Chances are that you have at least one physical limitations that you’re not aware of, and if you choose to exercise without identifying and correcting it, you may very well end up with one of today’s many common complaints and end up worse off physically than if you never exercised at all. Such complaints include pinched nerves or bulging discs in the neck or lower back, tendinitis or bursitis of the knee, hip, shoulder, or elbow, and more generally, an increased risk of chronic pain and acute injury. By making an effort to assess physical characteristics such as your posture, range of motion, and balance of strength, and by including corrective measures in your exercise routine to improve any identified limitations, you’ll greatly increase your resistance to pain and injury and improve your physical function.

The Importance of Good Posture

Every minute of the day, whether you’re aware of it or not, any existing flaws in your posture are being reinforced and are gradually compromising your physical resilience. With good posture, the weight of the body and the associated forces required to remain upright are minimized and evenly distributed through bones, muscles, and tendons. In contrast, the imbalances that are caused by poor posture place excessive and uneven stresses on the body’s supporting structures and greatly increase susceptibility to the many physical complaints described earlier. Exercising with uncorrected posture problems will expose these imbalances to much greater forces, and in turn, will increase the susceptibility to pain and injury even further.

Whether it be for work, athletics, or a hobby, many of us frequently engage in repetitive activities that will eventually alter posture if not accounted for. An athlete or manual laborer who repeats the same motions thousands of times, or an office worker who spends hour after hour sitting, will inevitably develop imbalances in strength and muscle length. Some muscles will adapt to the repetitive motions or positions by shortening while the opposing muscles will elongate. This results in an uneven amount of force being applied to the associated joints which is likely to alter posture, impair mobility, and increase the risk of damage.

Because all of the body’s muscles and joints are connected to each other, a single postural imbalance can lead to another imbalance in a neighboring area and create a domino effect that causes posture to become progressively worse. A common example is the forward head posture which is often characteristic of people who spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer. For every minute of every day that a person with forward head posture is in an upright position, the forward leaning weight of their head, which is approximately 10 pounds, is greatly increasing the amount of strain on the muscles in the neck and upper back. These muscles will eventually elongate while the muscles in the front of the neck shorten. Over time, the shoulders and torso will likely be pulled forward, and as a result of the additional imbalances that this causes, a number of joints throughout the body will be in a compromised and vulnerable position.

The Need for a Full Range of Motion

Even with perfect posture, a joint that has a restricted range of motion will be susceptible to damage whenever it’s required to move beyond its compromised capacity. In addition, neighboring joints will be forced to compensate for the restriction which will increase their susceptibility to damage as well. For example, restricted ankle motion will increase the amount of force applied to the knee and leave both joints vulnerable.

Although it’s possible to meet the basic demands of life with a compromised range of motion, it’s likely to eventually become a problem. When you least expect it, you may need to run full speed, save yourself from falling, or catch a falling object overhead, all of which are likely to push a restricted joint beyond its limited range of motion. Exercising and participating in sports obviously increases this risk as well which is why it’s so important to work on developing a sufficient range of motion prior to doing so.

Most people equate range of motion with flexibility, but it’s really more than that. While muscle length is important, other factors such as joint capsule restriction and the nervous system’s ability to coordinate dynamic movement are important as well. For this reason, mobility exercises that dynamically take a joint through its full range of motion are an important addition to stretching.

The Importance of Basic Strength and Proper Muscle Activation

If a muscle is too weak to perform its basic function, it may encourage poor posture or be unable to stabilize its associated joints or move them through an adequate range of motion. In addition, a muscle may be weak because the nervous system may not be activating it sufficiently enough at the appropriate times. As a result of these factors, neighboring muscles are forced to compensate and are often overworked as a result which can contribute to any of the complaints mentioned at the beginning of the article. For example, if the gluteus medius is weak or is not activated sufficiently, excessive internal rotation of the femur can result and lead to knee problems.

Contrary to what you may think, developing and maintaining a sufficient amount of strength in critical muscle groups doesn’t require heavy weightlifting. In fact, it doesn’t require any weightlifting at all. However, to develop and maintain physical resiliency, you do have to identify weaknesses and use the appropriate corrective exercises to improve the strength and activation of the associated muscles, especially if you plan to subject your body to the demands of exercise or athletics.

Correct the Problem Before it Happens

Problems with posture, range of motion, and muscular weakness are often not addressed until they’ve already caused injury or significant pain. In many cases, such outcomes are never attributed to the physical deficiencies that caused them which leaves a high probability of recurrence. It’s obviously much smarter to identify and address any physical limitations before they have a chance to cause a more serious problem. In contrast to rehabilitation which occurs after an injury, this concept is often referred to as prehabilitation and should be an important part of any exercise routine.

Prehabilitation is especially important if you’re an athlete, if you exercise frequently, or if you engage in a lot of repetitive activity. It’s also important to ensure that your prehabilitation routine is based specifically on improving your individual deficiencies as well as the deficiencies that are commonly associated with your activities.

Assess and Correct

Under normal circumstances, assessing and correcting deficiencies in your posture, range of motion, and muscular strength is typically difficult without the help of a physical therapist or an extremely well qualified fitness professional. This is because it requires quite a bit of knowledge to understand how to identify and correct each of these deficiencies. Fortunately, Eric Cressey, Bill Hartman, and Mike Robertson, all experts in sports performance, have created a great resource that enables the average person to do this for themselves. This resource is called Assess and Correct and provides two DVDs and four manuals demonstrating a number of assessments to evaluate posture, range of motion, and basic strength as well as the corrective exercises used to address any identified issues. One of the manuals even includes specific prehabilitation warm up routines for a number of different sports and activities.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

According to Reebok, “EasyTone is designed to help give definition to your legs and butt. Simply walk and let the balance pods under your shoe do the rest. The slight instability created by the pods forces your muscles to work a little harder, toning you up as you strut.” Before you invest $100 or more in these sneakers thinking that they’ll actually improve your muscle tone, here are a few things to consider.

Is Appearance More Important than Function?

The foot is one of the most anatomically complex structures of the body, and unfortunately, we spend most of our lives wearing stiff shoes that restrict its natural function. This can promote weakness and increase susceptibility to injury in the foot and ankle, and because each joint of the body influences adjacent joints, it can also cause problems in other areas of the body that might seem unrelated.

The Reebok EasyTone shoes are just as likely as any other typical sneaker to alter natural foot function, and walking with “balanced pods” fixed to the bottom of your feet may even be worse. Although unstable surfaces can be beneficial for rehabilitation and injury prevention, this doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea to be regularly walking on “balance pods” that are embedded in rigid soles. Furthermore, the toes provide support and neuromuscular feedback which is important for balance and is likely to play a role in promoting proper walking mechanics. It seems that the “balance pods” in Reebok’s EasyTone sneakers would reduce toe function even more so than a normal sneaker.

Another concern is that the slight instability created by the EasyTone sneakers likely makes them inappropriate for certain activities, especially sports. Any activity that demands additional strength, balance, and agility, which can be something as simple as running on a bumpy sidewalk to catch a bus, will increase the need for stability. Because Reebok’s EasyTone sneakers are intentionally designed create slight instability, they oppose this need and can potentially increase the risk of injury in such situations. Although most people might consider this to be a matter of common sense, I’m sure there are some who would assume that the EasyTone sneakers are safe to use for any activity that regular sneakers could be used for.

While a toned body may give you some personal satisfaction and bring you additional attention, such benefits aren’t worth very much if you’re in pain and prone to injury. I’m not suggesting that Reebok’s EasyTone sneakers will directly cause you pain, but rather that the concept behind them is very questionable and prioritizes appearance over optimal function. In addition, it’s quite a stretch in my opinion to expect a pair of sneakers to have a noticable effect on your physical appearance.

Sneakers are Not the Answer to an Attractive Figure

Reebok claims that walking in their EasyTone sneakers results in your calf and hamstring muscles being activated up to 11% more than they would be with ordinary sneakers and that your gluteal muscles will be activated up to 28% more. Regardless of the percentages that Reebok quotes, walking isn’t enough of a stimulus to transform legs that are skinny or fat into legs that are toned with muscular definition. This would still be the case even if the EasyTone sneakers resulted in 100% more muscle activation. Despite this, I’m sure Reebok will make millions from their EasyTone line because most people are too attached to the prospect of a quick and easy solution and will be eager to believe that they really can “tone up as they strut.”

Being toned is really nothing more than having a reasonable amount of muscle without a lot of excess body fat. Although this is a simple concept, many people make the mistake of thinking that they need to do special types of exercises and do an excessive amount of exercise to burn calories. By doing so, they’re sacrificing their health for a slim figure when they really don’t need to. All that’s typically necessary to achieve an attractive figure is a moderate amount of exercise and a truly healthy diet, both of which will promote optimal health instead of detracting from it.

If you’re truly committed to improving your figure and don’t want to waste $100 on a pair of sneakers that are unlikely to deliver the results you’re hoping for, I suggest that you focus more on your lifestyle than what you’re wearing on your feet. With optimal health as your top priority and motivating force, stop eating processed foods, especially those containing sugar and refined carbohydrates, and eat more natural whole foods. This is the most reasonable way to lose weight, and you can accelerate the process in a health promoting way by doing low intensity aerobic exercise on a regular basis along with occasional interval training.

To improve your muscle definition, do some moderate strength training with an emphasis on functional and compound movements such as presses, pulls, lunges, squats, and deadlifts. These exercises will improve your physical function as well as improving muscle definition, and the fact that Olympic powerlifters do these exercises doesn’t mean that they’ll make you bulky or that you’ll need to lift heavy weights to benefit from them.

More on Improving Your Figure the Healthy Way

If you’re looking to improve your figure, one of the best things you can do for yourself is realize that most of your success will result from living a generally healthier lifestyle. Attempting to improve your appearance without this foundation will likely be a compensatory effort that will compromise your quality of life in other areas. If you need more guidance getting started with a well rounded exercise program, I recommend reading Core Performance by Mark Verstegen. For more information on the healthy lifestyle habits that will help you live a better life and make it easier to improve your figure, I suggest that you sign up for my free course, 7 Simple Steps to a Leaner, Happier, and Healthier You.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

Despite its gimmicky marketing, I was intrigued by the P90X program based on a number of people’s opinions and decided to check it out. Although my primary intention was only to learn more about P90X, I was actually planning to give it a try. That was until I watched it. Although this program may be well suited for some, which I’ll discuss later, it’s definitely not for me. I prefer fitness programs that are motivated by excellent physical function, high resistance to injury, and above all else, optimal health. Even though the P90X program can certainly bring the average person closer to these ideals, I think it does so in a manner that’s compromised by the program’s undeniable priority of burning calories and getting “ripped.”

There’s More to Fitness than “Getting Absolutely Ripped”

It’s not hard to tell right from the beginning that this product was intentionally designed to be mass marketed. I’m not mad at this, but in my opinion, it compromises the quality of the program by catering to a massive and mainstream audience that tends to value appearance more so than health. In my opinion, the P90X is nothing more than an exercise program of mediocre quality that’s designed to burn calories, get people fired up about working hard, and sell a few supplements. This may be fine for some people, but for me, it’s not at all what fitness is really about. A set of ripped abs may turn heads, but the more important concern should be if the actions you took to get those abs will help you function optimally well into your old age. Chances are that they won’t, and in many cases, they’ll likely do the opposite.

There’s a Healthier and More Functional Way to Develop “Ripped Abs”

Developing “ripped abs” seems to be the focal point of the P90X program and there are primarily two ways in which people develop them. The first way is by living a truly healthy and balanced lifestyle with an impressively defined abdomen being a natural byproduct. The second way is to compensate for an unideal lifestyle by doing a ridiculous amount of crunches and burning as many calories as possible which can be a significant and undesirable burden on the body. Most of the models that you see on magazine covers likely fall into this latter category, and despite how good they look, it’s very possible that they have poor internal function. Those who don’t believe this should read about fitness model Daniel Martin and the unhealthy practices he and his peers use to look their best for photo shoots.

It’s not necessary to do hundreds of crunches to make your abdominal muscles become visible. In fact, once I started eating a truly healthy diet, I lost 30 pounds in 3 months, and that was with minimal exercise because of the issues with chronic fatigue syndrome that I was dealing with at the time. I dropped to about 10% body fat and have stayed there ever since. The key to having a flat and defined midsection is losing abdominal fat, and the best way to accomplish this is through a truly healthy diet.

Your abdominal muscles have a much more important purpose than helping you turn heads at the beach. They’re crucial to the stability of your midsection and spine, and if you wisely choose exercises that work the rest of your body, your abdominals will get plenty of good training. Even if you’d like focus on your abdominal muscles directly, you still don’t need to do anything close to the amount of abdominal exercises that are included in the P90X program.

The P90X Nutrition Plan Falls Short

I didn’t expect much from the P90X Nutrition Plan, but was happy to see that it at least recommends a variety of whole foods. Although a few of the recipes surprisingly include steak, which I think is a good thing, the P90X Nutrition Plan is for the most part a politically correct low fat diet. Ironically, during the initial and easiest phase of the program, the diet plan calls for a “fat shredding” phase which is basically low in carbohydrates and high in protein. As the program continues and you proceed to push your body further, you’ll undoubtedly need an additional supply of fat and protein to rebuild broken down tissue. However, at this point, the P90X Nutrition Plan ironically decreases protein and fat intake to 20% each and increases carbohydrate intake to 60%!

During the three months of the P90X program, the Nutrition Plan has you eat a different way each month. Each of the three months actually correspond fairly well with the three general Metabolic Types which are the Protein Type, Mixed Type, and Carb Type. The philosophy of Metabolic Typing is based on a number of genetic and environmental factors that provide us each with a unique metabolism that will respond best to one of these three types of diets. The P90X Nutritional Plan basically has you eat as a different type each month which means that you’ll likely feel well for one month and possibly not so good for the other two. Why would you want to do that to yourself?

What I find most disappointing about the P90X Nutrition Plan is that it relies fairly heavily on protein powder, protein bars, recovery drinks, and protein shakes, all of which are highly processed and nutritionally inferior to natural whole foods. The ingredients of the P90X Peak Performance Protein Bar includes 26 grams of sugar, 5 different sources of soy, and a bunch of synthetic vitamins. In addition to the health risks associated with sugar, soy can cause digestive issues and contains phytoestrogens that can cause health issues and interfere with fitness progress by altering testosterone production. Finally, synthetic vitamins don’t always have the same benefits as vitamins that naturally occur in whole foods and may not be assimilated as well either. If you’re going to physically punish your body for 3 months, the least you can do is feed it as much high quality and nutritious whole food as possible.

Ironically, if more people avoided processed foods like the Peak Performance Protein Bar, there would probably be much less of a market for extreme weight loss oriented exercise programs like the P90X.

Eliminating the Unessential

The success of any fitness program depends mostly on how long you choose to keep up with it. Many people are extremely busy, very stressed, deprived of sleep, and as a result, are chronically tired. The P90X program requires a considerable amount of energy and time which a lot of people don’t have. Although it seems that many people are making room in there lives for three months of P90X, I think it’s appropriate to question if they’ll be able to make it a lifelong habit or if it will be like The Biggest Loser where many of the participants regain most of the weight they lost because they didn’t properly instill healthy and sustainable long term habits. More importantly, I think it’s also appropriate to question if a rigorous program like P90X is even a good idea to pursue as a lifelong habit.

Some people may have the physical capacity to easily handle the 6 days of intense exercise per week that the P90X program prescribes, but it’s more likely that many won’t. While it’s healthy to challenge your physical limits, doing so nearly every day will take its toll and likely cause chronic tiredness or even adrenal fatigue.

Fortunately, whether you’re concerned about overexercising or simply don’t have 6 hours per week of free time, it’s still possible to make a great deal of progress with your fitness. If you insist on using the P90X program, here are a few suggestions that I think will make it a more practical, useful, and sustainable workout routine.

Ignore the P90X Nutrition Plan

It would be much better to simply eat natural whole foods such as meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and nuts. Don’t fall for the hype that you need an excessive amount of protein to build muscle or that you need to load up on a lot of bread and pasta to fuel the exercise that you’re doing.

Use Your Own Warm Up Routine

Soft tissue work, or self massage, should consistently be part of your warm up routine. By loosening tight muscle tissue, it will help to promote increased flexibility, range of motion, and strength. In turn, this will facilitate the execution of proper exercise technique and reduce the potential for injury.

To save time and reduce the performance impact that stretching is known to have, it makes sense to only stretch tight muscles prior to a workout. More specifically, you should only stretch the tight muscles that might prevent you from performing exercises with a full range of motion or correct technique. The stretching chapter of How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy by Paul Chek has an excellent and easy to follow self assessment that you can use to determine which muscles you should consider stretching prior to a workout. It also has a number of great strength training exercises that you might choose to replace some of the P90X exercises with.

An even better way to assess yourself for physical limitations and design a corrective warm up routine that will help to prevent injury is to use the Assess and Correct program created by Eric Cressey, Bill Hartman, and Mike Robertson.

Don’t Do the Plyometrics, Kenpo X, or Cardio X Workouts

When proper safety precautions are observed, plyometrics is a great way to improve performance and injury resistance. However, the P90X Plyometrics workout is more of a long calorie burning session than a true plyometrics workout. Along with Kenpo X and Cardio X, these workouts are very similar to aerobics, step, or spin bike classes which means that they’re relatively high in intensity and are a significant physiological burden that can easily wear down the body and require more time to recover from, especially when done on a regular basis.

The P90X schedule typically includes 2 of these 3 workouts each week. I think it would be better to replace one or two of them with a half hour to an hour of mild exercise such as walking, hiking, an easy bike ride, or whatever other type of activity that you might enjoy. It should be just enough to get your heart rate up to 55% to 75% of your maximum heart rate, but not enough to make you out of breath. If you have the capacity, high intensity interval training would make a good replacement for the remaining workout, and even just 10 to 15 minutes is fine. If you’re feeling up to it and really want to physically push your limits, interval training is the time to do it! This is also an excellent and efficient way to promote weight loss because the intense effort will cause your body to burn calories at an accelerated rate for up to 48 hours.

Forget About Your “Beach Muscles”

While different exercises strengthen different muscles, they all rely on the limitations of a single recovery system. In addition, functional strength is about much more than how much weight you can lift with a single muscle. It’s about how effectively you can incorporate your muscles into basic movement patterns. For these reasons, properly executed compound movements such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, pulls, and presses are preferable because they train multiple muscle groups and movement patterns and conserve energy and recovery capacity by doing so through fewer exercises.

The P90X program refers to the shoulders and arms as your “beach muscles” which is something that I’m sure will motivate many people. However, you don’t need to do specific exercises for your biceps and triceps to have impressive arms, and you certainly don’t need to waste time and energy by practically dedicating an entire workout to it. All of these muscles are sufficiently challenged with demanding compound exercises including the push-ups and pull-ups that are used in the P90X program. I think it would be better to pass on the arms and shoulders workout and replace it with some relaxing activities to help support your recovery from previous workouts.

If you insist on doing isolation exercises for your arms, you can replace a few of the exercises in the back and biceps video with a couple of the shoulders and triceps exercises.

Add Resistance to the Strength Training Workouts

It’s difficult to make significant gains in strength without eventually increasing exercise resistance beyond body weight. If this is a desired goal, it can fortunately be accomplished without going to a gym or spending thousands of dollars on a home gym, but it does require a few pieces of basic equipment.

Although the P90X program does suggest using dumbbells for some exercises, even this can be limiting unless one buys a complete set which can be quite expensive and take up a lot of space. Instead, a set of adjustable dumbbells such as Powerblocks can be a much more favorable option. Likweise, a dip belt will allow you to hang weight plates from your waist and do pull ups with more resistance than just body weight, and a weight vest will allow you to do push ups with more resistance as well. Alternatively, you can save money by using the weight vest for both push ups and pull ups, but the vest may restrict movement during the bottom portion of a pull up. Finally, if you have the space and budget, an adjustable weight bench will dramatically increase the variety of exercises that you can do.

Use Your Own Core Routine and Don’t Go Crunch Crazy

As I mentioned earlier, the abdominal muscles are for stability, and since most of us tend to sit for many hours each day, there’s no reason to worsen this imbalance by doing crunches. There are a number of great core exercises that you can do with minimal equipment such as plank variations, the ab wheel rollout, and perhaps even some reverse crunches. If you want your core training to be more advanced than this, you can include some of the swiss ball exercises described in How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy. You certainly don’t need to dedicate an entire workout or even 20 minutes to core exercises. Just add one or two of them to the end of each workout and that should be plenty.

Don’t Do Yoga X Unless You Truly Enjoy It

Yoga can be surprisingly strenuous, and in addition to that, the P90X Yoga X routine is an hour and a half long. You could be using that time to prepare yourself real food rather than eating the processed powders and bars that are recommended by the P90X Nutrition Plan.

Stretching is certainly important, especially if you have any tight muscles, but you certainly don’t need to do an hour and a half of it. Furthermore, it would be a much better use of your time to focus on stretching the muscles that you know are tight and in need of attention.

Self message and stretching are an important part of maintaining a physically healthy body and should be done on a regular basis. An excellent time to stretch and do soft tissue work is right before bed because it doubles as a relaxing bedtime routine that will help you fall asleep more easily.

Reduce the Workout Volume

The P90X workouts tend to be focused on many variations of a just few basic movements. For example, the chest and back workout contains 6 different variations of push-ups and a total of 12 different exercises. These 12 exercises are done in sequence and then done again in reverse order. In my opinion, this is an unnecessary amount of volume for just a few different muscle groups and is another example of the program’s emphasis on burning calories.

In addition, I really don’t think that you need to do 6 different types of push-ups, and even if you insist on it, you don’t have to do them twice. Either way, there’s plenty of opportunity to trim these workouts down to a size that’s much more manageable in terms of both time and energy.

What I Like About the P90X Program

I’d like to end this on a positive note, and fortunately, I do have a few good things to say about the P90X program. One thing that’s great about this P90X craze is that it’s inspiring a lot of people to exercise and stay committed, at least for three months. However, a healthy commitment to exercise needs to last for a lifetime and needs to be more about health and wellbeing than weight loss and ripped abs. If you choose to follow the P90X program, embrace your ambition, but don’t get carried away. If you notice that you’re feeling more tired on a regular basis, take a few steps back and reassess what you’re doing.

Another thing that I think is excellent about the P90X program is its emphasis on functional exercises, particularly lunges, pull-ups, and push-ups. These are basic movement patterns that we should all be doing.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

I dealt with the frustrations of chronic knee pain for about 4 years and sought the help of several specialists without making much progress. This is unfortunately a familiar case for many people. I knew that I must have been doing something to cause the pain and realized that the only way to truly resolve the problem was to figure out what it was.

After finally getting closer to the root of the problem, I made significant improvements and am now able to climb stairs, walk long distances, exercise, and play tennis without knee pain. It’s very satisfying to say the least and I hope that the proceeding information will help you achieve similar results.

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Prevention

Although the importance of prevention is much more obvious in regard to disease, it’s still a very important aspect of your physical health. My step-daughter has a friend who’s an excellent soccer player and was a likely candidate for a college scholarship. Unfortunately, she ended her soccer career during her junior year of high school by incurring her second ACL tear. As a ski racer and a tennis player, I’ve heard many stories like this, and I’m sure you have too. Although some injuries are too traumatic to be prevented, many of them can.

Even if you’re not an athlete, knee pain can compromise your ability to perform basic functions like walking and make it difficult to fully enjoy life. As such, you should embrace the importance of building healthy knees even if you’re not currently experiencing any pain, and this applies to the rest of your body as well.

What Causes Knee Pain?

The health and proper function of your knees depends on a number of factors including muscle strength, muscle flexibility, joint mobility, and gait pattern. If any one of these factors are compromised, you’ll be vulnerable to pain and injury.

If the supporting musculature of the knee joint is week, more of the stress incurred by the knee will be transferred to it’s ligaments. Likewise, if the major muscles that act on the knee are inflexible, it will increase the strain on the knee joint, the tendons attached to the muscles, and the muscles themselves. A lack of mobility in the hips and ankles will also increase the strain on the knee and exacerbate all of the problems listed above.

Due to a number of factors including previous injuries and a sedentary lifestyle, many people develop weaknesses and imbalances that lead to a faulty gait pattern. The knee is usually the joint which takes most of the resulting burden and becomes vulnerable to pain and injury as a result, especially during strenuous physical activity.

Orthotics are Not Always the Answer

Many people tend to overpronate when they walk which causes their ankle and knee to roll inward and leaves the knee in a compromised and vulnerable position. As such, knee pain is frequently blamed on foot problems and orthotics are often used as the solution. Although orthotics may help to reduce the pain, in many cases, they merely compensate for the problem rather than directly addressing the root cause of it.

I was convinced by a physical therapist that I had an anatomical foot deformity that was causing me to overpronate, and based on this, I wore orthotics for several years. Although the orthotics did help some and I don’t completely doubt the physical therapist, I eventually discovered a much more logical explanation for most cases of knee pain.

Your Butt is Meant for Much More than Just Sitting

The gluteus medius, one of the smaller butt muscles, resists the internal rotation of the thigh, or in other words, prevents your knee from rolling inward. Regardless of how good or bad your foot function is, a weak or inactive gluteus medius will likely lead to knee trouble. Since realizing this and addressing it, I’ve completely stopped wearing orthotics and my knee has improved greatly.

Many of us spend the majority of the day sitting. We sit in the car when we drive to work, we sit at a desk all day, we sit in the car to drive home, we sit down at the dinner table, and then we sit on the couch to watch television. The human body was not designed for this much sitting. Our primitive ancestors rested by getting into a deep squat which is a basic and natural position that many of us have lost the ability to get into.

When we sit, it causes the gluteal muscles of the butt to lengthen and the hip flexors to tighten. By sitting for many hours every day, as many of us do, it creates an imbalance that results in the weakening and deactivation of the gluteus medius muscle which allows the knee to roll inward more easily and leaves it susceptible to pain and injury. For some people, their gluteus medius becomes so weak and inactive that they can’t even consciously contract it. As such, the gluteus medius should be a focal point of any knee strengthening program.

Healthy Knees Depend on Ankle and Hip Mobility

The hips and ankles are designed for mobility and can accommodate a fairly large range of motion. The knees, however, have a smaller range of motion and are better suited for stability. When the mobility of the hips or ankles is restricted, the knees are forced to compensate and are put under more stress than they’re designed to handle. As such, ankle and hip mobility are of critical importance to healthy knee function.

The following videos demonstrate some excellent mobility exercises for the ankles and hips. If you don’t see the text pointers in the first video, turn on annotations by clicking on the furthest button to the right of YouTube toolbar.

As you’ll soon see, I demonstrated all of the exercises in bare feet. I think exercising in bare feet is an excellent way to maximize muscle recruitment, improve balance, and promote healthy foot function. All of the exercises included in this article can be done barefoot in the comfort of your own home, but if you’d prefer to do them somewhere else, I recommend wearing Vibram FiveFinger shoes.

The Importance of Flexibility and Muscle Tissue Quality

As I previously mentioned, tight muscles can contribute to knee pain and increase the risk of injury by creating additional and uneven stress on the knee joint. Furthermore, tightness in the major muscles acting on the hips and ankles can inhibit the mobility of these joints and make an additional contribution to knee trouble.

When most people think of flexibility or muscle tightness, they associate it with stretching. However, trigger point therapy, or self massage, is a very important factor as well. Muscle knots, also referred to as trigger points, are localized areas of tightness within a muscle where many of the fibers have become stuck together. They are caused by frequent use of the same muscle and compromise the muscle’s strength and flexibility. Fortunately, muscle knots can easily be eliminated through a variety of self massage techniques which loosen muscle tissue, release knots, and improve flexibility. For this reason, self massage is just as important, if not more so, than static stretching and should ideally be done prior to anything else.

Trigger points can also refer pain to nearby joints, and in some cases, may be the entire cause of your pain. For a better understanding of how to identify and address trigger points, I highly recommend The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Clair Davies. I often develop trigger points in my vastus medialis which is the inner part of the quadriceps, and thanks to this book, being able to manage them has been a significant help.

In relation to the knees, the most important muscles to massage on a regular basis are the claves, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexors. The following video demonstrates how to massage these muscles using the foam roller. You should spend more time on each muscle than I do in the video. I went through each muscle quickly to keep the duration of the video short. Unless you’re naturally very flexible, you should also do static stretching for the same muscles. A good resource for learning a variety of different static stretches is Sport Stretch by Michael Alter.

Protect Your Knees with Stronger Muscles

As I previously mentioned, strong muscles will help to stabilize the knee and reduce the pressure on it’s ligaments and the joint itself. While it’s important to develop balanced strength throughout all of the muscles of the lower body, two muscle groups that are of particular importance are the glutes and quadriceps. The glutes are important because of their ability to control excess movement of the knee, and the quadriceps are important because of their influence on the alignment of the knee cap.

While isolation exercises can be useful for injury rehabilitation, it’s important to realize that they don’t train small stabilizer muscles or the more complex movement patterns that are a common part of every day life. As such, they don’t do a whole lot to improve the function and resilience of your knees. Compound exercises that require balance and incorporate multiple joints will do a much better job, and single leg exercises are the best.

Some of the easier exercises to start with, especially if your knees are in bad shape, are the step up and the glute bridge. As the condition of your knees improves, you can progress to exercises like the split squat, lunge, and single leg deadlift. This last exercise, the single leg deadlift, targets the important gluteus medius muscle very well and has been an especially important part of my improvements.

The following videos demonstrate the split squat and the single leg deadlift. For the split squat, keep your knee tracking directly over your foot, and for the single leg deadlift, keep your knee slightly bent to promote activation of the gluteus medius. For both exercises, be sure to maintain excellent upper body posture.

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Nutrition

Regardless of how much effort you put into an exercise program to build healthy and robust knees, it won’t do much good without an adequate amount of high quality nutrition to support the development of healthy cartilage, bone, muscle, tendons, and ligaments. To insure that you’re acquiring the necessary nutrients, eat plenty of natural whole foods such as meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables. Fish and other seafood is especially beneficial because the high content of omega-3 fatty acids will help to prevent the inflammation that is so commonly associated with knee pain. Omega-3 fatty acids are also an important aspect of good health in general.

Proper hydration is also critical to knee health because it keeps the cartilage surfaces smooth and allows the ball of the joint to glide smoothly within the socket. Because of the increased joint friction that results, dehydration can promote inflammation, pain, and even arthritis. I think a good guideline is to drink approximately as many ounces of water each day as half of your body weight in pounds.

While there are a lot of popular supplements available for joint pain, particularly glucosamine and condroitin, I personally don’t think they’re necessary and they especially shouldn’t take the place of the more effective measures described in this article. However, if all else fails and you have the money to spare for such supplements, they may be worth a try and could potentially make a difference. One supplement I do recommend is Great Lakes Gelatin which is natural and derived from cattle hide and bone. If you have the time to prepare it, bone broth is an even better source of gelatin. Like glucosamine and condroitin, gelatin promotes the repair of cartilage and is also useful for repairing the lining of the intestines.

Beware of Overuse

There’s no doubt that the human body is built to move or that regular exercise helps to keep us healthy, but movement and exercise need to be a balanced with adequate rest and recovery time. Exercise, especially if strenuous, wears down the body and increases the need for recovery and repair. If adequate recovery time isn’t provided, the body will continue to break down and eventually become susceptible to pain and injury. This is especially the case with people who exercise excessively to lose weight, release stress, or compete in an endurance activity.

If you live a very active lifestyle and exercise frequently, make sure that you allow yourself enough recovery time, and be prepared to take a break if you notice any warning signs of pain.

Additional Guidance

For more information about how to put together an effective program to eliminate and prevent knee pain, I highly recommend Bulletproof Knees by Mike Robertson. This book presents many more exercises than I can include in a single article and provides guidance on how to adjust your exercise program as the health of your knee progresses. It also discusses plyometrics which is another important aspect of building healthy knees that I left out in the interest of limiting this article to a reasonable length.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

The Definition of a True Athlete

Ironically, many athletes, even at the professional level, are unhealthy. While they may run fast, jump high, and have an amazing physique, the inside of their body could very well be in disastrous shape. Because of the extreme physiological burden that athletes put on their body, they have even more of a need to follow healthy lifestyle habits than the average person, but very few of them do. The excessive amount of activity coupled with inadequate rest and nutrition amounts to a body that is being gradually destroyed from the inside.

To sustain long term peak performance, a smart athlete realizes that optimal health is the foundation of their longevity. This is what I consider to be a true athlete, and likewise, I consider true athleticism to be an expression of vibrant health. True athletes get plenty of rest instead of buying into the hype of recovery supplements, they eat real food instead of the latest and greatest meal replacement powders, they avoid overtraining by respecting their physical limits, and they maintain a strong and positive perspective without the drama that has become so common in professional sports.

The Sport of Life

To be successful, an athlete must have energy, strength, resilience, skill, mental sharpness, determination, and self confidence. These are all basic characteristics of a well rounded individual who is well suited to vigorously pursue their aspirations and is more likely to live a fulfilling life. As such, it’s in your best interest to adapt the mentality of a high performance athlete and embrace the importance of peak mental and physiological function. Before you write this off as nonsense, consider the following reasons why.

Everything Requires Energy

No matter how talented, skilled, and well trained an athlete is, all of these advantages are pretty much worthless without the energy required to fully utilize them. Throughout my struggle with chronic fatigue, I spent many hours on the tennis court forcing my body to chase after balls when I clearly didn’t have the energy I needed to do so. I can promise you that it’s not effective and it’s certainly not much fun. In fact, it was down right infuriating and depressing.

Whether your aspirations in life are sports related or not, fatigue will reduce your desire and capacity to pursue them. As such, the healthy lifestyle habits that cultivate long lasting energy are just as important to you as they are to the world’s top athletes.

Your Brain Needs to Rest and Recover Too

If you know anything about weightlifting, you know that eating and sleeping are two very important factors for developing strength. This is because a strength training workout causes a considerable amount of tissue breakdown. The food you eat provides the nutrients needed to repair the damaged tissue and make it stronger, and adequate sleep provides the optimal environment for this to happen. The physical demands of a sport are no different, and in fact, most athletes lift weights to improve their performance which dramatically increases their need for quality food and adequate rest.

Aside from the obvious reasons why everyone needs good nutrition and adequate sleep, don’t think for a minute that the scenario above doesn’t apply to you. If you’re aggressively pursuing any meaningful achievements, which you absolutely should be, it undoubtedly requires hard work. Even though you may not be running around a playing field, the many hours of deep thinking and intense problem solving associated with your pursuit are still a physiological burden that increase the need for recovery. As such, excellent diet and sleep habits are just as critical to sustaining your mental focus as they are to repairing tissue damage.

Life is Physically Demanding

Although some athletes need more strength and physical ability then others, they all need it to some extent. For most athletes, improving their strength is a critical part of maximizing their performance and increasing their resistance to injury.

Many of the basic movements that are the foundation of most sports are based on the basic physical capabilities of the human body. While smart athletes train to improve these capabilities, the average person spends most of their life sitting and gradually loses their ability to perform them. As a result, they often develop physical limitations, pain, and susceptibility to injury.

Every time you get out of your car, you’re lifting all of your body weight with only one leg and are simultaneously twisting your body as you stand. The simple act of getting out of a car is more physically complex and demanding than most people realize, except for those who’ve lost the ability to do it with ease. Although it’s easier than ever for people to live a sedentary lifestyle, daily life still requires a full and healthy range of physical function. Even if it didn’t, a loss of physical function will still likely lead to pain and injury.

Lifting heavy objects and maintaining your balance during a fall are two other common situations in every day life that require healthy physical function. Unless you do something to maintain your full range of physical function, such as strength and mobility training, you will eventually become physically challenged and it will interfere with your life in one way or another.

Talent is Worthless Without Determination

Was Roger Federer born with enough tennis ability to be the dominant player that he is today? Absolutely not! In fact, it took him more than 5 years as a professional to reach number one and a lifetime of hard work to even become a professional. Although talent is a prerequisite for a professional athlete, a tremendous amount of determination, hard work, and perseverance are required to make something of it.

Day in and day out, athletes put in the hard work that will make them a better performer. Unless you want to live a life of mediocrity, you too need this type of determination to maximize your accomplishments. This includes a good understanding of what you want to achieve in life and the strong desire to make it happen.

The Mental Side of Sports

If you’ve ever watched a major sporting event, you’re probably familiar with the term “choke.” It refers to the failure of an athlete to perform at their potential when under pressure. Anyone who’s played a sport knows just how common and awful of an experience it is. Some professional athletes have so much trouble handling pressure that it ruins their career. In fact, mental strength is such an important component of athletic performance that the entire branch of sports psychology has been dedicated to it and it’s not uncommon for professional athletes to work with a sports psychologist on a regular basis.

To overcome pressure, athletes do everything they can to build their confidence and develop the ability to clear their mind. Ironically, this often gets more attention in sports than it does in daily life where it’s much more important. While it would certainly be unfortunate to lose an important game for your team by crumbling under pressure, this is nothing in comparison to misfortune of living an unrewarding life because you don’t have the confidence to chase your ambitions. Just as an athlete needs the confidence to go for their best shot when the game is on the line, you need the confidence and courage to aggressively pursue the life you want.

Training Camp Starts Now!

As you can see, nearly all of the foundational elements of being a successful athlete are also the foundational elements of a healthy lifestyle. Although you certainly don’t need to be as physically active as an athlete to achieve optimal health and support your pursuit and enjoyment of a fulfilling life, you can certainly benefit from their guided and intense focus. Start becoming an athlete of life right now by signing up for my free course, 7 Simple Steps to a Leaner, Happier, and Healthier You!

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

When I first started learning about natural health, I was frequently frustrated by how rarely it’s principles are applied to the needs of an athlete. After all, following conventional advice for sports oriented nutrition and conditioning is part of what led me to my prior health problems. As both an elite athlete and a big advocate of natural health, and also a fellow Metabolic Typing advisor, Eric Talmant bridges this gap. As such, I’m thrilled to have him share his unique perspective with you.

Some of Eric’s Powerlifting Accomplishments

Eric is an American Powerlifting Federation record holder in the state of Florida with a 678 pound squat and has been ranked in the top 3 of all raw (no supportive equipment) powerlifters in the United States for the past two years in the 75 Kg (165 lb) weight class. His best equipped lifts include a 683 pound squat, a 391 pound bench press, and a 650 pound deadlift.

I asked Eric some questions about his lifestyle and his perspective on health and strength training. Here’s what he had to say.

Question: What inspires you to live according to the principles of natural health?

As a competitive athlete, I do all that I can to win and be the best. This certainly involves feeding my body the proper fuel I need so I can continue to bust my butt day in and day out. Being healthy creates an optimal environment for athletic excellence. There is no way that I would ever use sub-standard equipment (shoes, belt, etc.) in my sport of powerlifting; so there is absolutely no way that I am going to feed my body the wrong type of fuel!

Question: In my opinion, many people mistake fitness for health and fail to realize how important optimal health is to achieving their goals. What are your thoughts on this?

I completely and totally agree. In fact, I created the following video for this very subject.

Just because someone walks around with a six pack DOES NOT mean that they are healthy. In fact, I have written a brief summary of my personal journey in building health which I think is also very applicable to this question.

I am living proof that you can have your cake and eat it, too. I have taken great strides over the years to build a very healthy body, I look fit, and I am one of the best in the United States in my weight class in the sport of powerlifting. I teach my clients that looking good is the last piece in the puzzle. Instead, we build a solid foundation upon which vibrant health can begin to take hold and then thrive.

Once a person is on the way to being “healthy” then the options are limitless. However, if someone chooses to look great but not address their health then that is the same as having a Lamborghini with a lawn mower engine. It really does not make sense, and sooner or later there will be consequences.

Question: As a competitive powerlifter, what aspects of a healthy and natural lifestyle do you think have made the most significant contributions to your success?

That is easy – doing the Metabolic Typing program. Knowing my Metabolic Type and taking the Signet MRT food sensitivity test to determine the right foods for me, fine tuning my macronutrient ratios to where it has become instinctual, adding in the proper supplementation using all of the methods that are available to the Metabolic Typing philosophy, and removing blocking factors and toxic loads.

Doing these things has allowed me to continue to be at the top of the sport of powerlifting, and I am currently 35 years old. I have created an environment in my body that is conducive to repair and recovery, which allows me to train harder and more often than my competition. I honestly credit Metabolic Typing for a huge part of my success and longevity over the last 7 years.

Question: Do you think that conventional fitness advice, even for bodybuilders and powerlifters, puts too much emphasis on protein powders and other supplements while not giving enough attention to food quality and health?

YES. Absolutely! So many are simply in the “fitness industry” to make a buck, and the return on investment for a supplement company is astronomical! I will come out and tell you point blank that 95% of the sports supplements on the market are CRAP! I have talked to many great athletes in many sports, and I can tell you that the backbone of any athlete’s program is hard work, dedication, and determination. Many do not pay that close attention to their diets, and others just do what someone else is doing. In short, when it comes to nutrition THEY ARE LAZY! So, what is the best thing for a lazy person? You got it – convenience.

Protein powders and supplements are convenient and require little to no work to “take.” However, in examining the gut and hormone function of people who have an athletic component to their lives I can tell you that they are doing themselves no favors by popping the latest and greatest supplement while chugging it down with a protein shake. In my experience, a good portion of athletes are actually sensitive to cow’s dairy; and I am one of them. If that is the case, then every time someone slugs down a cow derived protein shake they are stressing their immune system. Sure, they are getting the protein they need to repair their muscle, tissues, etc. but at the same time they are stressing their body. It is like trying to fill a bath tub with the drain out.

Nevertheless, many people don’t want to hear that you actually have to work hard and have discipline in not only your training but in your diet. When something seems too good to be true, it oftentimes is too good to be true. This is usually the case with protein powders and supplements. Most of them do not do what they claim, and they certainly are not all that they are cracked up to be.

Nothing and I mean nothing is better for the body than eating the right foods for each individual that produce the proper fuel to meet the energy needs of the body. The best way to do this is through Metabolic Typing and the Signet MRT food sensitivity test. I am 35 years old, and over the years I have taken all that was out there in terms of sports supplements and protein powders. Most of it ended up being total BS. What got me to where I am today is hard work, perseverance, luck, genetics, and cultivating, building, and now maintaining optimal health via Metabolic Typing. Metabolic Typing did not find me – I found Metabolic Typing and I have stayed with it for about 7 years now for one very simple reason: nothing is better.

Question: For the average person, how important do you think it is to regularly engage in some form of strength training to promote overall health and well being?

It is very important – almost imperative. The human body was designed to move. However, because our society puts a premium on convenience that leads to physical laziness, simple things like walking or lifting objects has become nearly obsolete. So, the physical laziness leads to minimal movement, which leads to physical degeneration and eventually poor health.

In particular, the benefits to the heart, muscles, bones, mind – the entire body – that strength training provides make this a no-brainer. Why would you not do something that increases metabolic rate, increases lean muscle mass, increases and restores bone density, improves balance and mobility, prevents injuries, decreases heart disease, will have you feeling and looking better, and allows you to age at a slower rate?

Question: What are some of the most common mistakes that you see people make in regard to strength training and why do you consider them to be mistakes?

The number one common mistake that I see people make in regards to strength training is not learning the proper technique for each exercise. Whether that is due to choosing an unqualified personal trainer or just rushing to put more weight on the bar while compromising form; proper technique is essential to continued success when it comes to strength training. Only when you master the technique should you even begin to increase the difficulty of the exercise or add to your program.

Question: What advice would you give to a beginner who’s looking to improve their health through strength training?

I would recommend that they really do their homework and find a highly respected fitness professional to work with. There are so many fitness certifications nowadays, and many of them are fly-by-night outfits. Word of mouth is always a great place to start. I WOULD NOT recommend simply going down to the local trendy fitness facility and requesting a trainer. Don’t settle for someone who is just popular or looks great.

The best trainers are usually the ones who are not hollering the loudest. Their clients will do their hollering for them. That is the guy or gal who you want to seek out. Once you find them, lay it all out for them and see what they come back with. If there is a good exchange of energy then both parties will know it. Then, once a person spends a few months with someone who knows what they are doing, they can then decide if they need to continue to work with a trainer or whether they can take what they have learned and perhaps begin to start training on their own. The main point is that they have to be willing to take the first step.

Question: What advice would you give to a more serious fitness enthusiast or athlete who’s looking to maximize their performance?

This is very simple. They need to find someone in their chosen sport or field that is one of the best and then learn from them. There is no better advice than learning from the best. I have done this for numerous sports in my life, and it has never failed me once.

Eric would like to thank his sponsors BMF Sports, Ultra Life, Inc., Critical Bench, and Titan Support Systems for their sponsorship and support; his coach Dave Bates for always being there, Bill Wolcott for all of his generous advice, and Liz Gutierrez and Susan Welsh for keeping him structurally healthy. You can learn more about Eric by visiting his website at www.erictalmant.com.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

Our Amazing Feet

The foot contains more than 20 bones, 30 joints, 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and 200,000 nerve endings. In fact, the feet contain a quarter of the bones in the human body, and as such, deserve more of our attention.

By landing mostly on the ball of the foot when walking or running, the complex structure of the foot is able to absorb the resulting impact. This absorption capability is a major reason why our prehistoric ancestors were able to hunt and flee from danger without shoes and why Abebe Bikila was able to win the 1960 Olympic marathon running barefoot. While you might cringe at the thought of running barefoot, our highly evolved feet are perfectly capable of making it possible.

Problems Associated with Shoes

Although shoes provide many conveniences, they impair the natural function of our feet.¹ The padding that’s common on most shoes encourages us to land on our heels rather than the ball of the foot. Because the heel lacks the absorption capabilities of the forefoot, much of the impact is instead transferred to the ankles, knees, hips, and spine which is obviously undesirable. Shoe padding also impairs the body’s awareness of ground contact and foot orientation which disrupts the neuromuscular feedback loop that controls our gait, and in turn, alters walking and running mechanics.²

Research shows that contrary to popular belief, an increase in shoe cushioning doesn’t reduce the amount of impact transferred from the foot to the rest of the body during running or walking.^3,4 In some cases, the amount of impact actually increases as the amount of cushioning in the runner’s shoe also increases.⁵ This is believed to be a result of the loss of sensation of ground contact caused by the cushioning.^6,7,10 Finally, it has also been shown that even on a hard surface, barefoot runners who land on their forefoot generate less impact force than those who run in shoes but land on their heels.⁸

The stiffness of a shoe’s sole is another concern. Unrestricted dorsiflexion of the metatarsophalangeal joints, which are the joints that join the toes to the forefoot, is important for natural arch support and efficient propulsion. The sole of a shoe, especially if stiff, has been found to reduce this dorsiflexion by half.¹¹

The Advantages of Going Barefoot

Although there may be additional factors involved, populations that walk and run barefoot have healthier feet and fewer foot and ankle injuries.⁶ Because shoes restrict the foot’s natural function, they cause muscles, tendons, and ligaments to weaken, and in turn, increase susceptibility to injury.

In 1905, Dr. Phil Hoffmann analyzed the foot structure of primitive populations and concluded that wearing shoes causes deformations that inhibit the foot’s function and restrict the movement of its joints. According to this research, the toes of people who never wore shoes were spread apart and provided more stability and balance while the toes of people who wore shoes were crowded and less functional.⁹

Going barefoot as often as possible will promote strong and healthy feet, reduce the chance of pain and injury, and also improve physical function.

A Practical Compromise

While being barefoot all the time would promote excellent foot function, it’s certainly not practical, and in many cases, it’s not safe either. Fortunately, shoe manufacturers are paying more respect to the importance of proper foot mechanics and are designing shoes that minimize the restriction of natural foot function.

Here are a few options that will allow you to get as close to going barefoot as possible without actually doing it.

Nike Free

Nike Free shoes are probably the most popular option because of the Nike brand name and the fact that they closely resemble regular sneakers. However, unlike other Nike shoes, the Nike Frees are specifically designed to replicate the freedom of walking and running barefoot. Each model is rated on a scale of 0 to 10 with zero being barefoot and 10 being a standard shoe. Most of the Nike Free models are either rated 3.0, 5.0, or 7.0 with most of the 3.0 and 5.0 models being running shoes and the 7.0 models being cross trainers.

Hoping to get as close to barefoot as possible, I chose the 3.0 model pictured above. Although they’re definitely much less restrictive than regular sneakers, they still have a notable amount of padding in the heel which I’m not pleased with.

Here’s the full line of Nike Free shoes. You’ll likely be able to find older models at a cheaper price if you search on eBay.

Vibram Five Fingers

The Vibram Five Fingers are a very popular choice among the most dedicated health and fitness enthusiasts, but they require a bit of a rebellious personality to wear them in public. For obvious reasons, they’re bound to draw attention, and although I could do without this aspect, my dislike for the heel on the Nike Frees convinced me to order the pair shown to the right.

Although the Vibram shoes have the funny looking appearance of gloves for your feet, I think this may be one of their most important features. Because this design spreads your toes apart and allows them to function more independently, perhaps it could help to reduce and maybe even reverse the toe crowding and dysfunction described earlier that results from wearing shoes.

Here’s the full line of Vibram Five Finger shoes.

Vivo Barefoot

Although expensive, the Vivo Barefoot shoes appear to be a great choice for situations where shoes that look like gloves, or even sneakers, aren’t appropriate. I think they’d especially be a great choice for anyone who has an office job and has to wear casual business attire on a regular basis. I’d like to eventually get the style shown to the right.

Here are the many different styles of Vivo Barefoot shoes to choose from.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

Our health and well being are dictated by requirements that have resulted from millions of years of evolution. No matter how smart we are, we’ll never be able to change this fact, at least not for another few hundred thousand years. That’s about how long it would take us to start adapting genetically to the unhealthy lifestyle habits that are so common today. Many of us have lost site of the evolutionary factors that brought us to where we are now and have let modern society entice us into a lifestyle that we’re simply not equipped to handle.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

It all started about 10,000 years ago when humans began farming and consuming grains. While this may sound like a long time, it’s nothing in comparison to the millions of years that we relied on meat, fruit and vegetables. Today, grain based foods are such a ubiquitous part of our diet that it shouldn’t take much effort to realize how far we’ve deviated from the diets of our ancestors.

Within just the past century, the invention of synthetic chemicals and food processing techniques has caused us to deviate even further by encouraging us to eat foods that are full of sugar, refined carbohydrates and chemical additives. Not only do these foods damage and burden our bodies, they also lack the nutrients we need to support tissue repair and basic function.

Even the invention of the light bulb has caused significant change. We’re sleeping much less than we were just a century ago and are pushing ourselves much harder than ever. As we’re imposing more damage on our bodies with chemicals, unhealthy foods and excessive stress, the amount of rest and nutrition we need to recover from it increases, but instead of getting more, we’re getting less! Much less.

In conjunction with the dramatic lifestyle changes that have occurred over the past century, there’s been a significant increase in the incidence of serious diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. The prevalence of other potentially debilitating conditions such as obesity, exhaustion and depression have increased dramatically as well. It doesn’t take a statistician to recognize the strong correlation between these problems and the extreme changes of the past one hundred years.

To make matters worse, the amazingly sophisticated medical system we’ve developed is highly influenced by the drug industry and is designed to resolve disease by chasing symptoms instead of identifying and addressing it’s root cause. While these tactics increase our lifespan, they leave us only half alive and living a marginal life.

Back to the Basics

Anyone who embraces the importance of nature and evolution should realize that a healthy lifestyle is based on simple and straight forward concepts. After all, just a century ago, we had little choice but to live a healthy lifestyle, and before 10,000 years ago, it was the only choice we had. It’s the overwhelming influence of technological advancement and big industry that make the simple concepts of healthy living difficult to uncover and implement.

The following video from Pay Now Live Later does a great job of explaining the influence that nature and evolution have on our health. It’s also presented in an entertaining manner that’s very easy to follow. I hope you’re as inspired by it as I am!

Exercise: A Different Chapter of the Same Story

Based on the enormous amount of unhealthy food that we’re exposed to and encouraged to eat, it’s not surprising that so many people are overweight. Because most people don’t realize how bad the food is that they’re eating, they continue to eat it and fall into the trap of overexercising to lose weight. The many hours they spend on cardio machines often fails to bring them results. It can even compromise their health by weakening their immune system and wearing down their adrenal glands.

Seemingly healthy people are prone to overexercising as well. I have nothing against endurance athletes or extreme bodybuilders, but the overwhelming popularity of these activities shows just how far we’ve drifted from our true need for exercise. If you want to support your health and your resistance to pain and injury, then your exercise habits should be focused on improving your physical function rather than testing the threshold of how far you can push yourself. While doing so may be mentally satisfying, it’s a tremendous burden to your body and your health.

As with nutrition and sleep, our exercise habits have little to no resemblance of the physical activities that our ancestors engaged in. They didn’t jog for miles, and they didn’t do bicep curls all day either. Instead, they ran in bursts and exercised their agility and athleticism while hunting, and they maintained their strength by carrying heavy objects based on need. The point here is not to hunt and carry heavy objects, but to exercise with short bursts of intensity and to perform strength building exercises that train functional movement patterns.

The following video is a sequel to the previous one and does a great job of applying the principles of evolution to exercise and movement.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

The three primary reasons for the popularity of cardiovascular exercise are health, weight loss, and athletic conditioning. Each of these goals have unique characteristics that make cardiovascular exercise a questionable choice for achieving them.

A Matter of Energy Production

There are two primary energy systems that support the demands of physical activity. They are the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. The anaerobic energy system is able to produce energy quickly, but can only do so for a short period of time. In contrast, the aerobic energy system produces energy at a slower pace, but can sustain production for an extended length of time.

A short burst of intense activity, such as a sprint, will get most of it’s support from the anaerobic energy system while a long jog or walk will only be supported by the aerobic energy system. Because intense activities typically exceed the capabilities of the anaerobic energy system, they often require support from the aerobic energy system as well. However, this doesn’t apply in reverse. Mild to moderate activity never requires support from the anaerobic energy system.

Intense activity trains both the anaerobic and aerobic energy systems while mild or moderate activity only trains the aerobic energy system. This is an important concept to keep in mind throughout the rest of the article.

Exercising for a Healthy Heart

Most people know that aerobic exercise improves cardiovascular health and helps to prevent heart disease. However, many people engage in an excessive amount of cardiovascular exercise that promotes cellular damage and can actually increase the risk of heart disease. In contrast, anaerobic exercise is much more time efficient. It only requires 5 to 10 minutes to complete a thorough workout and is much less likely to promote excessive exercising.

The Twisted Fate of a Marathon Runner

Regardless of the type, exercise is just one small aspect of the healthy lifestyle that plays a much larger role in minimizing the risk of heart disease. The famous American marathon runner Alberto Salazar is an eye opening example of this. He had a heart attack at the age of 49, just one year after running the New York City Marathon. At the time, he was still running regularly and was following a low fat diet.

While most people would blame his heart attack on genetics, I have a much different perspective to share. While genetics may increase the susceptibility of a heart attack, lifestyle factors are still most likely to make the susceptibility a reality.

Excessive exercise causes significant cellular damage, even within arteries. To repair this damage, the body requires a good supply of high quality protein and fat. Yes, I said fat! Alberto Salazar clearly put a tremendous amount of wear and tear on his body during his lifetime. However, by following a low fat diet, he was depriving himself of the nutrients necessary for repair. And because cholesterol plays an important role in the repair of cell damage, the cholesterol lowering medication he was taking may very well have worsened the problem.

High blood pressure is another symptom of the oxidative damage that can result from excessive exercise, and at the time of his heart attack, Salazar happened to be taking blood pressure medication as well. This is a strong indication that his doctors were merely chasing symptoms instead of addressing the the oxidative damage caused by his extremely active lifestyle and the low fat diet that was unable to support it.

In short, don’t make the mistake of thinking that cardiovascular exercise, or any exercise for that matter, will compensate for unhealthy habits. A well rounded healthy lifestyle is always a requirement for optimal health, and this applies to the prevention of heart disease as well.

Continuity Matters Most

In regard to anaerobic versus aerobic exercise, some may argue that one is more beneficial than the other, but the bottom line is that they both can improve your health. The most important aspect of an exercise program is adhering to it, so choose a form of exercise that you enjoy and are likely to stick with long term.

Exercising for Weight Loss

Even though people don’t become overweight because of an exercise deficiency, weight loss is probably the most common reason why people exercise. Despite poor diet being the most significant cause of weight gain, most people address it by going on an exhausting and time consuming calorie burning crusade to prevent their poor diet from increasing their waist size.

As with cardiovascular health, there’s a lot more to weight loss than exercising and burning calories. In fact, if your lifestyle, diet, and health are in order, you can lose all the weight you need to with only a minimal amount of exercise.

Contrary to what most people think, weight gain is not a problem based strictly on calorie consumption. It’s more about quality. Most people simply have far too much sugar and refined carbohydrate in their diet. While some people need more carbohydrates than others, nobody needs the excessive amount that is typical in the modern diet. Furthermore, excessive consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates is also a serious health risk.

Cleaning up your diet is the most effective and healthy way to control your weight and should take priority over exercise. You can learn more about a healthy diet by reading my article about Metabolic Typing.

Burning Calories and Fat Outside of the Gym

Although a healthy lifestyle is by far the most significant aspect of weight loss, exercise can certainly make it easier. The type of exercise you choose can make a significant difference as well. Most people become a slave to calorie burning and spend hours on cardio machines. Not only can this be mind numbingly boring and a major investment of time, but it also puts significant wear and tear on your body. By doing this, you’re basically trading time and health for burned calories and it doesn’t have to be this way.

Intense anaerobic activity stimulates a process called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). In simple terms, after you’ve stopped exercising, the body continues to sustain an elevated level of metabolic activity that can last up to a few days. Even after just 5 minutes of intense training, you’ll continue burning calories and fat for hours which can have a significant impact on your weight loss. This effect is unique to intense activity and is not stimulated by the mild or moderate exercise that most people engage in.

Lose Fat, Not Muscle

Most people who want to lose weight also want to look good. Muscle looks good, skin and bones doesn’t. Slaving a way on a cardio machine is likely to result in the breakdown of muscle tissue to help meet the excessive energy demands you’re imposing.

Would you rather look like a sprinter or a distance runner?

Exercising for Athletic Conditioning

Athletic performance is probably where the difference between anaerobic and aerobic training has the most significant impact.

Common sense dictates that most of your training should closely resemble competition. For this to happen, it’s essential to understand the energy demands of your sport. Sprinting is obviously an anaerobic sport while distance running or cycling are obviously aerobic or endurance sports. But what about most of the other sports that fall somewhere in between? When making this assessment, most people place too much importance on the duration of competition and failing to realize that the duration of actual activity represents less than half of this time.

A Case Study: Tennis

Tennis is an excellent example of a sport with energy requirements that aren’t so obvious. For a recreational player, a typical match lasts between 1 and 2 hours. Although uncommon, a long match might last up to 3 hours. Professional tennis matches are about the same with the exception of men’s grand slam matches which require winning at least 3 sets instead of 2. Some of the longest grand slam matches have gone well beyond 4 hours, but this is rare.

4 hours is a long time to be playing tennis! Even under the conditions of a short 2 hour match, it’s easy to consider tennis as an aerobic sport. Let’s look at some statistics to make a better judgement.

2009 Australian Open Semifinals

While watching this year’s Australian Open final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, which you can read more about here, the announcers discussed some interesting statistics that compared the energy expenditures of these two players during their semifinal matches.

Rafael Nadal probably runs and hits more balls than any other player on tour. If there’s a player that could justify tennis being an aerobic sport, it would be him. Furthermore, his semifinal match was the longest match in Australian Open history!

According to these statistics, Nadal ran 2.13 miles in 5 hours and 14 minutes. This is basically as much as a tennis player will ever run in a single match. To put this in perspective, a good runner can run this distance in just 10 minutes! Aerobic endurance sports are characterized by moderately intense activity that’s sustained continuously for a long period of time. Suggesting that 10 minutes is a long period of time is quite a stretch.

Now consider that Federer ran only 0.93 miles in his match, and his 2 hour match is far more typical than Nadal’s 5 hour match. A good runner can cover this distance in about 5 minutes. That’s certainly not a long period of time.

Length of Actual Play

Here are a few more statistics to consider that further support the argument of tennis not being an endurance sport. The following two matches confirm that the actual amount of time the players are actually playing is significantly less than the entire match duration.

1993 French Open final between Jim Courier and Sergei Bruguera:
Duration of match: 3 hours and 59 minutes
Duration of actual play: 15 minutes

1992 Wimbledon final between Andre Agassi and Goran Ivanisevic
Duration of match: 2 hours and 50 minutes
Duration of actual play: 34 minutes

The short duration of actual playing time is even more significant when you consider the fact that these were both 5 set matches.

Tennis is Explosive

In contrast to an aerobic endurance sport, anaerobic sports are characterized by quick explosive movements. Even the more defensive players put a tremendous amount of energy and explosiveness into most of their shots. And regardless of playing style, they have to be extremely quick and explosive off their feet just to get to the opponent’s shot.

The quick and explosive movements required in tennis have no resemblance to the moderate and continuous movement that characterize most endurance sports. Despite this, many tennis players train as if they’re an endurance athlete. As I said earlier, it makes most sense to train the way you compete, and tennis players certainly can’t rely on a casual jog to get to their opponent’s next shot!

Don’t Train to be Slow

Muscle is composed of three different types of fibers: fast twitch, slow twitch, and intermediate. Fast twitch fibers are the ones that facilitate the explosive and powerful movements that are required in sports like tennis. An individual’s composition of muscle fiber is determined by genetics, and as you would guess, the most explosive athletes are genetically gifted with a higher percentage of fast twitch fibers.

However, it’s important to realize that the function of intermediate fibers can adapt and more closely resemble either of the other two fiber types. For obvious reasons, it’s in the best interest of a tennis player to have as much fast twitch capability as possible. Endurance training encourages the intermediate fibers to transition more toward slow twitch, and in effect, reduces an athlete’s capacity to be explosive. As such, a tennis player that trains for endurance is also training to become slower and less powerful!

Tennis Players Also Need Endurance

Although sports like tennis rely heavily on power and quickness, many people will argue that endurance is still important. This is absolutely true, but you don’t need to train specifically for endurance to achieve it!

As I said in the beginning of this article, if you train the anaerobic energy system properly, it will have a carry over effect that will train the aerobic energy system as well. Research shows that high intensity interval training produces an increase in aerobic capacity that is comparable the effects of endurance training. But unlike endurance training, interval training also improves anaerobic capacity, saves a lot of time and energy, reduces the amount of wear and tear on the athlete, and avoids the risk of provoking intermediate muscle fibers to transition toward slow twitch behavior.

What Exactly is High Intensity Interval Training?

High intensity interval training is nothing more than multiple short bursts of intense activity that are alternated with rest periods. For example, you can run on a treadmill near top speed for 30 seconds, rest for 2 minutes, and repeat this for a total of 5 to 10 times. You can also use a stationary bike, an elliptical machine, or even better, you can run on a track or a football field. Regardless of the activity, it’s the high intensity and short duration that’s important.

Because everyone recovers from each interval at a different rate, using a heart rate monitor will make it much easier to establish ideal rest periods. An insufficient rest period will reduce your capacity for the next interval while an excessive rest period will reduce the stimulus of the training. Either effect is undesirable and using a heart rate monitor can prevent both of them. As a general guideline, you can start with a rest period that lasts until your heart rate drops to 120 or 125 and make adjustments as you see fit.

For athletes, another way to increase the effectiveness of interval training is to incorporate sport specific movements into the intervals. For example, Tennis requires a lot of direction change and sophisticated footwork. Incorporating these movements into the intervals will save time and energy by training movement and conditioning at the same time.

Getting Started With Interval Training

Intensity is a relative term. Some people are highly conditioned and can sprint at full speed without any problems while others become heavily winded after walking up a flight of stairs. Likewise, a simple warm up routine for an elite athlete may be the equivalent of an intense workout for someone who is sedentary.

If you’re already active, particularly if you’re an athlete, you’ll know you’re doing interval training correctly when you’re hunched over and gasping for air. Interval training may not consume much time, but if done properly, it’s hard work!

If you’re out of shape, don’t overdo it! You can still benefit from interval training without the risk of hurting yourself. As I said, intensity is relative. Start out with a level of intensity that is challenging for you. Perhaps that means 30 seconds of brisk jogging or climbing a few flights of steps. You can increase the intensity gradually as you become more comfortable with your capabilities.

With proper respect given to an individuals capacity for intensity, interval training is something that can benefit anyone regardless of age or ability.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.

Most people have a vague idea but aren’t entirely sure. It doesn’t take much thought to realize exercise was a major part of our evolution, and as such, it makes sense that it’s an important aspect of our health and well being. Just like most animals, we had to hunt for food, defend ourselves, and flee from danger. The levels of fitness and skill that these activities required are comparable to those of a well trained modern day athlete.

The Importance of a Balanced Program

Before I discuss the benefits of exercise, I want to emphasize a few factors that are of significant importance to any exercise program.

To enjoy all the benefits that exercise can offer, it’s essential to follow a well balanced program that addresses both flexibility and strength. It’s just as important to have unrestricted range of motion through each joint as it is to have a strong and durable body. Deficiencies in either aspect can leave you susceptible to injury.

It’s also essential to stay within your capacity by moderating the frequency, duration, and intensity of your workouts. We live in an age of “no pain, no gain” and think it’s commendable to fight through fatigue. All this does is ruin your health. Frequently pushing yourself past the point of fatigue may give you a fit body that looks great, but underneath, it will also be a tired body that is not performing it’s basic functions well.

Without further ado, here are ten ways in which exercise can change your life.

1. Decreased Risk of Heart Problems

Heart disease is a leading cause of death and a significant concern for many people. Any exercise that elevates your heart rate will strengthen your heart, increase it’s capacity, and make your circulatory system more effective at pumping blood throughout your body. This will help make your arteries more pliable and less susceptible to atherosclerosis, improve your blood pressure, and in turn, lower your risk of heart disease.

2. Weight Loss

The more you exercise and the more muscle you develop, the faster your metabolism becomes and the more food you need to maintain your muscle tissue. Assuming you are eating quality foods, it will be more difficult to overeat and produce body fat. This effect is magnified by the fact that exercising also burns calories.

However, it’s important to realize that you shouldn’t exercise excessively to burn calories and lose weight. Doing so is putting wear and tear on your body in exchange for weight loss and is simply trading one problem for another. While exercise will help, proper diet alone is more than sufficient to reach your ideal body weight. The Metabolic Typing diet is an excellent way to eat that will help you easily lose weight.

3. Reduced Pain

Most people sit all day and rarely utilize their entire range of motion. Because of this, some muscles are overused while others are underused, and the result is tightness, weakness, and imbalance that leads to muscle and joint pain. A well designed exercise program will help you increase your flexibility, mobility, and strength while keeping these aspects in balance across each joint. By following such a program, your joints will work more smoothly, your muscles will be less likely to become tight or overused, and as a result, you will have less muscle and joint pain overall.

4. Decreased Risk of Injury

Weightlifting and other forms of resistance based exercise will put a demand on bones, muscles, and connective tissue that will force them to become more durable. Stronger bones will be less likely to break or fracture, and stronger muscles and connective tissue will be less likely to tear or sprain. And by including stretching and mobility exercises in your exercise program, your range of motion will improve and further decrease the risk of muscle tears, sprains, and joint stress.

5. Improved Mood

It is well known that exercise can be used very successfully to fight depression. This is primarily a result of exercise increasing the production of serotonin which has a direct influence on your mood. Exercise also triggers the release of endorphins which are known to produce a feeling of exhilaration while also relieving pain, anxiety, and stress. This is what’s commonly referred to as a “runner’s high.” Because of these effects, you’re likely to find that good moods come more easily and frequently while exercising regularly.

6. Improved Immunity

With all the stresses of modern life, many of us have decreased immunity and get sick frequently. By stimulating circulation within the lymphatic system and improving the circulation of oxygen throughout the body, exercise strengthens the immune system and increases resistance to infection. Most people who follow an exercise routine for any length of time notice that they get sick less often during that period. However, there is a catch. Exercising too much will actually weaken your immune system and increase your chances of getting sick.

7. Improved Mental Ability

Poor memory and poor concentration have become common frustrations of modern life. Although it may seem unusual for exercise to have an impact on your mental abilities, it does! Exercise improves oxygen flow to the brain, promotes development of the nervous system, and causes an increase in various chemicals associated with mental function. With these additional resources being provided to your brain on a regular basis through consistent exercise, your mental clarity is likely to improve, you’ll remember things more easily, you’ll be able to concentrate better, and you may even become more creative.

8. Improved Confidence

While many people exercise to improve their appearance, there is a deeper reaching benefit that often goes unrealized. Sticking with an exercise program long term requires commitment and determination. The sense of accomplishment you gain from your hard work and your improved appearance will undoubtedly increase your pride and self confidence. And with this increase in confidence, you’ll be likely to find the ambition and courage to take on challenges that you wouldn’t have considered previously.

9. Improved Physical Function

All you have to do is look around to see how poorly most of us are functioning physically. Simple tasks such as walking, bending over, and squatting are basic functions that many of us can’t do without pain or can’t do at all. The strength and range of motion that exercise develops will make these basic daily functions easier to perform. It will help you get in and out of cars, walk up and down stairs, lift heavy objects overhead, and perform other basic functions with ease and without pain.

10. Increased Capacity

It’s common today for people to take weeks instead of days to recover from simple illnesses and mild injuries or to become easily exhausted by a small amount of activity. Because exercise improves circulation and metabolism, it also improves the rate at which nutrients and oxygen are delivered to cells. As a result, each cell is able to function more effectively and produce energy more consistently. Because of this improved function, your ability to recover from injury and illness will be improved, and your capacity to handle more demanding physical and mental activities will be increased.

What Are You Waiting For?

If you’re not already exercising on a regular basis and enjoying all of these benefits, then now’s a better time than any to get started. Don’t be overwhelmed or intimidated by all the conflicting advice that often circulates. Take that first crucial step and get started! you can always learn more as you go. Even if it’s only a few days per week, commit yourself to making exercise a priority in your life. I’m sure you’ll find the commitment worth while as exercise is something we’re all naturally inclined to benefit from.

Written by Vin Miller for NaturalBias.com.