Category: Daily

There are somewhere between a thousand and seven thousand hip mobility exercises floating around the internet. Some are great, some are better than nothing, and most are a waste of time. Out of the seven thousand, one stands above the rest.

And that’s the half-kneeling windmill. If you’re unsure what the hell that is, here’s Matt demoing it.

I like to take the rotation a step further by gradually reaching the ground arm towards and eventually past the toes on the leg that’s up. That gives a bit deeper hip hinge and more upper back rotation.

What’s so special about the half-kneeling windmill?

Instead of passively sitting in a stretch, you’re using the weight in the windmill to improve your flexibility and sort of “press save” on it, letting your body know you can control the newly found flexibility.

This means that the body doesn’t see the increased flexibility as a threat and then try to stiffen you up again to keep you “safe.”

That’s what I see training many hypermobile women: there is plenty of flexibility to go around, but because there’s no strength to control it, the body will tighten things up. More stretching will usually only make things worse.

Anyway.

Once you’re confident in the half-kneeling windmill, pair it with the get-up. You’ll get a big hit of core, shoulder, and hip strength, along with all that mobility.

-J

Here are my five go-to exercises for women over 40 who want to hike (and recover) with confidence.

1. Single leg squat: Targets your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Muscles that are essential for uphill climbs and stable descents. Single-leg squats also challenge and build your ankle strength and balance. Less rolled ankles, more forward motion.

2. Single-leg deadlift: Strengthens your posterior chain (a fancy way of saying your backside), propelling you up steep inclines and providing the control you need to not feel like an escalating snowball during descents. Like the single-leg squat, the deadlift improves your balance and builds ankle strength, reducing the risk of falls and injuries.

3. Kettlebell swing: How could I not include this one? I use swings with clients mainly to improve power and explosiveness, both of which you need to propel yourself forward and up. But you’ll also get plenty for the posterior chain (here’s that fancy term again) strength. I also love swings for improving both aerobic and anaerobic fitness.

4. Pallof press: Targets your core, especially the muscles that rotate the trunk. A strong trunk is vital for anyone not planning on hiking with the rigidity of the Statue of Liberty. A strong core also makes carrying the pack easier. And as you’re marching with a nicely rotating trunk and arms, your hiking is more energy efficient, and you won’t hate life every step of the way.

5. Single arm row: Strengthening the upper back and shoulders prepares you for carrying that 30-liter Patagonia backpack over the horizon and beyond. You’ll also be able to sustain the load of your gear for longer without all kinds of neck and shoulder pain. Plus, single arm row works on those core muscles, too. And they make your arms look nice, which is important for hiking.

Coming up tomorrow: my favorite exercise for loosening up the hips, upper back, and the rest of the body.

-J

If you’re constantly injured instead of improving, something’s not right.

That sounds obvious. But when you’re in it, it’s easy to get stuck in limbo, thinking that everything’s right when it isn’t.

-J

When struggling with knee pain, we’re quick to look at things we should add to the routine:

• More fish oil
• More backwards walking
• More deadlifts

And those are all solid options. But often, the answer is more simple than that.

It’s about looking at what you’re doing already and seeing if anything might contribute to that knee pain.

If you’re currently doing a lot of jumping, whether that’s box jumps, plyo lunges, or squat jumps, stop for a week or two and see what happens.

If the knee pain subsides, you’ve found the problem.

This doesn’t mean that you’re forever banned from doing jumps. But it’s easier to get rid of the knee pain when you first stop doing the stuff that’s hurting.

Then, build some strength and take a closer look at your landing techniques. It might be that both of those are fine as it is, you just need a break to let the pain settle

Either way, introduce the jumps back in gradually.

-J

Discomfort is an unavoidable part of long hikes. I don’t need to tell you that.

So, you do what you can to prepare your body for the hike. Hoping that the preparation you’ve put in is enough to carry you through.

But what’s often overlooked in training for long hikes is the mental stamina to tolerate discomfort. The strength and focus you can use to turn down the volume when faced with physical and mental obstacles along the way.

Not only does this mental strength make the hike easier.

But because your mind isn’t overwhelmed with struggle, you can focus more on what’s around you.

-J

Most hiking programs emphasise climbing and hiking uphill. As important as that is, it doesn’t prepare the legs for downhills.

And that’s totally fine if you’re never planning on coming down. Or if you’re sledding down. But in most cases, when you hike up, you hike down.

The lack of downhill training results in the feeling of your legs turning into aspic during a long descent. Leaving you concerned if your lower body will still exist under you after the next step.

Putting more focus on eccentric training in your workouts will help your legs feel less like aspic and more like a medium-rare meatloaf in descent.

The good news is that you’re already doing some eccentric training in your strength workouts. Eccentric training is the lowering part of a lift.

In steps-ups, eccentric training is you stepping down.

In any squat variation, you’re doing eccentric training during the squatting down part of the, well, squat.

In deadlifts, the eccentric part is your hands going closer to the ground.

How to get more out of your eccentric training?

Slow down. Take 3-5 seconds when lowering the weight in each rep.

Start by doing five reps per set and increase the reps to 10-12 over time.

Just a word of warning: eccentric training will make you sore, especially when you’re just starting out. I mean, really sore.

To make the next day’s trips to the toilet feel less like entering Satan’s private bathroom, only use eccentric training with one lower body exercise. Keep the other exercises at a faster pace.

The good news is that as your body gets used to the eccentrics, the soreness will ease up. Both in training and on the trails.

-J

A practical guide to eating less meat

A 5-day (one-a-week) email course from Vox.

“[It’ll] teach you how to easily incorporate more plant-based foods into your diet, give you evidence-based behavior strategies to make it last, and serve up plenty of food for thought on how our choices impact animals, our health, and the planet.”

—

Often, consumers inadvertently give too much credit to ‘scientifically studied’ product claims

“‘Clinically studied’ can mean lots of things,” said Alan Castel, the paper’s senior author and a UCLA psychology professor. “Maybe the product was studied only in animals, or in people, but found to be ineffective or not effective enough. ‘Clinically studied’ only shows that someone was interested enough in the product to study it, not that the study was well-designed or showed conclusively that the supplement works.” 

—

A new day.

My friend Louise won my corner of the internet with this paragraph last week. It is a beautiful way to describe the ebb and flow of life and fitness:

“I visualize the days of my visiting friends as a stretch of exciting, fun rapids. And now, I’m a slow-running, sandy-bottom, lazy river, under a deep blue sky. No paddling is necessary. Just…float. Until the next stretch of rapids, of course. Which is likely just around that bend.” 

The full, short blog is well worth your time.

-J

Pick one upper-body exercise and one lower-body exercise that complement each other.

Pair an upper-body push exercise, such as an overhead press or a push-up, and pair it with a lower-body exercise that includes some form of upper-body pulling.

Usually, that pull in the lower-body exercise is isometrics.

Such as a deadlift, single-leg deadlift, or kettlebell swing.

If you feel “cold” or “old,” do a quick warm-up with a get-up or two on both sides.

Then, alternate the upper and lower body exercises with whatever time you have left.

Depending on the exercise, I like the reps somewhere between 2 and 8.

Rest enough between the sets to be able to talk somewhat ok.

Then go again.

This simple combo works well for a longer workout too.

-J

Standing or moving on a balance board or a Bosu ball isn’t going to improve ankle strength unless you’re in the early stages of ankle rehab after surgery.

Building strength requires significant resistance. Doing strength exercises on a balance board will limit the amount of weight you can move, as most of your focus is on staying upright.

To really build ankle strength, focus on single-leg strength exercises such as single-leg squats and single-leg deadlifts. Even step-ups.

Yes, you might spend some time in the beginning to get your balance right.

But once you get a hang of it, you’ll get way more out of it than trying to balance on an unstable surface.

-J

Whether the Zone 2 hype is warranted depends on one significant factor: whether you have female or male physiology.

But first, here’s a quick recap of zone 2 training:

Any continuous cardio activity at around 70-75% of your max heart rate for over 30 minutes. Ideally closer to an hour.

Men have poorer mitochondria respiration and mitochondria density than women.

Men need more slow aerobic work, such as Zone 2. What the men are doing is based on the science done on men.

You already have the qualities that men try to improve with Zone 2 because you’re a woman.

You’re better off focusing the bulk of your training on high-intensity work and strength training.

This will improve the quantities that you need more of: mitochondrial and anaerobic capacity.

And then mix that with just enough of Zone 2 to improve your aerobic base.

-J