Understanding Primal Flow

After more and more interest being taken with Primal Flow, I thought I'd write a little more about about what it is, how it came about and how it can benefit.

Looking back at my coaching career so far, even from the very first courses I attended, I remember always thinking that repeating the same movement over and over again can't be that good, however, in the early days, I really didn't know any better and so just went along with the trends that were and very much still are instructed. As my confidence and understanding of the body grew, I started to experiment more with different ways of challenging and conditioning the body.

When it comes to exercise, for me, there are a number of absolute musts with any exercise or pattern:

• It must be functional - if the movement doesn't serve a purpose then isn't doing the body, posture or alignment any favours
• It must be safe - understanding the internal workings of the core, inner stabilising units and outer global units ensures that all the movements work with the flow of the body and not against them
• It must be progressive and effective - challenging the body is the only way that exercise truly benefits, by knowing your level, ability and making the programme progressive, you can rest assured that your programme will be hugely effective
• It must be interesting - exercise should never be numb, mindless or a duty. Looking at primal man, exercise was purposeful, demanded thought and deliberation and always had an objective be it hunting, building or excaping danger.

Having been working on PF for a few years, many clients will have experienced numerous sequences and flows without knowing but now, the concept is completely formed and ready to take flight.
The benefits of this type of exercise can be shaped in pretty much any direction:

• Physiological - Strength, power, conditioning, endurance, balance, agility, alignment and flexibility
• Goal driven - weight loss, shape, reduce body fat, increase size, build shape or tone
• General wellness - Increase bone density, improve cardiovascular fitness, improve posture

The list goes on. The reason it is so effective is because it brings together all natural and instinctive movements of the body, organises them creating stability before mobility and then follows with gradual progression.

It isn't about using fancy and shiney machines but understanding your body. Machines generally speaking distort movement completely, deactivate the core and result in pain, injury and never ending discomfort. Think about it, most people can relate with a bicep curl which serves to isolate the bicep. Ok, fine, however, with over 600 hundred muscles in the body, how can you possibly achieve a balanced work out for all of them by isolating? You can't! Even if you did isolate every single one relative to their function within the body, the body doesn't operate through segmented function, it is a single unit and should be used that way.

Well, that should be enough to give you a brief understanding of the background. Our flows will be getting videod very soon so that you can watch them and have a play for yourself. Watch this space and sign up to this blog if you want to keep updated.

Phill

Check here to read what my clients think

Why morning fitness can change your life

It may not be something that you've tried before but doing some sort of exercise in the morning can have major positive impact on the whole of your life.

In my years of experience; both engaging in exercise and working with clients, companies, trainers and schools I've made some very interesting observations about exercise habits, routines that seem to last and intense binge exercising that wears people down.

Out of all that I've seen, people who exercise in the morning tend to become very well committed to staying healthy and mobile and it really does stand to reason. As primal creatures, waking up would normally be followed by a need to exercise. This may have been using the dawn to take an easier catch of prey for the next meal or it may have been actually avoiding being caught or stepping into conflict. Fight or flight!

Morning exercise not only accesses and switches on the entire physiology of the body, preparing it for a full day, but chemically stimulates release of hormones that activate the internal systems, initiating metabolism, digestion and the beloved feel-good hormones endorphines. Endorphines are a body produced chemical that act as a natural pain relief, dumbing down discomfort and heightening the sense of control, power and capacity.

So, doing this right at the start of the day sets the frame for the entire day ahead. It doesn't have to be intense, or particularly long in duration, yet an amount of exercise in the morning may be just the ticket to frame your day.

Train for Life

Having recently lost a very close friend who, despite his enormously challenging conditions from birth, had the most amazing attitude towards life, others and himself. It has really put me into reflection on certain things.

We all talk about needing a goal and as a trainer, it is often my role to get a specific target to aim and work towards, yet, actually, do we really need one? Is the gift of life not even to value, respect and consider with our behaviours and habits?

I'm not saying that getting rid of specific goals is a good idea. These are brilliant and absolutely help us focus, yet, constantly feeling like we need specific fitness targets to work towards can be very draining psychologically and almost de-motivating which is the complete polar opposite of why engaged in the first instance. Challenging yourself is essential, as human's, we hold an intrinsic requirement to develop and progress but this shouldn't solely be in the way of physical challenges.

Instead, looking at health and fitness as a gift, right and something that should be nurtured can help create a sustainable approach to keeping healthy.

Not everyone is born or blessed with good health but most of us have the choice of what we do with what we have. To me, the thought of exploring my own health, being confortable with it and using it to help others is all the focus I need to remember how lucky I am every single day and never become complacent with what I have.

Just a short one today

Phill

Why you should NEVER do sit-ups

It seems quite ironic discussing this as less than 4 years ago, I left the forces after 6 years of active service and sit ups were and still are an exercise of choice.

I'm really not sure why they are and it amazes me that they continue to be given by trainers as an exercise. Even more shockingly, I spoke to a chap this morning who mentioned that he joined a large corporate gym some time ago and was given a programme by a fitness trainer. After explaining that he had back pain, his trainer continued to give him sit ups and further awful patterns that put pressure on the lower back.

Last week I saw a very popular military style fitness company getting dozens of paying customers to do sit ups in a field. The exact scenario that a few years ago was familiar to me - but I wasn't paying for this and neither should you be.

Let's have a look at what a sit up is actually doing to your body and why it is no good.

1. The movement begins with lying down, legs bent and feet flat. The significance of this is that the hips aren't fully extended meaning that you cannot fully engage in abdominal range. Any fitness professional who understands anatomy will know this. Without engaging in full range, repetitious patterns will serve to shortern and imbalance the involved muscles.
2. Because the starting position is resting, there is no requirement for the inner unit of the core to stabilise the hips or spine. This means that the phasic muscles causing the movement will compensate for inner instability and be put under greater stress.
3. The movement required is forward flexion of the spine with the extended lever of the upper torso acting as the load. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on lumbar spine. Think about people who suffer back injury, how many people 'put their back out' whilst bending over? This is the exact same movement but with more direct gravitational pull directed onto the lumbar spine.
4. The sit up takes you into deep forward flexion of the spine and then returns to a lying position. Because hip flexion and forward spinal flexion are often concurrent patterns, there is muscular cross over in which areas are working and creating the movements. With the hips being flexed from the start and the hip flexor group being commonly dominant just as the upper abdominals are (rectus abdominus), these areas are most likely to innovate the pattern leaving the weaker, lower stomach (transverse abdominus) completely redundant. Over time and recurrence of this pattern, these muscles will distort posture, pull hip alignment into anterior tilt, pull shoulders forwards and leave high risk of low back injury.

So, what should replace this "ab" exercise? Here are some tips that will help you avoid this problem:

• Stick with compound patterns that use the whole body from standing or functional positions
• Avoid machines that require you to sit down or lie down
• Learn how to breathe abdominally during strength exercises (pilates or good strength coaches can help)
• Look to engage your inner and outer core during all strength exercises
• Come along to one of our sessions (http://www.outfit-uk.com/)

Not just back pain but abdominal herniation and herniated discs have been reported as resulting from sit ups. Remember, when it comes to weight loss, toning and conditioning your body, you cannot spot reduce weight. Good nutrition and seeing the body as a whole unit will be much more helpful to get the shape you want.

Phill

References:
http://www.coachr.org/outer.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185016.php
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B83W8-4W20Y86-D&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2009&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1322336905&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b61dccc4049d9b6381ed91a3e6f09d98