Author Archives: Coach Panda

Forearm Blast: Part 2

Posted on August 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

I have been doing the Ido Portal 7 Minute Hang Challenge. It is a great way to strengthen the connective tissues in your shoulders, develop a stronger grip and more supple shoulders. The downside to this focused work is that my hands and forearms are getting smoked. So I have gone back into the archives to find some ways to take care of my wrists and forearms. Here are a few wrist stretches that you can do to warm up or cool down. Try to do 10 reps of each moving slowly and holding the deepest part of the stretch for 2 to 3 seconds.

Be sure to check out these great forearm exercises too.

Forearm Blast: Part 2 from Force Distance Time on Vimeo.

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Posted in Mobility

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Schmeariformis

Posted on July 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

A big shout out to Brick New York for hosting me today.

Your butt is the big engine that drives the machine. Nestled deep below the glutes are six muscles that are responsible for external rotation, the most famous of which is the piriformis. This quick mobility piece will help you bring some relief to the piriformis by schmearing it with the Yoga Tune Up® ball. Test your air squat before and after and feel the difference.

Schmeariformis from Force Distance Time on Vimeo.

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Posted in Mobility

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Lower Back Attack

Posted on July 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

I spent the morning at Brick New York coaching and working out and found a few minutes to record a couple of videos.

Most people I meet want to know how to bring relief to their lower backs. The lower back can be the nexus for a lot of pain and tension due to myriad reasons: poor mechanics, over use, under use, fatigue, poor proprioception, as well tissue dysfunction. Going after the Quadratus Lumborum with a Yoga Tune Up® Alpha ball is a great place to start. This is one of those areas that can be quite tender so if the pressure is too much try to do this standing at the wall with the Alpha ball. Test and retest your forward bend before and after to see if you have increased range of motion.

Lower Back Attack from Force Distance Time on Vimeo.

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Posted in Mobility

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Trapper Keeper

Posted on July 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

Most of us suffer from tight, sore shoulders. The trapezius muscle on the top of the shoulder often does the lion’s share of the work for the upper body and consequently holds a lot of tension. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a shoulder massage everyday? All you need is a Yoga Tune Up® ball and a door jam and five minutes to give yourself a luxurious shoulder rub. Test and re-test your overhead position before and after trying this.

Thanks to Brick New York for hosting me today.

Trapper Keeper from Force Distance Time on Vimeo.

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Posted in Mobility

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The CrossFit Defense Course

Posted on July 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

When I told people that I was going to take the CrossFit Defense seminar, I got a lot of weird looks and questions like, “What are we going to do an AMRAP of eye gouges and groin kicks?” I can understand their confusion. CrossFit is, after all, the sport of fitness and we are about working out and getting in sick shape. How does a self defense course fit that profile?

If you know Greg Glassman and what he believes about fitness, you would know that CrossFit was designed make people generally physically prepared for the unknown and the unknowable. CrossFit should prepare you to live a long and healthy life outside the gym. If you understand that, then you can see that there is no greater threat to your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness than a violent attack. Ergo there is no greater need for physical fitness than when you are faced with such a threat. Tony Blauer understands that and he has been training military, law enforcement and civilians in self defense for 35 years. He has also been crossfitting for almost a decade. He blends the two worlds seamlessly.

What is the most surprising and refreshing about the CrossFit Defense course is that it builds off of something else that Coach Glassman said, “The greatest adaptation to CrossFit is between the ears.” The CrossFit Defense course focuses on training your mind. Blauer teaches you to recognize and understand fear, to read the signs before something goes wrong, to de-fuse a situation, to act before it’s too late, to get out of harms way and, as a last resort, to use your fitness to defend yourself.

Blauer says this, “Self defense is the most important skill you hope you never have to use.” I agree. I feel better prepared after taking this seminar in my ability to avoid dangerous confrontations and get out of harms way and more confident should I need to use my fitness to defend myself or my loved ones. It is like having your First Aid or CPR certification: you need it and are glad you have it, but never want to use it. I cannot recommend it enough.

Sign up to take the course at CrossFit.com
Learn more about Tony Blauer at Blauertactical.com

CrossFit Defense Seminar, June 28 & 29, 2014 at CrossFit Mayhem

CrossFit Defense Seminar, June 28 & 29, 2014 at CrossFit Mayhem

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Posted in Thoughts

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Hip Helper

Posted on July 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

Have you been squatting so much that your hips hurt?  Here’s a quick fix for you. This mobility piece will work on your gluteus medius, your tensor fasciae latae and the upper attachment of your rectus femuris. These three muscles can get really tight and aggravated from lots of sitting and squatting.  A good massage with a Yoga Tune Up balls should relieve some tension. Give it a try.  I am using a Yoga Tune Up® Alpha ball but you can also use a Super Nova from mobilitywod.

Here are some tips:

  • Use a bigger ball or at least elevate your ball on a yoga block to get the right spot.
  • Breathe deeply as this can get uncomfortable.
  • Test and re-test with an air squat.

 

Hip Helper from Force Distance Time on Vimeo.

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Posted in Mobility

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Foot Fix

Posted on July 10, 2014 | Leave a comment

Have you been on your feet all day? Have you been running, doing box jumps and double unders? Do you have plantar fasciitis? Do your feet just plain hurt? It turns out that we hold a lot of tension in our feet.  We stand on them all day and we keep them bound up in socks and shoes which restrict their natural movement.  Restoring movement in the foot and massaging the plantar fascia can relieve pain and increase range of motion upstream in the ankles, knees and hips.

Kick off your shoes and socks and let’s roll it out. All you need is a Yoga Tune Up® ball and some bare feet. You can do this standing up or sitting down. Any time. Any where. Five minutes a day can make a huge difference.

Some tips:

  • Lean on a wall or table for support and balance.
  • If you are sitting down, use your other foot to add more weight and pressure to the foot you are rolling.
  • Back off on the pressure if it hurts.
  • Spend at least 2 minutes on each foot.
  • Check in with a forward bend before and after to see if your range of motion increases. It’s okay if there is no change, you will still have received a benefit.

Foot Fix with YTU Balls from Force Distance Time on Vimeo.

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Posted in Mobility

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Are You Buying a Drill or a Hole?

Posted on June 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

As a person in the fitness industry, I am often asked “what do you think of this exercise?” While my thoughts on various exercises run the gamut, I am more concerned with people’s mindset. A good friend of mine said, “A person doesn’t buy a drill because they want a drill. They buy the drill because they want a hole.” Most likely, you don’t give a shit about a certain exercise, and neither do I, what you are really asking me is, “Will this exercise help me reach my goal?” And your goal may be to lose weight, get stronger, look better or whatever. Chances are one exercise is not going to magically get you to your goal.

So instead of talking about what exercise will get you to your goal, let’s talk about your goal and really look at it. Do you think this new sit up variation is really going to help you look great for swimsuit season? Chances are no. You probably have to look at your nutrition as well as your entire fitness regimen and come up with a plan beyond ‘do more crunches.’

It’s like asking your financial planner ‘what do you think of this stock?’ Chances are your financial planner is shaking their head because you think buying 100 shares of some stock is going to make you rich while at the same time you constantly max out your credit cards and outspend your income and exceed your budget.

You have to look at the goal and the whole system. Life is not linear. There is no single variable that we can change to suddenly become awesome. It’s a lot of little things all added together that makes improvements and gets us to our goals. Sure, one good thing can lead to another but don’t fall into the trap of discarding one thing after another endlessly looking for that magic bullet that will fix it all. Success is an additive process: do one positive thing, then another and another until you succeed. Don’t stop until that happens.

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The Rise of Superman

Posted on May 28, 2014 | Leave a comment

The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler is a fascinating book full of both hyperbole and possibility. I do not think it lives up to the title however I feel that it opened my mind to some wonderful ideas that are already being implemented in CrossFit and can be refined further with better knowledge of the flow state.

According to the author Flow exists as a very real state of consciousness where time slows down (time dilation) our brainwaves change from beta to theta and we release hormones like dopamine. It is a state where we accelerate our performance in a non-linear manner and make tremendous gains. It is where creativity emerges and where people become, in the author’s words, superhuman.

Apparently, the phenomenon has been studied in office workers to jazz musicians but is most highly developed in extreme sports enthusiasts. He claims that their physical accomplishments and rapid development are attributed to Flow and but for this state their accomplishments would not have come to pass.

The most intriguing part of the book is the idea of flow triggering and flow hacking. Can we summon this flow state at will? That is the important question and his best solution seems to be jumping off buildings but does concede that there are some less extreme ways to enter the state.

The things you need to create a flow state are focus, instant feedback, risk and community. I was not shocked to find that these are things that we have in CrossFit. It is yet another example of an extreme situation that pushes people into a flow state where they make tremendous gains in short amounts of time.

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Posted in Book Review, Thoughts

More About the Overhead Position

Posted on May 19, 2014 | Leave a comment

Another interesting result of the shoulders down cue is that it limits range of motion in shoulder flexion. There are but a few people that can achieve full 180 degrees of flexion at the gleno-humeral joint with a depressed scapula. Try Warrior 1 with shoulders up and shoulders down and see where the humerae situate themselves. Almost all of you will have your shoulder angle go from 180 to 165 degrees. Now re-orient this position upside down. In an inversion you either compromise position by over-extending the spine (a yogini favorite) or you actually upwardly rotate and elevate your shoulders despite your years of training.

So why the direction to depress them when in Adho Mukha Vrksasana? It is probably an artifact of the Mysore palace where Krishnamacharya watched young english soldiers practice gymnastics. If you follow the history of artistic gymnastics, you will see an evolution of the handstand from a banana-shaped or yoga handstand to a straight vertical handstand—-the modern handstand. Gymnastics evolved as the physical demands of gymnastics increased. The initial banana-shaped handstand is easier to balance and more accessible for people with tighter shoulders (older men in the military and modern yoga practitioners). As the entry into gymnastics got younger and the physical skills became more demanding the straight body handstand became the default. 180 degree shoulder angle and a straight body simply supports more weight (bone stacking) and allows for more advanced skills.

Sadly yoga teaching is more the stuff of mythology and religion than science so there still remain many cues that are passed down from teacher to student without further investigation. Watch this video and see for yourself.

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