Egg, Cheese, Tomato and Avocado (Must pronounce “tomato” as “to-MAH-to“)

Ingredients:

3 Eggs

Slice of Avocado

Tomato, sliced

Shredded cheese (aged cheddar is the best)

1 tbsp EVOO

Directions:

Heat EVOO and add eggs. Break the yokes with the spatula. When is is almost thoroughly cooked, flip. Add salt and shredded cheddar. Once cheese melts, remove the eggs and add to a plate.

Add sliced tomatoes to the pan add pinch of salt. Leave on one side and flip after a minute. The tomatoes should look a little orange and emit juices, but still retain their shape. Ration tomatoes on each egg. Serve with the avocado on the side. The warm acidity of the tomatoes and the coolness of the avocado is a great combo!

More specifically, to really nail the nutritional component, it takes proper meal planning and preparation each and every week… NO EXCEPTIONS!

Look, I know you’re busy… we all are!

So I thought I’d share our weekly grocery list and Sunday ritual to help you jump-start your success for this upcoming week.

But before I do, let me first make a quick confession…

I AM A FOOD AND RESTAURANT ADDICT!!

For years we have wasted tons of money on eating out because we were too lazy to plan and prepare most of our meals for the week.

We still eat in a compliant manner at restaurants via the protein, produce, and water protocol, but the mark-up on food at restaurants is insane and it really adds up over the course of a week, month, year, etc.

To be fully transparent, there have been months where we have spent several thousand dollars on food and entertainment.

What a waste considering that you really end up pooping out the money you spend on the food anyways… man, when I put it like that it really makes me want to slap myself for not coming to my senses sooner… sound familiar?

There's wasted money in that stool...

So, Naomi and I came to our senses and made the collective decision to only allot $200 per week for food.

We also decided to only use the set amount of cash that we allocated to this grocery budget because of the pitfalls of plastic cards.

Now, please note that we both don’t spend any money on alcohol which is expensive and I bet some people spend several hundred dollars on booze on a bi-weekly basis. After all, this is brew city

Plus, we have a slush find that consists of cash we save up that is used with discretion for the occasional meal and/or movie out with friends, but in general we’re not spending any money eating at restaurants anymore.

So, though your eye balls may have initially popped out of your head when you read that we spend $200 on groceries per week, it’s important to note that we literally are spending no other money on food or entertainment each week with the exception of the occasional treat sponsored by the monthly slush fund of about $50-100.

In addition, we’re fitness professionals so of course eating well is a huge priority for us and we need to walk the walk if we expect our valued members to heed our advice.

That means we only buy grass-fed ground beef (no corn fed beef), free range chicken, and we go organic for all of the dirty dozen veggies that are loaded with pesticides.

Yes- this is a much more expensive way to live then eating the Ramen noodles diet, but the energy it provides us, the high performance it allows for us, and the health benefits it lends us, each and every week makes the cost seem nothing more than a sound investment.

So, without further adieu, below is our new weekly nutrition system that we are sticking to like flies on trash because it flat our works for living lean, both physically and financially.

I hope this helps you as much as it helps us. Please feel free to post a comment to this blog if you can relate to anything that I shared in this post

Step#1-Commit to Consuming Protein, Produce, and Water Immediately Upon Waking and Then Every 2-4 Hours

Step#2- Build Your Custom Grocery List Based on Your Budget

As I mentioned earlier, we have allotted $200 per week for healthy, nutritious food and we are only buying enough food for the week so that we literally run out by Sunday morning. Simply tweak things accordingly for you and your budget.

Also, don’t forget that I’m a bigger guy so I need a little more food than the average guy and I’d be lying if I said my wife didn’t have a healthy appetite

Naomi and BJ’s Grocery List

$200/week max budget

Protein/Fats- approximately $125

- 4 lbs grass-fed beef
- 4 packs of free-range chicken thighs, wings, legs
- 5 cartons 18-pack large omega-3 eggs (Sam’s Club)
- 6 large cartons of Fage full-fat greek yogurt
- 1 block of full-fat cheese
- Canned Wild Salmon (farmed version is only ok at Whole Food’s)

Produce’s- approximately $50

- ONE 5-lb bag of broccoli (Sam’s Club)
- ONE 5-lb bag of green beans (Sam’s Club)
- 4 bags of frozen organic mixed berries
- 4 bags of frozen organic cherries
- 2 containers of organic fresh spinach (Sam’s Club)
- 3 organic bell peppers
- 1 pack of avocados (Sam’s Club)
- tomatoes (Sam’s Club)
- Whatever combo of the following lower carb fruits that fits in the budget: Apricots, Grapefruit, Guava, Kiwi, Nectarines, Peaches, Plums, Tangerines

OTHER- approximately $25

- 4 cartons of unsweetened almond milk: 2 vanilla, 2 chocolate
- Organic half and half
- 1 bag of Udi’s natural granola
- 1 bottle of extra virgin coconut oil

We get some things at Sam’s Club to mitigate cost but buy all most of our organic options and meat at Whole Food’s because it’s the right thing to do.

We literally buy the same grocery list week in and week out because we know have a predictable, replicable system that allows us to stay under budget each and every week and eat PPW every 2-4 hours for 7 straight days without needing to shop again until the following Sunday.

Step#3- Plan and Prepare as Much as Possible on Sunday

Buying the right groceries is great, but if you don’t use the weekend to prepare a bunch of done-for-you meals and snacks then you’re just going to go through the motions and end up taking the easy way out by stopping for fast food.

However, if you have the good stuff ready and waiting, then you’re money.

I like to keep it stupid simple with cooking, so here’s my Sunday ritual:

Spanish Chili (Beanless)- This is my favorite way to make a buttload of meals for the week:

- 4 lbs of grass-fed ground beef: brown and drain a little fat out if you feel like it

Grass-Fed Beef has the same Omega-3 Profile as Salmon. Be sure to avoid corn-fed beef at all costs!!

- 1 onion, 4 tomatoes, 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 cup of spanish olives, 4 TBSP extra virgin olive oil, and onion powder, chili powder, sea salt, cayenne pepper, and crush red pepper to taste: cut all veggies and mix in with EVO and spices

- Once the beef is browned, put it in large pot with the veggie, oil, and seasoning mix. Then add 1 can of hunt’s natural tomato paste with 1 cup of water. Cook at medium heat until it starts to bubble and then let it simmer on low and marinate.

- This alone can be lunch and dinner for a week. I usually throw 8-12 oz onto a big bed of organic spinach and call it a meal. Women can rock with half that size. The great thing about this is that it’s a complete nutritional powerhouse with tons of protein, healthy fats, fiber, and veggies.

Hard boil 36 Omega-3 Eggs- Perfect for quick on the go protein. Our 2 boxers, Mustafa and Kaila, end up getting a good number of these as well

Research shows no correlation between cholesterol and heart issues and daily egg consumption. That means if you are healthy, egg away

Here’s what a typical day of eating looks like for me right now, remember I’m 6’2, 215-220, so adjust accordingly:

Breakfast: 1 cup of full-fat greek yogurt, 1 cup frozen organic mixed berries or cherries, small spoon of Udi’s Natural Granola for crunch, 2 TBSP. flax meal, 1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon to taste, small handful of walnuts or almonds mixed in

Mid-Morning Snack- 3 omega-3 eggs, 1 piece of low carb fruit from above shopping list

Lunch- 6 scrambled omega-3 eggs, spinach, and salsa, cooked in 1 TBSP. of extra virgin coconut oil OR canned wild salmon (from whole foods) with salad and 1 TBSP. EVOO

Mid-Afternoon Snack- Handful of almonds or walnuts, small piece of full-fat cheese, 1 piece of low carb fruit from above shopping list

Dinner- Spanish Beef on a Bed of Organic Spinach OR Free-Range Chicken Wings, Legs, or Thighs (cheaper than breasts and some skin is okay as it makes for a more satisfying and filling meal) with lots of greens like green beans, broccoli, etc.

Before Bed- 3 omega-3 eggs (some pre-bed protein will help curb hunger, accelerate muscle growth and recovery, and prevent muscle breakdown while sleeping, and thus fasting, for 6-8 hours)

Sometimes I flip around breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you get the jist of this.

The snacks are real easy for me because I work out of my home office, but if I was to be on the run, I would simply throw them in a cooler and take it with me.

The spanish beef is a great fallback option if we don’t want to bake chicken one night or if I don’t feel like making eggs for lunch.

I also have 3 cups of coffee per day and I use unsweetened almond milk to add flavor and usually put some cinnamon in too.

I might add that unsweetened almond milk has no sugar and is a great substitute for skim milk without the lactose and extra sugar.

I love this stuff! Works great in coffee and tea and as a stand alone drink too. Lots of calcium and vitamin D

I also try to get 1-3 cups of tea in per day as well and plug the water as much as possible.

I’ve been eating more fruit recently to see if it affects my body fat %. So far so good. What I’m finding is less desire to eat sweets on the weekends and thus I’m really don’t deviate from PPW that much. In general, fruit will not make you gain weight but it will slow weight loss for some.

My goal right now is to maintain my current level of leanness. If I wanted to get shredded, I would first start by carb cycling by alternating between days with fruits and veggies and days with veggies only and then moving to veggies only at all times to take it to the next level.

Step#4- Wash, Rinse, and Repeat…

Well, there you have it. Our new food system.

It has saved us a TON of money and time and that’s something we could all use a bit more

Hope this helps!

Crank it!
BJ

It should make it a breeze for you to eat out without expanding your waistline, enjoy

Crank it!

BJ

1.) Apollo Cafe on Brady Street

http://www.apollocafe.com/

I love to get the Athenian chicken with salad and the Mediterranean chicken salad. The chicken is soaked in greek yogurt for a really tender taste. This is definitely one of my go to meals on a run and it’s also nice to be able to eat outside with our dogs on a Brady Street when it’s a nice, sunny day.

2.) Jimmy Johns

Bread is basically a meat holder for a sandwich and we could all go without the extra starch for a leaner midsection. I like unwiches  (lettuce wrap sandwiches) and I usually get  Turkey Tom Unwich with an extra load of meat, avocado, swap mustard for mayo, and add a big dill pickle on the side. Healthy fast food at it’s best!

3.) Mai Thai on Brady Street

Stir Fry is a classic meats and greens meal with the delectable Thai spices. You can choose anywhere from Level 1 to 7  on the spicy scale and my 2 favorite dishes are garlic stir fry and cashew chicken and I usually add chicken, steak, and shrimp to these dishes. Spicy foods can boost metabolism and prevent overeating… plus tears of joy

4.) Chipotle

Get rid of the taco and insane amounts of rice and beans and you’re golden! I always go with a naked taco salad with triple meat (chicken, steak, and barbacoa) with guac, peppers, and hot sauce, and a little sour cream and cheese.

5.) Cheesecake Factory

I love the cobb salad at the factory. I go dressing on the side and it’s a heaping mound of nutrition that’s guaranteed to fill you up and hopefully prevent a cheesecake dessert order

6.) Hi Hat Lounge

These is a another cool spot on Brady Street and what I love the most is the build-your-own sandwich feature.

http://hihatlounge.com/burgers

Just get rid of the bun and swap in veggies for the starch side dish and it’s a compliant and tasty meal.

7.) Lulu Cafe

This one always hits the spot and is my favorite restaurant in Bay View. I go with the calabrese salad with the dressing on the side (no croutons) and then the main course is the half-pound heart attack burger without the bun and bacon and I swap in the VIP veggies for the fries. I absolutely love the gorgonzola cheese on the burger and rest assured you have no risk of heart attack from this meal

That is all you hear when BJ and I chow down this recipe. The best part is it is soooo easy!

Here is what you need:

Frozen Green Beans

2-3 tsbp Onion Powder

Pad of butter

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Salt to taste

5-6 Chicken legs

I use a Garlic and Herb spice I bought at Sams Club that I love with chicken . If you can’t find that, garlic powder and oregano or dried basil should work.

1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

Directions:

Set the oven to 350. Rub the chicken legs with 1 Tbsp. of the Olive Oil. Rub it with the balsamic. Finally rub the garlic and Herbs and salt the chicken. Place on a baking pan and place in the oven.

In the meantime add Olive Oil to a pan over medium heat. Throw in your bag of green beans. Stir them around as they start to sizzle. Throw in the pad of butter. Let the green beans cook over the heat without burning, mixing occasionally. This might take a few minutes since they are frozen so go watch tv or something.

Once the butter has melted and the green beans have warmed up, add the salt and onion powder. Mix it all up and let it cook for a few more minutes. You can turn up the heat a little bit during this period to get a little golden coloring.

Once the green beans are done, keep them warm over low heat. After about 30 min. check on the legs. They should be crispy and brown. Flip them over to brown the other side. These should be done within the hour. Bon apetit!

According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) “As acknowledged by U.S. and international government agencies, different pesticides have been linked to a variety of health problems, including:

• Nervous system toxicity
• Cancer
• Hormone system effects
• Skin, eye and lung irritation

Pesticides are unique among the chemicals we release into the environment. They are designed to kill living organisms — insects, plants, and fungi that are considered “pests.” Because they are toxic by design, many pesticides pose health dangers to people, risks that have been established by independent research scientists and physicians across the world.”

In addition the EWG claims “You can lower your pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce, according to EWG calculations. When you eat the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll be exposed to an average of 10 pesticides a day. When you choose fresh produce from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll consume fewer than 2 pesticides per day.”

The Dirty Dozen^™

Of the 12 most contaminated foods, 7 are fruits: peaches, strawberries, apples, domestic blueberries, nectarines, cherries and imported grapes. Notable findings:

• More than 96 percent of peaches tested positive for pesticides, followed by nectarines (95.1 percent) and apples (93.6 percent).
• Nearly 86 percent of peaches contained 2 or more pesticide residues ‚ followed by apples (82.3 percent) and nectarines (80.6 percent).
• Strawberries and domestic blueberries each had 13 pesticides detected on a single sample. Peaches and apples were second, with 9 pesticides on one sample.
• Peaches had been treated with more pesticides than any other produce, registering combinations of up to 67 different chemicals. Strawberries were next, with 53 pesticides and apples with 47.

Celery, sweet bell peppers, spinach, kale, collard greens and potatoes are the vegetables most likely to retain pesticide contamination:

• Some 95 percent all celery samples tested positive for pesticides, followed by imported cucumbers (84.5 percent) and potatoes (84.2 percent).
• Nearly 85 percent of celery samples contained multiple pesticides, followed by sweet bell peppers (61.5 percent) and collard greens (53.2 percent).
• A single celery was contaminated with 13 different chemicals, followed by kale (10), and collard greens, domestic green beans, spinach and lettuce (9).
• Celery had been treated with as many as 67 pesticides, followed by sweet bell peppers (63) and kale (57).

The Clean Fifteen^™

The vegetables least likely to test positive for pesticides are onions, sweet corn, sweet peas, asparagus, cabbage, eggplant and sweet potatoes.

• Asparagus, sweet corn, and onions had no detectable pesticide residues on 90 percent or more of samples.
• More than four-fifths of cabbage samples (82.1 percent) had no detectible pesticides, followed by sweet peas (77.1 percent) and eggplant (75.4 percent).
• Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on vegetables low in overall contamination. No samples of onions and corn showed more than one pesticide. Sweet potatoes showed multiple pesticides in 9.3 percent of samples.
• The most contaminated single sample among the low-pesticide vegetables showed 4 different chemicals.

The fruits least likely to test positive for pesticide residues are avocados, pineapples, mangoes, kiwi, domestic cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit and honeydew.

• Fewer than 10 percent of pineapple, mango, and avocado samples showed detectable, and fewer than one percent of samples had more than one pesticide residue.
• Nearly 60 percent of honeydew melons had detectable pesticides but only 14.2 percent of samples contained more than one residue. Grapefruit had residues on 54.5 percent of samples, and 17.5 percent showed multiple pesticide residues.

So does this mean you can never eat delicious and healthy foods like mixed berries and spinach again because they are among THE DIRTY DOZEN?

Of course not!

However, it is highly recommended that you choose ORGANIC when purchasing any of the fruits and veggies listed on THE DIRTY DOZEN.

“Organic” is a designation used by the US Department of Agriculture National Organic Program to certify food that is produced without synthetic chemicals or fertilizers, genetic engineering, radiation or sewage sludge.

It is important to note that you cannot simply wash or peel away the pesticides as is often mistakenly believed. In fact, these results came from testing fruits and veggies that were washed and peeled!

Furthermore, though it’s always recommended to buy ORGANIC as much as possible, this is often too costly for many people so just be sure to buy ORGANIC when it comes to THE DIRTY DOZEN and choose produce that falls under THE CLEAN 15 as much as possible since they were found to have the lowest pesticide levels.

For a really handy EWG Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides handout, please visit the site below:

http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

They also have a free app version of this that you can download to your iPhone… pretty slick

Crank it!
BJ

Added sugar spikes insulin which both blunts fat-burning and leads to unwanted fat-storage.

Most foods (even some protein and veggie sources) have some natural sugars in them as demonstrated in the nutrition facts.

However, the way to determine if sugar has been added to any food item is by reading the “ingredients list” below the nutrition facts.

In addition, the ingredients are listed in order of greatest to least concentration, so you really want to avoid foods that have “sugar” listen within the first 3 ingredients.

When reading food labels, it’s easy to be misled about whether or not a particular food item has sugar in it, especially since food manufacturers have cleverly created many different forms of sugar by another name.

Please reference the list below to prevent excessive sugar and artificial sweetener intake in your diet:

Alternative Names for Sugar/Synonyms

If you encounter one of the names below in a product ingredient list – it’s sugar in one form or other and will contribute 4 calories per gram consumed (exceptions noted in parentheses). Artificial sweeteners contain no calories but are at times controversial due to other health risks they may or may not pose.

Aspartame – marketed as Nutrasweet (artificial, 0 calories)
Acesulfame potassium (acesulfame-K)
Barley Malt Extract
Brown Rice Syrup
Brown sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup, or corn syrup solids
Crystalline Fructose
Dehydrated Cane Juice
Dextrin
Dextrose
Evaporated Cane Juice
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
High-fructose corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar (golden syrup)
Lactose
Maltodextrin
Malt syrup
Maltose
Mannitol (2.6 calories)
Maple syrup
Molasses
Neotame (artificial, 0 calories)
Raw sugar
Rice Syrup
Saccharin (artificial, 0 calories)
Saccharose
Sucralose – marketed as Splenda (artificial, 0 calories)
Sucrose
Sugar
Sorbitol (2.6 calories)
Sorghum syrup
Syrup
Treacle
Turbinado Sugar
Xylose

Crank it!

BJ

I love Heirloom tomatoes because of their variety of color (you know what that means, variety of nutrients!) and their unique flavor. Each heirloom has it’s own characteristics. Some are very sweet, others meaty, others juicy…

So when I walked into Whole Foods and saw a new display of organic Heirlooms, I knew what we were having for dinner!

Dinner was Broiled Top Sirloin and Heirloom Tomato Caprese

It looks and sounds gourmey, but it is one of the easiest meals to whip up with minimal cooking and prep time.

Ingredients:

For Steak:

You can use any steak, but we used some beautiful Sirloin cuts

Salt and Pepper to taste

Crushed garlic (2-3 cloves per steak)

Onion Powder

For Carprese:

Heirloom Tomatoes- I used about 5

Ovaline Fresh Mozzarella- 2-3 balls

2 Tbsp of Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Set the oven to broil. Season the steak with salt, pepper and onion powder. Spread the garlic over the steak. Throw in the oven.

In the meantime, slice the tomatoes into thick, meaty slices. Slice the mozzarella, use gentle back and forth strokes so you don’t flatten the cheese. For each tomato slice, add a cheese slice. Lay flat on a platter. Once done, sprinkle salt, pepper and drizzle olive oil and balsamic. Slide the platter back and forth a few times to distribute the oil and vinegar.

How pretty is this?

By the time your steak should be ready to flip. Cook until you reach your desired level of done-ness. You can check by slicing into the steak.

Yum!

I was supposed to do a post about Turkish Thursday. That is a new tradition BJ and I have where we order yummy Turkish food. It is quite a delicious spread which demonstrates that you do not need to feel deprived when eating to lean out. I was going to take pictures of the yummy salads, kabobs, brochettes, and Shawarma.Unfortunately/fortunately, it was so good and I was so hungry that BJ and I ate it all, and by the time I remembered I was supposed to photograph the food, well, all that there was left was…nothing!

Here is a pic on the web of what it looked like (Sans the rice and the pita of course!):

What I love about Turkish and Mediterranean food in general is the use of tons of veggies, healthy fats and the fact that meat is grilled, but still juicy and full of flavor.

So that is what Turkish Thursday is all about!

Now the night after that I was feeling lazy, but had to make something, so I made an egg bake. Here is my pretty little egg bake:

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients:

9 Whole Omega 3 eggs

Veggies of choice diced or sliced ( I used mushrooms and tomatoes this time because that was what was in the fridge…but I also use peppers, onions, spinach, broccoli, you name it!)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional Ingredients :

2 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream

1/2 Cup of cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Beat the eggs and if you are using whipping cream, mix it in. Let the mixture sit. Take your veggies (except tomatoes, they can go in raw) and sautee them in a pan until they stop looking raw…you don’t need to cook them too much as they are going in the bake.

Coat a baking dish with butter or olive oil and pour in the egg mixture. Add the veggies and throw in the oven. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until you can stick a knife in and it comes out dry. FYI- I did not use cheese in this bake but you can mix it in before adding the veggies if you do.

So what do BJ and I do when we are too booged down to be creative or cook things from scratch? Two words: Rotisserie Chicken

The great thing about Rotisseries is that they are inexpensive, easy to store and reheat. You can throw them into other meals, or just eat it on it’s own. So BJ and I have purchased two every morning and scrarf them down like wild cavepeople since we usually get REALLY hungry when we are busy.

This week I will be doing very little cooking and a lot of eating out due to the crazy schedule. This will give you the opportunity to see how to eat out and lean out. I am sick of the “I eat out a lot” excuse from people, because you can find a healthy option ANYWHERE and I mean ANYWHERE.

What are BJ and I planning for tomorrow? It’s Turkish Thursday! More about that in my next post.

Mobility describes the ability of a joint, or a series of joints, to move through an ideal range of motion. Though mobility relies on flexibility, it requires an additional strength, stability, and neuromuscular control component to allow for proper movement. Activation is often paired with mobility because many mobility exercises activate key, and often dormant, pillar stabilizers in your hips, core, and shoulders.

There is also a bit of a gray zone between flexibility and mobility. The best way I can describe the difference between the two is that flexibility is a lower intensity version of mobility that does NOT require mobility (or you can say that mobility is a higher intensity version of flexibility that involves stability).

For example, a split kneeling hip flexor stretch focuses on getting enough motion at the hip to allow for a full, pain-free range of motion split squat/sagittal lunge variation. Where the split squat/sagittal lunge variation requires strength, stability, and neuromuscular control, the hip flexor stretch does not.

Continuing this analogy further, I’d urge you to consider mobility/activation to be a lower intensity version of an intensive workout (or you can say that a workout is a higher-intensity version of mobility/activation). In other words, for new, overweight, or de-conditioned trainees, mobility/activation circuits are like an introduction to metabolic resistance circuit training.

For example, let’s look at the basic knee-dominant movement pattern of a lunge to establish a clear continuum here:

Step#1- Tissue Quality: Self-massage the quad/hip-flexor area to eliminate any restrictions that may impede movement and cause knee pain

Step#2- Flexibility: Stretch the quad/hip-flexor area to lengthen the tissue to optimal levels to allow for pain-free, full range of motion

Step#3- Mobility/Activation: Perform entry level split squat/sagittal lunge variations to develop the appropriate knee stability and hip mobility and stability for optimal performance

Step#4- Strength: Progress to more advanced split squat/sagittal lunge variations via stability, range of motion, loading, integration, and/or tempo progressions

Some recent studies have been quite misleading in suggesting that stretching before exercise can negatively impact performance and of course there was that immediate knee jerk reaction in the fitness industry where many trainers and coaches jumped on the band wagon and stopped stretching altogether.

While it has been shown that performing static stretching immediately before explosive movements results in a reduction in power output, the drop in performance was so insignificant that it’s not even worth noting when you consider that if you follow static stretching with proper mobility/activation drills it’s been shown that the reduction in performance no longer exists.

The reason mobility/activation work should follow flexibility training is because it helps develop the neural connections to reinforce new ranges of motion. Plus, it helps grease the groove on all of the foundational bodyweight movement patterns like a squat, push-up, lunge, etc. to provide for a safer, more effective high-intensity workout.

As I mentioned in the recent posts about tissue quality and flexibility, it’s not about PAIN SITE… it’s about PAIN SOURCE!!

World renowned strength coach Mike Boyle is well known for advancing the concept of a joint by joint approach to training.

The reader’s digest version of this concept is that the body is simply a stack of joints and the joints in the body alternate between a need for mobility and stability. The outline below summarizes what our body needs more of, from bottoms up:

Ankle Mobility (sagittal plane) –>

Knee Stability –>

Hip Stability (multi-planar) –>

Lumbar Stability –>

Thoracic Spine Mobility –>

Scapular Stability –>

Gleno-humeral Mobility

Another one of Coach Boyle’s golden nuggets is that problems in one joint typically lead to pain or dysfunction in the joint above or below.

Knee pain is often caused by lack of ankle mobility and lack of hip stability (thus requiring hip/glute activation).

Lower back pain is often caused by a lack of hip and thoracic spine mobility and a lack of hip and core stability (thus requiring hip and core activation).

Neck and shoulder pain is often caused by a lack of thoracic spine mobility and a lack of scapulothoracic stability (thus requiring scapulothoracic activation).

In my personal experience, I have found the following 5 mobility/activation exercises to be of the highest priority for the general population. These are also the big 5 foundational bodyweight movement patterns in most bootcamp/group exercise settings with limited equipment access:

1.) Squat Variation: Proper squatting requires ankle, hip, and t-spine mobility. It also requires strong hip abductors to prevent the knees from caving in. My favorite exercise cues for my campers are “eyes up, chest and knees out, weight on your outer heels”. I like the goblet squats here because it allows you to really sit back into a deep squat position with counterbalance. The assisted TRX squat is also great as it allows you to unload your bodyweight to make squatting easier at first.

2.) Sagittal Lunge Variation: Lunge progressions begin in a static and stationary environment and progress to a dynamic and moving environment. Proper sagittal plane lunging requires both knee and hip stability and hip mobility. My favorite exercise cues for my campers are “stay tall up top, drop your hips, and keep your weight on your front heel.” One thing I learned from my buddy Mike Robertson at a recent seminar is that you should teach the split squat by having your clients place their toes against a wall/post which will prevent knee-driving and force them to drop at the hips- it works like magic!!

3.) Frontal/Transverse Lunge Variation: It’s critical to be able to lunge in all 3 planes of motion, including the frontal plane (side to side) and transverse plane (rotational). The limiting factor in frontal/transverse lunging (think lateral and rotational squats and lunges) is often poor adductor flexibility. If you can’t lunge properly then you can’t decelerate or change direction properly and that means that you will not be able to properly stop or run without risk of injury. In other words, sound lunging is key for properly training speed and agility. My favorite exercise cues for my campers are “stay tall up top, push your hips back, and keep your weight on the heel of your lead leg.”

4.) Stiff-Legged Deadlift (SLDL)/Hip-Hinge Variation: This is by far the hardest movement to teach because most people have such poor hamstring flexibility that they are unable to extend their hip without compensating by squatting and/or flexing at the lumbar spine. I see too many trainers teach swings before they ever teach their clients how to hip-hinge. This is crazy because the hip-hinge is an unloaded, slower bodyweight version of the swing- let’s not skip steps people! My favorite exercise cues for my campers are “flex your knee(s), load your heel, and extend your limbs as far away from each other as you can.”

5.) Push-up Variation: The push-up is the ultimate total body stability exercise and I feel some variation of it needs to be trained at every single workout. Start by mastering the push-up hold before moving to dynamic push-ups and for the love of God do not allow your clients to do those hideous elbows out, hump the floor push-ups. Proper push-ups require maintaining a straight line from your head through your heels- this is best accomplished by squeezing the glutes. My favorite exercise cues for my campers are “squeeze your butt and keep your elbows tight to your rib cage.”

Below is an outline of our 30-10 mobility/activation circuit in our MISSION: UNBREAKABLE beginner bootcamp in Milwaukee, WI:

Watch the video below for a highlight reel of the mobility/activation exercises that we use:

I’m a big fan of a relative stability/range of motion/difficulty scale when it comes to mobility/activation, for example:

-       Using a relative stability/range of motion/difficulty scale of 1-10, “1” being full range of motion/most stable/very easy to perform and “10” being partial range of motion/most unstable/very difficult to perform, please check the appropriate box for each mobility/activation exercise below whenever you feel a challenge that is greater than a 5 out of 10

-       Your fitness homework is to religiously perform all mobility/activation exercises that were a 5 or greater on the stability/range of motion/difficulty scale both pre-workout and several times post-workout every day. Be sure to first self-massage AND stretch all tight/related muscle groups in order to eliminate any tissue restrictions for optimal performance of these foundational bodyweight strength exercises

-       For best results and injury prevention, perform this entire 30-10 mobility/activation circuit at least once per week

Why 30-sec0nds for mobility/activation?

Well, we want to warm-up without overly fatiguing ourselves for the upcoming workout.

Still, make no mistake about it- this mobility activation circuit is like a beginner metabolic bootcamp workout. It will get people sweating and puffing without overwhelming them before they enter your more advanced programs.

It will also bulletproof their bodies so that they are ready to handle anything else you throw their way.

What are your favorite mobility/activation exercises? Let us know by posting a comment to this blog post

Crank it!
BJ