Spotlight: Saturday Morning Circuits

FIT FOR FESTIVUS: SATURDAY MORNING CIRCUIT CLASS

If you've been following us on social media, you've probably read all about our new FIT FOR FESTIVUS series: 5, 10, and unlimited class pass offerings that are valid across all of our programs (including our new class offerings beginning in December) to help you stay fit, healthy, and on-track to your goals through the holiday season!

Why? Because...

Community = Commitment

Consistency = Key to Success 

Cross-Training = Injury Prevention

One of our new classes that we're super excited to offer is SATURDAY MORNING CIRCUITS - a C0-ED 55-minute circuit-based conditioning class including calisthenics, plyometrics and free-weight exercises! Looking to get your sweat on, build some endorphins and then get your brunch and weekend-ing on? Then this is the perfect class for you!

 

So what should you expect in a SATURDAY MORNING CIRCUIT class?

• A 5-10 minute warm-up including joint mobility specific to each class workout
• 30-40 minutes of circuit-based conditioning.  
  • Formats we'll explore include
    • TABATA intervals
    • Fight-Gone-Bad Style Circuits
    • Partner work and 'You-Go-I-Go' Drills
    • And more!
• 5-10 minute cool-down, mobility and recovery work
• Modifications for all levels of fitness!
• A supportive, encouraging and fun community and atmosphere!

The Details:

WHERE: Artscape Youngplace Sketch Studio (180 Shaw Street, Toronto)

WHEN: Saturday 9:00-9:55 am beginning December 3rd, 2016! (Classes will not run Dec 31)

WHO: Lead by Jennifer Thomson and OPEN to MEN & WOMEN of ALL LEVELS! (*Note* December 10th class will feature a substitute teacher).

Get Your Spot!

Visit our FIT FOR FESTIVUS page to explore all of our class offerings and class passes and get your spot today!

The Holidays Are Coming!

It's happening...

Santa is coming to town this morning, stores are playing Christmas music, and my inbox has been flooded with holiday sale emails for the last week! Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE the holidays - the cheer, get-togethers, and music are great but as a health professional I also recognize this represents a challenging time of year to stick to your training, fuelling, and sleep routines.

This is the time of year when it becomes just a little bit easier to drop the reigns, go buck wild with food and drink and to skip one too many workouts.

Sadly, this leaves many men and women feeling out of shape, guilty about their holiday indulgences and negatively about themselves come January, and often results in lofty, hard to achieve New Years Resolutions, costly gym memberships, PT packages, and meal plans.

Am I saying you don't get to have ANY fun over the holidays? 

Certainly not. What I am saying is that it can be a pretty slippery slope from 'I'll just have one shortbread cookie' to Nog-ing it up and skipping workouts from Dec 1st-31st.

MY SOLUTION: BE PROACTIVE

Now, we know that health behaviours tend to cluster together, that communities are great for holding us accountable for our actions and goals, AND that a solid routine can help us stay on track to achieving our health and fitness goals. Sticking to our training routine can help us all think-twice about our food choices, moderate our indulgences, and to maintain BALANCE throughout the season. 

SOME STRATEGIES

• Write your SMART goals out and post them somewhere you'll see them EVERY day.
• Create a BALANCED training schedule or routine and stick to it
• Find a training partner, or make a pact with a friend to stick to your training routine.
• START YOUR DAY WITH ONE HEALTHY CHOICE! Whether it's a 'clean' breakfast or morning run, get the (snow)ball rolling early in the day and positive choices will follow!
• Meal-prep to avoid insulin comas at school and/or work, and take a healthy dish you know you'll enjoy to holiday parties and potlucks!
• Don't be too hard on yourself if you have one indulgent evening!

Here's to a healthy and happy December friends!

Be sure to check our all of our new class offerings and our exclusive FIT FOR FESTIVUS December and January Class Passes! 

Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself My Name is Build & Burn

Helping You Build a Health and Fitness Focused Habitus

What the heck is a Habitus you ask?

'Habitus' actually has 2 separate and distinct meanings, which is part of the reason why I love this word/concept so much. In a medical or physiological sense, 'Habitus' refers one's general constitution, especially their physical build (endomorph, ectomorph, or mesomorph) (1). In a sociological sense, one's 'Habitus' is a structuring feature of their life and is determined by a number of influences on the individual including their socioeconomic status, their peer group, and their religion; these influences are internalized and result in the individual forming certain attitudes, actions and habits (2). 

You've probably heard at some point in your life that "Abs are made in the kitchen" and that "You can't outrun a bad diet". Though often bastardized, the concepts at the root of these statements are ultimately true. Speak to any high level or professional athlete about keys to their performance, and they'll likely mention sleep quality, diet, training, equipment, great coaching and the support of their teammates as pivotal to their performance. Talk to any accredited health expert and they'll highlight the importance of each of the above factors, as well as stress management, social support, and outlook as important facets in determining health. The point I'm trying to make here is this: 

Achieving health and fitness relies on more than a great training program or a few supplements. If you want to truly meet your health and fitness goals, you need to develop an entire Health and Fitness Focused Habitus! 

Your social group, your training schedule, your diet, your stress management techniques, your work schedule... each and every one of these factors influences your health and fitness! Don't believe me? Have you ever skipped a workout because your friends peer pressured you to go out with them? Given up your workout time to deal with an extra-heavy workload? Am I saying you have to be perfect? Certainly not! But your chances at achieving your goals are much greater if you set yourself up for success by, for example, surrounding yourself with others than understand your training and dietary choices, choosing a trainer or program that is safe, efficient and conducive to your goals, and developing wellness strategies. 

I personally choose to believe that health is not merely the absence of illness or disease, but rather also includes feeling amazing, energetic and enthusiastic EVERY damn day; while the definition of fitness may vary between people (e.g. being able to lift heavy stuff vs being able to run a marathon) for most I think it can be summed up as optimum performance. Either way, with the Build and Burn Program, my goal is help YOU achieve optimum health and fitness, by helping you develop a Health and Fitness Focused Habitus!

So How Do We Do It?

Get Up. Get Moving. Get Nourished. Get to Work! 

You might have noticed a few repetitive factors mentioned above...I did that on purpose (I swear). What I listed above as key facets of health and fitness are those parts of our life and training that we have control over! Each of the factors listed above, like dietary choices and stress management techniques are modifiable, and boy do they have a powerful influence on our overall health! The Build and Burn Program has a number facets designed to address each of these health influencing factors!

High Quality and Consistent Programming

Training is obviously pivotal to reaching your fitness goals. The Build and Burn program is primarily bodyweight training designed to help you build efficient and safe movement patterns, to develop certain (awesome) movement skills such as pistols and L-sits, and to build capacity (i.e. Build 'Cardio or Get Better Conditioned'). As a side-benefit to Smart and Consistent Training many women often see an improvement in their body composition: They may build muscle or lose fat or inches! To show I'm serious about the thought and preparation that goes into programming, go ahead and check out the registration page -- you'll notice the main focus of each workout for the entire month is listed! On Mondays we BUILD: we work on bodyweight strength including unilateral movements (your cortisol levels are high enough on a Monday morning; we don't need to destroy you with a heavy conditioning workout). On Wednesdays we BURN: A thorough warm-up and strategically planned Metabolic Conditioning Workout is programmed. On Fridays we BUILD, BURN & RESTORE: After a long hard week, we spend some focused time on a 'cool' bodyweight skill, do a little bit of conditioning to release some endorphins, and then send you floating into your weekend on a cloud of restorative mobility. 

Get'er Done Early

Even though I absolutely love training, when it hits about 3 pm, if I haven't yet been in the gym, getting my training in starts to weigh on me; I start getting stressed about whether I'll make it to the gym and be able to work as hard as I usually do. I have spoken to a number of women in this program, as well as men and women in other early morning classes I've taught, and some of the main feedback I hear is:

By working out early, I feel like I've accomplished so much by the time I get to work.

I leave the class feeling happy and energized

I feel great because I don't have to stress about getting my workout in in the afternoon. I have the whole evening to myself. 

Pump the endorphins and dump the stress early to set yourself up for a fantastic day!

COmmunity

By keeping the Build and Burn program small (12 participants max.) I've been able to help foster a supportive, encouraging and accepting atmosphere among the participants. In addition to attending the Build and Burn classes together 2 or 3 times per week, there is also an online (Facebook) group community where I post updates on equipment, programming, and upcoming events. Any current or past Build and Burner is free to comment or post in the group, and the gals often let each other know when they'll be missing a class (a few different participants walk or cycle to and from class together). Community support within and outside the classroom is a really positive influence on health and fitness behaviours! 

Additionally, I maintain a light, fun, and positive atmosphere within the classroom, focused on quality of work, rather than quick results! I won't yell at you, although I will tell jokes and sing! I can (almost) certainly promise you'll leave each class with a smile....unless you hate hollow rocks, then all bets are off!

Food

Yes, I have been known to bring baked (and no-bake baked) treats into class, but I'm not trying to bribe you here with these (even thought they're delicious lol). Starting in August I'll be teaming up with a local small business to offer HEALTHY Breakfast delivery to the studio for the end of class, to help you build your Habitus and to remove another common stress from your work day! Even better news: I'll be working with the business owners (including a Naturopath) personally to help develop meals tailored to optimizing your recovery from each workout each week! 

Keep an Open Mind and Do You

While there are other early morning classes and women's bootcamps in the city, there are very few teachers/trainers I would recommend without reservation. Lucky for me, one of the bestest female trainers in the city also happens to be super lovely and a close personal friend! Her name is Paluna Santamaria and she runs One Word Club, a skill focused women's training program at YogaSpace M/W/F from 7-8 am. Now it might sound counter-intuitive for me to be promoting another morning women's training program, but I did tell you earlier that I want to help YOU build YOUR OWN Habitus, and that means finding the program, or mix of programs that works best for your goals. And for this reason, I'm super excited to announce the

Build & Burn x ONe Word Club August Exchange program

What does this mean? Sign up for a month-long cycle of either Build and Burn or One Word Club and you can try a class in the opposite program for FREE! All you have to do is email either myself (if you're visiting Build and Burn) or Paluna (if you'll be visiting OWC) with the date you wish to attend and Presto Changeo, YOU'RE IN! 

Choose your Schedule

Joining a new training program should be an amazing experience, not one that creates stress. For this reason, I offer 2 or 3 day a week memberships for Build and Burn so you can choose a commitment level that fits in your schedule and doesn't overwhelm you! Changing a number of habits is not going to be easy, so keep it manageable! If 2 days a week seems like the best fit for you right now, that membership option is there for you! Want to jump in with both feet? We'll see you bright and early M/W/& F mornings, ready to #riseandshine!

The Ball is In Your Court

Want to join us? Build bodyweight strength and skills, burn away stress and amp up your conditioning? The August cycle begins Wed August 3rd at 6 am! Click here for all the nitty gritty details and registration! Hope to see you there! 

(1) Habitus. Accessed at http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/habitus on July 25, 2016.

(2) Habitus [sociology]. Accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitus_(sociology) on July 25, 2016.

Quick Tip: Drive Slow Homie...

"Don't rush to get grown, drive slow homie..."*

More than being from an awesome and totally underrated Yeezy track, these lyrics carry a super important message that is so applicable to movement and training. Too often we see an insta-famous trainer or athlete do something impressive on social medial and rush into trying to replicate that movement or skill without knowing anything about it, skipping all the baby steps that will help us develop the movement properly, safely and efficiently. For example, I often see people trying to kick up into free-hold handstands without having first learned about hollow body positioning or the role of the hands in maintaining balance. Most often this results in the person flailing around, trying to stay inverted by throwing their legs back and fourth, before they fall out of their "handstand" +/- a proper dismount. In a world full of YouTube Fitness Instructors and Social Media All-Stars we seem to have forgotten one really important fact:

When it comes to movement and skill training, much of the value lies in the learning process, not solely in performing the movement itself.

A really great teacher (Shawn Mozen at Agatsu Fitness) once said during an Indian Club workshop I was taking:

"If you want to get better at learning new things, you have to practice LEARNING new things". 

This seems pretty self explanatory, yet still so many of us approach new skills with a 'meathead mentality', trying the full, most advanced version of a skill without knowing any of the points of performance. Another common example of this lies in the Pistol Squat. All the time I see people collapsing into and bouncing out of the bottom of  pistol without having the slightest bit of awareness of what their hips and spine are doing.... It hurts my heart (and brain). So, to put this warning as bluntly as I can here is what I have to say: 

Throwing yourself into a movement won't get you anywhere fast, except maybe your Chiropractor's office.

On top of this, rushing to perform a 'pinnacle movement' (to borrow a term from Mike Fitch) without taking time to learn the basic principles and groove the movement patterns robs your conscious mind of the chance to learn so much about your current abilities and areas that are lacking or need improvement (which may in fact help you improve other movements as well) in addition to robbing your central nervous system of the opportunity to learn the sequencing and patterning of the skill. 

Slow and controlled movements, especially when it comes to gymnastics and bodyweight skills are far more impressive and they give our bodies time to collect feedback about how we're moving and where our body is in space, allowing us to 'code' a complete and error-free program! For the most part, the value of learning a new skill properly revolves around using the right muscles in the right way, at the right time, and once again we're circling back to the concept of motor learning and neuromuscular control. Based on these concepts, I use a 3-step sequence that I have found to be pretty effective for learning new movements, as well as teaching them to others:

1. Prime the Movement
2. Groove the Movement
3. Do the Movement

Prime the Movement

Priming the movement involves waking up the main muscles or systems that are crucial to proper performance of the skill you're going to be working on. Often, this part of the sequence can be included toward the end of your warm-up. For example, I might use hollow rocks or holds before a handstand practice, monster walks on a single-leg squat day, and scapular pull ups on a pull up day. 

Groove the Movement 

Grooving the movement involves taking our body through a range of motion or a movement pattern that mimics the skill that is being worked on, often under lower threshold conditions. This helps our nervous system and muscles learn what needs to be done under a lower stress or weight than the 'pinnacle' version of the skill to avoid the development of compensations. For example, on a handstand day I might use tuck ups (shorter lever = less stress) or wall walks (weight support + inclination = less stress); on a muscle up day it might be kneeling or banded transition work. 

Do the Movement

Please note: This is NOT me giving you permission to try a full muscle up or kick up to freehold handstand out of the blue/with no experience!!!!! Rather, this step involves completing repetitions of the most advanced version of the movement skill that YOU are CURRENTLY capable of performing with PERFECT form, timing and tempo. For a total beginner working on handstands, this might include something as simple as pike holds on the ground or with the feet elevated on a box. The KEY here is:

Do what your body is CURRENTLY capable of and not one ounce more! 

Why? Going beyond your capabilities will likely lead to compensatory muscle recruitment or movement patterns, and on top of being extremely hard to un-learn, movement compensations predispose us to injury like woah; whether it be an immediate acute injury, or one that occurs as a result of repetitive strain. Do yourself a favour:

know your limit and play within it**

The moral of today's story: SLOW DOWN! Deciding to learn a new movement or skill is an AMAZING GOAL and you should be applauded for having the guts to be open to something new. BUT you need to do your homework. Find a trainer or movement coach that is qualified to help you develop that skill safely and efficiently and/or do a whole whack of research on prime movers, fascial slings, muscle recruitment patterns and joint positions (& common flaws). Don't rush to the full advanced version of the skill; take your time to learn the baby steps and enjoy the process. Believe me, you'll be much more fulfilled when you can hold a perfect handstand for 60 seconds, rather than kicking up and flopping over like a wet noodle! 

Happy training friends!

J 

*Kanye West

**Ontario Gaming Commission

Quick Tip: It's Getting Hot in Here...at least it should be!

Have any idea what this post might be about? No? I'll give you a hint, its not about the Hip Hop anthem by Nelly or taking your clothes off at the club! Still nothing? Well, here it comes: this little post is all about Warming-Up for your sport or training session! Now I'll admit, a 'quick tip' post will only scratch the most superficial surface of the 'warm-up' debate, so I'll be posting a more in-depth article this Friday July 8th; be sure to check back!

First things first, I hope you have a warm-up. Secondly, I hope your warm up is NOT SOLELY completing the main lift of your session at a lighter weight. But before we dive into the nitty-gritty on HOW one should warm-up, I think it's important to understand WHY we do so!

WHY AM I DOING THIS?

A warm-up serves several key purposes, and if you've ever had one of those perfect training sessions (the ones where you find the groove and all the weights feel light and you leave the gym feeling like a boss), you know that the benefits of properly preparing your body for sport or training are undeniable. So here are a few key reasons why you should warm-up before you play or train:

1. Get Your Mind Right

If you're a regular gal like myself, chances are you have a job or school (or both), maybe a family to take care of, and likely some sort of life stress on your mind on most days. Training may be your escape from all that, but entering the gym doesn't mean you automatically drop all that stuff at the door. Even if you're a varsity or professional athlete, pre-competition jitters may follow you into the arena or onto the field. Progressing through a pre-designed, specific warm-up can be as much of a mental transition as it is physical. A time to invest yourself in your physical practice and prepare your mind and body for what is about to happen. I've talked about 'mindless/meathead' training and risk of injury before, so use your warm-up as a time to become mindful of your movement, breath and practice. 

2. Oil up the Joints

Do you want to end up like the Tin Man? No? Then take it from me, you need to show your joints some love. It is well established that movement helps bring synovial fluid into the joints, circulating it and allowing it to nourish our cartilage. But joints are more than just bones and cartilage; they're also surrounded by soft tissues like ligaments and tendons. Gradually taking your joints through movement progressing from lower intensity towards your working intensity will gradually load these tissues as well as get all our "joint sensors" firing providing increased feedback to our central nervous system. We know that in athletic or training situations, strains and sprains often result from a single, excessive force that supersedes the tolerance of our tissues (ligaments and tendons); warming up will help to gradually 'wake these tissues up' so you're not suddenly exposing them to an unexpected high force situation.

3. Fire-Up the Ol' Ticker

As healthy and beneficial as physical activity and training are, we also know that 'exercise' is a physiological stress. It increases the demands placed on our cardiorespiratory and neuromusculoskeletal system. For individuals at high risk of adverse cardiovascular events (who may or may not be aware of their risk level), a proper warm-up can help to decrease the chance of one of these events occurring. In a healthy, low risk population gradually progressing up to your work intensity through a structured warm-up can help you avoid hitting a metabolic wall! We've all been that person at one time -- when we start our run, MetCon, or training session with a little too much 'enthusiasm' and end up bent over at the waist gasping for air or fighting a 'stitch'... At least part of this phenomenon may be due to overloading our system so suddenly that our buffer and energy systems can compensate effectively. So warm-up, don't throw up!

4. Get Groovy

Movement and motor patterns are a thing; in the weightlifting world, performing a rep in the perfect sequence and path making it as efficient as possible is often described as 'finding the groove'. Performing lower threshold iterations of the prime movement(s) of your training session will allow you to find and prime that groove/movement pattern. It will also enable you to start recruiting motor units progressively from smaller to larger units... and we know amazing things are possible when we get the big guns firing! 

5. Avoid Injury

Put all of these points together and what do you get: a lower risk of injury! You've prepared yourself to be mindful of your breath and movement, you've prepared your circulatory system to feed your muscles, and your joints and soft tissues to take load. Your nervous system knows exactly what sequence and timing to use for your prime movements and your muscles are primed, pliable, and ready to accomplish great things! What you end up with is a state of physical readiness and mental focus that will be more beneficial to your training than you can consciously realize!

SO TELL ME HOW:

Unfortunately, this is one of those "IT DEPENDS" type situations. I think you've probably gathered from those post thus far, that the specifics of your warm-up depend on exactly what you plan to do at the gym or on the field. While I cannot give you a detailed warm-up that you can use for every workout, I can give 3 common characteristics of a good warm-up protocol!

Specific

A good warm-up will be designed to prep your mind, muscles, joints, and nervous system for your exact training session! This means your warm-up should be mindful, it should include tissue-prep techniques such as Self-myofascial release (SMR), band work and/or dynamic stretching and lower-threshold movements that mimic the prime movement pattern(s) of your session. Your warm-up should also prime the energy system you'll be using. For example if you're going to be sprinting, it would be an awesome idea to include lower-intensity sprints of a similar distance towards the end of your warm-up. Running 10 km to warm-up for a set of 100-metre sprints would be less ideal as you would be using a completely different energy system, 

Progressive

There are a number of ways to interpret progression when it comes to a warm-up (I'll dive deeper into this on Friday), but at its most basic level, this means your warm-up should move from less-intense, lower threshold stuff, to more intense and specific stuff. As an example, for a Barbell Back Squat Session, you might start with some foam rolling, and then progress from band work to dynamic stretching, to monster walks, and finally light reps of back squat to set you up for your work sets. 

Efficient

Warming up is not your day job; if it takes you an hour to warm-up for an hour lifting session, something has likely gone awry. If you honour the first 2 characteristics, focusing your warm-up around exactly what you plan to do and progressing for example, from floor work to kneeling work, to standing work, then chances are this won't be an issue for you. Having said that, if you are so stiff/sore/stuck that you need to do 30 minutes of SMR before you can start moving, it might be time to get some professional advice on your training program, daily habits, and/or biomechanics. I'm not saying that maintenance work is not important; I am saying that we should be doing bits of it every day to keep the workload and time-requirement reasonable (but thats a whole other article). Making the effort to properly warm-up, cool-off and do maintenance work each day will truly pay off in the end! 

JUST DO IT

I think I've made a pretty convincing argument for including a specific and thorough warm-up in your training routine (not that I'm biased or anything...); whether you believe me or not, try incorporating a proper warm-up in your sessions this week and see how it affects your training! I promise you won't be disappointed!

Happy Training Friends!

J

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