BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
Stop Overthinking Your Health and Fitness: Optimizing VS Optimal
With the new year around the corner, many of us are already thinking about making big health and fitness changes. And let’s be honest—the health and fitness industry isn’t exactly shy about telling us the “best” ways to eat, train, or live. Whether it’s intermittent fasting, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), or the latest superfood trend, it’s easy to fall into the trap of overthinking and searching for perfection.
If what’s “optimal” doesn’t fit into your life in a way you can sustain, it’s not optimal for you. It might even derail your progress entirely. Most of the time this is not the optimization strategy you are being fed, but what works is indeed something far simpler and less sexy.
Strength Training- Mastering Pull-Ups
If you have ever wanted to learn or struggled to do pull-ups (let alone one pull-up), understanding how to best go about mastering one can lead you down a rabbit hole with conflicting advice and opinions.
The reality is that most people don’t just learn to do a pull-up overnight unless they have an extensive background in athletic endeavors and/or lots of calisthenic-type and resistance-type training. Even so, the smooth and well controlled pull-up can still take a while to master.
Today I still see a lot of impatience and also misguided ideas about how best to develop pull-ups. Case in point is the over-prescription of banded pull-ups in the absence of other exercises aimed at shoring up strength and endurance in the muscles required to do a clean pull-up.
Improve Technique with Myofascial Release + Movement Drills
You may have heard both sides to this coin: foam rollers belong in the garbage, or they are a great tool to help you move and feel better. Have you ever tried using self-guided myofascial release techniques or movement drills? Have you ever done these with the intention of improving how you feel or your technique when you do certain movements like a squat or an overhead press? . Give this simple 3 step SMR a go and see if it helps your overhead pressing technique if you tend to feel restricted as you reach overhead.