Happy Monday Everyone!
Sunday, we spent a day around our beautiful village. Starting the day with a family bike ride down to the coffee shop, then back home to get changed into our swimmers. Walked down to the beach for a refreshing swim and sandcastle comp. then headed to Te Awanga Estate to meet friends for a lovely relaxed afternoon sipping rose and eating delicious wood fired pizzas and platters while enjoying the warming sunshine.
Sometimes the best things are right under your nose. It was so lovely not to get into the car at any point today, move lots and laugh plenty. Here is to many more days like this over the Summer.
Smart Training
The Pulling Pattern
Over the last month I have been sharing with you the most effective methods of training using the 7 fundamental movements
- squat
- hinge
- push
- pull
- lunge
- twist
- locomotion
This week we take a look at the pull.
Pulling movements just like pushing movements can be broken down into 2 movement sub categories
The horizontal pull and the vertical pull
Horizontal pulls include rowing based exercises such as bent over rows, suspension rows, seated cable rows amongst others. The vertical pull includes exercises such as the pull up and the chin up.
Pulling as a pattern is super important because it works many of our postural muscles.
In today’s world we are bombarded with constant opportunity to allow ourselves to live in shitty posture. When we drive we slump over the steering wheel, at work we slump over the computer, at home we slump into the sofa while watching netflix. So much of our lives are spent in forward flexed postures.
Rowing exercises are particularly important in combatting much of our forward flexed postures. Rowing also strengthen the shoulder blade (scapula) stabilisers which in turn ensures our shoulders stay healthy.
The pull up is the king of upper body exercises. Its super healthy for your shoulders and also works lots of your grip strength, which is correlated to longevity
”Research has shown that a powerful grip also correlates to longevity. Researchers say grip strength can predict your overall strength and health, as well as your risk of cardiovascular disease. As you age, the stronger your grip, the more likely you are to survive diseases like cancer.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5750866/
For many pulls ups are frustratingly hard and often become neglected as people simply find them such as challenge.
If you can’t do a pull up or chin up then you need to. Start with a band, then add in some negatives – jump up over the bar and then slowly lower yourself down. Practise, practise, practise
One final note on pulling exercises, deadlifts, cleans, swings and snatches all involve an element of pulling. That’s what makes these exercises awesome
The Good Life
For today’s good life we thought we would bring you 10 life lessons. Some are fitness and health related and others not so much. Hope you enjoy them.
1. Sunrises and stars are more valuable than success and influence
2. Friendship is a priceless treasure
3. Following the crowd never gets you far
4. Deep change is meant to be uncomfortable
5. Old wise people tell the best stories
6. Most things we worry about never come to pass
7. Most “I can’t” statements are “I won’t” statements in disguise
8. You don’t get what you want or desire, you get what you commit to
9. You cant truely commit to an outcome but you can commit to a process that would cause the outcome to be more likely
10. It’s not what you do that’s whats responsible for most of your results, its who you are while you are doing it
That’s it for today,
Paul “pull” and Krystie “pizzas” Miller
Recent Comments