Category: Blog

Are you battling BACK PAIN, trying to LOSE WEIGHT, to INCREASE your FLEXIBILITY, to BUILD more MUSCLE and GET STRONGER, or to RESTORE your BALANCE and COORDINATION? If you are one of those people who can’t achieve their fitness goals, no matter how hard you work, that is because the very foundation of the current fitness industry is fundamentally flawed. If you want to feel GREAT, look your BEST with safer, more productive training with awesome results, forget everything you think you know about exercise, and let’s get your fitness facts straight.

We are constantly being bombarded with false fitness statements… You’ve heard it all… No Pain, No Gain, Stretch to get more flexible, Do crunches to strengthen your CORE, Fix your posture with exercise, Exercise to lose Weight and Balance and Coordination decline as we get older… all of it is FALSE!

We are born with 8 very basic, simple movements, pre-coded in our DNA, that appear in our body at the 5th week of pregnancy. These basic movement strategies are survival mechanisms that are very reliable because their main function is to keep us safe and help us survive childbirth and assist the neurological, cognitive, emotional and movement development during first two years of our lives.
As we go through life these primary movements get disrupted due to injuries, surgeries, emotional trauma and stress which significantly affects not only our ability to move with ease and efficiently but also our mental and emotional capacity to deal with stress.

Now, let’s take what we just learned and apply “No Pain, No Gain” to it. It doesn’t make sense to push beyond the threshold of pain when the body is not working well… it a recipe for injury disaster.
Back Pain is related to years of dysfunctional movement and the use of compensatory movement patterns, which are very unreliable because of their insufficiency to carry your body weight in space. A full reset of your basic movement patterns is a very powerful tool and will help you get rid of Back Pain for good!

What about Stretching to improve flexibility? We feel stiff and inflexible when our body is not balanced, like after an injury or after a surgery. So, here’s the million-dollar question…. Can stretching balance and reset those primary movements that help you move optimally and keep your joint supple and flexible? The answer is NO! To get more flexible optimize your primary movements and properly regulate your muscle tone by balancing your nervous system.

Exercise to Lose Weight is another big hoax… To achieve healthy, long term wight loss you must address the state of your nervous system first! If you are stuck in Fight or Flight circuit your digestion is operating at about 20-25% capacity. You are constantly wasting your energy on external, non-existent treats and feeling tired, which is triggering you to eat sugary, high fat foods. Not getting enough sleep is also a huge offender in sugar cravings and over consumption of coffee to get through your day. You don’t need exercise to lose weight, you need a nervous system reset.

They have been telling you for years to stand up straight, to pull your shoulders back and to lift your chest up… and how has it worked for you? It hasn’t… Because posture is psychological, not physiological! Let’s balance your nervous system and you will have perfect posture!
Crunches can’t strengthen your core if your core withdrawal mechanisms don’t work… in other words if your core muscles are not activated you will end up with sore neck and fat belly. For more information reed my blog post “Lie #3: Do Crunches to Strengthen your Core.”

The reason why balance and coordination decline as we get older is because our primary movements get disrupted as we go through physical and emotional trauma in our lifetime. If you haven’t checked and worked on your basic movement patterns it’s time to do so otherwise you are headed down on the conventional path.

Now that I have your attention hurry up and schedule in person or virtual session with me and let’s get you started on a safe and super effective training program

No Pain, No Gain, right? WRONG! If this is your fitness motto, you are in for some serious long-term dysfunction and injuries! When you feel pain, your body is telling you to stop doing what you are currently doing… Seriously, why would you question the intelligence of your nervous system when its main purpose is your safety and survival…its like going against your body’s basic functions. It doesn’t make any sense! You are not making your body work better, get stronger or more flexible, you are challenging your dysfunction while hoping something good to come out of these very invasive activities. What can you expect from a workout called “Insanity? Nothing productive…

I propose a different approach for your fitness training; one, that makes you better physically, mentally and emotionally every time you engage your body/mind system. A training method that will not challenge you to break but rather improve the way you move during your daily activities, so you continue to get stronger day in and day out. Think about this; even if you work out every day for an hour, that is 7 hours a week. Compare that to the 7-8 or sometimes more, hours a day that you walk, climb the stairs, go shopping, sit in front of your computer or drive. Do you see how that 1 hour daily working out can’t make a dent in achieving your fitness goals when your body is not functioning well because it’s using compensatory, dysfunctional movements to complete your daily activities. Do you see how your daily workout is not only ineffective, but it becomes added stress to your dysfunctional body. On the top of all that you are told to push through pain? The question now becomes not if but when you are going to get injured!

Working out smart, not hard gets you the benefits you want without the pain, stiffness and muscle soreness. Restoring the basic function of your body through the proper integration of your Primary movements and Neurological reflexes will ensure the optimal function of your body for years to come as well as your ability to perform your favorite activities like playing golf, taking a walk with your friends, hiking and skiing. In other words, you will continue to improve your quality of life as you get older not the other way around.

Now that I have your attention hurry up and schedule in person or virtual session with me and let’s get you started on a safe and super effective training program!

When do we feel stiff and inflexible…? When our body is not balanced, like after an injury or after a surgery, or when we are under severe stress. So, here’s the million-dollar question…. Can stretching balance your body physically, mentally and neurologically to keep your joints supple and flexible? The answer is NO! To get more flexible we must optimize the primary movements we were born with and balance the Autonomic Nervous system to properly regulate our muscle tone.

Our Primary movements are the simplest movement programs that are encoded in our DNA to serve as protection and survival mechanisms which makes them very reliable. Neuroscientists don’t know the exact origin of these movements and why they appear in our body during the fifth week of pregnancy to start the development of our brain and nervous system. Yes, you heard right… Primary Movements starts our neurological development. So, these very specific movements, when performed strategically, can balance the Autonomic Nervous system and get your muscle tone properly regulated, which will make you more flexible.

Muscle Tone is the tension your muscles generate at rest, not how toned your muscles are. Your Muscle tone is regulated by the Autonomic nervous system and depending on its state, can be up regulated, as in Fight or Flight stress response, which will make you very stiff and inflexible or down regulated, as in Fear Paralysis state, which will make you very weak and stiff because of the instability of the joints due to the muscle weakness.

Now that I have your attention hurry up and schedule in person or virtual session with me and let’s get you started on a safe and super effective training program!

Stop the madness!!!! I forbid you to pull your shoulders back and stop trying to stand up straight when your body is trying to survive! Your posture is NOT Physiological guys, it is Psychological… and exercise can’t make a dent in your posture’s appearance.

Let’s get down to the science of things…
Only 5% of our activities are conscious, 95% is subconscious programming. Yes, you’ve guessed it, posture is subconscious, so it can’t be changed with exercise.

The part of our Nervous System that controls posture is the Autonomic Nervous System, which has 3 operating states.

The first state is optimal function or what I call your “Super Star” state. This is where you are operating on all 8-cylinders physically, mentally and emotionally, your body is functioning at its best and your posture is perfect. You are feeling safe, want to learn and explore, the body is ready to make changes.

As soon as your nervous system senses that something is wrong, in your external (outside your body) or internal (inside your body) environment or in your interaction with a co-worker or a family member, the second state, “Fight or Flight” kicks in to protect you from a dangerous situation. During this very high energy state your posture changes; the shoulders lift up and forward, the neck and back muscles get tight, the chest closes, you are preparing to fight or to run away from the situation. All of these changes to your posture are automatic, strategic and activate a survival mechanism. Do you see how exercise can’t influence posture? You have to shift the state of your nervous system back to the first state to make a sustainable postural change.

When “Fight or Flight” state becomes chronic and stress is overwhelming, like a loss of a loved one or a divorce, the third state of our Autonomic Nervous System takes over. This is a state of Fear Paralysis and withdrawal from family and friends, a state of very low energy and the posture changes accordingly… Your spine collapse in a slouch, shoulders roll forward, upper back rounds and the chest collapses down. Here again to change your posture you must return to the first, balanced state of the nervous system and in this case that is NOT so EASY!!! Because this is a very low energy state you must energize the system and move it to “Fight or Flight” first, and from there shift to the optimal state of function.

You can do that by taking a daily walk, getting on a stationary bike or going for a run. Once you are able to return to your optimal state of neurological function, I recommend that you start resetting your primary movements and restoring your breathing patterns to strenghten your postural muscles, since they are involved in both.

Now that I have your attention hurry up and schedule in person or virtual session with me and let’s get you started on a safe and super effective training program!

Actually, exercise has nothing to do with weight loss… Weight loss is all about nutrition and the state of your nervous system.

The Harvard School of Medicine recently analyzed 29 long term weight loss studies (longer than 6 months) to discover that more than 50% of the lost weight was regained within 2 years, and by year 5 more than 80% was regained. The study didn’t continue pass 5 years but I am sure that not only all the weight was regained but even more weight was put on… Let’s get to the bottom of this weight loss disaster!

All of these weight loss programs are focused on calorie counting, one fits all meal planning and daily exercise programs while not taking under consideration species appropriate nutrition, stress level and sleep patterns.

Species appropriate nutrition is a diet that is appropriate for specific species, such as humans, dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, fish, just to name a few. For example: cat biologically appropriate diet is high in protein and moisture, while moderate in fat but absolutely exclusive of carbohydrates. Species appropriate diet for worms is dirt, for hummingbirds is nectar. You can’t feed the worm nectar and the hummingbird dirt…they will simply die. But wait… humans, dogs and cats are very nutritionally resilient which allows us to eat foods that are NOT biologically appropriate. This phenomenon causes weight gain, serious health problems and overall vitality decline.

In order to thrive, we must eat a diet that our species has evolved to eat – a diet that our body is able to consume and digest.

I want to make one thing clear… THERE IS NO SINGLE, OPTIMAL DIET FOR EVERY HUMAN because we have different genes, gene expression, health status, activity levels, life circumstances, and goals. And, while there’s no such thing as one optimal human diet, there are specific foods humans are designed to eat.

When we look at a natural human diet through the lens of biochemistry and physiology, we conclude that our diet should consist of a combination of organ meat, meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, and starchy plants.

Notice that dairy, gluten, legumes, rice, oats, quinoa and refine sugars are not a part of our species appropriate diet but yet these big offenders are main part of our daily meals… and we wonder why weight gain is an issue.

Stress level, sleep, neurological and emotional state must be taken under consideration when addressing sustainable weight loss as well…and here’s why.

If your Fight or Flight, or Fear Paralysis response is activated due to chronic stress, digestion significantly slows down because your body does not know when a stressful situation will end and to prepare, it saves energy by not burning as many calories. This process can lead to weight gain, lack of absorption of nutrients and sugar cravings.

When under emergency regulation, aka stress, your body is not interested in making changes like losing weight, building muscles or strength because the main drive is survival. Under this conditions exercise becomes additional stress and will further sabotage your effort to lower your weight.

Good night’s sleep is essential for a sustainable, long term weight loss program because it affects the hormones that let us know when we are hungry or full. Studies have also shown that when people don’t get enough sleep, their bodies have an increased level of ghrelin and decreased levels of leptin. Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates appetite and promotes fat storage, while leptin is a hormone that regulates hunger and fat storage. An imbalance of these hormones can lead to overeating, feeling hungrier than usual, and not feeling satisfied even after eating a large meal.

Here is how I can help you lose weight: 
1. Balance the Autonomic Nervous System to improve digestion, sleep and overall state of wellbeing.
2. Activate the frontal lobe of the brain with primary movements and neurological reflex patterns to boost will power and executive decision-making which will help you with making healthy choices.
3. Implement a biologically appropriate diet that fits your specific needs.
Now that I have your attention hurry up and schedule in person or virtual session with me and let’s get you started on a safe and super effective training progra

You have been told that crunches strengthen your core since you started working out in high school, and it was one of the first exercises you learned. Remember 8-Minute abs videos…? All about the six-pack and how to get it done? But do they really make your core stronger? Let’s put them to the test and find out…

Where’s your core? Visualize a sheet of surround wrap that wraps the middle of your body front and back, that is your core. The strength of your core determines how well the rest of the body will work because it connects and coordinates your upper (Arms) and lower body (Legs) to increase your overall strength. For example; if you are doing a push-up and your core is weak you will be relying predominately on the strength of your arms, which is not that great if you compare it to your arms and legs connected through your core working together. Think of your daily activities such as caring groceries, picking up your children or climbing stairs, strong core becomes a necessity in keeping you healthy.

Let’s take a look at the core strengthening mechanisms we are born with and determine how they measure up against the famous crunches…

Our movement begin to develop while we are still in the womb, at 5 weeks, and it all starts in the core… Core flexion extension (bending forward like in a crunch and stretching back in an arch in a continuous motion) is the first movement that appears in our body and connects the core to six points; chest and head, tailbone, arms and legs. The proper development and implementation of this movement into your daily activities is critical for how well your arms and legs work together as a team, your posture, balance and coordination.

I am sure you’ve noticed that the first part of your core flexion extension primary movement is a crunch, but it doesn’t stop there, we continue into an arch to complete the mechanism of how our body activates the core. In other words, if you only do crunches, a dysfunctional and unbalanced movement is created which will interfere not only with how well you use your core but also with other movements like spine extension and rotation as well as side bending.

If your core flexion extension gets disrupted due to injury, stress, physical or emotional trauma you can expect a major disruption not only in the way your core works, and it keeps the rest of the body strong and mobile during daily activities and exercise but also how you respond to stress, your focus and concentration. Core Flexion Extension is involved in the development of our brain and nervous system during infancy, childhood and throughout our life.

So, when was the last time you practiced your Core flexion extension primary movement? If you want strong core, it’s time!

Now that I have your attention hurry up and schedule in person or virtual session with me and let’s get you started on a safe and super effective training program!