Changing the time of day when one’s workout routine takes place is a huge deal for everything from mood to performance.  Perhaps the most common adjustment that takes place is when someone decides to exercise in the morning. With that in mind, today’s status features six tips for making a smooth transition to training first-thing in the morning:

1. Get to bed earlier-This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many people complain that they can’t get results from exercise in the morning without realizing that they’re still going to be far too late at night.

2. Stand up for a bit-There are some fantastic observations on spine stiffness first thing in the morning. In a nutshell, when we lay down to sleep at night, our spine is decompressed, so the intervertebral discs actually collect water.  This increased hydration status builds annular tension within the discs, and makes the spine stiffer overall.  This isn’t a good kind of stiffness, though; more stress is placed on the ligaments and discs than the soft tissue structures that typically protect them.   Simply standing upright and moving around decreases the hydration status of the discs – and, in the process, actually makes us shorter as the day goes on! While I don’t know of many people that want to get shorter, the good news is that this height reduction reduces the spine stiffness and allows us to move the spine more safely and effectively.  While disc hydration diminishes over the course of the entire day, the majority of it occurs in the first hour that we’re awake.

3. Take a hot shower before exercise in the morning-One of the biggest struggles a lot of folks encounter is getting warmed up in the morning.  Folks usually turn the heat down at night while they’re asleep, and it’s obviously colder outside at nighttime.  You might think I’m nuts, but hopping out of bed and into a hot shower is a great “body temperature transition” strategy that bridges the gap between bed and exercise.  And, since you’ll be standing in the shower, it also helps to accomplish tip #2 from above!

4. Extend the warm-up-In line with points #2 and #3, it’s a good idea to add a few more dynamic warm-up drills to your pre-exercise routine.  Typically, our clients & athletes do between eight and ten drills, but those who exercise in the morning are better off with as many as 15.  It might add five minutes to your dynamic warm-up, but that’s far better than spending far more than five minutes in physical therapy for an injury you got from insufficiently warming up!

5. Try various nutrition approaches-I’ve heard thousands of different nutritional strategies outlined for those who want to exercise in the morning, but the truth is, everyone is different.  I have known folks who will throw up anything solid that they consume prior to exercise, and others (myself included) who could eat a good breakfast and keep it down just fine.  For most, I think sipping on a shake as you start the training session is a good place to start.  If you handle that fine, you can consider having some solid food before the training session, if you find that you’re hungry in the middle of the training session.

6. Recruit a personal trainer or training partner-A training partner is almost always a good idea, but this is especially true when you’re up at the crack of dawn and not necessarily in the mindset to really push yourself.  Plus, when you’re awake for exercise before the sun rises, you’re far more likely to hit the snooze button if someone isn’t waiting for you at the gym.   While training first thing in the morning isn’t exactly ideal, it may be your only option for staying consistent with your workout routine – and consistency is the name of the game.  Implement these strategies to get the most out of your early morning training sessions.

Tanya Morrell from -Integrated Health Solutions by Tanya Morrell- Has been Nominated for the “WOW” Award 2012. Women of Waterloo Region is an annual community event recognizing 12 local women for their contributions and achievements, recognizing women across the region for their contributions as entrepreneur, in the creative arts, science & tech, communicat…ion engagement and education.What makes “WOW” unique is each recipient’s choice to recognize another woman who impacted their lives and receive an award as their “Guest of Honour”. This years event is at the Waterloo Inn, March 28th. Networking and silent auction from 5:15 – 6pm, and the awards ceremony from 6 – 7:30pm.

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence and personal experience that comes into play when strength and conditioning coaches select strength training exercises, speed drills or conditioning routines. The risk vs. reward scale is a great place to start, but not the only factor that should be considered. As a professional, I believe it is my ethical responsibility to prescribe safe exercises. But, according to the thought processes I’ve been hearing lately, it seems like a lot of people believe there are no bad exercises, just bad implementation. I understand the point to a degree, but I disagree. Risk vs. reward is one reason I feel this way, but there is another factor I weigh when making decisions.

Another ethical responsibility I think we all have is to implement “efficient” programs, and that is something I see missing more often than not. What I mean by that is that I think a lot of trainers waste time and energy doing things that won’t necessarily elicit the response they’re after. I can see where someone may think “well, it might help, so I’ll implement it a little.” I can see that, but I hate to see coaches spending an inordinate amount of time on things that we’re not sure work better than other alternatives.

Let’s take the Power Clean as an example. Olympic lifting is a sport. There is a governing body and athletes compete against one another in the lifts. It’s possible that the lifts develop power, but it has never been shown that they develop power better than other alternatives. In my opinion, some of the alternatives such as dumbbell/trap bar squat jumps, pulls, DB pulls, and plyometrics are also much easier to teach and are much safer to implement and will elicit the same result. I’ve heard many coaches talk about how the catch is the most critical part of the clean to work on because that’s where the problems will be seen. The catch is also completely unnecessary, from a physiological standpoint, for developing power. Yet, as strength coaches, our romantic enchantment with the exercise keeps us doing it.

You’d think that if the exercise was SO great that the rewards completely outweighed the risks, we’d have plenty of research showing just that. We don’t. We don’t have anything. It’s simply not out there.

Now, it might develop power. Let’s put that aside and think about whether or not it is efficient? How long does it take to get an athlete good enough at the lifts that they can actually derive the benefits? How much coaching and supervision does it take compared to, say, a squat jump? How safely will it be  done when we’re not around or another coach is supervising? How many sets and reps are required to 1. Become proficient and 2. Get more powerful? We don’t know. And, is moving a bar with heavier weight even going to transfer to sport?

Hmmm. Again, we have no idea. What I do know are many professional strength coaches who tell me it takes them months to get their athletes proficient enough at the clean that they no longer require daily instruction.

The principle of specificity states that in order for one skill to transfer to another, they need to be kinetically and kinematically the same for transfer to occur. The clean has been shown by Canavan to be dissimilar to a vertical jump, which is what is commonly argued as the movement it is most like. If it’s not like a VJ, then it’s nowhere near any other sport movement. So, is the transfer gone? I don’t know, but this principle seems to point in that direction. The principle also states that if x gets you better at y, then y should get you better at x. Playing a sport or practicing jumping does not make you better at the clean, so why do we expect the clean to get us better at a sport?

So, if we have no idea if it’s going to help us in sport, it takes a lot of time and energy to coach and implement, and it can be dangerous if done with slightly poor technique, is it an efficient way to spend our athlete’s time? I have an opinion, but I don’t know the answer. I can kind of understand the argument that it  helps prepare for sport, but is it efficient?

What I do know, is that gymnasts are incredibly powerful, flexible, and have great core strength and balance. So, should we all go through certifications for gymnastics and start implementing them with other athletes because we want them to have all of those things? I would say that would be a poor use of our time. I know that jugglers have amazing hand-eye coordination. Should we implement juggling into our programs because we want our athletes to have that kind of coordination? Again, probably a waste of our time. So, why do we train for one sport to get better at another?

So, forget about whether the clean is safe or not. There are plenty of arguments either way. But, is it efficient? Is it the best use of our time with an athlete? Do we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is the best use of our time? In my opinion, if we can get the same result in half the time, why not use that option? I use the same thought process when determining workout volume. If I can get the same results in 45 minutes, 3 days a week, why would I ask my athlete to train 2 hours a day, 4 days a week? But, many coaches do. I think it’s our responsibility to figure out how to maximize results in minimal time. Most athletes are not professional strength athletes. They want to play their sport and should spend their time doing so. We should be with them the minimum amount of time possible and still get results. It’s like a prescription drug. A doctor is supposed to find the lowest dosage possible to get the desired response. As strength and conditioning professionals, I believe we should take the same approach when determining which exercises to include in our programs.

If you want to excel in athletics, training is the name of the game. If you want to train harder and longer, proper nutrition is crucial. Nutrition is not a substitute for training—it never has and will never be—but it is an important adjunct to training. Without proper nutrition intake, an athlete cannot sustain a high level of training. As a rule, proper diets for athletes allow for longer and more challenging training sessions, delay fatigue, speed recovery, prevent injury or illness and help athletes attain and maintain optimal body weight and lean mass. Training and nutrition will always go hand in hand.

Women tend to focus on weight loss and not sports nutrition. Pretend for a minute that gravity doesn’t exist. Everything is weightless, yet it all manages to stay on the ground. You don’t know how much you weigh because scales have never been invented. How would you define your state of health?  What would be your benchmark? You might still not like how you look. You might be tired of being tired all the time. You might need to trim down and take care of that blood pressure. In a gravity-free world, those are all still good reasons to create healthy diet and fitness habits. Who knows, you might decide “Hey, I feel all right, I look all right, and I’m healthy. If I can just maintain the habits I have, I should be okay.”

The point is, you can decide for yourself what shape you’re in. You don’t need the scale to tell you and “Nutrition” should be your main concern, especially when conditioning for sports. Unfortunately, many times we get down on ourselves simply because something as trivial as gravity tells us we’re out of shape. Some people feel and look fantastic in every respect, but if the number on the scale doesn’t match expectations, they’re miserable. This doesn’t make sense. Gravity should not be able to wield that kind of power.

While it’s good for giving you a general idea of your health, this can be the most discouraging and frustrating part of a diet. Your weight can fluctuate all the time and reasons why are never completely known. At Integrated Health Solutions by Tanya Morrell, we are aware that time of day, temperature, the day’s activities, and water level – all can skew the numbers one way or the other. In reality, you could be getting discouraged over something that’s not really accurate.

So, our aim is to help you focus on performance nutrition, what to eat before, during and after a training session or sports event to help you maximize training intensity and enhance sports performance with an added weight loss goal or maintenance if needed. Diet principles are based on the demands of training and competition. Dietary recommendations (hydration too) vary for endurance athletes and strength athletes and for different sports within these categories. Consideration of nutrients vital to athletic performance-carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals and water employs an integrated approach focusing on how nutrients function together. Each nutrient supports training and how dietary intake can improve performance. Without overconsumption, all of your nutritional needs can be met, while increasing sports performance and maintaining a healthy figure too!

Obesity is on the rise throughout the world. With the popularity of fast food restaurants and instant meals on the rise, more and more people are finding their health failing and their energy depleted. There are many fad diets on the market today and programs promising instant and long lasting success. But as many people are beginning to realize, the promises are all too thin and unrealistic for any lasting benefits. (more…)

If you are ready to get started on a fitness routine that will work all the areas of your body with the least amount of stress and strain as possible; you need to first know some facts. Once you are aware of what are the correct functional training techniques to use for your body, you will be better prepared to set up and use an optimal workout routine.

Functional training first started out in rehabilitation. Physical therapists thought to incorporate normal activities done by a patient at home and work them into an exercise routine that would help them get back to living life the way they did before. For example, if a patient used to run a day care from home and was used to lifting, carrying and moving children around, the workout designed would concentrate on strengthening those muscles needed with moderate lifting and endurance in mind. If someone was a construction worker or shipper receiver who was lifting heavy loads all day, the workout would then have to be modified to be more targeted to getting the patient back on track for lifting those heavy loads without risking more harm or re-lapse. (more…)