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Identfying Shoulder Pain Part 2 – What to Do About It

May 21, 2011 By 7 Comments

Additional Disclaimer

Before I continue this post, I would once again like to state that I am not a licensed medical professional and this post is not intended to treat, diagnose or cure any medical injury, disease, cause, condition or ailment.  If you suffer from any type of pain you should seek the cousel of a qualified medical professional.  A partial list of these professionals is located in the second half of the first post.  The information in this blog is given with the intent to educate but not diagnose and I am not liable and do not claim responsibility for any emotional or physical problems that may occur directly or indirectly from the content of this blog.

Now that you know what your own anatomy looks like and how it functions (if you don’t, make sure you read Part 1 first!):

What are some things I can do on my own to address my shoulder pain?

Allowing that you do not have an injury and we are dealing with muscular issues, there are several things you can do.  Again, before attempting any type of self-diagnosis or treatment, if you have pain you should seek out the advice of a qualified medical professional.

Stretches

To even start to begin to correct this, we first have to stretch out the antagonists (chest and front delts) before we can begin to strengthen the posterior chain (rhomboids, etc.).  You can see all these stretches in a previous post here: Stretching Adequately Before/During/After Playing

  1. Doorway or Wall Chest Stretch – will stretch your chest
  2. Scapular Wall Slides – these will activate your lower traps and rhomboids
  3. Arm Circles – be gentle on these
  4. Upper Trap/Levator Scapulae Stretch

    With this exercise you can perform it standing and your non-moving arm can be extended straight down with thumb pointing towards the ceiling for a greater stretch

 Foam Rolling/Self-Myofascial Release

A foam roller cannot take the place of a massage therapist, but if you cannot afford to go, this is your best option. You can cover a wider area with the foam roller, and get more specific with a tennis ball, hitting your own trigger points.  Remember, pain is not necessarily at the point of discomfort, it can be “referred”  from another part of the body.  When you press on a trigger point, you may feel that  pain shoot through the body to where you felt discomfort.  Dr. Perry gives more examples of this in his guest blog post Shoulder Pain Secrets.

Guidelines for foam rolling: roll over the muscle to find the most tender spot.  Once you find it, lay on it for 20-30 seconds until the muscle begins to relax.  Then, roll the entire area.  Repeat if necessary.


Tennis Ball Work

This video from Synergy Athletics tells some of the do’s and don’ts of using a tennis ball. Actual usage is towards the end.

This is a really good description of how to use the tennis ball on trigger points in not only the shoulder but the neck.  As I have just recently found out from Stop Chasing Pain’s Dr. Perry, if you have shoulder pain, there is a good chance your scalences or SCM (or other deep neck flexors) could be too tight, as well.

In any case, this next description of how to use a tennis ball, I actually found on a message board.  I’m sorry that I don’t know to whom I need to give credit for this!
Use the following diagram for an idea of what muscles are being treated.

Image courtesy of http://www.sports-injury-info.com/im…er-muscles.jpg

So here we go.

This is how you treat your (upper) trapezoid muscles.

This is how you treat your rhomboids (down the trapezoids and between the shoulder blades) as well as your infraspinatus. You must squat down to apply pressure. You won’t get enough pressure on the ball if your legs are straight.

This is how you treat your side deltoids (you can do the same with the anterior and posterior deltoids). Put your bodyweight behind it.

This is how you treat the clavicular head of your pectoralis (the upper part of your chest):

Now, this is the tricky part, the side of your neck, the sternocleidomastoid muscle (the one that usually pulls to one side screwing things up.)

For this to work, you need to use the corner of a wall. Furthermore, you need to really drive your bodyweight. This is one of the strongest muscles. Don’t kill it but work on it.


Wanna Free E-Book?

You can’t get much better than this: Mike Robertson put out a  free e-book on Self-Myofascial Release using foam rollers, The Stick AND tennis balls.  It starts with lower body and the upper body tutorials are towards the end, but if you have a foam roller and a tennis ball, you can really work yourself all over with the help of this book. There is even a section on helping the wrist flexors!

Self-Myofascial Release Manual

Strengthening Exercises

As we have just learned, muscles of the upper back tend to become weak and stretched, due to hours of doing things with our arms in front of us, which leads to tight pectorals

Serratus anterior muscle

Image via Wikipedia

(and Serratus Anterior, I forgot to mention).  This means these muscles need to be strengthened and one of the absolute best ways of doing this is resistance training.

Any kind of motion that counter acts the pushing motion (which is what your tight chest muscles are already doing) will help.

These motions are primarily any type of rowing or pulling motion.  If you think of these exercises in planes of motion, you have two choices: horizontal pulling and vertical pulling.

Horizontal pulling would be things like seated cable rows, 1-arm dumbbell rows, barbell rows, T-bar rows, X-cable crossovers, Face Pulls, etc.
Vertical pulling motions would be things like Pullups, lat pull downs, althernating pulldowns, chin ups, etc.

All of these exercises will be helpful to strengthening the back muscles.  The biggest thing to remember when performing these exercises is to get the form right.  What do you need to remember?  Retract and depress your shoulder blades and keep them that way THROUGHOUT the movement.  This means that when you are doing any kind of pulling motion, when you let your arms extend back, they should not be able to full extend because you still have the bottom of your shoulder blades pinched together.  This activates your rhomboids and lower traps and allows them to do their proper job of stabilizing your shoulder girdle.

For these movements you will have to have equipment of some kind, be it a pullup bar, bands or dumbbells, and that is really the only limiting factors of these exercises.  I have some great links to the kinds of bands I use on my website at http://fluteangel.net/links.htm  if you want to go pick up some.  They are very inexpensive and portable and can come in varying strengths.

Prone Lower Trap Raises

These have to be one of my absolute favorite exercises I had never heard of.  They  look deceptively easy until you try to do them and realize that just lifting your arms without any weight is heavy enough!  In fact, this is such a good idea, I might just do a blog post all about activating the lower traps…

Here is a version you can do at home if you don’t have a bench:

From Neanderthal No More By Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson

Ideally, this exercise is performed face-down with your chest-supported on an elevated flat bench (i.e. longer legs, so that you’re higher off the ground). However, if you don’t have access to such a bench, you can do it bent-over; just make sure that your upper body remains parallel to the floor at all times (no cheating!)

Hold a dumbbell in one hand with a supinated group (the thumb points up at the top of the movement). Begin with the arm dangling below you on the bench. Horizontally adduct (think reverse fly) your arm while maintaining the thumb-up position. At the top, your arm should be at the 9 (left) or 3 (right) positions, and the upper arm and torso should form a 90-degree angle. Throughout the movement, concentrate on retracting the scapulae while keeping it tight to the rib cage (no winging).

Rotator Cuff Exercises

There are an awful lot of these exercises, however, one thing to make sure you realize when performing these exercises is that it’s not about how much weight you can lift.  The SITS muscles are small and if they are causing you pain, they may not only be weak, they areprobably tight and stretched which means you need to be even MORE careful.  1-3 lb. dumbbells will be PLENTLY for these exercises.

The two you probably recognize are internal and external rotation exercises.  Stand perpendicular to a pole with a band attached.  While keeping your elbow tucked in closely to your side rotate your arm inward, pulling the band and then slowly back.  Turn the other way and now you are pulling the band across your body.

Soup Can Pours

In a standing position, start with your right arm halfway between the front and side of your body, thumb down. (You may need to raise your left arm for balance.) Raise your right arm until almost level (about a 45° angle). (Hint: This is like emptying a can.) Don’t lift beyond the point of pain. Slowly lower your arm. Repeat the exercise until your arm is tired. Then do the exercise with your left arm.

Exercise 4

Preventative Measures

Gerald Klickstein’s book The Musician’s Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance and Wellness is an excellent book on just those subjects.  In Chapters 12 and 13 (and reposted on the blog) he mentions 12 Habits of Healthy Musicians:

The Twelve Habits of Healthy Musicians by Gerald Klickstein
1.  Increase playing or singing time gradually
2.  Limit repetition
3.  Regulate hand- or voice-intensive tasks
4.  Manage your workload
5.  Warm up and cool down
6.  Minimize tension
7.  Take breaks
8.  Heed warning signs
9.  Take charge of anxiety
10. Keep fit and strong
11. Conserve your hearing
12. Care for your voice

The Musician’s Way specifies ways in which you can incorporate these twelve habits into your lifestyle. Here are a few highlights:

  • #1: To avert overuse injuries, restrict any increase in your total playing or singing time to a maximum of 10-20% per week (p. 12).
  • #4: Respect your physical limits and ask a mentor for advice before you take on an overload of duties (p. 243).
  • #5: Pages 37-39 present a six-step process for warming up thoroughly and efficiently.
  • #6: Two sections in Chapter 13 – “Balanced Sitting and Standing” & “Meeting Your Instrument” – depict how musicians can form easeful habits. Forty-one photos are included.
  • #7: In solo practice, play or sing no more than 25 minutes before pausing for a 5-minute respite. The Musician’s Way itemizes six restorative movements that help to invigorate breaks (p. 75-82).
  • #8: Injury symptoms can be subtle, as are the social issues that come into play when unwell musicians who are expected to perform need to rest instead. Pages 237-241 untangle these topics.
  • #9: Anxiety doesn’t just scuttle musicians on stage but also impels some to overpractice to the point of injury. Strategies to neutralize anxiety interweave throughout The Musician’s Way and come to the fore in Chapter 7, “Unmasking Performance Anxiety.”
  • #10: Music making requires mental, physical, and emotional vigor. Healthy musicians, therefore, mind their nurtrition, rest, exercise, and other self-care needs much like top athletes (p. 245-246).
  • #11: Strategies that thwart music-induced hearing loss are summarized in my post “Hear today. Hear tomorrow” and fleshed out on pages 277-291.
  • #12: A section titled “Voice Care” encapsulates vocal hygiene under seven headings, the first of which is ‘Drink plenty of water’ (p. 268-277).

Postural Considerations

As flutists, a good many of us suffer from poor posture, made worse by long hours of playing without being in tune with our bodies.  If you are “stuck in your head” and not paying much attention to your body by being so focused on the music, you may notice that when you finally stop playing, you are sore, tight, hurting, and in terrible posture – slouched to the side, front, or otherwise not upright.

Besides understanding your individual body map and taking the time to be aware of your posture WHILE playing, let me propose a postural alteration.  Many of you may do this, but many of you may not:

When playing, take note of your arm position.  Do your elbows “fly” away from your body?  If so, this puts tremendous stress on the little muscles of the rotator cuff, which are not well equipped to deal with this type of endurance activity.  Let your arms hang from the flute, keeping the elbows closer to the body and also making sure the left arm is really under the flute.  When you sit, make sure you are BALANCED on your sit-bones with your feet FLAT on the floor.   This should help keep you in the proper position while leaving your deltoids and biceps to do the hard work of fighting gravity instead of your little rotator cuff muscles.

Dr. Susan Fain has some great information in her dissertation, and I highly recommend you check it out!  You can also hear the both of us at the National Flute Association Convention in Charlotte this August speaking with Lea Pearson and Karen Lonsdale about pain prevention.

Additional Resources and Articles

By the way, there is an EXCELLENT 5 – article series called Neanderthal No More: Fixing Your Caveman Posture by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson over at T-Nation.   It can be a bit advanced for some, but if you are looking for a lot of information by people who know what they are doing and you wouldn’t mind a full week’s workout laid out for you, I’d check it out.  Not only does it have a full description of anatomy, it delves into body awareness by asking you to check out your own posture in different ways and then testing it to examine your own posture and movement patterns.  In part 3 they give client analysis – see if you can determine what’s “wrong” with these guys. :)

Please, tell me if this addresses your shoulder pain and if you found this helpful, leave a comment below.  Let us know what pain you are dealing with, what has worked for you and if you have anything to add to the post, let’s hear it!  Look for some guest blog posts dealing more with these issues, soon!

And feel free to link your own articles to this blog, down in the comments section!

 

About the Author

Angela McCuiston is a classically trained flutist with a Masters in Music Performance from FSU.  She has studied Body Mapping at Barbara Conable’s “What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body” workshop, studied Alexander Technique with Janeke Resnick, Alexander Murray and at Appalachian State University and is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.  Angela has been involved in weight training since the 1990′s and has been a personal trainer since 2009. You can find out more information about Angela through the “About Me” tab at top or via her websites: http://fluteangel.net and http://www.MusicStrong.com

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What Interests You?

May 12, 2011 By 12 Comments

So as you all know, I have two main passions when it comes to career: Music and Fitness.  I’ve gone into mostly uncharted territory with promoting myself as a Musician Health Coach, or a personal trainer for musicians.  What does that mean to you, though?  What does that mean and what do I do and how does that actually benefit you?

  • I am a NASM certified personal trainer.  This is one of the top rated personal training certifications in the country and, along with the NSCA, is considered the gold standard.  In addition to this, this particular certification agency focuses on addressing the different muscle imbalances that everyone tends to develop – especially those who do repetitive motions like driving, sitting at a desk or computer, practicing an instrument, etc.
  • I am a classically trainer professional flutist.  I have studied music performance for a long time, ending (so far) with getting my Masters in Music Performance from FSU.  What does this mean?  It means that I LOVE to play my flute and perform for people.  It means that I am one of those people in the above categories, practicing my instrument for hours, sitting in front of a computer (typing this), and I understand the demands that are placed on a musician’s body.  We are unique in what our discipline requires from us.  I get it, because I’m just like you.

So what the heck is a Musician Health Coach?

Besides  my anatomy/kinesiology knowledge that came along with the personal training certification, I also have studied the Alexander Technique (taking classes/lessons at Interlochen Arts Camp, Appalachian State University and Alexander Murray), Body Mapping (taking the “What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body” class from Barbara Conable, and several other classes and presentations) and taking 2 years of Dynamic Integration with Eva Amsler at FSU.  All three of these different modalities focus on the body; learning about the actual layout and how the body works, understanding how we move, remapping our idea of what we look like on the inside, learning to move with only the amount of tension that is necessary, UNLEARNING how to move in some ways, and most of all becoming hyper AWARE of my body and how it functions/moves.

As a musician health coach, what I do is to help musicians make that connection between their brains and their bodies.  Huh?  Playing the flute involves more than just your lips, arms, fingers and lungs.  You use your entire body to play the flute, trombone, drums, etc.  Do you ever think about these things while playing?

  • When I breathe in my spine compresses and when I breathe out, my spine lengthens
  • I am conscious of the space in-between my shoulder blades, and there is no tension there
  • I feel my feet while playing
  • When a difficult passage comes up, I consciously shift my weight to my right foot to make it easier
  • While breathing, I notice whether it is my chest or abdomen moving
  • During times of nervousness (either playing or about to play) I notice what my different symptoms are in all areas of my body, I can feel them, and I accept them instead of ignoring them.
  • Most times while playing, my attention is on my big toe, the back of my knees or noticing if my shoulders are holding excess tension rather than notes and phrases
  • I’m playing, but I’m feeling my feet
  • While playing, I check in with my body and notice where I have pain and am able to connect that pain (or not) to how I play my instrument
  • I can get up and down out of a chair without tensing my neck
  • When I sit to play I’m aware of how my body is balanced between my sit-bones
  • I feel strong/weak in certain areas of my body when I play

Ever thought any of those thoughts?  I think of that stuff ALL THE TIME.  Whether playing, practicing, preparing to play, weightlifting, driving, etc.  As a musician health coach I see it as my job to help other musicians get out of their heads and into their bodies.  Meaning that I use several methods to “coach” other  musicians into being the best musicians they can be.  I teach flute lessons but in these lessons the focus isn’t just on notes and phrases.  A lot of the time we focus on body awareness, feeling your feet while playing, understanding how to sit in a chair and get in and out of it, noticing our emotions; how it feels to play with the different emotions and learning how to accept them instead of hide from them (including nervousness!).

If a musician or student complains about playing in pain, I begin to cross into the strength training aspect of my career.  After learning how to “check in” with our bodies, I ask them to pinpoint the pain.  I might show them some stretches to do before, during and after playing to combat the tightness that might be there.

Among musicians, especially those who have not been taught body awareness, there can be some pretty severe cases of muscle imbalances, and most often these imbalances lead to pain when playing.  Most flutists I’ve surveyed complain of pain in and around the shoulder and neck area.   A lot of this has to do with not being strong enough to hold our instruments in their proper positions for long amounts of time without compensation.  Compensation is what happens when a muscle or body part is too tired or weak to be able to perform its intended function so other assistant muscles start taking over.  We call this “synergistic dominance”.  For example, if your shoulder and rotator cuff muscles are weak and other muscles are tight (especially your chest muscles), after awhile of playing you might start noticing pain under, around or between your shoulder blades (left, for flutists).  The muscles you were asking to hold up your flute are not strong enough to continue, so other muscles like your chest and trapezius muscles have started to take over the job.  This pulls on your already weak rhomboids and shoulder girdle which causes you to lean over to take the weight off the shoulder. 

Now you are slouching to the right, your spine is out of alignment and your core muscles are not engaged to keep you upright.  Most likely they were weak too, or else you would be able to hold up your flute.  Now that the core is weak, other muscles of the hips have to take over which can cause your hamstrings to be weak, your hips to hurt, calves to be tight and possibly knees to hurt.

Now you’re a mess.  Do you see how the body works together to play the instrument?  We didn’t even talk about breathing!!! :)

So, here is my question to you.  In the still relatively uncharted waters of musician health and strength training, what interests you?  As a musician, what would you like to read about?  What are you specific health concerns?  What kinds of articles do you want to read about that you think might help you?  Go outside the box here.  Do you want to read about stretches?  Weight training?  Body Awareness? Travel tips? Overall health and well-being relating to the body and playing?  There are a ton of topics, but I want to write about what interests YOU because I want to help YOU.

What interests you?

Feel free to post a comment on my Facebook page, hit me up on Follow fluteanjel on Twitter, leave a message below or take the poll below.  Love to hear from you!

Click here to take survey

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Do You Have The Courage To Fail?

April 22, 2011 By 7 Comments

(Part 2 after “Are You Ready To Change?“)

That is a bold statement, “do you have the courage to fail”?  It could almost be seen as a personal challenge, and take it that way if you would like, because I am betting that if you do, you are one of the most courageous people I know.

What does it mean, to have the courage to fail?  Doesn’t failure mean that you didn’t do something right, you didn’t achieve what you set out to achieve, you didn’t do what you wanted to do, you fell short, messed up, let other people down, let yourself down, etc?

Yes.  And is that a bad thing?

Not necessarily.

Quotes about failure

“Mistakes are not to be avoided by embraced.  They are signals that you’re moving into new territory, breaking new ground, making progress.

“The first important step in weathering failure is learning not to personalize it – making sure you know that your failure does not make YOU a failure.”

“Your commitment to continual improvement puts you one step closer to your potential.  And you’ll also find that what you get as the result of your growth is not nearly as important as what you become along the way.”

- John C. Maxwell

How do those quotes make you feel?  I’m guessing a few ways:

“Wow, I feel empowered, right on!”

“That is soooo hokey”

“Yeah, maybe, but that doesn’t really apply to me”

Which one of these is you?  You know what, none of them is wrong.  You are not right or wrong because you feel one way or another.  You just do.  The question is, what will you DO with these feelings and how will you let these quotes affect you?  Quotes are just quotes, they only mean something when you let them affect you.

We all make mistakes and we make them EVERY DAY.  In fact, babies make the cutest mistakes.  When they fall, we laugh and sometimes they giggle back at us.  We don’t think less of them as people, we think it’s adorable that they’re learning.

Now, translate that to a teenager who trips and fall…suddenly no longer adorable because we think “you should have learned to walk by now”.

Judgement.

Failure.

Doom

Translate this into performance and you get the same thing.  You make a mistake and you THINK everyone is thinking “you should have not messed up there, you should know how to play by now”.  This isn’t always the case, a lot of times humans are a lot more sympathetic than you think and even if they know you messed up, THEY don’t want to be where you are and are probably thinking more along the lines of “that’s only natural, I’m sure she’s nervous playing all those notes in front of all these people – you go girl, I’m rooting for you!” while on stage YOU are thinking “oh no, I messed up!  I bet they all noticed and they’re thinking about what a failure I am and how I didn’t play it right and I’m going to hear about it from everyone tomorrow” which leads to a continual mess-up loop and a bad mood the rest of the night.

Pretty unbalanced, huh?

Let me give you a few books that can help free you from your judgemental self.

The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey

I have not read The Inner Game of Music but I have heard that the Tennis book is actually much better, and because I play tennis, I “get it”. Even if you don’t play tennis (you should, haha!) you will have an easy time understanding the concepts in this book.  He labels Self 1 and Self 2 and before you freak out that we’re going Schizophrenic, let me ask you, do you ever talk to yourself?  Sure you do, we do it all day long all the time.  Nothing wrong with that.  When we perform, Self 1 goes into overdrive, telling Self 2 what to do.  Self 1 being the voice and Self 2 being your body or your subconscious.  Excerpt from the book

It is interesting to see how the judgemental mind extends itself.  It may begin by complaining “What a lousy serve,” then extend to, “I’m serving badly today”.  After  a few more “bad” serves, the judgement may become further extended to “I have a terrible serve”. Then, “I’m a lousy tennis player,” and finally, “I’m no good”.  First the mind judges the event, then groups events, then identifies with the combined event and finally judges itself.

As a result, what usually happens is that these self-judgements become self-fulfilling prophecies.  That is, they are communications from Self 1 about Self 2 which, after being repeated often enough, become rigidified into expectations or even convictions about Self 2.  Then Self 2 begins to live up to these expectations.  …In short, you start to become what you think.

When asked to give up making judgements about one’s game, the judgemental mind usually protests, “But if I can’t hit a backhand inside the court to save my life, do you expect me to ignore my faults and pretend my game is fine?”  Be clear about this:  letting go of judgements does not mean ignoring errors.  It simply means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them.

Take out the tennis terms serve and game and insert “notes” and “recital” and does this sound at all familiar?

Another book is The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music From the Heart by Madeline Bruser.

This is another book about letting go of judgement but also giving yourself the permission to make mistakes.  She covers a lot of things: stretching, body awareness, posture, permission and also finding the easiest posture for your instrument.  Beyond all this, she lays out some specific ways to structure your practice session, which I find immensely helpful, especially after one leaves school and it can be easy to get out of the habit.  Sorry, but there are just too many great excerpts to list here, you’ll have to get the book. :)

Performance Power: Transforming Stress Into Creative Energy  by Dr. Irmtraud Tarr Kruger

This is a great book about the psychology behind what we do and how we perform and how we can release that stress into better, more positive things.  It also helps you question your “role”, and learn how to be a human “being” not a human “doing” comfortable in your own skin and able to truly perform.  If the thought of actually confronting your symptoms of nervousness intrigued you, this book will really show you how.

Confusing success with fulfillment is one of the chief causes of performance anxiety.  If we are motivated by “success at any price” then fears must appear; because when we think in this way we will be expecting something from others, thus becoming dependent on goals which have nothing to do with the task at hand.

If we wish with our activity to arrive at something or to prove something merely in order to prop up our faltering feeling of self-worth, then we will be endangered, and it will not be difficult to make us unsure of ourselves.  Drive on by our “success trip”, we will then be following a mistaken concept fed by foreign, ersatz feelings, which make us dependent.  If we appear in public with the intent to impress, we will be looking for something other than satisfaction or fulfillment.  We Will have much more to fear than if our appearance were dedicated to the goals of seeking satisfaction and fulfillment, and of sharing our knowledge or ability with others in order to enrich our lives.

By the way, if reading that offended you, or poked at you and made you uncomfortable, that’s a sure sign that that is an area needing change and courage.  Might be a good indication to read that one. :)

Lastly, I have one from Max Lucado.  This was given to me when I was leaving Appalachian State University to transfer to Florida State to do finish my Master’s.  The church I attended there was small but very loving and they let me know how special I was to them by giving me this book before I left.  They were sad to see me go, but wanted me to be courageous as I set out on a new journey.

Let the Journey Begin: God’s Roadmap for New beginnings by Max Lucado

If you believe in God and have faith in His will for your life, this book is a God-send and a veritable relief to read.  From the preface:

Deep in every heart you will find it: A longing for meaning, a quest for purpose.

If you ask the secularists what is the meaning of life they will say “we don’t know”.  At best they might agree that we are developed animals.  At worse, rearranged space dust.

What a contrast to God’s vision for life: “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to devote ourselves to the good deeds for which God has designed us”. (Eph 2:10)

God has placed his hand on your shoulder and said “You’re something special.”
Untethered by time, he sees us all.  In fact, he saw us before we were born.  And he loves what he sees.  Flooded by emotion. Overcome by pride, the Starmaker turns to us, one by one, and says, “You are my child, I love you dearly.”

And he loves us forever.  Should you ever turn from him and walk away, he has already provided a way back.  Nothing can separate you from his love.  If you anchor these truths firmly in your heart, you will be ready for whatever you may encounter on the road ahead.

So let the journey begin!   – Max Lucado, January 1998

Ok, Ready to Fail!

If you’re truly ready to take this journey, I applaud you because you are a brave soul and you will be rewarded!  Having the courage to go into the failure takes guts, so if I may, let me give you a bit of advice on the journey ahead:

  • Be kind to yourself.  You are going to fail, sometimes ON PURPOSE.  When (not if) this happens, take a moment to notice your reaction.  Do you have an immediate judgement?  Were you surprised?   Whatever your reaction, be kind to yourself and realize you are not your failure.  The mistake was just that, a mistake and how you choose to react to it will make all the difference.
  • If you do judge yourself, notice that.  Pretend you are a student – would you judge your student?  No, you’d notice the mistake and figure out how to fx it.  Same with training – treat yourself as your own client.  Realize that judgement is not necessarily about the mistake that just occurred – it represents something else.  When you have that judging moment, ask yourself why?  Have the courage to look beyond the immediate “I can’t believe I messed up, what a failure I am” thought and ask why do I think that?
  • In music, this is how I teach my students to correct their mistakes (and I believe this comes from The Art of Practicing)
  • Step 1) stop immediately and make note of exactly where the mistake happened.
  • Step 2) Look at the mistake objectively.  Identify exactly what happened (if it was a wrong note, which one?  Say it’s an interval of a 3rd and you are playing a 2nd….this might be a pattern and you will notice it happening elsewhere when you can identify it)  
  • Step 3) Play the wrong note on purpose  – does that freak you out? :)   Allow yourself to make the mistake. Notice how it feels and how it sounds.
  • Step 4) Play the correct note (and by the way, this should all be done slowly and maybe even out of tempo or rhythm.  This is crucial.  You have to allow yourself to play the wrong note, to fail and notice where it happens, so that when you now play the correct note, you are acutely aware of it).  When you play the correct note, take the passage out of time, perhaps only play the note before and after the erroneous note and make sure that you SIT on the correct note.  This means that when you play the correct note, hold it out for a long time. This puts the sound of it in your ear and when you play it with the preceding and following notes, you hear the correct note pattern instead of the wrong one BUT you HAVE to play the wrong note first!
  • If you are learning how to fail in other areas of life, you can apply this same process.  Take out “note” from the passage above and insert your circumstance:  Allow the wrong ” food….exercise….person….statement….etc” to happen – experience the mistake in its entirety and then when you do the correct thing, revel in it.
  • The best advice I can give you is to notice this in your journey “If it feels weird, you’re probably right”.  This means that mistakes often feel more correct than the correct thing.  When you are correcting a mistake it feels weird, unnatural – GO WITH THAT feeling.  When you sit on the right note it will sound weird, feel weird, and the more you play it correctly like that the less weird it sounds.  Try it out and tell me what happened for you.  I do this with clients all the time.  In squatting, if a client’s feet point too far outward or their knees cave inwards and I have them correct that, they will tell me “that doesn’t feel right, or that feels weird” and I tell them to make it feel weird, because it means they are doing it right.

For more resources


I found this link of books from the Horn Studio at UI, looks like a great list!

Book list for overcoming fear of failure, stress and performance anxiety

And, if you want to feel better about failing, of course you can check out Fail Blog

Feel free to add any  more resources that have helped you as well.

Stay tuned for part 3 in this blog series: Do You Have The Courage To Succeed?

Fail well, fail often!  Love to hear your thoughts on how failing works for you!


Filed Under: Fitness, Flute, Motivation and Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are You Ready to Change?

April 20, 2011 By 13 Comments

What does change entail?  Why are we afraid?  This goes along with Failure, being Afraid to Fail and its cousin, Afraid of Success.  Which camp do you belong to?

We are all afraid of something, whether we admit it or not.  We all have strengths and weaknesses, whether we admit it or not!  A lot of times these characteristics go hand in hand, and this translates through every aspect of life, be it

  1. Going to a new school in a new state
  2. Embarking on a new relationship
  3. Losing or gaining weight
  4. Changing your body in some way
  5. Changing your beliefs or questioning your values
  6. Learning a new, challenging piece of music
  7. Entering the gym, be it the first time or the 100th time
  8. Accepting compliments
  9. Accepting criticisms
  10. Failing
  11. Succeeding
  12. Embarking on a new workout routine -venturing into the weight room and out of the cardio room

Are you a human being or a human doing?

No matter what, we all have challenges in life and things that can cause us to question our methods of doing things.  Having recently been a student and entering the professional world a few years ago, that was a difficult transition.  I was stuck in being a “human doing” instead of a “human being”.

What does that mean?  How many of you, just like myself, get caught up in doing things to please others, to meet an unwritten quota, to show how busy you are to others just so you can receive validation of your worth as a person?  It’s VERY easy to fall into that trap, especially if, like me, you were the good child, the good student, the one who excelled in something and thrived on doing well and pleasing others.

As long as you are also pleasing yourself, this is fine, but there comes a time when you have to take ahold of your actions and say “I don’t need to do X Y or Z to please Ms. X because I have worth as a person, no matter if I am busy or not.”   That was tough to accept, and it required change, which is a scary place to be.  A “human being” knows he/she has worth because they are alive, a “human doing” is caught in seeking validation from others for their worth as a person. Did you know that it is ok to NOT do?

Change Takes Change (Tangent)

It is ok to NOT do, just as it is ok to do.  We get very caught up in being busy, in appearing busy, making things, doing things, how much of it is done to look good to others, to please others, or, as Dave Ramsey would say “we buy things we don’t want with money we don’t have to impress we don’t like”.

Can you translate that to your exercise life?  Are you on a desperate carousel of weight loss or body transformation to “please people you don’t like”?  How many of you get up at the crack of dawn to spend an hour on the elliptical, prepare meals that are tasteless and don’t satisfy, only to stare into the mirror and think “I’m fat and I don’t like myself”?

If you gave yourself permission to stop right now and change for you what would you do differently? Would you hire a personal trainer to take out off the elliptical and teach you about weights?  Would you listen to your body and eat what you know is healthy, but in ways that TRULY satisfied you?  Would life suddenly take on new joy and excitement in the journey that you suddenly realized you WANTED to take?

Can you translate that to your musical life?  How much practice are you putting in to achieve YOUR OWN goals and not someone else’s?  Would you quit torturing yourself over mistakes and start loving your sound?  Would your attitude towards performance change to one of “Let me share this music with you that I love, so you can love it too” instead of “The audience is out to notice my every mistake and they’re waiting for me to fail”.  Would you still practice 4-6 hours a day?  Would you play more?  Less?  Start a group?  Leave a group?  What would you do FOR YOU?

So the question remains, what would you do if you gave yourself permission to NOT DO?

(Tangent over :) )

Identify Your Fear

This could be scary for you, but whatever your situation in life (relationships, trusting God, losing weight, learning a new way to practice/learn/play your instrument) you have a challenge.  If it’s not right now, it will be in the future, or you have had one in the past.  Stop and think for a minute, what change are you facing or thinking of facing?  If you choose not to change, is it based on the fear that that change might bring?  What is your fear?  Some quick examples:

  • Learning to breathe from a new part of your body when you play, thus changing how you’ve ALWAYS played
  • Learning to accept criticism without taking it personally
  • Accepting your body as it is right now (which could be change for you) and if you decide to further change your body, what fears do you have about changing?

Body Awareness

Sadly, body awareness is not something that can be taught or adequately covered in a blog post, but I can at least start the thought for you.

  1. Do this with me, look away from the computer and list off all the feelings you have in your body.  Are you suddenly aware that you can feel multiple things at the same time?  Close your eyes, does the awareness intensify?  Do you feel pain?  Do you feel comfort?  Do you feel yourself starting to judge yourself for “poor posture”?
  2. Lay on the floor and, starting from your feet, notice where your body is in contact with the floor and where there are spaces.  Compare those spaces to each other. Work your way up your body from feet to head to hands.  There is no right or wrong in this, how you lie on the floor is how you lie on the floor.  No judging, just notice.  Does that feel strange to do?  To not berate yourself that your feet are not pointing in the same direction, or you have pain in your hips and know it’s because of your posture, etc?  The first step in change is awareness.  When you become aware, you are no longer judging, and from there, you give yourself the freedom to change or not to change.
    “Awareness is attention that observes what you are doing without pushing you in a particular direction.” – Geneen Roth
  3. Now, think about how you are going to get up, without actually doing it.  That should be REALLY weird.  As yo find your way to get up, remember, there is no right or wrong, just notice how you do it because really, when was the last time you noticed how you got up and down from the floor?
  4. Try a chair.  This I learned from Alexander Technique.  Sit in a chair and just observe yourself, how you are  sitting, where you are sitting.  Put your hand on the back of your neck and stand up.  Did you feel the muscles in  your neck tense?  Sit down and notice if they tense again.  I will teach you a way to get up with less tension.  Keep  your hand on the back of your neck, but this time, before you stand, I want you to lean forward,  from your hips (not your waist) until you are leaning far over, so far over that it’s almost hard to NOT stand up.  Lean forward from your hips until the momentum carries you out of the chair and you stand up.  If you did this “correctly”  (haha) you will have noticed that the muscles under your hand in your neck barely tensed at all.

Amazing what you just learned about yourself!

So, you have just learned to observe yourself without judging.  Was that scary?  Do you have the courage to change now?  Think about it, can you go throughout your day NOT judging yourself (or others) just observing?  It can be a real challenge to do that and maybe even scary…but it can also be the first step to beautiful change.

As this applies to your instrument, the next time you pick it up to play, or sing, can you be very aware of the rest of your body?  Can you think about the backs of your knees while you play?  What about the outsides of your elbows?  Do you feel the insides of your toes?  Notice how you feel before playing, how the instrument feels in your hands, how your body reacts or doesn’t react and then when you begin to play, what changes?  How do you feel?

When you are in tune with your body you will be able to pick up on pain and other strange things much more quickly.  As my Professor at FSU is famous for saying “Do you feel your feet while you play?”

Have the Courage to Go Into The Fear

In Music or performing: like I said, fear and change can go hand in hand.  My teacher at Florida State University, Eva Amsler is an absolute master at helping you learn to not only judge yourself, but learn to observe, have the courage to change and face your fears of failure AND success (mine was somehow the latter!).

One of the things she is big on is performance anxiety.  This is HUGE.  How many of us get nervous before we perform?  Some of us get so nervous we get physical symptoms that prevent us from playing well: shaking hands, shaking lips, queasy stomach, weak knees, etc.  She said that one day before she was about to perform, she noticed that her hands were cold.  And she thought to herself “I wonder if I can make my hands colder?”  She actually TRIED to make her hands colder! And do you know what happened?  They got warmer!

Think how much courage that takes.  Imagine your symptom is that you get butterflies in your stomach and I asked you, a few minutes before you were to take the stage, to notice those butterflies, acknowledge them….and make them WORSE!  It takes immense courage to change, but I can vouch for the fact that every time I have had the courage to make my symptoms worse the end result is that they have lessened.  Now, sometimes there is nothing you can do, especially if you are unprepared, but this technique is the result of the assumption that you are as prepared as you can be and all you are doing is acknowledging the part of you that is frightened and unsure and basically giving yourself reassurance.

As this relates to fitness: fitness can be a very scary place and it is easy to become overwhelmed by what we don’t know.  We pick what is safe (machines) because it’s what everyone does and we’re less likely to “screw up”.  Believe it or not, by those who understand fitness, we see a lot more people “screwing up” on machines than not.

Do you have the courage to  REALLY change your body?  This will be covered more in the “Are You Afraid of Success” post, but think about it.  You desperately want to change.  You want visible abs, tight legs,  to be rid of the bat wings…what is holding you back?  If you are not exercising or eating well, there’s part of your answer, but sometimes what we’re doing isn’t working, but we stick with it because we don’t know what else to do.

This is where it makes sense to hire a trainer – even if only for a few sessions, maybe a week or two, to show you around, help you understand how do lift weight safely, and progress properly.  Let me tell you right now – lifting weights (strength training) can be very scary.  It will take EVERYONE out of their comfort zone at some point, which is the goal, because you cannot grow stronger, you cannot change your body without challenging your comfort zone.  A personal trainer will be there right by your side to guide you so that you do not hurt yourself and that you do not back down into your fear, but that you bust through it.

Now that you know what it takes, are you really ready to change your body? For those who have the  courage to embark on the path, they will all tell you it was hard, it was scary, but it was worth it and they are glad they did.

Quotes about Change

“Change happens the way a plant grows: slowly, without force, and with the essential nutrients of love and patience and a willingness to remain constant through periods of stress” – Geneen Roth

“If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.”  ~Author Unknown

“Change is inevitable.  Everybody has to deal with it.  On the other hand, growth is optional.  You can choose to grow or to fight it.” – -John C. Maxwell

“There is no improvement except through change.  To improve continually we must change continually.”

“You can’t avoid fear.  No magic potion will take it away.  And you can’t wait for motivation to get you going.  To conquer fear, you have to feel the fear and take action anyway” – John C. Maxwell

Change does not happen overnight, no matter how much  we want it to.  No matter how badly we want to memorize a scale, lost 20 pounds or have a significant other, it simply does not happen with wanting it badly enough.  However, when you do want something badly enough, that can give you the courage you need to change your circumstances and make those things happen.

Pretty empowering, huh? :)

But with desire and change also comes failure.  This is the second part…do you have the courage to fail?  And the third part, which might actually be more difficult…do you have the courage to succeed?

Filed Under: Flute, Motivation and Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Protein Bar recipes

September 7, 2009 By 2 Comments

Lots of people eat protein bars.  While they’re ok as an ocassional thing, you are far better off making your own!  Here are a few recipes that I’ve gathered to help you out.

Another really great website that I love to visit for various dieting concoction recipes is:

http://eatoxygen.blogspot.com

FUDGEY CARAMEL PROTEIN BARS

4 Tbl butter
1.5 Tbl unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbl DaVinci Chocolate SF syrup
2 cups Optimum Nutrition Chocolate
Whey Protein
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts

Melt butter in large bowl in microwave. Whisk cocoa in well, then SF syrup. Incorporate protein powder. Add chopped nuts Press into wax-paper-lined 9×9 pan & refrigerate. Caramel consistency, and much better than any of my old fudge recipes. Plus, no wasted calories. High Protein snack or dessert. Best cold.

FUDGEY-NUTTY BARS

2 and 1/3 cups vanilla protein powder
1 oz square unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
4 oz cream cheese
1 oz chopped almonds
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peanut butter
1/4 cup Splenda

Melt butter, cream cheese, peanut butter and chocolate in bowl in microwave. Mix together very well and then add splenda & vanilla, mixing well again.

Add walnuts and protein powder and mix. It will be difficult and messy to mix,
you will have to use your hands near the end to knead it all together, squeezing so that the powder is incorporated into the mixture.

Now place in an 8×8 0r 9×9 baking pan,  flatten and refrigerate. When cooled and hardened, cut into 8 bars. Per bar: 21 grams protein, 3.15 carbs. This will vary according to the protein powder you use.  Optimum Nutrtion was used in this recipe and it has 22g protein and 1.5g carbs in each scoop.

8 oz fat free cream cheese
4 scoops protein powder ( i use chocolate)
3 cups whole oats
1/2 cup splenda
Dash of cinnamon ( to taste)

Combine splenda, cream cheese, protein, and cinnamon in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer on high til its smooth.

add the oats and mix with the mixer until you have a fairly homogeneous mixture.

note if it is too thick add a 1/4 cup of milk or water

spray an 8×8 pan with PAM. spread the mixture in the pan. sprinkle some additional splenda on top and place in the fridge for an hour.

I cut mine into ten bars for a breakdown of

154 cals, 17.8g carb, 15g protein, 1.8 g fat

Meal Replacement Bars

Ingredients
2 Egg Whites
1 Whole Egg
3 Packets Quaker Oats (Raw) (Maple & Brown Sugar)
6 Scoops Whey Gourmet Root Beer (Any Flavor will do)
Splenda (however much you want)
3tbs Wheat Germ
1% Milk (around 200ml)
2 BioBest Yogurt (any yogurt will do)

Steps
1. Put everything into the bowl
2. Mix it together until you cant tell anything apart
3. Pour altogether onto a baking pan
4. Heat oven to 350
5. Bake for 10-20 Minutes (I cant remember exactly how long but just start checking after 10)
6. Take the pan out of the oven
7. Cut into 5 equal pieces
8. Top with more Splenda :P
9. Enjoy

Macros Per 1 Piece
Approx. Protein 36 Carb 36.4 Fat 6 Cals 342

Macros For Entire Pan
Approx. Protein 180 Carbs 182 Fat 30 Cals 1710

This is probably the best homemade bar for someone following a 40/40/20 Diet. I like having one half before a workout and one half after.

EDIT: The macro ratios are 42% 42% 16% If you want more fat just make all three or two of the three eggs whole

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cupcakes

I just tried these and they were awesome. I’ll eat two in a meal for 15 carbs (frosting not included), 10 grams of healthy fat, and 24+ grams of protein.

Ingredients:

1 Scoop Chocolate Whey Protein
1 Large Egg White
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon Natural, Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2-3 Packets Splenda
1/8 Cup Coffee
1 Tablespoon Water
Dash Cinnamon
Dash Salt
1 Tablespoon Natural Peanut Butter

Chocolate Frosting:

1 Tablespoon Sugar Free/Fat Free Pudding Powder (heaping tbsp)
1/2 Teaspoon Milk
1/4 Teaspoon Natural Cocoa Powder, Unsweetened
1 Packet Splenda

–

Mix all ingredients for the cupcakes togther besides the peanut butter, and refrigerate for 5 minutes. Melt the peanut butter in a microwve until it is runny, and mix it into the chilled cupcake mixture. Preheat oven to 450 degrees farenheit.

In a cupcake baking pan (normal-size), spray some non-stick cooking spray into two of the cups until thuroughly coated. Using a spoon, ladel mix equally into each of the two cups until they are equally filled a little bit above the healf-way point. This doesn’t need to be perfect, just make sure that there is enough room from the top so hat itwont overflow when baking.

Slide the pan and mix into the oven and bake until the mixture has risen, but is not entirely cooked. Test this by piercing one of the cupcakes with a butter knife. If it comes out with mix on it, you are good to go. At this point, reduce the heat to 300 degrees farenheit, and bake until a butterknife pierced through one cupcake comes out clean, and the tops are cooked.

Remove the tray from oven and let it stand for 1 minute, and remove the cupcakes using a small spatula, butterknife, or spoon. Top with frosting if you desire (frosting is made by combining its ingredients thuroughly, and chilling in a freezer until it ‘firms’ up a little bit).

Other tips:

-Replace chocolate whey and cocoa powder with vanilla whey and lemon-flavored sugar free/fat free pudding powder for a lemonbar variation. Remove cinnamon.
-Fill with fresh fruits or light creames for a real dessert.
-Add a tablespoon of ground oats for each cupcake you will be making to make them more filling.
-Add a hint of mint extract, coconut milk, or natural mashed pumpkin for extra delight.

Coconut Chocolat Balls:

24g Protein, 10g Carb, 9g Good Fat per ball
——————————————————————————-

1- mix in blender 1/2 cup water and 6 scoops of chocolat whey adding one scoop at a time until you get a thick chocolat syrup ( I use extreem power whey isolate) .

2- add 2 egg whites and 1/2 cup of oatmeal and blend again.

3- poor the content from the blender into a large bowl.

4- add 120g All Natural Peanut Butter and mix manually.

5- add another 1/2 cup oatmeal and mix manually.

6- Make 10 balls of equal sizes with the resulting mix.

7- Roll the balls into shredded coconut ( I calculated about 25g of coconut for all)

8- Place balls into cooking pan and cook in oven at 325F for 10 minutes, turn them over and cook for another 10 minutes.

enjoy!

__________________________________________________________________________

This recipie contains only natural, whole foods (with the exception of the protein powder) and tastes AMAZING, you have to try it. I invented it a couple of hours ago and the first batch is incredible, I’ll never have another commercial protein bar ever again.

- 1/2 tsp. cardamom
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 cup dates (chopped)
- 1 cup egg whites
- 1 cup fat free milk
- 2 tbs. flax seed (ground)
- 2 tbs. natural peanut butter
- 2 cups rolled oats (toasted)
- 6 scoops protein powder (I used ON chocolate whey)

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees

2. Coat medium size baking pan with non-stick spray

3. (Optional) – Toast the oats in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until slightly browned & crisp

4. Mix oats, egg whites, and milk together in a large mixing bowl. Add 6 scoops of your favorite protein
powder and mix thoroughly. Add dates, flax seed, and peanut butter, and mix well. Add salt, cinnamon, and cardadmom and mix thoroughly.

5. Pour the batter into baking pan and cook for 30-60 minutes or until you reach the desired moisture level.
(alternatively, you can cook at a higher temperature, around 350, for less time, but I’ve heard conflicting reports on how high heat denatures the protein, I’ll let mine go lower, for longer)

6. Remove from oven and place in refridgerator to cool. Cut into 9 equally sized bars

For 9 Bars, each has approximately:

~ 210 calories
~ 21g carbohydrate
~ 5g fat
~ 3g fiber
~ 23g protein

Enjoy! Tell me what you think!

This came from ABCbodybuilding.com

INGREDIENTS

10 tbsp. natural peanut butter
5 egg whites
5 scoops whey protein (I find that chocolate mint tastes the best in this recipe, however chocolate tastes good as well)
2 cups oats (OPTIONAL: For flavor, I dry cook these on a frying pan until they are toasted)
1/2 cup soy milk

DIRECTIONS

Mix the peanut butter and egg whites in a bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, and mix well (so that the mixture appears smooth). Repeat 4-5 times until all traces of egg whites have dissolved into the peanut butter, and your mixture is a smooth consistent one.

Gradually add the protein (one scoop at a time) and stir into the mixture. Next, add the soy milk and follow with the oats. Continue mixing until a thick ‘sticky’ mixture is present.

Smooth the thick mixture into a 13×9 tray and leave for 20-30 minutes. Cut into 10 equal size bars. Individually wrap each bar (I use aluminum foil) and store in the fridge.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Bar

Calories: 220
Protein: 20.1g
Fat: 10.1g
Carbohydrates: 15.1g
After all that, if you still want to go out and get a protein bar, I’ll put a plug in for my favorite: Power Crunch Bars,

endorsed by my favorite athlete, Monica Brant.  These suckers have 200 cals, 12-14g fat, 10c and roughly 12-14g protein.  A nice snack and it tastes like a cookie to boot, so it will keep you on track with your diet!

Filed Under: Fitness, Nutrition Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Where, oh where has my energy gone?

August 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Some questions that I get frequently from people are 1) I want to lose weight, but it never seems to work, why? 2) what do I eat? and 3) I never seem to have any energy, what can I do?  Well, there are a lot of answers to all these questions and the simple (and annoying) answer is “it depends”.   Annoying, but true.  It depends on your situation.  Let’s focus on the main reasons:

1) you have no energy because you don’t eat well, don’t know really what eating well means, don’t exercise, or you exercise too much.  Lots of different variables here.  If you want to break it down into what you should eat, let’s keep it simple: eat things without packaging and labels.  Eat lots of high quality protein.  High quality protein is a chicken breast, pork tenderloin, lean sirloin, etc.  Low quality would be a Special K protein bar.  Things with lots of ingredients (and I don’t mean as part of a recipe) should NOT be a staple in your every day diet.  A sample balanced simple meal?  Chicken breast, kidney beans, steamed broccoli with olive oil.  Not a lot of calories there, but a lot of nutrients.  If you would like help setting up a plan and have no idea where to start, please see my webpage, because I’d be happy to help you meet your goals!

On a second note about energy, if you don’t exercise, well, food is used for fuel and if you don’t use it, you store it.  So you may have lots of stored energy but no circulating energy.  There is nothing more rewarding than building your body and taking care of your muscles and joints.  Even if you just start with walking every day and maybe doing some pushups or bodyweight squats, you’ll notice an increase in energy and ease of breathing and joint mobility.

2) If you have been dieting for any longer length of time without a break, then your metabolism has reset to your lower caloric intake.  If you have hit a plateau, and you WERE losing weights, one of the best things you can do is to take a while and eat at maintenance calories, thus resetting your metabolism to burn calories back at a higher rate, so that when you do resume dieting, you will make progress again.  If you continually drop your calories, and when that doesn’t work, you increase your output (exercise/move more) eventually, your metabolism will bottom out and have no where to go.  By continually resetting your metabolism, you will have a steady drop.  If you over exercise you are likely to experience a myriad of symptoms: tiredness, fatigue, muscle pain/weakness, slight depression, racing heart in the morning, decreased interest in the gym, stalled weight loss, injury, etc.

My quick suggestions?

  • Focus your meals around high quality lean protein (the less packaging the better), fresh vegetables and healthy fats.
  • Take a dieting and workout break every 8-12 weeks.  Bring your calories back up and stay out of the gym for a whole week.  Do nothing besides normal activities, and instead, get a massage, foam roll, stretch, visit the spa and take care of yourself.
  • SLEEP.  It’s underrated and highly needed.  Get at least 8 hours of sleep a few nights a week, until you can stretch that to every night and from then on, listen to your body.  Don’t set your alarm clock and see how many hours you sleep until you wake up naturally.  This will naturally give you more energy (baring any kind of other health issues).
  • Drink water, LOTS!  You can be amazed how much water makes a difference.  Replace your juice, energy drinks or coffee with water and see what a difference it makes.  If you drink enough water you won’t have the caffeine withdrawal headaches.

There are a lot more variables here, but this is a quick over view.  If you would like help setting up your nutrition or workout plan, please check out my webpage for packages, I’d love to help you achieve a vibrant life!

Filed Under: Fitness, Nutrition Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,