AUGUST 2020 | ISSUE 21

#QUOTEOFTHEMONTH

A message from Founder and Owner, Coach Tristan Mitchell:

Resilient. A word that I find myself thinking about a lot lately is defined as being able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. With the constant uncertainty of the world we are living in today, it is good to remind ourselves that we, the human animal, are incredibly resilient. We have been forged in the fire of millions of years of evolution and although the stressors we experience today are very different from those that our ancestors experienced; stress is stress. How we process it and handle it is up to us. It’s easy to want to find quick fixes to what ails us, whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, or a combination. Just like there is no magic pill to correcting health, there is no magic pill to managing stress. Though the foundation to improving both have much in common.

As is true with almost all things health and wellness we can start by examining whether or not our current environment is in alignment with our evolutionary physiology - ask some basic questions - Do I sleep well? Do I consume whole foods? Do I move my body in some form of exercise or movement practice? Do I have a “tribe” of people around me who both support and challenge me? Do I get outdoors? Do I ever think about my breathing? These are all foundational aspects of what can broadly be described as wellness; and wellness plays a massive role in our ability to handle and process our stress. If the answer is NO to the majority of the above questions and you are also struggling to handle the stress in your life then start with flipping the answer to those questions to YES.

When we answer “no” to those questions this signals that our environment is not in alignment with our physiology. That misalignment creates additional layers of stress on our system beyond what we may be focused on in the moment. We are less capable of handling life’s little stressors well and large stressors become incapacitating. We often fall back on poor lifestyle choices - fast food, lack of sleep, too much alcohol, using our free time to sit on our butts instead of getting outdoors and being active. To peel back those layers we must address the foundational principles.

When those foundational principles are addressed we often find that our personal feeling of resiliency increases exponentially. The stress that once felt smothering now feels manageable. This is all part of the greater whole of creating strategies to improve your overall health and wellness. So, make sure you sleep, eat whole foods, get outdoors and move, spend time with your people, and when all else fails and the stress feels overwhelming - take a deep, contemplated breath, and remind yourself that you are resilient.

#COMMUNITY EVENTS

#MOVEMENT CHECKLISTS

Welcome to our Checklist series where we break down big movements into bite sized pieces. Each checklist will come with a full video describing the movement. Click the video below to learn how to squat!

FROM THE FORGE WITH CRUCIBLE STRENGTH

The Minimal Dose - Lifting Frequency
by: Coach Shaun Cook

Hello Team! Coach Shaun Cook here to briefly discuss a frequently asked question. “How often should I lift in a week?” It’s an excellent question and I may dive a lot deeper into this in a latter article, but let’s cover the basic minimal amount needed.

Minimal frequency dosage per body part per week: Two

Research and my own coaching experience shows that this is probably the low end to get an appropriate stimulus for strength/hypertrophy. This doesn’t just mean lifting two days a week. This means hitting the major muscle groups two times per week. For example if you lift twice a week and do one “upper body” day and one “lower body” day then you are only getting hitting each major muscle group one time a week. We want two times not one. So, at the very least if you lift twice a week you need to incorporate a more total body approach each day. This would ensure you are hitting most major muscle groups two times that week. Of course it doesn’t perfectly cover everything, but it ensures that the major players are getting worked.

Note: I believe in training movement patterns and not just simply body parts, but it is useful to consider the major muscle groups (chest, back, shoulders, hips, legs, core) when discussing this topic.

                Examples of how to split this up:

2 days per week lifting:

1. Total Body

2. Total Body

3 days per week lifting:         

1. Upper Body

2. Lower Body/Core

3. Total Body

   OR

1. Total Body Push

2. Total Body Pull

3. Total Body

4 days per week lifting:         

1. Upper Body

2. Lower Body/Core

3. Upper Body

4. Lower Body/Core

   OR                       

1. Total Body Push

2. Total Body Pull/Core

3. Total Body Push

4. Total Body Pull/Core

   OR

1. Upper Body Push

2. Upper Body Pull

3. Legs/Core

4. Total Body

NUTRITION #FitTip

Hey guys, Coach Lindsey here. Over the last couple of months I’ve talked a lot about how keeping your meals simple and not over-complicating your meals can make eating healthy a much easier task.

But this month I want to dive a little deeper into what good food choices actually look like because it’s not always as easy as “this food is healthy.. and this other food isn’t”. There’s a spectrum. Some foods are so far on one end of the spectrum that we can easily point at it and say “that isn’t going to bring me any nutritional value what so ever” and that food item can be something like a donut or a slice of pizza.

I think we all pretty much have that end of the spectrum down, wouldn’t you say?

So let’s move to the other end of the spectrum — the side you will see all of the whole food sources. When navigating the spectrum of food choices, honor the 80 percent rule; eat at the highest end of the spectrum whenever possible, but don't stress or obsess about perfection.

Locally grown vegetables and fruits are the most nutritious, while organic animal products have greater nutritional value and fewer objectionable agents than products from conventionally raised animals. This would represent the highest end of the spectrum = quality, nutrient-dense foods.

Today we’re going to look at the spectrum of vegetables, meat & poultry, & eggs so when you’re making your next trip to the grocery store, you’re loading up on the highest quality foods in these categories.

Vegetables
(1 being the best quality)

1. Locally grown, in-season vegetables from certified organic growers

2. Locally grown, in-season vegetables from small farmers, with typically minimal to no pesticide interference

3. Organically grown vegetables, especially for edible skins or if listed in Dirty Dozen (a guide to the fruits and vegetables most likely to be contaminated by pesticides)

4. Conventionally grown vegetables

5. Out of season vegetables from distant origins

Strictly limit or avoid:

1. Conventionally grown vegetables with edible skins, or are difficult to wash

2. Genetically modified vegetables

Meat & Poultry
(1 being the best quality)

1. Wild-hunted animals

2. Local, pasture-raised/100% grass-fed animals

3. USDA-certified organic animals

Limit or avoid as budget allows:

1. CAFO animals (agricultural enterprises where animals are kept and raised in confined situations)

Eggs
(1 being the best quality)

1. Pastured: One of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. Unlike other premium animal products, you might even find yourself paying less than a supermarket dozen for the very best eggs

2. Organic: Pesticide-free food and some access to the outdoors - a good second choice

3. Omega-3: Raised on a sub-optimal grain-based diet, but a good choice in the absence of pastured or organic options

4. Conventional: Still a great option for regular consumption if you can't find a premium egg

Tag @LionsDenSMP on social media during your next farmers market or grocery store haul and show us what you got! 🙂

#MOBILITY

Shoulder Entertainment by Coach Joel

Looking to improve your shoulder mobility and have some fun while doing so? There are many times to normalize and improve your mobility throughout the day - during your morning movement routine, movement breaks during the day, before/during/after workouts, and/or prior to bed. I love utilizing any and all of those opportunities to keep my body feeling supple. One of my favorite times to work on mobility is by layering it into warm-ups for weight training and exercise. It becomes a great time to aggregate various components such as heart elevation, breath work, and passively activates the core musculature complexes all while preparing the body's joints and tissues for formal movement practice and exercise. Enter the rope swings.

Playing with a simple jump rope unconventionally, via rope swings, becomes a fun and effective way to work shoulder mobility in a multitude of facets. Swinging it in different directions, angles, biasing sides of the body the rope swings on, and with the feet in different stances provides some real mobility magic. The body starts to connect shoulders to hips to feet while including a rotational element to the movement. The shoulders along with the core musculature get warmed up together intrinsically. This also exposes the shoulders and hips (if in different stances) to multiple body archetypes and shapes all while getting your heart rate up and blood flowing to prepare for training. Using a jump rope allows for scalability among all ages and athletic skill levels. The amount of volume the body experiences after swinging it around for only a few minutes adds to its benefits. Repetition totals can reach upwards of 500 in as little as five minutes worth of constant work becoming an excellent use of time.

This type of work can be informal but for those who are looking for some guidance can follow the template below:

Upper Body Day
50 reverse swings per side
50 forward swings per side
100 figure eight swings
100 reverse figure eights

#PODCAST OF THE MONTH

The Ready State Podcast | S6EP3: Diana Rodgers Regenerative Farming