Sand, Sand, and more Sand! How to Conquer Challenges and Have Fun

Running through sand is not unlike, I imagine, trekking through Mordor: it's hot, dirty, and you feel like you're going nowhere fast.

For three years running (pun totally intended), I've competed in the ASYMCA Mud Run in Virginia Beach. It's 8K with at least half of it in sand- the loose, shift-under-your-feet-every-step kind of sand; the other half is through the sandy beach woods with lots of hills. There are some obstacles, but really, the sand is the biggest one. I really enjoy this race because it's a) very challenging (did I mention that it's in sand?) and b) it supports young enlisted military members and their families. As an Air Force brat myself, I'm all over supporting other military kids!

I'll save the pictures of the race till the end of the post, but I wanted to throw out some musing I had about facing a daunting challenge- physical or not.

1. Be disciplined in your preparation

Obviously, life throws curve balls and you can't plan for everything, but as much as possible, prepare for known challenges; have the discipline to follow through with the full amount of preparation needed. If it's a physical challenge, like a race, you need to train for it. It wouldn't be terribly helpful to train sporadically and infrequently. Do you have a large presentation at work or a speech to deliver? Do the research, practice the speech, and double check your work. The more prepared you are, the more easily you'll catch life's curve balls.

2. Be adaptable

For example, last year I broke my toe at the beginning of my training period for the race. Oops. I trained in the weight room as best I could, and got a few runs in once my toe was healed (a grand total of 2). I wound up getting the exact same time as the first year I raced, despite the fact that I didn't really run leading up to the race. Too many people are unable to adapt to changes in their environments and all their preparation goes to waste. So I guess to combine points 1 and 2: Prepare to adapt!

3. Expect difficulties

Life's tough; wear a helmet- then you won't get beaned in the head from the curve balls. Seriously, expect difficulties, get over it, and enjoy yourself. You can either moan and groan about how tough an event or challenge is, or you can choose to have a good time. It's like traffic in the D.C. area- it's always there so just plan for it and choose to enjoy the time in the car instead of raging at the awful traffic. My dad asked me how I prepare mentally for the race and I told him, "I expect it to be difficult, I accept it, and then I can have fun."  

There you have it, a few thoughtful musings spawned by my time on the sand this weekend. As promised, pictures:

Running up the dunes. See? Choosing to have fun despite how miserable it is to run up multiple sand dunes.

Getting out of the mud pit and up, yes, another sand dune

All done!

Thanks to my awesome supportive husband and parents for cheering me on and keeping me warm during the rainy, windy start to the day.

How To Eat Less Added Sugar- Use Fruit!

Last week's Washington Post had a short article on using fruit instead of other sources to sweeten various dishes and baked goods. I thought I would expand a bit here and offer up some more suggestions for uses of various fruits as sugar-substitutes. 

In the article, the author references a study by the American Medical Association that higher sugar (added sugar, mind you) consumption is linked to markedly increased risk for heart attacks. (for a more reader-friendly version try THIS.) Also, it's been found to, unsurprisingly, increase the risk of diabetes and obesity (though I feel like I don't need to tell you that again).

Sugar is rampant in our food system and most of it is found in packaged foods and comes in all types of forms, the most notable: white and brown sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, invert sugar, sucrose, malt syrup, and maltose. There are "healthy" sugars, that many companies will tout as better-for-you than regular sugar- typically honey, agave, and maple syrup. Sure, they have some antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds in them, but at the end of the meal, it's still straight glucose (that would be sugar). Your body is going to respond to that free-trade agave nectar from whole foods pretty much the same way it will to the Good Value table sugar from Wal-Mart. 

It all breaks down to this...

That's not to say that sources of natural sugars- notably fruit- should be avoided entirely. Perish the thought! Fruit contains fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients that are beneficial to us.

Along with the obvious choice of bananas in smoothies, you can also use them to make pancakes. How? 

In a blender, blend:

1 banana

2 eggs

1 Tsp of flour or oatmeal (to thicken it a bit)

Fry in a pan as you would regular pancakes. They're quite tasty and can be pretty fluffy depending on how long your blend it. Easy huh?

Bananas can be substituted in baking as well- about 1 cup of ripened mashed bananas for 1 cup of sugar. You may have to add a little extra flour to account for the extra moisture of the bananas. 

Yes, fruit has sugar, but if you're going to use it, you might as well bundle it up with vital nutrients. Take a look at what apricots contain:

Dried fruit can also be used in baking- 1 cup of ground up fruit being equal to 1 cup of sugar. Raisins, dates, apricots, and prunes (though be careful how many of those you use...) are the typical fare. 

A Reed-House Fave is:

2 cups dried apricots

1/2-3/4 cup oatmeal

3 Tbs peanut or almond butter (we found the peanut butter tends to overwhelm the cookie, but it's not a bad thing)

Water/milk as needed

1. Dump all ingredients, minus the water or milk, into a food processor and pulse until combined. 

2. Add water/milk as needed to create a thick mud-like texture. After this, if you want you can sprinkle in chocolate chips...

3. Scoop onto a baking sheet 1 spoonful at a time. 

4. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. 

Voila! A fiber-rich and tasty cookie!

There are a ton of recipes out there for homemade energy bars. Some of my favorites are HERE, HERE, and HERE. 

The article also mentioned using 100% fruit juices in sauces, marinades, and salad dressings. Typically citrus are the best kinds- lemon, lime, grapefruit, and orange. They add a pleasant zing to your food. 

Next time you're in the kitchen, instead of reaching for the sugar canister, reach for the fruit drawer. Your tastebuds, waistline, and heart will thank you. 

Create Your Own Workout - Part 4: Categorizing Movement

By now, the importance of viewing exercises in terms of movement patterns it should be drilled into your head.  Isolation exercises certainly have their time and place, but we want to develop the strongest, most resilient body that we can.  This demands that we use it as the sophisticated, interwoven organism that absorbs and generates force as a single unit.

Previously, we've introduced the basic human movement patterns that include: Push, Pull, Hinge, Squat, Carry, and Locomotion. Today I'll break them down even further, lay out the prime movers of each movement pattern, and help you categorize common exercises into their proper movement categories.

Basic Human Movements

Lower Body Movements:

• Squat: Essentially every muscle in our lower extremities; Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves, and Hip Flexors.
• Hinge: Like the squat, hinge movements such as the deadlift utilize a large amount of lower body muscle mass, but place a major emphasis on the hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors.

Some people typically categorize squatting movements as "Lower Body Push" exercises, and hinge movements as "Lower Body Pull" movement, but for our purposes we use denote squat and hinge to emphasize the following:

During a hinge movement, like the deadlift, we want to predominantly see HIP FLEXION during the eccentric phase, making the movements primarily HIP EXTENSION exercises during the concentric contraction of the involved musculature.

Squatting movements normally involve a large amount of HIP AND KNEE FLEXION, resulting in more involvement of the knee extensors (read: quads) during the lifting phase.

From Greg Nuckols at: Strengtheory.com

Upper Body Movements:

For the upper body, we typically separate exercises into "Upper Body Push" and "Upper Body Pull" exercises, but we can divide them further as well.  It's useful to note the vector in which you're pulling and pushing, for instance, is the exercise a vertical pull or a horizontal pull? This slight difference in direction will result in changes in muscle sequencing and the prime movers will vary.

• Vertical Push: Anterior/Middle Deltoids, Triceps.
• Horizontal Push: Pectoralis Major, Anterior Deltoids, Triceps.
• Vertical Pull: Latissimus Dorsi, Biceps, Triceps-Long Head.
• Horizontal Pull: Rhomboids, Latissimus Dorsi, Posterior Deltoids, Biceps.

Keep in mind I am strictly listing the muscles that play the largest part in each movement, the prime movers.  Yes, the pecs (especially the clavicular fibers) play a synergistic role in an overhead press, but you'll be sorely disappointed if you decide to choose it for your main chest-builder.  Horizontal pushes will give you the most bang for you buck if building a barrel chest is your goal.

You also need to be aware that the lower body lifts will cause muscular growth in your upper body because of the large amounts of tension being placed on the muscles.  Your forearms and lats will absolutely grow as a result of gripping a heavy deadlift, and your shoulders will grow as a result of a heavy barbell loaded on your shoulders in a heavy front squat.

Locomotion and Carrying:

Locomotion and carrying movements are variable, and can be manipulated to emphasize different training adaptations.  A Single-Arm Bottoms-Up Overhead KB Carry will be targeting shoulder stability to a much greater degree than a heavy Farmer's Carry, which will be placing the emphasis much more on hip stability and overall strength.

Final Thoughts and Example Exercises:

You can break most of the categories up in bilateral and unilateral variations, and we'll touch on the difference between the two later on in the series.  They each provide unique training adaptations, therefore it's important to always decide on your training goal before choosing an exercise.

Below I'll leave you with a few example exercises of each movement pattern.  These all serve as perfectly reasonable choices for your workout.  Try them out before the next part in our series!

• Squat: Goblet Squat, Back Squat, Front Squat, Zercher Squat, Split Squat, Pistol Squat.
• Hinge: Deadlift, RDL, Glutebridge, Single-Leg RDL, Goodmorning.
• Vertical Push: OH Press, Single-Arm Bottoms-Up OH Press, Z-Press, Handstand Pushups.
• Horizontal Push: Bench Press, Floor Press, Pushups, Single-Arm Variations.
• Vertical Pull: Chinups, Lat Pulldown, KB/DB Pullovers, TRX Ys.
• Horizontal Pull: Row variations, Rear Delt Flys, TRX Ts, Face Pulls.
• Locomotion: Leopard Crawls, Prowler Push, Bear Crawl, Bounding.
• Carries: Farmer Carry, Goblet Carry, DA KB Racked Carry, Crossbody Carries.  

Creating Mobility for Taller Trainees

Screen any basketball team and the first thing you'll notice is that more often than not, they have the mobility of the tin man. Yet, prescribing static stretching and traditional mobility drills yields very little results. This is because their lack of mobility is often a protective mechanism. What is being protected? Their joints.

Due to the long lever arms of most of their joints, a high amount of stability is required from the surrounding myofascial tissue. When the body senses that it does not have enough stability to safely use a range of motion out of a particular joint, it will lock those tissues down. Therefore the key to getting a taller individual more mobile, is to actually get them more stable first. 

Below are my favorite drills to help with this process, ordered from most to least important. Keep in mind that since these exercises are supposed to focus on the CONTROL of fiber length and tension, they should be kept within a low-threshold and should be done very slowly. 

90/90 Abdominal Wall Activation

There's nowhere more important to have stability than in the deep spinal stabilizers. This drill helps to activate and sequence the intrinsic core subsystem. If the individual has tight hips and a tight T-spine this is stop number one. Not to mention the tremendous benefit it has for cleaning up anterior pelvic tilts. 

Deadbugs and Single Leg Lowerings

Riding off of the Abdominal Wall Activations, these drills are very similar, but focus more on creating hip separation which is extremely important in gait. The deadbug requires less hamstring length than the leg lowering, thus should be the first progression. Pairing this along with a hinge movement is a sure fire way to expedite the progression. The variations shown are core-engaged versions that provide external cues to keep the correct core stability. 

Lateral Lunge On Sliders

Adductor lengthening is very underrated for what it can do to someone's movements. I personally have noticed that most taller individuals tend to be adductor dominant and are more likely for groin pulls. If the previous drills have been addressed, then progressing a Slider lateral lunge may be a wise training investment. Brandon LaVack also showcased one of his favorite drills for this not to long ago, you an find it here. 

Hands Elevated PUPP With T-Spine Rotation

I decided to use this video so that I could embarrass one of are athletes who snuck into the shot. Sorry Erin!

This drill helps teach the correct tension to for t-spine rotation. The objectives are to keep the hips still, drive the supporting hand into the bench and get the opposite hand as far from it as possible. This can also be done on the floor, but for newer trainees, this may result in a high threshold pattern, which is no bueno. On that note, it's also important to KEEP BREATHING as locking down for a brace will make it harder to rotate. 

Dowel Rod Trap Raise

This drill helps to engage the upward rotators of the scap and can improve shoulder flexion bilaterally. The cues are to focus on pulling the dowel apart as you raise it overhead., slowly. Another exercise that I like for a similar affect, but with more t-spine engagement are SFMA Rolls with a dowel rod.

Remember not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Some lanky individuals can still benefit from classic mobility work, I just find these drills to have more bang for your buck. Especially when complimented with a sound strength program. 

Spartan Race: Team SAPT

There were hills to run.

There were walls to scale, ropes to climb, heavy things to be carried.

And there was a LOT of mud.

Team SAPT competed in a Spartan Race this past weekend: Eric Shih, Lisa Dowdell, Jane Leonard, Ryan Walls (who placed in the overall top 7% among all the men) Jarrett, Charlie, and myself. It was a total blast! 

Thanks to Jarrett's Spartan Training Program (email us if you want a copy), I felt totally prepared leading up to the race and felt that I had gas left even by the end of the 5 miles. The course was hill-ridden and when you combine that with the various obstacles and slippery mud, it was a challenging race. 

Lisa, Jane, and I ran together and lemme tell ya- they are some tough ladies! There were some very heavy things to carry- buckets full of gravel, sandbags, heavy logs, not to mention hauling our bodies over walls and up ropes- and both women more than held their own. (we passed more than a few men struggling up hills or through the obstacles...)

This race was definitely NOT for the faint of heart or weak of muscles.

Lisa is a long-time SAPT client (longer than I've been here!) and regularly trains 2x/week. Jane is just a beast: she plays club soccer down at VCU but trains hard consistently throughout the year. I am so proud of them! Not once did the back down from a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle. Even if they weren't sure if they could complete the challenge, they always gave it 100%!

Our times were a little slow- though I blame on the fact that there were just boatloads of people there and we had to wait in line for many of the obstacles. However, we ran as much as we were able to and blew through the obstacles quickly. 

After completely the Spartan Race, no one could ever ask one of these two, "Do you even lift?"

They proved that strong girls win. 

Summer Recipe: Grown-up Tuna Melts a Protein-Packed Lunch

My brothers and me with our typical picture-taking faces. My mom is so proud.

I don't know about you, but during the summer my family would make a trip to the beach (if we weren't moving) and inevitably we'd stop at a local diner. Tuna isn't my super-favorite food, but I used to really enjoy tuna melts. Something about the way the buttery toasted bread flavor melded with the tuna... couple that with the sea-salt air and it was a recipe that is forever melded in my brain as summer. 

Now that I'm grown, and carry considerably more knowledgable about nutrition, I can't help but cringe a bit inside when I think of the classic tuna melt.

I recently found a cleaner version, huzzah! I read Clean Eating (which is a pretty good magazine if you're so inclined) and they have a feature each month where they "clean up" a classic American meal and I thought I'd share the recipe here for you to try this summer. 

Grown-Up Tuna Melts 

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper (i.e. a generous shake or two of the shaker)

12 oz of albacore tuna (pouch or can)

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (2% or lower)

1 1/2 tsp mustard powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper OR paprika

1/2 tsp tarragon

6 slices of whole grain bread

3 oz reduced fat whit or orang cheddar cheese, grated

3 scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil.

2. In a large skillet, on medium, heat oil. Add onion, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally until brown and tender.

3. Meanwhile, plop tuna, celery, yogurt, mustard powder, cayenne, and tarragon into a medium bowl and stir to combine.

4. Toast bread until golden brown and arrange on baking sheet. Spread tuna mixture over each bread slice, divide evenly (or not, if you want more tuna on your slice ;)) . Top with onions and cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with scallions before serving.

Hopefully yours look as good as the picture.

Also, if you're NOT a tuna fan- here are some alternatives:

Salmon (cooked)- dill instead of tarragon

Shrimp and feta- finely dice cooked  shrimp and swap tarragon for parsley and feta for cheddar

Chicken curry- shred cooked chicken and mix in curry and dried apricots in place of the tarragon, mustard, and celery.

Chickpea and egg- if you eschew meat, mash up chickpeas and eggs with a fork and swap tarragon for basil.

Happy summer munching!