Testing time

The new year has dawned and if you have set goals and/or challenges most likely at least one is health and fitness related. If your a physical enthusiast already this article will also be of some help. You see when you open a bank account it starts with zero and you put money into it. You can always see a balance and understand how your money is going. The human body is a little bit different. Often we will see if we put on fat mass or muscle mass, it can be quite obvious. But other markers used in health and fitness are a little less easy to see and should to be measured. After all how do you know if you are improving?

There are thousands of tests we could do. To be honest a blood test is a great idea I think. You can get an idea about how things are going. This can be done via doctors, in some countries private companies can provide these kinds of services. But within the realm of health and fitness is exercise, to improve you will most likely be using some form of plan. Whether you're chasing a stronger squat or maybe you want to run a certain distance in a certain time, there will be a test of some kind that can be used to find where you're at. Now it is important that you choose a test that is valid for what you want to test. You wouldn't use a strength based test to test aerobic endurance. Please remember the law of specificity applies and some tests will have a skill component. There are plenty of studies about some tests having a higher skill based component then others e.g vertical leap, higher skilled jumpers can jump higher.

I am going to write about two tests you can use and either you may love or hate. These can be used to give you a baseline of where you are at. The first one is a staple and you probably have done it and hate it. The (cue the evil music) beep test. The beep test or multi stage fitness test is still used by many organisations. The test allows you to test how much oxygen your body can maximally uptake. It uses running a very common form of exercise and it relates heavily to the cardiovascular system, endurance and aerobic capacity. This test is also simple to do and yes you could do other tests some can cost you a great deal of money that will test these variables. The beep test is conducted over 20m(65ft) and you can find a mp3 or a youtube video online. You really just need to find a suitable area to set up some markers of some kind and after a suitable warm up ,start the mp3 and take the test. Be sure to record what number you finish on. You can use the resources posted here to help fill in the gaps. Be aware this is a maximal test and you should be of some reasonable shape with no health problems, particularly cardiovascular problems. For those of you that can't take this test you can do a sub max test such as a Rockport fitness test.

Now for the second test maximal strength, I am throwing one out I love, the one repetition maximum (1rm). This is a max strength test that can be done with many different exercises such as the bench press, squat and dead lift. Generally the 1rm isn't done with isolation exercises such as the bicep curl. It is a hard test and does rely somewhat on how skilled you are at the movement. As with many tests motivation will also be a factor. This test though on paper can seem simple but start and light and work your way up.Yes there is a protocol to follow and it is important to note whilst there is a protocol there is still some debate about how to best find the 1rm. Use this video as it shows the protocol for the Bench press and use the percentage changes and rest times. This protocol can be used for for other exercises. Make sure you have a spotter and if you are new to all of this preferably get some help from someone with experience.Consider using the 5rm or 10rm which means you will use lighter weight and in theory limit the chance of injury. After you have this 1rm you can use a calculator to find out the various percentages. By the way calculators will use different equations, this one gives some different equation answers so you can choose.

Now be warned these are tests and if you are not up to it or max testing is contradicted you can use other tests. Make sure the test is actually testing what you want to test and make sure you can do it safely and it is repeatable to be tested in 6-12 weeks. I would love to hear about what tests you chose and why and what you got on them. Comment below and share.

Sit on it.

                Sit on it or maybe don’t. The media has been lately talking up “new” research showing that sitting is the new smoking. Personally I do not like smoking and that is for so many reasons. Like most people however I don’t mind a good sit. So as a result I try to stay involved in the research stating sitting too much is bad for us. Now I have written an article about squatting or as some call it the paleo chair in the past. Right now as I write this article I am standing (curveball not squatting) instead of sitting in a chair. In Kids will be kids I wrote about the issue of opportunity for movement. It is important to remember whilst standing is not the opposite of sitting, movement is. I should also add that standing is another alternative to sitting in a chair.

                So why am I writing this? Well I usually take Wednesday off mid-week from training and sure I might do some mobility/recovery stuff but it is mainly to give my body a break from the previous sessions. So I woke up this Wednesday tight and sore especially in my lower back, not injured but fatigued. It was understandable since I spent a great deal of Tuesday sitting and working on various things. I am still working on acquiring a standing desk. I find sitting is a habit hard to break for most people. Whether it is working at a desk or spending time with the family a lot of us spent most of our days sitting.  This made me think about sitting in depth, recently I read that Kelly Starret said people that sit a lot should every 15 minutes or so reset how they sit. Whilst in theory I agree with it, I think if someone like me who loves to move or is a natural fidgeter struggles to undertake such an act every 15 minutes how on earth will the average office worker achieve it day in day out. Now I am sure there’s an app out there for that and if not, patent pending. 

By now some of you read this and said oh why can’t you fix your sitting technique and a plethora of other things. Well simply put I’m not perfect, though I am going to try to make it more of a priority. So what are the other solutions, standing desks are one and so are apps but is there a bigger fix, maybe office overhaul as it were. Now this is probably where much groovier and smarter people take over from me and I am sure there is research surrounding changing our environment to effect the way we do things, sitting being just one. Maybe it is time we have a societal shift. We are frequently looking at the past and taking things used or techniques and updating them to today’s world. Maybe we should have a room with no furniture in it (lounge room, just a suggestion) that would make us get on the ground if we want to sit, there are a lot of options we could utilise.  Can you of you think of ways we could get around sitting in chairs? 

               

Kids will be kids.

                Recently within fitness there is a return to our roots so to speak. Things like MovNat and Primal Flow have become very popular. In general these methods go deeper than just exercise the philosophy it is about getting about to nature, to our roots.  Ido Portal to paraphrase once said that exercise is just a small part of movement. All of these have in common, movement the way the body was intended to move and often doing things we did as a child. 

                Do you remember what you used to do as a child? Though the answers will be different common themes emerge. Playing outside, climbing things in different ways, crawling, getting off the ground, throwing and catching, riding bikes and running around. What about cartwheels, rolling carrying friends and stuff. 

                There is no doubt we are largely movement opportunity deprived as adults. Movement is an opportunity, this mindset alone could change your life. Getting back to basics proved to be great for my programming and getting people back to a healthier body and mind. Things like get ups and crawling has really improved many peoples quality of life. Yes I have some client’s dislike it because crawling requires us to get a little bit uncomfortable and get ups requires people to get creative as I like them to try different methods to get off the ground. The best part is even those that at first don’t like it get the benefits. Having clients tell me I hated doing those but the other day I had to get down and pick up my phone from under the bed which in the past was hard makes it all worthwhile. 

                Getting up from the ground can be hard for those that don’t do it but what about kids? Easy? Seems like it but recently a school locally banned cartwheels and other potential activities that a child could be hurt. My theory is that if we can get kids and the elderly moving well and enjoying it those in the middle of those ages will follow suit. You see if our elders lead by example it is more likely others will follow. This could prove to be infectious for kids and if kids enjoy movement it may get adults involved. It is a cycle but in order for that cycle to grow opportunities need to be offered. Let me make this clear opportunities come with risk, yes a kid could hurt themselves doing a cartwheel or fall out of a tree and break a bone. If we have a narrowing amount of opportunities as adults to move and we limit kids movement opportunities what will their future outlook be? 

                The world is full of risks and rewards, movement is one of them and to be frank if we limit the kids of the world the future risks will be even greater then a broken bone or a scraped knee. The risk we take as the generations before them is that kids may not have the quality of life or lifespan for that matter when they get into our position. What would your life be like if you weren’t active as a child? Did you have someone older then you instil a passion to move into you? What would/is life like without movement as a child?

Pop a squat

You may have heard this phrase but how often do you do it? Seriously when was the last time you popped a squat. Here comes another question at you, can you pop a squat? The other day whilst lifting with my brother who is a bit of a newbie back to the lifting world, we were speaking about squat depth and he was telling me about his numbers and he was proud and good on him. We began to squat and I noticed that he would just get to parallel.  I come from the Olympic weightlifting school of arse to grass. Science is now backing that depth is not some knee destroying bogey man so we should do it for many reasons. As we got further into the session we were talking about depth and he tells me at the gym he trains at no body he has seen and he`s been there a few months now, nobody goes beyond parallel and trainers at the gym teach people and tell people parallel is the depth they should squat to. I said,”Well we do big boy squats”. We can, we are both fairly mobile (not perfect) and we can get below parallel so we should. This meant he had to take some weight of the bar and he did and we squatted and I cued him as he did to improve some things. He remarked several times the difference between the two depths.

 It really does require more muscle activation to go deeper and get out and it requires better mobility and it requires better technique. You could make the argument against depth and for people that are restricted, injured or need to improve the technique/strength I get it and we have  many tools to deal with that. Now this could become another article about what to do to fix your squat but there`re so many articles and videos on this subject. My argument though is more than lifting weight or working out. The statement “pop a squat”, is just that, get into the bottom position of the squat and sit there. Kelly Starret of Crossfit fame (mobility wod) talks about the 10mins in the pain cave. Popping a squat and sitting there for 10 mins working the odds and ends of position and mobility and listening to your body. That is great I think and we need to make it more a part of our lives. In Asia many people squat into old age, they use it and don`t lose it. They squat from children into old age. The benefits are many, less loss of ROM (range of motion), improved strength which in old age is linked to falls and many more that can be found here http://www.naturesplatform.com/health_benefits.html

 

I pose this to you why don`t you from time to time squat and sit in the bottom position and just hang out? Not just because it`s to improve the squat but to improve your health and life. I do it regularly in fact some people know me because I do it. I have been at work and just pop a squat and sit down. It turns out my grandfather who`s in his 70`s the one I wrote about here http://therandomandthefit.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/do-you-want-to-get-fitripped-and-in.html he regularly pops a squat and just sits. Before you say “oh that’s you” and make excuses, try it after all if you begin to use it you can often get it back.