The Supine Hip Bridge is a great exercise for Gluteus Maximus strengthening, as well as core stability work. With a small tweak it can also be a good exercise for the Gluteus Medius.

The post July Strength: The Hip Bridge appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

The Clamshell is used to strengthen the Gluteus Medius, a crucial muscle for long distance runners/cyclists/triathletes to keep the knee tracking properly during activity.

The post April Strength Exercise: The Clamshell appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

Thanksgiving weekend 2010, I purchased my first pair of Vibram 5 Fingers, and couldn’t even get my last two toes fully into the shoes. Fast forward 4 months and I did a 7-mile run in them on pavement.  Before ever trying on the Vibrams I made a shift in my running form to the “barefoot style,” contacting with the forefoot and “pulling” through the stride. I shortened up my stride length and increased my foot contacts per minute; all this was done in Nike Frees instead of the bulkier shoes of my running past. Accompanying this transition in running were my ever present weight workouts, now being done in a pair of Converse One Stars. At this point everything was heading in the direction of a minimalist shoe wear approach to exercise.

Still, after I purchased my Vibrams the first move in them was to wear them to work. I started with 1 hour a day for a couple of days, then 2, and so on until around 6-8 hours of work in them was comfortable. All this sounds good, right? Well, the first run on the treadmill with them lasted one mile, and my feet were extremely fatigued. Staying the path, I kept slowly increasing my distance and frequency of runs with the Vibrams, while still doing my longer runs in the Nike Frees. Low and behold, with consistency, dedication, and a progressive plan, I now run in complete comfort in Vibrams for up to 8 miles (my runs aren’t ever longer, period).

Does this mean I never wear “regular” athletic shoes? No, I’m not about to play some basketball in Vibrams. But overall, I lean towards a minimalist shoe or none at all when exercising. All my lifts are done either barefoot or in Vibrams. My casual shoes are Converse, and I work mostly in Nike Frees and Converse. Every so often, my feet are sore or tired, so I’ll lace up a pair of cushy Asics to train clients in, because just like every other muscle or part of the body, your feet need rest too.

Moral of the story: when going from zero to 60, you can’t pass up any number in between.

-Kavon

The post One Step at a Time appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

It makes everyone feel good, right?  So, how could it be a bad thing?

Well, for several reasons.  I could write an entire blog on how it discredits the victor and another blog on how some people never learn to fail.  Instead, I’ll focus on something clients often fall into the trap of: being rewarded for a workout.

If you are like most gym goers, you probably have a warped notion of what a reward should be. For instance: if you workout, you reward yourself with a cupcake.  If you workout hard, maybe it’s an extra serving of chili and that cupcake.  If you workout REALLY hard, it’s the extra chili, 2 cupcakes and a big glass of milk.  You find yourself using your effort level to determine your caloric reward.

Well, isn’t that how it works? The harder you work, the better you do, the bigger the reward?

Sure.  It does work that way. BUT…… you need to redefine your notion of reward.  A reward for a hard workout should never be a ‘cheat’ on your food intake.  All that does is negate the hard work you’ve done.  In fact, it’s kind of a punishment.  It will be the reason you feel sad and defeated after sweating on the gym floor for months on end while having the same numbers flash back at you from the scale.  It’s kind of like rewarding yourself for acing a vision test by spending the rest of the afternoon staring into a solar eclipse.  Not very helpful in the long run.

Instead, your reward for working hard should be the results of working hard.  It should be bigger numbers in the gym, lower numbers on the scale, a better self image in your head and a happier you in the mirror.  These rewards have no negative aspects.  They leave no sense of guilt. And the best part: being rewarded in this manner naturally perpetuates more rewards.

It’s simple: work hard, eat right and receive your just reward. It’s really a perfect system.

~ Tom

Thomas Abbey
Owner, RKC, NSPA-CPT
Functional Fitness VA
www.functionalfitnessva.com

The post A Just Reward appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

To all Teachers and School Staff:

You play a huge roll in our society.  We task you with preparing our children for the world.  You teach us math, science, music, athletics and a variety of other subjects. You field questions about anything and everything to the best of your ability.  You often spend more time with our children than we do.  You are truly responsible for developing the future of our country.  You know, no big deal……

With that being said, you may be failing our children in a very important way.  Childhood obesity rates are at an all time high.  According to the CDC, in 2008 1/3 of all children and adolescents were overweight or obese.  1/3!!  That is a staggering rate.  Now, is it all your fault?  Of course not.  It’s not entirely any particular parties fault.  BUT, you can go a long way to helping the matter, by simply helping yourself.

How often do you exercise?  How well do you eat?  Do you portray a positive and healthy lifestyle?  If your answers were: 3-5 times a week, very well and of course, then you’re doing an amazing job.  If not, you are helping perpetuate our nation’s current (over)weight epidemic.

So, how if you’re teaching math or science are you making our kids fat?  Well, think back to when you were a kid.  Maybe you received the toy chain saw or vacuum cleaner you’d asked Santa for.  So, what did you do with it?  You ‘vacuumed’ the floor or ‘chainsawed’ anything and everything you could get your hands on.   Why?  Because you saw mom or dad go through those actions and you wanted to do those things.  You never thought about whether or not those were things you should be doing or if everyone else did them, you simply processed them as normal things that people do.

This is how children work.  They process and accept  a lot of things as the norm.  They don’t have memory banks filled with normal and abnormal actions.  They simply have things that they see and things that they therefore assume are normal.

If you have a swear jar in your house, you’ve also realized this works in the ‘not-so-helpful’ department.  Like I said, kids don’t necessarily judge things as right and wrong, they just see parents and teachers do them and they create norms from those actions.

See where I’m going with this?

As a teacher, you influence not just the children who carry your last name but dozens of children every year.  If they see you eating an unhealthy snack, they create the notion that everyone likely eats those unhealthy snacks.  You mention you hate to exercise and before you know it, a handful of your students also mention a hatred of exercise.  You look in the mirror and see a heart-attack waiting to happen……..and before you know if you’re looking at 30 little heart-attacks sitting in front of you.

Kids see and hear everything you do and say.  This is for the good and the bad.  So, I must implore all of you to please portray the healthiest life style possible.  You don’t need to run like Dean Karnazes or look like Jessica Biel, but you can eat well, exercise regularly, and be vocal about doing so.  Your classes will definitely notice and I promise your health will also improve because of it.

Now, I’ll be totally realistic.  Some kids need a lot more than a good example in school.  They need parents who are also educated and on board.  They need access to the right foods.  They need a lot.  But, lets look at this from the other side:  some kids will take note.  They will eat better and exercise.  They will get their parents and siblings to eat better.  They will become healthier adults and eventually they will even start families of their own.  Families who will also eat well and believe in fitness.

That’s a pretty big difference.

~ Tom

Thomas Abbey
Owner, RKC, NSPA-CPT
Functional Fitness VA
www.functionalfitnessva.com

**Did you know that all teachers receive 15% of initial purchases at Functional Fitness VA?  Please email us for more details.  functionalfitnessva@gmail.com

The post The Lesson In Fitness appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

When was the last time you saw someone climb a tree?  And no, the first Transformers movie does not count.

Most likely, it’s been awhile.  But why?  I feel like when I was a kid, there was not a single point during any summer day when less than 80% of the kids in the neighborhood were not located within the limbs of a maple tree.   We could climb up, down and swing from branch to branch.  Show us a tree and we’d show you how to climb it.

We climbed the trees because they were there.  I certainly didn’t have intentions of building upper body strength, increasing spacial awareness or improving my balance.  Heck no.  I just wanted to eat the apples, get my frisbee back, or get the heck away from a less nimble sibling.

However, when it came time to get into the gym for sports, we could all hammer out pullups, hold flexed arm hangs for minutes on end and we had exceptional grip strength.   These were skills imperative to climbing trees and thus we  excelled at them in the gym.  This not only increased our areas of strength, but it also gave us invaluable levels of confidence when it came to performing other actions in the gym, on the field and in the classroom.  It allowed us a jump-start to being confident young men, simply because we could move through trees like Caesar in Rise of the Planet of Apes.

So, why don’t kids climb trees anymore?  People say it’s unsafe.  Really?!  Unsafe?  How safe is it to have obese 10 year olds?  How safe is it to have no ability to lift or hold your own body weight?  How safe is an entire generation with hand injuries due to video game usage?  Go ride a bike, you say?  How safe is that? (Here are some injury stats for ‘safe’ sports.)  Also, put aside the fact that our ability to climb trees and live in an arboreal environment had a lot to do with how we evaded predators for a very long period of time.  It was actually how we remained safe.

Take this post for what it’s worth.  My own personal opinion, based upon my own personal experiences.  Should you allow your kids to start running around the neighborhood climbing anything?  Absolutely not.  Be smart and be present, have them be cautious, watch out for overhead wires and other obstructions.  All sports and actions can carry negative consequences, that doesn’t mean we simply refrain from doing them.

‘Climbing trees and falling out of them is all part of growing up and having small injuries helps children learn about risks. We take the view that it’s a good thing to try to equip children and young people and help them make informed decisions about the risks that they take.’  -  Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (UK)

Have fun.  Increase confidence.  Improve athletically.  Become a better adult. ….. Go climb a tree.

Click here for a link debunking some tree climbing stats and another perspective.  Definitely worth a look.

The post Go Climb a Tree appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

Anyone who knows me knows I love the movie 300. There are a couple different reasons for this; first, I like action movies, and there’s plenty in this one. Being a personal trainer I wanted to read  up on the grueling physical training the cast went through in preparation for this film. I was thoroughly impressed to say the least. The second reason this movie inspires me is the overall theme of the courage, spirit and mindset of the men who followed King Leonidas to battle. Here the focus is not the combat, but the attitude possessed by these Spartans. At one point in the movie, when taking the 300 men to go defend their nation against some politicians’ wishes one politician  asks another politician, “what can we do?”, King Leonidas then responds, “What can you do?”. It’s less a of a question, it’s more of a challenging statement, and that is how I regard the title of this blog.

Are we walking into battle in the same sense as the Spartans? No. Nevertheless, every time we enter the gym, regardless of the type, we should ask ourselves; “What can I do?”. Our battle isn’t with the weights, the step mill, the mat, gravity, or the trail, it’s with ourselves. Lifting a certain weight isn’t really about that particular number, it’s about our own growth and the path we have  traversed to reach that target. Just as losing weight is a goal for many of us, the end number you’ve set is important, but even more so is the road to get there. If the focus is on the path to get there, and what you have done, then that goal isn’t an ending, it’s a marker on our path to find out, “What can I do?”

What can you do? In a our kettlebell classes we make the students do pull-ups in the second or third week, everyone. Pull-ups!? Everyone!?! Yes, pull-ups, and yes, everyone. Some students have to do Jump-Ups, but everyone gets the job done, and grows with each attempt on the bar either in strength, focus, resolve, or understanding. After countless swings and planks, the exhaustion coupled with the mental strain of attempting something they feel to be impossible has most of the class disappointed with their third and last set of pull-ups. At this point I ask them, “What can you do?”. They look at me for a second and I go on to explain, “What can you do? You may not be able to do one full pull-up let alone five, but what can you do?  You can do the five toughest Jump-ups of your life, create as much tension as possible pre jump, pull as hard as you can through your jump, and resist as much as you can on the way down.” Now it’s no longer a question, it’s a statement, it’s a belief, an ideal; “What you can do!”

The principle  here  isn’t to worry or think about what you can’t achieve. It’s about asking yourself with the  utmost certainty, “What can I do?”, knowing the answer before a single thought enters your mind. YOU CAN DO YOUR BEST . Because a challenge is not only about What You Can Do, but to do the best of what you are capable.

So, the next time you’re faced with adversity, a difficult challenge, or just a rut in life, you can now help yourself find the answer. Ask, “What can I do?” Find out what you can do, and know that you can always do your best.

The post What Can You Do? appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

The post Tasty Tuesday #6: Not So Sloppy Joe appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

The post Maniac Monday #5: The Renegade Row appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.

Welcome to the Runner’s Squat!

Video is a portion of Functional Fitness VA’s travel workout for endurance athletes.  Want a copy?  Lets us know @ FunctionalFitnessVA@gmail.com

The post Functional Friday: The Runner’s Squat appeared first on Functional Fitness VA.