You ever feel like your day is totally packed, you have no time to breathe or think or god forbid eat, drink or exercise?

Really!?!? What’s that like, I’ve never experienced that? Joke, I’m just kidding.

Today one of my clients was off. I decided after watching her struggle through her outdoor conditioning, that I would cut out 5 minutes and use it for something special.

I asked if she had a picnic table in her back yard. “Yes”, was her reply. I say, “O.K., we’re going to finish in the back with some stretching. Does that sound cool?” “Yes” was her reply”

I lead her through 5 minutes of body weight stretching and then I ask her to lie on her back on her picnic table with her knees bent & feet on the bench.

I tell her, “O.K., here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to lie on your back, with your eyes closed and we’re going to spend 5 minutes relaxing. 1 minute on each of the 5 senses. Ready?”

“Yes!,” she said.

Minute 1: Hear

“O.K. Eyes closed. I want you to listen. Listen to all the sounds around you. Listen to the birds, listen to the air, your breathing, my voice, the traffic off in a distance. Separate each sound and listen to all the different sounds.”

Minute 2: Smell

“Now smell the air. Can you smell the grass, the flowers, the trees? Can you smell yourself, your hair, your clothes, your scent? Can you smell your breath? Take a big breath.”

Minute 3: Touch

“Now feel your body. Feel your feet. Feel your sneakers, the foam insulation, the treads, the wooden bench. Feel the picnic table. Feel your shirt, your shorts. Feel hair, just hanging. Feel your knees, your butt, and your shoulders. Feel the air as you breathe. Take a big breath. Feel the limitless air you can consume.”

Minute 4: Taste

“Taste your mouth. Imagine how water tastes when you’re thirsty. Imagine today’s workout, when you asked for a water break. How did the water taste. The coldness, frost on the glass. The ice. Was it refreshing? Taste how clear & pure it was. How satisfying. Now imagine your favorite food. How does it taste. How does it taste as you roll it around in your mouth. What does it taste like? Is it hot, cold, hard, soft, squishy or crunchy? Is it sweet or salty?”

Minute 5: See

“Now visualize something beautiful. Imagine your favorite place. Is it the beach, is it home. Is it a country or a resort? Are you with people, your husband, your daughter, and your friends? Are you by yourself? What’s the weather like? Is it warm or cool? What are you doing? What are you wearing? Are you laughing? Why is this beautiful? Why is this a favorite place?”

“O.K., now wake up. How do you feel?”

Silence and a foggy smile. “C’mon, let’s go back inside”, I say”

“Where did you learn that?” she softly says, while still awakening.

“In a relaxation class in college, different books, conferences, here & there.”

“That was great!” she says.

“Thank you! I figured you were a little beat up today and could use something special. So, I subtracted 5 minutes from something important (conditioning) to give you 5 minutes, to reboot & recover. Was it good?”

“Yes, it was great!” was her reply.

I said, “Sometimes your day is so packed, you’re tired and you need energy, but coffee isn’t doing the trick. You decide, f’ it, I need to reboot and take 5 minutes for myself. You can nap or do relaxing meditation like you did today. I often use this trick. I’ll sleep in my car, at my desk, in a park, on the sofa, or I’ll go for a walk, lie on a foam roller, anything. Just 5 minutes to slow things down, clear my head & reboot my system. It’s amazing how 5 minutes can feel so long and powerful. It doesn’t recover you completely, but it sure makes you feel better or more able to conquer what lies ahead. Do you agree?”

“Yes!” she replied still groggy.

5 Minutes. Because you’re worth it!

Yours in living the active life,

Mike Alves

Newton Personal Trainer and Newton Fitness Boot Camps

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Anyone ever trained body parts before?

For example:

Body Part Programming

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Chest	Legs	Back	Shoulders	Arms
		Or
Chest & Tri’s		Legs & Shoulders		Back & Bi’s
		Or
Chest & Bi’s	Legs & Back		Shoulders & Tri’s	Legs & Abs
		Or
Chest & Back		Legs & Sho		Bi’s & Tri’s

I used to, when I first started training as a personal trainer because that’s what everyone else did and I figured that’s what I was supposed to do. Then realized I knew better and started modifying my workout so my clients and I could train like athletes yet earn the aesthetic results of a body builder. Or another way to say it is to train movements, not body parts.

This modified type of training now looked like this:

Movement Programming

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Total Body: Knee Push (legs / DB Front Squats) + Horizontal Pull (back / Seated Row) + Horizontal Push (chest / Push Ups) + Lateral Flexion (obliques / Side Plank)		Total Body: Hip Pull (legs / Dead Lifts) + Vertical Push (shoulders / Overhead Press) + Vertical Pull (back / Chin Ups) + Hip-Trunk Pull (lower abs / Hip Lifts)		Total Body: 1-Knee Push (legs / Lunge) + Horizontal Pull (back / DB Row) + Vertical Pull / Push (biceps & shoulders / DB Curl to Press) + Sho-Trunk Rotation (obliques & abs, Seated DB Trunk Rotation)
		Or
Upper Body	Lower Body		Upper Body	Lower Body
Vertical Pull (Chin Ups, back) + Horizontal Push (Incline Bench Press, chest) + Horizontal Pull (Face Pulls, upper back) + Diagonal Extension (Cable Raise, abs & obliques)	Knee Push (Front Squats, legs) + 1-Hip Pull (Single Leg Dead Lift, legs) + 1-Knee Push (Lateral Lunge, legs) + Lateral Flexion (Side Plank, obliques)		Vertical Push (Barbell Overhead Press, shoulders) + Horizontal Pull (Seated Row, back) + Vertical Push (DB Lateral Raise, shoulders) + Diagonal Flexion (Cable Chop, abs & obliques)	Hip Pull (Dead Lift, legs) + 1-Knee Push (Side Step Up, legs) + Hip Pull (Good Mornings, legs & sho-trunk pull) + Hip-Trunk Pull (SB Tuck, abs)

Notice how the first table consisted of body parts only and the second table consisted of movements, an example exercise and then the body part. Now some of this may look familiar and some of it may not, just bear with me as you should understand better when the third chart comes up.

Well now, I just came across this article by Fraser Quelch of Fitness Anywhere, the makers of the TRX Suspension Trainer. It was very stimulating and I had to read it twice to fully grasp it. Heck, I’m writing about it now to help reinforce what I learned.

He talked about training not only movement patters like the table in the middle, but also planes of movements (sagittal, frontal and transverse or in laymen’s terms forward & backward, side-side & rotational movements). This really made a lot of sense to me and I was definitely incorporating this ideology with my core training, my performance athletes and the majority of my programming, but I didn’t think I needed to use it with all of my clients across the board.

Why?

It’s not like they’re going to use these motor patterns and there are other more immediate concerns to be addressed like correcting muscle imbalances, rehabbing an injury and changing body composition.

Well, Coach Quelch talked about the human body being made for locomotion (movement) and muscles contributing to that movement. Not train the muscles and then hope they can help you move. It’s train the movements and still get great looking muscles. If you train the muscles, you get crappy movements like stereo-typical body builders running on hot sand. See the video below.

See what I mean. AND when you train movements, you’re less likely to get injured because you create better balance and coordination, kinesthetic awareness and functional strength. You also look more athletic (because you are) and have better stamina.

Another reason it rang home to me is I’m a novice snowboarder.

I’ve been practing for the last 3 years and am better, but still find myself on the green and blue trails. Why? Because I’m practicing my turns, getting comfortable riding heel side and toe side with both my left leg leading and my right leg leading. I also want to be able to do 360 degree turns because sometimes it happens and on the diamond and double diamond trails you have less wiggle room for error and need to be prepared.

So…, even though I can get down the mountain without falling if I just ride normal, I practice new motor patterns or train new motor engrams as Quelch alludes to, and sometimes I do great and sometimes I fall on my butt. I love it though, because I get better every time and soon I’ll be that snowboarder flying down the mountain with incredible control.

Back to planar training.

Here’s what a new program might look like for a fat loss, weight loss or pre-season sports performance client after reading Coach Quelch’s article.

Planar Programming

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
Total Body Sagittal Hip Push (DB Front squat, legs) + Transverse Shoulder Pull: TRX or Jungle Strap Inverted Row, back) + Sagittal Shoulder Push (Feet Elevated Close Grip Push Up, chest) + Frontal Trunk Pull (Side Plank w/ Rotation, obliques)		Total Body 1-Transverse Hip Push (Side Step Ups, legs) + Frontal Shoulder Pull (Pull Ups, back) + 1-Frontal Hip Push (DB Lateral Lunge, legs) + Sagittal Trunk Pull (Stability Ball Rollouts, abs)		Total Body: Sagittal Hip Pull (Dead Lift, legs) + Frontal Shoulder Push (DB Overhead Press, shoulders) + Transverse Shoulder Pull (Cable Face Pulls, upper back) + Transverse Trunk Pull (transverse, MB Wood Chop, obliques/abs)
		Or
Upper Body	Lower Body		Upper Body	Lower Body
Sagittal Shoulder Pull (Chin Ups, back) + Transverse Shoulder Push (Incline Bench Press, chest) + Transverse Shoulder Pull (Cable Face Pulls, upper back) + Transverse Trunk Push (Cable Raise, abs & obliques)	Sagittal Hip Push (Front Squats / legs) + Transverse 1-Hip Pull (Single Leg Dead Lift , legs) + Frontal 1-Knee Push (Lateral Lunge, legs) + Frontal Trunk Pull (Side Plank, obliques)		Frontal Shoulder Push (Barbell Overhead Press, shoulders) + Sagittal Shoulder Pull (Neutral Grip Seated Row, back) + Frontal Shoulder Push (DB Lateral Raise / shoulders) + Transverse Trunk Pull (Cable Chop, abs & obliques +	Sagittal Hip Pull (Dead Lift, legs) + Transverse 1-Hip Push (Side Step Up / legs) ) + Frontal 1-Hip Push (Lateral Band Walk, legs) + Sagittal Trunk Pull (SB Tuck, abs)

Notice I tell you the plane of movement, the body region, the type of movement, an exercise and the body part. Call it the evolution of training back to square one.

Now what does this all mean. It means programming & training will be more fun. Bodies will move better, posture and muscles will be balanced and people will still look great aesthetically.

To read Fraser’s article or purchase his TRX click here.

Yours living the active life,

Mike Alves

www.mikealves.com