DaileyFit

A squat is one of the most incorrectly performed exercises in the gym yet it is the most common functional movement used by everyone. You do it everyday; picking up something from the floor, tying a shoe, getting something from the lower cabinet, lifting something heavy, or just plain exercising.  The question is, are you doing it correctly?  Every human is born with the natural and correct ability to squat with perfect form, yet over time we condition ourselves to sway from that form, whether it is from a muscular imbalance, ignorance, or incorrect education, this incorrect form will ultimately sacrifice your spinal column and hit you with some problems in the lower back and upper neck regions. If you notice a toddler squatting to pick their toys up from the floor then you are witnessing correct form.  It almost looks like they are going to sit on the carpet as they reach for their book or game.  Their back does not bend or twist, they just lower their torso "as...

Two of the most important parts of a training regimen, consistency and progression. Consistency is key for short and long term goals; weight loss, flexibility, strength gains, etc.  The list goes on....nothing can be accomplished if it is only done sporadically.  You will constantly end in a plateau and even worse, regress, falling off of the bandwagon and having to start over, sometimes in a worse setting.  I see it far too much with new gym members that join, keep at it for a month and then fade off and complain that it just didn't work.  Fitness is a commitment that must be made.  It requires willpower, motivation, and a change of life.  Don't expect to get far without those....If you want to become more flexible, you must constantly stretch.  Practice DOES make perfect.  Consistency will drive you toward your goal. Don't go out too hard too fast.  This often breaks consistency.  This is where progression comes into play.  If...

My clients and class participants hate me for the emphasis I put on pushups.  The fact is they are the best tool to combine your upper and lower body endurance and strength crossing through, and including, your core. Compare the guy who can bench press 500 lbs to the guy that can do 75 continuous pushups.  Who do you want to help push your car when it runs out of gas on the way to work?  The common pick would be the guy that can bench press a lot because he is stronger.  This is such a misconception because the guy that can perform 75 pushups has found the ability to connect his upper and lower body, work with the core, work efficiently, and coordinate the body as a unit rather than isolating out muscle groups.   This is just more relative to everyday life and the physical situations that present themselves. Here are a couple varieties you can throw into a pushup routine: Alter the placement of your hands (standard is at the location of your collarbone, ma...

Ever do an exercise and notice that that particular muscle group seems to be quivering or trembling?  Don't attribute it to the muscle itself, it is actually your nervous system recruiting thousands of neurons to engage during the exercise; this can also be referred to as neural adaptations. Neural adaptations are most common in new and unfamiliar exercises in which the nervous system has not yet learned to handle and as you get more comfortable, and stronger, with the exercise the trembling will subside. The tremor of truth is most seen in exercises involving a lot of muscles at once, such as planks, pushups, isometrics (exercises where you hold a particular form for a certain duration), and is also present in most suspension exercises such as a TRX tricep extension. The goal here is to decrease the amount of quivering your body makes during exercise.  The quivering wastes energy and also is distracting.  Less quivering equals more efficiency.

When it comes to exercising, there are two ways to do it.  Correctly and incorrectly. In some cases, momentum is required in locomotor movements:  jumping, running, shuffling, etc.  When it comes to resistance training, momentum can give you false readings of your capabilities.  Think of the typical person that is trying to bench press as much as they can by BOUNCING the barbell off of their chest and making all types of back arches and leg kicks to get the weight back up. They will obviously not be able to perform the same exercise with the same weight while utilizing proper form, slow and controlled movements, utilizing the muscles and not the momentum. If you are looking to increase the efficiency and amount of pushups you can do try working in the negative.  Take 3 seconds to lower your body down and 1 second to power back to the top.  Chances are you won't meet your pushup "quota" but in time this practice will surpass what you did before and ...

They can happen to anyone.  The dreaded shin splints, the horrible pain on the front of your lower leg, the pain that can bring a grown man to his knees. There are two main contributors to shin splints: 1: Running too much too soon. 2: Running on inclines when the muscles are not properly conditioned. The muscle affected is the anterior tibialis, a thin sheath of a muscle located on the front of the shin bone (tibia).  It's function is to dorsiflex the ankle joint, to pull the toes up away from the ground, the most repetitive movement in walking and running.  Overusing this muscle will immediately cause little tears up and down this muscle where it attaches to the shin bone, inflaming the area which causes the debilitating pain that will keep you from running.  The same goes when you start running on positive grades and inclined treadmills, requiring you to pull your toes higher and dorsiflex the ankle more to clear the ground.  The increased contractions ...

The abdominal plank is one of the greatest exercises in the core workout arsenal.  The problem is: it's not just a core workout, it's a workout for the entire anterior chain.  Everything on the front of the body is fighting gravity, therefore the front side of the body is statically activated. Your shoulders will burn, your chest will remain tight, your midsection should be a brick wall, and your thighs should remain tight as well to prevent your knees from bending and breaking form. Planks can be performed a variety of ways, but the standard plank will place you on just your forearms and toes, hovering above the ground as straight as can be.  Your forearms should be placed directly below your collar bone or neck, don't rest on them!  Have shoulder issues?  Perform the plank in the upright pushup position.   Want a challenge?  Place your hands or forearms up further  from you to increase tension on the midsection.  Want more challenge? ...

https://www.thezombierun.com/ Do the zombie run in Philly on April 7th for a race like you've never experienced.   Cover a 5k course on foot and watch out for the zombies chasing after you, forcing you off path while trying to pop a balloon attached to your back.  If they pop it, you are out! This is a family friendly race that is fun yet scary and very realistic with props. Like zombie movies?  Run in one!  See you there, April 7th at FDR Park.

If you go to hold a stretch, but only hold it for 10-15 seconds, then you are cutting yourself short.   Every muscle in the body has little built in safety mechanisms called muscle spindles.  Their function is to immediately activate at first sense of a stretch to minimize risk of over stretching and injury.  So holding a stretch for 10-15 seconds is only scratching the surface.  At that point muscle spindles are still activated, and even though you might feel the stretch it could be much more beneficial for you to hold it longer (30-40) seconds, to actually work on lengthening the muscle for more long term effects. Try to hold stretching for the end of your workout.  Studies are now showing a correlation between preworkout stretching and injury during exercise.  This is most likely contributed to the fact that stretched muscles create too much laxity, especially around joints, which hinder their ability to contract safely and correctly, hence possibly ca...

Did you know that you would have to run 6 miles to burn off ONE quarter pounder with cheese? At 600-700 calories, a quarter pounder with cheese may taste good, but the average person burns about 100 calories per mile when running.  Does it appeal to you now? 5 minutes of eating could mean 1-2 hours of running.... Try cutting the calorie content down instead; try a turkey burger, veggie burger, use a Foreman grill.

When it comes to diets and eating more healthily, I have coined the term "tweak it before you delete it." Many, I would assume, would have the same tendency as me in this situation.  You give up eating sweets, everything seems fine for a couple days, you miss the sweets but you've been good enough to stay away.  A week goes by, you are still running strong and sweet free and feeling pretty good about your accomplishment and then here you are at a family get together, right in front of the dessert table.  Then it happens....you binge on the sweets like you've never binged before, not even taking notice to exactly how much you just ate.  Now you are full....of empty calories and regret.  You just ate more sweets in 10 minutes than you probably would've eaten in the past week had you not even given them up. This is what can happen when you deliberately deprive yourself of something, you come across it and cannot control yourself due to removing it from your die...

It's my new favorite, and probably my clients' least favorite, phrase as I lead them through high intensity, interval, and TRX training at Royal Fitness.  It's true though, if you make crazy fitness goals for yourself, you need to be a little crazy with your fitness routine.  Hence the training styles I use. TRX training is bodyweight based; putting your own body in suspension and using leverage to work against you.   This is commonly referred to as vector training, since the angle you create with your body dictates how much resistance you will work against.  It is also a great way to work out if you are injury prone, since most exercises are closed-chain (arms and legs are in contact with a base, limiting external variables such as gravity and momentum). Interval training is a surefire way to give the cardiovascular system a run for its money.  Certain exercises are combined to create a constant surge and drop in heart rate, good for burning fat and not let...

One of the best things to start sneaking into your exercise regimen is Tabata.  This was founded in Japan in the late 90's and is an excellent way to boost your aerobic and anaerobic capabilities. Take an exercise that involves the full body, like a squat jump.  If you do it for one minute straight, chances are that you will start to fade by the halfway mark, if not sooner.  You will most likely not work too efficiently either. The Tabata technique will have you take that exercise and work at a 20:10 ratio.  Do the squat jumps for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds.  You will then repeat this for 8 cycles which totals 4 minutes.  The point of this technique is to push you close to the top end of your ability level and then let you recover just enough, but not FULLY.  Your body, mainly the cardiovascular system, will adjust to these mini "power surges" and start to run more efficiently during difficult bouts of exercise.  It is a great way...

Need to stay motivated?  Me too.  Want to start working out?  Start now.  Want some fitness tips?  Look here.  Looking to run a race?  I'm your man.  Procastinate much?  Stop! I am creating the DaileyFit blog to help keep everyone updated with the current buzz in the fitness industry, motivate you to want to start working out, or even work out more efficiently.