Pete asks: "What's your broad advice to start moving?"

This is a great question in from Pete:

"Hey Dave Long time no speak, here's a question for you

And it relates to myself in particular, but would cover a broad audience.

Background: Completely sedentary life, due to working long hours at a computer, 5 days a week, etc. "Living time" is very minimal, you could call it physical fatigue, brought about due to mental fatigue, i.e literally no motivation to move beyond turning off computers, and vegging. Medical complication: Recently knackered left knee due to moving house, crutches, stretch exercises done to get flexibility back up Question: With myself, and plenty of others living a mostly sedentary life, what would your broad advice be to get people up and moving. Is it a case of going for a simple walk, or mentally preparing oneself to literally "move".

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Hope all is well with you Pete (yes the long haired git that used to be at the lunchtime sessions at Wild Geese)"

First of all, of course I remember you mate, and I'm delighted you still receive these emails and took the time to reach out with your question.

Now, of course, I responded to Pete privately before writing this, but like Pete says, this is a topic that reaches across a broad spectrum of the population.

Let's divide the population up into broad categories to help illustrate a point.

1. People who were athletic as kids and maintained a training habit their whole lives

2. People who were athletic as kids and gave up due to college/career etc and came back later in life

3. People who were athletic as kids and gave up due to injury, not trying to get back

4. People who weren't athletic as kids but got into training later in life and are struggling to develop a foundation

5. People who were never athletic as kids and are now looking to stave off age related decline

These are very rough categories, but these are identifiable across the population I have personally worked with.

And I have nothing but respect for every person who's ever come to me for help and put in some effort.

Pete's question is for those in category 5.

Of the 5 categories, it's those in 5 that potentially have the hardest battle.

1's, it's easy. I am a 1, I've never not trained for more than a handful of months, it wasn't always training in one thing, it might have been and activity determined by the locality, but I've always trained, and I can't see myself stopping anytime soon

2's are probably the largest percentage of my old clientele in Dublin, people who stopped for good reasons and then restart later in life.

3's next, these guys have it hard, as they need to rebuild and that can be test of patience.

4's would be the next most common I've worked with.

and 5's. I love 5's.

But with no habit or training discipline, it's tough.

So what's my advice?

Everybody is busy.

Everybody.

We all have our priorities.

For the 1's, training is a priority

The 2's and 3's, it was formerly a priority and it's relatively easy to to get it back as it was likely never far from your mind. It's just a matter of how.

The 4's and 5's it was never a priority so to suddenly go from nothing to something is a tough ask.

Especially, as Pete points out, you are mentally exhausted by the end of the work day There is a disconnect here. Just because you are mentally burnt out, that doesn't necessarily mean you are physically burnt out.

The stresses of work and the sheer amount of calories the brain burns (approx 1/3rd of our BMR is the brain) can leave us feeling wiped. And starting an exercise or training routine while feeling like this is an uphill struggle.

James Clear's book Atomic Habits contains many strategies that can help start the process of exercising, which needs to become a habit.

I would highly recommend it (this is an amazon affiliate link to the book: https://amzn.to/3BAso7d)

But even still we need to break a lot of things down.

Step one, how can we lower the barrier of entry to exercise?

In recent conversation with a client who's working through just that problem, we started exercising at home, which wasn't working.

So she told me she has 2 gyms from the same chain local to her house. Both within a 15 minute cycle.

So we set a target, simply cycle to one of the gyms 2x/week immediately after work.

She doesn't have to go in, she can, and hopefully she does, but she has to get there.

That gives here around 30 minutes cycling, 15 minutes each way.

And that is a start.

It's a minimum standard.

Always achieve the minimum and you will have achieved something.

And something beats nothing. And who knows, once there, she may go in and smash a workout?

This lady works from home. If you're in the office, find a place on your commute and get in before you get home.

Setting this up for success starts at least one day before.

The day before you have organised your food, so you're energised and ready to exercise You've gotten your kit ready and left the bag by the door ready to be lifted in the morning.

And you have an idea of what you're going to do, where you're going at what time, at what cost to do what activities.

This maybe you've reached out to me and I've built you a training plan to start you at an appropriate pace with exercises that will rebuild that knackered knee.

Or it's an exercise class

Or a martial arts class

But you never just walk into a gym hoping for a flash of inspiration to hit you when you get there.

Have a plan.

For people in Pete's world, it's not easy.

This idea of setting a minimum standard is the most successful idea I've used with people

The act of turning up, even if you do nothing more, at least you have turned up.

Exercise for the length of one song from your favourite playlist as a minimum. If you carry on, that's a bonus, but at least you have hit the minimum.

There's a lot to said for being kind to yourself.

Just not too kind.

And for a final point, make it easier by reaching out and getting help.

It maybe a buddy, it maybe going to a structured class, or it maybe my online training service.

But it's some sort of help, some sort of support, some sort of accountability.

It's simple, not easy

But if you have successes in your life, you know you can achieve when you put your mind to something, why should this be any different?

Have a comment on this or a question of your own? Hit reply and send it in

Chat soon --

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net

Guiding Principles: Rule 1, Muscles Lengthen before they contract

Thanks to everyone who reached out after the last couple of newsletters,

my inbox has been busy

In particular, the post about principles and Gary Wards 2nd Rule of Anatomy in Motion saying Joints act, muscles react.

Some of you asked to hear about the other rules.

So lets do the sensible thing and go to Rule 1.

Muscles Lengthen Before They Contract

In my mind, rules 1 & 2 are interchangeable and say similar things, just looking at it from a different perspective.

This idea of perspective is important, when we consider most viewpoints on the human animal are all talking about the same things but from different perspectives, then we can quickly and easily cut through the crap.

For example, Powerlifting and Yoga may seem like absolute opposites, but they both look at trying to improve the human body in some way, one from the perspective of moving the most weight, the other from the perspective of creating great flexibility.

Are these two goals mutually exclusive?

Only if you're looking for extremes. Most people if they did a bit of both would get stronger and move better. It's rarely a case of doing this excludes you from doing that, we're all looking to upgrade our human animal, why not learn from as many sources as possible and utilise the resources that best suit our current needs?

Anyhow, back to Rule 1. Muscles Lengthen Before They Contract

In the Chinese Martial Arts there are little riddles they use to teach movement principles.

One goes:

"To go up, first go down. To go left, first go right"

That is Rule 1 from a different perspective.

Consider throwing a ball.

The first thing we do is move the ball backwards, usually behind us if we're looking for a big throw, then we rotate the body to whip the arm through.

That whole action puts length, a stretch into the muscles that need to contract to throw the ball.

We reflexively, intuitively wind up by lengthening the muscles before they contract.

Now, think about basic walking or running.

Our weight lands into the foot as it contacts the ground, what happens?

As our weight sinks into the foot, the calf, the quads, the upper hamstrings, the glutes and so on, will stretch as they absorb that weight. The body loads up like a spring, muscles are lengthening like bungie cords.

And as they lengthen, the sensory organs within the tissues send signals up to the central nervous system saying "we're under strain, send orders" and the nervous system says "Contract!" and we bounce forward into the next step

The leg behind us as we step, the hip flexors are all stretching as out weight shifts forward of the foot, that stretch is what "pings" the leg through to land in front of us ready for the next step

By utilising the stretch, we almost gain free energy, we become incredibly efficient and effective in our movement.

Muscles lengthen before they contract

To go left, first go right

To swing the kettlebell up better, swing it back faster

The second rep of a deadlift always feels better than the 1st

If ever there was a perspective to explain why I prioritise things like skipping, jumping, joint mobility, dynamic range of motion exercises and kettlebell lifts, clubs, etc

As well as talk about "elasticity" as a property we should aim to develop as part of our training Rule 1 is it

Look me up on YouTube, go to the playlist on my channel marked Mobility Collection

and the one with the 100 Rep Warm Up examples and start to follow the info found there.

Become and remain elastic, and you will be effecient

There's plenty of time for being stiff when you're dead

Chat soon

Dave

www.DaveHedges.net

Billy asks, "Any daily mobility routine you could recommend?" sent

I've a very simple question that came through social media from Billy

Billy asks, "Any daily mobility routine you could recommend?"

This is perfect as I am currently on a bit of a mobility rampage. It's always been a large part of the service I offer, look back over my social media output over the years, be it the blogs, facebooks, Instas, whatever and you'll see the hashtags "Strength, Mobility, Endurance" used over and over.

If "fitness" was stool, then Strength, Mobility and Endurance would be the legs.

Your sport / personal preferences will determine which of the legs need more or less work, but the one I see the most neglected or least understood is that of mobility.

Spending time in the Hurling Club gym where I currently train, and seeing the lads there with horrendous mobility doing ineffective stretching has me a little riled, so Billy's question is timely indeed.

Let's start with, "What is Mobility"

We have three terms that get used a lot by trainers, coaches and therapists.

These are:

Mobility

Stability

Flexibility (active and passive)

Flexibility, as far as I am concerned, is the available range of motion at a joint or across several joints.

Back in my Doorman years, I would watch people walk into the bar, stiff and moving like, well, normal folk, and a few hours later, they're bendier than a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader.

If you've ever tried to lift your passed out friend at the end of a night, you'll know exactly what I mean.

So flexibility is innate, to a large degree. How much range we have is determined by your individual joint shapes, as much as we are built the same, there are nuances and genetic differences that make my hips a slightly different shape to yours, so allow me slightly different movement potential than yours.

Stability and Mobility are often spoken about as opposites.

In my mind they're the same thing looked at from different perspectives. Kind of like heads and tails on a coin.

Stability is often talked about in terms of controlling motion through tension, so isometrics are commonly used to create this.

In my mind, Stability is actually the control of dynamic motion, as in nailing an off-axis landing after a jumping for a ball, or running down a mountain side.

And mobility, well that is dynamic control of motion, or having strength and control throughout a range of motion.

All I did there was move the word dynamic.

Did you notice?

Stability is just control.

Mobility includes range of motion.

It takes into consideration joint angles.

Let's go back to your drunk friend for a moment.

Why do they get more flexible as their alcohol level goes up?

Simply because their muscles are no longer inhibited.

Inhibited by what?

By the nervous system.

What tells the muscles to contract?

The nervous system

What tells the muscles to relax?

The nervous system

How do we improve mobility, stability and flexibility?

By talking to the nervous system.

Understand this, and the rest is gravy.

How do we talk to the nervous system?

Simple, we treat everything like learning a skill.  

If I were to start learning a new language, it would be silly to expect to walk into a bar in, I don't know, Krakow, and expect to understand what the locals are saying.

No, I'd have to start at the very beginning, the basics, the fundamentals and repeat them slowly, with high frequency and concentration for a good while.

And gradually progress as the skills improve.

Developing mobility is no different, it's a conversation with the body.

The nervous system is looking for safety, it perceives a certain range of motion as safe.

Our job is gradually to convince it that a greater range is safe.

And a gentle, daily practice is ideal for this.

Just like learning a language, banging away at the same few words or phrases will give limited results. So for mobility, banging away at the same few positions and stretches will offer limited results.

Variety works best.

Playfulness works best Learning to listen (to the body) works best Figuring out what you don't know works best

So, for mobility, how do we learn the body?

I think the basic joint rotations are a great way of doing that, and here's a video:

I've been at this a long time, if you're starting out, or coming at this from injury, start much much slower.

How many reps?

How many do you want?  

Warming up I'll do 10-20 maybe more.

But if it's just for mobility I may do 50-100 reps, maybe in one sitting, maybe spread over the course of the day.

When an injury flares up, I may take one or two drills out of the sequence and do them repeatedly every day until things ease off.

This sequence is not magic

There's no big secret, no big reveal, no three letter acronym.

It's simply rotating each and every joint, paying attention as you do so to find out what it does or doesn't do.

It's a systems check.

It's a practice

It's information gathering

It's teaching the nervous system

It's learning about the nervous system

Have a play, be playful.

Have a conversation with your body today, and every day.

It doesn't have to be the same conversation, but this email and the video above will certainly get you started.

Make sure you're subscribed to my Insta, Facebook and Youtubes, as I'll be sharing a good bit of mobility info in the coming weeks and arranging a couple of workshops on the topic if you want to learn in person.

And of course, don't forget to hit reply and send me your feedback, comments and questions.

Chat soon

-- 

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net