Next Scheduled Recovery Week: July 3 - July 9, 2017

If you are new to the concept of recovery weeks, please read on.

If you have been training with us for awhile and you have ignored recovery weeks, read on.

Especially you.​

Recovery weeks serve a critical function within the training cycle (more on that below for those of you who want to see the science).

You may have noticed that as we get closer to recovery week the daily and weekly training intensity has increased.

That is purposeful.

Because we are working toward a week of MacroRecovery, we are intentionally working at a higher level.

Then we will take a scheduled, purposeful rest.​

Because whether you think so or not, you cannot and should not train really hard, all the time.

In fact one of our training program design principles is what is referred to as MED.

Minimum Effective Dose.

In other words, what is the MINIMUM stimulus we need to get better - stronger, leaner, better conditioned, etc.?

What? The minimum you say? That is NOT my style. Go hard or go home!

That WILL work, at least for a short time. Until your training overwhelms your ability to recover, and you start breaking down.

How can you tell that is happening? That you're not recovering fast enough from your training? Here's a few warning signs:

Altered Heart Rate and Blood Pressure

You are having a hard time getting your heart rate up, or it's beating like a racehorse when you feel like you aren't really doing much.​

Poor Sleep Patterns

​An increasing pattern of the inability to sleep restfully.

Decreased Performance

Your training loads have stagnated or even decreased.​

Mood Swings

One of my big ones (no secret I know - sorry).​

Eating Habits Disrupted or Compromised

It's not just a matter of will power. Overreaching and overtraining can cause physical cravings if our bodies are missing crucial nutrients because of too much physiological or psychological stress.​

Decreased Immunity

If you are getting sick frequently (eg. more than one cold a year) your immune system is probably compromised.​

Increase In Injury

This could be not recovering from the normal microtrauma caused by training, for example you are sore for 2 or 3 days after training, or you are getting strains, sprains, aches and pains that you normally do not.​

Lack of Progress (Plateau)

This could be either in body composition (not losing bodyfat/gaining muscle) or not making gains in the gym.​

Enter Recovery Weeks

Recovery weeks are designed to give you rest; physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

You see stress is not just a "mental" thing. Do you realize when you train you are stressing yourself out, on purpose? That gets added on top of all the other stress in your life, whether it be work, home, or the jerk who cut you off in traffic. Your central nervous system doesn't care, it just knows when you have too much of it, and it doesn't like it!

​And while you can't stop the knucklehead from driving like an idiot, there are things you can do to avoid excess systemic stress, and taking recovery weeks is one of them.

Here's My Top 5 Things To Do On Recovery Week

1. Catch up on my reading
2. Get some extra sleep
3. Spend more time with my family
4. Eat at a more leisurely pace
5. Visit somewhere I haven't before (this week is normally our "Spring Break")

​What about you?

You see you don't have to "not move" for a week. There is nothing wrong with getting outdoors, taking a walk, hitting the rock climbing gym, spending some time on the foam roller and stretching, getting a massage, and/or taking some long showers or baths.

Those things will aid your recovery and help you relax; running 2 or 3 or 5 miles every day (or every other day), or going to spin class, will not. 

I train hard, but more importantly I train and recover appropriately. 

I am in it for the long game. When I am sick, or excessively tired, or injured I cannot train.

THAT is what sets me back.

Recovery is what drives me forward. On a daily, weekly, and quarterly basis.

​You ready to get better with me?

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Coach Dean

PS. Below is the "Science Stuff" I promised - Enjoy!

All About Recovery Weeks

Our recovery weeks are what I would call Macro-Recovery. In other words we take a planned week off every training phase in order to let the body rest up from hard training and get ready for the next phase.

But did you know you can do even better than that? We have a number of athletes in the Get Fit NH family who participate in our Bioforce HRV monitoring program, which measures your systemic stress load on a daily basis, which allows us to fine-tune the recovery process on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. You can catch up on that by clicking here

Read on why properly planned and adequate recovery is important for you!

The Recovery Curve

I saw the recovery curve for the first time during my time with Australian physical preparation coach Ian King. His principles laid the foundation for the way we program, train and especially recover here at Get Fit NH. The principles that work with professional athletes apply to us too!

The following illustrates a “good” recovery curve:

The green line represents what we are all looking for – continual, never ending progress over time. We are getting stronger, faster, thinner, better looking (ok at least that’s what I wish for).

Reality Check – ain’t gonna happen. The process of changing your body is not linear, in fact what we are looking at in an optimal training environment is more of a “One step back brings me Two steps forward”.

A closer look at the chart will help explain what I mean.

The red line represents Equilibrium. This is where your body wants to stay, no matter if your goal is losing fat, gaining lean, or both. As you have no doubt found out, forcing your body to change is hard work – really hard work. When you walk into Get Fit NH, our training is designed to elicit that change. But it’s not as simple as “working out” day after day after day. In fact as I am about to illustrate, training without proper recovery is actually hurting you, not making you better.

The blue line represents the “recovery curve”. Starting at the left hand of the chart all the lines intersect. For this illustration that point is where your first training occurred – you “worked out”.

But what’s going on?

Instead of performance going up, that line is actually heading down – this is what is called Depletion. If you think about it makes sense – you have worked hard, you are fatigued, your body is depleted of nutrients – you are spent!

Don’t worry, your body will get over it, if you treat it right! This is what we call Adaptation. Your body wants to be able to handle the increased demand that was placed on it, and starts the process of getting better.

You are in charge of if and how fast that happens. A few of the factors that influence this adaptation include recovery nutrition, stress levels, sleep habits, supportive nutrition, age, and training history.

The recovery curve continues with Supercompensation. Here is how Coach King describes this process:

“It is only when recovery is allowed that we see the super-compensation effect, the unique phenomenon where the bodies physical capacity is elevated in response to training, in anticipation of another exposure to the same stimulus.” – King, I, 1999/2000, Foundations of Physical Preparation

In other words your body has gotten better in response to your training, a new Equilibrium is established and this state is when we will ideally train again. Our programming at Get Fit NH is carefully designed to give this the best chance of occurring, but as I hope you are discovering, you have a lot to do with this with how you treat your recovery!

As you can see, when things are clicking, this process when repeated over and over means you are getting better and better, the blue line is headed up – pretty cool!

The flip side to all this is what happens when the recovery process isn’t working so well.

This chart represents recovery gone “bad”:

When we continue to train in a state of “Depletion”, regardless of the reason, the adaptation to super-compensation effect doesn’t occur, and instead of getting better, we find ourselves in a downward cycle. This can happen when we train the same muscle groups too soon, when we haven’t taken the steps described above to recover optimally (sleep and nutrition for instance) regardless of time between training, when we train too hard coming off an illness, etc. The last thing we want to happen is new equilibrium to be established in a downward pattern – not good.

The long and short of it is your body absolutely needs to recover from hard training. Consistently training in a fatigued state results in injury and illness. Your body is an amazing machine designed to put up with a lot, but it was also designed to need rest.

Which leads us to:

Recovery Weeks!

Face it – you can get beat up anywhere. Our responsibility at Get Fit NH is to help you get better!

That includes recovery weeks. We have found that somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks of training is just about right to take a full week off and let your body recover.

That doesn’t mean that you spend your training time on the couch eating bon-bons, but if you insist on going down to PF and hitting the weights or running 10 miles every morning, your body will suffer in the long run, and perhaps even in the short term.

If you find yourself fighting this concept, ask yourself this – Is your unwillingness to take a week off a well reasoned decision based on what you know to be true, or is it that your attachment to training is so strong emotionally that makes it so hard? You will not lose all you have gained by taking the week off, I assure you! Again to quote Coach King, “…if you don’t (take time off)…most of you are going to lose it anyway!”

So now that we have established you are ready, willing and able to embrace recovery week, what do you do?

Glad you asked!

Three Steps for Successful Recovery

1.) Physical Rest and Regeneration

– Our bodies must rest and recover to prevent over-training (or under-recovering) issues so that we can come back 100% healthy and energized for the next phase of the program

– Focus on maintaining and/or increasing flexibility and tissue health by stretching and foam rolling daily. 15-30 minutes is fantastic!

– Daily restorative walks are beneficial during this week. 30-60 minutes briskly walking (not jogging/running) will keep your body refreshed and active, without negating the purpose of this week. Don’t overdo it!

2.) Physiological and Psychological Rest and Regeneration

– We must normalize key anabolic hormones, refill muscle glycogen, increase caloric intake, and prevent any diet induced catabolism (losses of lean body mass) so that we can enjoy greater fat loss for the next phase of the program

– We have taken the road less traveled by being flexible eaters with a long-term approach to success and thus we will take a break from our aggressive fat loss nutrition plans. This is not a free for all, so stay away from your “trigger foods” (junk foods and sweets) that open the door to excessive calorie intake.

– Instead plan (key word) and enjoy 2 or 3 controlled free meals to reward yourself for all of your hard work, but do not overdo it!

– Caveat: If your nutrition habits have been less than optimal, more than likely none of this applies to you. Instead now is the time to plan and prepare to make the changes necessary to see the results you want. Spend some time with a coach and your Jumpstart Nutrition Guide if you need help.

3.) Celebrate the Fruits of Your Labor

– Take some time to reflect on how far you have come since you joined Get Fit NH in terms of improving your overall health, body composition, and performance

– Enjoy your results!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

We would just like to take the time to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your hard work and dedication to improving your health and fitness… keep Making It Happen!

​

In order to build on my last piece about coordination, the next step is putting those into action. Reflexes and reaction can be greatly influenced at this age. You may see it in your kids now as this is normally when we start to see growth spurts and physical changes to some degree. You may see your child was one of the fastest, then he grew 4 inches and all of the sudden they are slower and look like they can’t control their body.

When that growth occurs, the body has to learn to adapt to the new changes - that’s where coordination, reflexes and reaction come into play. It's about teaching the body to move in space. I have seen it myself in doing things with kids within the last year or two. Think back to when you were in school playing tag, or capture the flag (or steal the bacon, whichever name you used). Now with that knowledge, go get a group of kids together and try to play the same game. You see kids running into each other, major collisions, one child runs with the flag, sees two other children and has plenty of time (in your mind) to react and change directions but they don’t and end up running straight into them.

Why? Why does it look so chaotic? So unbalanced? Why does your child, who used to be the fastest in their class, seem slower and more uncoordinated? Without the proper movements, these traits don’t develop. That’s why the next step in our 9-12 year old program is working on reflexes and reaction.

It isn’t so much to teach a child how to be the fastest or to cut to avoid a defender, although that may be a positive side effect. It is teaching the brain how to communicate more effective with the legs that are now longer and the muscle, which is now larger and more developed.

-Coach Adam

The inline lunge, which is performed on the Functional Movement board can seem like a balancing act to many. In this movement pattern, balance is not the only thing that we are looking for! During this exercise, your coach is able to gather valuable information in regards to your current:

1. Stability of the trunk during alternating patterns and without the use of the arms as a counter balance
2. Hip, ankle, knee, and foot mobility/stability for both sides
3. The functional symmetry between L and R sides

When there is a loss of balance, inability to complete the full movement pattern, or pain while performing, it will be important to be cautious while moving through lunges.

What does this mean when it comes to exercise?

If a blue wristband is something that you are currently sporting, our main focus will be to obtain full range of motion during this movement prior to adding an external load.

Examples of exercises not performed with a blue band:

• Loaded lunges

How can I work to get out of my band? I want to do some of those exercises!!

1. 1/2 Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

Purpose: Improve length of hip flexors and teach your body about hip extension rather than lumbar extension

How to perform it:

• Set yourself up in a half-kneeling position, with the R leg forward and L leg down on the floor. Ensure that both knees are at 90 degrees.
• Place your hands on your R knee and keep arms extended straight to keep your chest tall.
• Press your R knee away from your body, while tensing the L glute.
• Push forward until you feel a mild stretch in your L hip flexor.
• Hold for 1 minute.

Repeat: 1 minute on each side

2. 1/2 Kneeling Ankle Mobes

Purpose: Improve ankle mobility - dorsiflexion

How to perform it:

• Set yourself up in a half-kneeling position with your L foot forward. Set the dowel rod up outside of the pinky on the L foot.
• While holding onto the dowel rod, drive your L knee to the outside of the dowel rod, away from your midline.
• Pause for a few seconds, reset to starting position, then drive knee forward again. Keep repeating these steps.
• *Focus on keeping the L heel on the floor the entire time.

Repeat: 1 minute on each side

Let's conquer this band together,
Coach Cari

Imagine you're in gym class playing dodgeball and someone on the other team isn't looking. Now is your chance, wide-open target 10 feet away. You go to throw the ball, release; the ball goes 5 feet before hitting the ground and slowly rolls to their feet. What happened? Why is it that nowadays we see less and less ability of kids to be able to do something like throw a ball? It stems from a lack of coordination. Yes, all kids struggle with coordination to some degree, but why do we see it in such a sweeping percentage? Lack of play and lack of movement are normally to blame.

Many of us as kids grew up playing outdoors, climbing trees, jumping fences, walking on logs (or in my case stone walls with loose rocks). We don't think about how much those simple skills translate into our coordination as we get older. Climbing trees and fences teaches your body how to coordinate a foot and a hand at the same time in some cases. It all revolves around learning how to move more than one body part at the same time. Things that kids seldom experience anymore until they are old enough to join organized sports, that is assuming that they want to do so.

This is an important skill that has been lost often due to the modern practices. That is why such a big emphasis will be put on such movements in this summer's Athlete Academy for ages 9-12, to help teach them the movements necessary to increase their coordination.

-Coach Adam

I have recently been reminded that we need to do a better job educating on recovery. There are a number of factors that play into recovery and they are often over looked. We are stuck in this mindset where more is better and that is so far from the truth! More is NOT better. Better is better. When you came to us you not only hired a personal coach, but a training program that is purposeful and effective. Here are three areas that play into your recovery…

1. Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday. Did you notice those are not training days? 🙂  That is purposeful! It is not because we take those days off to eat bon bons and sun tan! It was interesting a couple of weeks ago we had the Rock N Race, so my afternoon friends had training Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I can’t even tell you how many of you came up to me and asked why you are so sore or so tired that week. The answer? Because your body needs to recover. We are not machines and we are not designed to run ourselves into the ground day in and day out. It is not sustainable. Professional athletes don’t do it and you don’t need to either.

2. Eat supportively. If you’re training hard, you must eat to support that. If you are constantly sore, you are not recovering. We are happy to help you figure out what you can do nutritionally to help beat some of that soreness. You should not be sore every single day if you have been training consistently. You need to be fueled to train hard and if you wanna be a fat burner you can’t be fueling with sugar! Lucky for you, if this stuff confuses you we have THE BEST nutrition coaches on hand.

3. Sleep. Sometimes I get emails from you guys that say, “I slept right through my alarm this morning. I am SO mad I missed training!” When I get these emails it tells me that you NEEDED that rest. That you needed a little extra recovery so you could build up and come back stronger. There is a lot more than just dreaming going on when you are sleeping. Your body is still working and making magic happen so when you wake up you are refreshed.

Oh and a little hidden secret to strength training (notice I said STRENGTH training- not cardio- STRENGTH!), even when you are NOT in the gym - yes, when you are sitting there on the couch watching The Voice - you are STILL burning. It takes energy (burns calories) to rebuild muscle. When you are here challenge your strength and work hard. When you are not here (the other 165 hours a week) RECOVER! This is how I train (27 years old) and this is how our clients in their 70s and 80s train. It works, but you gotta follow the plan.

Be consistent. Recover. Be strong.
Coach Meagan

If you have a red band, you are not alone. This is a common band among athletes at Get Fit and a tough one to overcome! The trunk stability push up corresponds with this band and can be any extremely difficult exercise to perform. During this exercise we are looking to see if the core can stabilize while performing a series of events.

What is this test assessing?

• This test is looking to see if you are able to perform a movement with the upper body all while having no movement visible through the hips and spine. We are looking to see if you are able to stabilize the spine while performing an upper body push movement. How well you can recruit your core/central pillar stabilizers while doing a symmetrical upper body push helps us coaches determine if we need to be cautious with certain exercises.
• Ideally, checking to see if you can lift yourself as one unit, rather than leaving your hips behind 🙂
• This test also analyzes spinal extension and checks to see if there is pain associated with it.

What does this mean when it comes to exercise?

If you are one of many to receive a red band, we want to be cautious when performing challenging core stabilization exercises, as too much stress can be put on the lower back, therefore leading to back pain over time. Ouch!!!

Examples of exercises not performed with a red band:

• Pushup from the ground (MAGIC BAND PUSHUPS can be completed though!)
• Burpees
• TRX pushups, TRX Atomic Crunch, TRX Knee In, TRX Mountain Climbers (anything with feet suspended)

Well, how can I work to get out of this band? I want to do some of those exercises!!

We are looking to safely help strengthen your central pillar to allow yourself to complete more challenging exercises when appropriate. No sulking allowed, rather let’s try and focus on doing these two personalized exercises daily!

1. Lower Body Rolling

Purpose: Improve core strength and timing while moving through rotary stability patterns

How to perform:

• Lay on your back in the supine position with arms overhead
• Raise your R leg and start crossing it over the body
• Begin to roll your body over towards your left using nothing but the lower body
• Continue to rill until in the prone position on your stomach

Repeat: Roll back and alternate sides for 1 minute

2. Slow Pledge Pushup

Purpose: To improve torso stability

How to perform it:

• Start in a pushup position with hands directly under shoulders and feet wide for stability
• While pushing the floor away and keeping the hips as still as possible, slowly raise the R hand to the L shoulder, tap, and slowly bring back to the starting position
• Alternate to the other side

Repeat: 10 total repetitions; 1 tap to each shoulder is one rep

​Cheers to some rolling and pledging today,
Coach Cari

The one and only Kristine Girard! The day we gained Kristine was a bright day at Get Fit NH. This woman brings me so many smiles and so much joy. She works her butt off, she loves a good challenge and to top it all off she is s-a-s-s-y and I love it! Since Kristine has joined the family she has seen some serious results. She did fantastic in the 2016 Sizzlin' Summer Slimdown contest and dropped about 20 pounds and has kept it off! 

Recently she has had to take a time out to have surgery and she sent me such a special note. I had to ask her if I could share it, because her note struck a topic that we don't hear about. Everyone talks about the fat loss, the inches lost, the strength gained...no body really talks about how training has a dramatic impact on your insides, your blood flow, your recovery, etc. So here is what she sent me less than a week after her surgery!

"Hello Meagan,

I wanted to let you know my surgeon attributed the success to my high risk surgery to the good shape I'm in. I have Get Fit NH to thank for that.

In specific, there was a very low level of bleeding during the recovery. This enabled my surgeon to see the operating area better. Robotics was used. It was crucial she had a clear view! She attributed that to my good vascular condition from working out.

Who knew?! 🙂

As we get older the possibility of having to have surgery increases, this we all know. The best message Get Fit can send is working out will up the success rate of any upcoming surgeries! But.. you coaches already knew that!! 🙂

Just wanted to say THANKS! Joining Get Fit was the best choice I made a couple (coming up on 2 yrs) of years ago!!"

Thank you for the note, Kristine! I am so glad you chose to join the family (almost) 2 years ago. We are lucky to have you. Happy recovery! Can't wait to have you back!

Coach Meagan

"I
Already
Knew
That"

We know a lot of things, don’t we? We know that:

• Exercise is good
• Broccoli is healthy
• Sugar is a bad choice
• Water is a necessity
• 7-9 hours of sleep is important

We all KNOW that, don’t we? Of course we do, but we are not all DOING IT, so it is worth repeating and worth listening to. We can all afford to be better. We all have certain areas that are harder than others. It doesn’t matter if you KNOW THAT. It matters if you are doing it. Actions elicit a change, not brain power. Don’t write off encouragement and accountability just because you know better. Everyone needs a coach. A coach is someone who gets a person to do something they DON’T WANT TO DO!

Listen up and let us coach you. You’d be surprised what you can learn and how different coaches resonate with you and help you change.

Make it happen,
Coach Meagan

I wanted to write this short post for 2 reasons:

1. To recognize Coach Cari (because I know she's too humble to do it herself)
2. To show you once again:
• that everyone, regardless of if its a coach or student, will often underestimate themselves
• that you can be strong without being big and bulky

Here is a play by play of what happened this morning during deadlifts:

Me (Coach Adam) to Coach Cari: "I want you to give the 175 trap bar a try next round."

Coach Cari: "What!?!? There’s no way."

Me: "Don't worry. I will be watching you. If it doesn't look right, I will tell you to stop."

Coach Cari: “Okay.”

Coach Cari (upon stepping into the trap bar and grabbing the handles): "I'm not even going to be able to get this off the ground." 

She proceeds to lift it off the floor with perfect form on the first rep, then proceeds to lift it 6 more times!

Me (admittedly somewhat mockingly, but in a good way): “I thought you said you couldn’t lift it?”

So for those of you keeping track at home, Coach Cari, who weighs a little over 120lbs, lifted 175lbs 7 times!! Based on that, it can be estimated that she could lift almost DOUBLE her bodyweight once! I have a feeling she most definitely could since the only reason she stopped at 7 was because the round ended. This is after being part of the Get Fit Family for less than a year, not as if she did powerlifting before she started with us. 

Congrats Coach Cari, that’s a huge accomplishment!! And she was able to accomplish that while still being able to fit through the doorway without turning sideways (aka being huge and bulky). This is real data, from someone you all know, have met, and trains the same way you do that SHOWS you can still be strong and be lean. In fact, if you want to be lean, you must be strong, that’s just how it works. Stop giving yourself the excuse and lift heavy!

-Coach Adam

We have been training athletes ages 13+ for years, both in our Summer Academies and our year round Long Term Youth Development training programs. 

For about the same length of time parents of younger kids have been whining "But what about uuuuuuussss?" 🙂

​And while we have been listening, we just didn't have the capacity to do anything about it.

Until Now!​

We are pumped about introducing our Summer Youth Academy, and it's right up your alley if you have kids ages 9 to 12!

It's no secret. Our kids are just not as active as we were at the same age. There are so many more distractions - 500 channels on TV, Xbox and Playstation, Facebook, iPhones and Android - you get the picture. None of these are harmful in and of themselves, but add them all up and you have a whole lot of sitting and not much movement. Add into that the fact that PE is limited in our schools, and we have kind of a "movement mess" on our hands when it comes to our kids.

Where is your child on the "get out and move spectrum"? You see, moving well is the foundation for a lifetime of activity and enjoyment. And while we all want to think our kids is going to "go pro", the fact of the matter is that ALL our kids need to learn that activity and exercise can be fun. For some that means winning on the playing field, for others that means going to the skate park, and for others keeping up in gym class would be really cool. No matter the ultimate goal, kids need a foundation on which to build.

A foundation which includes:

• Coordination
• Reflexes and reaction
• Proactive flexibility training
• Strength training basics
• Power developlment
• And of course tying it all together with game plan and fun!

Get Fit NH's Summer Youth Academy is for girls and boys ages 9 to 12, and will run six weeks, from July 10th to August 17th, on Monday and Friday's from 11:30am to 12:30pm.

It's a great chance to get the kids out of the house a few hours a week and into a environment where they can learn, laugh, build confidence and have a great time.

Tuition is only $199 for the six-week summer session, and we are capping the class at 12 students, so don't sleep on this one.

All you have to do is click the "Enroll Now" button below to send in your payment and reserve your spot. As soon as we receive your enrollment, we will contact you with our registration and health history forms for you to fill out with your child, and set your first coaching appointment. It's that easy!

Questions? Contact us here, or give Coach Adam a call at (603) 340-7281

See you (and your kids) there!