Jason Harrison

Signing Off

September 21, 2016 By Jason Harrison

Today’s will be my last regular column for Dayton Most Metro, though I hope to contribute from time to time if I have something meaningful to say. Thank you, fearless reader, for putting up with a column that was supposed to be about fitness but quite often was about whatever I couldn’t stop thinking about.

I came back to the Dayton area somewhat grudgingly last year. I think it’s important for me to admit that. I came back for family considerations. I didn’t come back because this is the place I would have chosen. And yet I’ve already managed to form deep and meaningful friendships that I’ll have for a lifetime. I’ve been able to build a business here in a manner for which I don’t have to compromise my values. I’ve been able to live and work downtown in exactly the type of urban, diverse, and textured neighborhood I’ve always craved. Maybe I came back to town grudgingly, and maybe there are times when I crave even more diversity, even more density, and even more texture. But Dayton has been great to me and this column has played a significant role in that.

I’m making the difficult decision to walk away from regular weekly contributions because of time. My gym is getting busier and my ability to write for my business–I largely neglect my newsletter for sometimes months at a time–has waned. I owe it to Present Tense Fitness to devote more of my finite energy to ensuring that it and the messaging surrounding it survives and thrives.

Every week as I’ve sat down to write in this space, I’ve tried in part to write for the people who are sitting on the sidelines of fitness. I’ve tried to write in a way that’s accessible and that ties together the seemingly disparate threads of life that come together to form a healthy body and soul. Often what you’ve read here is me thinking out loud. So many millions of Americans–and the vast majority of those who live in our region–don’t get enough exercise or eat well enough to avoid the utterly preventable lifestyle diseases that plague this country. My guess is I’ll still be trying to figure out the messaging around fitness for people who avoid it for many years to come. But this column was a public platform for me to try my hardest to push that boulder up the hill. Though you won’t see me here nearly as often, I promise you that every day in the Oregon District I’ll continue to figure out how to get more people to do a thing that will measurably enhance their quality of life. That’s my work.

This column has allowed me, forced me even, to look at Dayton through a different lens. Because fitness is my business and my life, I tend to take a wellness view of a community. So even when I ventured into socio-political topics like Black Lives Matter or LGBTQ rights, I wasn’t consciously doing so in order to push any particular agenda. These issues are in fact wellness issues. I hope I’ve persuaded at least some of you to see them that way too. This week has been an unfortunate reminder of how unwell we are as a country in so many ways. The solutions, like the problems, will be complex. But they will involve first a thorough understanding of our shared humanity.

I’ve coached enough people over the last ten years that I’ve seen patterns, and I recognize them here in Dayton. People tend to be incredibly unforgiving of their own shortfalls, and that extends into the larger community such that we refer reflexively to certain people as thugs or white trash. When we use terms like this we’re inherently engaging in a form of dehumanization. This needs to stop. I push my clients all the time to analyze and evaluate rather than judge their own behavior. This mindfulness is what we’ll need to see the multi-dimensional humanity of all of our neighbors. Mindfulness and empathy are practices that you can start on your own, and I think you’ll find that the better you get at removing judgment of your own actions, the more likely you’ll be able to see your neighbors and their actions with empathy.

Thank you to Lisa Grigsby for giving me this platform for so long and for being so encouraging of how I’ve chosen to use it. And thank you especially to Teri Lussier, a local real estate agent and Dayton Most Metro contributor who introduced Lisa and I and first suggested the column.

Be well, Dayton. I’m not going anywhere. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or need encouragement around fitness.

Yours very truly,

Jason

J Crew, Stretchy Jeans, and Donuts

September 14, 2016 By Jason Harrison

I dress pretty much like a child on most days. Take a look at a school bus stop near you, and then take a look at what I wear to work every day. You’ll struggle to notice a difference (other than the balding hair line and aging face). Despite my propensity for dressing like an adolescent, somewhere along the line I got subscribed to the J Crew catalogue for men. Maybe they felt sorry for me.

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

I was flipping through the catalogue and I happened upon this bit of copy that I haven’t been able to get out of my head:

Stretch Jeans That Don’t Look Stretchy

That’s the title. And there’s a thin looking model dude bounding down some urban steps on his way probably to jump on a bike to grab some organic sushi or something.

“Thanks to top-quality Japanese fabric we source from one of that country’s original denim mills, they look just like all of our famous jeans. Which means now you can wear slim denim and eat doughnuts.” (emphasis in the original quote)

This copy bothers me on three fronts.

1.) The Settling

You know what? Forget it. Just wear stretchy jeans. You’ll never fit into regular jeans anyway. So here’s some stretchy fabric that might look decent for your fat butt and fat thighs and fat stomach. Fatty.

That’s what I read in this ad. Juxtaposed with the skinny dude accompanying the copy, I just find this offensive.

2.) Overeating = Only Reason Skinny Jeans Don’t Fit

The second thing that bothers me about this ad is the idea that eating to excess would be the only reason that someone can’t fit into some skinny jeans. Let me tell you something. Try to imagine an octopus on dry land riding a unicycle. That’s what I look like trying to put on a pair of skinny jeans. My ass and thighs just simply refuse to be associated with skinny jeans. They don’t want to be in the same room with them. They’re offended by the idea of skinny jeans.

And it ain’t the donuts.

It’s the squats, deadlifts, lunges, good mornings, Romanian deadlifts, and kettlebell swings. Don’t get me wrong, I can put away some donuts. But these thighs just ain’t ever gonna fit into skinny jeans. So why condescend to the people you’re selling to by suggesting that the only reason one might not fit into skinny jeans is that they overeat? I get it. It’s supposed to be funny. But, no. That’s a swing and a miss.

3.) It’s Just Bad Marketing

The thing I can’t shake about this copy is that it’s just bad marketing. It doesn’t fit the brand. J Crew usually seems to be marketing to a relatively sophisticated group of people who care a little about the fabric, the aesthetic, the origin of the clothes they’re wearing. Right? So why would you wink and nod to a guy sitting on the couch with his hand down his pants mainlining powdered donuts? It’s just the wrong audience.

Sometimes when you’re selling something, especially an aesthetic, cute just isn’t the way to go. And if you’re going to wade into what I think are the much needed waters of sizing clothing for a diverse group of bodies, don’t insult the very people to which you’re ostensibly marketing. I don’t know much. But I know that.

Should You Be Scared to Train?

August 31, 2016 By Jason Harrison

Your first session with a personal trainer should not leave you wrecked. Ever.

I’m beginning to realize why so many people are nervous before coming to see me. It can take people six months before deciding they want to train before they actually walk through our doors in the Oregon District. Why?

Fear.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with clients who tell me that they did a session with a personal trainer that nearly killed them. There’s no excuse for this, and the only reason you should walk away from an initial personal training session feeling destroyed is a combination of ego and incompetence on the trainer’s part. Period.

Some personal trainers use detailed assessments like the Functional Movement Screen to determine what your strengths and weaknesses might be. Others take a no less serious approach toward assessment but are nevertheless not quite as regimented. Regardless, your very first session with a good trainer will be far less about making you work and far more about understanding where you are in your fitness journey.

I was that guy once. When I first started training in New York, my clients were smart, wealthy, and sometimes powerful people. They hired me and often tried to dictate what the session looked like–and I was insecure and stupid enough to go along. They had a preconceived notion of what hiring a trainer should look like and I obliged. The more I learned, the better I got, and the more secure I became, the more I wrestled control of the session away from the client.

That might sound strange to you. Shouldn’t the client dictate what the session looks like? Not at all. The client should dictate what her goals are, but then it’s up to me through experience and analysis to develop the right pathway to those goals. Clients think those pathways are built upon a foundation of ass-kicking workouts, when usually the answer is progressively overloaded multi-joint strength movements, thoughtful rest intervals, and sound nutrition. A good coach will push you just beyond your current capacity such that your body must change as a result, but not so far past your limit that you injure yourself, vomit, or can’t move for days.

It can be difficult as a consumer to determine who’s good and who’s not good. Web searches won’t necessarily tell you what you need to know about a trainer’s approach and experience. My advice? Use your social network. Ask friends who’ve hired trainers for their recommendation. Chances are if your friends received good, long-term results you might have a shot at it too.

The good news is if you hire well you’ll have nothing to be nervous about during that first session. And hopefully you’ll look back six months from now in amazement at how much harder you’re able to work than you were during that first workout. That’s the way strength and conditioning works: you get a little better each day.

A Lifter and a Yogi Walk Into a Room (Part II)

August 24, 2016 By Jason Harrison

Last week I published the first part of an email conversation between local yoga practitioner Anna Shearer and me. This is the second half of the conversation, in which Anna asks me questions about my recent experiences working with her on the yoga mat. While I’ve done yoga before here and there, the one-on-one practice I’ve started with her has been the most consistent yoga I’ve ever attempted. So she had a few questions for me about that…

Anna: What preconceived notions did you have about yoga before you started practicing it?

Jason: Probably the most important preconceived notion I had about yoga before I started practicing with you was that I don’t enjoy it. And before I make it sound like I’m yoga guy now decked out in Lululemon from head to toe, I should say that I still have moments of panic on the yoga mat. I don’t “enjoy” it the way I do strength training.

But what I’ve realized as I’ve gotten more serious about my own pursuit of strength over the last year is that yoga can be an integral part of getting stronger. And I almost hesitate to say that out of offending anyone who sees yoga more as a spiritual practice. But practically speaking, I’ve felt better in my body since I began practicing yoga with you, and the numbers in the gym indicate that it has helped me get stronger. That sense of efficacy is not one that I anticipated at all. I mainly expected to just feel uncomfortable.

Anna: What advice would you offer to people who want to begin a yoga practice?

Jason: I think having a good teacher is probably more important in yoga than it is in strength training. What I do is fairly intimate, but not nearly as much as yoga. I know really good coaches who approach strength training with clinical precision, and you really can get stronger and leaner with an approach like that. But I think yoga necessitates a sincere bond between teacher and student. So I think it’s paramount that people try out one of the myriad studios or teachers in the area. It seems to me that in yoga, the “better” teacher might not necessarily be better for the individual if the vibe isn’t right.

Anna: What has been your favorite part of your practice thus far?

Jason: I have a fairly big insecurity around letting go completely. You and I were talking about this recently, but I’ve never been a big drinker or drug user, not because of any moral aversion to stimulants, but because I’ve always been worried that if my inhibitions were lowered enough that the “real” me would come out and people would hate that version of me. I try to stay fairly “held” in my work as a trainer, in part because I don’t want my reactions to things to elicit any sort of shame or guilt on the part of a client.

That sense of holding onto my own self, not revealing too much, can be incredibly limiting. I’ve found that yoga allows me the opportunity to try to be completely open in a way that is safe and encouraging. I can channel rage and aggression under a barbell, and I ‘d go so far as to say that rage and aggression can be necessary at certain loads under a barbell. And that’s definitely a part of my humanity.

But I think yoga has forced me to reckon with another honest part of my humanity too, which is to say vulnerability. And it’s quite possible this has nothing to do with yoga itself, but in surrendering in a sense to the guidance of a teacher I trust. But if I had to guess I’d say it must have something to do with the practice itself. At the end of each practice, in the calm and still room, I feel a sense of accomplishment. And that feels good. But I also feel a sense of calm in those moments that I rarely allow for myself. That’s a pretty powerful thing, but I have a lot of work to do to give myself permission to feel that more often.

A Lifter and a Yogi Walk into a Room (Part I)

August 17, 2016 By Jason Harrison

I’ve written in this space before about the false choice between strength training and yoga. Today I want to report back that I’ve been putting my money where my mouth is. Yes, I’ve been on the yoga mat with some regularity lately. I’ve been trading strength training sessions for yoga sessions with local teacher Anna Shearer, who offers one-on-one private yoga at my gym. (She also teaches classes around the Dayton area.)

We’ve been talking about what we’ve been learning from one another, and because we thought it might be a good idea to capture some of those discussions we decided to interview one another for this space. Here’s the conversation, conducted over email this week.

Anna Shearer/Photo credit: Andrew Thompson

Jason: How have you had to change your eating and recovery strategies since you started lifting weights?

Anna: This is such an interesting question for me! As I started making some big time shifts in my life I dreamed of teaching yoga full-time and what that lifestyle would be like. I imagined having the time to be connected to the ritual of eating…to be present and connected as I made myself a nice, healthy breakfast in the morning. When I started really getting into the thick of teaching I found myself eating in much the same way as I had prior…quickly, on the run, and while multi-tasking to complete other obligations. When I began strength training the increased intensity the weights put on your body required me to really think about consciously fueling. I found myself planning my meals so that if I was away from my home all day I would have the nutrition on hand to help me recover after a session. More importantly, I found myself taking the time to be present and connected – making and enjoying a full breakfast rather than running out the door with a meal bar. In a way, my strength training efforts brought me closer to that yoga lifestyle I was envisioning! I’ve also created space for more sleep and I work with foam rollers, acupressure mats, and massage with essential oils…I’m feeling better than ever!

Jason: What would you want someone who only practices yoga to understand about strength training based on your experience?

Anna: Before I stepped on the training floor I was assuming a strength session would be full force exertion almost continuously for that hour. The sessions are much more strategically geared with points of effort and points of rest. The balance of the two is in line with my yoga experience and I felt right at home.

Also, in terms of the physical postures of yoga, we can only put so much time/effort toward a posture before we succumb to the law of diminishing returns. Take handstand for example. There’s only so many times you can effectively kick up into the posture while keeping key areas engaged and maintaining good alignment…and a well-rounded practice, of course, doesn’t consist of only practicing handstand. So what we can do to supplement our practice is to work with strength training moves that isolate key areas of the body, ones we want to specifically engage in particular postures, so that we’re finding body awareness in those areas outside of actually being in the yoga posture.

Anna Shearer/Photo credit: Andrew Thompson

Jason: What has been your favorite movement or exercise thus far?

Anna: It’s difficult to narrow it down…as with yoga, there is so much variety and everything has its own uniquely appealing energy. In my experience so far I definitely have a top three.

1. Turkish Get-Ups – they’re like a beautifully choreographed dance and as I moved through the different segments of this exercise it felt familiar like the flow of a yoga sequence.

2. Dumbbell overhead press – this one feels natural in my body and as I work through the reps and sets it becomes almost like a meditation through movement.

3. Medicine ball slams – this one initially felt awkward because it requires some really fierce/aggressive energy…but after settling into a rhythm I came to love the intensity and all out brute force!

Jason: What I’ve found particularly interesting about training Anna is that she does everything beautifully. Her thousands of hours on the yoga mat have given her a body awareness that few people possess.

Next week, you’ll see my answers to Anna’s fascinating questions.

Anna Shearer holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and international business from Ohio University and has trained for and run multiple Tough Mudder races along with a half marathon. She is a graduate of Indigo Yoga Dayton’s teacher training program and you can find her teaching classes a various studios in the Miami Valley. Sometimes you can find her lifting progressively heavier things in the Oregon District. You can email her at [email protected]

Eating well can be hard. How to make it easier.

August 10, 2016 By Jason Harrison

I’ve been thinking a lot about food lately. Like, a lot about food.

My inability to consume enough calories is the one thing holding me back from achieving my strength goals. Caloric and sleep deficits are the biggest complaints that college strength and conditioning coaches have about their young athletes, according to my deeply unofficial poll. I’m starting to understand why.

Let me say that I recognize that my inability to eat enough food is a profoundly unimportant obstacle in the scheme of the universe. With so many people suffering from obesity on the one hand and malnutrition on the other, I should be happy with the fact that I’m able to consume the calories that I need to stay alive and feel healthy. I also grew up in a household in which eating real food and lots of vegetables was more often the norm than not. So I’ve never had a problem with being an overweight kid.

But I do have goals in the gym, and effort under the barbell isn’t the major impediment in the way of me achieving them. Rather, it’s those many hours outside of the gym that have been getting in my way. The last month or so have been valuable for me as a coach because I’m learning how hard the lifestyle changes most of my clients need to make can actually be. I’ve hit a stride with my eating lately, so I thought I’d share with you how I’ve been able to eat more calories and how you might infuse my own approach into your lifestyle–even if your goal is a caloric deficit with some weight or fat loss.

Planning Ahead

I’m generally not an advocate for spending several hours in the kitchen on a Sunday and cooking enough food for a high school football team. It turns cooking–what can be a beautiful, soulful, and sometimes even sensual process–into an assembly line Henry Ford would have been proud of. Yet I’ve had to learn to build a bit more assembly line cooking into my food week in order to eat more. On Sundays I’ll cook up more chicken breasts than I think I’ll need, more vegetables than I think I’ll need, and some sort of starchy carb (like rice or sweet potatoes). This provides me with easily accessible lunches that hold enough calories and nutrient density to fuel my days.

Fat loss version: Looks almost exactly the same. You’ll be surprised how much food you need to prepare in order to eat well. Vegetables are cheap compared to other foods, so buy a lot of them and make it your specific goal to eat ALL of them. Also, don’t make this too complicated. Instead of making a bunch of different types of vegetables, make one big batch of, say, spinach and broccoli sautéed together. Then switch up next week.

Considering the food part of the workout

This is probably the most important mindset shift I’ve made, and it corresponds with my numbers in the gym moving rather dramatically in the right direction. I’m deadlifting numbers for multiple repetitions now that I previously would have been happy to get off the ground once or twice. What’s the difference?

Several months back I would do a heavy deadlifting workout and then rush to train a client somewhere across town. Having my own gym space has allowed me to lift hard and then fuel myself immediately. I can’t overstate how important this has been to my development. Now, I don’t consider the workout done until I’ve eaten. Replenishing my pool of amino acids with protein and my glycogen stores with carbohydrates in the aftermath of my workouts has helped me mitigate soreness while also preparing my body for the next round of lifting.

Fat loss version: The connective tissue between solely focusing on strength as I am and focusing on losing body fat as you might be is the retention of muscle. If you’re trying to lose body fat and you’re in a caloric deficit, your priority needs to be holding onto as much muscle as possible. If you’re losing weight, at least some of that’s going to be muscle. That’s okay, but you’ll hold onto more muscle the more your diet consists of protein. Consider, as I have, a quality protein supplement.

Focusing on what’s next

As much progress as I’ve made, I don’t always achieve my goals. Sometimes I’ll skip a meal. Sometimes my breakfast is not enough or I’ve failed to plan properly. The thing I do that probably most “failed dieters” don’t do is I move on. I simply ask “what’s next?” like President Bartlett. I don’t wallow. I accept that I’m a human being and that I’m not always perfect and then I put my head down and work hard to ensure that the next meal is on point.

Fat loss version: So you gave in to temptation and you ordered a pizza. Or you failed to plan properly and you ended up at a drive-thru window. Tell yourself two things–1.) You’re in control of your very next meal. 2.) You’re not an idiot, loser, or weakling. You just didn’t have a plan. Stop what you’re doing and make a plan for the rest of the week. Always remember, nine times out of ten it’s not willpower. It’s organization.

Setting concrete process goals

You have to earn your way to specific caloric intake or macronutrient percentages. I know my own strength program would be more effective if I ate more specific percentages of protein, for example. But if I’m not even eating three square meals a day, the percentages aren’t going to matter much. I need to get my calories up if I’m going to get stronger, so I’ve set the process goal for myself of eating three square meals a day and supplementing with two protein shakes. Once I’m hitting those goals consistently, then I can start to zero in on the details.

Fat loss version: It’s remarkable how often people come to me and ask for body composition help when they’re watching several hours of television a night and drinking multiple sodas a day. When I tell them we’re just going to focus, say, on the soda for now, sometimes they’ll say “but what should my diet be!?” Focus on the obvious, low-hanging fruit first and then we can talk percentages and calories and such.

Embrace Incrementalism

August 3, 2016 By Jason Harrison

There are two things I do as a personal trainer that you can implement immediately in your own workout regimen. I take detailed notes, and I increase weight incrementally. The first will just cost you the price of a notebook (Moleskine baby!), and the second might prompt you do join a different gym or to make purchases to round out your home gym.

The Power of Notes

I’ve not always been a good trainer. For many years I would say I was very bad. But I managed to get results for clients despite this because I’ve always taken good notes. That means I know exactly how many sets and reps you performed last week, I know what you’re struggling to grasp, and I know if it’s time to increase the weight for a particular movement. That’s all in the notes.

If you’re working out on your own now and you don’t have any injuries but you’ve been struggling to make progress, start taking notes. When you struggle with an exercise, write that down. What happened? Where did you go wrong? Take a video of yourself squatting. How was your form? Did you lean forward? Did your heels pop off the floor or did your left foot pronate? Taking notes of anomalies can help you address them during the next workout.

The Power of Incremental Progress

This note-taking is directly linked to another factor that can dramatically affect how much you’re getting out of the gym: increasing the load that you’re moving during your workouts.

Let’s say you’re still in the beginner’s stage of strength training and you’re using a basic 3 sets of 10 repetitions for your exercises. If you were doing a goblet squat for 3 sets of 10 repetitions using a 35-pound kettlebell last month, then you should be using a heavier one this month. Understand that this scenario presupposes that you’re still fairly early in your strength training life, so that a basic linear progression (add more weight next week than you’re using this week) still yields results. If you’re an intermediate or advanced lifter then you won’t be able to add weight to the bar forever. In the beginning, however, it’s not a bad idea to keep things simple. Just keep adding weight when you hit your goal of 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

If you’re working out in your home gym, a really underrated investment is small “change plates,” which are the barbell weights that come in sizes like 2.5 pounds, 5 pounds, or 7.5 pounds. You also can get them in smaller increments, like 1.25 pounds or .5 pound. It seems silly, but these tiny increments can help you increase your work capacity slowly over time. Then when you’re ready to convert to more sophisticated percentage-based programming, you’ll be all set when the day calls for a back squat at 77.5 percent of your one-rep max: you’ll have the change plates to get you as close to the actual number you’re lifting as possible. Not all gyms have change plates in small increments, but it might be worth looking for one that does.

You don’t need a lot of different exercises in the beginning of your fitness journey. And once again, the idea of “muscle confusion” is a fiction peddled by people trying to sell yo things you don’t need. You don’t want confused muscles; you want strong, smart muscles that know what the hell they’re doing. You’re not going to build those by hopping around to different exercises every week. And you can’t develop smart muscles without holding them accountable for what they’re doing: that means a combination of notes and incremental weight increases.

Make Time, Take Time for Yourself

July 27, 2016 By Jason Harrison

If you want a different body, then you have to make the time to build it. Sometimes I think I get my messaging wrong when I try (mostly in vain) to get people off the sidelines and into the fitness game.

I spend a lot of time pushing back against the idea that fitness is complicated. There’s a lot of noise out there about what works and what doesn’t, but there’s a remarkable consensus from people who know what they’re doing around what needs to be done to make a body stronger, leaner, and more mobile. Especially in the very beginning, you need to learn basic movement patterns like the squat, hinge, push, and pull; and you need to do these movements with progressively heavier weights while also eating vegetables at every meal, protein at every meal, and starchy carbs in moderation. That combined with walking a few days a week usually yields results with which people are incredibly happy.

I find it remarkable then when people come to me and voice objections right away when I tell them what the pathway to their goals looks like.

“Oh, I can’t give up my shows.”

“I like wine too much.”

“I don’t want to join a gym.”

“I have 8-pound dumbbells. Is that enough?”

“I only have 20 minutes a day to work out.”

“Working out is boring.”

“I’m too busy.”

Do any of these sound familiar? Ever used any of these excuses yourself? Chances are if you’ve said or asked any of these things then you’re not actually committed to the process of change. You have the body you have now because your lifestyle looks a certain way. Now you’re telling me that you don’t want to change anything about your lifestyle but you want a different body? Nope. Nope. All the nopes.

You have to make the time. You have to make the effort.

Fitness isn’t so much about discipline as it is organization, but you do have to make the effort. One of the things our gym offers free with personal training is lifestyle coaching, and we walk people through a habit-based curriculum focused on nutrition and body composition. A common theme from the feedback we get is that setting the 20 minutes a day aside to think through the “lessons” feels overwhelming. The pace is slow, so the first few assignments are things like “eat slowly” or “make time for yourself today.” We’re not talking advanced calculus. But just the process of taking the time to read a little and learn about habits feels like too much because of the 20-minute time investment.

If you can’t take 20 minutes a day for yourself, and remember, we’re not even talking about changing behavior, cooking, working out, or sleeping more, then you don’t have much hope for changing your body. The very first step in body transformation is giving yourself the permission to take time for yourself. This is not vanity or narcissism or selfishness. This is the foundation for success.

Over the next week, I’m challenging you to take 20 minutes for yourself, whatever that means for you. It could be taking a walk, reading, sitting in a dark room without speaking, meditation, or organizing the next day. The point is to take 20 minutes devoted to enhancing your quality of life. No one else can do this for you. Before thinking about taking big steps (like going to the gym or eating more vegetables), see if you can take this small step: make time, take time for yourself.

The Most Important Move You’re Not Doing: The Hinge

July 20, 2016 By Jason Harrison

People who’ve never worked out before often assume that the sole reason for stepping foot into a gym is to “lose weight” or change body composition. While those might be benefits for some (assuming they’re also getting enough sleep and eating well) I would argue that the first priority for most people who are new to fitness is to learn how to move.

Good movement is the foundation for increasing workload because you’ll be able to work harder and longer over time by avoiding injury. Sure, you can walk into the gym today and make yourself sweat, but if you’re not also learning how to move you’re not only building in a natural ceiling for your strength and fitness, you’re also increasing the likelihood of injury over time. Lifting weights is actually an extraordinarily safe activity in terms of acute injury (like rolling an ankle) but it can lead to chronic injuries (like that shoulder or hip pain that never seems to go away).

My guess is the most important movement pattern you’re not doing right now is the hinge. Remember when your parents first started letting you help them move heavyish things around the house and they admonished you to “lift with your legs, not your back”? Without quite knowing it, they were telling you to hinge instead of just bending over. But what is a hinge?

A hinge is a movement whereby you flex and extend at the hips. A classic hinge movement pattern is exhibited by a barbell deadlift. If you watch the animation below, you can see which muscles are responsible for hip extension (gluteus maximus and hamstrings). In everyday terms, that’s your butt and the muscles on the back of your legs.

A review of the anatomy suggests that your back does play a role in something like a deadlift even if the primary movers are your butt and legs, but I think it’s especially interesting to note just how important butt strength is on a movement like a deadlift. If you’re trying to get stronger and you still fit into skinny jeans–male or female–then you’re doing something wrong. (I’m only sort of kidding here. Big, strong butts are also functional butts. Go make yourself one.)

Until recently, I used to advise people that if they’re new to lifting then they ought to focus on squatting, horizontal pushing (like a bench press), horizontal pulling (like a dumbbell row), vertical pushing (like an overhead press), and vertical pulling (like a lat pulldown or pullup). But I’ve been thinking that this advice isn’t complete and that perhaps beginners ought to start their journey with hip hinging. Along with the squat, the hip hinge is the movement pattern you’re most likely to use in your everyday life. Therefore it’s important that you both get it right and learn to make it strong.

One of the best collections of video tutorials on learning the hip hinge movement pattern comes to us by way of Tony Gentilcore in a blog post appropriately titled “How to Hip Hinge Like a Boss.” You can view that here. Below I’ve embedded just one example of the many drills he’s put together to help you learn how to hinge correctly.

I’ve been stealing the above drill for a while now. Basically you’re using the wall to learn how to throw your butt back and engage the powerful muscles in your posterior chain. Notice how little knee flexion and extension is actually involved here. This makes the hip hinge much different than a squat. Check out the difference in this brief video below.

So why not just go into the gym and try to burn calories? Why “waste” the time learning the difference between a squat and a hinge? If two people walk into my gym, I know ultimately the more patient person who’s willing to learn the movement patterns will be happier with their body a year from now than the impatient person who just wants to sweat a lot. Why? Because once the patient person learns how to hinge well I can progress them through advanced movements like barbell deadlifts and kettlebell swings. These advanced movements, loaded progressively, will build more muscle and ultimately lead to more of a caloric expenditure than basic movements. Powerful movements like the hip hinge involve more muscle mass and thus provide the stimulus your body needs to change.

Before hiring a personal trainer or joining a gym, reorient your mindset toward movement and away from burning calories. You have to inhabit this body the rest of your life, so you might as well learn how to move it well. Once you do that you’ll also be able to push it harder and make big leaps toward the aesthetic ideal for which you might be looking.

A Child Asks: Why Get Stronger?

June 29, 2016 By Jason Harrison

“Why do you work so hard when you don’t have to?”

A child asked me that question recently, curious about why my own strength training sessions are relatively intense compared to the general population.

“I like the feeling of being strong,” I said.

“But you’re already strong,” she said.

“And how did I get this way?” At this point I thought I had her. Surely the logic of a 40-year-old man would trump that of an 11-year old’s.

“But you keep doing more and more. You don’t need to do that, do you?” It was a fair point. She’s right. I have certain numbers in my head that I’m trying to hit, for no other reason than pride and maybe more than a little ego. This was a classic case of an adult being forced to boil something down to its essence because of the logic of a child–granted, a really smart child, but a child nonetheless.

So why do I keep pushing? I don’t need a 500-pound deadlift in order to age well, and my young interlocutor understood this intuitively. The truth is that I’m addicted to being strong, and I’m trying to get as strong as I possibly can while I’m still able because there will be a day when getting stronger isn’t possible. I’ll have to rely on my “muscle reserves,” so to speak, to thrive in my octogenarian years.

But it’s more than that. While there is a part of me who is trying to bank as much muscle as possible for when I get (even) older, if you strapped me to a lie detector test I’d tell you that I’m doing this for the right now. I’m doing this because:

I enjoy the way a strong body works.

I enjoy the way a strong body feels.

I enjoy the way other people respond to a strong body.

I enjoy the self-sufficiency that comes with a strong body.

The difference between you and me if you’re not working out isn’t just physical. You’d enjoy all of the things I listed too. It’s that I’ve always worked out, and thus I don’t have the same insecurities you do.

I leave my cards at the coffee shop I frequent. I hear from people all the time who tell me that they picked up my card there “six months ago” or “several weeks ago.” What took them so long to finally get in touch?

Fear. Insecurity. Previous bad experiences in fitness (usually involving judgment). They spend half a year building up the courage to seek out the help they need to get strong, to feel the way I do.

I’ve not solved this problem. I don’t know how to prove to people that I won’t judge them, make them feel less than, or belittle their skills in the gym. People who study human behavior and change might say that there’s nothing I can say because people have to be ready to change. I understand this intellectually, but I want to solve the puzzle. I want people to know that the gym can be a safe, empowering place.

I want everyone to know this. I want this understanding, this belief in the power of strength, to reside deep in everyone’s soul, from the 22-year-old with body image issues and a questionable relationship with food to the 60-year-old grandmother who’s never touched a dumbbell in her life.

My industry has tried to solve this problem by lying to people, selling them supplements they don’t need, and telling them that the answer to their fears is a singular piece of equipment or THIS exercise modality (and definitely not THAT one).

So when you add extant fear and insecurity, mix in a layer of smokescreen-induced distrust, then you get the recipe for you not walking into that local gym or yoga studio.

But remember this:

I enjoy the way a strong body works.

I enjoy the way a strong body feels.

I enjoy the way other people respond to a strong body.

I enjoy the self-sufficiency that comes with a strong body.

And you will too.

I promise you.