Stayfitanywhere’s Blog

When will we wake up to what is happening to our physical bodies?  We are living in a time when people are experiencing more psychological stress than ever before, yet we are moving less and less. All our psychological stress, in one way or another, gets held in the physical body- usually in the form of tension.  We give ourselves hardly any permission to have a physical outlet for this stress, and yet we wonder why we are seeing more cases of disease, illness, and injury in our society. We have become casualties of the convenient, ‘quick-fix’ world we have created.  Yet, with all this technology at our disposal, it seems we still need to take an inventory of the drawbacks that come with this modern lifestyle.

I find it unbelievably sad that we don’t truly value physical movement.  Having to move has become a ‘chore’ rather than something we enjoy and give ourselves permission to do.  And I see more and more evidence every day that supports the fact that many people are living in uncertain bodies.  Sometimes, I prescribe an exercise that is ‘different’ or  out of the frame of reference for some participants.  And I often hear things like ‘that’s weird” or “I’m not coordinated enough to do this”, or “I feel stupid doing this” in response.  Instead of being excited by the possibility of exploring a new possiblity of movement, it seems there are strong reactions of fear to performing a new movement.  In my experience, many people that have these types of reactions towards movement and exercise are living in a physical body that they don’t trust.

This is why we have created the StayFitAnywhere Building Blocks Program (Strength, Stability, Mobility).  We want people to begin to wake up from their coma that their physical bodies are living in.  If you have a ‘quick-fix’ mind-set, then this program is not for you.  Developing a quality of body that displays high levels of strength, stability, and mobility is something that must be hard-earned, and it will only work if you truly value your body for the amazing tool that it is. You must also cultivate patience and understand that your body requires much physical management for it to function at an optimum level of performance and health.  If you value the possibility of living in a body that serves you better than it currently is, then I will bend over backwards to help you get there.  But if you’re not interested, then I’m not interested either…

Happy Building

Andrew Burchell

Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

My favourite sport far and away is basketball.  Although my first sport was actually hockey (beginning at age 5), I began playing basketball at the age of 11 and quickly fell in love with the quick & explosive full bodied movements that it fostered.

The other great perks that the sport provided was that it was very inexpensive, required little equipment and could be played with little pre-planning- ie. no rink time had to be arranged, and courts were plentiful and accessible.  This allowed me to play frequently and at almost any time I desired.

My entire teenage years were consumed with playing basketball and although I didn’t realize it at the time, it provided me with a strong body and athletic foundation that I still carry with me to this day.  The countless hours that I spent playing also gave me an outlet to expend the incredible amount of energy that I had (and as most teenagers do).  And as I was constantly spending every spare moment I had on the court, it also kept me out of trouble

The important skills and physical development that basketball provided were many:

-hand eye coordination, agility, balance, strength, power, speed, reaction time, cardiovascular endurance, good bodily coordination, and a good foundation of movement skills.

In addition, the mechanical stress that was placed on my body provided a good foundation for my bones.  The teenage years are a critical time of peak bone growth, and doing resistance training or explosive jumping & running sports can add more bone in the ‘bone bank’ by up to 20 years!  This is another reason why it is so important for children and youth to be involved in physical activity- it can have a major positive impact on future bone health!

Basketball has provided me with 20 years of fun, exercise, competition, teamwork, teammates (that have become good friends), and good disciplined work habits.  I still love to play it and still have much to thank for it.

Happy Ballin’ 

Andrew Burchell

Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

The supine what?  Yes read it again.  You may have never heard of this exercise, but as you can see, this is actually a combination of 2 exercises.  I love this exercise and I do this exercise regularly because it addresses 5 things:  upper body flexibility, upper body strength, shoulder joint stability, core strength, and an increased metabolic effect.  I’ll begin by describing the exercise start postitions and break it down, bit by bit.

To start, I lie in a supine (face up on my back) ‘table-top position’ on a workout bench with a dumbbell in each hand.  I begin the action by very slowly lowering the dumbbells in a controlled manner into a chest fly position.  From there, I will hold this position for 10 seconds.  Holding this position, is in my experience, the most effective and aggressive way to stretch out your chest muscles.  Most individuals have tight pecs and rounded shoulders from sitting at a desk all day and this section of the exercise alone is an amazing way to stretch the chest (and feels great too!).  As I hold the dumbbells and let my chest stretch out in this deep fly position with my legs up in the table top position, I am simultaneously performing 10 alternating ‘leg drops’.  This action forces the deep core muscles to stabilize the spine.

Once I have performed the 10 alternating leg drops, I return my legs to the table top position and then I begin to perform 5 very slow controlled chest flies, which builds strength and a fantastic isolation awareness of the pectoralis major muscles (the chest-see my previous blog post on Corrective Exercise).  Once I have completed my 5 chest fly reps, I will return the beginning and repeat this sequence it all over again until I have done it for at least 1 minute.  My favourite benefit of this whole exercise is that each time I lower the dumbbells into the deep fly position, I can feel my chest muscles stretch out deeper and deeper.  By the time the exercise is over, my chest has gone through a very deep, profound stretch and I experience a feeling of being ‘opened up’.

WARNING TO THOSE WHO WANT TO TRY THIS EXERCISE:  As with any exercise, this sequence has its elements of risk!  Remember to begin by performing just the chest fly with a light weight first.  The deeper and heavier you go into the fly, the higher the risk of injury in the shoulder joint.  If you feel any part of your shoulder joint ‘kicking in’ then you are performing this exercise ineffectively- make sure your chest muscles are taking 100% of the load during this sequence.  This exercise is complex.  So just as with learning any new skill, it is important to begin by performing simple movements (correctly) first.  Once you have a handle on the simple dumbbell movement (in isolation) then practice the leg drops (in isolation).  Once you have correctly mastered the 2 movements, you can then combine the 2 exercises.  Crawl before you walk kids

Happy Training! 

Andrew Burchell

Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

More and more I find myself watching individuals move and noticing how they are using their body.  I have come to the conclusion that although every person has pretty much an identical physical make-up, each person uses their body very very differently, and no 2 individuals are the same. There are 600 muscles in the human body and it is very interesting to watch how some people are very dominant with certain muscles and much less so in others.  So what does this mean?

When certain movements are performed, there can be certain muscles that act as primary movers as well as synergistic movers (groups of muscles that work together to cause the same movement).  For example, in a push-up, the primary muscle would be the chest, while the main synergists would be the shoulders and triceps.  A very common imbalance with a push-up with many individuals is that while performing the push-up, they are using their body in certain way where the chest is not the primary mover.  Rather, the shoulders and musculature of the arm become the primary movers and the chest and musculature of the upper back become the  synergistic muscles.  And what does this mean?  Imbalanced and inefficient movement!  The chest has the potential to be a big, powerful muscle- just look at the breast muscle of a bird.  Yet, when most people perform push-ups, they are not firing the chest muscles to the potential that they could be.  The other possible danger with imbalanced musculature is joint wear.  Anytime there are imbalanced forces acting around a joint, the joint will wear down prematurely and can lead to arthritis.

So what’s the answer?  Corrective exercise!  This type of training focuses on first addressing imbalances (through an assessment) and identifying the necessary exercises/stretches to correct them.  The next phase is to screen a series of movements (again through an assessment) and retrain the body so that the primary and synergistic muscles are working in an optimally sequential fashion.

Here are other imbalances that I commonly see:

-Over dominance of the quadriceps vs hamstrings.  Most people are very quadricep dominant and have a poor understanding of how to engage the hamstrings while engaging in lower body movements such as squats and lunges.

-Over dominance of upper back musculature vs mid back musculature.  The fact that most people have desk jobs these days puts our bodies into a poor postural position.  The result is that our upper backs are very tight, our shoulders are rounded forward (internally rotated) and our mid-back (mid/lower traps are weak).

The benefits of rebalancing your body through corrective exercise are many:  improved posture, improved biomechanics, reduced injury risk, reduced pain, reduced muscle tightness/pain, improved joint health, and increased bodily energy.  If you are interested in re-balancing your body through corrective exercise, or want to know more, don’t hesitate to contact me.  Having a Stayfitanywhere trainer perform an assessment for you can help easily determine what your imbalances are and steps can then be taken to address them.

Happy (Corrective) Training! 

Andrew Burchell

Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

So here it was.  Sunday, February 28th- the final day of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Today was to be quite the historic day as the Canada vs USA Gold medal hockey game was to be played out and the closing ceremonies, thereafter.

My day started at 9 am so I could get downtown to the Earls’ Paramount to meet up with my friends for the hockey game.  The bar was packed by 10:30 am and people were already on their second beer by 11.  I was not one of those individuals  I was supposed to be at the rehearsal compound by 1:30 pm, but the game went into overtime and I absolutely could not leave.  Once the magical Crosby overtime goal happened, I celebrated like crazy with everybody in the bar for 10 minutes and then walked down the joyous streets of downtown (high fiving everybody on the way) to get to the compound.

I showed up a little late, but that didn’t matter.  We still had more than enough time to prepare & get ready.  Once 6 pm came around, the hundreds of performers were all escorted across the street to the stadium and we took our positions.  The atmosphere felt electric and I felt very excited & proud to be there.  When our turn was up, we went ahead and performed our first task:  Zorb wrangling.  We pushed the zorbs up the ramp and onto the field of play.  Then we quickly went to our positions under the stage to get ready for our second task.  There were to be 4 Russian athletes to come out of the stage with us.  One of them was Alexander Ovechkin.  A few of us stopped by his scala to get photos & autographs.  It was a very cool moment.  We then quickly headed to our scala and Victor Pochenko (the figure skater) was waiting by ours.  We got his autograph & photo as well.

Then it was finally show time.  The Russian segment of the closing ceremonies began and we entered onto the stage with our flags.  The curtain lifted and we ran out to an electrifying and jam-packed BC place stadium and did our flag routine.  We were on stage for 30 seconds and then we exited and that was it!  We went immediately back to the compound to rendez-vous.  We all celebrated with Igor (our Russian choreographer) by taking a few photos and each downing a nice shot of Russian vodka!

After that, a party for the closing ceremony staff had been arranged at Fortune Sound Club.  So we all went there afterwards (still in our costumes) and drank and danced the night away.  It was a great way wind down from all the incredible excitement of the day and to put a final stamp on the Olympics. It was all so much fun and it will definitely be an experience I will never forget!

Happy Training! 

Andrew Burchell

Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

We had our partners and the colour of our flags established.  Now it was time to go over the actual tasks that we were to do.  The first task was quite simple:  with our partners, we push the zorbs up the ramp and on to the field of play and exit.  Once this was completed we had a second role to perform. And this was where the flags would come in.  In our pairs, we were given a 12 metre long flag.  There were 3 different flags:  One was white with the reverse side bronze, another was blue with the reverse side silver, and the other was red with the reverse side gold.  My partner Doug and I had the Silver flag that flipped to blue.

So here was the sequence that we had to practice:  enter from the ’scala’ (stairs).  Line up facing your partner in groups of 6 people.  Enter the field of play.  Partner 1 holds the flag (me), partner 2 runs the flag (Doug).  Wave the flag.  Flip the flag.  Stretch the flag.  Flip the flag again.  And exit.  Over and over we practiced this sequence.  By the 3rd rehearsal, we pretty much had everything down pat.  And as soon as we had our first rehearsal in the stadium, we were golden.  But we had to keep showing up to rehearsals, not because we needed the practice, but because the choreographer needed to rehearse the sequencing and timing with all the other performers.

In the end, we had 7 rehearsals, from February 18th to the 27th.  5 were in the compound and 2 were in the stadium.  Most of the rehearsals were no more than 4 hours, but I really enjoyed them as it gave me a sense of really being a part of the whole Olympics in Vancouver.  Even the simple fact of walking every day through the Olympic grounds, past all the pavilions, and past all the security check-points was an experience in itself!

By the time Sunday, February 28th came, all we had to do was just show up and do it.  But not before attending the small matter of a Canada/USA Gold medal hockey game

Stay tuned for the 5th and final installment of ‘Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies’ next week!

Happy Training 

Andrew Burchell

Clinical Exercise Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

Soon after we entered the compound and watched all these Russian performers running around in the giant spherical zorbs, we were introduced to Igor.  Igor was the head choreographer for the Sochi segment of the closing ceremonies.  He gave us a quick run down of what stations to tune into for our headphones (so we could hear his directions through the mic) and what our roles would be.

Our first task was to divide ourselves up into 2 groups (36 of us in total) and then partner up.  My number was G27, so I was partnered with G28.  His name was Doug.  In our 2 groups, our job was to push the zorbs along a narrow corridor and then exit in a very orderly fashion.  This essentially, was simulating the job we would have to do at the closing ceremonies:  Pushing the zorbs up the ramp leading to the ‘field of play’ in BC Place Stadium.  We rehearsed getting ourselves lined up in our exact positions, walking together simultaneously, and exiting in single file a couple times through and had it nailed in 10 minutes.

Our second task for the closing ceremonies was flag bearing.  This required us (in our partners) to run out a section of a Russian flag onto the field of play.  Each flag was 12 metres long and had either a bronze, silver, or gold colour on its reverse side.  So our job was for one partner to be a flag ‘holder’ and the other partner to be the flag ‘runner’.  I ended up being a flag holder and my partner Doug was a flag runner.  Once these roles were established, it was then time to rehearse over and over our positions and our ‘moves’…

Stay tuned for Part 4 of ‘Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies’ next week!

Happy Training 

Andrew Burchell

Clinical Exercise Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com

Now it’s January 2010.  Only one month until the Olympics would be arriving here in Vancouver. Thinking that my chance of taking part in the closing ceremonies was all over for me, I had forgotten about the whole thing for weeks.   Then, in early January, I get an email back from the casting crew saying that they were still in need of performers.  Great!  I quickly replied back and told them that I was all in.  

A day later, I had my rehearsal schedule sent to me.  In all, I would have 8 four-hour rehearsals from February 18th, until the final performance on February 28th.  Seems like a lot of time to commit to, but I had a friend also performing in the closing ceremonies (a mountie), and he had been rehearsing since November!  So comparatively, my rehearsal schedule was a joke!

So it’s February 18th now, and it’s time for my first rehearsal.  This was held a the Ceremonies compound near the Plaza of Nations and right across the road from BC Place Stadium.  This rehearsal compound was a massive tent with a huge open floor.  As massive as it was, it was still smaller than the ‘field of play’ at BC Place.

So I arrived at the compound along with about 30 other guys.  Just outside the entrance,  we were given a green bib with a number on it, a pocket-radio with earphones, and a quick introduction from one of the stage managers.  Then we entered.  I walked in to the compound only to see a group of Russian performers maneuvering around in these massive plastic spheres.  This, then, would be my first introduction to the Zorb…  

Stay tuned for Part 3 of ‘Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies’, coming soon!

Happy Training 

Andrew Burchell

Clinical Exercise Specialist

aburchell@stayfitanywhere.com 

The 17 days of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have come and gone.  For Vancouverites, this was a very special time of incredible athletic events and celebrations.  For myself, I had the unique opportunity to participate in not only all the event viewing and celebrating, but also in the performance of the closing ceremonies at BC Place Stadium.  Back in December, I received an email through a friend from the casting crew of the ceremonies.  The cast was short men and they needed more to apply.  I thought this would be a pretty unique opportunity, so I went ahead and applied.  

A week later I received a phone call to say that they would like me to come down to the ceremonies compound where I, along with many other men, would be partaking in an audition.  The audition was lead by the ceremonies head producer David Atkins (David Atkins Productions).  He lead us through this silly little dance & movement routine.  He wanted to see how we moved and followed instructions.  In essence, it was a movement screen- similar to what we do in our assessments except without all the music & dance moves

After the audition, we were told that they would call us back within 1 or weeks.  I never heard back from them after 2 weeks, and I and thought it would never happen…  But it did happen- find out how next week in Part 2 of Wrangling Zorbs at the Closing Ceremonies.  Same Stayfit time, same Stayfit channel…