Wait Just a Minute

You know when you finish your workout and you’re sweaty and out of breath? That’s the worst time to get in your car and drive off. Everything gets stiff, your body gets cold and you mold yourself into the position of the car seat without giving your body a few minutes to reset before heading off for the day.

I’m all about efficient workouts. I don’t think that you should live in the gym. We want to get people in and get them on their way. Taking 5 minutes to cool down after a workout can be a game changer for your physiology. It gives your body a chance to downshift into baseline mode, instead of going from one thing to the next and riding the stimulus high.

What can you do to cool down? Foam roll, stretch, mobility work, easy walk or chat with fellow Gainers for a few minutes are all acceptable answers. It doesn’t need to be anything too formal, just let yourself stop sweating before jumping in your car!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Capable vs Comfortable

Today, I have a question for you to ponder. I stole this from where I steal most of my ideas, James Clear’s email newsletter. It’s fantastic stuff and as someone who tries his best to never give away an email for promotions, this one is worth it.

“How long will you put off what are you capable of doing just to continue what you are comfortable doing?”

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Balance Dominant

You know how you have a hand your prefer to write with? Brush your teeth with, scrabble eggs with amongst many other things? You’ve spent a lifetime choosing that hand for most tasks over your other side. The same thing has happened with your legs. Your whole life, you’ve preferred to stand on one leg more than the other, taken first steps with it, tested the waters on uncertain ground, caught yourself when you tripped and used it to plant into the ground to jump or kick.

This, unfortunately, results in having one leg that you feel rock solid stable on, and leaves us with a slightly less controlled, wobbly side. For me, my left leg is as stable as a tree trunk, my right side, not so much. In fact, I always make sure to demonstrate one leg SLDL’s on my left leg because my balance is so poor on my right!

Now, this is a simplified explanation of this. There are a lot of other things happening. One side probably has more range of motion than the other and doesn’t get as tight or as sore. Other factors can contribute to this, but a great way to make some real world change is awareness - try to stand on the less preferred side more!

I’m not sure your SLDL’s will ever even out, I’m sorry there isn’t a magical balance drill that will solve that. Through your awareness though, you can start to let that other side get some reps in and stand on it and try to use it just as much. When you get frustrated, remember how difficult it would be to write, brush your teeth and throw a ball with your non-dominant hand.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Specific to General

We can have, or own, general skills that aid in learning more specific tasks. A simple example, learning how to read is a general skill that will allow you to learn something much more specific. A specific skill, like being discipline and committed to something, can be learned to be used generally as well. For the most part, it’s more beneficial to have general skills, like grit, discipline, patience, communication skills and movement abilities. It’s much more difficult to take it the other way.

Here’s an example. Let’s pretend I’m a world-class cyclist. In order to get that good at a specific thing, riding a bike really far over consecutive days, I need to spend a lot of time on a bike. I need to get really good at specific skills, pedaling stoke, power output, hill climbs, pacing, I need to get comfortable on my bike, learn how to ride in a peloton and become aerodynamic.

I would need to have all those very cycling specific skills to get good. The good news, and here’s the tie in to the gym, is that learning those ultra specific skills and tasks can be applied to other parts of my life, if I’m able to realize what the general skills are. I don’t need to know how to become aerodynamic to shift my focus from cycling to chess, but I can take the hours of practice, commitment and determination being on the bike taught me to help my chess game.

A gym example for you. If I learn how to deadlift a barbell, a specific skill since, barbells don’t come up in life much other than when in a gym. But that barbell can teach me how to lift a couch, pick up a child and give me the strength to go on a hike, run down the street, give me an understand of what is a safe or sketchy position for my spine.

The end game here is to realize that the way you move the gym can help you outside of the gym, but also, realized you’ve built the commitment, discipline and habit muscles by going to the gym as well. You’ve got a blueprint to get better at anything you want.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Step Ups

Step ups don’t get a lot of love in the strength training world. They’re not that complex and they are overshadowed by cooler things people do on boxes like jump on them. It’s too bad, step ups can teach us a lot about how we move, how to create tension and where our movement faults may come from.

Once you have your foot planted on the box, we want to never let it cave inwards, towards your big toe. A good cue to think about here is knee towards your pinky toe. It’s almost overcorrecting it so it in falls in a bit, you’re still in a good position.

That knee may also want to push too far forward, lifting your heel off the box. Don’t let that happen either! Imagine your foot as a tripod, big toe, pinky toe and heel. They should all be firmly planted when doing a step up. The thing that clears these faults up for most people is allowing their torso to drop forward. A slight lean, when starting the rep, will aid in keeping your lower body organized.

These tips will help you whether you’re doing step ups for conditioning, with some load for strength work or if you find yourself outside the gym stepping up on things.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Basics

After an amazing weekend of partying, staying up late, catching up with friends and family, today is our reset day. A day that we can get back to basics to get back to our regularly scheduled programming of eating healthy, keeping hydrated and getting the proper amount of sleep. Here’s what I’m going to do today to get back to baseline.

Exercise before I have my first meal. So controversial, I know. The true is, some people like eating before training and feel good doing it, I do not. I prefer to train on an empty stomach and time my first meal within an hour of finishing that.

Prioritize veggies. I’ll be sure to have veggies at all meals today to make sure I’m getting enough but mostly to start of momentum of making them a priority.

Caffeine. I’ll limit myself today to 2-3 cups this morning and won’t have any the rest of the day (uncommon) to make sure I get to bed early, but also to ensure restful sleep. Which brings me to my last category. I’ll take a good nap in this afternoon and then tonight, to get to 8 or 9 hours tonight.

Maybe these work for you, maybe yours are different. It’s good to have a few key habits to lock into when you want to get back to baseline after a wedding, vacation or just feeling off for a bit. Use these or come up with you own.

See you all in the gym tomorrow!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Thank You!

As most of you know, Hannah and I are getting married on Saturday. The Gain community came out big last night with a surprise party at Beer Night.

Thank you all for the support and love. It means a lot to me and was a great display of the community we’ve built and are all a part of.

I’ll be out of rest of the week, but look forward to getting back in the gym next week!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Thanks for the photos Laurie H.

Gain Featured on Oceanside TV

Check out this short interview I did with Cristin Zaimes, a physical therapist specializing in pelvic floor health at Oceanside Physical Therapy in Stratham. Check it out!

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Also, as a reminder, don’t forget tonight is Burger and Beer Night, our monthly get together for our members on the last Wednesday of each month. Hope you can make it.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Endure

After watching the 50-50-50 Ironman documentary, I was pulled back into Alex Hutchinson’s book, Endure. The book explores physical and mental endurance and how we are able to push through, go faster and dig deeper when we shouldn’t be able to. Like at the end of a race, no matter what, people usually have a little left to push it through the finish line.

If you’ve ever done a race on gone on a hike, you may have experienced your Central Governor. This mechanism in our brains limits how much physical activity we can do to prevent over working our heart muscle. It reduces recruitment of muscle fibers, giving us a sensation of fatigue in our muscles and most likely, slows us down or forces us to take a break. This may play into why we’re able to push a little harder towards the end - we know the finish is near so we can throw out our built in pacing.

For the longest time, we thought that the only limiting factor on endurance was what we could physically take. This view forgets about the mental aspect of endurance though. As it turns out, a mentally fatigued brain can effect how much we can physically endure. The fresher we are mentally, the more able we are to push physically.

Endurance is about much more than just what your heart or muscles can handle. There are a lot of physiological moving pieces that make this whole thing work. Understanding this, will help you find the edge, where you can push it hard but not too hard. When you’re gassed and you want to quit, remember, you still have a little bit more to push.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

The Edge

Over the weekend, I watched Iron Cowboy a documentary about James Lawrence completing 50 Ironman Triathlons, in 50 states, in just 50 days. Wow. What an impressive feat of endurance. The part of the documentary that stuck with me was Lawrence’s quote, “I’m doing this because I haven’t found my physical and mental limit yet.”

For us normal humans, the gym is a place to test our physical and mental limits. We don’t need to find it every day (leads to burnout/injury) or even that often at all. We do want to explore where our edge is though, the line we cannot cross, cannot push any harder. If we know where that is, it's eye opening as to how much more we’re capable of.

Push your pace on the sled this week, put some extra zest on those medicine ball slams and put your head down and suffer a little bit on the AirBike. Try to find the edge, see where your limits are and what you’re capable of.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

100

“Disipline is commitment to the process regardless of motivation.”

Logan Gelbrich, Going Right

Today marks 100 consecutive blogs on this site. It’s been a tough challenge. Sometimes, topics and words flow easily, and other times I stare at the computer screen with my face resting in my palms convinced this will be the day that I fail. Some days I’m pleased with the post, other days I hate it. It’s been a challenge of commitment.

Beside the commitment to share more ideas and develop writing abilities, I needed to develop some new habits. I write every morning. It’s not even a thought anymore. As soon as the coffee is done, I open up the laptop and start working on whatever idea is floating in my brain. Carving out this time, and treating it preciously, has helped keep me to it.

So really, 100 blogs is just a blip along the way. I’m going to continue to practice, learn and build new skills and abilities. It isn’t about staying motivated, it’s about being discipline and sticking with something over time. Just like going to the gym. Thanks for reading and following along.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

When to Shut it Down

Knowing when to take a break, or how to listen to your body, is key to long-term training success. You probably have some clues that, if you’re paying attention, can tell you whether to shut it down, take it easy or push through and get your training in. Identifying these signs is a skill itself, and will take some time to hone.

I usually have a pretty good desire to train, so I look for other clues that let me know I should take an easy day or skip my run all together. The obvious one is how I feel first thing in the morning. Did I pop out of bed with excitement for the day or did I want to stay under the covers for another hour? Another clue is if I’m hungry first thing in the morning. I usually am not, so if by 8am I’m looking for something to eat, I may be pushing it a bit too much.

There is technology called heart rate variability that can help you identify your readiness to train. It measures the time in-between heart beats, the more variation the more recovered you are. When you have a steady time between beats, you may be on the edge of over-training. This can be useful, but if we’re playing the long game, we can sharpen our awareness to how we feel and bypass the technology all together.

Start looking for your clues that you’re running out of steam. If you catch it, you may avoid a gym burnout all together and your body will thank you for the break. Take a long walk, ride a bike, come in to do some stretching and rolling or shut it down all together and log some hours in a beach chair.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Interval Basics

One of the most effective conditioning tools is interval training. The idea is simple, work at a difficult to maintain pace for 20 seconds to a couple minutes and then work at an easy pace for slightly less than, the same or longer than your work period. Besides improving cardiovascular fitness, the goal is to mainipulate your heart rate.

We want to see your heart rate build up over the work interval and partially (or fully, depending on the goal of the session) recover during the rest period. This style of training lets you get in more work in less time. By ramping up the intensity (how hard you’re working) we can dial back the volume.

Intervals, for the most part, should be brutally challenging. If you’re doing 10 rounds of 30 seconds fast, 60 seconds slow on the bike, you should really crank during those 30 seconds, trying to produce the most output possible during that time. If you’re still gassed after 60 seconds, dial back the intensity to find that working pace.

That’s the side benefit of interval training. It can teach you how to pace, how to breathe and will tell you how much work you’re capable of. If you’re thinking about adding in some additional training, talk to us about getting an interval day throw into the mix.

Justin MIner

@portsmouthcoach

Tried and True

There’s a problem in the fitness industry. Everyone wants the next new thing, the latest and greatest trend that’s going to get results faster. The next guru who will promise the results you need, after drinking her detox tea for 30 days. It’s gross. It plays upon you, the consumer, to keep trying the next thing, hoping the quick results will happen this time.

Unfortunately there are no quick results. If we want to make long-tern, permanent change, we need to put the work in. There is no way around it, no guru’s tea, no Instaceleb’s booty workout program or hot-pilates-yoga-flash-burn-HIIT-with-goats that will bypass the work ethic required.

Strength and Conditioning is tried and true. It’s been around for a hundred years and we know it works. It would be the most boring, non-effective infomercial ever: use this barbell, with thoughtful form, 3-4 times a week for 3 years and you’ll get stronger!

No one wants to admit the commitment has to be long term. If we’re going to make a change, we all need to realize that there are no shortcuts. We need to stick with something for a long time. Whatever that is for you, great I’m on board. I’m just not convinced some of these new methods or diets are going to stand the test of time like strength and conditioning has.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Take a Seat

How comfortably can you sit on the floor? Can you sit criss-cross style? Does you back scream at you or are you able to hang out down there for 20 minutes and come out the other side unscathed? I’m a fan of doing things that are good for your health without being in the way of your life. For example, occasionally opting to sit on the floor instead of the couch.

It’s an opportunity to tinker with your movement. To find a comfortable position and to realize some areas or movements that need some extra attention. It’ll show if you can stabilize your spine, rotate your hips and move your ankles. No equipment is required. Just simply sit on the floor. Feel the stretch, move around a little and when you are sick of it, get back on the couch.

It’s a fool proof way to add in some additional movement throughout your day. Unlock your hips and rediscover that skill you used to own so easily but lost somewhere along the way.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

How to Start Strength Training

My new favorite person, James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits, posted a great infographic on Instagram yesterday. While his usually topics are about habits, this one was specifically about strength training. Clear is not only drawing from the research of his book, but from his own experience strength training for the past 10 years.

For people just getting started, he recommends these three principles to help you stick with it for the long haul. I agree with all of them and they are principles we use at Gain to help guide our programming when starting new people.

1. Start too light

Do easy stuff first. Get practice reps in. Learn the skills required and build volume at these lower intensities before going heavy.

2. Don’t Miss Workouts

Your effort must be sustained if you want to see changes. We tell people all the time, don’t skip the gym if you don’t want to workout, come and do something different if you need to but keep the consistency going by always coming to scheduled appointments.

3. Make Tiny Gains

“Average speed can take you far if you just keep walking.”

Honestly, a lot of the gains people get they don’t even notice until they go do something and realize it isn’t as hard as it used to be. That’s a good way to progress. Don’t expect massive gym PR’s all the time. Look for the little things outside of the gym that are easier than they used to be.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Posture

Everyone wants better posture. I bet after you read that first sentence, you sat up a little straighter, I know I did after I wrote it. People are looking for an answer, an exercise that will magically get them to sit upright and not hunch over their phone or computer. Unfortunately, that doesn’t exist.

Sure, we can do lots of horizontal rowing exercises to strengthen your upper back and teach you how to use your shoulders, but that won’t fix your posture while watching TV at night. You need to become sensitive to what you body is doing in order to improve posture. You have to constantly catch yourself and adjust your position.

Remember, there isn’t one static position that rules them all. We want to be moving and adjusting and spending sometime in all sorts of different positions. The key to improving your posture is awareness. Catch yourself and adjust, over and over and over.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Just Show Up

There are no shortage of fitness options. In every town and city you can pull up Google and find 20 different gyms. Some will be similar to each other, some totally different. Price points are all over the map, starting with Planet Fitness all the way to exclusive one on one training. This is great news. Everyone needs to find what will work for them - something they can be consistent with.

I find people give into their fear sometimes. When you know you have a hard workout on Monday, you dread it and eventually skip it because you don’t want to do whatever was planned in that workout.

At Gain, we teach people to just show up. Don’t feel like squatting today? No problem, let’s find something you can do and get excited about. Didn’t sleep well last night? No big deal, let’s do some mobility work and send you on your way to get an extra cup of coffee. Not being locked into a group class gives us the freedom to call an audible.

This lets you take change of your fitness, learn to listen to your body and above all else, develop some consistency. Not all workouts need to be 110% effort. Sometimes, you get to have a 60% effort workout and I’m here to tell you there’s nothing wrong with that

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Predictive Fitness

We’ve all been to the doctor’s office and gotten a strange reading called BMI, or body mass index. It’s famously inaccurate at predicting people’s health and wellbeing. The height to weight ratio often claims many are obese who clearly aren’t. However, it’s a system designed to categorize mass amounts of people so we can compile data. That doesn’t mean it’s the best way possible though, or that there isn’t another way. Recently, the BMI Scale has been called into question whether it’s an accurate predictor of mortality and disease.

If we ditch the body mass index, what else can we look at for predictive numbers for our health? Is there just one number or reading or test that can solve this issue, or like many health issues, is it more complex than figuring out one number? Well, one number is your walking speed. In a large study published in the Journal of America Medical Association, those who walked about 33 minutes per mile were likely to hit their average life expectancy. With faster walkers the change of dying in the next 10 years fell by 12 percent!

At first, this sounds a bit silly. But think of grandparents and parents who have a hard time moving around. Average walking speed is in indicator that you can move confidently, react to the ground and other objects and have some cardiovascular fitness. I frequently talk about the benefits of walking, add this to the reasons to walk more.

Another simple measure of longevity or health is grip strength. Squeeze this meter as hard as you can and if you can produce some force, it looks good for you lifespan. Grip strength is correlated with total body strength, so if you’ve done some working out, it’ll probably show on the grip-meter.

Yesterday, I read about a new way we can predict health. This study claims that the ability to do a push up can predict heart disease. Stefanos Kales, a Harvard Medical School professor, looked closely at firefighters and heart disease. He concluded that push up capacity was associated with decreased of cardiovascular disease.

Are any of these methods perfect? No. But people are pushing to make some changes to stop relying on BMI as a health predictor. These newer methods empower you. With BMI you get a number that you can’t do much about besides try to lose weight, which is a vague and difficult task for many. If we get people to focus on performance, like walking faster, building functional strength and doing push ups, we can empower people to take charge of their lives instead of being subjected to a silly BMI number.

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach

Maintenance

We have this idea that if we’re not moving forward or progressing, we’re losing. However, maintaining a level of physical ability, weight, endurance etc., over time is equally as impressive as constant gains. Maintaining implies that you’re doing all the right things to not move backwards and start regressing or losing skills/abilities.

Thinking that maintaining is bad can be troublesome. Imagine you’ve worked towards a goal, almost reach it and then failed. Many people will then throw it all out the window and severely backtrack. Fast forward a few months later and they’re on the train again trying to get better. Classic yo-yo behavior.

If we think mainitnence is okay, we can think, I made it this far, let me hang on to it while I have these crazy things happening and then I can get bak to it once I have motivation/time/resources. If you’re stuck deadlifting a PR, remember, it’s still an impressive thing that you’re holding on to the ability, maintenance is good!

Justin Miner

@portsmouthcoach