JANUARY 2021 | ISSUE 26

#QUOTEOFTHEMONTH

A message from Founder and Owner, Coach Tristan Mitchell:

As good as it feels to wave goodbye to 2020, it’s challenges are not just disappearing in 2021. Now I’m not one for resolutions but now might just be the best time (or year) to truly focus on your health and wellbeing. This is easy to say but often gets complicated quickly for people and lofty goals mostly get abandoned by March. The trick to a healthy lifestyle really doesn’t need to be complicated. We need simple guidelines, with the most important thing being something that requires us to be truly good at anything - consistency. So with that as our guiding principle - what’s next? Let’s keep it simple. 

1. Get some sleep, 7 hours minimum, preferably 8 - to get this done give yourself a “sleep window” of your desired sleep time plus 30 minutes. Stop looking at electronics an hour before you want to go to sleep.

2. Eat whole, unprocessed foods (almost always). Don’t overthink this, if it comes out of a box or a bag, it’s likely processed. Meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, that’s the way to go.

3. Drink water and get your salt. The cleaner your diet the more you need to salt your food. Water and salt are both essential.

4. Move your body and get outside, we are built to move and we are connected to the outdoors - walk, run, ride bikes, play. Also, lift weights and be strong.

5. Find your community. Be around people that lift you up, support and challenge you. It’s hard to avoid unhealthy habits of everyone you surround yourself with.

Keep it simple and make 2021 your healthiest year yet.

LINDSEY’S #FitTip

Hey everyone, Lindsey here! I am SO excited for this upcoming year and I really hope you are too! To be honest, I’m not just saying that because 2020 was what most people would call a dumpster fire. I think for many of us 2020 was a year of growth and change and even if it wasn’t easy.. we need seasons in life like that!

But here we are again with another fresh start, new goals and a new vision for ourselves as we enter another year of our life. I know this is usually the nutrition portion of the newsletter and you can absolutely pertain what I am about to say to your eating habits if that’s something you’re hoping to improve this year, but this is about so much more. It’s about how we can make lasting change in our life regardless of what the goal is.

So here’s what I want you to think about as you begin to take action towards bettering your life — whatever that looks like for you!

Don’t make a New Years Resolution - Plan to build better habits instead!

I’m not saying you shouldn’t create goals for yourself, but what I am saying is that setting a goal will only keep you motivated for so long. Instead, you MUST start to create habits that will carry you towards your goals and beyond. Habits can either be your best friend or worst enemy. Brushing your teeth in the morning, for example, is a habit (hopefully…) because you don’t have to think about it. It’s ingrained in your morning. Imagine if all of the things you need to do in order to reach your goals were ingrained in your every day life. It would be a lot easier!

• Going to the gym can become a habit.

• Buying and planning your meals for the week on Sundays can become a habit.

• Spending at least 10 minutes a day on mobility can become a habit.

• Saving money each time you get paid can become a habit.

• Going to bed at the same time every night can become a habit.

Anything you want to improve upon in your life can become a habit. You must first believe that you are capable of becoming the person you want to be and the only other thing you need to do in order to get there is be that person. Do all of the things the improved version of yourself would do if you were already at your goal.

I hope 2021 is your best year yet & I really hope this perspective on “New Years resolutions” can help you make positive changes in your health and in your life this year and in the coming years!

INACTIVE ROTATOR CUFF? by Coach Justin

If you experience instability or shoulder pain during pushing exercises you might have a weakness or dysfunction in the rotator cuff muscles. One telltale sign of an inactive rotator cuff is the inability to keep the elbow from jutting out during an overhead press or a bench press. Overtime, this can lead to joint/ligament damage in the elbow and shoulder.

Now that we have acknowledged the problem, how do we fix it? The best way to answer that is to understand the anatomy of the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff is comprised of four muscles: the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and the subscapularis. The easiest way to remember these muscles is to use the acronym SITS, but for the purpose of this we are only concerned with two of the four muscles. The infraspinatus and the teres minor are your external rotators of your upper arm. Training these muscles can help provide stability at the shoulder joint when pushing. Here are two examples of external rotation exercises for the rotator cuff. 

#MOBILITY

Lying Wall Squat by: Coach Joel

Cheers to a Happy NEW Year, Lions! Last month I had the privilege to participate in a mobility challenge with the goal to improve the front splits. Mine personally look more like a deep long leg lunge (say that quickly 10 times in a row) rather than splits. However, it's still one of my favorite hip shapes to work on and improve. During a session of the challenge we did variations of a middle splits stretch, an oldy but goody, which I haven’t done for quite a while. One of these variations we did I’m calling the Lying Wall Squat. This mobilization will help improve external rotation of the hips which translates to many hip shapes. It will also greatly improve your squat exercises especially if you have problems keeping your feet straight and driving your knees out at the bottom of squats.

Spend at least 10 breath cycles during the lying wall squat; 20 or even 30 is better. If you're a boss enough to be doing both, switch between each mobilization every 5 breath cycles for at least 20 breaths, yet again go for 30.

I love mobilizations like this that place our backs flat to the ground. They allow the load to be taken off our legs and our backs to be supported, providing the nervous system to feel safer and thus giving us access to greater end range capabilities. Do this the night of a leg day to restore tissue length or the night before a leg day to prime for better mobility. If this mobilization is difficult it means it's the one for you, stay after it. If you have questions, other issues, or would like to dive deeper into creating a more supple body, please feel free to reach out to me. Let's schedule a personalized private 30 minute session with your friendly neighborhood mobility nerd. Stay Mobile My Friends!

#PODCAST OF THE MONTH

STARTALK with Neil deGrasse Tyson | Climate and Diet of Early Humans