Wellness by the piece

I walk a path where science and health meet dreams and the soul. It is my job to get people the best information that gives them the strongest chance at success. To help them process and implement change not just during our time together, but when they are out on their own and struggling. It is a relationship. I do it because I love it, and because people need these interventions more than ever. But, nothing in my field is as challenging and frustrating as the selective commodification of wellness. Is it helping anyone? 

The standard pentagram of fitness that is in practice at RE*FIT still remains the only science backed standards of fitness and wellness. We are more confident than ever in our client first, person-focused practice. We believe building habits promotes lasting change and good health.  

- Movement is an absolute necessity for the body, and your body has a way it wants to move. 

- Rest in any form will invigorate the mind. 

- Hydration for balance in the body's tissues. 

- Nutrition should always be as clean as feasible. 

- Flexibility to better manage aches and pains in the joints and muscles of the body.

Commodity-style wellness tears these concepts apart, makes them pretty for Instagram, and sells non-holistic solutions as the only solutions. My feeds tell me the cure all is that you need a nap during lunch or perhaps daily stretching. If that isn't working, try some yoga instead. Here's another ad for sleepwear that allegedly restores blood-flow to muscles, based on research the company paid for. It's throwing darts at a board and the end result isn't serving any purpose beyond creating frustration and anxiety, so you'll consume more piecemeal wellness products. Bad advertising aside, how many PELETON bikes are going to gather dust in a basement, or worse, cause serious injury?

New Study with JNK re-enforces the need for individual client programming.

The latest and greatest news in fitness now is the uncharted applications of   c-Jun N- terminal kinase in the realm of endurance vs strength training.   JNK for short is the focus of a new field  study coming out of  Joslin Diabetes Center by Dr. Sarah Lessard and has produced at least some data that begins to explain why  individuals show a high response to an increase of cardiovascular exercise and why some apparently can be on the treadmill day and night with no real change.   

While this is not the first paper to link JNK activation to exercise  (Boluyt MO, et al. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 2003 ) Activation of JNK in rat heart by exercise : Effect of training ) Or its inclusion in hypertrophy and muscle development  as suggested in Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy by Brad Schoenfeld  Human Kinetics 2016  It does begin to define the differing factors that trigger outcomes in individuals participating in exercise. 

Studies have shown the triggering of JNK at certain levels will have a minimizing affect on endurance and cardiovascular response to exercise even at long timeframes while encouraging the body to put on muscle mass. Where individuals who exercised below the trigger point developed more muscle endurance and a better cardiovascular state. 

" It's like a switch, if the switch is on you will have muscle growth. If it is off you will have endurance adaptation of the muscle"   Dr. Jessard stated.   

In a more in depth study with mice  It was shown that mice that were genetically modified to NOT produce JNK had a much higher aerobic exercise capacity , while "normal" mice doubled their muscle mass in affected muscle while those with the JNK inhibitors did not increase their mass nearly as much. 

This research begins to explain the need for individualized monitoring of health and wellness that often goes over looked. Numerous clients has searched for the reason why their hours of cardiovascular exercise has yielded minimal results in their endurance  while adding on layer after layer of the muscle in the lower body.  It also adds another layer  to explain on a chemical level why individuals who perhaps are unable to trigger the JNK response have a much harder time adding muscle no matter their lifting routine. 

While more study is needed this is an exciting component to begin integrating in to client programming as well as continuing to remind clients that their bodies and adaptations are unique. 

Individualization has always been at the heart of RE*FIT programming. We know that one goal does not fit all. When your ready to make a change, make a choice , and make difference RE*FIT will be there to help. 

The Rise of DRAGO (The rebirth of TECH in the fitness industry) is it worth the hype?

Rocky 4  featured the unstoppable juggernaut of Ivan Drago who was touted as the pinnacle of scientific study and data driven training. From the  punching machines and indoor running track, to the weight lifting and drugs that he was injected with. The whole process was documented, adjusted, and incorporated by numerous men in white coats into the next round of training. Smiling scientists marveled at their work and mocked ol’ Rocky out in the mountains lifting wheelbarrows and carrying logs. Seems the stuff of cinema; but is it only happening on the big screen? How about an example a little more real to life?

Several years ago when the recession was in full swing every fitness trainer with a business card was calling on clients to come to boot camp style workouts in the park. Everyone was feeling the wrath of the economy and this low cost low overhead was a heavy influence on the marketing around the “bodyweight workouts” and the “functional movement” programming that could be offered in this environment.  All you needed was a pair of shoes and the will to get out there to get into shape.

Flash forward a few years, with the improving economy and the ability to afford space and  equipment again, garage fitness with truck tires and sledgehammers sprung up. A hybrid so to speak, that had clients out running in the streets with weights over their heads and doing squats out by the dumpster in the alley.  ( no that is not an exaggeration saw it with my own eyes ) and those facilities calling themselves “elite training facilities". These hour long workouts with “practical movements” were now the way to go to get fit and lean.

Flash forward again to the present, the latest movement is data / tech driven fitness. Biofeedback, variable and assisted resistance machines, large billboards flashing neon heart rate numbers so  clients can see they are out performing the rest of the pack. This data driven fitness is now a little more affordable and all the rage. So the fitness industry is more than happy to add some bells and whistles that now wow clients in a way that hasn’t happened since they strapped a television to the treadmill. Truly the age of Drago has arrived.

However IS that data being interpreted correctly and does it benefit you?  Last year, Expert Review of Medical Devices ran an editorial written by a group of scientists that highlighted how new digital tech devices get to be commercialized without actual proof of their effectiveness (Morone et al., 2016). Documentation by several independent testers including Consumer reports have found digital wearable trackers to be up to 33% off in their reporting of calories burned. (Oct 19 2017) And even the numbers on your favorite cardio machine are just a guesstimate based upon time and speed of the motor. That machine has no idea how much your body is actually working.  However  with the booming trend in wearable trackers and high tech workouts It is easy to add some flashing lights and a few testimonials and suddenly we are all Ivans  expecting to take on the world.

However for the majority with unproven, over reliance on,misinterpretation of, or just inaccurate data we are not actually doing anything more for our health and fitness.

1. Technology/data is not a replacement for physical monitoring and body manipulation

New devices are including feedback from exercise with everything from heart rate to sensory muscle engagement. However, none of this is actually new. It has just become cheaper with lower production costs. Now with it being back in the fold the industry touts it as amazing new tech.  However, this relatively old technology with a twist should not be elevated to being anything more than another tool in the toolbox. Without an individual trained in the exercises that you are doing and carefully monitoring how you are performing them this tech simply becomes another commercialized hammer that will supposedly fix all of the clients ills. 

2. Technology/ data  does not assure procedural adherence, develop programming, or modify for the client

Ever since the first clock was strapped to a treadmill people have been looking at it wondering when they could get off this crazy thing or using it as a benchmark as to how fit they are by how long they can go. However with this new set of tech, clients have never had so many numbers and markers  thrown their way.  People generally enjoy setting goals and tracking them; many find the accountability and sense of accomplishment that comes with this process helpful, like getting a food pellet when the right button was pressed. However if clients see their goals not being met, the decline of that tech use is swift, that is until they find a different piece of tech or a different set of numbers that they can insert and feel successful again. We have all heard don’t trust the scale but has anyone said don’t trust the flashing neon billboard?  That device touting itself as the all and powerful OZ has very little to offer behind the curtain. The underlying belief system that accompanies almost every heath and fitness trend often seems to be a “Set it and Forget it” mentality that offers a system of if “ I just do what the tech tells me to then I will be successful.”

While we can use tech and the numbers as  fitness markers and make correlations to other data to help gain a sense of the bodies overall capacity and health, simply seeing one’s heart rate up on a billboard in truth has a minimal impact on the actual level of fitness and even less on the level of health.  It is time to start taking exercise and its benefits beyond the level it is currently at. It is time to accept a larger mantle of responsibility in the fitness world. To be the forward thinking professionals that can discuss the benefits of exercise in a tangible concrete fashion. 

RE*FIT is proud to be among that group who believes in training not trends mentality. When your ready to make a change , make a choice,  and make a difference in your future RE*FIT will be there to help. 

Is the body a machine a ray of light or just a large space potato?

One of the weirdest things I have seen in throughout my career in the fitness industry is the group that always claim the body is a "machine". The ads scream at you in bright colors with hardbodies flexing at the beach claiming that the reason you are out of shape is that your not training like a machine. Train like an athlete they shout, train harder and faster, with the cutting edge science and pre and post workout regimes and diet plans. Cutting edge technology and you know a lot of science ( I use science loosely here.) should fuel your health and fitness.   

Well I have some news for you I am a moderate sized quasi cyclist and lifter with some weekend warrior tendencies and a hard curve on my dodgeball throw. I do not play for the NBA MLB NFL PGA or any other all capital letter anagrammed organization.  I mainly lift so when someone asks me to help move their couch I can hold up my end. My diet is moderate and I don't feel the need to copy Dwayne Johnsons diet plan.  

But on the flip side of that coin there are those who talk about the body being a ray of light in the cosmos and the way to better health is stretching and some movement. They talk in soft voices and low lighting telling you to breathe in the fire of the universe and that soon you will be the master contortionist able to fit into the smallest of airline seats while you sip hot water with lemon and become one with your colon. 

Well the joke is on them too because I know I don't stretch enough.  I drink too much coffee , pizza is delicious and the most contorted position I often find myself in is when I am laying on the couch during a NETFLICKS  suggested viewing binge and as for my colon well we may need to discuss the tacos I had for lunch  in a little bit. 

So I am not going to be a machine or a ray of light.  I am dubbing my body the great space potato. This potato carrying me through the universe and life  is fairly limber and pretty strong. It could be stronger, it could be softer and more limber. But as  space potato I can gather information and distribute it freely. I don't have to promote one or the other. I can utilize the knowledge that your potato could use a little muscle development in one area to ease pain while suggesting that holding emotional tension in your neck and shoulders should be addressed.  That is the beauty of the space potato the rhetoric free fitness program that can adapt to the body and goals that you have or desire. 

 So maybe your looking to lose a little weight/ run that obstacle course. Maybe picking up the kids is getting a little tougher, or the grandkids are getting a little harder to keep up with; what ever your situation RE*FIT will be here to help you. 

RE*FIT More fitness less rhetoric  

How do I find time for exercise?

A client comes to me and asks me "Christopher, how do I find time to include exercise in my life? I don't have enough hours in the day. "

"You shouldn't be doing anything else." is my reply. 

Exercise and your health should not be confined to the limitations of this hour or that hour. The limitations of this indicate that if you did exercise for this many minutes and then did nothing else the rest of your day you would continue to move forward and we know this is not so.  It should not be confined to the limits of this external space or that location or time.  Your development, health, and fitness is an always there experience.  If this is a continuous process then what ever activity you are doing does not truly matter. Everything can be included  into a program of movement and exercise.  This does not mean numerous hours at the gym or out on the trail, but the incorporation of growth into the daily life. When you go to the office and work why can you not take the stairs and work the proper knee alignment? When you go to the store why can you not take an aisle to align the spacing between your feet and legs?  What is the difference between laying on the couch and laying with the feet up the wall? The opportunities for your exercise are always present.  It is the insistence of grouping them all together into a lump that has us believe there is a conflict with everything else.