Youth Training. when done correctly, can make a huge difference in athlete performance and resistance to injury. Registration is now open for our 2018 summer youth performance camp running from Aug 13–17. This year we will be returning to the York School Senior school for the morning portion of the day and then complete the day at Totum Performance (1073 Yonge Street, 2nd Floor). Earlybird pricing is available before June 15th at $399 + HST. Regular price will be available from June 15th at $449 + HST. For full camp information, you can see all details here. If you are ready to register, you can do so through this link. Please contact us at 416.928.2108 | yongestudio@totum.ca if you have any questions. Here’s to a great summer ahead!
Ease into a manageable pace for your first few outdoor runs of the season! Now that warmer weather is upon us, here are the 3 tips you hate to hear for enjoying a sustainable season: 1) Don’t go from zero to hero, build capacity gradually. Running efficiently is key. How to start? Start by skipping in place for 1 to 2 minutes while focusing on being as light on your feet as possible. Then, practise the mid-foot or forefoot technique over shorter running intervals during weekly training runs. You should aim to steadily increase the time and distance of your foot strike pattern by 5% per week. 2) Don’t underestimate the power of recovery: you can over-stride and wear yourself out. Optimize your nutrition and get plenty of rest. Stretching (including Yoga) is also an effective way to strengthen your body and core for cardiovascular endurance. 3) Nip aches and pains in the bud by seeking help from a practitioner or qualified running coach who can help manage and restore more optimal muscle balance / conditioning to save your joints, and get you running faster. Developing correct biomechanics during specific functional exercises, i.e. the single leg partial squat will carry over to maintaining proper form during the running gait. This will inevitably enable an athlete to run longer and faster, both pain and injury-free.
Chuck Magwood: Father, Grandfather, Farmer, Winemaker—and More. Chuck is literally client #1 at Totum. Back in the early 90s, Chuck decided he needed some structure to his workouts in order to get the most out of the rest of his life. Wow, has he ever walked the walk! Chuck’s commitment to his own fitness and health have allowed him, at 75 years old, to continue doing everything that he has always done, and more. Below are a couple of examples of both. Chuck has been a ski racer his whole life, and that continues, as you can see by his recent success this past season. He is pictured with his son Jeff and grandson Gavin who all won their age groups in their club’s championships. The next two pictures are related to something Chuck picked up several years ago. He makes his own maple syrup by hand, the old-fashioned way. This goes along with wine, vegetables, apples, cider….Well, you get the point. All of these pursuits take an incredible amount of strength and stamina at any age. They also stimulate his brain and, just as importantly, nourish his soul. They are true passions for Chuck, and they feed him in so many different ways. Years ago Chuck made a commitment to the right type of approach to health and fitness. He credits Totum with “Enabling me to have the level of fitness necessary to live the life I choose.” Chuck is a living example of the payoff!
Chuck enjoying the sap right out of the tree. If you haven’t tried it, you must!
• 90/90 hip bridge with balloon • 4 point stance breathing • Wall reach
Inhalation
• Straw inhales with awareness of sequencing • Weighted diaphramatic inhales
DIY: Test your Breathing
Test #1—Vital Lung Capacity
• Use tape measure 1″ below sternum • Inhale / exhale • Divide inhale by exhale to get %: < 60%: low 60-80%: average 80–120%: great
Test #2—CO2 Tolerance Test
Bolt Test • < 20: very intolerant • 20–30: low average • 30–40: average • > 40: ideal Exhalation Test • 60 sec is ideal
The Bohr Effect
Carbon dioxide creates an acidic environment in your blood that allows hemoglobin to release to the muscles and cells. You need carbon dioxide in your blood to optimize cellular function! Hyperventilation > 16 breaths/min at rest eliminates too much CO2 to allow oxygen use.
The Role of the Nose and Nasal Breathing
Nasal breathing can increase breathing efficiency and recovery because: • Respiration is slowed, allowing for more CO2 present in blood stream • Smaller orifice forces body to find better positions to get full breaths • Diaphragm will have to work harder on inhale through smaller orifice to get enough oxygen • Nitric Oxide used in many metabolic reactions is released from sinuses for use • Nasal breathing can be indicative of metabolic shift in training
“All chronic pain , suffering and disease are caused by a lack of O2 at the cellular level.” —Dr. Arthur C. Guyton, Textbook of Medical Physiology More and more, the health and fitness industry is seeing the value in mindfulness as a way to enrich our lives. A critical component of mindfulness, if not the most important part, is breathing. This includes getting more out of any physical performance we participate in, but also helping with injuries we may have. In part 1 of this two-part series, we’ll explore the underlying mechanisms that contribute to breathing well. Consider the following benefits to proper breathing:
Proper breathing allows us to
• Maximize cellular function and metabolism • Improve posture • Decrease back pain • Release toxins • Achieve a relaxed state • Enhance sleep and recovery • Reduce risk of inflammation • Produce fewer free radicals Mechanically speaking, on both inhalation and exhalation, important physical structures are involved in getting air into and out of our lungs. These mechanical movements have an impact on how our body functions, hence the benefits described above once breathing is improved.
On Inhalation
• Diaphragm (primary) drops onto liver and stomach providing fulcrum for pressure to fill lungs • Lower ribs move up and out to allow expansion of thoracic cavity. This is facilitated by the upward rotation of ribcage about the sternoclavicular joint • Internal and external intercostals (muscles between ribs) provide expansion of ribs to allow for greater volume • Lower ribs move to the side with increased respiration • Scalenes (muscles on the side of your neck) should only activate during higher respiration activity.
On Exhalation
• Abdominal musculature initiates a movement for exhaling (primarily Transverse Abdominus) • Intercostals, internal oblique and external oblique abdominals contribute to returning ribs to starting position • Diaphragm, lungs and intercostals recoil from inhalation, forcing air from lungs
As you can see there are a lot of mechanical parts at work to accomplish one full breath in the breathing cycle. When one or more components do not work the way they are supposed to, problems occur.
Examples of what improper breathing can do:
• Quite simply, not as much air gets into your lungs. The obvious result is not as much oxygen is exchanged which compromises your cardiovascular system. Suboptimal respiration and posture • Poor neuromuscular control of core muscles • Poor posture results as an accommodation to the dysfunction, including more lumbar lordosis (low back sway), forward pelvic tilt, longer hamstrings and often, corresponding low back pain • Neck pain and headaches due to constant tightness in the scalenes which are working overtime trying to do the job other structures should be doing. As you can see, there’s a lot more to breathing than one would think. In Part 2, which will come out in our next newsletter, we’ll teach you some do-it-yourself ways to test your own breathing, and also provide some exercises that will help to re-establish the proper mechanics.
Can probiotics help your improve your mood, control food cravings and positively affect your mental health? When we hear the term “gut bacteria” or “probiotics” we often think about gut health, and likely bowel movements. Maybe you’ve even heard that having good gut ecology (more good bacteria than bad) will strengthen your immune system. But emerging research is now showing that our gut bacteria have far greater reaches in our body than just the intestines, and may also have an effect on our mental health. “The brain–gut axis” is a term being used to describe the interconnectedness of these two areas of the body. The intestine has its own nervous system and generates many of the same neurotransmitters that the brain generates. Your brain is also able to send signals to your gut, and your gut can talk to your brain through hormones stored in gut cells. What does this mean? It is estimated that there are 10 times more bacteria in our body compared to the number of human cells. This can equate to up to 1.5kg of weight in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and there are up to 2000 different species of bacteria. These bacteria not only help with digesting food, manufacturing vitamins and regulating our immune system, but also have an impact on food cravings, mood and inflammation. The foods that you eat not only fuel you, but fuel our bacteria as well, and so have a direct relationship on the type of bacteria in charge in the gut, as well as which messages get set to the brain. These include the “feed me” and “I’m full” hormones ghrelin and leptin, as well as the “feel-good” or “stressed” signals from neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and tryptophan. How can we improve our gut bacteria? Eating a healthy balanced diet that is rich in vegetables, low in sugar, and as minimally processed as possible will help give you the leg up on creating the best environment. However, supplementing with probiotics can help re-establish or rebalance the gut ecology quickly, especially after a course of antibiotics. In 2007, Cani and Delzenn published in the Journal of Current Opinion of Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care that oral probiotics can affect neurotransmitters including tryptophan, serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine and GABA, having a big impact on mood regulation. Further, we are seeing more clinical research from psychiatrists who are using probiotics in the treatment of anxiety and other mental health disorders. Does this mean you should go out and load up on probiotics? Maybe, but maybe not. As with most things it’s better to consult with a qualified health practitioner, such as your nutritionist or naturopath. They can help you decide what is best for you in terms of dosage for optimal effectiveness.
References: The gut-brain axis: interactions between enteric microbiota, central and enteric nervous systems. Marilia Carabotti, Annunziata Scirocco, Maria Antonietta Maselli, and Carola Severia
