (start) position of the exercise requires a great deal of flexibility in the hips, low back and shoulders, something that most endurance athletes are lacking. The middle, movement portion, of the exercise require an explosive “opening” at the front of the hips, an engagement at the core to control the weight as it is lifted from the floor and passes to over head. At the top of the movement the shoulder must be in a stable position with the best point of stability being at the ground where the feet are in contact with the ground. 

What this means for your sport: Across all sports this movement is taxing to the Central Nervous System leading to better balancing of the endocrine system. The endocrine system can be negatively affected by long efforts like those associated with traditional endurance training. For cycling the dumbbell snatch can give you the muscle to in your hips and thighs to power over those longer hills and help you recover from a long day in the saddle. It helps the cyclist, the runner and the swimmer have a more stable torso allowing the legs and the arms to work more efficiently thru transfer of force thru the core.

What this means for a flatter tummy: You can do crunches all day and achieve some good results, but who has the time? The dumbbell snatch “forces” all the muscles of the core to work almost in unison. The core muscles have to fire to move the hips from a stable position (the starting squat position), thru an unstable position (the “jump” phase), and then stabilize again with the arm in an extended position (Stabilizing both the shoulder and the hips simultaneously). You will burn fat all day if you do these in the morning by stimulating the Central Nervous System to adapt to such a demanding exercise. This demand can balance the hormones and improve the body’s efficiency while running, swimming, biking or just having a healthy day.

Incorporate the Dumbbell Snatch into your strength workout once a week for 6 weeks. Start with a light weight to get the form down and then move to more challenging weights to see faster improvement and help your athletic performance. Lean athletes are more efficient athletes.   

So go move something heavy! And then move it fast! 

Some websites with pictures of the Dumbbell Snatch:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/DBSnatch.html

http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2007/11/one-arm-dumbbell-snatch/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1zGGVGkOEE&feature=related

Between Mother's Day and Father's Day

A def. of Healthy (just so we are on the same page)
1 : enjoying health and vigor of body, mind, or spirit : well
2 : evincing health
3 : conducive to health 
4 a : prosperous, flourishing b : not small or feeble : considerable 

   Right in the middle of when we honor our Mothers and when we honor our Fathers comes Memorial Day. The day we kick off the Summer season is also a time to remind ourselves why we have those freedoms. But with freedom comes responsibility. 

I may step on a few toes here but I don't have enough followers to make a splash. 
So here goes:

 There are just too many Americans who are fat! 
I don't mean a little over weight; F-A-T!! 
   It is a drain on our economy and a dis-service to generations past and future. Those who died for your freedom expected you to handle it gently and with honor. Now our fingers are too swollen from abusing our bodies to feel the delicate freedom we hold. We hold the freedom of choice, of democracy, of a beautiful country with teeming cities and open farmland and 68% of the inhabitants are obese! 

   We were once deprived as a country; now we have too much! We have a "Free Enterprise System" that is hard to match. I have heard both sides of the argument as to how "free" it is but lets stick to health and fitness. We reward those who reward us. If you work hard you can be a billionaire. You can come from absolutely nothing and be wealthy and healthy if you have the right long term goals and make the right decisions. 

Is there a separation? Sure. 
Do some families or people have it easier? They sure do.
    It is probably quite a different thing to be a Buffett or a Gates or a than a Nelson (that's me). Who was Warren Buffetts dad? How about Bill Gates mom? Exactly my point. 1 Generation away from being known in a small town or a city maybe to being known world over.

   We have food production that well exceeds Our needs and that far exceeds our caloric requirements. The problem we have with food is that we can't live without it so are forced to be responsible and make good choices or suffer the consequences.

 You can go without alcohol.
You can go without cigarettes.
You can go without marijuana.

   You can go without any vice we've chosen but we can't do without food. Using food as a vice is a slippery slope. Sometimes you can use food to comfort yourself but why do you need to be comforted every day? If you need to be comforted every day then you should seek help from a professional.

   Sometimes food is a reward. If food is your reward then you can use it but it can be a tightrope. I like to have wings and beer on the day I finish a marathon. It is difficult for me to justify the high fat food under many other circumstances. Don't reward yourself like that for every workout, you will become frustrated at lack of results and quit exercise altogether.

   We all know how to stay healthy: exercise vigorously, eat more vegetables, eat less meat, don't over eat, don't eat much sugar. But just because we know how to eat properly does not mean we are doing it. Clearly, we're not doing it!

   The majority of this country considers himself either Jewish or Christian. In both cases we are told treat the body as a Temple. You wouldn't treat a Temple this way. You wouldn't bring substandard food to your place of worship. Why would you feed yourself that way?

   It seems as if there is a disconnect between what goes into our mouth and how that affects our body. We should be responsible for what goes in our mouths as well as what comes out. You cannot constantly deride someone for their weight or how they live and then not live up to your own standards.

   I'm not against chocolate. I'm not against McDonald's. I'm not against fast food or even processed foods. I just feel that if you're connected to your body and you understand how your body feels after you eat these things you will choose wiser.

   We choose any number of ways to disconnect ourselves from the way things are going around us. We act as if the food we eat is not making us sick. It is not normal to feel bad every day. If you are on medication for any "Co-morbid risk factors" (diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol ). We need to look at our lives as a whole. If you have high blood pressure but are otherwise healthy then maybe you need to do something to manage your stress or lower your salt intake. If you have high cholesterol but are otherwise healthy then maybe you need to exercise more and eat healthier. There are a few rare cases of those whose only risk factor for heart disease is that they are obese. These people should play the lottery. That's almost how rare it is! It is also quite rare to find an adult who is healthy with type II diabetes.

   I don't claim to have the answers. If you pay attention to how your body feels when you eat then you will know if you are eating properly. If you get indigestion after you eat it is a sign that your body is rejecting something you have eaten. If you feel sluggish after you eat then you are probably eating something that is lacking in true nourishment.

I like ribs!
I like burgers!
I even like french fries and chocolate and wine and pizza and even like BACON!. I also like to cook. I really like to cook healthy food. My grandmother taught me to cook Southern when I was very young. Around the same time my father was pulling recipes from Runners World magazine. My father would run nearly every day and have a bowl of ice cream nearly every night. Back then runners still "carb loaded" before a race. My father taught me about exercise but he also taught me about dessert. I still run, even after more than 30 years but I had to teach myself that ice cream is only for 1 or 2 days per week.

   We let ourselves get caught up in watching the news and being concerned about whether or not we are going to make it to our next paycheck. We worry about this politician or that politician. We worry about things and we have absolutely zero control over them. We busy ourselves and find excuses not to exercise. You could've found time for exercise in the time you spent on Facebook this week.

   We find excuses why it's "hard" to find time for exercise. Just go. Move your body! Simply moving heavy things can challenge you physically. We were meant built to exercise all day long! Challenge yourself mentally to take responsibility for your own actions. Try new exercises just to see if you can do them! For your own healthy life!

  There is a concern over big government and government run health care. Lets try some self care to show we are responsible enough for our own health.  Big government does not try to control your health. Though some feel it should because you haven't done a good job of staying healthy on your own. It's not the governments job to take care of you. It's not the governments job to do anything about your health. But if you are not taking care of yourself and you're putting a drain on the economy by being unhealthy then someone has to step in.

   If your family and friends are not going to tell you you're Fat then they're probably fat too. In our attempt to be nice and not tell someone they're overweight or not tell someone that their fat, then we've allowed ourselves to become a nation of sick people. Being sick is not normal, and there's not a pill for everything. Ask your doctor for about options for exercise. Check with your insurance company about what they pay for in the way of exercise intervention for being over weight or obese.

   Demand of your leaders better health from them. Start in your home by being healthy there. If you are overweight or obese then begin to do something about it. Find the answers! Ask a fit friend to show you how to work out. Go online and find a new exercise. Sign up for and event to run a 5k or bike to raise money for something like Wounded Warriors, Fisher House or Team McGraw.

   Begin to make daily exercise a part of your life. Don't watch so much television. Make vigorous movement part of your life just like taking pills to manage pain.

   Community organizers, City Council members, preachers, rabbis, imams, Senator, Mayors - ALL civic leaders owe it to your communities to become more healthy. Begin a campaign of checking on the health of your constituents. Make the health of your community a priority and the financial needs of your community will be more easily managed.

   This Memorial Day honor those who died for our freedom! Run your Memorial Day 5K. Play hoops with a veteran. Throw the baseball with a wounded veteran who wishes he could run a 5K.
Honor your freedom and treat it well.
Stay healthy for your country.
Create a healthier and stronger place to call the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
Take control of your health today. Your country's future depends on it.

Andrew Nelson

P.S. Forward this to as many people as you care about. I hope this gets back to me many times.
Comment! Tell others! Pin it! Facebook it! Tweet it! Then go for a run!

What does not kill us...

As a triathlete I understand the importance of cross training, it is built in to my sport. You cannot expect to see long term improvements simply by following one program. Eventually you will adapt or become bored of your workout. Now and then you should take a different type of yoga than usual or take a Step aerobics class for the change to your workout.

I like trail running to supplement my daily life. Kundalini yoga keeps my head straight with movement and deep breathing. It also helps me push through during the mental fatigue of a long race.
Check out what boxer George St Pierre does to cross train!

The Trail Changes! Adapt!

I like running trails. They are a microcosm. The world changes faster than you can realize it. Right now your cells are changing themselves from what they were to what they think they will be used for later. The trail changes every time you run it: limbs fall, leaves blow, and trees give way to the forces of the wind.

When you demand of the body sitting on the couch, then the body adapts to the "rigors" of sitting on the couch: it adds some fat, the muscles become weaker, digestion slows, and cravings change. When you demand work from your body then the body changes to adapt for that work: it adds muscle to what was overworked, it reduces the fat that slow the work and it speeds digestion so there is less to do during a given effort.

On the trail Nature needs to adapt. A tree that can no longer stand in the wind will fall and decay to strengthen the roots of the trees still standing until the cycle repeats itself. Leaves blow over rocks making your footing more difficult for running. Limbs fall from trees and make the trail just a little more challenging than the last run. Sometimes rocks settle into soft soil and make your run easier.

The lack of predictability is what makes trail running enjoyable. The constant focus on the new terrain is what allows my mind to stop thinking about the day and the struggles of life and focus on the task at hand. It is meditative to run trails. It sharpens your focus on what needs to be done right now, not the possibility of what MAY happen in the future. You only get right now! The past is gone and the future may never get here.

The take away:
It is fine to prepare for the future. Buy accident and life insurance to protect yourself and your family. The focus on the now is more important, Be Present with what you are doing.

You can adapt to what you have overcome and be stronger for the now. A life lived is greater than a life worried over.

The Workout for the week: Once or twice this week do the following:
Run your the distance of your longest run in the last 6 months. At every mile or every 8-10 min do - 20 Body Weight Squats, 15 burpees(30 if you are training for a Spartan Race), 20 situps. If you run for an hour you will do be challenged enough to complete your "average" Spartan Sprint.

Go Prepare yourself for life! Get out on the trail and run!

Can Yoga make you a better Athlete

After 5 or 6 of my athletes and clients asked me about the recent NY Times article regarding yoga's negative effects, I finally read the article. I don't read any paper as much as I "should" (if its important someone will tell me about it). I am, however, a fan of the NYT Science Times on Tuesday and WSJ Personal Journal on Tues since they both cover the science (watered down though it is) of exercise and being healthy. So I read the article and it listed some major injuries but most of them have more to do with Yoga practitioners; something most training athletes don't have time for. If you are training 5-10hours/week as a triathlete, runner or cyclist then where would you find thte time for that much Yoga. That said: If you are finding that much time for serious sport training AND Yoga then you may have over-training and avoidance issues.

I take Kundalini Yoga at least twice a week, it is a form of therapy for me; not physical therapy, but emotional therapy. I have a bit of an aggressive streak (I mountain bike, trail run and race XTERRA what do you expect) and can be very competitive even in Yoga. Being competitive is NOT very yogic. Kundalini is one of the oldest forms of yoga and stresses AWARENESS, one of the keys to being a great athlete. In every class the teachers, who do not do the krias themselves, stress the importance of staying within your limits. We do little to no inversions, we DO chant, we DO meditate and we do stretch, jump up and down and sit cross legged, sometimes for long periods while holding one arm position. Most importantly for athletes we practice breath control.

An exercise called "60 Second breath" is practiced for 6-10min(sometimes more, but I am not there yet). In this you breathe in for 20 sec, hold for 20 sec, and breathe out for 20 sec. It is both physically and emotionally taxing because your last act as a living being is to Exhale and your subconscious mind knows this. This exercise is great if you are swimming, biking, running or doing an overhead press. I have enjoyed the benefits of this while on a trail run.

Awareness, unfortunately, is a missing element in the lives of many athletes. Too often exercise, to include yoga, is used to distract you from life and is considered a competitive pursuit - who can twist further, who has the best Crow, who can get into the most contorted position. I have been there. I'm an athlete who wants to win, yoga has no winners. Kundalini has no competition, but an inward search for calm, something endurance athletes need. Awareness of my competitiveness, and the lack of that guidance from many instructors(there are exceptions like Erica Mather of course ), led me away from yoga as I sought other means of undoing the hard efforts of off-road training. Kundalini brought me back for other reasons.

There is a way to be a better athlete, regardless of your sport. That way is through awareness: Awareness of your limit, Awareness of when your mind tells you to stop, Awareness of when you are in a panic, Awareness of when you are losing focus. Yoga can help you with these pursuits, but so can 10 min/day of visualization. Meditation, whether guided or self led, has been shown to improve athletic performance at all levels of competition. I build meditation into the programs of my athletes but it is often the first part of the weekly schedule to fall by the way, followed by stretching a close second. Training for an event is a well rounded pursuit that involves certain amounts stress and certain amounts of recovery. Meditation and stretching can be achieved in a yoga class or on your own with books like those from Sage Rountree . If you cannot leave your ego at the door of the studio, and avoid competition with the class, then break out your foam roller and meditate on how bad that hurts.

I don't think yoga itself is bad for you or can "Wreck Your Body" (as the NYT author wrote) any more so than riding your bike in traffic or running without conditioning or shoes. I have done more damage to myself training for triathlon than I have ever done in yoga. I also do not sit on my feet for hours a day or do headstands or twist further than what feels possible. I have been in the emergency room from doing something on my bike but never from yoga.

Can doing yoga hurt you? Sure, maybe. Can OVERdoing Yoga hurt you? You bet it can! But so can overdoing drinking water, taking too many spin classes, or doing anything to excess.

The take away here is that moderation and self awareness can take you very far. Use a bit of common sense in your pursuits. Yoga may feel good to you. But Is yoga your addiction?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

andy@getfitnyc.com
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