I AM A QUALIFIED BACK MECHANIC

This month’s theme was supposed to be ‘Bulletproof your back month’, it turned out slightly different. Over 12 years of being a fitness coach by far and away the biggest complaint that i’ve heard from Richlifers, other coaches, neighbours, family and friends is lower back pain. Personally i’ve been plagued by lower back aggravations, bulged discs, facet joint irritations for many years. Usually coming and going then popping up at an annoying time when i was really getting somewhere with my fitness. So i thought this month it’s time to face this issue head on. I have gained knowledge on numerous ways to alleviate back pain over the years, strengthening and lengthening, etc, etc. I was just about to give all who wanted to listen a shotgun approach to bulletproof your back. Then the Universe stepped in and brought Dr Stuart Mcgill to my world.

Dr Stuart Mcgill is a professor at the University of Waterloo and has spent over 32 years of research and practice on lower back function, injuries and rehabilitation. He has worked with everyone from the elderly to the severely unconditioned to UFC fighters and NFL stars. After watching a 3 hour podcast with longevity guru Peter Attia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1_sb1auiV8&t=7755s) it brought me to his book ‘Back Mechanic’. He stated that he won’t see a new client until they have read the book first, great marketing ploy you might think! His reason is that he believes that 95% of people who read his book will be able to heal themselves and won’t need a face to face appointment with him. This seemed very refreshing to me, a $40 book that gives you the wisdom and personal responsibility to become your own back mechanic.

I bought the book, i have read it cover to cover and now ‘I AM A QUALIFIED BACK MECHANIC’. So can i start taking clients, payments and begin to cure eveyones’s back pain….NO. But i can create a plan and heal my own back pain, i can also prescribe this book to you, so you can become your own Back Mechanic like me. That’s right i’m not going to do it for you, but please read on.

My main takeaways; number one is that a shotgun approach to ‘Bulletproof your back’ is out of the question, it doesn’t exist. There are over 15 different types of lower back injuries and they all require different do’s and don’ts. Personally i was trying everything; mobilizing my hips, mobilizing my thoracic spine, strengthening my glutes, my glute med, my core, substituting sitting in a chair for the floor, standing while doing computer work, hanging from a pull up bar, hanging upside down from a pull up bar, hanging out in a deep squat for 10 mins everyday, foundation training, strengthening erectors, buying a new mattress topper, sleeping with a pillow under my knees and between my legs, using an orthopaedic pillow. I have seen many bodyworkers and i’ve also gone back to see my therapist to see if trapped trauma and family issues are affecting my route chakra. A year of waking up with back pain every morning is a good motivator to throw the kitchen sink at it. But the kitchen sink was making it worse. For example hanging upside down on a bar is awesome for someone with a compressed spine, but for someone with a stability issue (like me) it has the opposite effect…oops. The pillows, stretching my back, hinging to strengthen, standing up in one position for hours on end, seeing a Chiro are all good for some people but not for me with my issue.

Buying this book, getting a diagnostic first will set you on a the path to recovery. The next step is to avoid all movements that cause pain, to allow your body time to heal. Second is to practice daily spine hygiene. Postural changes that make you sit, stand, walk, bend over in an efficient manner, that’s right sit up straight everyone, pick your head up when you are walking, bend over using your hips and not your back. All things we know but do we do them??? One day i counted how many times i bent over to pick something up off the ground, or tie my shoes, put my socks on. By midday i was over 50 and i stopped counting, imagine bending over with a rounded back so many times everyday for years, decades, that adds up. The straw that broke the camels back is looking for you as well. Thirdly to walk! Walking resets our spine, 3 times a day of 20 mins minimum, ideally over an hour or 10,000 steps a day. Lastly to introduce a core strengthening program called the ‘Big 3’ These simple core STABILIZING (not dynamically strengthening) exercises are pretty easy, low maintenance and help to stiffen the spine. That’s something else that I learned. We want as much mobility as possible in our hips and shoulders but we want our spine to be stiff. Their are exceptions to that rule if you are a gymnast, acrobat or dancer. But i want to lift weights, i want to be strong and when i squat and deadlift i don’t want my spine to move, i want stability, i want stiffness. So no more wheels and floor bows for me.

What causes back pain can be a multitude of things but the main suspects seem to be sitting in chairs, poor spine hygiene (standing, sitting, walking, bending with poor posture), spinal instability due to core/glute weakness and a lack of hip and thoracic mobility.

What can i do as a coach to help? I can recommend you to buy the book ‘Back Mechanic’ so you can take responsibility for your own back. I can bring more core stabilizing movements into class, which you might have already experienced with side planks and birddogs. I can inform on good spinal hygiene practices. I can add in extra glute activation exercises and hip mobility. However there is only so much i can fit into our hourly sessions, so much of this will be personal responsibility and getting it into your daily life.

Will Richlife classes bulletproof your back? It will go a long way, it won’t be an exact science and low back pain will continue to show up if all the above is neglected but a consistent strength and conditioning program 100% promotes good back health.

So no ‘Bulletproof your back’ theme, but even better there is hope, there are experts out there, there are practices you can do to get out of your own way so your body can do what nature intended it to do. That is to heal (maybe not as fast as Wolverine, but it will happen). I now have hope, i have a plan, i have more knowledge and i will heal myself. I will walk, i will do the BIG 3 i will say goodbye to loaded squats and deadlifts in the short-term, i will put my A-type personality on hold and take it easy. Nothing is forever, Mcgill states that as we age our spine naturally stiffens up and back pain will diminish or cease completely. I wish you the best i am here for you and i hope this blog post was informative, motivational and not to much of a pain in the back.

Richlife Training Philosophies (Part 2)

In Part one i stated that Richlife trains movements rather than muscles. In class you will regualrly come across a squat/press day but you will never see a chest and tri’s or back and bi’s session. This is because we focus on functional movement patterns used in life and sport, also movements that use numerous muscles in their execution.

So what are the movements that we perform in class? I split them up into 9 categories:

1. Squats: for example front squats, back squats, jump squats, box jumps. Performed using bodyweight, barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, etc. All movements dropping hips below the knees.

2. Hinges: this is your deadlifts but also includes hinge movements like kettlebell swings, devils press, sumo high pulls, etc. Basically any movement where we hinge from the hips.

3. Stepping: unilateral lower body movements where one leg is working at a time. For example any type of lunge, split squat or stepping up and sometimes over a box.

4. Presses: These are upper body movements like Bench press, push up variations and pressing overhead

5. Pulls: Upper body pulls which are unfortunately limited in Richlife to just Bent Over Rows. Pull ups, sled drags, rope climbs would be other examples of Pulls, we just don’t have the gear…yet

6. Complex: These movements are combinations of multiple categories above. An example would be a Richzilla which involves a hinge, squat and press all in one movement.

7. Chassis Integration: These are full body core movements, they challenge your midline through rotation, anti-rotation, extension and total body. They work your core in combination with the rest of your body like it happens in life and sport. Example would be a 1 sided dead lift or a good morning (for extension)

8. Monostructural: These are movements often referred to as cardio, for example; running, biking, skipping, rowing, swimming, etc. I also throw burpees into this category though the beautiful burpee could be in numerous categories (hinge/press/complex), maybe this is why we see them so often, because they are the best;)

9. Core: These are more isolated movements of out midline compared to chassis integration. These movements would be divided into rotation, extension, isometric and flexion. Movements like sit ups, russian twists, hollow holds would be included in this category.

I try to incorporate all of these movement categories twice per week to ensure we are covering all our bases. The movements might be performed heavy, light and fast, long and slow, with varied equipment, varied loads, varied intervals and in constantly changing combinations. Keep it varied, keep the body guessing, keep it simple, keep it hard. Some movements you might see more often because they simple have more efficiency in pushing the fitness needle forward. Burpees and Thrusters have so much bang for your buck compared to sit ups, this doesn’t mean we will ignore the sit up but it will be programmed less often than those other two beasts.

So we train movements not muscles, also we focus on training for performance rather than aesthetics. Why? Don’t we want to look good? Don’t we want an attractive physique? Of course we do, we all do and if you don’t I will look at you with a suspicious eye. If you break down the reasons why humans exercise it simple comes down to ‘look good, feel good, perform good’. Look good is there first and foremost but if we just focus on looking good then the other two fall out of balance. I’m speaking from experience here, i was a gym rat, a bodybuilder, a guy focused on physique and a six pack above all else. Sadly this was also how i was trained 11 years ago when i got qualified as a trainer. 6 months of training and not one dead lift or front squat but plenty of bicep curls and leg extensions.

If you train specifically for aesthetics it is possible to get a fantastic physique but how well will you be able to run for a ball, get up a mountain or even put on your socks? I learned quickly when i came to Whistler as an insecure but ripped specimen that i wasn’t strong, fast, flexible or adapted to a life of activity in the mountains. I watched the mountain athletes train around me and i started to change my approach and here is where i found the magic nugget. If you train for performance, you will perform well, feel good and AESTHETICS WILL COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE! Since i started training for performance i now squat, dead lift, press, pull, run, bike, swim, and all the rest. I feel better than ever, i am strong (ish), fast, flexible, powerful and can go forever. The best bit is that i look just as good now if not better than when i was purely training for a sexy body.

Lastly i will wrap up this mini series on training philosophies by explaining why i choose free weights over machines. Why do i walk into a globo gym with every machine under the sun and roll my eyes compared to walking into a huge open warehouse with a few squat racks and some dumbbells and my eyes light up? The quick answer is explained by doing a shoulder press sat on a machine. With this movement you will work your shoulders in a fixed position with little or no room for body variations, mobility deficiencies and the machine will support your entire body weight. Compare that to a standing barbell push press when your whole body is supporting itself, your core and legs are switched on, your stabilizers are on full alert, your joints can adjust to mobility deficiencies. I know which will be more effective for improving my fitness.

Machines are beautiful pieces of metal artwork, they are often enticingly shiny, extravagant in design, and draw inquisitive humans in like a moth to a flame. They can definitely be more attractive than a lonely set of dumbbells or a sandbag but do they do a better job of pushing the fitness needle forward? You don’t need fancy machines to get results, minimalism is king in my eyes. Give me a barbell and some open space any day over a cable machine and a pec deck. Squat, hinge, press, pull, go heavy, moderate, light, go fast and short, long and slow, go somewhere in the middle and i guarantee you fitness will be achieved. Train the Richlife way and you will ‘LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, PERFORM GOOD’…as long as your nutrition is on point!

Richlife Training Philosophies (Part 1)

Last weeks blog defined and explained the terms ‘health’ and ‘fitness’. With that bedrock in place now we can dive into some of the Richlife training philosophies. Why we train the way we do? Why we don’t do certain movements? The why gives us knowledge, the knowledge gives us understanding, the understanding gives us clarity, the clarity gives us focus, the focus drives our performance.

Programming

The main goal of Richlife programming is to increase strength and work capacity. Focus on these two elements will help to improve your performance in everyday life as well as your sports. Speaking of sports, Richlife programming definitely has an eye on mountain activities and at certain times of the year the programming will reflect the season we are in or approaching. We live in a mountainous area so training is designed to help with these sports, to increase cardio capacity when coming into hiking, biking season and to improve the lactate threshold of the legs when ski/snowboard season is approaching. While in season we have more of a generalist approach, touching on all 10 components of fitness (Strength, Speed, Power, Flexibility, Cardio/respiratory endurance, Stamina, Agility, Co-ordination, Balance, Accuracy) to keep us ticking over.

In terms of the components of fitness i believe that in the artificial gym environment some do take a higher priority than others. For example in class we will focus more on lets say cardio/respiratory endurance than balance. Why? Because it has more bang for your buck, also can we really simulate and test the balance requirements for skiing in the gym? I think not, i think doing one legged squats on a bosu ball has limited transfer into skiing, best to just go and ski to improve your ski balance. We have limited time in class so we focus on the larger elements of fitness like, strength, cardio, stamina, power rather than the smaller refined components that i believe are best adapted in the sport arena. Many of the smaller components of fitness are secondarily being worked in many of our movements. The main focus of jump lunges for example will be to improve the lactate threshold of our legs but they secondarily improve our balance, co-ordination, agility and accuracy at the same time.

A couple of my personal programming philosophies are:

• Keep it simple, keep it hard

• Train movements not muscles

• Train for performance over aesthetics

• Constantly varied functional movement executed at high intensity

Movements

I believe in functional compound movements. Functional simply means movements we use in everyday life. Every time we pick anything up from the floor we are either squatting or deadlifting. When we put a suitcase in an overhead locker on a plane it is pressing overhead. Taking your groceries into the house are farmers carries. Functional movements transfer into life and sport so we train them in the gym. Isolated movements like a bicep curl will improve our ability to fill out a T-shirt or achieve a side look at the pool but will they help us get up a mountain, or pick up our dog who refuses to walk any further?

Compound wins handsdown over isolation exercises in Richlife. Compound exercises are multi joint multi muscle movements and i believe they are way more beneficial in life and in sport than isolation movements. For example in a squat you are using the ankle, knee, and hip joints in combination with quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, core, etc while the lonely leg curl machine moves the knee joint and works the quads. I believe isolation movements have there place if you are rehabbing from injury or are focused on body building for aesthetics, but in terms of performance you can’t beat a good old compound movement.

Next week we will dive further into movement categories and the specific exercises i choose and we perform in class. Why free weights are more advantageous than machines and also why i believe that training for performance is more effective than training for aesthetics. Spoiler alert…you can have it all ;)

What is Health? What is Fitness?

It’s important to know why we train and what it is doing for us. But before we do that, before i educate you on the fitness philosophies of Richlife, we need to define what health is and what fitness is. Are they the same? Are the lines blurred between the two? Can you be healthy without being fit and can you be fit without being healthy? Below some of these questions will be answered, my theories are up for debate and open to interpretation but they are coming from a life of trial and error, education, an 11 year profession and a lifelong passion in fitness.

If you google the definition of fitness you will get a variety of wishy washy statements. The best definition i have found is by Crossfit founder Greg Glassman who defines fitness as ‘Your work capacity across broad and modal domains’. For me fitness is simply completion of a physical task; lifting that weight, running that distance, completing 50 burpees. The more efficient you are at completing these tasks the fitter you are, as the tasks increase in difficulty so will your fitness.

Fitness can be broken down into 10 components: Strength, speed, power, flexibility, stamina, cardio/respiratory endurance, accuracy, agility, balance, co-ordination. I believe that if you are well rounded over these 10 areas then fitness is achieved. It used to be thought that the fittest athletes in the world were triathletes, Ironman, marathon runners, but that only covers a couple components of fitness. Put an ironman in an endurance test and they crush, give them a strength/power/speed/flexibility test and they probably stumble. This is why Richlife focus’s on ‘general physical preparedness’ or ‘base fitness’ so we are well rounded over all 10 components of fitness to enable us the ability to handle any task that life and our sports throw at us. For a more in depth read i recommend reading the Crossfit journal article ‘What is Fitness’ https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness .

So if fitness is completion of a physical task, what is health? Google tells us it is the state of being free from injury and illness. For me this is nowhere near good enough. I know many people free of injury and illness who are far from healthy. I believe health to be the complete balance of physical, mental, social, emotional and spiritual well-being. You can be a beast in the gym but suffering from depression, fit but not healthy. You could be a social butterfly who freely experiences and expresses joy, love, fear, pain but you could be a couch potato who struggles to walk up the stairs…healthy? It is the balance between these five elements that dictates your health, your vitality, your vest for life. Is it easy to get balanced in these areas, HELL NO, they’re constantly fluctuating, rising and falling like ocean tides. But the constant work of attempting the balancing act is where the magic happens, where you experience what it is to be alive. The highs the lows, the struggles and achievements. If you keep working towards the balance you are on the right track, if you can evaluate when you are sinking in one area and bring it back up then you are setting yourself up for a healthy and fulfilling life.

When you understand what health is you realize the fitness is just a small piece of the pie. To be healthy it’s not just how many burpees you can do, it’s the quality of your relationships, it’s your connection to something higher than yourself, it’s challenging your brain with difficult tasks, it’s noticing your anger and how to use it’s powerful energy for good. BUT….the beauty of the PHYSICAL (Richlife’s primary focus) is that it is the catalyst for all the others. If you are physical challenging yourself surrounded by other like minded people (social) then your mental improves, your emotions can get channeled and that 100th Richzilla might give you a spiritual connection to your soul. The physical is the cornerstone, the foundation for health, the life force that sets the ball rolling for your complete well being.

Can you be fit without being healthy? I think yes. Can you be healthy without being fit? I think no. Richlife was designed to improve more than just the physical, it’s a platform to create a well rounded rich life. Some of the pillars of Richlife have been neglected. Yoga classes have ceased, socials have been postponed. My goal is to improve in these areas, to give Richlifers more opportunities to fill in other pieces of the pie. I finally feel the COVID hangover clearing and my energy is coming back, i hope to make Richlife better for all involved.