"Finding Your Balance" (The Importance of Including Balance Training in Your Fitness Program)

An Oft Hidden Fitness Treasure

Perhaps one of the most neglected areas of fitness training is balance work. Sure it’s not “sexy”, won’t give you ripped abs and buff muscles, but from a functional perspective it’s very important!


I generally try to incorporate some type of balance work with all of my clients (as well as in my own training), even if it’s just during the warm-up phase of the workout.


Often people who aren’t elderly or suffering from a neurological disorder don’t really think much about balance and take it for granted.

However if you consider the older population, one of the most common ways they get injured, often seriously, is to lose balance and fall. In their more fragile state, often exacerbated by osteoporosis, falling can have serious and long term negative consequences.

When To Start?

 For more middle aged clients I stress that the time to start working on balance is now! The sooner one can make balance training part of their lives the better chance they have of maintaining it in the future.


Even for clients in their mid-twenties and younger, balance training can help them with performance, whether they are seriously competitive athletes or weekend warriors, balance plays a key role in functioning at a high level.

Walking Is A Balancing Act?

Balance is not only involved in “obvious” balancing situations but is actually a key element in walking. This requires dynamic balance as you shift from one foot to the next.


Balance is an integrated process that takes place on vestibular, neuromuscular and musculoskeletal levels.

So basically, you need to have a good internal sense of equilibrium (vestibular), the ability for your nervous system to communicate clearly with your muscular system (neuromuscular), and the strength and flexibility to execute the commands of the nervous system (musculoskeletal).


There are many ways to practice balance, progressing from simple to more complex.

Note: Before moving into any balance position, I always instruct my clients to move systematically up their kinetic chain (the linked, interdependent segments that contribute to movement).

To do this, you start from the sole of the foot and make sure it is rooted firmly with a solid base of contact from the big toe to the little toe to the heel. Then move up through the ankle, knee, hips and lower torso (abdominal and lower back region) etc. 


By doing this you don't haphazardly move into the balance position but you make sure you are strong and integrated from one joint to the next.

Basic Balancing Progressions 

The most simple example would be standing on one leg with the other leg barely raised up from the floor.

 A somewhat more complicated combination type balance would be standing on one leg while hugging the opposite knee in towards your chest (“Knee Hugs”).

A favorite, relatively simple combination exercise is to stand on one leg as you tilt your body forward while extending the opposite leg behind you to a comfortable degree. This is called an “Inverted hamstring” exercise.  This not only works balance but strongly works the core musculature as stabilizers as well.

 This particular exercise is quite similar to a variation of a Yoga pose often referred to as “Warrior 3” Pose.  In fact, most styles of Yoga contain many excellent poses (called "asana") to practice balance.


The next level would be adding some movement, such as standing on one leg while you reach the other foot forward, backwards or to the side, further challenging your base of support.

It's Good To Be Perturbed!


Beyond that you can add different types of “perturbations” such as balancing while moving a medicine ball right, left and center or having a partner toss you a medicine ball while you continue to balance and then throwing it back to them.


Often I’ll have clients take a step, have them catch and toss the ball back before they step forward to the next foot. This way they are moving dynamically, having to momentarily stabilize, and then continue.

 This can also be done moving laterally (from side to side) either stepping or even "bounding" to the support leg and balancing while catching and tossing the ball.


All these exercises are not only very effective, but they happen to be a lot of fun as well, and exercise should be as enjoyable as possible!

Getting Wobbly? 

 Balance can also be challenged using devices such as sitting on Stability (aka “Swiss”) Ball, using various slant boards, half foam rolls or BOSU trainers (which look like half of a stability ball on a flat base) among others.

There is some controversy as to the actual “carry over” of using these devices into functional activity but that is beyond the scope of this post.


Personally I do use stability balls and the BOSU balance trainer, but my purpose is more for challenging core stability rather than for pure balance, though surely there are balance elements involved in those types of training .

Some "Bullet Points" Related to Balance


• Balance is a component of all movements.


• Functional balance in a dynamic process involving multiple neurological pathways.


• The ability to reduce force at the right joint, at the right time, and in the right plane of motion, requires optimum levels of functional dynamic balance and neuromuscular efficiency.


• Balance training has been shown to be particularly beneficial to improve dynamic joint stabilization.


• Dynamic joint stabilization is the ability of the kinetic chain to stabilize a joint during movement.


• Improvements in dynamic joint stabilization can decrease injury and help improve performance.


(these are summarized from the NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training Manual third Edition)



Scott Fishkind
Time4You Fitness


http://www.time4youfitness.com/

Self-Myofascial Release (SMR)

Self Myo-WHAT?


There’s no doubt that one of the most successful flexibility modalities that I’ve been utilizing, both for my clients as well as myself, is Self-Myofascial Release (SMR). To say I’m a huge fan of this flexibility modality would be an understatement. For me personally, it has been life changing from a physical perspective.




Though the term itself sounds really complicated, Myo simply refers to muscle, fascial refers to fascia (the web of connective tissue throughout our body). People often develop muscular adhesions (i.e. knots) in their soft tissue for a variety of reasons.



This not only causes “local” muscular discomfort, but can create imbalances in the antagonistic muscle groups. Antagonistic are muscles that work in opposition to one another. For example the hip flexors are antagonistic to the gluteals (i.e. butt muscles) and if the hip flexors are overly tight then they tend to “turn off” the glutes.



This leads to a host of physical issues that can lead to muscle imbalances, which can lead to other problems, in particular postural issues. I want to keep this post from getting overly technical so I will refrain from drifting into the neural mechanisms involved in all of this (such as reciprocal inhibition, autogenic inhibition, length-tension relationships etc.).



Tools Of The Trade

Commonly used tools for SMR are a foam roll and a tennis ball (“The Stick” and “Tiger Tail” are two other excellent tools and certainly there are others as well). The tennis ball is used primarily under the feet but can also be used for other, hard to reach areas, whereas the foam roll is used for everywhere else that is appropriate. I would never recommend rolling your cervical spine (neck) area for example. I’m also not a big fan of using it for the lumbar spine (lower back) area either.



The most common areas SMR is used are the Quadriceps (front of the thighs), Calves (back of the lower leg), Hamstrings (back of the thighs), Gluteals (Buttocks area), IT Band (Iliotibial Band, which runs along the outside of the thigh), the Hip Flexors (this can be a bit tricky with the roller, so sometimes the tennis ball works better for this area), the Adductors (muscles of the inner thigh) and the Lats (muscles of the upper back).


 As mentioned above, the feet are a great area to work using a tennis ball. I prefer to actually start with the feet myself and work my way up the body.There are deep fascial connections that run from the feet upwards, something Thomas Myers speaks of as “Anatomy Trains”.


A "Core" Resource


Mark Verstegen, in his Core Performance books (he has several “Core Performance”, “Core Performance Essentials”, “Core Performance Endurance”, “Core Performance Woman”, “Core Performance Golf”)) is a huge proponent of SMR and discusses it in his books and Core Performance Essentials DVDs.



I highly recommend Mark’s materials as excellent resources that are available at a very reasonable prices (compared to texts and dvds used by fitness professionals). His books are just great multifaceted fitness programs focusing on total fitness and nutrition as well as motivation!



Mark also created the DVD for the GO FIT Foam Roll available in most sporting goods stores. It is not my favorite foam roll because it does tend to compress after a relatively short amount of time and it is on the more expensive side. It does come with an excellent dvd but you can actually access most of his dvd footage for free on his website.


 Core Performance Foam Roll Video Links

Getting Started


The basic SMR technique is simple, you just roll over the specified area, if you feel particular tightness/tenderness then hold in that area for 20-30 seconds until the knot releases and then continue on from there.



Combining Self-Myofascial Release techniques with the various stretching techniques (such as static, active isolated, or dynamic stretching) can really provide more significant positive changes than just using those stretching techniques by themselves.



Though SMR is often referred to as a “Poor Person’s Massage Therapist”, this should not be taken to imply that it can replace a qualified massage therapist. For folks needing real specific deep tissue work I highly recommend seeking out the proper soft tissue specialist. In these situations, SMR makes a nice adjunct to that type of treatment since it is very convenient and can be used daily as needed.


Contraindications


There are some populations where SMR may be contraindicated such as those with Diabetes, Osteoporosis and other conditions. When in doubt, a qualified health care provider should give guidelines.



Happy Rolling! :)






Note on Purchasing Foam Rollers: I highly recommend “Perform Better” which is an excellent online company that sells a variety of foam rollers and other fitness items.  They tend to be very reasonable and they have many options available. For beginners, their Biofoam roller is a good option since it's on the softer side. Their PB Elite, is much more durable though may be a bit too intense for beginners.

Perform Better also has free online video and pdf downloads related to foam rolling as well which you can check out.



The “Perform Better” website is: (click on the link)  Perform Better Foam Rollers






Scott Fishkind Time4You Fitness


Time4You Fitness

Real World FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

I consider FUNCTIONAL TRAINING to be the foundation of my approach as a personal trainer. Unfortunately the term Functional Training has a lot of different, often incorrect, connotations.



Unfortunately, many people think of it as being associated with performing strange circus acts on wobble boards, stability balls or BOSUs. This has caused some people to bash anything to do with the idea of functional training based on this common misconception.


While I do utilize some of those tools, they are not used in a way that resembles a Barnum and Bailey’s routine.


So What IS FUNCTIONAL TRAINING you ask?


 Rather, to me, FUNCTIONAL TRAINING is about using your body in a more integrated, synergistic fashion. Juan Carlos Santana, one of the most well known and respected proponents of Functional Training speaks of it simply as “Training movements not muscles”.


Basically, Functional Training is distinguished from the more isolated “Bodybuilding” approach that was in vogue for so many years and still used by the majority of people in gyms today.


For example, if you compare doing a seated overhead shoulder press to a squat-push press, you can see that the second exercise is much more functional in nature. The Squat-Push-Press is similar to squatting down to lift something off the ground, then picking it up and using combined actions of the lower and upper body to bring it overhead (for example lifting a box off the ground and placing it on a high shelf).


Compare that to the seated overhead press which doesn’t resemble an activity one might encounter in the course of their day. Therefore it’s not related to how someone is likely to actually function in daily life.


Is there room for various types training in the FUNCTIONAL continuum?




Now certainly there is a place for more isolated types of training in order to build “Prime Mover” strength or Hypertrophy (i.e. increase in muscle size) and it all comes down to context.


If you have someone who has muscular atrophy in their thighs, then building back the size and strength of those muscles is critical in order to help the body function normally.


So in this instance, even a seated leg extension or leg curl would have a functional purpose. However, once those muscles get sufficient size and strength, those types of exercises wouldn’t continue to have much functional benefit (after all, how often does one sit and need to lift something up by extending or flexing their knees?).


On the other side of the physical spectrum, a football player who needs to build lean body mass and maximal strength will get functional benefit from doing exercises like a Bench Press.


Ideally they would get the best all around benefit by combining that with exercises that use their body in a more functional position as well. These might be exercises such as a standing split stance cable chest press, or explosive medicine ball throws, which closer resemble the way they would utilize strength and power in a game situation.


Staying Balanced


 Balance is another element that one must consider in order to function well, then certainly that is an element that needs to be practiced. Typically I prefer to work on balance with the feet on the floor and often adding perturbations (such as having clients catch and toss a medicine ball, or holding the medicine ball and moving it right, left and center).


 Stability balls and BOSUs have their place as well, but again this doesn’t mean spending excessive amounts of time learning tricks such as standing on a stability ball and doing squats. That really doesn’t have any functional application that translates well to any activity (unless you are going to need to actually stand on a stability ball and squat. :)). 


However, being able to sit on a stability ball, with good pelvic alignment can help train the core musculature to work in balanced manner, utilizing the muscles surrounding the hips, abdominals, and lower back region to contribute to proper posture.


Does it always look Functional?


 There are also exercises such as planks and side planks that don’t look like actual “real life” situations, but still they may train the muscles to be stronger in the way they will function on a daily basis. A plank for example allows one to put the body in a position where you are working the stabilizing function of the core musculature. So although looking “non-functional”, there is functional benefit to be derived from this type of activity.


Doing a Split stance unilateral cable (or tubing) row is certainly a lot more functional looking. As you row, the resistance would rotate your torso if you didn’t stabilize through the Oblique musculature, but by resisting the rotation you are creating static strength in those muscles. This is more functional because you would actually use a similar movement for example when starting a lawnmower.


What about the Crunch?


 Compare the above two exercises to doing an abdominal crunch. Aside from getting out of bed in the morning, there isn’t too much use for doing spinal flexion against resistance. When you bend over to pick something up you are actually using the muscles of the back (erector spinae and other muscles) to lower you into that position.


This doesn’t mean you must never do crunches, but it’s better, from a “functional” perspective, to work the abdominal and other core muscles as stabilizers as that’s how they can best serve you in most activities you are likely to encounter both in life as well as sport.


If one's goal is strictly aesthetics then the crunch would have more of a place in an exercise program, but do be careful with overdoing them because according to well known lower back expert, Stuart McGill, too much spinal flexion can put the intervertebral discs under excessive stress which can lead to debilitating injuries.


If you feel you "must" crunch, then I suggest using caution and avoid using momentum when crunching. But still, I would limit the amount of crunching one does overall (ideally from a "risk vrs reward" perspective, I'd all but eliminate crunching almost completely).


In Closing


 I hope this provides at least a brief clarification surrounding some of the misconceptions that abound when it comes to understanding what FUNCTIONAL TRAINING training is all about.


 Scott Fishkind






http://www.time4youfitness.com

Respecting The Glutes

Boy, if there’s ever been one body part that seems to be misunderstood and mercilessly picked on, it’s the glutes (aka “But-tocks” courtesy of Forrest Gump). They are the Rodney Dangerfield of body parts. For those of you who remember Rodney, his signature line was "I don't get no respect!"

The Glutes are often referred to in a negative context “What a pain in the backside” or the idea of “Sitting around on your bottom”. The second one implying that the glutes are a non active lump of useless flesh. Nothing could be further from the truth and I think it’s time we cut the glutes some slack and gave them their just due!


The fact is, the glutes are the most powerful muscle in the lower body, they can really make a difference in terms of a person having usable lower body strength or speed. They can help you lift heavy objects and help propel you with more force.


In exercise programs the glutes are most often trained for aesthetic reasons (i.e. “because people want their “butt” to look better in a pair of tight jeans”), but I believe it’s really important to think about training it for function as well.


Often in locomotion or lifting, people tend to be more hamstring (back of the thighs) or quad (quadriceps-front of the thighs) dominant. I have learned, by focusing more on learning to activate my glutes using specific exercises, that I can really propel myself with much less effort. This is especially noticeable when I consciously “fire” my glutes when I’m walking or pushing something requiring lower body strength.


The reason that the glutes are often left out of the equation in terms of generating power, is that they are often inhibited because of tight hip flexors. This also create postural issues by creating too much anterior pelvic tilt which creates too much curvature in the lumbar spine (i.e. lordosis).


The body has mechanisms where tightness in one muscle can inhibit (i.e. relax) it’s antagonistic muscle. Antagonistic muscles are muscles on opposite sides of a body part that perform movement in the opposite direction. For example the hip flexors bring your hip forwards, the glutes extend the hip backwards. This relaxation of the antagonist is called reciprocal inhibition. So if you have tight hip flexors then it can create inhibition in the glutes. There’s other factors that are involved in all this (like length-tension relationships) but I don’t want to get into all that in this post.


Anyway, Reciprocal Inhibition is the same mechanism that tells your triceps (the muscles in the back of your arm) to relax when you flex your elbow using your biceps and other flexor muscles. If the triceps didn’t relax you would be unable to bend your elbow because the triceps would “insist” on keeping it extended straight. So antagonistic muscles have an important relationship and reciprocal inhibition is a necessity. It’s only problematic when it’s triggered by chronic muscle imbalances and tightness.


In order to activate the glutes, typically the strategy is to first release the hip flexors via various forms of stretching techniques. Some of these are using Self Myofascial Release. This is done using a foam roller (aka “the poor man’s massage therapist”) and other implements such as tennis balls or "The stick" and the like.


You find the trigger points (i.e. knots/adhesions) in your muscles and fascia and hold the foam roller against that spot for 20 or more seconds until it releases. This is accomplished by a neurological mechanism called “autogenic inhibition” which accomplished via the Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) .


Note: The Golgi Tendon Organ is a "mechanoreceptor" found at the junction where the muscle and tendon meet.  It's sensitive to change in tension of the muscle and rate of that change. 


When excited, the GTO will cause the muscle to relax in order to prevent the muscle from being placed under excessive stress and sustaining injury.


A Mechanoreceptor is a sensory receptor responsible for sensing distortion in body tissues. (NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness  Training Third Edition)


This is then followed by various forms of more traditional stretching such as static (long stretches held at the point of slight tension) though sometimes more active and dynamic forms of stretching can be used as well.


Once the muscle(s) causing the inhibition is released ( in this case the hip flexors) then you can focus your attention on activating it's antagonistic muscle ( in this case the glutes).


After this process you want to re-educate yourself to fire the glutes in functional types of movements. These are movements that require hip extension, such as when your leg goes behind you when walking or running, or when doing squatting or lunging types of movements.


 A very good exercise for learning to fire the glutes is a "glute bridge". This is performed lying on your back, hands along your sides w/ your palms down. Your legs should be bent with the feet dorsiflexed (pointing your toes towards your shins) so that you are primarily on your heels. Consciously contract (squeeze) your glutes as you lift them off of the ground. Only go as high as you comfortably can but never hyperextend your back (so you want to avoid creating an arch in your back). Rather you should have a straight line from you knees on down to your torso.You often don't need to go very high at all and "your glutes should be talking to you!".


If you are feeling it primarily in your hamstrings, you may need to adjust the position of your feet by moving them either closer to or further from your glutes.


Certainly a nice side effect of activating and strengthening your glutes is that they’ll look a lot better. Of course if there is adipose (fat) tissue covering them up you will need to use nutritional strategies and fat burning exercise (such as metabolic strength training, interval training and other cardiovascular exercise) to get the maximum aesthetic results.


Unfortunately, just working the glutes themselves won’t be enough to get those aesthetic results since you can’t “spot reduce” with exercise. But if you put all the elements together you’ll not only have more functional glutes but you’ll probably be happier with the way they look as well!


So love your glutes, take care of them, learn to use them to help you function better in your life.

Training at home with or without a personal trainer:

There's No Place Like Home (most of the time :))


My specialty as a personal trainer is providing In-Home training.



There are many reasons I’m really passionate about this.



Not only can I provide my services to folks who may be uncomfortable going to a gym or don’t have the time to spend traveling back and forth, but it helps folks realize that they can have a successful fitness program without needing a gym. They can take what I teach them and also work out on their own at home (or on the road if they travel for work).



At home you don’t have to wait around for sweaty equipment that someone else is using (unless your spouse or kids are monopolizing the stability ball :)). 


I personally workout 7 days a week and 6 of those days are done at my home. Once a week I like to "pump some heavier iron" which I do at a local rec center gym each Saturday morning. I try to get there as soon as it opens when it's fairly empty so it's not too bad.


However, I would go crazy if I had to do all of my workouts in a gym because so much time can be wasted if it's crowded and I had to stand around waiting for equipment to become available.


In spite of what most of us were taught as children, some people still don't like to share, and this is not uncommon in gyms where some folks act like they own whatever piece of equipment they are using. What's even more frustrating is that often they are just sitting on the piece of equipment between sets while you are waiting for your chance as they refuse to budge ("I only have a few more sets" is something I've heard more than I care to think about!).


But even if that isn't an issue, the clients I used to train at a state of the art facility actually got their best workouts when I would set up circuits on the basketball court using minimal equipment (stability balls, elastic resistance, Yoga mat, Medicine Balls, BOSU trainer). So even in that environment I did the same thing I do with people at their homes where often we have minimal space.



By not having to wait around for the equipment, you not only save time, but you can add considerably to the level of intensity by reducing your rest intervals. This creates a greater metabolic demand on the body which creates more caloric expenditure and a higher overall level of overall fitness.



In Summary:



You don’t need much equipment at all to get fit, in fact technically you could get a great workout using just bodyweight exercises. The nice thing about getting some simple equipment such as resistance tubing and stability balls (aka “Swiss” or “Balance” balls) among other pieces, is that you add a tremendous amount of variety which makes working out much more fun and enjoyable.



Think of all the time you can save driving to and from a gym, and because there’s no waiting around for equipment it’s extremely time efficient. You can also more easily get in a workout before you shower in the morning before starting your day. This makes it much easier to maintain a fitness program long term.



One final thought: Ideally, if you are new to exercise I would advise at least getting some training from a qualified fitness trainer so you can learn basic exercise technique and program design. This will add not only to the safety of your training but to making sure you are using your time in the most productive manner by maximizing the effectiveness of each exercise.

Modify Modify Modify! (i.e. "Something is Usually Better than Nothing" :)

Well, this morning was one of those mornings when my energy level was pretty low! I had a terrible night's sleep and everything hurt a little throughout my body from so many hours of restlessness. When the alarm went off I gave it more of a dirty look than I usually do. Still I knew that I needed to get up so I'd have time to do some exercise before I had to do my other planned activities.

My planned workout was a combination of Yoga, Kickboxing, and other various types of movements. I knew that going full out wasn't even a remote possibility because even if I somehow managed to "get through" the workout I would have paid for it at some point later in the day or when I woke up tomorrow.

So, I did what I always do in these situations, I did my workout but decreased the intensity to a managible amount both in terms of the velocity of movements, the range of movements, and even completely substituted easier, less demanding exercises for some of those originally planned.

At first, even at this modified pace I was dragging pretty badly, but by the time I was half-way through I started to feel human again, and by the time I finished it I felt light-years better than when I started.

I just wanted to share this as an example of being able to find a way to get some movement in even on days when you aren't at your best. Unless you're really exhausted to the point of being debilitated or coming down with an illness, usually there's a way to modify your exercise to get some benefit. I would never recommend pushing through illness, injury or total exhaustion, in those cases, getting more rest is the best course of "action".

In those situations where you feel you can do something, the goal shouldn't be to improve your fitness level in terms of strength, conditioning or fat burning, but should just be focused on getting yourself moving.

I have found that over the many years of following this approach of modifying rather than foregoing exercise completely, that it's enabled me to maintain an extremely high level of consistency. Consistency is the key to long term success with anything and it's no different when it comes to fitness.


So, at those times when you know that workout you might have had planned is a "no go", see if there's still something you can do, even for 5 or 10 minutes. This can help you have a better quality of life that day as well as "keeping yourself in the fitness mode". If you start and it just doesn't feel right you can always back off and try again on another day when you feel better.
Just be smart, really listen to your body, and do what is best for you that day, and don't forget that you can always modify as much as you need to! :)


2009 Scott Fishkind Time4You Fitness












Please visit my website at http://www.time4youfitness.com/

A Different Sort Of Anniversary

Today I’m celebrating an anniversary of sorts. Nope, not my wedding anniversary, that was last month. This is the one year anniversary of having cervical spine surgery (though technically August 18th would be exactly one year to the day :)).

Why on earth, you might ask, would I want to celebrate something like that!?

Well, first I want to say that I hope I never have to celebrate an anniversary of this nature again! But in many ways, that surgery was a sort of rebirth for me in that it was both humbling and yet filled me with more determination to continue on my path of fitness.

(S. Fishkind/8/15/09)


Last June (2008), I started to have symptoms that inevitably led to me losing, for all practical purposes, the use of my left arm and hand from the long term of effects of a car wreck I had been in many years earlier.

That accident caused trauma to my spine that eventually led to arthritis in the lower cervical region of my neck and a stenosis (a closing in of the vertebrae) in the C7 vertebrae in particular.

Though I wanted to treat this holistically, I was informed even from various chiropractors, based on my MRI, that surgical intervention was the only option for this type of condition. More space had to be created to stop the impingement on my spinal cord.

Though it wasn’t a life threatening condition, the combination of severe pain in some areas and numbness in others, not to mention the emotional stress from lack of sleep (and the upcoming surgery), seriously affected the quality of my life 24 hours a day.

Fortunately, thanks to the expertise of a brilliant neurosurgeon, Dr. Gregory Langford of the Howell Alan Clinic in Nashville, TN, I sit here a year later, being able to do "almost" everything I could before the surgery (though there’s almost always some lingering effects from scar tissue and other variables from any type of surgery).

All that being said, I didn’t share this experience merely to reflect on the events of last year. Rather I wanted to share it as a story of a physical transformation.

While I was very fit before those initial symptoms ever occurred, I had to rebuild my strength from the ground up after the surgery. I was only allowed to lift a maximum of 5 lbs and for quite a long time afterwards I was too weak to even do a quarter push-up on my knees.

It was a very slow process requiring a lot of patience. From a strength standpoint I was starting almost from the beginning again, but it did prove to me something that I had always believed, that at any age, no matter what shape you are in, most any person can transform themselves if they really choose to!

I had to literally start by first getting basic functional strength back (just so I could even carry a relatively light bag of groceries). I eventually rebuilt myself up to pretty close to the same overall physical condition that I was before the start of my symptoms. I still would like to add at least 5 more pounds of muscle, but compared to what I was dealing with this time last year I'm pretty happy to be where I am right now! :)




(S. Fishkind August 15, 2009/almost one year after surgery)

While that is my personal transformation, other folks may have goals of weight loss, strength gains, greater flexibility , increases in their cardiorespiratory capacity, or combinations of some or all of those things.

Just know, without a doubt, that it can be done. The most difficult part is just starting the process of transformation. The body is incredibly adaptable, but it does take consistent effort and a little bit of time to make changes.

As part of my celebration, I had the above pictures taken specifically this morning so I could show that even at my age (now 49) and after having gone through cervical spine surgery, that with a little persistence, sound training practices, and a LOT of patience, any able bodied person can get into excellent physical condition!

The way I look at it, the time is going to go by anyway, so you may as well make the most of it and begin making incremental changes today.

I know more than ever, that this precious human body is a true gift never to be taken for granted and along with that gift is a deep responsibility to take care it every day!

2009 Scott Fishkind Time4You Fitness


Please visit my website at http://www.time4youfitness.com/