Thursday Book Report: The Emotional Life of Your Brain

The Emotional Life of Your Brain by Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. with Sharon Begley analyzes emotional styles by way of brain function.  It is a more anatomical and strictly scientific approach to how our emotions work and how they come together to create something like a personality or temperament.

The applicability to fitness lies in the plasticity of the brain.  Mindfulness, which is an essential fitness skill, plays a key role in our ability to shape our emotional experience.

The extremely short version of the book goes something like this:  meditate and life will get better because it changes your brain.

Friday Exercise: Bench Kickbacks

Strong triceps make arms look very sexy, in the opinion of the Amazing Stickie.  One way she works on her triceps is by doing bench kickbacks.

She starts by placing one knee and one hand on a bench as if she were on all fours.  She keeps her back straight, her abdominals engaged, and her head in line with the rest of her spine.  She places her hand directly underneath her shoulder and her knee directly underneath her hip for optimum alignment.  She uses her other leg for balance.  She holds a dumbbell in her other hand, arm extended toward the floor, but shoulder centered in the socket and then rows the dumbbell up toward her armpit.  At last, she has achieved starting position!

The key to getting the most out of this exercise, Stickie knows, lies in keeping her upper arm stationary.  From the chicken-wing-like starting position, she extends her forearm toward the ceiling by straightening her elbow.  Then she returns to the starting position.  She alternates sets between sides.

Two to three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions tend to get the job done.

Thursday Book Report: Becoming a Supple Leopard

I read Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance by Dr. Kelly Starrett and Glen Cordoza in part because my son told me it was magic for resolving his pain issues.  It covers a lot of the same territory as Jill Miller’s work with Yoga Tune Up Balls, but with a slightly different perspective, what I would have to describe as a more, well, male approach focusing on power generation and performance enhancement.

I like power generation and performance enhancement, and if it improving those things motivates the men I know to improve their relationships with their fascia, I’m all for it.  There is plenty of theory in the book, but those who don’t want to fill their heads with it don’t need to read those parts.  The sections that focus on mobilization for each area of the body may be of most interest to the practical folks, unless they are particularly interested in one painful area.

I will, of course, use it as a handy reference, so clients may find themselves leopardized!

Moving through life

Fitness has many components.  As a trainer, obviously, my focus with clients is on movement as a way toward fitness.

We are embedded in time, which means that we live in a world of change.  We are always moving.  Training the body is just one way to direct our movement.

Let’s go in good directions.

Friday Exercise: Bent-Over Row

The Amazing Stickie loves having strong arms.  The bent-over row helps her achieve this goal.

She begins by standing with excellent posture.  (Reminder:  excellent posture consists of standing up straight with ears, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles in a continuous line.)  She bends her knees slightly and hinges at the hips to get into the bent over position.  In her hands, she holds dumbbells or a barbell.  On an exhale, she lifts the weights toward her armpits, elbows pointing behind her.  Then she lowers them back toward the floor on an inhale.

Stickie loves her shoulders and wants them to work forever, so she is particularly careful, when lowering the weights, not to let the weight pull her arms so far down that the head of her humerus is no longer centered in the socket.  She knows that if she cannot maintain her humeral head in the socket the weight is too heavy and she will need to work up to it.

Most of the time Stickie chooses a weight that she can lift 10 to 12 times for two or three sets for this exercise, but occasionally she does shorter sets of heavy weights until she can only complete a single, beautiful repetition.

Thursday Book Report: Looking Deep

When one goes on vacation and severely underestimates how much reading material is required, one might end up browsing the 99-cent used books at the closest bookstore.  This is how I ended up reading Looking Deep by Terry Bradshaw with Buddy Martin.

I love football.  I wasn’t paying attention much at the time that Bradshaw was an active player, but I enjoy his commentary nowadays.  He’s likeable, funny, and generous in spirit and he has good stories to tell about his remarkable achievements.

While he is certainly not perfect, he is disarmingly honest about his own shortcomings.  He describes coming to terms with his own racism and overcoming the biases he grew up with.  He owns his part in the professional and personal relationships that didn’t work out for him.

He’s also humble, crediting his success to hard work above all.  He addressed his struggles with intelligence, persistence, and humor.  May we all do likewise!

Finally, the book was entirely worth the under-a-buck I paid for it just to learn that the fake name he used when he had elbow surgery was… Thomas Brady.  There has to be a conspiracy theory waiting to happen there.

Rockin' the hard place

So I might be slightly obsessed with healing right now.  I’m sure that the obsession will pass as soon as the fascia in my foot allows me to bike again.  In the meantime, more thoughts.

Sometimes healing is a totally passive process.  I read seven books while I was on vacation because I had to sit still and heal.  My contribution to the process was negligible.  Sometimes I needed to add ice.  Patience becomes the exercised skill.

The active parts of healing, I think, are often about the bodily equivalent of housework.  Clean out the refrigerator and get fresh vegetables.  Toss out the worn out shoes.  Do the maintenance.  In other words, eat decently, stretch, plan, strategize for the future.

Laughing is also good.